a HUGE thanks to all that picked up the webinars from the sale. The sale is down now and they are back in the vault. Thanks to all that picked them up as I really really appreciate it!! The feedback so far has been great. Thanks again!!
Off to Dallas, TX
Jodie and I are off in a few hours (I miss sleep) to Dallas TX since she has a Mary Kay conference and I am going to bug my good friend Craig Keaton at The Movement Dallas and Frankie during the day.
You can also find me at the local coffee shop drinking tons of dark goodness cranking on a book chapter for an upcoming academic book all about protein which is due very very soon. I love reading about protein and have done work in the lab related to metabolic “stuff” and exercise, so it is kind of fun. I don’t particularly enjoy the whole formal writing process, but just feel totally honored I was asked to help with one of the chapters. More info later once it is public.
Minnesota NSCA
Had a blast at the MN NSCA regional meeting today too. Great stuff and awesome talking to many old friends and making a few new ones too.
Vit D part 2
Coming up soon and more stuff from the ISSN trip, videos and perhaps some info from my time in Dallas. I predict some epic chats with Craig and Frankie about metabolic madness. Maybe the professor will even show up.
If you are in the military, I highly recommend these. They are flexible and very light weight.
Make sure you get them in time to do your training in them too and start slow.
Motivation Monday: David Dellenave pulls 520lbs at 180lbs and less than 8% body fat
Awesome work to Dave for a HUGE deadlift, especially at such a low body fat percentage.
The body fat was measured on the Bod Pod at the U of MN, so it is not some lame person taking a guess at what his body fat levels are.
Dave has been training with Adam using the Gym Movement protocol.
I spent all weekend again with Dave, Dave “Athlete Creator”, Adam T Glass, Frankie and a bunch of others at Adam’s gym learning and testing all sorts of things.
Great time and I have more things to try once again, even though I have been working with Frankie for almost 3 years and Adam for about 2 years now.
I will be in Dallas, TX next week at the Movement site down there learning more too.
Your Turn!
If you are looking to move better, look better with less pain, hit me up via the contact tab above as I have a few spots open for physique transformation. I am about 10 minutes north of St Paul.
If you email me via the contact tab within the next 48 hours, I will give you an amazing deal too. I can’t publish it here though.
Adam will have his gym open on the West side of the Twin Cities Aug 1. If you are on the east side of the Twin Cities, you can train here in White Bear Lake at the Extreme Human Performance Center.
Either way, I would highly suggest you hunt one of us down and get on board with the Gym Movement as soon as you can. Take action now to feel and look better ASAP!
Rock on Mike T Nelson
PS
If you want to transform your physique in the fastest time possible with less pain, email me via the contact tab TODAY!
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
In the video above, you can watch me do my first Vitamin D test. Yes, I am a huge pussy and I HATE needles, even though the needles used (as I found out) are really really small. Stay tuned to this article, as I will reveal how you can get your levels tested for better than free–they may pay YOU to have it done. Read on….
Vitamin D and D is for Defficiency
I am sure you have heard of Vitamin D by now, and for good reason. Currently there is an epidemic of low Vitamin D level almost everywhere!
Just like Omega 3 status, it is critical to know your Vit D status, especially if you live in a more northern climate. Even if you are not, there is a good chance that you are low since many people in states like Arizona, Texas, etc do not go outside much during the day since it is so hot!
At the ISSN conference I went to a great presentation on the vitamin D and the presenter (Rikki Keen) has tested athletes from all over and has found that even track athletes in FL were low, since due to heat, most of their practices were later in the day when the rays from the sun were too low to allow sufficient vitamin D production.
8 Time Olympian Ronnie Coleman
Background: Steroids!!
Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble “steroid.” Yes a steroid! Aaaaah. Call the FDA right now.
This is using the formal classification of the term steroid as cholesterol is technically a steroid too. These compounds are naturally occurring in the body and different from anabolic steroids that athletes may use (which are illegal here in the US unless under supervision for hormone replacement under a physician).
The two major forms of which are vitamin D2 (also known as ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (known as cholecalciferol). Vitamin D3 is produced in the skin after exposure to ultraviolet B light from the sun or artificial sources. Ultraviolet A (UVA) does not seem to raise vitamin D levels.
We can get some from food sources such as milk, fatty fish like salmon, cod liver oil, and a few other foods that are artificially fortified with vitamin D.
The sun is still the best source, and it is also available as a supplement in pill form. If you supplement, the D3 form is going to be best and is also very cheap.
What Is Optimal?
From the Vitamin D Council’s website, it states
“25(OH)D levels should be between 50–80 ng/ml (125–200 nmol/L), year-round.”
Vitamin D is measured by 25(OH)D levels and can be done by a simple blood test as shown in my video above.
When you go in for your physical, you can request a Vitamin D test and most of the time your insurance will pay for it (check to make sure). Make sure it is the 25(OH)D test though NOT 1-25(OH)D test. As Rikki Keen pointed out in her presentation at the ISSN in FL recently, she stated that there still are some docs that will request the wrong test. She writes it down for her clients and has them bring in the piece of paper to give to them to make sure they get it right.
A Better Than FREE Test?
If you order the test from the Vitamin D Council’s website, it is a few buck cheaper and you may be able to get paid to get your levels checked!
I was at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual conference last year and did a short interview with Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D council. Check it out.
“Water is more toxic than Vitamin D” -Dr John Cannell
Part 2 Coming Soon?
If people are interested in more info on vitamin D, drop a comment below and in part 2 I will tell you
What my levels of Vitamin D were
How much I needed to increase them into a normal range (the answer will surprise you)
Common doses/types of Vitamin D used
I need 15 comments by this Sunday at 7pm EST (as I will be gone helping with the Movement Certification here in Minnesota until then)
Summary
What do I do now?
Get your vitamin D levels tested via a lab or your doc’s office
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X5. heather.hanwell@gmail.com
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Recent sun exposure should correlate with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] due to ultraviolet B (UVB)-catalyzed cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D. METHODS: A Sun Exposure Score was calculated for healthy adults using a recall questionnaire assessing daily Time in Sun (<5 min, 5-30 min, >30 min) and Skin Exposure (face/hands; face/hands and arms; face/hands and legs; and “bathing suit”) for 1 week in each of the winter and summer (n=47 and 23, respectively; n=18 participated in both). Concentrations of 25(OH)D were measured by DiaSorin RIA on end-of-week sera. RESULTS: Mean serum 25(OH)D was higher in summer than winter (58.6+/-16.5 nmol/L vs. 38.8+/-29.0 nmol/L, respectively, P=0.003 unpaired). The calculated Sun Exposure Score correlated strongly with serum 25(OH)D during summer (Spearman’s rho=0.59, P=0.003); based on the Pearson coefficient of determination, summer Sun Exposure Score explained 38% of the variability in summer serum 25(OH)D. The Sun Exposure Score did not correlate with 25(OH)D in the winter (rho=0.19, P=0.210). The summer correlation was largely explained by the Time in Sun (rho=0.58, P=0.004) rather than area of Skin Exposed (rho=0.10, P=0.660). Although there was a correlation between winter and summer Sun Exposure Scores (rho=0.63, P=0.005), there was no summer vs. winter correlation in serum 25(OH)D (rho=0.08, P=0.76). CONCLUSION: This simple 1-week sun exposure recall questionnaire predicted summer serum 25(OH)D concentrations, accounting for 38% of the variability in 25(OH)D among healthy Italian adults. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Comment in:
Diabetes Care. 2010 Jul;33(7):e99; author reply e100.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To examine cross-sectional associations of serum vitamin D [25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25(OH)D] concentration with insulin resistance (IR) and beta-cell dysfunction in 712 subjects at risk for type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Serum 25(OH)D was determined using a chemiluminescence immunoassay. Insulin sensitivity/resistance were measured using the Matsuda insulin sensitivity index for oral glucose tolerance tests (IS(OGTT)) and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance HOMA-IR. beta-Cell function was determined using both the insulinogenic index (IGI) divided by HOMA-IR (IGI/IR) and the insulin secretion sensitivity index-2 (ISSI-2). RESULTS Linear regression analyses indicated independent associations of 25(OH)D with IS(OGTT) and HOMA-IR (beta = 0.004, P = 0.0003, and beta = -0.003, P = 0.0072, respectively) and with IGI/IR and ISSI-2 (beta = 0.004, P = 0.0286, and beta = 0.003, P = 0.0011, respectively) after adjusting for sociodemographics, physical activity, supplement use, parathyroid hormone, and BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D may play a role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, as 25(OH)D concentration was independently associated with both insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function among individuals at risk of type 2 diabetes.
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, MI, USA.
Abstract
Vitamin D has an important role in skeletal muscles. Previously recognized for its effects on bone, it is now known that vitamin D has a much wider spectrum of usefulness for muscle. Studies indicate that vitamin D deficiency is pandemic. Those affected include the young and otherwise healthy members of the population, including athletes. Controversy exists regarding the amount of supplementation required to reverse deficiency and the relative effect of such a reversal on overall health. This article reviews current data on the role of vitamin D on muscle function, and explores the potential implications of its deficiency and supplementation on physical fitness and athletic performance.
ASPETAR, Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar. bruce.hamilton@aspetar.com
Abstract
Vitamin D deficiency is an increasingly described phenomenon worldwide, with well-known impacts on calcium metabolism and bone health. Vitamin D has also been associated with chronic health problems such as bowel and colonic cancer, arthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In recent decades, there has been increased awareness of the impact of vitamin D on muscle morphology and function, but this is not well recognized in the Sports Medicine literature. In the early 20th century, athletes and coaches felt that ultraviolet rays had a positive impact on athletic performance, and increasingly, evidence is accumulating to support this view. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies allude to a functional role for vitamin D in muscle and more recently the discovery of the vitamin D receptor in muscle tissue provides a mechanistic understanding of the function of vitamin D within muscle. The identification of broad genomic and non-genomic roles for vitamin D within skeletal muscle has highlighted the potential impact vitamin D deficiency may have on both under-performance and the risk of injury in athletes. This review describes the current understanding of the role vitamin D plays within skeletal muscle tissue.
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA. lisa.ceglia@tufts.edu
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Vitamin D is best known for its role in regulating calcium homeostasis and in strengthening bone. However, it has become increasingly clear that it also has important beneficial effects beyond the skeleton, including muscle. This review summarizes current knowledge about the role of vitamin D in skeletal muscle tissue and physical performance. RECENT FINDINGS: Molecular mechanisms of vitamin D action in muscle tissue include genomic and nongenomic effects via a receptor present in muscle cells. Knockout mouse models of the vitamin D receptor provide insight into understanding the direct effects of vitamin D on muscle tissue. Vitamin D status is positively associated with physical performance and inversely associated with risk of falling. Vitamin D supplementation has been shown to improve tests of muscle performance, reduce falls, and possibly impact on muscle fiber composition and morphology in vitamin D deficient older adults. SUMMARY: Further studies are needed to fully characterize the underlying mechanisms of vitamin D action in human muscle tissue, to understand how these actions translate into changes in muscle cell morphology and improvements in physical performance, and to define the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level at which to achieve these beneficial effects in muscle.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
This is a video I took from the ISSN conference in FL recently.
Many, many people are deficient in Omega 3s and probably don’t know it.
Increasing their omega 3s in their diet is a great thing for almost anything you can think of from hearing loss, head trauma, fat loss, decreased muscle atrophy (losing muscle), etc.
Up until recently you have no way of knowing what your Omega 3 status was. Are you taking enough? Are you sure?
Review
Omega 3 are essential fatty acids. They are ESSENTIAL and MUST be provided by your diet. Your body can not make them, so they must be consumed. The highest source of Omega 3s is primarily flax seed oil.
Fish Oils
Fish oils (EPA and DHA) are made from Omega 3s. The rate of how fast and how much can be made is up for debate. To get around this, supplementing with the fish oils themselves directly works best.
Common Dose?
While common doses vary, look to get around 1-4 GRAMS of combined EPA and DHA per day. As always, check with your doc to make sure this is ok, especially if you are on blood thinners (although the risk is small).
How To Read the Label
Read the label and look for EPA and DHA, not just Omega 3s.
The picture above is from Flameout by Biotest (full disclosure, I make nothing promoting it). There are many fish oil supplements on the market and the key is to know what to look for on the label.
Look in the middle and it will list the EPA and DHA right below the total free-fatty acids. Add these up for your TOTAL fish oil content. So, for one serving, it is about 3 grams (3,000 mg) of total fish oils. Note the serving size here is 4 caps. I have looked at some other fish oils and they are 10-22 caps for the SAME amount of fish oils themselves (EPA + DHA).
How Would I Know If I Need Fish Oil or Omega 3s?
As Doug talked about above, the easiest way is to have it tested. Very soon there will be a cheap and economical way for you to test this at home! I am super excited about this since omega 3 status is related to sooooooooo many things. Jodie and I are doing our test this weekend and if you want more info as soon as it is available, pop your name in below and you will be the first to get the info (even before it is posted here).
I will be giving away a few FREE tests in the future too, so sign up below today!
Comments
Let me know what questions you have about fish oil by posting one below!
Mills JD, Bailes JE, Sedney CL, Hutchins H, Sears B.
Department of Neurosurgery, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia; and. Abstract Object Traumatic brain injury remains the most common cause of death in persons under 45 years of age in the Western world. Recent evidence from animal studies suggests that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acid (O3FA) (particularly eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) improves functional outcomes following focal neural injury. The purpose of this study is to determine the benefits of O3FA supplementation following diffuse axonal injury in rats. Methods Forty adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Three groups of 10 rats were subjected to an impact acceleration injury and the remaining group underwent a sham-injury procedure (surgery, but no impact injury). Two of the groups subjected to the injury were supplemented with 10 or 40 mg/kg/day of O3FA; the third injured group served as an unsupplemented control group. The sham-injured rats likewise received no O3FA supplementation. Serum fatty acid levels were determined from the isolated plasma phospholipids prior to the injury and at the end of the 30 days of supplementation. After the animals had been killed, immunohistochemical analysis of brainstem white matter tracts was performed to assess the presence of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), a marker of axonal injury. Immunohistochemical analyses of axonal injury mechanisms-including analysis for caspase-3, a marker of apoptosis; RMO-14, a marker of neurofilament compaction; and cytochrome c, a marker of mitochondrial injury-were performed. Results Dietary supplementation with a fish oil concentrate rich in EPA and DHA for 30 days resulted in significant increases in O3FA serum levels: 11.6% +/- 4.9% over initial levels in the 10 mg/kg/day group and 30.7% +/- 3.6% in the 40 mg/kg/day group. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed significantly (p < 0.05) decreased numbers of APP-positive axons in animals receiving O3FA supplementation: 7.7 +/- 14.4 axons per mm(2) in the 10 mg/kg/day group and 6.2 +/- 11.4 axons per mm(2) in the 40 mg/kg/day group, versus 182.2 +/- 44.6 axons per mm(2) in unsupplemented animals. Sham-injured animals had 4.1 +/- 1.3 APP-positive axons per mm(2). Similarly, immunohistochemical analysis of caspase-3 expression demonstrated significant (p < 0.05) reduction in animals receiving O3FA supplementation, 18.5 +/- 28.3 axons per mm(2) in the 10 mg/kg/day group and 13.8 +/- 18.9 axons per mm(2) in the 40 mg/kg/day group, versus 129.3 +/- 49.1 axons per mm(2) in unsupplemented animals. Conclusions Dietary supplementation with a fish oil concentrate rich in the O3FAs EPA and DHA increases serum levels of these same fatty acids in a dose-response effect. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation significantly reduces the number of APP-positive axons at 30 days postinjury to levels similar to those in uninjured animals. Omega-3 fatty acids are safe, affordable, and readily available worldwide to potentially reduce the burden of traumatic brain injury.
Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Abstract BACKGROUND: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a fish oil-enriched parenteral nutrition regimen in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted. METHODS: An electronic search of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Academic Search Premier, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was performed in March 2009. RevMan 5.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The combined analysis showed that a fish oil-enriched parenteral nutrition regimen had a positive treatment effect on length of hospital stay (weighed mean difference = -2.98, P < .001), length of intensive care unit stay, postoperative infection rate (odds ratio = 0.56, P = .04), and serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and alpha-tocopherol on postoperative day 6 in these patients. The regimen increased the plasma levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (standardized mean difference = 3.11, P < .001) and docosahexaenoic acid and upregulated the leukotriene B(5) production in leukocytes on postoperative day 6. No significant differences were found between the 2 groups in postoperative mortality; incidence of postoperative cardiac complications; serum levels of bilirubin, triglyceride, or arachidonic acid; or the liberation of leukotriene B(4). No serious adverse events related to fish oil treatment were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the meta-analysis, fish oil-supplemented parenteral nutrition was safe, improved clinical outcomes, and altered the fatty acid pattern as well as leukotriene synthesis. More laboratory parameters should be considered in future meta-analyses.
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. marikpe@evms.edu Abstract BACKGROUND: Immunomodulating diets (IMDs) have been demonstrated to improve immune function and modulate inflammation. However, the clinical benefit of these diets in patients undergoing elective surgery is controversial. The goal of this meta-analysis was to determine the impact of IMDs on the clinical outcomes of high-risk patients undergoing elective surgery. METHODS: The review included prospective, controlled, clinical trials that compared the clinical outcome of elective surgical patients who were randomized to receive an IMD or a control enteral diet. Studies were stratified according to the type of IMD and the timing of the initiation of the IMD. Data were abstracted on study design, study size, patient population, and IMD used. The outcomes of interest were the acquisition of new infections, wound complications, length of hospital stay (LOS), and mortality. Meta-analytic techniques were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Twenty-one relevant studies were identified, which included a total of 1918 patients. Immunonutrition significantly reduced the risk of acquired infections, wound complications, and LOS. The mortality rate was 1% in both groups. The treatment effect was similar regardless of the timing of the commencement of the IMD. The benefits of immunonutrition required both arginine and fish oil. CONCLUSIONS: An immunomodulating enteral diet containing increased amounts of both arginine and fish oil should be considered in all high-risk patients undergoing major surgery. Although the optimal timing cannot be determined from this study, it is suggested that immunonutrition be initiated preoperatively when feasible.
Department of Diabetes-INSERM U341, Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, 75004 Paris, France. Abstract Fish oil feeding has been shown to limit visceral fat accumulation in insulin-resistant rats. Our goal was to determine whether this finding is due to increased fat mobilization or decreased lipid storage. Adipocytes were isolated from rats fed for 3 wk a diet containing 57.5 g/100 g sucrose and 14 g/100 g lipids as either fish oil (SF) or a mixture of standard oils (SC); there was also a reference group (R). Substituting fish oil for standard oils protected rats from visceral fat hypertrophy, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia. The stimulation of lipolysis was greater in adipocytes isolated from SF-fed rats than in those from SC-fed rats. Fatty acid synthase (FAS) activity was markedly lower in the liver but not in the adipose tissues of rats fed SF. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity was 2.2-fold higher in the adipose tissues but not in the muscle in rats fed the SF diet than in those fed the SC diet. The decrease in visceral fat in rats fed fish oil could be attributed to decreased plasma triacylglycerol concentration and/or increased lipid mobilization rather than to reduced lipid storage.
Department of Food and Nutrition, Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea. Abstract Reduced muscle activity leads to impaired insulin signaling, which leads to loss of contractile proteins and muscle mass via the Akt pathway. Dietary fish oil rich in long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids has been shown to prevent insulin signaling resistance in skeletal muscle. This study was conducted to elucidate the protective effect of dietary fish oil on disuse-induced perturbations in insulin signaling and soleus muscle atrophy. To accomplish this, rats were fed a corn-oil- (control) or fish-oil-based diet for 2 weeks, and then subjected to hindlimb immobilization while still receiving the same diets. After 10 days of immobilization, the soleus muscle mass and myosin heavy chain level had markedly decreased; however, these losses were significantly suppressed in rats fed dietary fish oil, compared with the control group. Dietary fish oil nearly completely attenuated the disturbances in activation of the Akt and p70 S6 kinase proteins, as well as the gene expression of muscle-specific E3 ubiquitin ligases (muscle atrophy F-box and muscle RING finger 1). However, insulin receptor substrate 1 associated with the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase was not altered during immobilization. Dietary fish oil also inhibited alterations in the gene expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase, with no additional observation of oxidative stress. Collectively, these findings indicate that dietary fish oil prior to and during immobilization may alleviate the immobilization-induced soleus muscle atrophy, at least in part, via the Akt pathway through E3 ubiquitin ligases and p70s6k.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Jodie and I shot this video up at my parents cabin to show you that you can get in a good training session (workout) anywhere! We brought up the TRX suspension trainer, hooked it up to a tree as shown above and a few kettlebells.
We even found a wheelbarrow and had some fun with that too!
Now you don’t have any excuse when you are up north or traveling. Make use of whatever you can find, put a few kettlebells in the trunk of your car or toss a TRX gym in a bag in your suitcase!
Are Pain and Suffering Needed to Reach Your Fitness Goals?
The post yesterday got about half great reviews and about half horrible reviews. I got some really good hate mail for that one. Here is a tip, if you are not happy, please tell me how to fix it or atleast WHY. Telling me I am a jackass is not helpful. I want to know WHY I am a jackass!
For some reason, a few people did not find the post motivational. I got notes saying that I was encouraging people to hurt themselves by showing that. Pleeeezzzee.
It should be noted that 99.9% of you that read this blog has been nothing but exceptional and I have learned a ton from all of your questions and interactions. Seriously, I really do appreciate it more than you will ever know.
The post yesterday had references to “pain and suffering” and implied that it was needed to reach you goals.
Is it?
This got me thinking.
For those who have read this blog, you know that I am not a fan of creating pain in the gym. I am not a fan of hopping on the spiky foam roller or trying to hump a baseball on the floor for “deep tissue work” before a lifting session.
If you want to create some pain before lifting, call me up and I will kick you in the nuts really hard. At least that is fun for ME! Hahaa.
This never gets old to watch “The Nutty Buddy”
The Science Behind The Nutty Buddy
Now I am not exempt from this type of behaviour in the past and I have paid large sums of money to trainers, guurs, coaches and massage therapists to create pain FOR me. I don’t fault them at all, I did if of my own free will with my own hard earned money.
Do I recommend you do that? No. Save your money for my upcoming serminar on Metabolic Flexibility
instead (shameless I know, but hey, I pay the bills to keep the lights on around here).
This bring us ot the questions “Are their times in your life where pain and suffering are neeeded?”
I think of them as side effects to certain goals.
Drugs
Let’s look at drugs for a second.
No, not those kinds of drugs you hippie!
Drugs, like pharmaceuticals.
In pharmacology, the term used is “therapeutic window.”
While I did a minor in Chemistry and took some high level pharmacokinetics classes a few years ago again, I am not an expert; but here are the basics (trust me, this will be short, so no drueling on your keyboard).
1 : the range of dosage of a drug or of its concentration in a bodily system that provides safe effective therapy <the narrow therapeutic window…the effect may go from therapeutic to toxic with an increase of just 10 micrograms per milliliter [in] blood concentration—Lisa Davis>
Many times this is also referred to as the Therapeutic Index.
“The therapeutic index (also known as therapeutic ratio), is a comparison of the amount of a therapeutic agent that causes the therapeutic effect to the amount that causes death.
Quantitatively, it is the ratio given by the lethal dose divided by the therapeutic dose. A therapeutic index is the lethal dose of a drug for 50% of the population (LD50) divided by the minimum effective dose for 50% of the population (ED50).
A high therapeutic index is preferable to a low one: this corresponds to a situation in which one would have to take a much higher dose of a drug to reach the lethal threshold than the dose taken to elicit the therapeutic effect.”
For those that scrolled past all that chemistry crap, here is the recap
LD50 (lethal dose 50) in addition to being the title of a CD by the band Mudvyane is the lethal dose to kill 50%. ED 50 (effective dose 50) is the effective dose for 50%
We want as much separation between these two as possible–a smaller ED and a high LD.
Some drugs that have a very narrow window (or index) and are not very “user friendly.”
TNT Time!
DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol ) is one that comes to mind where some nutty bodybuilders have used it to cut body fat in a short period of time. It basically interrups (uncouples) the cell’s ability to produce ATP (energy).
While is does not do this completely, it does it enough so that extra energy is produced as heat, thus more calories are literally “burned off”. Many years ago it was used as a weight loss drug, but had some very bad side effects like cooking yoursel from the inside out.
While case studies are rare, there was one reported recently (Barlett et al, 2010) that stated
“A 46-year-old man took a lethal dose of an agent called dinitrophenol (DNP). He presented 11 h after ingestion with loin pain, diarrhoea and vomiting. He rapidly deteriorated with profound hyperthermia, acute renal failure, hyperkalaemia, metabolic acidosis and eventually haemodynamic instability. Despite aggressive supportive measures and rapid sequence induction, he deteriorated and died 21 h after ingestion.”
So, my point on this is that DNP has a very narrow therapeutic window. A little bit may help you drop some pounds (although long term effects are unknown), just a bit too much and you are dead. Your arre more than playing with fire as instead of getting burned you could end up dead. Did I emphasize that point enough yet?
Back To the Real World
Ok, so I think all decisions have a therepeutic window or a risk/reward to them.
I could lift this weight, but my low back is really hurting bad.
In my case last night, I could do some heavy band deaflifts, but the callous on my left hand near my pink was not happy. I ended up not doing it past a few sets as I felt like I was going to rip it open at any point. The risk of ripping it off was much higher than not doing the lift on that day.
Every decision have a risk/reward.
Lifting in pain has a high long term risk and in my opinion is not needed for gains.
What About Life?
It has been said that only when you know the rules can you break the rules.
I try to follow the same rules in life that I do in the gym. The goal is performance, not how you “feel” afterwards. I know Charles Staley has been saying this for years.
“It’s better to use your performance as a gauge of what you’ve accomplished than how much you hurt the next day. Numbers don’t lie; if your numbers are going up, so is your progress. The reverse is not true however. I trashed my back a few years ago doing something really stupid, and trust me, the fact that I couldn’t tie my shoes for a while wasn’t a sign of progress!”
As you know, I’ve been in college going on about 16 years now. No, that is not a typo where I inadverntently slipped in a 1 in front of the 6. I started in 1992 and did 7.5 years full time completing a BA, 2 years of post grad work and a MS in Mechanical Engineering (Biomechanics), took about 1.5 years off where I swore I was never going back and then was back in college again. Even the thought of it caused shivers up my spine and nauseau.
Fast forward to today where I am in the process of writing up 3 studies and a literature review for my final defense to finish off my PhD. Pretty much every day I have thought of quitting. Many days I did not want to look at another research study or revision number 31 (not joking on that) of my study that I am trying to submit, only to most likely get it rejected by the journal since they like to publish high rejection rate to make themselves look good.
I had others that told me it would be a long road. I figured that much. I planned on 5 years of full time work. Wow, I never thought it would be this long though. Ugh.
The point of this is not a “poor me” story and “look at how much I struggle.” or “hey, look at all this effort.” I made the decision to do it. Nobody put a gun to my head and said “do a PhD crazy man or die.” I made the decision and therefor I also made the decision to accept any and all “side effects” that come with it, just like the drug example above You decide to take statins, you accept both the benefit and the side effects.
All About Control
I can quit at any time. That will make it all go away. I have thought about it many times. I had times where I kept telling myself that I could “quit tomorrow, but not today.” I worked to find more efficient ways (read, less side effects) to get it done. I soon learned that there are no shortcuts, not even things that helped a bit. Such is the windy path I have chosen.
The key turning point came when I was talking to a colleague and I asked him “How did you make it out?”
His answer was, “I made the decision that I was going to finish it, no matter how long it took, and that they were not going to break me in the process.”
I wanted to find a short cut or some better advice, but I soon realized this was great advice and one that I adopted. I took pride that in TIME, I would graudate. I had tried all other avenues and the only one left was to go straight ahead and survive the process.
If that meant I had to scrap 11 months of work and start over, if that was the only option, then so be it. If I have to rewrite a paper 41 times and that is the only way, then I will do it.
I can quit at any time, but I must accept the side effects too. If I have to accept them, I will do what I can to minimize their effects. So if you are taking statins, talk to your doc about taking ubiquinol which is the reduced and active form of Coenzyme Q10 (statins mess up this pathway and deplete your body of it) to minmize the side effects or work to get of them entirely (Mabuchi H,et al.).
What have I become?
Thoughts like shadows swelling through my mind
What have I become?
Something else inside
-Demon Hunter
As I Lay Dying “Through Struggle” Video
only through struggle have i found rest
with a piece of me taken away
i begin to understand
hollow out this machine like chest
with its gears that turn to make me feel
and assembled thoughts that fade away
only through struggle have i found rest
-As I Lay Dying
Summary
Some times pain and suffer are the side effects we must endure to achieve our goals.
If we want a certain goal, we must be prepared to endure everythign that comes along with it. We can stil work to reduce these side effects to as low as possible however.
Comments
What do you think? What times in your life have you accepted the risks/side effects? Let me know in the comments
Tainter ML, Stockton AB, Cutting WC (1933). “Use of dinitrophenol in obesity and related conditions: a progress report”. J Am Med Assoc 101: 1472–1475.
Bartlett J, Brunner M, Gough K (February 2010). “Deliberate poisoning with dinitrophenol (DNP): an unlicensed weight loss pill”. Emerg Med J 27 (2): 159–60
Mabuchi H, Higashikata T, Kawashiri M, Katsuda S, Mizuno M, Nohara A, Inazu A, Koizumi J, Kobayashi J. “Reduction of serum ubiquinol-10 and ubiquinone-10 levels by atorvastatin in hypercholesterolemic patients”. J Atheroscler Thromb. 2005;12(2):111-9.
Charles Staley, Pain and Performance, Tmuscle, PUBLISHED 05-24-07 10:09 Accessed July 19,2010 source Pain and Performance
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Motivational Monday: Discipline, Determination and Olympic Lifting
Excellent inspirational video to start off your week.
Training takes discipline, just like all things in life.
When you are successful in the gym, be sure to laterally transfer these principles to other areas in your life.
The skills learned in the gym over the iron can be applied to many areas of your life.
Dedication
Discipline
Determination
Action
I’ve know a few very very successful lifters. Watching them perform on the platform in competition was amazing. Later I found out the rest of their life was a wreck.
They never learned the concept of “lateral transfer” Date Tate talks about his in book “Under the Bar”
A huge shout out to my buddy Frankie for explaining the concept of lateral transfer.
Make sure to laterally transfer success to all aspects of your life
Rock on
Mike N
Sign up to my RSS feed and any time I update a post, you will know about it instantly!
You can also help out by hitting this
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Comments RSS 
