Oh, My Aching Back

I used to think the only time you sucked in your gut was when you were at the beach. That is until I went to a physical therapist for my back. While going through my physical therapy exercises, my therapist constantly reminded me "engage your core." In other words, suck in your gut.

The thing is, it did make a difference in how well I did the exercises. On the quadriceps stretches, I did feel a better stretch in my thighs. Who would have guessed?

Those visits also changed my perspective towards abs and crunches. In the past, I thought all you had to do to have good abdominal muscles was crunches. And all of the sudden, I began to notice all sorts of articles about abs. I learned two things:

1. You have to continually engage your core

2. Crunches aren’t necessarily the best exercise for strengthening your core and flattening your belly.

Continually engaging your core

While I was in physical therapy, I spotted a callout in the Red Eye, the free Chicago paper covering pop culture, that Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino, famous for his washboard abs, does core isometrics while he's walking, waiting in lines and doing other daily tasks.

I have lumbar arthritis and frequently have lower back pain, especially when I jog. I noticed if I tightened my abs while jogging, it reduced or eliminated the pain.

Now, I consciously try to engage my core frequently during the day. I tighten my abs when I’m exercising, walking, climbing stairs and sometimes while I’m sitting at my desk.

Crunches Aren’t the Best Exercise

The second thing I learned is that crunches aren’t the best exercise for strengthening or flattening your core. Dr. Richard Guyer, president of the Texas Back Institute, “We stopped teaching people to do crunches a long, long time ago. That’s because the “full flex” movement—the actual “crunch” part of crunches – puts an unhealthy strain on your back at its weakest point.”¹

Another article notes “Doing crunches will only increase instability (constant flexing of the spine), increase your likelihood of catastrophic back injury (risk for disc herniation), and make your posture even worse than it already is (pulling you further into kyphosis, or “hunchback syndrome”.²

Because of my arthritis and low bone density, my physical therapist recommended I never do crunches. Since I’ve been doing her recommended core exercises, plank variations³ and the bird dog⁴, my back is better and my belly has flattened a bit. Warning: the plank exercises can be difficult at first, even for someone who used to do Rock Hard Tummies and P90X.

So remember, suck in that gut and stop with those crunches. Your back will feel better and you may flatten your tummy.

References

1. Stop Doing Sit-ups: Why Crunches Don’t Work, Newsweek
2. No More Crunches, SeatleStrengthCoach
3. Plank tuck, Shape.com
4. Bird dog, YouTube.com (from Runner's World)
5. No More Crunches? Abs-olutely!, The Post Game, Yahoo Sports

How do you know if a health study is valid?

Almost every day you hear about another health study. This will cause cancer. That will make you obese. One thing is apparent:  you can’t rely on the media to check if the research is valid.  So, without being a statistician, how can you tell if a study has any merit? Today’s blog gives you some tips. 

• What does Google say? The recent study linking diet cola to strokes was all over the media. A Google search indicated the study most likely isn’t valid. Scanning the results on the first page, six  of eleven entries had the word ‘flawed’ or ‘controversial’ in the title or summary. But many times you won’t be that lucky. So here are some other tips.
• Self report or controlled study?  Self report is where study participants answer questions about what happended or how they feel (e.g., how many diet softdrinks do you drink every day? or on a scale of one to ten, how much pain do you feel?) The previously mentioned study was a self-report. Self reports are not always reliable.
• Do other studies corroborate? Are there other studies? Did most of them come up with the same result? If not, the study with different results may not be valid. For years people believed the study of Dr. Wakefield linking the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine to autism. Dr. Wakefield’s study was the only study that found that link. Yet despite the fact that other research consistently came up with different results, the study was only recently retracted. ¹
• Planned or Retro?  Studies that were planned before collection of the data are more likely to have valid results than studies where information is collected after the fact (retro). In a planned study, the  researcher can try to control to limit or eliminate other factors which may also contribute to the results being studied.²
• Is the sample good? The sample is a subset of the entire population being studied. You may not have access to information about how the sample was selected, but if you do, here’s a couple of things to look for. First, a random sample increases the likelihood that the results will be valid. Second, is the sample representative of the population the study is making inferences about? For example, if the sample included only diabetics, it might not be valid to make inferences about the general population. One study showed that eating 1 2/3 tablespoons of safflower oil a day helped people lose weight and reduce waist size. The statistical results were impressive. The study had the headline  “Can Your Salad Dressing help you keep the pounds off. New research suggests yes.” Everyone in the sample was diabetic.  The headline implies the results would hold true for the general population. That assumption may not be valid. It may be that diabetics process fat differently than the general population.³
•  What does your doctor say? Many of the studies you hear in the media are in the journals your doctor reads frequently. Ask your doctor his or her opinion of the study and if the results may apply to you.

References

1. How does a parent know if a published study’s findings are reliable and valid? Examiner.com Chicago
2. What makes a research study valid – Oley foundation
3. The Whole Art of Deduction – Research Skills for New Scientists,  Roger Marion, Ph.D.

Comparison of Food and Exercise Logging Sites

Isn’t it frustrating that it can take weeks for us to see a difference in our bodies when we’ve done something to improve, or worsen, our health? We don’t know how much the exercise we did today increased our aerobic capacity and built our muscle fiber. We also can’t tell if, or how much, plaque the pizza we ate added to our arteries.

It might make it easier to stick with our exercise and health eating if we got instant feedback on the minutes changes in our body when we do good or harmful things. Like a peppy voice saying, “Congratulations, you just lowered your LDL cholesterol by one point!” or “Danger Will Robinson, that pizza slice will add two fat cells to your belly!”

Since we can’t see immediate results from either our positive or negative actions, we need a substitute. Logging is the best substitute there is. It’s been proven that people who log what they eat are more likely to stick with positive behaviors and reduce negative behaviors*. If you know you have to log the 400 calorie slice of pizza, you will be more likely to stay on track. Logging works for exercise, too.

But, you say, logging is a pain in the neck! The good news is that with the Internet logging has become easy and can almost be fun when you see the reports and results.

I’ve compared five Internet sites that provide food and exercise logging, plus have many other features such as articles, blogs, social networking (buddies) and much more. I used these five websites for a week to determine ease-of-use, features, and number of foods in the food database. Here is my unscientific opinion on which sites might work best for you based on if you want:

•  Really simple, without bells and whistles, and you don’t care about precision in calorie counts or exercise, choose LoseIt.com. LoseIt does not have an extensive food database, but you can enter your own foods.
• Precision on tracking food and exercise with the largest food database, several reports and relatively easy-to-use, choose Livestrong.com.
• Mood tracking related to your eating, choose Fitday.com which also has a wide range of reports, but a smaller food database than Livestrong.com. Update: 3/30 - Livestrong.com also has mood tracking

See the full analysis of all five sites at: Fitness Logging

To see another analysis of logging sites, see Lose Weight by Using Online Tools.

 *Studies:

Keeping a Food Diary Helps Lose Weight – WebMD 

Keeping a Diary Doubles Weight Loss – Science Daily on a study by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and published by American Journal of Preventive Medicine