Cooling Glove that is More Effective that Steroids?
I’ve said time and time again, that we are entering a new era of fitness and health technology that should bring in unheralded results and achievement. I came across this article in the SF Chronicle written by Julian Guthrie, a staff writer about a new cooling device that is bringing about some very interesting results. In summary this cooling glove has it’s roots in medical treatments but it was quickly found to help high performance athletes in very dramatic ways. Essentially:
The Glove works by cooling the body from inside out, rather than conventional approaches that cool from outside in. The device creates an airtight seal around the wrist, pulls blood into the palm of the hand and cools it before returning it to the heart and to overheated muscles and organs. The palm is the ideal place for rapid cooling because blood flow increases to the hands (and feet and face) as body temperature rises.
“These are natural mammalian radiators,” said Dennis Grahn, who invented the device with Stanford colleague Craig Heller.
Grahn and Heller also found that cooling overheated muscles dramatically improved physical performance, allowing athletes to work out harder and longer, and hold on to their gains.
“We learned that you can actually reverse that muscle fatigue in a short amount of time,” Heller said. “And if you cool muscles during rest, you get a much greater recovery than if you rested without cooling.”
San Francisco 49er Marcus Hudson uses the Glove on the sidelines Sunday at Candlestick Park.
The device was so promising that a number of the Standford football players started using it and eventually it was adopted by some NFL teams for use during training and games. Supposedly, an assistant named Vinh Cao who regularly would do pull ups as part of a normal fitness routine was able to increase the number of pull ups from 100 to 616!
Very exciting, the technology is being developed by a company called Avacore and since this article was last published, the military was looking to develop applications to help fight heat exhausting…a very real danger for troops operating in hot climates.
Definitely an exciting application to watch as we continue to finds ways to push the envelope of athletic achievement.
My First Yoga Experience
After years of perching on my personal wish list of cool things to try out – I finally was fortunate enough to try yoga this weekend. The experience prompted me to do a little research into the history of this fairly recent national fitness phenomenon.
Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India.[1] The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.[2][3][4] In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices.[5][6] In Jainism it refers to the sum total of all activities—mental, verbal and physical.
Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga.[7][8][9] Raja Yoga, compiled in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and known simply as yoga in the context of Hindu philosophy, is part of the Samkhya tradition.[10] Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and variousTantras.
The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings,[11] and is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning “to control”, “to yoke” or “to unite”.[12] Translations include “joining”, “uniting”, “union”, “conjunction”, and “means”.[13][14][15] Outside India, the term yoga is typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas (postures) or as a form of exercise. Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy is called aYogi.[16]
(source Wikipedia)
My instructor was Sammi Nguyen from Stop Drop and Yoga in Boston, MA. The name of the class was power yoga and there is no sarcasm when I say there was a heavy emphasis on the power part. The class spanned about 90 minutes and under the guidance of Sammi maintained an extremely well choreographed structure with a warm up period, build up of difficulty, peak, and a denouement that culminated into the venerated ohm.
As a first timer, I found the class incredibly challenging. I’m a generally fit guy who’s workout regimen typically entails a weekly ritual of 2-3 runs and intermittent sessions with free weights. What I found with this yoga class is that it challenged me in ways I hadn’t seen in years.
First and foremost, the poses challenge your sense of balance. So many of the moves narrowed your center of gravity to the point where you had to exert extreme concentration to stay abreast. Simply put, the reason why these tests of balance are a great fitness challenge is that they require a heightened interplay of the muscles across your body. Case in point, when we were doing the reverse warrior pose, I felt it in my lower leg muscles even down to my toes. And I mean, I really felt it. As a runner with chronic shin splints, this seemingly awkward pose is a great way to help develop the strength you need around your shin and calves to help address this runner’s blight. I’m a big proponent of heavy lifting exercises to jump start metabolism, to build strength and skeletal alignment. But I do believe that the balancing challenge yoga presents is the perfect companion to really get those secondary muscles that are really tasked with keeping your joints limber and aligned.
Second thing I noticed was almost all of my previous sports injuries from the wrestling, martial arts, and rugby – decided to rear their ugly heads during the class. I have this one knee that loves to talk back to me especially on cold damp nights. I can tell you exactly when and how I injured myself but in my normal day activities I for the most part have been able to compensate to continue in my weekly workout routine. What’s interesting is that when we tried to do some of the more challenging poses, I hit my limitations in perfect tandem with my wicked sports past. My instructor was great at keeping a tab on this (talk about multi-tasking) and made suggestions during the class to help me accommodate a little extra rigidity from some old scar tissue. But I can definitely see why so many people profess the healing aspect of yoga. The stretching (make sure you are warm!) and slow motion really increases blood flow and draws circulation to those areas most in need, much more so than my normal workout would.
The power aspect of this class came from the heavy reliance on iso-kinetic excercise. I’m not a feather weight and many of the poses entailed hold positions that really focused on core development and shoulder strength. I was drenched in sweat and it wasn’t because of the class heat. I was truly working out. When I typed in how long I did the yoga in the Quick Entry tool on fivi.com, it is estimated that I burned almost 500 calories.
All in all, I have no doubt that I will be incorporating yoga as part of my normal physical and mental maintenance routine. I am especially thankful to Sammi for introducing me to this wonderful experience and would encourage anyone to try yoga from the most stalwart gym dungeon rat to the forever couch potato. I have years of improvement ahead of me to really get the benefits yoga can offer, but in just one class I can say I was able to see it’s worth.
Considerations in Using Caffeine While Exercising
Legend has it that we discovered the wonderful affects of Caffeine from our furry friends. Supposedly Ethiopian herders noticed that their livestock became “excitable” and very lively after eating of a few of these beans. When the herders tried eating the beans themselves, they felt more alert. The rest is all history. It was later introduced to Arabia and hit the European markets around the 16th Century. Since then, we have come to love and hate the venerable cup of coffee. Though caffeine comes in many forms (soda, nuts, chocolate, teas, and so much more)…the piping hot cup of java seems to be our most common form of intake.
The amount of scientific scrutiny, the little coffee bean has undergone is on the range of 19,000 – 21,000 different studies. Most FDA approved over the counter or prescription drugs we consume can’t boast even coming close. That being said, there is a fair body of knowledge on the effects of caffeine and yet it’s still pretty much debated. Recently, there has been some interesting findings on the substance and exercising/athletic competition.
The Original Energy Drink
How it Works
In simple terms, what caffeine does is it competes with another substance that is naturally made in our bodies. That substance is called “adenosine”. Adenosine is used by our bodies to help regulate sleep and when caffeine binds to the neurons instead, it basically makes our neurons fire more frequently. The pituitary gland picks this up and the chain reaction starts to kick in throughout the body:
- blood vessels constrict (increases blood pressure and flow)
- heart beats faster
- airways open (this is why caffeine is in asthma medicine)
- liver will start releasing more sugar into the blood stream
Essentially, you are engaging your “fight or flight” response in the body. So if you are a competitive athlete, you can imagine that this may give you an advantage and hence this is why the Olympic governing body does test for certain levels of caffeine in the olympians. But recent studies have also gleaned some interesting new findings related to caffeine and muscle exertion.
Caffeine While Exercising or Competing
In the article, “Caffeine Reduces Pain During Exercise“, University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl did some interesting research on the perception of pain during exercise and the influence caffeine had on athletes. A former competitive cyclist, Professor Motl knows about the psychological impact of pain and discomfort on a training program. In summary, his study was done with college age athletes who were given caffeine in the form of a pill prior to intensive aerobic activity. The group was divided up into low consumers of caffeine and high consumers of caffeine. What he wanted to find out was whether or not, a person tolerance for caffeine (as some of us seem to have high ones) impacts the perception of pain. Test subjects were tasked high intensity aerobic workouts and oxygen consumption and leg muscle discomfort taken at various intervals. Regardless of whether the subject was a habitual coffee drinker or a low consumer of caffeine, their perception of pain and muscular performance about the same. According to Motl, “We’ve shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics. But does that reduction in pain translate into an improvement in sport performance?”
Caffeine After Working Out
In another study, see article (Caffeine Cuts Post- Workout Pain by Nearly50 Percent) a team of University of Georgia researchers finds that moderate doses of caffeine, roughly equivalent to two cups of coffee, cut post-workout muscle pain by up to 48 percent in a small sample of volunteers. Their findings seemed to suggest that it was even more effective than even taking pain medication.
Key is Moderation and a Little Pain is Good
I am an avid coffee drinker and have been using a little cup of joe to get my workouts started for years. I can attest to the impact of pain relief from coffee. My personal nemesis is shin splints which I get if I have taken a hiatus from consistent running (usually happens during the cold winter months). But remember that all of these studies involve reasonable amounts of coffee on the order of a few cups throughout the day. A Venti will not give you Venti sized benefits before a workout. Also keep in mind that coffee is a diuretic which can cause dehydration and fatigue. Please also be very careful about the real dangers of over-hydration (especially runners). I like a little pain because it keeps me honest and signals to me if I’m doing anything wrong. It’s how your body tells you things can be improved. Also don’t drink so much coffee you start to experience anxiety during workouts. Intense exercise creates its own high from adrenaline (see Trying Out Runner’s High), the amount you drink should be just to get you past that warm up phase. You should feel full of energy when working out but relaxed. I am encouraged by these recent studies but I would argue that weekend warriors still heed their body’s signals. Test subjects in these experiments are often already in good shape or competitive athletes. I would not recommend throwing back a latte and trying for a marathon if you have been couch potatoe for 10 years. In that case, it won’t be the coffee that kills you – it may be the couch.
Keep a Journal like Fit Blogs on FiVi.com
Use coffee to give you that little boost and make sure to log or keep a journal of what works best for you. I always suggest to people who use our site to use the Fit Blog section of their profiles not simply as a place to write random thoughts but also as a way to keep an online journal that can be shared with friends. Note down the various variables as you try a new routine. In the spirit of this article, enter how much coffee you drank and how much time passed before your workout. I would also note pain during and post workout. Try alternating between Tea and Coffee. Eventually, you will discover the right mix for you. If you have a coach or personal trainer, you can share your Fit Blog with them and they can make suggestions or enter comments directly on your entries. Be creative and find what the right combination is for you.
Here are some other blog posts on the topic:
http://absandflabs.com/2009/05/28/effects-of-caffeine-on-the-body/
http://benkazie.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/coffee-not-quite-a-health-food-but-better-than-you-think/
http://thedailyhabit.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/what-about-caffeine-after-exercise/
FiVi.com launches new Quick Entry Logging Tool for Tracking Workouts and Activities
FiVi.com just launched the latest logging application in its line of tools for active people and athletes who want to track their active lifestyle. The Quick Entry tool is a welcome compliment to the existing FiVi Maps application (see How Create a FiVi Route and Logging an Activity on FiVi Maps) by allowing people to track their involvement in the widest range of activities. The tool is free and does not require a profile on FiVi.com to try. It is available on the homepage in the lower left hand corner, just click on the link “log an activity” under FiVi Quick Log Tool. Types of activities available include but are not limited to:
- Conditioning
- Yoga
- Calesthenics
- Cardio Machines (e.g. treadmills)
- Weight / Resistance Training
- Various Classes (e.g. bootcamps)
- Dancing
- Various Sports
- Hiking
- Water Activities
- Walking
(see a Quick Visual Guide on Using Quick Entry)
The Quick Entry tool has built in logic to determine the right input parameters for each logged activity or exercise depending on the activity type. Users can now track their workouts from start to finish in one journal entry online at fivi.com. The Quick Entry tool can track activities that are:
(examples of tracking capabilities)
- soley a function of time (e.g. stretching)
- time and distance (running, cycling, swimming)
- reps and weight (lifting weights or doing pull ups)
select from a growing list of activity types
each type of activity has a suggested set of activities or exercises
The Quick Entry tool even has optional fields like resting period to allow users to keep track of the time interval between sets.
If an exercise is not available in the drop down menu, the user can still log the activity or exercise by just manually typing it in and selecting the most similar exercise from a suggested list. This allows the user to track any time of physical activity and the system will still generate an estimate caloric expenditure.
if an activity or exercise is not available still log it and select the most similar
The versatility of the tool allows people of all levels to begin tracking their workouts for free with real analytics. Some suggested users:
- body builders
- personal trainers trying to calculate optimal workouts for clients
- cross trainers (e.g. CrossFit)
- dance instructors who want to position dance classes for fitness
- yoga instructors
- athletes who want to log interval training
- runners who want to track gym workouts when they cannot workout outside
- coaches
The tool is free and does not require a profile on FiVi.com to try. It is available on the homepage in the lower left hand corner, just click on the link “log an activity” under FiVi Quick Log Tool. Do please keep in mind that this tool is still beta and that we would greatly appreciate feedback and also any bug reports. We will be making a lot of enhancements in the coming months so user input is very important.
Cheat Sheet for Shin Splints (in Layman’s English)
Shin splints are the bane of so many a runner’s (or any athlete that runs) existence. It’s one of those nagging injuries that will not force you to stop right away but if left untreated can get serious and not to mention is a very popular excuse for so many of us not to workout or be active. There are some serious names out there that most of us would not recognize like periostitus and medial tibial stress syndrome but basically shin splints is the term all of us have come to be the most familiar with.
Courtesy of Mayo Clinic
What are Shin Splints?
Basically, shin splints is an inflammation of the tissue between the muscle that runs down the front of your shin (also called the tibia). It can hurt in a number of different places but usually the pain is in the area between your ankle and below your knee. The pain can be acute and sharp like to the touch or each time you step. It can also be dull and continuous during the workout and after the workout. There can be in some extreme cases mild swelling on the inner most side of the shin as well redness (but not always evident).
What Causes Shin Splints?
Unfortunately, shin splints can be brought on by a number of different things. Fortunately, almost all of them are pretty straightforward to fix and can be done with some proper self adjustment in how you do things. I won’t claim to list everything but I will try and list the most common ones.
- sudden increase in training or working out – this means that all of sudden you drastically do more running or a higher intensity workout. Do you just increase your distance? Try interval training for the first time? Slack off during the winter and punish yourself out of guilt during the spring? All are examples of a sudden spike.
- poor running form – running is a very complicated thing as we talk about in Running 101 and it’s important we pay very special attention to our form and how it pertains to our bio mechanics. There are some tips on how to figure out what your tendencies are when it comes to running in the article Mythbusters: Is Running Really Bad for your Knees. Just remember that you can start subconsciously altering how you run to accommodate a slight pain and this can aggravate the problem.
- running on a hard surface – pavement is no joke and it has no give. Simply put, that translates into impact. Without getting into physics that a lot of force each time you hit the ground and with each strike of the ground, you are pulling the muscle off the bone and that puts stress on your connective tissue.
- old or bad shoes – it cannot be overstated the importance of a good pair of running shoes designed for the type of running you do and for how you run. Finding a good pair of shoes is a process and if you don’t know what suits you – go to your local running store or work with a coach (a lot of running clubs have them on a part time basis). Logging them is a good idea. We built a shoe tracker to log mileage on www.fivi.com just for that. Replacement schedules for sneakers should be anywhere between 300-500 miles.
- weak or unbalanced muscle conditioning – muscles do more than just make your frame move and do things, they also keep you aligned and the original blueprint for how we were built called for some pretty tight specs things like flexibility, tension, strength, etc. We have muscles in the front of the shin and we have calf muscles (there’s more but for the most part, those are the easy ones to recognize) – now these muscle groups work together. If there is any kind of imbalance between the major muscles, that also can bring on shin splints.
- being overweight – a few pounds extra, never mind the 10-20% a lot of us carry can also bring on shin splints. Namely because the excess weight will throw off your running as well as increase the impact factor (even worse on hard surfaces).
What’s the Impact of Shin Splints?
The impact can range from mildly annoying to pretty serious (on the order of surgery). But the major ways it can affect you are as follows:
- ruin a good workout and make it unenjoyable
- delay your schedule in preparation for a very important
- force you to run in a sub-optimal way that will throw off bio-mechanics and create an injury somewhere else (like your knees or your back)
- shin splints can turn into a very real problem the most severe being an actual stress fracture of the Tibia (or shin bone). Yes, let them get bad enough and you can cause a break in the bone!
What to Do About Shin Splints?
First and foremost, DO NOT IGNORE THEM. Be reasonable with your body. Think about what may have brought on your shin splints and try and rectify the situation. When was the last time you replaced your shoes? How are you running? Does it feel right? Where are you running? Did you warm up properly? Did you change your training? Did you increase your distance? It is your body and it is your responsibility to take good care of it. Think about your habits and what it can be. Keeping a log is one of the best ways to figure these out. That’s why we put the Fit Blog right on your profile in www.fivi.com. Try something new or change up and enter it into your fit blog. Log your mileage and see if the problem gets better or worse when you change your routine. It’s like an online journal you can access from anywhere and you don’t have to worry about losing it.
Some suggestions to remedy the problem:
- first thing is take some time off – usually on the order of 2-4 weeks. You can do other cardio workouts (swim, stationary bike, etc) in the meantime.
- icing the sore shins and taking some ibuprofen to reduce swelling
- taping the shins is an option (it keeps connective tissue in place to counter the impact of the foot striking the ground)
- trying warming up slowly first (brisk walking) and then do a thorough but gentle stretch before and after the workout
- lose a little weight
- try incorporating some lower body strength training (this means light squats, calf raises, and what I call toe curls where you sit down and pull an exercise band in with your toes to flex that shin muscle)
- if the problem does not get better and definitely if the pain gets worse, go see a specialist. There is no glory in causing damage!
Here is some additional information on shin splints:
