A friend on Facebook was fretting about this article in men’s fitness about what happens to your body in two weeks with no exercise.

The thing is, fitness isn’t all one thing.

Strength takes awhile to decline. But running fitness? That’s sad.

I remember once when a professor from Kinesiology came to speak to my group at the Running Room. It wasn’t particularly motivational. He was talking about fitness declines. Running is the worst, he said, for how fast you lose speed and endurance. He was also a runner but even he agreed that training for strength is better in terms of staying with you.

Ditto the person interviewed for men’s fitness.

Here is exercise physiologist and coach Scott Weiss,

“Aerobic and endurance fitness reduce a lot faster than muscle mass—it’s the performance factor that is reduced the fastest,” says Weiss. Physiologically, the changes are stark, too. Weiss says: Stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped out of the heart to the body) reduces, the size of mitochondria (the power plants within a cell, linked to fitness health) reduce by almost 50 percent, heart rate increases, cardiac output reduces, and your VO2 max—or the maximum volume of oxygen an athlete can use (a gold standard of physical fitness) decreases about one percent a day. Another setback: Your lactate threshold—or how hard and long you can work out until your muscles tell you to stop—begins to drop, says Holland. (This stinks because working out at or close to your lactate threshold is a great way to build fitness; if yours is low you won’t last very long, and thus you’ll reap fewer benefits from a gym session.) “You begin to lose endurance capability as well as the ability to perform at higher intensities,” adds Holland.

But, but, but…

Who needs to be at their speed peak in January? Is anyone racing in January? If you are, then maybe don’t take two weeks off. But most of us aren’t.

Also, yes you lose fitness but it’s a process, a journey and peaks and troughs are all part of it. It’s not up up up, fitter and faster, all of the time.

It’s also about having a well balanced life. For me that includes festive meals, time with family and friends, church on Christmas Eve, snuggling on the sofa watching The Hogfather, hot tub time, presents, cookies, new books to read in bed, playing cards and new board games.

Also, dog hikes in the snow but maybe not this year with my injured knee.

Anyway, anyway, enjoy! Life is short. Yes, stay fit but don’t let that goal suck the fun and the meaning out of the rest of your life.

How about you? Do you worry about losing fitness over the holidays?

Scenes from my favorite Christmas movie

So yesterday on Facebook friends were complaining about “broga.” What’s broga, you ask. Yoga for dudes, of course. And yes, it’s a thing. See here and here. Judging by all the commentary it’s been around for awhile but looks like it’s a recent arrival in Ontario. We’re a bit behind the times. We have lots of yoga with goats but not so much yoga with dudes.

Why broga? To persuade men of the benefits of yoga. Because they’re scared away from regular old non-gendered yoga because of its association with all things feminine.

There’s even Broga ™. On their website there are men saying that they’ve done regular yoga but broga is better, in a class all of its own.

From Why You Should Get Your Guy Into Yoga:

When is the last time you saw a guy in your yoga class?  Yoga is one of the fastest growing fitness trends, with nearly 20 million students practicing in the United States. But 85 percent of those yogis are women. So why don”t men take yoga?

According to the founders of Broga, the industry has failed to develop classes that take into account male physiology and social conditioning. They developed a program that combines core work, muscle strengthening exercises, cardio, and stress-reducing yoga postures geared specifically for men.

Am I wrong in thinking that in addition to needlessly gendering physical activity, this is also just a little bit racist? It’s like there’ve been no men in the history of yoga. I guess Indian men don’t count as bros? They’re not buff enough?

Ridiculous, yes.

Almost as much so as “broetry.”

What’s your take on broga?

 

 

 

 

 

The following story keeps appearing in my newsfeed: Your yoga pants are destroying the planet. 

Every time you wash your yoga pants, gym clothes or any other garment made from synthetic material, you’re shedding microscopic plastic fibers — called “microfibers” into natural waterways, which eventually make their way to the ocean.

University of Florida researchers are now discovering that more than 80 percent of the the micro-plastics found in the ocean are actually micro-fibers from synthetic clothing:

Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the researchers launched a two-year study earlier this year to discover the source of the micro-plastic pollution accumulating in the Gulf of Mexico.

When they set out they expected to find mostly micro-beads, tiny brightly-colored plastic balls found in body washes, face scrubs and other bath products, until the U.S. Government banned them in 2015, because they were harming fish and other sea life.

Instead, they found the majority of the pollution, 82%, is originating from our closets — stretchy yoga clothes, sweat-wicking athletic wear and synthetic jackets.

Now this is bad. It’s awful. We’re killing the planet. I teach a course on Fashion so the clothes link is no big surprise. Fashion is pretty high on the list on polluting industries, equal to livestock. We watch the movie True Cost in my class and it shocks my students.

Still, there was something about the yoga pants story that was bugging me. I couldn’t put my finger on it until a friend on the internet shared it with this comment: “Wow, that’s horrifying. It’s also depressing, though, that the headline and the article repeatedly go on about yoga pants in particular when, as it also says, the problem is simply “anything that’s nylon or polyester.” It has literally nothing specifically to do with yoga pants. Someone would have to own an impossibly massive yoga pant collection to be a bigger problem than me, with my hockey stuff, cycling clothes, gym clothes, thermal fleeces, etc. It’s kinda gross how concerns about plastic pollution still have to be wrapped up in a handy single reason to both use a hottie pic as the cover shot and have a central theme that shames women for their pretensions to fitness and activity.”

Right? Right! Why pick on yoga pants? The story combines environmental concern with mocking women for fitness pursuits and uses a photo of a conventionally attractive woman doing yoga on the beach.

Also, how shocking is this?

Another friend chimed in: “Yes, and you’d also think they wouldn’t write in such a “plastic turns out to be plastic!” tone. No, I would NOT think that spandex and lycra clothing would be made of recycled organic etc. The credulity makes my eyeballs itch.”

I’m no great fan of yoga pants. See Just walk slowly away from that rack of $100 yoga pants. 

But picking on yoga pants and leaving out all the other sports gear strikes me as picking on women in particular when the point is a general one about synthetic fibers.

 

It’s been three years since I’ve blogged about names for badly behaved body parts. You know, muffin tops, dinner plate arms, and cankles.

I just hate it.

Some poor innocent body part that has hitherto escaped public and private scrutiny now discovers that there are standards and its lacking.

Ugh.

What are violin hips? Do you really want to know?

There’s articles about how to recognize them, articles about how to get rid of them, and now articles about reclaiming them in a body positive fashion. I feel old and lucky not even knowing what they are.

Here’s the positive:

“A bunch of body-positive Instagrammers love their “hipdips,” and they want you to love yours, too (if you have them). “Hipdips” or “violin hips” are indentations where your hips meet your thighs. … But no matter what they look like, your hip dips—or violin hips or whatever you want to call them—are totally normal.”

Jun 22, 2017, see more in Self

Last week we were all laughing on Facebook because we couldn’t figure out arm vaginas. Like what they were and whether they were good or bad.

There in various comment threads were very smart women and some men looking at photos of arm pits trying to recognize arm pit vagina and failing.

And in the end I think we all felt a bit silly but also like it didn’t matter at all.

I’m thinking this is one of the advantages of being in midlife. I’m not up on the cool lingo. That’s true. I had to ask my son today what “hundo p” meant. (One hundred percent, obviously.)

But the upside is that I’m no longer in the loop about badly behaved body parts. That suits me just fine.

I confess that is occasionally tempted to try and create one. Write a post about it. “Worried about potato knees?” But that would be cruel if it worked so I won’t.

I was feeling down about my knee and all the not-moving I’ve been doing. Also, pain is hard. So sitting on the sofa, icing my knee, I picked up my phone and posted to Facebook and complained about it. Two other friends, it turned out, have similar knee issues.

Later, I posted again: “Two different friends are going through similar knee things. I don’t know whether this makes me feel better or worse. I’m getting old but not I’m alone? Sigh.”

Turns out that two was a radical underestimate. More than a dozen friends chimed in about their experiences with injuries, chronic conditions, physiotherapy, and rehab. Thanks friends! I guess. Sorry you’re in my shoes. We had a great discussion and I felt better after. I asked people who wanted to share their thoughts in a group blog post the following questions: What’s one lesson you’ve learned? One piece of advice you’d give others?

Alexis: “I love this! I would say that the main thing I’ve learned from repeated injuries is that our bodies are sites for care – being injured really illuminates for me how many people around me are living in a lot of physical pain, all the time, and that makes me amazed at how kind, competent, and generous they are even under that kind of pressure. So it’s cheesy, but having injuries has helped me think about extending care to myself and others as a more general way to be in the world. Some injuries heal, but some don’t, and we can’t tell which ones will or how they’ll transform, so adopting an attitude of patience and a practice of not-despairing-yet is good.” (Regular injuries include dislocated sacro-iliac joint from deadlifting too heavy while too tired, IT-band pain when running in non-minimalist shoes, and Achilles tendon pain when running to far in minimalist shoes. Teacher, functional potter, meditator.)

Sandi: “During the off season, I lift weights but don’t do anything else. I’m hoping my lack of yoga and stretching is my problem, and not my age. I was cleaning out my closet and trying on jeans when I tweaked my knee. I’m making assumptions that its just patellofemoral pain so have been rolling my quadriceps. I’m thinking yoga might have to be the next step.” (Sandi is an IT consultant who spends too much time sitting at a desk and Highland Games athlete in her off hours.)

Dani: “I’ve been thinking a lot about your blog idea about injuries and joint issues. I think injury recovery has a bit of privilege involved in it. Not only does there need to be financial privilege of having benefits or the ability to pay for treatment but also the privilege of having time to recover from the injury or joint issue. I routinely have injuries and or joint issues but because of what I do I don’t have the ability to take the time to heal. I’ve stopped going to the doctors for injuries because they’ll tell me to rest, but I have 12+ horses that rely on me for daily care…so I rely on Tommy Copper clothes, Alleve and topical treatments…oh and Dr.Ho.” (Dani is a horsewoman who puts her horses health above her own.)

Alison R: ” “Let it rest” is almost as hard as “do this painful physical therapy.” I have had to do both in my life. But whenever a piece of us is broken, I find it helpful to remember–and to use!–the pieces that are not. Knee or ankle injury? Keep doing upper body and core, or sitting leg lifts. Shoulder or elbow injury? You might have to give up running, but walking and leg day and core are still options. I don’t say this because I am obsessed with exercise. I say this because it feels bad, when one is injured and active but told to let the injury rest, to not be active. Ask your doc or PT if it will impair healing to exercise in other ways with the rest of your body. And it feels bad, when one is generally active, to do painful PT. So finding non-painful ways of still enjoying your body and being active can really help make it through the bad bits. “Let it rest” and “do this painful PT” can be miserable enough. Those of us who enjoy moving can still find ways to do it even with injury, with input from the medical professionals who are helping us out.” (Alison is a hiker, recovering soccer player, occasional runner, and person who enjoys lifting heavy things.)

Sarah R: “I’m a 45 year active female too young for knee replacement, but want my activity level back. One lesson I’ve learned about rehab after injury is that you need to be patient; most times recovery is slow and painful. But if you do what the professionals say you will get back to your activities. Some advice is to always stay flexible and to add variety to your activities to keep all ligaments, muscle groups strong in the joint.”

Ruth: “If you do anything that involves sprinting (football, basketball, soccer, actual sprinting) you will eventually pull a hamstring. I’ve been sprinting for my whole life, so I’m pretty lucky that this has only happened a couple of times. Mostly what I have learned is that unless something is broken, most of the time you have to heal on your own. The ER can’t really do anything for even a bad sprain, so you have to ice it, rest it, and take post-surgical doses of ibuprofen (even though I have never had surgery in my life, unless you count a colonoscopy). You can almost always do *something* when you have an injury. So I took a couple of days off and then started with walking on the treadmill. By day 4 I was back at kettlebells with modifications. I need 5-6 workouts a week to feel normal, so my main goal was *don’t break the chain*. Keep moving. Even with a bad hamstring pull, you can do planks, ski-erg, pull-ups and chin-ups, bench press. If you talk yourself into thinking there is only *one* sport for you, you will be in a lot of trouble. If it isn’t an acute injury, you will eventually get an overuse injury, so be prepared to change it up.” (I am a philosopher, tree farmer, and lifelong runner. I like team sports but not contact sports, so other than running, I’ve played squash and tennis. Lately I run, snowshoe run, row (on water and the erg) and do kettlebells. I would like to hike all of the 4,000 footers in the White Mountains.)

Lori: “Lesson learned from a bad hamstring injury a couple of years ago: take rest seriously, and don’t identify too closely with one sport or activity; fitness is about being flexible to give your body exercise in ways that work. I took up swimming and took a break from running when I had the above injury, and it was great–grew to love swimming.” (Lori is a runner who is aspiring to do more yoga, who loves activity that is outdoors and challenges her in a variety of ways: balance, strength, agility. Movement makes her happy.)

Vanessa: “Well, this is a re-injury. I had surgery 10 years ago. I’m not sure what I could have done to avoid it the first time other than “don’t fall skiing” and the second time as “don’t slip on an elementary school gymnasium during indoor ultimate frisbee. But I suppose corresponding lessons would be make sure the release pressure on your skiis properly corresponds to your weight (I had lost some weight at the time I went skiing and it didn’t pop off as it was supposed to) and for the gymnasium, wear running shoes with good traction?” (Vanessa is a newly thirty writer/editor who categorizes herself as a cyclist, traveller, and plant-based foodie.)

Susie: “I took up swimming after blowing out my right knee 4 years ago. Tore the meniscus while reaching up to put a box on a shelf. No one had ever told me I needed to maintain my knees. Decided to forgo surgery in favour of physiotherapy. The physio told me to get in the pool and drag my bad leg along until it was able to move. Joined a masters’ swim club, and the knee continues to improve. Which is great, because I really hated not going skijoring in the winter with the dogs, and hiking in the summer. Advice: non-weight bearing exercise is your friend, to help rebuild the knee.” (Hobbies: Sailing in the summer, skijoring in the winter, and swimming all year round. I love my Bob, my boys and my border collies.)

Jennifer: “What I am learning is how random the incidents seem to be that cause knee issues for so many! Dancing furiously? Chasing a lover around the bed? Going down a mountain too quickly after hiking up? Check, check and check. Random! Then a huge learning curve to figure out what to do. As a 50-something who suffers from gravity’s inexorable push, I am beginning to think knee probs are a rite of passage for the fifth decade or so.” (Jenn is an old-school community reporter learning new fangled ways in stunning, Chilliwack B.C. and dreaming of one day climbing its highest peaks. But not with these knees.)

Jody: ‘My knee injury is a result of osteoarthritis worsening over years of physical labour and finally a yoga move without direction. What I have learned is you can come back from an injury even after years of no treatment and the advice I’d share is to accept where you’re at and be patient with yourself.” (Aspiring writer of random thoughts, star gazer, mother, and somebody’s grandmother. A woman warrior of many a challenge and misadventure who refuses to give in.)

What’s your injury/rehab story?

What’s one lesson you’ve learned? One piece of advice you’d give others?

Add your voices below!

I’m a morning person aiming to be an even more extreme morning person. I blogged about it here.

Currently I wake up at 6 pretty much without an alarm. While 4:30 is too early, and The Rock’s 4:00 seems impossible, I’m going to try for 5 am this week.

From The Verge:

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gets up at 4AM pretty much daily, while the rest of us mere mortals are still fast asleep and probably drooling. The hugely successful pro wrestler and Hollywood star has said that such an early wake-up call has a lot to do with his soaring career trajectory, and now The Rock wants to help wake up in the morning. He’ll even sing to you. Today Johnson announced The Rock Clock, an alarm clock app for smartphones that’s available on both Apple and Android. It’s free, and there aren’t any in-app purchases hiding anywhere. The Rock Clock, says Dwayne, is all about setting your goals and waking up early enough each day to tackle them. And to get it out of the way, there’s no such thing as the snooze button. Do you think someone like The Rock hits that thing multiple times every morning?

Why? The goal is to finish some writing projects before I start my big new job at Guelph in January. Also, morning exercise.

Sarah even sent me a link to The Rock’s new motivational alarm clock.

“Good morning sunshine. Yeah, that’s what the Rock just said. Open your eyes up! Get your candy a– out of bed.”

Here’s one person’s report of trying the alarm for the week. I’ll report back too.

That’s my poor sad injured knee. See here for details.

Ouch!

Also, boo hoo.

Usually at this time of year, I start to get serious about fitness. Remember december is the new january in which I talk about the end of my fitness break? I tend to take time off at the end of the cycling season and then start up again in November/December. Not this year!

While I am still lifting weights, going to physio, and lightly spinning, there’s no big fitness-y thing going on for me over the holidays other than healing my knee. This really matters to me because I want to start my new job and find a place to workout there and not worry so much about nursing knee injuries.

But I confess what I am really missing in my Holiday Running Streak. I’d kind of grown attached to the thing. I’m fishing around for some other daily thing I can do. It can’t be anything that involves legs/knees. Not planks. Suggestions welcome!

See past posts:

My holiday run streak complete!

We’re streaking! Join us?

I might try streaking

Sam ran every day for a week and guess how she feels?

I also really like the Matt Frazier’s (he’s the No Meat Athlete) 50 Lessons from a Running Streak.

As readers know thanks to a knee injury, I’m taking it easy. Really easy. Easier than ever before. I’m coping. But just barely.

I’m on doctor’s orders to keep walking to a minimum, stay away from stairs, and to ice my knee 3 or 4 times a day. I’m also doing lots of rehab exercises and spinning on the bike for 10 minutes with no resistance twice a day.

Luckily there were social things to keep me happy. Sunday morning Sarah and I met up with Tracy after her run. Sunday night it was Sarah’s birthday celebration.

 

And in the middle we went to the Y. Nothing serious, just spinning and weights and abs.

It’s not a bad time for an enforced rest. It’s miserable outside. There’s no snow yet. It’s just grey and dark and rainy. My focus is on healing my knee.

I’ve been chatting with the physio guys about how athletes are better than regular citizens at keeping up with physio and sticking to the drill. Partly I think they/we view it as part of athletic training. Injuries are part of life and physio is part of getting better. Also, there’s free time in your schedule where you used to be working out so there’s definitely time for physio. Then there’s the focus on the end result, getting back to your sport. I’m channeling my inner athlete and working hard to get back up it.

Wish me luck.

See past posts:

Knee pain, I hate you, but look, there’s our book, Sept 2017

Thinking about knees and aging July 2017

Injured but not out, April 2014

On not having the bee’s knees and saying goodbye to soccer, November 2014