Super shakes and the retch factor: a post-preliminary report

I think I've found a pretty good remedy for the retch factor that had been interfering with my strength-training workouts. The super shake lunch/afternoon snack really does seem to make quite a difference with respect to the problem I've been experiencing. So I'll be continuing to have a super shake for lunch/afternoon snack on strength-training days: it really seems to be about the best resolution to the problem that I'm going to find.

Having said that I have to point out that the problem is not completely alleviated by the super shake . . . for want of a better word . . . let's say, diet. When I'm pushing myself very hard I do still feel some back pressure from the stomach--especially when I'm doing some exercise that involves bending over. But the feeling is much less intense, and thus is less likely to interfere with my breathing pattern.

So, once again, if you, like me, have this problem of feeling as though you're going to regurgitate during intense exercise, try switching to a lighter meal like the super shake on your workout days. I make a really large one, of which I consume about three quarters for lunch. (at about 12:30 P.M.) I consume the other one quarter at about 3 P.M. as a snack and by the time our strength-training routine occurs (around 6 P.M.) I'm able to push hard with minimal interference from the retch factor.

The burning sensation I get in my chest when doing intervals, though, continues to plague me. I'll undoubtedly be writing further about that sensation and its connection with the retch factor in future entries. Stay tuned for those.

Madonna does menopause

So Madonna's been in the press in the not-too-distant past because of what's considered her extreme fitness undertakings. People are ogling at her biceps. Marveling at her endurance. They're spellbound by her dedication. Etc.

Well, guess what? Madonna's my age--less than 6 months my senior. She's doing fitness--the subject of my blog--so she's on-topic here, right?

I really can't tell you much about Madonna other than that she's a singer. I guess I missed the Madonna boat--along with the boats of a lot of other entertainment figures that post-date about 1980. I occassionally catch wind of some thing or other she's done but I'm not too enamored of pop culture so I sort of missed all the hubub. And so far as I can tell, I didn't miss much.

I have no idea what songs she's sung, though I vaguely remember a title like "Modern Girl" or something along those lines. Nope, no idea what the melody for that one is. The only melody of any song of hers I know is her remake of "Santa Baby," a song that became popular among the playboy/nightclub crowd in the 50's. I heard the song in the drugstore once and became curious about it so I looked it up online and found out she was the singer of this new version.

But anyway, I think I know what's going on with Madonna these days. It's called menopause. As is commonly understood, women undergoing menopause--like those undergoing the other big feminine hormonal change, puberty--can have odd reactions. There are hot flashes, mood swings, physiological changes. People around these women sometimes feel they've gone a little batty in the initial phases.

Well, here's my proposition: what happens when a woman whose life and business is her public persona and she has limitless funding to devote to those things, when she hits menopause? Might not Madonna's answer be to go on an extreme fitness binge, hire the best personal trainers, buy the best exercise equipment, and spend hours working out? I submit that the answer to that question is "yes."

I further submit that she's, well, gone a bit bonkers with it. But hey, that's what women do when they hit this point in their lives. I do think it's a good thing for women to do fitness, especially right around menopause, when they start to lose bone density. So I don't begrudge her working out. But I do think she's gone overboard with it and that this can be explained by the hormonal imbalance.

And no, I don't care of you think I'm sexist for saying that.

Gone in 60 seconds!

Ok, so the title of this entry is a bit cliche--but only for those of us old enough to remember when the cliche was current!¹ For those who are not old enough, the following explanation.

This was the title of a suspense movie about car theft. The title intends to indicate how easy it was in that era (early 70's) to steal a car: it took only one minute for these thieves to make off with your car. I never saw the movie myself, but it was advertised heavily enough and I was at a sufficiently impressionable age that its title and theme got (unfortunately) burned into my psyche.

Well, in this entry, I'm using the cliche to refer to something quite unrelated to car thievery. Nonetheless the concept that title sought to encapsulate struck me as appropriate to what I'm blogging about today--insomnia . . . again.

You see, night before last was a zolpidem (aka Ambien) night. I'd decided prior to that night that I'd had enough restless nights in a row that I had to do something to get a decent night's sleep.

To expand a bit on something I relegated to a footnote in my blood pressure chart, I'd had a high blood pressure reading subsequent to one of the difficult nights I had this week and decided "ok, it's time to get a good night's sleep." So I took the zolpidem the other night with the expected results: slept solidly from about 11 PM to 4 AM (very rare occurrence). Got up for a bladder run and had a sensation as though all the intestinal distress that had been going on during those five hours was suddenly hitting me at that moment. But I nonetheless had no trouble getting back to sleep, finally arising only at a little before 8 AM.

What a refreshing feeling after so many fitful nights. I felt pretty good the whole day. And even going in to last night I felt fine, though I did have a bit of intestinal discomfort prior to retiring for the night.

But last night turned out to be another one of those pretty much sleepless nights. My body kept trying to fall asleep, but I kept jolting awake somehow. That went on from about 1 AM to 4 AM, during which time I probably dozed off and woke up at least a dozen times. By 4 AM I couldn't get even doze off anymore, but just lay there tossing and turning.² So I got up.

I tried to rest again after breakfast but for me, as for probably most other people, it's difficult to sleep when it's daylight. So I got in maybe 2.5 hours of slightly less fitful sleep after breakfast. And here I am again, well on my way to another episode of sleep deficit.

Now is it clear why I've chosen the title I have for this entry? Yesterday I was on the road to feeling fine sleep-wise: today I'm on my way back to where I was before I took the zolpidem.³ Sleep adequacy . . . gone in (a little bit more than) 60 seconds.
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¹ Ok, call me a complete pop-culture neanderthal. I don't care. I discovered after writing this entry that a remake of this early 70's movie was done in 2000. So what?
² This is actually the pattern for most nights when I do not take zolpidem.
³ In case your'e wondering why I don't take the zolpidem more regularly, take a look here.

Seafood, y'all?

"And now," as they used to say on Monty Python, "for something completely different . . ."

Redneck Seafood dinner

Ok, so it's got nothing to do with fitness after 50 and is only marginally related to (unhealthy) diet. But it was just too funny to pass up. Hot dogs, Kraft instant macaroni and canned green beans--yum! Don't you think those squid dogs would look a lot cuter if they'd carved little smiles in them, too? And you can rest assured those aren't tofu dogs (I found this photo while searching google images for pictures of seafood, incidentally).

More substantial entries will be forthcoming. I got my new interval timer, so I can review that soon. Then, I've still got a more detailed creatine report to give.

Resistance training improves mental function in the elderly

In this entry I'll present material from a recently-published study¹ that offers compelling evidence that resistance training can improve mental function as we age. I'd be a bit young to qualify for a study like this--plus I'm the wrong gender (it was an all-woman test group)--but the results are nonetheless heartening to those of us drawing closer to the ages of the participants (65-75).

Here are some salient--though somewhat technical--excerpts:

Resistance Training and Executive Functions A 12-Month Randomized Controlled Trial
Teresa Liu-Ambrose, PhD, PT; Lindsay S. Nagamatsu, MA; Peter Graf, PhD;
B. Lynn Beattie, MD; Maureen C. Ashe, PhD, PT; Todd C. Handy, PhD

Background: Cognitive decline among seniors is a pressing health care issue. Specific exercise training may combat cognitive decline. We compared the effect of once-weekly and twice-weekly resistance training with that of twice-weekly balance and tone exercise training on the performance of executive cognitive functions in senior women.

Methods: In this single-blinded randomized trial, 155 community-dwelling women aged 65 to 75 years living in Vancouver were randomly allocated to once-weekly (n = 54) or twice-weekly (n = 52) resistance training or twice-weekly balance and tone training (control group) (n = 49). The primary outcome measure was performance on the Stroop test, an executive cognitive test of selective attention and conflict resolution. Secondary outcomes of executive cognitive functions included set shifting as measured by the Trail Making Tests (parts A and B) and working memory as assessed by verbal digit span forward and backward tests. Gait speed, muscular function, and whole-brain volume were also secondary outcome measures.

Results: Both resistance training groups significantly improved their performance on the Stroop test compared with those in the balance and tone group (P .03). Task performance improved by 12.6% and 10.9% in the once-weekly and twice-weekly resistance training groups, respectively; it deteriorated by 0.5% in the balance and tone group. Enhanced selective attention and conflict resolution was significantly associated with increased gait speed. Both resistance training groups demonstrated reductions in whole-brain volume compared with the balance and tone group at the end of the study (P .03).

Conclusion: Twelve months of once-weekly or twice-weekly resistance training benefited the executive cognitive function of selective attention and conflict resolution among senior women.

Ok, so they divided this group of ladies into two sub-groups and had each perform a type of exercises. One type of exercise was resistance training--what I would call strength training--while the other group did balance and toning exercises. What, exactly, were the exercises they were doing? Further on, the article indicates the following:

Resistance Training
The resistance training program used a progressive, high-intensity protocol. The air-pressured digital resistance leg press machine and free weights were used to provide the training stimulus. The leg press machine­ based exercises consisted of biceps curls, triceps extension, seated rowing, latissimus dorsi pull-down exercises, leg presses, hamstring curls, and calf raises. The intensity of the training stimulus was at a work range of 6 to 8 repetitions (2 sets). The training stimulus was subsequently increased using the 7-RM method, when 2 sets of 6 to 8 repetitions were completed with proper form and without discomfort. Other key strength exercises included minisquats, mini-lunges, and lunge walks. The number of sets completed and the load lifted for each exercise were recorded for each participant at every class.

Balance and Tone
The balance and tone program consisted of stretching exercises, range-of-motion exercises, basic core-strength exercises including kegels (ie, exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles), balance exercises, and relaxation techniques. Key balance exercises included tai chi­based forms (ie, the crane and the tree pose), tandem stand, tandem walking, and single leg stance (eyes opened and closed). Other than body weight, no additional loading (eg, hand weights or resistance bands) was applied to any of the exercises. There is no evidence that these exercises improve cognitive function. This group served to control for confounding variables such as physical training received by traveling to the training centers, social interaction, and changes in lifestyle secondary to study participation.

Glad they didn't mention tandem riding under the Balance and Tone category . . .

Actually, on that note, the authors mention the following: "intervention studies have shown that aerobic exercise training enhances brain and cognitive function." So it seems it's already been established that aerobic exercise enhances brain function in older subjects: this study's aim, on the other hand, was to see whether the same or similar benefits would come from resistance training.

So the ladies doing the resistance training made notable improvements in one area of mental function--what the authors call "enhanced selective attention and conflict resolution"--though not in other areas. Interestingly, the authors mention a similar study done with male participants that showed improvements in other areas of brain function:

Cassilhas et al demonstrated that 6 months of thrice-weekly moderate- or high-intensity resistance training improved cognitive performance of memory and verbal concept formation among senior men. Our findings extend these results in several critical ways. Most notably, our results suggest that the effects of resistance training on executive cognitive functions appear to be selective; that is, resistance training enhanced selective attention and conflict resolution in older women, but cognitive abilities associated with manipulating verbal information in working memory and shifting between task sets or instructions were not improved.

Still, the net result of the study seems to be that, as we age, brain and cognitive function can be enhanced by exercise--whether of the strength- or resistance-training, or of the aerobic sort--or both.
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¹ Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2):170-178

Diet musings

In addition to the reading and research I do as I maintain and enhance this blog, I've taken to consulting a few fitness blogs lately. I've bumped into a fair amount of discussion of diets on these blogs, and generally I find this discussion a little frustrating. I'll explain why in this entry.

To me it's frustrating because, while I'm interested in maintaining a healthy diet and reading about nutrition, these discussions inevitably turn to weight loss questions and debate about how well or poorly this or that diet reduce fat. I can understand in a certain respect why this is the case: diets, as we all know, are most often formulated for and followed by, those who are obese or otherwise unhealthy.

For me, the discussion becomes frustrating at this point because I don't need to lose any weight. Plus, I already eat a fairly healthy diet (long-time pesco-vegetarian, don't eat fast food with any regularity, love fruits, vegetables, and whole grains). So when these dietary discussions start to turn to weight loss--as they invariably do--I feel that my attempts at gleaning useful information are being subverted: I just want to know how foods might benefit or harm an already healthy body, not how they might make me lose weight.

For the sake of furthering this discussion, a few more words about myself. I have no idea what my bodyfat percentage is, but I know it's on the low side. I have a pretty athletic build--as you might gather from the photos in the heading of this blog. I am a little thicker around the mid-section in the 2009 photo than in the 1984 photo, so I definitely have more bodyfat now than I did then (is it 2, 3, maybe 4 percentage points?). But comparatively (to other 50-year-old males), I nonetheless now have pretty low bodyfat.

Could my bodyfat be lower? Undoubtedly it could. I doubt getting it lower would improve my overall health, but I could certainly lower it further. So far as I can tell the impetus for doing that would probably be vanity rather than health. And thus far I've found that, during cycling season when we're putting in plenty of long, hard rides, I do shed about 5 lbs. and get down around 200, give or take a pound or two. So I do see some seasonal variation in weight and thus, I would guess, variation in bodyfat.

Getting back to the dietary material I've been reading. I'm left in a state of confusion about it. My weight is pretty good and I don't see a significant health gain in lowering my bodyfat any further. Moreover my most recent cholestrol readings approach magnificence (see my "vital stats" for those). So does that mean my diet is fine? Should I just ignore all this dietary information I'm finding, or are there things I need to change about my diet? Perhaps I should leave well enough alone?

Is there any source that aims to help people who are already fairly trim and not eating a lot of trash food, adjust their diets? I'm still looking . . .

Short note on intervals

Intervals continue to go well. The time seems to go by so much more quickly when you're keeping track of time in 3.5-minute increments. We're averaging about 20-25 minutes per interval session. We do about 6 intervals in total, which amounts to about 3.5 minutes of intense exercise interspersed with about 20 minutes of light-duty aerobics.

I've gone ahead an ordered an interval timer to aid us in executing these. Intervals will for sure remain an integral part of our off-season bicycle training.

I should have another creatine update tomorrow after we've done another strength-training session.

Another installment on super shakes and creatine

Ok, now that I've done a handful of strength-training workouts after starting creatine I have some more data to report. Also, I started having a super shake for lunch/afternoon snack on strength-training days as a means of possibly counteracting what I called the "retch factor," so I have information to report on how that's gone as well. Would've posted this last night, but this Saturday was a really busy one that also took up part of Friday.

First, about the super shake remedy for retch factor. As you'll recall, I was having a problem pushing myself in strength-training workouts because of the retch factor, which necessitated suppressing the urge to, well, vomit. I came up with the idea of, instead of eating solid food on strength-training days, having more of a liquid lunch to see whether that might mitigate or eliminate the retch factor.

So we've now done two strength-training workouts on days when I had a super shake for lunch--actually an extra large one that I even save a portion of for a mid-afternoon snack. And I have to say that having this sort of lunch does definitely mitigate the retch factor.

I can't say that, on days so far when I've tried the super-shake lunch, I don't feel any sort of regurgitative urges whatsoever while pushing myself hard during strength training. But I can say that I feel that much less frequently and urgently, and can consequently push myself harder. So I'm sticking with this diet for strength-training days. If you have a similar problem with the retch factor, I recommend you also try the super shake remedy. I'm glad I tried this.

I also have to report, on a related note, that I've been experiencing this intense burning in the chest, and that I identified with the retch factor, during our recent interval training sessions. And I'm beginning to think that the burning sensation, while often accompanied by the urge to regurgitate, may actually be a separate sensation.

I cannot say, for example, that during our recent strength-training sessions when I got that regurgitative urge, it was accompanied by burning in the chest: sometimes it is, sometimes not. I'm still working on analyzing the interrelation of the two and will likely post more on this topic later.

Finally, I have kind of a mixed review of creatine. During Monday's workout I definitely felt the effects of the creatine. I felt as though I was able to use heavier weights and that I didn't get nearly as winded as I had been. I was ready, at that point, to pretty much reverse initial observations I'd made about creatine. But then came Friday's workout.

During Friday's strength-training workout, I can't say I felt much of anything at all from the creatine. Perhaps a slight decrease in recovery time, but nothing nearly as dramatic as I felt on Monday. So I have to say it's still a bit of a mixed bag on the creatine front. I'll need more time to assess the situation. That said, I do feel some slight mental benefits from it.

As for why the creatine seemed to have a much more dramatic effect on Monday than on Friday, one possibility is that Monday was much closer to the end of the creatine "loading phase," so I likely had more of it in my system at that point than on Friday. Also, I actually reduced the dosage during the course of this week from the recommended full teaspoon to half a teaspoon. So I will try increasing it back to the normal dosage and see what effect that has on next week's strength-training workouts.

Look for further reports later.

Alternative/natural sleep aids

I've blogged previously about the insomnia I've experienced over the last decade or so and about the fact that I suspect it may play a role in my heightened blood pressure. And thus may also be related to my current fitness endeavors, which were undertaken, in part, in reaction to high blood pressure readings. I've also blogged about how a medication I was prescribed--zolpidem (Ambien)--though it gave some relief from the insomnia, nevertheless caused me some serious mood problems when used with regularity.

Well, I cut back on using the zolpidem, though I am still experimenting with it. It does seem that, if I use it as seldom as once per week, the mood problems are either very minimal or absent. I'll now experiment with using it for two days in a given week to see if those same results hold. The aim is, of course, to figure out the proper dosage and scheduling: at what point does it give the undesirable side-effects and within what parameters do those side-effects not manifest to a problematic degree?

I'm finding that out. And I'll be reporting the results here.¹

While performing those experiments, I've also considered the natural alternative sleep aids. My first option--were it legal or if I could legitimately obtain it--would be marijuana. I haven't used any for decades but, according to experiences I had with it in my youth, I would presume it could make a pretty effective sleep aid. But it's just not a realistic option given the current state of affairs in this country: I'd have to get involved with the underworld culture to try this and run the risk of falling afoul of the law. I'm just not interested--either in having those kinds of ties anymore or in confronting the justice system.

Another possible natural sleep aid I've read about recently is kava kava. That one can be legally obtained and I do hope to try it soon so as to see whether it can offer me an alternative to the zolpidem. So, look for future posts on the viability of using kava as a sleep aid.
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¹ Today's (1/22/10) results are encouraging. Having taken zolpidem for the second time within one week, I nonetheless can say that I do not feel any particular mood issues. I'm encouraged and plan to keep taking zolpidem up to 2 times per week to see if these preliminary positive results persist.

The untold story: abdominal and other secret workouts I've not divulged here

I've got some post-preliminary reports (since I've already given a preliminary report) on creatine and super shakes, but I'll hold off on giving those until after this coming Friday's strength-training workout--so as to compile a bit more data. Meantime, I'll fill in with the current entry.

The title pretty much says it all: have I told you everything we do in the way of fitness? No, not everything. I've focused on the major components of our fitness regimen, i.e., the cycling/stationary-bike stuff for aerobic and lower-body strengthening on the one hand, and the strength-training workouts we do for upper body on the other. But there are actually a couple of other fitness routines that we work in, one of which I've not mentioned at all (shame on me).

The one I have mentioned is walking. We do sometimes replace cycling/stationary-bike riding with walking (2 - 8 miles)--as I've pointed out in a previous entry. But what I haven't mentioned is that I additionally try to walk about 1.5 miles on days when we have our strength training (Mon. and Fri.) and also on our rest day (Wed.). It's not much, but with age and being involved in an otherwise sedentary field of work, it's good to get in any extra activity you can. So there's that.

But what I've not mentioned at all is our abdominal workouts. We actually go fairly light on these, spending 5 minutes or so on cycling days performing them. One set of exercises that we do are ones that were given to me by a physical therapist who I was seeing last spring about some back pain. There are some crunches in there, an exercise called "dead bug," another called "mermaid," and another called "bird dog." These are as much core-strengthening exercises as abdominal exercises, though, of course, the two groups of muscles are closely related. Some of the movements remind me somewhat of Pilates exercises.

The other routine we do is one we appropriated from the Power 90 program. It's called "ab ripper 100." And our old friend Tony Horton leads the exercises.

Here's the list of exercises (10 moves, 10 reps each): 1 crunches, 2. left side crunch, 3. right side crunch, 4. elbows to knees, 5. superman crunch, 6. leg lifts, 7. in and outs, 8. hip rock, 9. bicycles, 10. full body crunch.

Using this routine has gone well for us so far--though I do sometimes hurt my back doing ab exercises: both the ab ripper routine and the other set of exercises I got from the physical therapist are liable to cause me lower-back trouble if I don't do them carefully. At the moment, in fact, we're taking a break from all abdominal exercises since I hurt my back about 10 days ago or so. But that hiatus should end soon. As will be evident from the time signature in these still frames, the whole routine only takes about 4.5 minutes

Anyway, I have thought of stepping up the abdominal workouts a bit during part of the year. Currently, I'm considering whether to replace our current abdominal routines with "ab ripper x" (jeez I hate these titles! I think I'll just call it "abdomen firmer" from now on) for part of the year. That's about a 15 minute routine, so it'd be quite a bit more intense than what we do now. But hey, I'm up for doing it for 2 or 3 months out of each year.

That's still in the planning stages, though. Look for further updates on the abdominal exercise front later. And by the way, don't I need to include these abdominal exercises at least somewhere in my overview of our regime? Another note to self: P90X's core synergistics DVD might be a good one to work into the abdominal/core regimen on occasion as well, no?

UPDATE: I've discovered there's a slightly more advanced version of the ab ripper routine (level 200: 10 exercises, 20 reps.) we do--and it's even viewable on the 'net! Have a look here.