Heart Rate Variability: A more scientific approach to decide when to train

Feeling a little run down? Is life getting in the way of your training? Or…is your training getting in the way of your life? If you train, I believe you are doing it to improve in a specific area and do so for results. But what if I told you how you were training involved a lot of guesswork. And now your guesswork has led you down a mysterious and frustrating trend of regressing in those results that are important to you. Now imagine taking the guesswork out of the equation and you could monitor and manage your training to make those improvements. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is just the way to do that!

By getting an idea of whether your body is ready to train based on how it's dealing with stress, you can make safer
training decisions. On higher HRV days, when you have a high level of readiness, you can train hard. On lower HRV
days with a lower level of readiness, you can decide to take the day off or de-load the intensity and volume. 

I believe one should make exercise fit into the lifestyle rather than making the lifestyle about exercise.

HRV is measuring the body’s readiness to perform based on comparing the body’s stress level and ability to recover from it. Everything has an effect on the body, especially hard training sessions. This disruption causes stress on the body and alters it's ability to maintain homeostasis (the body's state of normalcy). Think of your body as a snow globe. Shaking it hard and continuously is the equivalent to the body while it's training. When you stop shaking the snow globe, it takes a few moments for the contents to stop moving, this represents the body trying to recover on a cellular level from the disruption. When the globe has recovered, you can begin shaking it again and continue the process. Start shaking it too soon and the globe takes longer to settle, again, very similar to your body. 

As mentioned above, the body is constantly trying to maintain homeostasis. This is important because this has an effect on whether the body can adapt to the different conditions and stressors you place on your body. In any result based goal, adaptation is key. As the body adapts and manages to handle more stress, it has the ability to improve in many fitness areas. In this case, adaptation is what's known as allostasis, how the body handles stress to keep us alive. This is important because it's not just preparing the body for an immediate threat but for future stress as well.

How does this relate to training? More importantly, is your body ready to train?

Each cup of water represents a level of stress. The cup with the
least amount of water has the least amount of stress. But when faced
with stress, it might not be able to adapt from it. The cup that is
balanced can handle some intense level of stress and recover from it
if given the time. The cup with the most stress is less prepared for more
stress. It requires rest in order recover. Otherwise, it will spillover or
in the case of training, overtrain. 

When it comes to training, I like to think of it in terms of cups of water. How full is your stress cup? A completely tired and stressed body will have more difficulty completing and performing strenuous tasks. Not only that, it will struggle to recover from it because the body will be accumulating it. As long as this is the case, the body will be in survival mode. At this point, further training will be counterproductive. On the other hand, a body that was challenged with an appropriate amount of stress given an appropriate amount of rest will be able to recover from it and be ready for future stress. As long as this balance is maintained, this cycle can lead to improvements because the body can learn to handle more stress gradually over time. The last level is someone with very little stress. Well, if there's very little stress, then it's never really challenged, right? This is similar to having too much stress with regards to not seeing results.

How does HRV work?

Are you tipping the scale in either direction?

HRV measures the Autonomic Nervous System’s (ANS) two branches, the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. These two branches are polar opposites of one another because of the internal struggle between stress (the sympathetic system) and the recovery phase (the parasympathetic system). Over stimulation of the sympathetic system means your body will struggle with adaptability to higher levels of stress because it’s fatigued. On the other hand, if the body is in an overly parasympathetic state, it’s not being stressed enough to adapt to a new level. This lack of stimulation will lead to insufficient results and performance. You want your body to be prepared so it can be loaded with an appropriate level of stress that it can
effectively recover from if given the appropriate amount of time. Following this cycle will help to aid in training improvements.

By determining your HRV, you can effectively decide whether you should:

·      Go hard

·      De-load by 20%-30%

·      Treat as an active recovery day

·      Take the day off from training altogether

Does this answer the question as to why your training session was more difficult than usual?

Don't take more of your pre-workout or blame
your fancy weight belt, or your running shoes for
regressions in strength, endurance, power
 or your physique. Take a deeper look into your
training program. Results are honest based.

Perhaps your problem stems from your training approach. Or maybe you are experiencing other forms of daily stress such as mental stress, financial stress, work stress, family stress, lack of sleep, poor nutrition habits, etc. Regardless of the stressor, too much continuous stress will lead your body toward exhaustion. And if you tie this in with training, you will go down the rabbit hole of overtraining, where despite how much you do and try, performance will suffer. It’s the perfect storm. If you are currently experiencing:

·      Chronic fatigue
·      Lack of motivation to train or perform daily tasks
·      Plateauing in your goals and performance

If the answer is yes, you are about to face a potentially steep decline from too much stress from your training (volume or intensity) than your body could handle and sufficiently recover from. The scale has been tipped in favor of your sympathetic system for too long.

More isn’t better, it’s just more! And by doing more, your body can't recover from the previous levels of stress you placed on it. As a result, it doesn't get the chance to improve.

A way to avoid this is to use HRV. Instead of waiting for your body to respond negatively, imagine being ahead of the curve because you already know your body’s needs.

Managing the body’s response to stress in all its forms: emotional, financial, sleep, nutrition, etc., is essential and will affect the body to some degree whenever you train. The obvious conclusion becomes rather than force training stress into your lifestyle, how about learning to make it fit within the boundaries of the body’s overall stress capacity. That should be the goal of training.  

If you are overly stimulated, you are over taxing the body too much. Yes, it needs some stress in order to adapt and improve but an over accumulation leads to fatigue. This means your body is more prone to sickness, lethargic behavior or worse, injury, if ignored over an extended amount of time. You are in desperate need of recovery, stat! In this case, you need to allow the parasympathetic system to catch up. This form is like when you feel groggy all day. If this is the case my friend, your body is probably trashed.

Isn’t it the American Dream to do less and get more in return?

How do you measure HRV? I recommend Bioforce HRV, although I’ve heard great things about ithlete HRV as well. Whatever you use, this great information only helps if you know how to apply it. If your body is trashed for weeks or months and you continue to not heed the information from your HRV, you run the risk of overreaching and potentially exhausting the body. At this point you will be overtraining. Your body can not handle that much stress and as a result performance, or worse, the body begins to suffer. That's your warning signal!

I’ve mentioned the body’s need for rest in order to balance out the training stress in previous writings.  Basically when to pull the trigger and go hard is a difficult assessment. This can be an easy fix now. I often say listen to your body, well, you can take listening to your body to a whole new level with HRV. Best of luck in your training!

Kettlebells before Barbells

I don't dress as well as Mr. Peanut but you might label
me a gym snob.

If you can't do an exercise well, don't do it. Call me a gym snob for this philosophy if you must but

I'm a big believer in improving whatever exercise pattern you are training. Teach the body how to move and magical things will happen. Strength is a skill and trust me, the better you feel, the easier things get. Now it's easy to get caught up in trying to do the popular exercises using a barbell but I believe the best way to do this is by putting your ego aside and using kettlebells first. 

 Notice the back and hip position in
the Goblet Squat. The anterior load
makes the position easier for the body
than with a back squat due to the
posterior load, which requires
more mobility in the back and
shoulders.

First things first, the barbell is an excellent tool and I’m not saying it’s not. But I believe one has to familiarize the body in how to move before using a barbell. This is where the kettlebell excels because it does an excellent job teaching the body. The kettlebell has a low skill level entry with a low risk/high return on your training investment while poor barbell technique requires a higher skill level entry with a higher risk on the return. For instance, if you can’t Goblet Squat without anything hurting, why are you trying to back squat? If there's discomfort in a 1 arm Overhead Press, why are you Military Pressing? And if you aren't keeping tension, well, then you are in trouble! 

The kettlebell can teach your body how to take basic things and apply them to more complex one’s. Take the time to learn these basic kettlebell exercises:

• 1 Arm KB Rack (Tall and Half-Kneeling and Standing)
• 1 Arm Front Squat
• 1 Arm Deadlift
• 1 Leg Deadlift
• 1 Arm Overhead Press

After you've mastered your deadlifts, it's time to add swings to the mix. Why? Because the swing has the power to open doors to other exercises. More importantly, it's a ballistic exercise that requires the body to be explosive, making it unlike the above exercises.

The "A-HA" moment!

Kettlebells have a greater purpose than
being used a free-weight! 

These are awesomely powerful exercises and great at teaching the body it’s strengths and weaknesses. If there is a weakness, they can also help to improve the weakness. More importantly, you will have many "A-HA" moments. The obvious commonality of these exercises is that they are all one-sided. Why is that important? It allows your body to learn how to work both the right and left sides independent of one another. Before complicating an exercise with moving an external load, your body has to learn not to be a little tea pot and tip over or compensate.

Now watch as your skills sharpen and improve leading to greater strength!

Sometimes saying you like to do barbell exercises isn't a good enough reason to do them, especially if it's at the expense of how your body responds. Select exercises you can learn from and receive a higher return on your investment when you train. Best of luck in your training!

Proactive and Reactive Nutrition Decisions

There’s a big psychological component to nutritional guidance. And this can get messy due to the food and health associations you’ve formed over time. Trying to help improve someone’s views is not an easy task. We aren’t talking about 1 hour of training. We are talking about forming habits that you are conscious of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And these changes will inevitably bring about resistance to change and the “why’s.”

“Why can’t I do this”?

“Why can’t I do that”?

And so on.

Instead ask this "why" question, "Why am I doing this"? Take some time and think about it.

Look, I think educating yourself is great and ask as many good questions as you can. But there comes a point when you have to brush some of those “why’s” to the side and try something different. Your “why’s” are holding you back from becoming proactive. Instead ask yourself these two simple questions:

“Am I getting healthier doing what I am doing”?

“Am I happy”?

It’s really that simple.

The longer you wait and fight with the “why’s” it prevents you from implementing a plan and being proactive. Ever wondered why your nutrition plan didn’t work for you? There are no stakes involved and because IT WASN’T A BIG ENOUGH DEAL. And if there are no stakes involved, what’s holding you to stick with it? And herein lies the problem with trying to be proactive, there’s no sense of urgency. We need it to be a big deal before we can proceed with a change. We aren’t proactive, we are reactive to change.

Yup, I'm the John Edward of the body communication plane.
But in all seriousness, add some objectivity to your lifestyle. 

It’s funny; people try to negotiate with me when it comes to a nutrition plan. When this happens, I tend to say, “it’s not me telling you this, it’s your body. I happen to be translating on its behalf”.

Most of us are searching for a nutrition plan that let’s us eat what we want, as much as we want and still look good. Let me save you some time, it doesn’t exist (or it did, during childhood). Now a smart plan will be a little flexible and allow you to indulge a little. But honestly, how many of us are good with moderation?

Others will eat “healthy”. And sure, the food choices are certainly healthy one’s. However, it’s too much. You can’t argue the simple logic that if you are eating too much of anything, healthy or unhealthy, and your body isn’t utilizing the food as energy, it’s too much! “It’s not me telling you this, it’s your body. I happen to be translating on its behalf”

Again, “it’s not me telling you this, it’s your body. I happen to be translating on its behalf”. They are your goals, not mine. I’m merely a compass trying to point you in a healthier direction that’s based on your goals, your health and your happiness. But if you think I have some magical power to allow someone to eat what they want, as much as they want and look the way they want and still be healthy, sorry but I don’t. It’s about choice. It’s ok to eat a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup everyday if that’s your thing. But then realize you have to make sure you don’t overeat because it didn’t satiate your hunger. That can be difficult.

Damn you Red Velvet Cake and all of your deliciousness!

A friend once told me how she tried a diet once. She said she felt great during it and that she completed it. But not long after it, she fell off the wagon and went back to her old ways. She just couldn’t give up that damned Red Velvet Cake and beer! The reason she gave me for breaking the plan was that it wasn’t sustainable. While on it, she hit on great personal points; she felt better, looked better and was happier. It did work for her. So what’s the problem? Her way of thinking about nutrition was the problem. The 30 days of her plan was over but it was just the beginning. Nutrition can be a day-to-day struggle. No matter what plan my friend implements, none will procure a healthier future until she can embrace the notion that nutrition never ends. If a plan is to work, there’s going to be some work involved because it calls for being accountable to herself because of her choices.

Instead of telling her what I thought, I told her to imagine…

Upon your annual check-up, your doctor informed you that you have diabetes. You knew it was always a risk because of your family’s history but you thought you’d have more time to make those changes. Time ran out to make that lifestyle change you put off and choice has been taken out of your hands.

A clairvoyant foretells in 10 years time you will be diagnosed with diabetes. Technically, you are healthy right now and don’t need to make any changes yet.

Maybe, we should start looking at our future
more like this.

The clairvoyant has laid out a potential path but you have the power to alter that path. The question now is will you make any changes? If your answer is “no, not yet” because you have time, good luck with that. You fail to see the big picture that a lifestyle change isn’t a quick fix but rather a gradual process to improve over time (this is probably another reason you haven’t reached your health and fitness goals). If your answer is “yes” you just made a decision to commit to your health. By making some changes to your lifestyle now, you can gradually improve your nutrition habits over time. You are invested in your future.

This is an extreme example but we could play this game with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, food allergies, etc. The point is we lack forward thinking. Forward thinking requires planning. And planning isn’t something we do very well until we are confronted with needing to make a change. We react to the problem in front of us. We tend to complain less about a change when it’s no longer a choice but a necessity. Now, it’s beyond my ability to communicate with the body…IT’S YOUR BODY TELLING YOU THIS!

If this is your nutrition philosophy, "I know this doesn't
fit, but gosh darn it, I'm going to make it fit", you are in
trouble!

Now before you label me as a monk being on the other end of the spectrum, I’m not advocating that either. The lifestyle shouldn’t be an all or nothing thing but something that works for you. It should be a balance of something that you are happy with and keeps you healthy. For example, more than likely you equate social outings as freedom to eat and drink freely. Or maybe you think of vacations of decadent foods and lounging at the beach with a strawberry daiquiri. And that’s your choice. But the next day when you reflect on the copious amounts of alcohol and food you consumed, was it worth it? If you regret it, than I’d say it wasn’t. Look, I’m not here to judge because I understand it’s not easy but a lot of this is common sense. You know most, if not all of this. But sometimes common sense isn’t so common J Health and Nutrition is like a puzzle. What fits? What works and what doesn’t work?

Make small changes to start and gradually over time there will be a shift in a more positive way. Have that slice of Red Velvet Cake because you didn’t stray from your nutrition plan and because you were consistent in your training for the week. But stop at that one piece. And if you stumble a little, that’s ok. Get back into the routine. Even if you take two steps forward and one step back, you are still one step ahead from where you started!

Here comes the simple truth, if you aren’t happy or healthy, you need to take a good hard look at your lifestyle and make changes. Remember, I’m John Edwards and “it’s not me telling you this, it’s your body. I happen to be translating on its behalf”. Look, there’s no crystal ball to foretell if and when your health will be affected. Nutrition will always be a struggle because it’s a 24 hour, 7-day a week never ending battle. It’s not a diet that ends after 30 days. Ultimately, whatever plan you implement should lead to a lifestyle change full of better decisions. Make smarter and healthier choices and you will be better for it. And if you can do that, congratulations, you are being proactive! Best of luck in your training and health!

The Importance of taking care of your Feet: It starts from the Ground Up

Ever stop to smell the roses? Well, how about you stop and listening to your feet? What are they saying? More importantly, are you listening? You may not realize it but your feet are a direct link to the rest of your body. Healthier feet can help fix some of the imbalances in the body. Simply put, it starts from the ground up.

Think this improved arch will make daily
               activities easier and exercise more enjoyable?        

Unless you have some weird foot appreciation (like me. Hey, this is a no judgment zone) or you are a podiatrist, you probably don’t consider your feet very much, if at all. However, your feet are responsible for supporting your entire body weight (thank you Captain Obvious). Not only that your feet act as shock absorbers when you walk. What if your feet aren’t able to provide the shock absorption your body needs? This will result in discomfort. Rather than feel this discomfort, the body will ask another part of the body to pick up the slack. What was once a foot dysfunction became a calf, knee, hip or back problem because of this vicious cycle of compensation. See my point? Keeping that in mind, should you be doing more than walking? If you are running, jumping, or squatting (or all of the above), it might be little wonder why you are experience pain. At the heart of the problem (more like at the bottom) your feet are a big reason why. My friends, fitness comes before health only in the dictionary.

Remember, the body is designed to be mechanically efficient. I said it’s designed to be efficient, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are practicing movement efficiency. And the inefficient movements create compensatory patterns within the body’s desired mechanical design.

If we look at the foot a little more closely, it has: 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. The structure of the foot is meant to form an arch. Technically, the foot has three arches: medial longitudinal, lateral longitudinal and transverse. Now if the foot is more flat, you can understand why this presents a challenge on the body because of the mechanical compensation throughout the body.

Instead of trying to fix the problem, we ignore it. Ever stop to think about the cranky knee or tight calf or hamstring and what’s causing it? That’s a warning signal from your body that something isn’t right. Think your foot has something to do with it? Well, let’s say you take that flat foot and cranky knee and have it try to back squat with heavy weight. Since we already know the feet is having difficulty handling it's own bodyweight, what chance does it have to succeed with more weight? My friend, you are now playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette (you might’ve gotten through this session without injury but without fixing it, I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time).

What do your feet look like?

I get it, it’s not sexy to work on your feet. Feeling good and relieving discomfort isn’t as big a priority for most, while having big arms are. It’s semantics! In all my years, I’ve never heard someone say, “Damn, look at the arches on that dude”! (I lie, I actually did comment to a guy once, it didn’t roll off the tongue very easily). So what do we do, we pump up the arms instead because we want bigger arms so we can impress the cute girl on the elliptical. Makes sense. However, great arms don't last, but the ability to move well lasts your entire life.

Whatever the cause of your feet problems, weight issues, poor movement and exercise habits or injuries, it can be corrected (unless it is a medical condition). Here are my suggestions:

Consult a foot specialist about minimalist training shoes

• Spend 10 minutes either at the start of your day or the end of your day (or both) to give some TLC to your feet. 
• Massage the arches manually and roll the arch on a golf ball (again, this does not take the place of massage therapy but rather it is supplemental body maintenance). 
• Now, when you walk, try not to let your feet revert back to it's initial flatter state. For more foot drills, please read this excellent blog from Breaking Muscle, http://breakingmuscle.com/natural-movement/building-on-quicksand-how-and-why-to-strengthen-your-feet.
• Invest in shoes/sneakers that help in your foot rehabilitation.

The body is a mechanical wonder and capable of wondrous things. But it starts from the ground and works it way up the body. Show your feet some love and you will be rewarded in all aspects of life. Best of luck in your training!