This article is the fifth part in a series looking at various aspects of dairy.  During the series I am covering range of issues including intolerances, different types of dairy produce (specifically pasteurised, raw, full fat and skimmed), whether we need dairy for calcium and, ultimately, where I feel dairy should fit into the evolutionary paleo argument.

Don't we need dairy for calcium?

Back in the introductory post to this series I explained that the reason we moved to mass production of milk was the association between calcium, a fundamental building block for bones and teeth, and the high calcium levels within dairy.  Logically, it therefore followed that increasing dairy intake would also increase calcium intake and should subsequently improve bone health.

Why do we need calcium?

As Wikipedia explains, movement of the calcium ion into and out of cytoplasm acts as a signal for many processes in living organisms at the cellular level.  It is also a major building material in bones and shells and is subsequently the most abundant metal by mass in many animals.  Calcium is therefore essential for living organisms, including humans, with 99% of calcium in humans being stored in our bones and teeth.  The remaining 1% is busy playing a crucial role in assisting neurotransmitter release and muscle contraction (among other things).

Clearly the body needs the 1% of calcium to carry out essential cellular activities and assist our neurological and muscular activity so, in the event of calcium deficiency, the body will leech calcium out of the bones and teeth where it is being stored in order to enable the essential activities to continue, although rickets and poor blood clotting may also occur due to the deficiency outside the bone and tooth stores.  Unfortunately the thinning of bones can, in turn, lead to osteoporosis.

But this doesn’t mean you should overdo the calcium either.  The body can only store a limited quantity of calcium before it starts releasing calcium into the blood (known as hypercalcemia or hypercalciuria).  These elevated levels of calcium in the blood can impair kidney function and decrease absorption of other minerals.

Dairy as a calcium source

If you put whole milk into Fitday it will advise you that a pint of whole milk contains 551.4mg of calcium.  Since the recommended daily allowance (RDA) in both America and the UK is 1,000mg, that’s 55% of your RDA.  Why wouldn’t you consume milk or other dairy produce to get to your required daily calcium intake?

My biggest concern is that dairy isn’t actually a useful form of dairy.  This is particularly due to issues of acid-base balance and acidosis, both subjects I’ve written about before but which I’ll summarise below.

Acid-base balance and acidosis

The body is very sensitive to pH levels and needs to keep pH levels with a certain range in order to function.  If this balance is not maintained then the enzymes that are critical to our bodily functions can no longer.

All foods present themselves to the kidneys as either acid or alkaline base.  Once the body has processed these we are left with a net acid load or a net alkaline/base load.  Our bodies then use natural mechanisms to adjust this and ensure that it remains within a certain pH range.

One of the techniques used by the body to resolve a high acid-load (abnormally high acidity of the blood and other body tissues) is hypercalciuria.  Since calcium has a strong base (alkalinity) it is leached from the bones.  Once the calcium has neutralised the acid in the body it is discarded in urine along with the neutralised acid.  Hypercalciuria therefore degrades existing bone and also reduces the creation of new bone.

Why dairy as a calcium source could be a problem

Interestingly, hard cheeses and several other dairy products give some of the highest acid-load levels (PRAL scores) and all dairy is acidic rather than alkaline.  There is therefore a strong possibility that consumption of dairy as your calcium source could result in your body leeching calcium from bones rather than putting more on.

As a result of this, looking for alternative calcium sources is recommended.  One of the best would be brassicas (including kale, cabbage and brussel sprouts) since these, in turn, have high alkaline levels, offsetting the other foods you are consuming with them and reducing the risk of acidosis negating the beneficial calcium intake.

It’s also worth noting that, according to Patrick Baker in an article on The Paleo Diet, the absorption rate of calcium from brassicas is slightly higher than from milk.  He also refers to the studies showing that high protein diets can also increase intestinal calcium absorption, which may slightly offset the acid-load and potential hypercalciuria caused by the increased protein in the study.

Does calcium even help with bone density?

As an active person, my biggest reason for wanting plenty of calcium would be to ensure that I can keep healthy levels of bone density.  In turn this would enable me to remain active into my old age without worrying about osteoporosis.  It’s what led me into lifting weights in the beginning, since weight-bearing exercise is known to improve bone density.

A couple of studies provide some value to us here.  The first was a review of 58 studies, all looking into the question of whether evidence supports (1) the recommended calcium intake levels and (2) the suggestion that dairy products are better for promoting bone integrity than other calcium-containing food sources or supplements.  Of the 58 studies, 16 had to be omitted because they either didn’t control for weight, pubertal status and exercise or because the milk was fortified with Vitamin D which is also known to affect bone growth.  The remaining studies showed only limited connection between measures of bone health and dairy or dietary calcium intake (15 studies) or none at all (27 studies).

The second reviewed 19 studies to assess the effectiveness of calcium supplementation for improving bone mineral density in healthy children.  In this case there was only limited increase in bone density in certain parts of the skeleton and the researchers concluded that:

the small effect of calcium supplementation on bone mineral density in the upper limb is unlikely to reduce the risk of fracture, either in childhood or later life, to a degree of major public health importance.

I would also cite the study which Brian St Pierre refers to in his article about dairy, comparing fractures with calcium intake in different populations, but I have a concern that vitamin D is a major confounding factor in that study.  If you look closely at the graph you’ll spot that many of the countries with the highest numbers of fractures (eg. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, US) are also located well into the northern hemisphere where populations are often vitamin D deficient, while those at the bottom of the spectrum (eg. Singapore, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Spain) are often located in places that are either near the equator or where there is more of a habit of spending time outdoors.

So it looks like calcium, especially concentrating on getting it from dairy, is unnecessary for bone health.  Instead the focus for calcium should be in ensuring there is sufficient for our cells to continue functioning correctly.  For building bone density we should be applying Wolff’s law (bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads it is placed under).

Drawing some conclusions

So where have we got to today?  I think the main points today would be:

• we definitely need calcium so that our cells function correctly;
• but we don’t necessarily need calcium to build strong and healthy bones and teeth, not even in children, despite what our governments, health advisors and midwives tell us – try picking up some heavy things instead (that applies equally to kids developing bones the first time round and adults trying to ward off osteoporosis);
• and just because dairy contains a lot of calcium, it doesn’t mean that consuming more dairy will provide us with more calcium – in fact the opposite may be true;
• alternative calcium sources, such as brassicas, may give us the calcium we need in a more useful format.

If you’re going to consume dairy it shouldn’t be for the calcium benefits but for some other reason.  You may choose to consume it because it’s got a wide array of nutrients and calories, making it good for mass gain as a lifter.  Or maybe use it for its insulinogenic properties which makes it so good as a post-workout recovery drink (but not so good for consumption at any other time).  Just don’t claim you’re drinking milk to build healthy bones. 

I’d love to know if you agree with my conclusions.

Related posts:

1. Full fat and low fat dairy
2. Acid-base balance
3. Is dairy paleo?

Squat for technique

The most obvious reason why I squat is my stated goal of wanting to eventually qualify and compete at powerlifting.  There is nothing better for ensuring I can do this than to do the specific exercises that I need for competition.

I use supplementary exercises that will improve the quality and strength of my squat performance.  For example, I used Romanian deadlifts to improve my hip mobility and therefore increase the depth of my squat, while I now use a combination of glute bridges and hip thrusts to increase glute strength and good mornings to improve my lower back strength so that I can improve my current squat weaknesses.

17.5 inch squat depth before Romanian deadlifts

Squatting to 13 inches after Romanian deadlifts

However, if I just did these exercises and never did the squat itself my body would not understand what it needed to do when I stepped up to the bar to squat.  It is therefore necessary to ensure that I am doing squats in addition to these assistance exercises.

Squat for growth hormones

Growth hormone is an anabolic hormone made and secreted by the pituitary gland.  It stimulates protein synthesis and fat metabolism so that it helps bone, muscle and other tissue grow while it also helps with fat loss.  Growth hormone also provides plenty of other benefits, such as enhanced immune function.  Precision Nutrition published a really helpful article about growth hormone and I recommend reading it to learn more.

Trying to meet my powerlifting strength goals and my fat loss goals, I benefit significantly from boosting my growth hormone levels.  The more intense the exercise is, the more growth hormone is released.  Heavy squats are a full body exercise and incredibly intense.  They are therefore perfect for getting a good dose of growth hormone.

Squat for bone density

I’ve often written about my desire to build up bone density.  It was the reason I started lifting weights in the first place. 

The best way to build bone density is to do load-bearing exercises, especially those where the weight is above the waist.  Bones are always adapting and will put additional bone on if there is excess pressure placed on them.  It is the body’s self-preservation method, building bone up in order to protect itself from damage.

Squats, in particular the back squats that I have been working on recently, put the weight across my shoulders and load the whole of my spine as well as my legs.  Therefore they are perfect for building up bone density across the whole body.

 Why do you squat?

Those are the main reasons why I squat.  It is knowledge of these reasons that get me through the worst workouts when I’ve failed to get all of my repetitions.  It helps to remember the purpose behind my squats and know that they will benefit me even if I don’t get out all of my reps.

Do you squat?  If so, what are your reasons?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVxBBx3-nyk

Related posts:

1. Lessons learned: good back squat form
2. Powerlifting progress 2011: week thirty-one
3. Video-watch: Bums, tums and thighs (part 1)

For many people the statement above is an oddity.  Why should I want to train at weights if I’m a woman?  Tony Gentilcore put it perfectly when he summarised the fact that people frequently question why a woman is choosing to do any weight training whereas nobody ever questions why a man chooses to go to the gym and lift weights.

Training at home I can do whatever exercises I like and nobody asks me why I train

Women may have all the same sorts of reasons for training as men.  The important thing is to know why it is that you, personally, train.

I’ve written before about why women start weight training, but decided that it was well worth revisting the topic with some extra information of things women should be thinking about when they start training. 

Here are a couple of reasons why I, and many other women, choose to do weight training.

Increasing bone density

I originally started weight training because I knew that I wanted to continue doing lots of highly active things into old age.  I didn’t want the risk of taking a minor fall and being so fragile that I’d break half the bones in my body and be laid up for months recovering.  Women, after all, tend to be prone to osteoporosis.

A bit of judicious research revealed that I need to do load-bearing exercise to improve my bone density and weight training was the most effective exercise for this.  I’ve done a blog-watch about bone density research before so I won’t repeat it here.  Needless to say, I was sold on weight training and started the same week.

To prove my point, I came off my bike the next weekend and fractured both elbows.  If I ever have a bad day in the gym I just have to think “elbows” to remember that, even if I didn’t improve, the fact that I went into the gym and did anything at all will help me with the real reason I started weight training.

Improving my figure

Did you know that the half-starved waif look was out and that a study showed that men prefer curvier women?  Well the truth is that I would like legs like Cameron Diaz and you can’t have “toned” legs (and the rest of the body) without having a bit of muscle underneath the skin.

I still remember my partner, Chris, starting to teach me how to do my workouts.  I’d like to think that I wasn’t as bad as the comedy routine that Tony Gentilcore once wrote about, but I’m sure there have been moments when Chris couldn’t have said anything that I wouldn’t misinterpret.  Starting to train with weights was taking me out of my safety net and removed security barriers.  Suddenly I felt exposed.  I became aware of my weaknesses and went from a being a woman who wasn’t bothered about her figure to one who was hyper-sensitive about the muscles I was still lacking.

Having started out believing that training with weights would give me big and bulky muscles, but prepared to take the risk because of the bone density benefits, I quickly learned that it takes a lot of effort to build noticeable muscle and that lifting a few weights wasn’t going to turn me into a human blackberry overnight.  In fact, with a few years under my belt I’m only just finding that my old clothes no longer fit me properly.

Things to think about as a woman

There are a few women-specific weight training things I tend to have to remember when I’m discussing any new training program with Chris (who acts as my sounding board and sometime-program creator).

• To get the ideal hourglass figure you need to increase the size of the glutes and the chest/shoulders.  Plenty of glute-specific work (hip thrusts and glute bridges) feature in my program.  Here’s Mike Boyle talking a bit about getting a better butt as a woman:

How To Get Your Best Butt! Episode #19 from valerie waters on Vimeo.

• You have a menstrual cycle so you need to learn to work with it, rather than working against it and wishing you didn’t have one.  I’ve written about periodisation of my weight training round my menstrual cycle before as well as how the contraceptive pill (and how the “cycle” from that occurs) can affect strength performance.  It’s also worth remembering that it doesn’t only affect resistance training.  A science paper was written earlier this year on the effect of the menstrual cycle on exercise metabolism – specifically endurance exercise.
• Women often have smaller hands which can make it harder to hold onto fatter bars.  I’m not saying that this is a bad thing.  In fact, building up sufficient grip strength to deal with this issue may be a major boon later on and ultimately you will need to build up the necessary grip strength.  However, you may need to find short term solutions to assist you.  I was fascinated to read Eric Cressey singing the praises of the Lynx Grip – these look like they could be a major benefit to small-handed women in helping them to continue to build strength elsewhere while they are still developing the grip strength needed to hold onto the bar.

Those few points aside, it’s worth remembering that weight training doesn’t have to make you that different to other women (other than the superb figure and the wonderful health benefits and… you get the idea).  For a bit of fun, try reading Jim Bryan’s take on dispelling the myths surrounding women who do weight training.

Hopefully that’s inspired a few people and has also given a few others ammunition to convince their friends to start weight training.  If you ever need some extra inspiration try subscribing to the RSS feed for Powerlifting Watch.  While it covers both male and female successes, some of the female lifts that get posted on the site are totally awesome and give me a craving to get back in the gym and train a bit harder!

Related posts:

1. Why do women start weight training?
2. Adherence to a strength training intervention in adult women
3. Influence of moderately intense strength training on flexibility in sedentary young women

Back in February, when writing about acid-base balance, I blithely said that if acid load is too high in the diet then the body will try to rectify the balance.  One of the methods the body uses, known as hypercalciuria, is to leach calcium from the bones which then neutralises the acid in the body.

Do we need plenty of greens for healthy bone density?

I was partly relying on something I had read elsewhere which had said that ancient Inuit, who have minimal access to leafy greens and get the majority of the food from animal meats and fats, have lower bone density due to the high acid load of their diets.  This is widely referenced as being evidence to support hypercalciuria.

I was therefore very interested in a series of posts that started on 16 February on Primal Wisdom.  Don took the time to read the original study of ancient Inuit bones that Cordain referenced when claiming that a high acid-load diet results in poor bone density and found that the study does not actually support this.  At the time he used this as a reminder to all of us to always ensure we go back to our original sources, rather than relying on heresay, and I felt duly told off!

Cordain was made aware of this blog post and sent Don a series of additional studies which do seem, in part, to provide better evidence and support for the idea that the Inuit high acid-load diet causes early-onset loss of bone mineral density.  Don worked through these articles and wrote a series of posts about them, reaching some particularly useful conclusions in Part V on 11 March.

Read it yourself

If you are interested in the issue of osteoporosis, bone density, diet composition or acid-base balance then I recommend reading the series of posts so far by following these links:

• Eskimo Osteoporosis?
• Paleo Diet pH and Eskimo Health – Part I
• Paleo Diet pH: Does it matter? – Part II
• Paleo Diet pH: Does it matter? – Part III
• Paleo Diet pH IV: Weston Price on pH
• Paleo Diet pH: Does it matter? – Part V
• Paleo Diet pH: Does it matter? – Part VI
• Paleo Diet pH: Does it matter? – Part VII

At the end of March he was still going so it’s probably worth keeping an eye on the blog if these subjects interest you.

A new bone density study

If you are interested in the issue of bone density, then you may also be interested to know that in a recent study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, comparing experienced rock climbers and resistance trained men and women, the resistance trained individuals had greater overall bone density but arm and leg bone quality was similar in both groups. 

That makes me feel better about missing the odd training session in the summer to go rock climbing then!

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: recent bone density research
2. Acid-base balance
3. Blog-watch: weight loss mind-games

• Omega 3 and 6 ratio
• Acid-base balance
• Different carbohydrate sources

I’m explaining why these are areas to look at when planning your diet and why, in particular, they matter to Chris with his muscle and strength gaining goals.

Today it is the turn of the acid-base balance.

What is the acid-base balance?

Acid-base balance is the shorthand to describe the requirement for the human body to keep itself in homeostasis.  Base, in the name “acid-base” relates to alkalinity.

The body is very sensitive to pH levels and needs to keep pH levels with a certain range in order to function.  If this balance is not maintained then the enzymes that are critical to our bodily functions can no longer operate and, ultimately, we will die.

All foods present themselves to the kidneys as either acid or alkaline base.  Once the body has processed these we are left with a net acid load or a net alkaline/base load.  Our bodies then use natural mechanisms to adjust this and ensure that it remains within a certain pH range.

What happens if acid levels from our diet are too high?

If you have a high acid-load on the body this will be recognised by the cells and they will take action to rectify the balance through two possible techniques. 

The first is hypercalciuria.  Since calcium has a strong base (alkalinity) it is leached from the bones.  Once the calcium has neutralised the acid in the body it is discarded in urine along with the neutralised acid.  Hypercalciuria therefore degrades existing bone and also reduces the creation of new bone.

The second technique used by the body is negative nitrogen balance.  Glutamine binds hydrogen ions to form ammonium, enabling the body to then expel the acidic hydrogen ions (along with the glutamine that has been attached to these ions).  Unfortunately for us, skeletal muscle contains the greatest glutamine store in the body.  Our bodies therefore break down muscle in order to release the glutamine and excrete it resulting in the permanent loss of glutamine from the body.

How do I know whether foods are acidic or alkaline?

In 1995, Remer and Manz calculated the Potential Renal Acid Load (PRAL) of various foods and the PRAL is a measure that is still used by people today when assessing the acidity of various foodstuffs.  I’ve included links to a couple of sites that have tables of PRAL values for common foods later on in this article.

As a general rule meat, fish, dairy, grains and eggs are all acidic, while fruit and vegetables are alkaline. 

Broccoli - a good base

Interestingly hard cheeses and some other dairy products also give some of the highest PRAL scores.  So when you consume lots of dairy products, thinking you are improving your calcium levels, you could easily end up with exactly the same amount of calcium in your body as you started with, or possibly even less.

Where can I learn more?

There are numerous different sources of information about acid-base balance available on the internet.

• An excellent introduction to this was written by John Berardi for Testosterone Nation.  This includes a handy table of the PRAL levels of different foods.
• Wikipedia not only gives a readable introduction to acid-base, but also provides links to several other acid-base tutorials and University sites in the “External Links” section.
• Another summary of acid-base, including details of how to calculate it yourself, can be found on the Bitter Poison site.
• Finally, IronMan Magazine published an article highlighting the study carried out in 2008 by Ceglia et al. on the use of potassium bicarbonate as a supplement to help increase your alkaline levels.

Summary

My take home lesson for today is that we should be taking in a good helping of alkaline foods every day and preferably a little with every meal – plenty of fruit and vegetables. 

By doing so we can hopefully keep our bodies closer to a neutral or alkaline level and minimise the risks of:

• losing calcium from bones through hypercalciuria; and
• skeletal muscle being broken down to release glutamine due to the negative nitrogen balance.

If you can’t get enough fruit and vegetables into your diet then you should be considering supplementing with potassium bicarbonate.

It’s a frightening thought that we could be spending all this dedicated time in the gym building up muscle and bone density only to reverse (or at least hinder) the effects by creating an acidic environment in our bodies due to our diet.

What do you think?

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: acid-base and bone density
2. Improving nutrition for muscle gain
3. Dairy as a calcium source

Depending on what you read it may also regularly serve it’s purpose by helping the body fight intestinal infection.  More on that later.

But modern living has a way of activating prehistoric safety valves with unintentional consequences.  Cortisol is one of these safety valves and right now, I am being reintroduced to the consequences of activating it when it wasn’t suitable.

What is cortisol?

For the complete bible on cortisol then you can’t beat Wikipedia.  Cortisol is a corticosteroid hormone which is produced by the adrenal gland.  Known as the “stress hormone”, it is most often associated with its production in response to stress and anxiety.

Cortisol is frequently believed to have the primary purpose of helping the body react to stress, triggering the “fight or flight” reaction to situations.  However, I’ve found an interesting hypothesis from Charles Weber (also quoted by Wikipedia) which suggests that the primary purpose of cortisol is assisting the body’s resistance to infection, specifically intestinal disease, and that it’s impact on the “fight or flight” response is just an added bonus.

What does cortisol do to you?

The headline impacts of cortisol include:

• counteraction of insulin, contributing to hyperglycemia;
• stimulation of gastric acid secretion which in turn increases loss of potassium to the stomach;
• inhibition of sodium loss from the small intestine (so far only recorded in small mammals);
• acting as an anti-diuretic;
• lowering bone formation (due to the potassium loss);
• weakened activity of the immune system – this one confused me, but it seems that by briefly weakening the immune system and creating perfect circumstances for the immune system to operate, when cortisol then reduces again the immune system can work more effectively than before;
• shutting down the reproductive system, increasing the chance of miscarriage or causing temporary infertility;
• increasing sensitivity to adrenaline;
• cooperation with adrenalin to create memories of short-term emotional events;
• increasing blood pressure;
• reducing histamine secretion and therefore acting as an anti-inflammatory.

This is a strange combination of effects from a single hormone.  Some of these clearly link to the “fight or flight” instinct, such as the increased sensitivity to adrenaline, hyperglycemia and increased blood pressure.  Potentially even the reduced histamine secretion and shut down reproductive system (in a stressful time of famine, having offspring would cause problems) could be linked to the more extended period “fight or flight” requirement.

Others seems to point more clearly to the infection resistance, such as the changed ratio of sodium to potassium, the reduced histamine secretion (again) and the impacts on the immune system.

Problems of cortisol in the modern world

Cortisol seems to be principally designed for short term bursts.  As you can probably imagine, prolonged periods of heightened cortisol levels could result in long-term illness from a weakened immune system and osteoporosis from the lack of bone formulation.  Long-term exposure has also been shown to result in damage to cells in the hippocampus and impaired learning.

The increased sensitivity to adrenalin, which will also be produced if you are in a stressful situation, has it’s own collection of negative impacts on the body if you are exposed to it for a long time.  Yet again, I turn to Wikipedia which notes that the main effects of adrenaline are to boost supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles and to suppress non-emergency bodily processes, such as digestion.

But so many things in our modern world have been shown to increase both cortisol and adrenaline.  Commuting, sleep deprivation, burnout, severe trauma or stress, burnout and caffeine have all been tarred with the accusation of increasing one or both of cortisol and adrenaline.  Worryingly, one study also suggested that some formulations of combined oral contraceptive pills could increase cortisol levels in young women who perform whole-body resistance exercise training.

Cortisol and adrenaline are no longer brief, rarely experienced hormones.  Instead our bodies are adjusting to long-term exposure to these hormones and modern circumstances can create a vicious circle.  The adrenaline can reduce our ability to sleep and process our food correctly.  The increased risk of intestine infection from poorly processed food and the lack of sleep increases cortisol levels.  The increased cortisol makes us hypersensitive to adrenaline.  A minor stress at work, probably caused by lack of sleep, or a bad drive home gives you another small boost of adrenaline but you are now hypersensitive to it…

Cortisol and resistance training

As a brief diversion, there can be many reasons why stress impacts on resistance training and performance.  Not least the mental challenges of trying to focus your effort on the bar when your mental strength is waining.  However, I suspect there is also a link between poor resistance training and the fact that cortisol can cause temporary infertility.  After all, Testosterone is a reproductive hormone, and it is testosterone that aids in resistance training.

Once I am unable to perform optimally in the the weights room, I then find that the calories I am putting in don’t get used in my workout so then they get converted to fat instead.  As a woman, the balance of calories is very fine, so it can take only a couple of dud workouts before I have lost my leanness.

Managing cortisol

Relaxation and therapy seem to be the best ways to manage cortisol levels.  In fact, there’s a whole study to show that laughing and humour can reduce cortisol levels!  There seems to be an argument for dosing with vitamin C and black tea too. 

I’ve also found it interesting that supplementing with magnesium after working out has a positive effect on reducing cortisol levels, but only after aerobic exercise, not resistance training.

Back at square one

My recent stress at work had it’s own cortisol and adrenaline impact.  I stopped sleeping well and I started to struggle with various gym exercises.  Without changing my diet or my workouts I gained a noticeable bottom in a single week.  After all that hard effort that I put into stripping it off in October too.

Care and relaxation over the Christmas period has helped me gain control over my stress levels and, following some other experimentation over Christmas (more on that another time), the need for a hard 4 week fat-strip has come to the fore, despite having promised myself that I wouldn’t ever strip fat in the winter again.  We’ll see how that goes.

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: the impact of stress
2. Blog-watch: Bret’s female strength levels
3. Lessons learned this week: stress and lifting

This is also the category that my mother fits into.  My mother has undergone two hip replacements this year and has since been focussing hard on getting her muscles and joints working again at their best so that she can get back to doing the things she enjoys and enabling her to get the most out of life with minimal further damage to her body.  We have been arming her with various mobility, stability and strength exercises recently and I am immensely proud of her determination and progress.

So, with all of that in mind, here’s a pick of the best articles I’ve seen recently:

1. The best exercises for healthy bones, The New York Times.  I stumbled across this article thanks to an article on Male Pattern Fitness.  I’m not even going to try to go into the detail of each article that the NYT calls on but the essence of the article is that some of the latest research suggests that it’s not necessarily the load that is applied to the bone that causes it to put on additional bone mass, but rather the act of bending it.  Therefore activities like brisk walking, hopping and jumping could give better bone density improvements than lifting weights.
2. Strong thighs may mean less knee pain for women.  This article summarises a study done of 3,000 men and women.  While thigh strength didn’t prove to be a strong predictor of osteoarthritis, women with the strongest thighs had a lower incidence of symptomatic or painful knee osteo-arthritis.  Interestingly, this same pattern was not seen in men.  Since reports of pain are based on the individual’s concept of what constitutes “painful”, this could be distinction caused by different concepts of pain by men and women, rather than a real distinction.  Of course the stronger thighs are probably themselves only an indicator of certain exercise or activity which could be creating both stronger thighs and reduced pain.
3. Time-course of exercise and its association with 12-month bone changes.  Exercise has been shown to have positive effects on bone density and strength.  However, knowledge of the time-course of exercise and bone changes is scarce due to lack of methods to quantify and qualify daily physical activity in long-term.  The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between exercise intensity and 12-month changes in femur bone mineral density in healthy premenopausal women.  The number of high acceleration impacts during 6 months of training was positively associated with 12-month femoral bone changes.
4. A meta-analysis of impact exercise on postmenopausal bone loss: the case for mixed loading exercise programmes.  The objective of this study was to assess the effects of differing impact exercise protocols on postmenopausal bone loss at the hip and spine.  Two independent reviewers assessed controlled trials evaluating effects of impact exercise on lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip bone mineral density in postmenopausal women for inclusion.  Impact protocols that included jogging mixed with walking and stair climbing, and protocols that incorporated impact exercise with high-magnitude loading (resistance exercises), were effective at lumbar spine.  Effects on femoral neck bone mineral density following these types of protocols were also significant.
5. Exercise and bone health: optimising bone structure during growth is key, but all is not in vain during ageing.  The reduction in bone strength and resultant increase in low-trauma fractures associated with ageing represents a prominent and growing societal problem. Although numerous pharmacological agents have been developed to prevent and treat reductions in bone strength as a means to reduce fractures, a commonly advocated intervention is the prescription of load-bearing exercise.  That the skeleton is mechanosensitive across the lifespan and responds and adapts to its prevailing mechanical environment is supported by two independent, yet related, articles in this issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.  These papers highlight the potential role of exercise on bone health at two differing stages of the lifespan.  Firstly, Kato et al performed a cross-sectional study to show that exercise when young may have lasting effects on bone health during ageing.  Secondly, Martyn-St James and Carroll performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to demonstrate that exercise can have beneficial effects on the postmenopausal skeleton.   Kato et al found that weight-bearing exercise when young was found to have persistent effects on bone mass.
6. Gait Variability Detects Women in Early Postmenopause With Low Bone Mineral Density.  Women in early postmenopause and with low bone mineral density may exhibit early markers for physical frailty as a result of sarcopenia and osteopenia.  The purpose of this study was to determine whether women in early postmenopause and with low bone mineral density exhibit decreased physical performance and differences in gait variability and fall and fracture rates.   Women in early postmenopause and with low bone mineral density exhibited increased gait variability in step time and stance time but did not exhibit differences in balance, strength, or gait speed. Gait variability may be more sensitive for detecting differences in women in early postmenopause and with or without low bone mineral density than more typical measures of physical performance.

I hope you find them interesting.

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: acid-base and bone density
2. Blog-watch: recent glute news
3. Blog-watch: should women train like men?

This will not build big muscles!

Apart from the fact that this is wrong (even men struggle to get the sort of muscles that women seem to think they will sprout the first time they pick up something heavy), what was so wrong with Wonder Woman?  She had a lovely figure, though I might pass on the outfits…

When I do meet women who train with weights one of the first questions that gets exchanged is: “What got you started?”  Men hardly ever ask each other this question but because women who lift are an oddity rather than the norm we feel compelled to ask (or perhaps it’s just natural female curiosity).

“My husband/partner/boyfriend lifted weights and got me into it”

This is the answer I hear most often.  However, this answer also implies a lot about the character of the person you are speaking to.  It suggests to me that they’ve got an open mind and a willingness to challenge the status quo (or a desire to stand out from the crowd of men in the gym).

“I wanted to improve my figure”

These are often the blessed few who wanted to improve their figure and, either accidentally or after recommendation and research, found themselves with a personal coach who knew what they were talking about.

That or they did some proper research into exercise and fitness and found out the truth.

So why did I start weight training?

Like everything in life I never take the obvious route and a recent post by Gubernatrix brought back memories of why I first got into it.

We had started cycling a lot more and one day I found myself driving along a country lane in the opposite direction to the local veterans cycle club.  As twenty old gentlemen streamed past, some with cycle helmets askew that had been fitted when they still had hair and others who had clearly removed their teeth for the bike ride, I explained to Chris, my partner, that I would also like to be able to cycle to the end of my life.

The beauty of cycling is that it is very low impact for the body, so it is a sport that you can continue to excel at to a much older age.  A good example would be Jeannie Longo, the French racing cyclist who is still competing in big races at the age of 51 and who even came fourth in the Women’s Time Trial at the Beijing Olympics last year.  How’s that for inspirational?

My concern was that if I fell off my bike the brittle bones of old age would break and I would be incapacitated for a month or two while they healed, losing valuable fitness.

Getting started

We quickly established, thanks to the internet, that the best way to avoid osteoporosis was to build up and maintain bone density.  Weight-bearing exercise, especially the sorts of things Chris was doing in our garage “gym” (at the time just a single bar and pile of weights) was going to be the best way to do it.

I don’t remember giving much consideration to whether I would build up big muscles.  The important thing was that this would be my key to an active old age.  So we drew up a very basic program and off I went.

My first training session was a Thursday evening after work and we tried a bit of everything, establishing along the way that I:

• was incredibly weak – I could only overhead press an empty bar; and
• had the hip mobility of a tree – I was tucking at the half-squat position and could forget deadlifting anything without putting it on blocks first.

Falling at the first hurdle

The following Saturday I learnt the importance of my new sport. 

I was out on my bike when I was run off the road by a car-driver.  At the time I had just set off up a hill after a break and was going at 10mph or less.  I saved the fall on my open palms and the impact went straight up both forearms.  I was left with a fracture in my right elbow and a partial fracture in the left elbow.

If anyone was in need of a bit more bone density, it was me.  Two years earlier, Chris had been hit by a van when cycling at full speed in London, flown over a parked car and landed in the road in front of it.  He’d walked away with nothing more than bruising.  If Chris could survive that unscathed and here was me with two fractures after a tiny fall then there was a lot of work to do.

After a few weeks of being fed, washed and dressed I had the use of my left arm back and got straight into one-arm deadlifts, single-arm dumbbell squats and one-arm military presses (amongst other things.  Unusually, I had the opportunity to really start my training from nothing – I could barely lift a 10kg dumbbell after the lay-off.

So what got you started?  Were you inspired by a bunch of toothless veterans too?

Related posts:

1. Weight training women
2. Adherence to a strength training intervention in adult women
3. Influence of moderately intense strength training on flexibility in sedentary young women