Traveling abroad? Do these things first!

So I took a quick visit to London to see my best friend Allan, and I have to say I was the most prepared I think one can be for traveling international. When I touched down at Heathrow and turned on my phone I got an email from Allan saying he was sick and I needed to get to his apartment on my own. He gave me a great detailed guide (almost too much), but it wasn’t a problem because I was prepared. How was I prepared? Three simple steps:

1.       Credit Card: I called the credit card company a day in advance to let them know I was traveling to London, so when they saw charges coming from there not to freeze my card. This definitely saved me some hassle when I’m at the airport and needed to buy a train ticket.

2.       Phone plan: The day of my departure I called my carrier (AT&T) and bought myself an international voice, data, and text plan.  Buying these plans in advance and in the US is much cheaper than buying one overseas. Not to mention it’s a lot harder to gain access to the right number to call when your smart phone isn’t working.  This was super important for me because I planned on using the GPS feature of my phone to navigate the streets of London, which means I needed data.

3.       Cash: Pounds, to be specific. I contacted my bank four days ahead of time and got myself some cash. You get the foreign currency at a much, much better rate then at the airport. Cash was super important for me because the cabs/buses were cash only,  and they would not have appreciated me trying to use American Dollars.

So if you’re leaving the country, doing these three simple things will let you be prepared for anything that may happen.  Also, when you go to work out, make sure what you’re lifting is in kilos or pounds. Mistaking one for the other will lead to some definite surprises.

The Morals of a Paleo Follower.

Today I’m going to talk about a subject matter that I think about all the time: diet.  I think about it all the time, and read about it all the time, but I rarely, if ever, talk about diet.  I’m not going to be breaking any new ground here, but I feel the need to get this off my chest so I can get on with my life.  It seems that the old saying should be remade to state “Never mention politics, religion, or diet in polite conversation”, since the easiest way to raise a paleo person’s hackles is to talk about how unhealthy red meat is, or visa versa with a vegetarian/vegan. There are many flavors of diet out there, but specifically I’m going to be talking about veganism and paleo(ism?).

First off, why can’t we be friends? Paleo and vegan (in spirit) are both pro-local, unprocessed foods and both hate Monsanto and McDonalds. Both are also anti-dairy in general(Although Paleo does allow one to eat dairy if you it turns out you’re lactose-tolerant, same with grains too, actually). Given the small difference in what the diets perscribe, we really should be holding hands and singing kumbaya and make plans to help out local farmers and fight corporations like Monsanto aka the devil.

But for some reason we can’t get along. Taking morals out of the equation and talking strictly about health, I’ve noticed that a vegan simply won’t try out paleo for two weeks, nor will a paleo person try abstaining from meat for two weeks.  Why is that? Why do people refuse to try the other side? Well, my guess is that they both work pretty well. I mean, what happens to a person who goes from eating whatever to veganism or paleo? THEY SUDDENLY START CARING ABOUT THE FOOD THEY PUT IN THEIR BODIES!!!  You start to really monitor what you eat. This, combined with the lack of processed foods and probable reduction in sugar, and guess what? You suddenly lose fat, get healthier, and feel better!!

The problem is that it seems to be human nature to say “Hey this worked great for me, so if you’re not doing it like how I did it then you’re doing it wrong.  What’d you say?? I’m doing it wrong??? NO YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!!! YOU DIE AND GO TO HELL!!!!” We tend to think there is only one way, and that our way is the best way.  This passion can blind us from the fact that what might work for you might not be right for some. Or perhaps what works for someone else may also work for you, if you cared to change things up. But the thing is people don’t care to change things up, at least not very easily.  Would it really kill a paleo person to have a meal where the main source of protein is tempeh? Would it really be unhealthy for the vegan to occasionally have some liver (a real super food)?

We always try to take our own personal experiences and then apply them to the world. This doesn’t work because 1) the world is a much bigger place than our own experience and 2) our application is always biased by our beliefs.  We tend to accept things that strengthen our belief, and tend to ignore things that weaken them. Just  seems like human nature, I guess.

Health vs morals

The argument about which lifestyle is healthier will probably go on decades. Again, I don’t see why paleo  and vegan can’t get along because there are quite a few commonalities. Whatever the case, I’m not going to really argue which one is healthier. If it makes you happy, then go for it. I was once called into a debate on FB to argue that grass-fed meat is actually healthy. I try to avoid these things because arguing is useless, for every Super Size Me there’s a Fat Head, but because I was asked to do so I obliged and for my arguments/beliefs I was likened to one who believes the earth is flat. I found that funny because I always viewed the media’s love for veganism as analogous to the belief that the earth is flat: An idea that was once popular but is now defunct by science (Personal belief here, I know “science” can be manipulated).

But I think people tend to confuse health with morals. I guess the idea is that if a lifestyle is healthier than it must be a more inherently moral lifestyle as well, that our bodies are the ultimate judge of what is right and what is wrong, and act accordingly. Morals you can’t argue about. I mean, I could tell you your morals are wrong, but I believe that would be pointless. I understand this is my own personal belief on morals, but I believe there are no “correct” set of morals, there are only your own personal set of morals. And if it works for you, then God bless you. Others may believe differently, but if you believe in something, well, then whatever makes you happy you should follow through on.  I should also note that Veganism is much more closely tied to a set of morals (prevention of animal cruelty) then paleo. Probably why it seems that I see a lot of Paleo people will have the occasional cheat (myself included) while Vegans will almost never cheat. When it’s about someone else (or other animals), you tend to stick to your guns more readily than if it’s just about you.

But why do we even fight on the matter? It’s not like a vegan is going to get into a discussion with an omnivore and suddenly be like “Oh my God you’re right, I’ve been doing it all wrong!!!!”

To use an analogy, raising children is like believing what is the best way to eat, a real personal belief based on morals.  It’s like Mrs. Hall’s article about how she is raising her kidsand Morgan’s response to it saying she’s an awful mom. These two ladies simply have different morals, and so they are never going to see eye to eye.  Parenting styles are highly individualized, and so are eating habits/beliefs.

Again I know I’m not really setting the world afire with this post, but I am going to conclude with my own personal views.  I’ve had some inner conflict about being paleo while still caring about animal rights, and this has been going on for quite a while.  Early last year, I’ve tried to explain to myself how I can mourn the loss of a pet guinea pig while enjoying bacon. I don’t know if I really got to a full resolution that day, but now after a year or two to let it stew I think I’ve come up with a more complete explanation.

For some being to live, another being must die. Hell this even applies to plants in the equator who compete for the sunlight. For example, even following a vegan diet requires thousands of insects to die in the form of pesticides, not to mention the whole bunch of plants that also have a right to live. So it’s a slippery slope to me. If it’s ok for insects to dieso that you may live why is it not ok for other animals to die? So I feel that while it is alright to eat other animals from a moral standpoint, I feel like you owe that animal something. When you take that animal’s energy and make it a part of your own, that should create the obligation to not waste it, to use it to become the best possible human being you can be.  So for me, I try every day to make that day have meaning, to never pass up the chance to do the right thing and better the world around me as I know how. Note that I’m talking about death here, not suffering. I’m very much against animal suffering, which is why I buy grass fed beef, humanely raised pork, and try to buy eggs that came from happy chickens(I try to buy everything from local sources). If I thought I’d be happy living off the land in Alaska, I would.

So that is where my moral compass is pointing. I’ve never heard of another paleo person talk about the morals of paleo, but perhaps now that I’ve written this I may spark some kind of dialogue.  Please let me know what you think in the comments.

Training update

Up until now I've been following the strength programming Starting Strength (SS) for the squat and deadlift, and the 531 powerlifting program for the overhead press and bench press.  I like the starting strength because it produces linear gains, my squat working sets have been going up 15 pounds a week.  When I was finally given the ok to squat by my PT back in Durham, I was doing 65#, and even that wasn't done very well (was quite rusty).  The other week I did work sets of 225# with the front squat. That's a 160# gain in a couple of months.

Thing is SS requires that I squat 3 times a week.  Now I'm not really complaining about that, I like squatting, and I don't mind squatting all the time.  But the thing is, trying to do SS with 531 takes a lot of time.  ...A LOT of time.  Like suddenly I'm spending 2 hours at the gym.  Perhaps there's some other way I can incorporate the two and still be in the gym under an hour, but I don't see it.  So I've decided to do 531 for every lift except for the deadlift, which I only do once a week under SS anyway.

It has freed up quite a bit of time at the gym, so now I've decided to do the big but boring challenge with the 531 program.  After you finish the strength part of the lifting you do 5 sets of 10 reps of lighter weight.  Well I decided to do with with dead lifting as well. So on Wednesday I decided to do 5 sets of 10 reps of 135#.  This definitely raised the heart rate, and definitely wore me out, like I was expecting.

What I was not expecting was to wake up the next day with stabbing pain in my back.  It's seriously painful.  I can tell it's my QL, but the weird thing is that it's on my right side.  In the past I've always has a hard time with my left QL, hell four years ago I thought it was a kidney infection.

Not too sure that this change is a good thing or a bad thing, but I believe change is good, no matter what. Perhaps I'm peeling one more layer of the onion of pain.

Know Thy Enemy. Meet, the Laberal Tear!

So I finally got the MRI images of my shoulder mailed to me.  I looked through the images until I found the one that the PA used to show me the tear. I've added the yellow arrows to help highlight the labrum and its tear.  It's actually really nice to finally put a "face" to the source of all of my neck/shoulder problems that I have had for years.

Again, the tear in the labrum seems to be unique for two different reasons. First, it was causes by just one case of blunt force trauma.  Back in high school I was thrown to the mat on my shoulder so hard I cracked my collarbone. Never knew about the tear in the labrum until 15 years later.  Second, the tear is near the back of the shoulder. It's not in the front or top, so it's not a SLAP tear, which is much, much more common.  It's funny, I never thought I had a tear in my labrum in my shoulder because I had a tear in the labrum in my hip. I figured the odds of having a torn labrum (some piece of anatomy I had never heard of until like 6 years ago) in two different joints was just too high.  I didn't want to be the guy who was seeing labrum tears everywhere. Guess I was wrong.

Seeing the damage has re-motivated me to get something done about it.  I've been training to get stronger using 531, a power lifting program.  I've noticed that no matter what weight/rep scheme I use my calculated one rep max is about 228. Perhaps this is as heavy as I can lift with an unstable shoulder. So given my success with prolotherapy for the hip laberal tear, I'm going to try prolotherapy for the shoulder as well. I've decided I will begin treatment in January, when my flex spending account is replenished.  Although I'm seeking the same treatment- prolotherpy- I am going to see a different practitioner, Dr. Fullerton down in Austin. Now that I've moved from Chicago to Dallas, I want to see someone who is within driving distance. Besides, I've always wanted to visit Austin.  So in about three months expect me to start blogging more frequently, documenting the recovery process.  I'm not looking forward to being unable to bench or press during the time of recovery, but if this is the only way to stop being in pain all the time, so be it.

Sprinting??

So right now when I start to squat heavy (front squat over 200#, etc.) I start to affect my groin. This has be kind of treading water, or making gains at a very slow rate. I’m also not too happy with the almost 20% body fat reading I had a few weeks ago, so I want to do something that will burn off some fat, keep muscle, and be fun.

I have decided to try sprinting.  I like feeling fast (whether I am or not is another story), and I want to be faster.  I’ve thought about trying out a soccer league or something, and it would be nice to not be that guy wheezing the whole time. I do like running, just in real short bursts. So sprinting it is.

Thing is, I’ve never done track sprinting in my life. Soccer was about it. So I have no knowledge of technique or training programs. Thankfully there’s ton out there on the internet, so I’ve been doing my research.  Since I’m such a noob I’ll be doing my sprints at 50% to start out with while I try to work out on technique. I also don’t want to overtrain. I’m squatting 3 days a week right now with starting strength. I’ve thought on switching over to 531 with legs so that I can sprint more, but first let me try this combo out and just see how it works, especially since with my lack of technique I can’t push myself THAT hard on the track.

This should be interesting to see how it plays out.

New Game Plan, Going to try Rolfing.

So I’m going to try dry needling less often, and I’m now going to try squatting to less depth.  I always figured that if I got everything in my hip working correctly then I would be able to squat as deep as I want. Problem is, I might never have everything in my hip working correctly.  I’ve done so much to address my issues, FAI, torn labrum, just instability in general, that I figure I should be good to go.  Talking to the PT, though, he does make a good case that perhaps with my issues I just might not be able to squat to depth.  Squatting as low as I am doing is putting a massive strain on my adductors, and that is why they are forming trigger points (at least that’s his thought).  I have my doubts, partially because everything everyone seems to tell me is wrong in one way or another.

My counter argument is that perhaps there is something off with my hips that is causing my right adductors to for trigger points.  I have also noticed that as I start to squat heavy my left knee starts to ache. Well, not the joint itself like the patella, but it feels like the quad/tissue just surrounding the knee.  Front squats require a lot of knee strength because you start off the squat with a knee break in an effort to keep the torso upright. (If this doesn’t make sense just ask in the comments), so I’m just chalked this knee discomfort up to learning the front squat, to getting my knee used to the movement.  But, perhaps this left knee discomfort is more than just getting used to front squatting, perhaps it is a symptom of some kind of twist in my pelvis. I still experience some sort of anterior pelvic tilt, although I recently got back to doing my PT exercises that help quiet down my spinal erectors.

So to test this theory, to see if everything is in its proper place, I’ve decided to go see a rolfer.  I almost went to one back in December of 2009 but the cost was a bit steep for me. Now that I’ve been promoted a few times, I am ok with seeing one.  I have offered rolfing as an option to people who come to me for help, so I also have that as motivation to try it.  I figured a good massage therapist was the same as a rolfer, even got into an argument with someone about it in the comments section.  My old massage therapist also told me the same thing, that all rolfing really is is steady applied pressure until the muscle relaxes.  Since he was so good, I was inclined to believe him.  But perhaps he was wrong, perhaps I there is still something off that hasn’t been addressed yet.  The only way for me to know is to find out, so I’m going to go see the rolfer on the 18^th.  I am very excited to see what he has to say.

Things that drive me crazy

Normally I try to write posts that are full of content, and less about opinion. I mean, who really cares about my opinion on something? You don't see me on news TV being interviewed on subject matter. Regardless, things are going fantastic on the injury front so things have been quiet on this blog. I decided to spice it up with a "grinds my gears" piece, so enjoy:

I’m not sure how my personality comes across on this blog.  A lot of the times I think these posts are boring (at least to anyone other than myself and my mom who loves anything and everything her darling son does) updates on my physical well-being and don’t contain that much useful content, though I try to put out as much content as possible.  Anyway, I like to think of myself as a nice, easy-going guy. I take whatever challenge that is placed in front of me, and I don’t wig out, I just try to figure out how to deal with it. I think the barbell Buddha would be proud.  Anyways, through facing my own personal challenges I know that we all have our own ways of perceiving and dealing with the world.  If I tried what would work for most of the population with pretty much any challenge I’ve faced, I would not have been successful.  So when I see other people doing things differently, I try very hard to just accept them as they are.  Even though I would take a completely different approach to achieving whatever goal, I will never tell someone they are doing it wrong.  You want to lose weight so you go Vegan? Fine. You want to lose weight by eating breakfast? Hey whatever works for you. Different strokes for different folks.

Ok, so now that I’ve buttered you up, telling you that I’m a nice guy, I would now like to tell you the ideas/concepts that annoy the absolute shit out of me. In no particular order:

• Squatting below parallel is bad for you. This idea is complete horseshit and needs to change. If anything, partial squats have been shown to place a lot of shearing force on the knees.
• Something like a Nutrigrain bar is good for you.
• Protein bars are good for you. Saw an episode of Good Eats explain how they are made. The protein from protein bars come from horse hooves, so basically you’re eating glue. Never again.
• Eating small, frequent meals “stokes the metabolism”.
• Cardio is the ONLY way to lose weight.
• The idea that you can out train a poor diet.
• ALL red meat is bad for you.
• Dietary cholesterol will increase your risk for heart problems
• Take anti-inflammatories to deal with muscle pain.  Although there really isn’t a pro-NSAID movement out there, it just bothers me to hear people taking something that is making them weaker, not stronger.  Here is another article explaining inflammation.  Really try to get the word out.
• Lifting heavy will make you bulky (I especially don’t like this one with regards to how it scares women off from lifting).
• People who take their own personal experience and think it then applies to everyone else.  “I’ve lost 10 pounds by going vegan, so you should too!”  “You don’t eat meat? You are an idiot because that shit is just unnatural.”
• Cholesterol is the marker for heart health. No it’s not, High Cholesterol isn’t bad for you, it’s high cholesterol and eating sugars.
• Juice Cleanses. Honestly what good comes from a "cleanse"? Just do intermittent fasting instead.

Alright, end rant.  I'm going to have some more stuff up here, all not necessarily exercise related, just things I would like to share with the world.