BMI: a useless number

For a long time now BMI has been used to determine if a person is a healthy weight. The cutoffs, as you probably have seen before are as follows:

* Underweight = <18.5
* Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
* Overweight = 25-29.9
* Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

The truth is that BMI not an accurate assessment of body composition. The equation for BMI is a person's weight divided by his or her height squared. Nowhere in this equation is muscle mass distinguished from fat mass.

To further clarify:
Two people have their BMI assessed and both score 26.5 (Overweight). Person A weighs 185 lbs and is 5'10", but has 30 lbs of fat. Person B also weighs 185 lbs and is 5'10", but only has 9.25 lbs of body fat (5% of total mass, about what elite athletes score) and the rest is lean muscle.

A more accurate assessment of body composition can be found by Hydrodensitometry Weighing (Underwater Weighing), Skin-fold Calipers (Anthropometry), BOD POD (Air Displacement), Bioelectrical Impedance, and a multitude of other ways.

Glycogen loading: Recipe for endurance

Glycogen loading is a technique used to increase the glycogen stores in your muscles to levels far beyond their normal capacity. This will allow for greater endurance and energy during athletic events, workouts, races, or anything other physical activity. Using this technique you can almost double the amount of readily available fuel in your muscles as well as create an environment for hypertrophy (muscle growth). The stress that is placed on the muscle cell membranes trigger long-term growth.

It works like this:

Starting a week before competition or other athletic event, restrict your diet to 0.25 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight each day. While restricting your carb intake, increase the duration of your exercise for four to five days. In a day or two before the activity, increase your carb intake to 4-5 g per pound of bodyweight and severely limit activity until the day of the event.

Once the event is over you can resume your normal diet.

Ashlee Simpson's 30 minute complete toning workout

Last summer in Shape Magazine Ashlee Simpson described the thirty minute workout that she uses. It was designed by Mike Alexander, owner of MADfit, a private training studio in Beverly Hills. Although it's old news, many of you may have missed it or forgotten.

"Her backyard has about 30 to 40 steps, so I have her jog down, do lunges for the length of the pool, jog back up the stairs, then do a set of squats," he explains." This allows her to become used to a routine that is versatile enough to be replicated wherever her career brings her.

When at home she follows this routine:

0-5 Walk, gradually increasing
to a jog to warm up.
5-10 TRI-SET #1
Biceps curls (20 reps)
Squats (25 reps)
Jumping jacks (45 seconds)
Repeat tri-set once.
10-15 TRI-SET #2
Triceps extensions with bridge (20 reps)
Walking lunges (12 per leg)
Jump rope (45 seconds)
Repeat tri-set once.
15-20 TRI-SET #3
Squats with shoulder raise (20 reps)
Step-ups onto a bench (20 reps per leg)
High-knee jog in place (45 seconds)
Repeat tri-set once.
20-25 TRI-SET #4
Reverse crunches (10 to 15 reps)
Calf raises (20 reps)
Plank pose (hold for 30 seconds)
Repeat tri-set once.
25-30 Jog, slowly decreasing speed to a walk to cool down.

Post Exercise meal

Post-workout meals are often forgotten or thought to be unnecessary. This can result in lowered results, especially if you are tying to bulk up. Once you finish working out you have about an hour window where protein synthesis and glycogen replenishment are the most active. If you miss this window it means that you will not recover to the full extent and achieve the optimal results from your workout.

You want to go for a 3:2 ratio of carbohydrate to protein. This can be achieved in many ways, but I find the easiest is to drink 2-3 cups of low-fat chocolate milk with a small amount of whey protein. Milk alone has almost the perfect ratio of carbs to protein, but drinking enough of it to get what your body requires after working out can be difficult and filling. The chocolate syrup adds to the carbohydrate count while the whey adds protein to make the drink more concentrated in terms of these nutrients.

Creatine supplementation enhances muscle force recovery after exercise induced injury

The School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia recently conducted a study on the effects of creatine supplementation on muscle proteins and force recovery after injury. What they found was that the Creatine Monohydrate supplemented group had significantly greater isokinetic (10% higher) and isometric (21% higher) knee extension strength during recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage.
"The major finding of this investigation was a significant improvement in the rate of recovery of knee extensor muscle function after Cr supplementation following injury."


Cooke MB, Rybalka E, Williams AD, Cribb PJ, Hayes A. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2009 Jun 2;6:13.

In another study published in the Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism on February 19, 2009, a research group from the College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada found that the combined effects of conjugated linoleic acid, creatine, and whey protein supplementation was "beneficial for increasing strength and lean-tissue mass during heavy resistance training." They also noted that there were no changes in oxidative stress or kidney function from the supplementation.

Low back pain prevention: strengthen your core muscles with exercise

According to the American Pain Foundation, up to 30 percent of Americans experience decreased quality of life, physical functioning and depression associated with chronic back pain. The typical response to back pain is to simply relax and rest, but this is almost entirely opposite of what you should do to remedy the problem. Others think that the best idea is to get surgery because they believe it is a "cure-all" sure fire approach.

"A study led by Dr. Madigan, published in the February 2009 issue of The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, found that 90 percent of patients with low back pain arising from degenerative disc disease... recover with the aid of conservative treatment or without any treatment at all within six to 12 weeks. However, the study concluded that the most effective treatment is a combination of physical therapy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin)."

According to lead researcher Stanley J. Bigos, MD, University of Washington professor emeritus of orthopedic surgery and environmental health, "Strong and consistent evidence finds many popular prevention methods to fail while exercise has a significant impact, both in terms of preventing symptoms and reducing back pain-related work loss."

In older adults the deepest layers of muscle in the core that are meant to support, cushion, and protect the spine are often weak due to lack of exercise, poor posture, and habitual slumping. The importance of strength training in core muscles such as the transversus abdominus, multifidi, and erector spinalis' play a vital role in reducing back pain. Strengthening these muscles allows for more support and stabilization or the spine.

In a study published on Feb. 7, 2009 by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, participants with chronic back pain took part in a 16-week resistance training program. They showed a 60 percent improvement in pain and function levels compared to a mere 12 percent improvement by those who took part in aerobic training (jogging, walking, elliptical machine, etc.)

Health News 15.6 (June 2009): p1(2)

VO2 max: What it is, and how you measure it

VO2 Max is the ability for your body to take in, process, use, and expel oxygen. It is used as a way of measuring cardiac ability. The precise measurement of this is actually quite a complicated process that involves a lab setting with analytical equipment hooked up to a subject on a treadmill. Luckily however a method has been developed that is within a +/- 5 ml/kg/min degree of accuracy. So, if through this method you compute your VO2 max to be 45 ml/kg/min, it is 68% likely that your actual VO2 max is between 40 and 50 ml/kg/min. Not bad for using no equipment at all other than a stopwatch and your fingers to read your pulse. This test is called the Rockport Walk Test.

To begin the test, do an easy warm-up and then walk as briskly as possible for one mile. As soon as you finish, record your heart rate using your pulse and the stopwatch.

You can either enter the data into this website, or compute it yourself using the actual equation stated below (this is the same equation that the website uses).

VO2 max (ml/kg/min) = 132.853 - (0.0769 x body weight in [pounds]) - (0.3877 x age [years]) + (6.3150 x gender [female = 0; male = 1]) - (3.2649 x 1-mile walk time [in minutes and hundredths]) - (0.1565 x 1-minute heart rate at end of mile [beats per minute]).

So how did you rate? Here is a website that lists the norms for cardiac ability.