Doug Kelsey's Blog

Exercise Is Exercise; A Calorie Is a Calorie?

A few years ago, I bumped into a friend in the lobby of a theater. While we waited for the show to start, he asked me what I was up to. I explained I had just finished a DVD on fat loss. He laughed and said, "Is there something new? Like something other than eat less and exercise more?"

And that is the perception of many people. If you want to lose weight (meaning fat), all you need to do is cut calories and increase your activity. And, this is a true statement. You will lose weight. But, the question is, what kind of weight have you lost?

The combination of what you eat and what kind of exercise you do makes a big difference in weight loss. People who eat a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet and lift weights lose mostly fat. People who eat a higher carbohydrate and lower protein diet who lift weights also lose fat but they lose more muscle as well. And people, who only walk for exercise lose the most muscle - up to 35% of the drop in weight (diets higher in protein lose less muscle at about 20%)*.

Not all exercise is the same and not all calories are the same. You can cut calories and even add exercise to shape your body but end up with a body out of shape.

*Layman, D. K., E. Evans, et al. (2005). "Dietary protein and exercise have additive effects on body composition during weight loss in adult women." J Nutr 135(8): 1903-10.

The Squat: 13 Things To Do It Right

This article is about how to use the squat as a drill to improve trunk, hip, and leg strength. Take my advice and get this down before you try adding much weight to the movement. The extra weight will showcase your deficits in form and can lead to injury. Master the "air" squat first.

1. Stand tall and look straight ahead with your feet about shoulder width apart and feet angled out slightly.
2. Increase the curve in your lower back as much as possible by tilting your pelvis forward then tilt it the other way as much as possible. Now, find the mid-point of that motion and use bracing to hold it there.
3. Brace tightly and keep it that way.
4. Sit down by moving your butt back and down (think of your ear moving straight down to the floor - you won't be able to actually move straight down but it will help prevent bending forward to soon).
5. Keep the trunk straight.
6. Keep your knees tracking over an imaginary line extending out of the toes / foot.
7. Knees should not roll inside of the foot.
8. Keep pressure on the heels.
9. Lift your arms forward as your body moves down.
10. Keep the lumbar curve throughout the squat. Do not flex it.
11. Stop when your knee is at a 90 degree angle.
12. Begin the ascent by tightening the gluteal muscles and pushing through the feet as if you're pushing the floor down and away.
13. Stand up all the way.

Who can do this?
You must be able to withstand at least gravity level forces through your trunk and lower extremities. If you hurt doing this movement, it's not for you. And, if you increase the speed of motion, you'll quickly exceed body weight (gravity) force.

Common Movement Faults

1. Allowing the lower back to flex or round.
2. Allowing the knees to move too far inward.
3. Bending over too much at the hips.
4. Allowing the heels to come off the floor.
5. Not standing all the way back up.

The squat blends strength and flexibility. If you do not have enough motion and/or strength in the ankle or hip or spine, you'll likely have one or more movement faults.

Vector Loading

A long time ago, I stumbled onto this idea: by adding a line of force (vector) at an angle to the body, I could increase the amount of work during exercise with only a mild increase in compression loads. This idea is derived from knowing that ground reaction force is the sum of three force vectors: vertical, forward-back shear, and medial-lateral shear.

For example, if you perform a lunge, the force of the foot hitting the ground is the vertical vector and is by far the largest of the three. The little bit of wobble forward or back, side to side are the other force vectors. For a time in my practice, I used Kistler Force Plates to test force production for things like a single leg squat or lunge. I could tell if the client was using compensatory movements on one limb versus the other by looking at the forces in the second and third vectors. By using force plates, I proved that by introducing force into the medial-lateral plane, vertical force increased.

I had the client step onto the force plate (the force plate connected to a computer.). I attached an elastic band to the waist and pulled the band taut. If the test was for the right limb, I pulled to the left. Then, I asked the client to perform five, single leg squats through 70 degrees of knee motion. I used an adjustable lab chair to fix the range of motion so that when the client performed the squat, he/she would stop the motion once the buttock hit the chair.

Following this test, I repeated the test without the lateral force. In every case, vertical force was greater during application of the lateral force.

Here's why.

In the case where the force is opposite (pulling to the left while squatting on the right leg), the client must counter that force in order to remain balanced and does this by increasing force in not just the medial-lateral vector but in the other vectors as well.

But, what if the vector is to the same side instead of the opposite? Pulling to the right instead of the left?

A group of scientists studied the effect of lateral force while walking on a treadmill. Their hypothesis was that actively controlling the small amount of lateral sway during gait actually had an associated energy cost and that if you applied equal lateral force, bilaterally, gait parameters would change and energy cost would go down. That's exactly what they found. By applying springs at the waist that pulled right and left at the same time, they reduced the instability of walking and the result was a 10% decrease in energy cost.*  They made walking easier.

So, back to my own "lab". Something that many clients with joint disease (knee, hip, back primarily) struggled with was increasing muscle strength. The conventional methods of strengthening, adding resistance, often exceeded the joint force tolerance. The result is joint pain, stiffness, or aching. But, I found that by adding a vector, clients could perform drills such as squats with much less pain and achieve greater fatigue. Since I could control the vector force (I used a pulley but you could use elastic tubing or springs), I could grade the drills in small enough increments and avoid overloading them.

In the image to the right, the vector is lateral to the left while Christine performs a backslider (slides the other foot back) on the right. This version is slightly easier (more stable) than if the vector was directed to the right (remember the treadmill study). 

In either case, the vector creates a rotational force that Christine must counter with the hip and trunk muscles by keeping her hands in front of her. This is a spine-friendly drill that will increase strength and endurance of the core (and if you have shoulder weakness, you'll notice it!).

Some of the more common applications of vector loading:

• A lateral force to the trunk while performing a sit to stand drill.
• A lateral force via the hands while performing a lunge or reverse lunge.
• A lateral force to the legs while lifting something off the ground.
• A lateral force against the hand while reaching up and forward (as in a punch).

Donelan, J. M., Shipman, D. W., Kram, R., and Kuo, A. D. (2004) Mechanical and metabolic requirements for active lateral stabilization in human walking. Journal of Biomechanics, 37: 827-835.

Repetitions

What's a repetition?

I know you're probably thinking, "Why is he writing about something so mundane?"

I once suffered from a little known syndrome called "familiaritis" (I'm making this up so you won't find it on Google). This occurs when you hear a word or a phrase that you think you know; that sounds so familiar that you think you actually do know when, in reality, if you had to explain it in detail, you might not know as much as you think.

So, when I first heard terms like "degenerative disc disease" or "osteoarthritis" or even more common "back pain", I recognized the words from my training and schooling, had a weak mental picture of it but that's as about as far as I could take it. If you had asked me to explain the disease process, the tissue damage, what makes the tissues healthier, what are the stories that people tell with these problems, I would have little sound coming from my mouth.

Now that you know about familiaritis, let's go back to the word "repetition".

What's a repetition?

Some definitions are:

• the act of doing or performing again.
• the number of times a motion for an exercise is completed.
• one complete movement of an exercise from start to finish.

But, these definitions are missing something important - how the movement is performed. You can complete a movement with your body flailing about or you can complete it under control. A well performed repetition is one performed under control. In other words, a repetition is one complete movement of an exercise from to start to finish with good form and control.

Why is this important? With any exercise, you're training the central nervous system; developing habits. Some of these habits, like learning how to control movement, will then transfer into your life. How you lift a trash can, carry your daughter, shovel snow - they all involve movement that you have to control to prevent injury and function optimally.

So, what does, "good form and control" mean? Biomechanically, it means controlling the axis of motion of all joints involved whether those joints are moving or not. When you control the axis of motion, the movement pattern appears smooth, graceful, and pleasing to the eye. You know a beautifully executed dance by watching it. When you fail to control any individual axis, the total pattern degrades.

A good example of this is squatting on one leg. The ankle, knee, hip, pelvis, and trunk all must be controlled. You may be able to squat one one leg without pain. But, if your pelvis drops to one side or sways or you have more movement in your hip than your knee, you have not performed a repetition. You performed something; I just wouldn't call it a repetition.

Pay attention to how you perform movements and make sure you (or your client) control the axis of rotation to qualify for a repetition.

You Become What You Do

Your body adapts and learns from what you do and doesn’t tell you about it.

A few years ago, my friend and business partner Ryan Smith, was in town visiting for a few days. We started talking about basketball and before long we had decided to go to the park at the end of the street and shoot some baskets. Just a friendly game of H-O-R-S-E.

Well, the game of H-O-R-S-E turned into a few games of one-on-one. I hadn’t actually played basketball in years; hadn’t really even played H-O-R-S-E in years either.

I was determined to not less this guy, nearly twenty years younger, beat me. We played hard. I was exhausted when we finished but was triumphant. I felt great.

Until the next morning when I could barely walk down the stairs. I thought I had just “over done it” and the pain and stiffness would pass. It didn’t. I had injured both Achilles tendons and had a bad case of tendonosis for months. About nine months. All from three or four games of one-on-one.

Your body is inherently lazy by design always seeking the lowest level of energy expenditure to get the job done. This is why you do not need to be fit to be alive. Your body can function at a very low level of fitness because of its ability to adapt.

But, your brain doesn’t know much about your fitness level.

You might think you can still run five miles, or play basketball, or ski the black runs at Vail even though its been years since you’ve done any of those things. So, like me, one day you decide to give it go. Most of the time, it doesn’t go well.

You become what you do. Train your body to play basketball or ski or run and you’ll enjoy it, do it with much less damage, and feel a lot better.

You become what you do.

Use Power

Combine strength with speed, you get power.

By reducing your training load but increasing the speed at which you move that load, you increase your power and, as a result, strength.

Force = mass x acceleration.

A study that examined training using a power-specific protocol found that muscle strength and speed increased yet required only 50% of the 1RM.

To increase your power, use 50% of your 1RM and move fast.

DK

Henwood TR, Riek S, Taaffe DR. Strength versus muscle power-specific resistance training in community-dwelling older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2008 Jan;63(1):83-91.