Is Sitting the New Smoking?
Sitting is something we do A LOT! By some estimates we sit up to 10 hours a day. All of this sitting has impacted our health. In fact, some folks say sitting is the new smoking.
I have explored the negative health effects of too much sitting. For some of us, a standing work station is unrealistic or the nature of our job requires a seated position. There's good news for all of us obligatory sitters! A mere 5 min walking break every 30 mins can offset the negative health impacts of prolonged sitting. Researcher Keith Diaz of Columbia University Medical Center and his colleagues, "found that a five minute walk every half-hour was able to offset a lot of the harms of sitting." People who moved five minutes every half-hour, saw blood sugar spikes after a meal reduced by almost 60%, according to his study. Another researcher, Kathleen Janz, professor emeritus at the University of Iowa, says that "people were in a better mood because they took those breaks." WHAT'S THAT!?! Short 5 min walking breaks can improve our blood sugar, improve our metabolic profile AND improve our mental health? Sign me up! Many of us get our CDC recommended weekly 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity via CrossFit classes. However, we may find ourselves sitting the rest of the day. No matter what we do for an hour in the gym, it's the remaining 23 hours of our day that can cause so many other issues. If sitting is something you find yourself doing for more than 30 mins, get up and move for just 5 mins. You'll feel better AND you'll be happier:) Win! Win! Click on the link below to listen to the entire 4:24 min story on NPR. You can do this during one of your 5 min walking breaks today!
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Optimum Energy AvailabilityYesterday I explored Low Energy Availability, LEA, a condition that impacts about 47% of female athletes in their 20s & 30s. It is an emerging concern amongst peri- and post-menopausal women (active women over 40) as there is increasing trend amongst our active aging population to not eat enough. Low energy availability can be particularly insidious among perimenopausal women because the signs, which include menstrual cycle disruption, brain fog, muscle loss, decreased bone density, increased risk of injuries, and/or not responding to training as you used to can be confused with some of the issues that can arise during the menopause transition. Men are not exempt! As I explored yesterday, active men can slip into LEA when their optimal energy falls below 25 kcal/kg of lean mass. For us active women, our threshold is higher at 30 kcal/kg of lean mass. Yesterday I shared how to calculate your ideal calories to prevent LEA. Today we'll explore how to tell if your current nutrition program can support your training load and prevent LEA. Remember we need to know our lean mass (also called fat free mass or FFM) in kilograms (kg.) Today we'll also use our wearable tech such as Whoop, Garmin, FitBit, Oura or Apple watch to determine our active calories. Here's a visual of where we're headed. To determine if your current nutrition program supports your training program you first need to track your food. You can use the Macros tracker in BTWB or other apps like My Fitness Pal, Carbon and others. Once you have tracked your food for about 7 days you'll have enough data to get a solid average of the calories you eat. Second, we need to calculate how many calories we burn during our training session. Your wearable tech will give you a pretty good estimate. None of our fitness trackers are 100% accurate, and that's ok. We're looking for trends. Go back through a typical week and add up all the calories you burn during exercise and divide by 7. Now we're going to use the calories you eat, the calories you burn and your fat free mass to see if you're in LEA. Remember, one day of LEA is fine, but CHRONIC LEA is what we want to avoid. Our bodies are resilient and can bounce back. But, I'd rather not see you go there in the first place. Here is our equation. Let's do the math! As an example I'll use my data from January when I thought I needed to be on dietary cut but was feeling SO DAMN TIRED and I just didn't want to train. (This is a HUGE red flag! Fatigue and lack of motivation to exercise are classic LEA symptoms). My daily caloric intake averaged 1745 kcals. My average daily exercise energy expenditure (using my Whoop and getting an average for the same week) was 300 kcals on training days. My fat free mass is 61 kg. Using our Optimal Energy Availability equation my daily average was 23.6. No wonder I was SO DAMN TIRED! Doing the math can be very helpful. However, I also want you to be very aware of how you FEEL. Your feelings are always true and can be signals that something is not quite right. My feelings of fatigue and lack of training motivation were the impetus for me to enroll in the Active Menopause continuing education course I just completed. Sometimes even the Coach needs a Coach:) We are athletes, we need to eat to support our training, and I'm here to help you. Diet culture is a million dollar business and not all recommendations are applicable to our active aging population. As I learned in my CE course: Women have been indoctrinated with the 1,200-calorie-a-day diet. It’s just part of the ocean of diet culture we all swim in. Countless articles, books, and diet platforms, including Noom, Weight Watchers, and even the NIH promote 1,200 to 1,500-calorie diets for women. That sets the stage for chronic LEA for active women. If you would like help determining your Macros, optimal energy, and anything else related to eating to support your training, please book a check-in with me.
By now I should no longer be surprised one someone assumes that lifting weights will make you bulky and inflexible. However, after several years of talking to people about CrossFit and weightlifting I understand many folks don't understand the difference between weightlifting and lifting weights. Weightlifting is a sport, in fact there are two competitive weightlifting disciplines. Powerlifting which consists of the deadlift, back squat and benchpress, and Olympic weightlifting which consists of the snatch and clean & jerk. Olympic weightlifting is an Olympic sport and is governed by the International Olympic Committee. Powerlifting is not an Olympic sport, and has several national and international regulatory committees. Lifting weights is not a sport, but rather a fitness pursuit. We do not lift weights. We practice the sport of weightlifting. Like any sport, weightlifting requires flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy, power, speed and strength. All of these physical characteristics, along with stamina and endurance are specific adaptions we try to illicit through the demands of our training program. Flexibility (which we often call mobility) is a physical trait that can be trained and it is ESSENTIAL to the sport of weightlifting. You simply must have full range of motion of your ankles and knees to squat to depth. You must have full range of motion in our shoulders, elbows and wrists to support and receive the bar safely in the clean or snatch. One of our favorite methods for flexibility and mobility training is the physical practice of yoga. Yoga asana (the poses) develops flexibility, balance, coordination and to some extent strength. If you don't believe me, take a look at Dmitry Klokov's warm-up in the video below. You will recognize the plow (halasana), seated forward bend (paschimottanasana), wide-angle seated forward bend (upavistha konasana), and the squat (malasana). Klokov is a Russian Olympic weightlifter who won Silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His flexibility is so good he can do the splits. So, tell me again why you don't want to lift weights because it will make you inflexible. 30 Days of Ways to Reduce WasteYou might recall that I started using a Commit30 journal this year as part of my 2023 goal to be more organized. What I love about this journal is that it makes space to commit to a new habit each month (thus the name, Commit30.) Each month since January, I have been sharing a new 30 day check-list or challenge (if you're into that kind of thing) so that you can join me on my healthy habits journey. January we set SMART goals and intentions for the new year. February we committed to 30 days of showing your love and gratitude. March we completed 30 days of spring cleaning. This month we are celebrate Earth Day on April 22. To help us reduce, reuse and recycle I am sharing a 30 day checklist to reduce waste. Click on the link below to download a free checklist to help us all live a litter easier on our planet.
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