Injury and Exercise
So, lately, as I noted on the last podcast with Kevin (Episode 3) I’ve been nursing a strained tricep tendon back to health. I strained it at the gym, when I got the bright idea to move a leg press machine. Even though I got the equipment moved, the sudden shove strained my tendon on my elbow. Definite ouch! This tendon had been acting up a bit before, when I did tricep exercises, but I had always managed to prevent serious strain. Not this time.
Now, instead of giving up the gym and becoming dispirited from inactivity, I’ve just worked around the injury. I think this is quite possible with most injuries, by the way. Total immobilization isn’t necessarily the best way to recover anyway, as most physical therapists will attest. The important thing is to prevent re-injury and activation of pain in the injured area. I’ve learned the hard way just how many times I use my tricep for things, as well as how many times my elbow accidentally comes in contact with surfaces! Just like hitting your funny bone, but without the laughs.
I’ve been making sure to increase my Omega 3 fatty acid intake, which consists of around 8 one-gram capsules a day. That should help deal with the inflammation. As far as the weights go, I’ve been doing various types of flies for chest (dumbbells and machine) and deltoid machines for shoulders (lateral raises). It’s now been over 3 weeks since my injury, and it seems I’m about half-way through the healing process. I’m now able to do very light tricep activation with single stiff-arm pulldowns with the cable machine. This way my tendon can stay in a specific position, as opposed to sliding over the bone with any sort of abduction tri exercise, which causes pain.
And throughout any process of recovery from a tendon injury, it’s best to do super-slow repititions (at least 10 seconds per rep) when weight training. Some trainers swear by this method of resistance training, whether or not you’re recovering from an injury. Since only one set is required for each bodypart, it definitely shortens your workouts (the downside is the higher discomfort from all that lactic acid build-up). Kevin and I mentioned other types of training methods in the book Healthy Mind, Fit Body, btw, including the super-slow routine. It’s worth giving a try, especially if you’re prone to injuries in the weight room. After all, had I tried to move that leg press machine in a super-slow way, I wouldn’t be writing this post!
Good training to you,
W
Fat Burning be a Mental Game?
Last weekend, I tried indoor rock climbing for the first time.
I knew I would like the sport, as it is a combination between physical strength, flexibility, mental toughness, creativity, and coordination.
My many months of consistent yoga practice had me feeling prepared. I entered the gym and felt like anything was possible, even as a complete newbie! The lesson only took about 10 minutes and the only thing that I got hung up on was how to tie a double knot (which by the time I did my 5th climb I think I had down!).
The three of us took turns climbing and belaying. Belaying, or being in charge of the rope and making sure the climber doesn’t fall to his or her death, is far easier than it seemed to me at first. The lightest person can easily catch the heaviest of people the way the ropes are set up.
The first couple of climbs were fun but were of the beginner type. These two built my confidence up a bit. On my third climb I stepped it up a notch and went for a more intermediate level climb. My friend Trevor who is far more experienced at climbing managed to get to the top of this one despite having to scale an inverted section of the wall! It looked hard, but I was ready for the challenge.
Scaling the inverted wall was the sticky part for sure. I had to reach above it to the flat area and grab onto a protruding rock. This was no problem. The next step is where it got tricky. I had to basically push off with my feet and reach for a rock that was a few feet above the one I was grabbing onto! Looking up at it, it seemed IMPOSSIBLE. But I KNEW it was doable, since I had seen it done before with my own eyes. So I pushed off and reached up….a HA! Got it! It literally felt like a leap of faith! I was onto the next level and to the top.
I loved the feeling of accomplishing this climb because of what it represented to me. If anything has been done before, it is a possibility for my own life. Sometimes, it may seem impossible to get to that next step in life- finishing the 10k, making an extra $1,000 a month, or losing that last 10 pounds- but in every case, it is a mental game that needs to be played.
The question often becomes, what is the mental block that is in my way that I need to clear out to get to the next step?
3 – Do French Women Get Fat?
(duration 22:31)
Their health and eating habits may be getting worse…
Myth Buster: Don’t French Women Get Fat?
by Siobhan Roth
http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/healthyliving/articles/myth_buster_don_t_french_women_get_fat_.html
French Women Don’t Get Fat
by Mireille Guilano
http://www.bestdietforme.com/dietbooks/FrenchWomenDontGetFat.htm
Key take-aways:
1) Stay hydrated
2) Practice awareness, planning, and moderation
3) The right types of snacking are good, such as nuts, which are filled with micronutrients and fat (long-term energy)
4) Eating at home makes it easier to eat the right foods
5) Be active, whether it’s walking to run errands or exercising at the gym
6) However, exercise isn’t the holy grail to weight loss; you must reduce intake of carbs (thus reducing your insulin secretion)
7) Consider your food and eating habits to be an esthetic experience; eat for pleasure, rather than mindlessly
8) Self-motivation and self-responsibility are essential to creating and maintaining the optimal you
9) Avoid the self-sacrificial ritual of “diets” (and the eventual relapse from them)
10) Be mindful of procrastination…
Procrastination…
by Stefan Molyneux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1WC6hNTONg
11) In order to resolve self-conflicting thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, it’s vital introspect and explore your subconscious via sentence completion exercises (found in the Addendum of our book Healthy Mind, Fit Body)
Once again, too many “experts” are leading people astray about how to lose weight, by promoting the calorie and/or exercise theories
Feel free to email us at:
wes@healthymindfitbody.com
kevin@healthymindfitbody.com
bumper music “All In My Head” (Remix) – http://www.kosheen.com
Also, please sign up to get the bonus audio on the 3 Pillars Of Achieving Your Perfect Weight Using The Mind/Body Connection, as well as the newsletter (upper right-hand corner of this site)
If you like this show, please give us a rating and comment on the iTunes listing!
Transcript: http://healthymindfitbody.com/transcripts-hmfb3-do-french-women-get-fat/
Podcast: Download
2 – Childhood, Parents, and Eating
(duration 17:06)
This show explores some of the societal and parental dynamics that exist in childhood, and how those dynamics can affect our relationship with food and eating as adults
Most Americans are leading unhealthy lives, and our experiences in childhood are precursors to experiences in adulthood
The Sudbury Valley School experience yields some insights in the root of the problem in our society–obedience to another person, a so-called “authority” rather than taking responsibility (http://www.sudval.org/)
1) The Prussian Model of education–dominant in America–hasn’t fostered self-esteem principles in Americans
When kids are told to follow an authority figure who tells them what to do, their innate sense of self-reliance is greatly lessoned; adults tend to take away self-reliance and substitute “expert opinion,” which is disempowering
Learning To Trust Oneself
by Alan White
http://tinyurl.com/o37t7h
2) Normal, healthy children are not self-destructive
3) It’s important to focus on what it was like when you were a kid and how your parents treated food and related it to you
Children (or adults) don’t possess innate knowledge when it comes to food…but they can naturally learn and self-regulate
4) You can live without carbs, but you can’t live without protein and fat
Vegetarianism can lead to skimping on the vital macronutrients of protein and fat, unless you’re an ovo-lacto vegetarian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacto-ovo_vegetarianism)
5) It’s important to impart nutritional knowledge to your kids that’s respectful of their choices; otherwise, their intrinsic motivation to take care of themselves is lessoned
6) It’s vital to be aware of the messages sent by your parents about food and eating and how they can become integrated in you subconscious mind
Did your parents use various forms of punishment if you didn’t eat what they wanted you to eat? Or, if you ate something they didn’t want you to eat? Or, if you didn’t eat at the right times or in the “proper” amounts?
7) If you’re overweight, you need to know how to lose that excess body fat, which means eating more fat and less carbohydrates–because less insulin secretion, on account of reduced carb consumption, results in less fat stored and more fat burned off
8) Lots of exercise isn’t necessary to losing your excess body fat; for sure, exercise is healthy for you, but it isn’t the key to losing body fat
9) Getting in touch with your emotional perspective on eating entails self-exploration–preferably via sentence completion exercises…
The Health Mind, Fit Body book has a 7-day program to help you come to terms with your current and ideal self-image and self-concept, thereby fostering holistic integration and ending self-conflict and bad behavior patterns; it also contains a couple days focused solely on your “child-self”
Self-knowledge and motivation work in concert with good nutritional knowledge to help you lose excess bodyfat and attain the optimal you!
Too many “experts” are leading people astray about how to lose weight, by promoting the calorie and/or exercise theories
Feel free to email us at:
wes@healthymindfitbody.com
kevin@healthymindfitbody.com
bumper music “All In My Head” (Remix) – http://www.kosheen.com
If you like this show, please give us a rating and comment on the iTunes listing!
Transcript: http://healthymindfitbody.com/transcripts-hmfb2-childhood-parents-and-eating/
Podcast: Download
1 – The Skinny on Exercise
(duration 18:49)
In our first podcast, we explore the good and bad aspects of exercise
Key points numbered below:
1) Endurance racing or excess exercise can result in elevated cortisol levels and thus accelerated aging and other unhealthy effects
Christopher McDougall discovers how the Tarahumara Indians run hundreds of miles over rocky terrain in sandals
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-august-18-2009/christopher-mcdougall
Like running through hell
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/08/like_running_through.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol#Factors_affecting_cortisol_levels
The Brain on Cortisol
http://www.brainleadersandlearners.com/general/the-brain-on-cortisol/
2) Exercise can be a double edged sword in regards to weight loss. It’s a way to burn more calories, but exercising more can backfire, because it can increase hunger and serve as a justification for eating more (and worse)
Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin
By John Cloud
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html
The self-control ‘muscle’ is seen as the linchpin to weight loss via exercise
National Weight Control Registry research findings
http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm
3) The calories-in/calories-out theory of weight loss tends to lock people into a vicious cycle of continuously monitoring eating and exercising
4) Instead, focus on nutrition, which leads to the realization that insulin secretion is the key factor in weight loss and weight maintenance. Minimize carb consumption and thus increase fat and protein consumption
Fit Body, Fit Mind? Your Workout Makes You Smarter ( Preview )
How can you stay sharp into old age? It is not just a matter of winning the genetic lottery. What you do can make a difference
By Christopher Hertzog, Arthur F. Kramer, Robert S. Wilson and Ulman Lindenberger
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fit-body-fit-mind&sc=WR_20090707
5) In terms of an overall healthy lifestyle, exercise can serve your well-being, but it’s not a substitute for proper nutrition and psychological health
6) Introspection is key, especially with sentence completion exercises, which are in the Healthy MInd, Fit Body book
7) Even a “greasy burrito” can be healthy if you don’t eat most of the flour tortilla (and add lots of salsa). Your most nutritious carbs are the ones with less glycemic load, such as leafy greens and seasonal berries
8) Sentence completion exercises help you get in better touch with your subconscious thoughts and feelings (see addendum chapter in Healthy Mind, Fit Body)
bumper music “All in My Head” (Remix) Kosheen – http://www.kosheen.com
If you like this show, please give us a rating and comment on the iTunes listing!
Transcript: http://healthymindfitbody.com/transcripts-hmfb1-the-skinny-on-exercise/
Podcast: Download
