Health & Fitness Tips (Most recent at top)
- If you’re craving sugar after you eat a meal, it’s a sure sign that your body is inefficient at burning fat for energy and is relying on glucose for fuel. A healthy and efficient athlete runs primarily off fat, not sugar.
- Read Waterlogged by Dr. Tim Noakes. This new book provides great information about the problem with endurance athletes drinking too much water and other fluids.
- Just because a race offers a short option and a long option doesn’t mean that you should run the long. Most people don’t have the health, fitness, or time to train for an ultra, marathon, or even a half-marathon. So until you’re able to build up fitness and not break down – choose that 10K, or even the 5K, and stop wrecking your body.
- If you really think you’re that special “exception” and truly need orthotics then maybe you’ll benefit from a wheelchair one day too when more of your body breaks down.
- Your thigh bone isn’t just connected to your hip bone but it’s also connected to your foot bones, your rib bones, your skull bones, and even your hand bones. If you, your doc, or therapist doesn’t realize this then you’ll never heal your injury and perform to your best ability.
- Hamstring injuries might be one of the most commonly injured muscles in athletes, but it’s also the injury I see to need the least amount of treatment. The hammies are often strained due to calf and glute max weakness – causing them to work too hard resulting in a “pull.” So assess & treat the glutes and calves – not the hamstrings.
- A fun health & fitness tip for you humans and pets by my Little Sock Doc Kid: The Animals With Shoes
- If you have knee pain when you go up stairs or climb hills then consider more glutes or calves involvement. If it’s worse going down stairs or hills then think more quads or ITB.
- Winter isn’t the time to gain weight and lose fitness, it’s the time to build your aerobic base, improve conditioning, and prepare to expand your fitness next year.
- If your doctor says your injury is because of lack of foot strength and wants to put you in orthotics, inquire how pushing up on any arch results in strength and get the hell out of there fast.
- If you deplete your glycogen (stored sugar) levels either from a poor diet or training too hard, you’re looking at 48 hours to replenish those levels. That’s 48 hrs if you eat well and recover well, not if you continue to train wrong, eat wrong, and skip meals.
- The only part of “old” in your inability to achieve a certain level of health & fitness is the constant reminder you give yourself that you are just that. Don’t use age as an excuse for poor health & fitness.
- Treating only the injured area will not only ineffectively treat the injury, it won’t prevent future problems. You’ve got to look at the whole picture of your health and fitness to break the root cause of the injury down, so you can repair and rebuild stronger than before.
- If you’re interested in improving your fitness and health, especially your aerobic system, use a heart rate monitor. It’s the best investment you can make. Short on cash? Don’t buy shoes. Wear out what you’ve got and start going barefoot more.
- Protein Power: Endurance athletes should consume a minimum of 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. High intensity and long duration training often require over 2g per kg. So a 165 pound athlete should shoot for 115-150g of protein per day. Eggs, meats, and whey protein top the list.
- You might think compression socks look cool (I don’t), but they’re best left for recovery after a race, a hard training session, or as part of injury treatment. If you always have to wear them during a workout because of pain then you’re missing the reason behind that pain.
- Your training is dependent on intensity and duration, (and in some instances complexity ie: trail vs. road). Intensity is measured via perceived exertion, closely related to your heart rate. Duration should be measured by time – NOT miles. Train for time, not for distance.
- Using ice to treat an injury will dampen the natural inflammatory response necessary to repair and heal your tissues. Sure it will block pain, but it will delay recovery.
- If you feel any improvement from taking any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) then it’s a sure bet that you have an imbalance of fats in your body – too many unhealthy trans fats or refined vegetable oils and not enough healthy fats.
- If you’re doing high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts because you’re pressed for time and you haven’t developed your aerobic base, you should be prepared to soon spend some time dealing with an injury.
- Use coconut milk and heavy [whipping] cream rather than skim milk or even whole milk. The saturated fats are necessary for tissue repair, hormone production, and a healthy nervous system. Plus they taste so damn good.
- Before you apply ice to that injury consider that you may be delaying a normal and natural inflammatory process occurring as your body is trying to heal your injury.
- Sunglasses are cool and great for protection but if you always need some shades, especially on overcast days, consider your body stressed out. Eyes that are so sensitive means your pupils aren’t normally constricting from the exposed light and it’s a sure sign of a sympathetic dominant nervous system. Are you training too hard, too stressed out, not resting fully, eating poorly – or all of the above?
- If your eyelids ever flutter or a limb (hand/arm or leg) jerks involuntarily while you’re dozing off to sleep, it’s a sign that you’re under too much stress and pushing your body too hard. Back-off before it’s too late because you’re overreaching and soon will be overtraining and possibly ill or injured.
- Unless you became injured from some type of trauma (accident), consider that you most likely have a health-fitness imbalance if your injury “just came out of nowhere.” Diet, training, and lifestyle factors all have major impacts on your musculoskeletal system and whether you get injured or not.
- Want to burn fat and improve your health? Exercise aerobically for 45 minutes every morning on a fasted state (before eating anything).
- The ideal warm-up for ANY activity is a mixture of light aerobic activity (low HR) combined with dynamic, natural movements. Shoot for 10 minutes of walking/light running with some squats and body mobility drills mixed in – NOT stretching.
- It’s better to go into a race 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained.
- Chocolate, (80% or higher cocoa content), is a great snack that’s loaded with antioxidants and healthy fats. You can also buy cacao butter to put in your smoothie to add some beneficial saturated fat calories. Yummy.
Your statement on twitching as you fall asleep; Could that stress be the result of diet versus over training? I’m using an application called ithlete to track HRV as per that data and how I feel I don’t think I’m over training as I’m still aerobic only training as my times are still coming down. What I wonder about though is that through the TWT I did learn I’m carbohydrate intolerant and lately I’ve fallen off the wagon.
Sure it could definitely be the diet. I use ithlete too – it’s a good product.
Dr. G- Just saw this article from Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/12-things-killer-employees-do-before-noon-2012-8
Seems a couple points you list, exercise int he morning, eat breakfast, etc are supported by this article.
Just thought it was interesting.
You mention training in a fasted state for improved fat burning. I was curious if you have every heard of Intermittent Fasting. Pretty common with body builders, it is basically not eating any calories for a ~16 hour window followed by a 8 hour feeding window (eg. Eat, Stop, Eat). Claims are that eating this way will lower cortisol levels, gives your digestive system a “break”, body burns mostly fat during fasted state, reduced inflammation, reduced insulin levels, etc.
I was wondering your take on fasting from an endurance perspective.
Yes I have heard of IF and I think the science behind it is very valid. Of course there are many ways to approach it, the most common being as you mention. I’ve seen people really do well with the program in regards to strength conditioning as well as body fat loss for the “average”, but healthy, person. I have not seen it used in regards to endurance. Now personally I’ve done it a few times but I have altered it because as you know ideally the idea is to train right at the end of the fast (or have some protein or BCAAs right at the end of the fast prior to the workout), and this is fine if you’re doing an aerobic (not long duration) workout but I don’t think you’d want to do some HIIT endurance during this period or long aerobic training either (over one hour perhaps). Definitely something to investigate more though.
Hi
I’ve been enjoying much of your advice in the last couple years, and still finding more.
Could you give more info on the fasted state morning run?
I do this most work days: get up 4:50 am, spend 20 min with bathroom, drink cup water, make green tea for later; go for 15 min warm up; 15-20 min easy run (below max aerobic level); 15 min cool down; immediately eat nice paleo breakfast; shower; drink tea in car to work.
It’s a lot to get done, and I often wonder if more time awake is needed before starting. But thats even earlier and makes getting to bed on time more difficult. Also, I sometimes eat part of breakfast (protein & fruit) just before leaving for run. Either with or without the little snack I occasionally feel a little shaky during cool down. This is relieved by breakfast.
I would consider that I’m still building aerobic base, and have overtrained, done too much anaerobic etc previously. Should I eat more fruit before run for a while? Can I even make use of the sugars when it’s so close to the run? Should I shorten run for a while? Should I go still lower than 120-130 bpm (I’m 44) during run?
I would prefer to continue with morning run so that I can spend more time with my kids, and on having a nice dinner, but the logistics of the morning run have been tough, and if something’s off (like interrupted sleep) I skip it.
Thanks Dino. It’s all about what works for you. If you’re seeing progress in these runs (you’re getting faster, more efficient, and maybe even leaner), then that’s good. If you’re not seeing progress and especially if you’re feeling a sugar low then they clearly are not and you either have to adjust them or not do them. We don’t do workouts just to “log them in.” That’s un-smart training. If you have to eat the fruit before you run and the run is truly aerobic (and it sounds like it is) then something is blocking your ability to use fat for energy. Yes you’ll use those sugars you eat right before you run, but that’s not the purpose here – you’re not teaching your body to burn fat.
My hunch is that you’re not eating right (what’s right for you) the day before – maybe the prior day lunch and dinner. If you’re consuming a lot of fat & protein at those meals then you should be able to wake up and run well over an hour at that HR with no problems. So I got a feeling it’s your diet and not the HR. What do you think?
Hi Dr.Sock. I’m new to your web site , I have a question I do wear orthotics my right foot really pronates in it even looks funny.If I start going barefoot a little at a time like you recommend and start getting healthier ,will the pronation get corrected. Are there pressure points to use also? Thank you for your time.I am a 66 yer old women.take no medication except synthroid .
Cheryl
It will hopefully get better as your foot/feet strengthen. Make sure you read these two articles here. The first on how to properly go barefoot and wean off your orthotics and the second is on Foot Pain (video) that will show you the points to check in your leg – for the tibialis posterior muscle. Good luck.
http://sock-doc.com/2012/03/healthy-people-barefoot-people/
http://sock-doc.com/2012/05/foot-injuries/
I have very flat feet, and at age 66 my left ankle which is severely pronated began to cause extreme pain to where I could hardly bear to walk. My right ankle is pronated also but not to the same degree. My ankle was stabilized with a boot and gradually the tendon healed. Then I was fitted with orthodics. My ankle pain has gone away but now I am having right hip pain. I was very careful about not overdoing it but it has been six months and I am starting to wonder if I have exchanged one problem for another. In reading your column, do you recommend that I not wear my orthodics and only support the ankle when it becomes strained? I cannot even wear regular orthodic shoes, they have to be boot like as I seem to have less pain then. I am confused about how to proceed before my right hip becomes worse.
Hi Jane, yes of course I cannot say exactly what has happened to you or diagnose you over the internet, but your situation is very common. Orthotics support the current problem and soon you’ll have another one somewhere else. Check out this article especially the parts on how to transition out of orthotics as well as the video to strengthen your feet.
http://sock-doc.com/2012/03/healthy-people-barefoot-people/
I’ve been learning from your advice and slowly making changes over the last year. The orthotics are gone, I no longer stretch and I have been injury free for over 6 months. The last piece of the puzzle was the switch to a paleo diet about 3 months ago.
So first of all thank you – between you and the “Latest in Paleo” podcast I am now healthier, fitter & happier than ever and will probably live longer because of it!
All in all I feel better than ever and my abs have even made an appearance for the first time in my life.
The only question I have is that I get quite sore calves after a hard session (usual a hard brick session or a race) that can take up to a week to subside. Is there anything I can do to alleviate this or am I just pushing too hard too soon in the season?
This is great to hear. Thanks for sharing!
You can get sore calves if you’re training above your capacity. If that’s not it then think about footwear. And if not that then I’d look to something still causing some stress in your life.
Just a thought, I’ve been struggling with what I believe is an IT band issue early thus season so far (snow has just melted in MN). During the off-season I did very little lower body workouts (just basic non-weighted squats) but did a lot of upper body (push ups, pull ups, dips). Wondering if an imbalance might exist between my upper and lower body that could explain my IT band pain? Now that I’ve had some TIME (hours not miles) “running” (143 BPM=3.7 MPH) over the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed that the pain has reduced dramatically. Also, I’ve lost 80-lbs in the last year. Thoughts?
LOVE YOUR STUFF! THANKS!