Getting Fit While You Hit

by Nick Strutz, Personal Trainer

This month, we've invited LSF personal trainer Nick Strutz to be our guest blogger.

A couple of years into my career as a personal trainer, I felt the need to expand my arsenal of tools to help my clients along their fitness journeys. I wanted something that was powerful and efficient in delivering results, as well as something that was dynamic and fun enough to make exercise something my clients could look forward to. That’s where boxing came in.

Boxing can be one of the most well-rounded approaches to getting into the best shape possible. Who doesn’t want to burn fat, increase cardiovascular endurance, target both upper and lower body muscles, improve coordination, release stress, and have fun all at the same time? Studies consistently show that, when done right, adding boxing to a fitness routine can decrease visceral fat, improve cardiac output or VO2 max, and lower one’s resting heart rate (1). In addition, boxing has been shown to be an effective treatment for the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. In one study, 83% of participants with Parkinson’s showed improvements in gait, balance, and overall quality of life (2).

It helps to do a little homework before jumping in. I wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt myself while learning the ropes and getting comfortable with boxing, and certainly didn’t want any of my clients to suffer injury, either. Here are a few helpful tips I’ve picked up along the way to make sure boxing is done as safely as possible:

• Those dealing with any injury or chronic condition, especially in the wrist, elbow, shoulder, or neck should exercise caution in trying boxing.
• As with strength training, circuits, or cardio, at least a light warm-up is helpful in preventing injury.
• Before getting the gloves on, it is important to wrap the hands. Wraps can either be attached quickly with a Velcro sleeve, or the old-fashioned way with long ribbon-like wraps. This provides cushion and stability to the small joints in the knuckles and wrists and helps absorb the impact of punches.
• When throwing a punch, be sure to keep the abdominal muscles engaged and the glute muscles active when necessary.
• Before the punch lands, whether on a speed bag, heavy bag, or your trainer’s focus mitts, you will want to clench your fists to provide additional stability to the wrist.
• When getting your head out of the way of a swipe as a defensive maneuver, be sure to step back with your back foot as opposed to arching your low back (bending at the low back to get out of the way).

Whether you want to blow off steam after a tough work day, learn self-defense, or incinerate body fat, there is something for everyone in boxing. When you feel ready to take your fitness to the next level, give it a try!


References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4234943/ 
2. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/91/1/132/2735142

Additional resources:
Halbert, C. (2003). The Ultimate Boxer: Understanding the Sport and Skills of Boxing. Impact Seminars, Inc.

Getting Into a Pickle(ball)

by Sally Fansler, PT

Move over, tennis and golf – here comes pickleball! A new favorite pastime among Baby Boomers, this sport combines elements of badminton, tennis and ping-pong. In recent years, it has become popular with older adults because of the smaller court, lower net, and slower ball speed. The rules are fairly straightforward and easy to learn, so pickleball easily becomes a fun social activity. It can be played indoors or out, in singles or doubles.

Over the past decade, however, the pickleball craze is taking hold at all age levels. Teenagers often play it in their physical education classes, and it is showing up as an intramural sport on college campuses. According to the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA), the sport has seen a 650% increase in numbers over the past six years. On-site pickleball courts are now being built not only at many retirement communities, but also as part of community park districts. The equipment – wooden paddles and plastic, whiffle-type balls – is also affordable, making it accessible to be enjoyed by a wide range of people.

Here is the pickleball rule overview:

• The serve must be underhand and below the waist—and it must be made at least one foot behind the baseline, struck diagonally crosscourt.  Only one serve attempt is allowed.
• Only the team serving the ball is able to score points, which take place when the opposite side fails to return the ball or commits other faults, such as hitting the ball out of bounds. 
• When the ball is served, the receiving team must let it bounce before returning, and then the serving team must let it bounce before returning, thus two bounces.
• After the ball has bounced once in each team’s court, both teams may either volley the ball (hit the ball before it bounces) or play it off a bounce (ground stroke).
• The two-bounce rule eliminates the serve and volley advantage and extends rallies.
• With doubles, both players on the serving team have the opportunity to serve and score points until they commit a fault
• Games normally go to 11 points, with the leading team needing to be 2 points ahead to win

Lakeshore Sport & Fitness in Chicago is planning an intro to pickleball class on Sundays in the fall of 2019. Please contact LPRacquet@LakeshoreSF.com for more information. The Chicago Park District is also growing their program and information on additional places to play can be found here: https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/taxonomy/term/2210

References:

https://www.usapa.org/

Improving Fitness with a Good Night's Sleep

by Chase Irons, Personal Trainer

This month, we've invited LSF personal trainer Chase Irons to be our guest blogger.

In my 10 years of personal training I’ve heard all sorts of bizarre and unusual questions and comments about health and fitness. A question that I get far too often, however, is something along the lines of, "How little sleep can I get by with while still being able to function optimally?" It isn't a question limited to personal training, either: at one point or another, all of us have likely wished we didn’t have to sleep so we'd have more time in the day to get things done. More than that, there are even all kinds of products on the market that claim to be able to help us keep going longer on less sleep. 

Luckily, scientific research on sleep and its effects on the body are plentiful. In a 2010 study, researchers sought to determine whether a combination of sleep deprivation and a moderate caloric deficit would affect results in body composition. For 14 days 3 women and 7 men were instructed to stay in bed for either 8.5 hours or 5.5 hours per night, and their meals were standardized at about 1,450 calories per day. Three months later, the study was repeated for another 14 days with the same participants.

At the end of the study the researchers found that both groups had a nearly the same weight loss of around 6.6 pounds. However, the 8.5 hour group had lost equal amounts of muscle mass and fat mass, while 80% of the sleep-deprived group's loss was lean mass while only 20% was body fat. That means that with all other factors held the same, only a fifth of the sleep-deprived group's weight loss was actually from body fat.

So what exactly is going on in the body to cause this phenomenon? In sleep-deprived individuals there are a few hormones that get knocked out of balance: they produce less leptin, more ghrelin and more cortisol. Decreased production of leptin can make the stomach feel empty. Increased ghrelin production triggers the body's tendency to store fat, reduce the amount of calories it burns, and stimulate hunger. Cortisol is a stress hormone frequently associated with fat gain and muscle wasting, and it also makes us crave sugary and fatty foods. To successfully lose fat we need to optimize leptin, ghrelin and cortisol, but sleep deprivation will make that nearly impossible.

Even if we stick to our diets and hit the gym, sleep deprivation makes it so that the calories we burn come from more from stored energy and less from stored body fat. Because of the muscle-wasting cortisol and the increased hunger because of the lowered leptin and raised ghrelin, it's going to take that much longer to see a positive change in our bodies.

So make it easy on yourself! Get the sleep your body needs so that you aren't working against your goals.

Additional Resources:

Insuffient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951287/

Impact of Five Nights of Sleep Restriction on Glucose Metabolism, Leptin and Testosterone in Young Adult Men

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0041218

Influence of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance and insulin sensitivity in healthy women.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20054188

Sleep loss results in an elevation of cortisol levels the next evening.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9415946

Sleep restriction for 1 week reduces insulin sensitivity in healthy men.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20585000

Running Safely as We Age

by Meredith Franczyk, PT

Running is one of the most popular types of exercise around the world. Since it requires very little equipment and can be done just about anywhere, people of all ages have found themselves lacing up their shoes and going for a jog. Running's many physical benefits - increases in aerobic capacity and skeletal mass, improvements in balance and cognitive function, and decreased chance of heart problems, to name a few - also make it an attractive option.

As our bodies age, however, we experience changes that can affect our ability to run. From the age of 40 onward, adults experience sarcopenia, or degenerative loss of muscle, losing between 5-8% of their muscle per decade. In addition, increased body fat percentage, decline in muscle thickness, decreased vertebral height, and joint stiffness can make maintaining any kind of workout a challenge. A more specific challenge that runners face is a decrease in type II muscle fibers with age. Also known as fast-twitch fibers, these fibers help us to move quickly in short bursts, and the decrease in these fibers diminishes our ability to sprint.

Biomechanics and stride pattern also tend to change as a result of our aging bodies. Achilles tendinopathy and calf strains have the highest incidence rates in older adults due to decrease in big toe mobility and altered biomechanics, so it is important to adapt a running program to one's body to avoid injury. To decrease these risks, older adults should do the following:

• Cross-train more (bike, swim, etc.)
• Run slower (to control altered biomechanics)
• Change shoes more often (to help control stability)
• Improve flexibility
• Maintain range of motion
• Improve quadriceps, calf and hamstring strength

When performed properly, running can absolutely be part of a healthy lifestyle for an older adult. As long as we make the correct adaptations to maintain healthy running form, we can hit the track with confidence even into our later years.

References:

Conoboy, P. and R. Dyson. Effect of aging on the stride pattern of veteran marathon runners. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 40:601, 2006.

Cavagna, G.A., M.A. Legramandi, and L.A. Peyre-Tartaruga. Old men running: mechanical work and elastic bounce. Proc BiolSci. 275:411-418, 2008.

Chakravarty, E., H. Hubert, V. Lingala, E. Zatarain, and J. Fries. Long Distance Running and Knee Osteoarthrits: A Prospective Study. Am J Prev Med. 35(2):133-138, 2008.