Are Sports The Best Form Of Exercise?

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Definitions (according to Dictionary.com):

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• Sport:  an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling,boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

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• Exercise:  bodily or mental exertion, especially for the sake of training or improvement of health

Take-aways:

1) Exercise is about health; sport is about competition.

2) Sport has prerequisites of skill and/or physical prowess; exercise requires some level of exertion, anywhere from nearly non-existent to maximal.

Questions:

1) Can participation in sports lead to reaching your exercise-related goals?

2) Can participation in exercise lead to reaching your sport-related goals?

3) Can sports be manipulated in order to ensure that the demands of the activity do not surpass your structural and neuromuscular abilities?  Can exercise?

4) If fat loss is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

5) If long-term health is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

6) If life-long participation in physical activity is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

Answers (my opinions):

1) Perhaps, but it is usually done in a higher-risk manner that may or may not exceed your structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  Rarely are people moving at a slow and controlled speed during sports, and this absence of control lends itself to a greater likelihood of certain consequences, particularly acute and chronic injury.

2) Perhaps, depending on what you do and how you do it.  I would argue that there is a greater likelihood of reaching your sport-related goals through exercise than the other way around, but I don't have any data to back this claim.  Even finding injury rates in sports vs. exercise proves difficult for me in part because I'm below average at finding relevant information through search engines and also in part because most articles do not differentiate between sports, whether recreational or competitive, and exercise.

3) Manipulating sports to your needs and abilities is fairly difficult due to the inherent rules of sports, however, exercise is easily manipulable as long as you or someone you are consulting regarding exercise knows what you/they are doing.

4) Really, this answer will cover questions 4-6.  There are a ton of factors involved in determining the outcomes to these questions, so a truly accurate answer is not feasible in a blog post format.  However, one thing to consider is that participation in sports is an enjoyable experience for some people and if that experience keeps them coming back and wanting to participate, then these goals may be reached.

At the same time, understand that sports have an inherently higher risk associated with them due to their competitive nature as well as the established rules that go with them, so if taking that risk leads to acute or chronic injury, achieving the aforementioned goals becomes exponentially more difficult.

Final Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoy participating in sports, but if that were my only form of exercise, my body would be a wreck at the age of 24.  If you like participating in sports, awesome, but I would strongly encourage you to at least consider the idea of having part, if not most, of your exercise be in the form activities that are well within your structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  Constantly pushing these limits through participation in sports is putting yourself in high-risk situations time and again.  If you are going to do that, you have to make sure your body is prepared for it.

So, are sports the best form of exercise?  I cannot say for certain, and quite frankly I think it is an irrelevant question.  I think a better question would be, "Are sports an appropriate form of exercise?".  Once again, I cannot answer this with complete certainty, but for most people I would lean towards no.  And yet, for a lot of people, it seems sports are their exercise of choice.

Just some food for thought.  And now it's time for me to make some food for stomach.

Questions:  Do you participate in sports, competitively or recreationally?  If yes, how often do you train to prepare your body for those sports?  If no, why not?

Your body.  Your training.

Want to use this arti­cle in your blog, newslet­ter, or other plat­form?  You can, but be sure to include all of the bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion found in the yel­low box below!

Metabolic Typing: A Brief Introduction

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If you have ever wondered why one particular fad diet works great for some people while making others feel miserable, metabolic typing may be the answer.

Metabolic typing is a means by which to make nutritional recommendations based off of an individual's biochemistry. Through a self-prescribed quiz, which requires you to describe how you feel after you eat certain foods, in addition to other how your body tolerates other environmental factors, individuals are categorized into one of three types:  Protein Type, Carbohydrate Type, or Mixed Type.

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There are different version of the quiz, ranging from just a handful of questions to upwards of 65.  A 50-question online version can be found here.  The beauty of this one is it makes dietary recommendations immediately after you finish the quiz.  A 65-question pdf version can be found here.  This is the same test that is found in the book, "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Wolcott.  In order to find dietary recommendations, though, you will need to purchase the book, take the online quiz, or contact a certified metabolic typing practitioner.  For the latter quiz, you tally up how many A's, B's, and C's you had.  If your total number of A's was 5 or more higher than both the B's and C's, you are considered a Carbohydrate Type.  Likewise, if your total number of C's was 5 or more higher than both the A's and B's, you are considered a Protein Type.  Finally, if B was your predominant answer or if you did not have a letter that netted 5 or more answers than the other two, you are considered a Mixed Type.

While these two quizzes offer the basics of metabolic typing, the book describes that there are more categories an individual can fall into than just the three listed.  A trained practitioner will be able to detect which subsystem of the autonomic nervous system is dominant in an individual as well as the rate as which they oxidize macronutrients.  This will, in turn, alter both the specific dietary recommendations in addition to the exact percentages of each macronutrient the individual should consume throughout the day.  Additionally, the book offers sample menus, foods to avoid for your type, and even touches on subjects such as circadian rhythm and blood type.

In short, the theory behind metaboic typing is that our ancestors had to survive on only the foods that were found in their habitat, which would differ as you moved from one geographical location to the next.  An example given in the book is a comparison between the Eskimos and the Mayan Indians.  While Eskimos would eat a diet that was mostly fat and protein, the Mayan Indians would eat most carbohydrates.  Both groups, however, had immense health as a population, despite their drastically different diets.  Both groups were able to efficiently metabolize the food that was found in their respective environments, which allowed for an abundance of well-being.

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Calories are not even part of the picture with metabolic typing.  Because you are eating a diet that is right for your body, you will be able to actually utilize the food you eat for energy instead of storing it as fat.  You will also not have to worry about over-eating because you will eating foods that are satiating you and satisfying your body's nutritional needs.  Likewise, if you are trying to bulk up or build muscle, your body will finally have the nutritional means to do so because its needs are being met.

A critical point that is brought up by the book is that your metabolic type is not set in stone.  In fact, it will likely shift based on the internal environment that is created within you, so it is important to retake the quiz every few months to see if you are still eating appropriately.

Personally, I function very well on a high-fat, high-protein diet.  When I eat bread, pizza, pasta, or anything along those lines, I feel incredibly lethargic and it skyrockets my blood glucose level.  Even sweeter fruits such as berries and pineapple mess me up.  Give me some bacon, butter, beef, and cheese, however, and I am a very happy camper.

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If you are sick feeling lousy after you eat, of one-size-fits-all dietary recommendations, or of not getting the results you desire from your diets, I would highly suggest giving metabolic typing a shot.  Metabolic typing is not your traditional diet.  It is a way of eating for life.

**Additional resources for metabolic typing:

Underground Wellness Podcasts (1/13/09 and 9/30/09)

Your Body.  Your Training.

Charlie Cates, MATs, CSCS

Self Made_®, Owner and Founder

Charlie Cates is a Muscle Activation Techniques™ specialist and a certified strength and conditioning specialist.  He is the owner and founder of Self Made_® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL.  He has worked with competitive athletes and everyday people of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s to 85-year-old retirees.  He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

This article may be reproduced with biographical information intact.

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John Berardi's Great Fasting Experiment

Interested in intermittent fasting (IF)? Check out this article by John Berardi to get a recap of his experience with it.

John Berardi's Great Fasting Experiment by John Berardi

Get big or die tryin'.

The Interval Training Myth

Interval training is all the rage today when it comes to fat loss. High-intensity interval training, in particular, has become such a buzzword among fitness addicts and gurus that the actual exercise prescription is a very, very far cry from the original intent of the training means. Between boot camps, group-ex classes, and cardio equipment all claiming to provide “interval training for fat loss”, a very effective training style is being twisted into another fad of the fitness industry.

Interval training is a training method used by competitive and everyday athletes to both burn fat and improve cardiovascular function. The idea is that you have a working period of intense, all-out movement followed by a recovery period of little to no movement. The biggest factor when using interval training effectively is the intensity level of both the working and recovery periods. This one aspect alone dictates the time of the working and recovery periods, the total time of the training session, as well as if an external resistance should be added to the athlete during the movement. The intensity of the working periods when used for fat loss or conditioning purposes is to be maximal, i.e. an all-out, gut-busting effort. Recovery periods where the intensity is near zero, i.e. standing or light walking, follow this.

Today, the majority of “interval” training is performed at a sub-maximal level, often times just above the point where the person could have a conversation during the working period and only slightly less intense during the recovery periods. Essentially, people are fueling their aerobic exercise addiction by continuing to perform lower-intensity training exercises for longer durations. With high-intensity interval training, you want to stay as anaerobic as possible. Not only will this lead to a rise in testosterone and growth hormone, but there is also evidence that proves training anaerobically has a very high transfer to aerobic performance.[1]^,[2] Compare this to the more standard interval training of today where people spend most of the set in an aerobic state, which, if done too often, has been shown to spike cortisol, resulting in muscle degradation and power reduction.[3]

What does this mean for those who are staying aerobic? Well, for one, you could be furthering the problem you are trying to solve if your goals are fat-reduction related. Muscle is a metabolic regulator, and its degradation that is brought on by the cortisol spike leaves your body with little to go on once the stimulus (the training) has been removed. A perfect example of this is people who only do spin classes. As long as they keep going to the classes, they look and feel all right. However, once they go on vacation for a week or can’t make it because of work, they put on weight very, very quickly and often times regress three weeks or more because they don’t have enough muscle to sufficiently regulate their metabolism once they’ve stopped going to the spin classes.

In order to stay anaerobic during interval training, you must keep your working periods to 30 seconds or less and allow your recovery periods to be at least one minute. If you feel that a 30-second working period is too short, you are not exercising at the intensity level that is required for high-intensity interval training to be most effective. Remember, you are trying to perform all-out maximal-effort movements, so after 30 seconds of that you should want to collapse. After your working period you will have your recovery period, during which you will do next to nothing. This period is two to ten times as long, although I’ve performed exercises where the recovery period is up to 100 times as long, as the working period. This is to allow you to catch your wind and also to allow the ATP to regenerate in your muscles. Because you are attempting a maximal-effort movement for each set, you want to be almost fully recovered before you begin your next set.

The length of the entire interval training session should be no more than 30 minutes, with 10 to 15 minutes being ideal. I recommend 10 to 15 minutes sessions because most people really struggle to keep up the intensity if they try to go longer than that. I have most of my clients stop after five to seven minutes because their effort starts to decline after that. Remember, maximal-effort movements are not the most pleasurable experiences for a lot of people, so even though they may think they are going all-out, because they know it is painful, they probably aren’t pushing themselves quite as hard as they were at the beginning. This is something you have to regulate with your clients and yourself, understanding that there are times to keep pushing and there are times to end on a high note.

Interval training can be one of the most effective training tools in your arsenal if used properly. Performing low-intensity working sets of 60 seconds or more or hopping on an elliptical or stationary bike that only changes the resistance while you put forth the same relative effort are not going to get you or your clients the results you are looking for. Challenge yourself to train harder and smarter by picking up your intensity level and staying anaerobic with your training.

Get big or die tryin’.

Charlie Cates

Self Made®, Owner

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP's. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

This article may be reproduced with biographical information intact.

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[1] Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, Third Addition. Ratamess, Nicholas A. p. 108. 2008.

[2] Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, Third Addition. Ratamess, Nicholas A. p. 112. 2008.

[3] Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, Third Addition. Swank, Ann. p. 131. 2008.