Build Your Strength to Build Your Health!

[luuu]

"For perfect health though you also need to NOT listen to your mind!"

This rings true to me, my friend told me this the other day, though this was his and my take on it...That you should listen to your heart more, instead of that voice in your mind questioning things all the time, to listen to your heart is listening with your second brain so to speak, your instinct, what feels right, to go off of your emotions, instead of what the voice in your head says.

Something like that, if not, then may i ask what you mean by "For perfect health though you also need to NOT listen to your mind!"?

[sicknote]

Originally Posted by plam

This body needs to move
to keep itself supple.

Dedicating your life to weight training doesn't keep you supple, it makes you stiff.

Originally Posted by plam

You seem to think that vegan diet is enough.
Fair enough, if you want to have a skinny, weak body then stick to it.

I'm as strong as I need to be.

Nothing more nothing less.

Originally Posted by plam

We do take notice when we see a harmonious body.
Why do you think this is so?

I don't. That is your vice.

[sicknote]

Hey macchoi, check this out for some great photo's & other exercise idea's.

USAWA - United States All-Round Weight Lifting Association.
OFFICIAL RULEBOOK.

Link: http://www.usawa.com/USAWA%20Uploads...th-Edition.pdf

[cwl3]

I think there is a lot to this.

I have not been doing so much exercise just now but I still try at least once a week to do some pull ups, press ups and squats and I can feel the health benefits for quite a few days after it.

[sicknote]

Build those glutes.

Advanced Techniques in Glutei Maximi Strengthening.

Link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/72709691/gp1

[macchoi]

Originally Posted by sicknote

Dedicating your life to weight training doesn't keep you supple, it makes you stiff.

Olympic weightlifters are actually amongst the most flexible, explosive, and athletic athletes, ever!

Originally Posted by sicknote

Hey macchoi, check this out for some great photo's & other exercise idea's.

USAWA - United States All-Round Weight Lifting Association.
OFFICIAL RULEBOOK.

Link: http://www.usawa.com/USAWA%20Uploads...th-Edition.pdf

There's some crazy stuff in there lol

[macchoi]

Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study

BMJ 2008; 337 doi: 10.1136/bmj.a439 (Published 1 July 2008)
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a439

Abstract

Objective To examine prospectively the association between muscular strength and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in men.

Design Prospective cohort study.

Setting Aerobics centre longitudinal study.

Participants 8762 men aged 20-80.

Main outcome measures All cause mortality up to 31 December 2003; muscular strength, quantified by combining one repetition maximal measures for leg and bench presses and further categorised as age specific thirds of the combined strength variable; and cardiorespiratory fitness assessed by a maximal exercise test on a treadmill.

Results During an average follow-up of 18.9 years, 503 deaths occurred (145 cardiovascular disease, 199 cancer). Age adjusted death rates per 10 000 person years across incremental thirds of muscular strength were 38.9, 25.9, and 26.6 for all causes; 12.1, 7.6, and 6.6 for cardiovascular disease; and 6.1, 4.9, and 4.2 for cancer (all P<0.01 for linear trend). After adjusting for age, physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, baseline medical conditions, and family history of cardiovascular disease, hazard ratios across incremental thirds of muscular strength for all cause mortality were 1.0 (referent), 0.72 (95% confidence interval 0.58 to 0.90), and 0.77 (0.62 to 0.96); for death from cardiovascular disease were 1.0 (referent), 0.74 (0.50 to 1.10), and 0.71 (0.47 to 1.07); and for death from cancer were 1.0 (referent), 0.72 (0.51 to 1.00), and 0.68 (0.48 to 0.97). The pattern of the association between muscular strength and death from all causes and cancer persisted after further adjustment for cardiorespiratory fitness; however, the association between muscular strength and death from cardiovascular disease was attenuated after further adjustment for cardiorespiratory fitness.

Conclusion Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders.

Footnotes

We thank the doctors and technicians at the Cooper Clinic who collected the baseline data and staff at the Cooper Institute for data entry and data management.

Contributors: All authors were involved in the concept and design of the study, the analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the manuscript, and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. They are guarantors. XS and SNB acquired the data. JRR, XS, FL, JRM, AWJJr, and SNB did the statistical analysis.

Funding: The aerobics centre longitudinal study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants AG06945, HL62508); the Spanish Ministry of Education (AP2003-2128, EX-2007-1124); the Margit and Folke Pehrzon Foundation; the European Union, in the framework of the public health programme (ALPHA project, 2006120); the American Heart Association predoctoral fellowship; and the American College of Sports Medicine Paffenbarger-Blair fund for epidemiological research on physical activity.

Competing interests: None declared.

Ethical approval: This study was approved by the Cooper Institute institutional review board.

Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Accepted 16 June 2008

[macchoi]

Below, is a summary of the study I posted above:

Muscular Strength and Rates of Death in Men 20-80

by Pamela Jones, MA

Cardiovascular fitness has been shown to be a powerful tool against many diseases including the number one killer in the US— heart disease. Strength training, while proven to have health benefits, is unproven in its effects to decrease death from all causes including heart disease and cancer. Researchers reviewed information that had been obtained during a study at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that men with higher levels of strength had lower rates of death from all causes.

About the Study

The study was a prospective cohort study that followed 10,265 men for an average of 18.9 years. The men, 20-80 years of age, received comprehensive medical and fitness evaluations at the beginning of the study. Over the study time, they received periodic re-evaluations. Researchers tracked deaths from any causes, and carefully tracked deaths from heart disease.

After adjusting for known risk factors for cancer, heart disease, and death, the men with the lowest level of muscle strength had:

• 1.46 times greater risk for death
• 1.59 times greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• 1.24 times greater risk of death from cancer

Cardiovascular fitness did appear to have a stronger beneficial effect than strength training. The benefits of strength training carried across all age groups. It also appeared to provide benefits even if a participant was overweight or obese.

This type of study can allow confounding factors to affect the outcomes. Given the outcome, it does suggest that more controlled studies should be done to fully understand the benefits of strength training.

How Does This Affect You?

More rigorous studies need to be done to confirm these findings. However, it is widely accepted that overall physical fitness has multiple health benefits for people of any age. Given the high rates of overweight and obese people, it is also important to know that strength training provided protective benefits for people who were overweight or obese.

Talk to you doctor about your risk factors for heart disease and cancer. Introduce well-rounded physical activities that include cardiovascular and strength elements.

RESOURCES:

American Academy of Family Physicians
http://familydoctor.org/

American Council on Exercise
http://www.acefitness.org/

REFERENCES:

Ruiz JR, Sui X, Lobelo F, et al. Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study. BMJ . 2008 July 12; 337(7661):92–95.

[macchoi]

by Charles Poliquin
2/11/2010 12:56:55 PM

Increasing your muscle mass and bone mass has a myriad of health benefits.

Here is what you should know before you frown upon on gaining a few kilos of muscle mass:

1. The more muscle and bone mass you have, the greater the acid buffering power you create. That is, you now have more protein, potassium, magnesium and calcium to buffer the acidity in your body. The more alkaline you are:
- the greater the endurance potential of the body
- the greater your immune power is, the better your chances at surviving cancer or the swine flu.


2. According to Tufts University, the greater your muscle mass the greater the longevity potential. It is, in fact, the number one biomarker of longevity. It is a far better predictor of longevity than total cholesterol or blood pressure.


3. The more muscle you have, the more insulin receptor sites you have, and the more sensitive they will be. Increased muscle prevents diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Translation: the more muscle you have, the easier it is to have low body fat.


4. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. It is estimated that for every pound of muscle you gain you burn an extra 50 calories a day.


5. The more muscle you have, the more strength you have. This, according to the same researchers at Tufts University, is the number two predictor of longevity. For women, strength is empowering.


6. In my thirty years of experience as a strength coach, for every kilo of lean tissue gained, there was an equal loss of weight in body fat. In other words, the body composition changed dramatically. For example, a female executive with a 60 kg bodyweight with 20 % body fat has 12 kg of fat. If, in 10 weeks, she gains 4 kg of muscle mass and loses 4 kg of fat, her body fat will now be 13%. With these body composition changes, not only will she feel more empowered, but her body will look fantastic!

[cwl3]

Originally Posted by macchoi

by Charles Poliquin
2/11/2010 12:56:55 PM

Increasing your muscle mass and bone mass has a myriad of health benefits.

Here is what you should know before you frown upon on gaining a few kilos of muscle mass:

1. The more muscle and bone mass you have, the greater the acid buffering power you create. That is, you now have more protein, potassium, magnesium and calcium to buffer the acidity in your body. The more alkaline you are:
- the greater the endurance potential of the body
- the greater your immune power is, the better your chances at surviving cancer or the swine flu.


2. According to Tufts University, the greater your muscle mass the greater the longevity potential. It is, in fact, the number one biomarker of longevity. It is a far better predictor of longevity than total cholesterol or blood pressure.


3. The more muscle you have, the more insulin receptor sites you have, and the more sensitive they will be. Increased muscle prevents diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Translation: the more muscle you have, the easier it is to have low body fat.


4. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. It is estimated that for every pound of muscle you gain you burn an extra 50 calories a day.


5. The more muscle you have, the more strength you have. This, according to the same researchers at Tufts University, is the number two predictor of longevity. For women, strength is empowering.


6. In my thirty years of experience as a strength coach, for every kilo of lean tissue gained, there was an equal loss of weight in body fat. In other words, the body composition changed dramatically. For example, a female executive with a 60 kg bodyweight with 20 % body fat has 12 kg of fat. If, in 10 weeks, she gains 4 kg of muscle mass and loses 4 kg of fat, her body fat will now be 13%. With these body composition changes, not only will she feel more empowered, but her body will look fantastic!

No one gains 4KG of muscle in 10 weeks unless it's sterioids.

[macchoi]

Why strength training?

Research has shown that strengthening exercises are both safe and effective for women and men of all ages, including those who are not in perfect health. In fact, people with health concerns—including heart disease or arthritis—often benefit the most from an exercise program that includes lifting weights a few times each week.



Strength training, particularly in conjunction with regular aerobic exercise, can also have a profound impact on a person's mental and emotional health.

Benefits of Strength Training

There are numerous benefits to strength training regularly, particularly as you grow older. It can be very powerful in reducing the signs and symptoms of numerous diseases and chronic conditions, among them:

• arthritis
• diabetes
• osteoporosis
• obesity
• back pain
• depression

Arthritis Relief
Tufts University recently completed a strength-training program with older men and women with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. The results of this sixteen-week program showed that strength training decreased pain by 43%, increased muscle strength and general physical performance, improved the clinical signs and symptoms of the disease, and decreased disability. The effectiveness of strength training to ease the pain of osteoarthritis was just as potent, if not more potent, as medications. Similar effects of strength training have been seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Restoration of Balance and Reduction of Falls
As people age, poor balance and flexibility contribute to falls and broken bones. These fractures can result in significant disability and, in some cases, fatal complications. Strengthening exercises, when done properly and through the full range of motion, increase a person's flexibility and balance, which decrease the likelihood and severity of falls. One study in New Zealand in women 80 years of age and older showed a 40% reduction in falls with simple strength and balance training.



Strengthening of Bone
Post-menopausal women can lose 1-2% of their bone mass annually. Results from a study conducted at Tufts University, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1994, showed that strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk for fractures among women aged 50-70.

Proper Weight Maintenance
Strength training is crucial to weight control, because individuals who have more muscle mass have a higher metabolic rate. Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories while stored fat uses very little energy. Strength training can provide up to a 15% increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control.

Improved Glucose Control
More than 14 million Americans have type II diabetes—a staggering three-hundred percent increase over the past forty years—and the numbers are steadily climbing. In addition to being at greater risk for heart and renal disease, diabetes is also the leading cause of blindness in older adults. Fortunately, studies now show that lifestyle changes such as strength training have a profound impact on helping older adults manage their diabetes. In a recent study of Hispanic men and women, 16 weeks of strength training produced dramatic improvements in glucose control that are comparable to taking diabetes medication. Additionally, the study volunteers were stronger, gained muscle, lost body fat, had less depression, and felt much more self-confident.



Healthy State of Mind
Strength training provides similar improvements in depression as anti-depressant medications. Currently, it is not known if this is because people feel better when they are stronger or if strength training produces a helpful biochemical change in the brain. It is most likely a combination of the two. When older adults participate in strength training programs, their self-confidence and self-esteem improve, which has a strong impact on their overall quality of life.

Sleep Improvement
People who exercise regularly enjoy improved sleep quality. They fall asleep more quickly, sleep more deeply, awaken less often, and sleep longer. As with depression, the sleep benefits obtained as a result of strength training are comparable to treatment with medication but without the side effects or the expense.

Healthy Heart Tissue
Strength training is important for cardiac health because heart disease risk is lower when the body is leaner. One study found that cardiac patients gained not only strength and flexibility but also aerobic capacity when they did strength training three times a week as part of their rehabilitation program. This and other studies have prompted the American Heart Association to recommend strength training as a way to reduce risk of heart disease and as a therapy for patients in cardiac rehabilitation programs.

Research and Background About Strength Training
Scientific research has shown that exercise can slow the physiological aging clock. While aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, or swimming, has many excellent health benefits—it maintains the heart and lungs and increases cardiovascular fitness and endurance—it does not make your muscles strong. Strength training does. Studies have shown that lifting weights two or three times a week increases strength by building muscle mass and bone density.

One 12-month study conducted on postmenopausal women at Tufts University demonstrated 1% gains in hip and spine bone density, 75% increases in strength and 13% increases in dynamic balance with just two days per week of progressive strength training. The control group had losses in bone, strength, and balance. Strength training programs can also have a profound effect on reducing risk for falls, which translates to fewer fractures.

source : http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/...why/index.html

[macchoi]

Excerpt from Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe:

"Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not. As humanity has developed throughout history, physical strength has become less critical to our daily existence, but no less important to our lives. Our strength, more than any other thing we possess, still determines the quality and the quantity of our time here in these bodies. Whereas previously our physical strength determined how much food we ate and how warm and dry we stayed, it now merely determines how well we function in these new surroundings we have crafted for ourselves as our culture has accumulated. But we are still animals – our physical existence is, in the final analysis, the only one that actually matters. A weak man is not as happy as the same man would be if he were strong. This reality is offensive to some people who would like the intellectual or spiritual to take precedence. It is instructive to see what happens to these very people as their squat strength goes up.

As the nature of our culture has changed, our relationship with physical activity has changed along with it. We previously were physically strong as a function of our continued existence in a simple physical world. We were adapted to this existence well, since we had no other choice. Those whose strength was adequate to the task of staying alive continued doing so. This shaped our basic physiology, and that of all our vertebrate associates on the bushy little tree of life. It remains with us today. The relatively recent innovation known as the Division of Labor is not so remote that our genetic composition has had time to adapt again. Since most of us now have been freed from the necessity of personally obtaining our subsistence, physical activity is regarded as optional. Indeed it is, from the standpoint of immediate necessity, but the reality of millions of years of adaptation to a ruggedly physical existence will not just go away because desks were invented.

Like it or not, we remain the possessors of potentially strong muscle, bone, sinew, and nerve, and these hard-won commodities demand our attention. They were too long in the making to just be ignored, and we do so at our peril. They are the very components of our existence, the quality of which now depends on our conscious, directed effort at giving them the stimulus they need to stay in the condition that is normal to them. Exercise is that stimulus.

Over and above any considerations of performance for sports, exercise is the stimulus that returns our bodies to the conditions for which they were designed. Humans are not physically normal in the absence of hard physical effort. Exercise is not a thing we do to fix a problem -it is a thing we must do anyway, a thing without which there will always be problems. Exercise is the thing we must do to replicate the conditions under which our physiology was adapted, the conditions under which we are physically normal. In other words, exercise is substitute cave-man activity — the thing we need to make our bodies, and in fact our minds, normal in the 21st century. And merely normal, for most worthwhile humans, is not good enough".

[plam]

The mind takes over the body which is weak
When the mind is in charge the person's health is in danger
The German New Medicine confirms it
Most of the so called disease are triggered by the psyche

Unfortunately the way this society develops
the mind is given the advantage
and the general health of the population is likely to deteriorate further.

There are few aspects which contribute towards that:

1. Promotion of wrong exercises like jogging and excessive bodybuilding

2. Promotion of plant based diets and wrong type of fats

3. Mass culture and entertainment, frivolity

4. Mass education and information overload

5. Pursuit of happiness/good life

[mumbles12]

Originally Posted by plam

The mind takes over the body which is weak
When the mind is in charge the person's health is in danger
The German New Medicine confirms it
Most of the so called disease are triggered by the psyche

Unfortunately the way this society develops
the mind is given the advantage
and the general health of the population is likely to deteriorate further.

There are few aspects which contribute towards that:

1. Promotion of wrong exercises like jogging and excessive bodybuilding

2. Promotion of plant based diets and wrong type of fats

3. Mass culture and entertainment, frivolity

4. Mass education and information overload

5. Pursuit of happiness/good life

Plam.. I like you, but..... Sometimes the things you say are shitbat crazy!

promotion of wrong exercise? Exercise is a means to an end.. Would you tell a marathon runner not to distance run? Or that he is unhealthy? Dont take such a sterotypical view of bodybuilders.. Personally its not my cup of tea, but there still in better shape (and feeling much better about themselves which from what you are saying seems to be key) than the general population..

mass culture and mass education I would agree on if we were speaking metaphorically, but we are talking about physical diseases,.. Being forced to read "of mice and men" for english lit is not what causes cancer.. Sorry but no.

Now the pursuit of happiness/good life.. Id say ties in with the previous two in terms of our "idea" of how its achieved.. I.e. If I dont look like that wierd looking honey monster from only way is essex then my life is over..

now the false sense of peer pressure, and longing for accpetance, material gain, to basically just win! Win! Win! And do better than your brother, sister or tom dick and desmond from your old school can no doubt build up unneccessary stress, depression and so forth (all diseases "of" the mind), but the way you speak generically of such things makes it sound so simple and its not!

if you can drop out of the race to try and find yourself (which is what im doing right now) then you might become somewhat enlightened (hopes) but that doesnt make me any less prone to cancer now does it... In fact, like I said before "diet" is probably more important, along with a "solid" exercise regime "train the body, and the mind will follow".

personally im still nowhere near figuring out what foods are ideal as this forum is somewhat void of answers I seek atm..

[macchoi]

Originally Posted by plam

The mind takes over the body which is weak
When the mind is in charge the person's health is in danger
The German New Medicine confirms it
Most of the so called disease are triggered by the psyche

Unfortunately the way this society develops
the mind is given the advantage
and the general health of the population is likely to deteriorate further.

There are few aspects which contribute towards that:

1. Promotion of wrong exercises like jogging and excessive bodybuilding

2. Promotion of plant based diets and wrong type of fats

3. Mass culture and entertainment, frivolity

4. Mass education and information overload

5. Pursuit of happiness/good life

Exactly.

"Our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived an active and vigorous life. They and their prehuman ancestors had to expend remarkable amounts of energy to provide food, clothing and shelter.

Over the course of millions of years our genetics were forged with a level of activity not dissimilar from that of an Olympic caliber athlete. This is what our genetics are expecting when we are born into the world. We are literally "born to be fit".

An unfortunate side effect of technology and affluence is the physical activity that made our ancestors strong and healthy is all but missing from our sedentary existences".

- Robb Wolf, The Paleo Solution

[mumbles12]

Originally Posted by macchoi

Exactly.

"Our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived an active and vigorous life. They and their prehuman ancestors had to expend remarkable amounts of energy to provide food, clothing and shelter.

Over the course of millions of years our genetics were forged with a level of activity not dissimilar from that of an Olympic caliber athlete. This is what our genetics are expecting when we are born into the world. We are literally "born to be fit".

An unfortunate side effect of technology and affluence is the physical activity that made our ancestors strong and healthy is all but missing from our sedentary existences".

- Robb Wolf, The Paleo Solution

Im gonna check out this paleo diet once and for all,

[plam]

Originally Posted by mumbles12

Plam.. I like you, but..... Sometimes the things you say are shitbat crazy!

promotion of wrong exercise? Exercise is a means to an end.. Would you tell a marathon runner not to distance run? Or that he is unhealthy? Dont take such a sterotypical view of bodybuilders.. Personally its not my cup of tea, but there still in better shape (and feeling much better about themselves which from what you are saying seems to be key) than the general population..

mass culture and mass education I would agree on if we were speaking metaphorically, but we are talking about physical diseases,.. Being forced to read "of mice and men" for english lit is not what causes cancer.. Sorry but no.

Now the pursuit of happiness/good life.. Id say ties in with the previous two in terms of our "idea" of how its achieved.. I.e. If I dont look like that wierd looking honey monster from only way is essex then my life is over..

now the false sense of peer pressure, and longing for accpetance, material gain, to basically just win! Win! Win! And do better than your brother, sister or tom dick and desmond from your old school can no doubt build up unneccessary stress, depression and so forth (all diseases "of" the mind), but the way you speak generically of such things makes it sound so simple and its not!

if you can drop out of the race to try and find yourself (which is what im doing right now) then you might become somewhat enlightened (hopes) but that doesnt make me any less prone to cancer now does it... In fact, like I said before "diet" is probably more important, along with a "solid" exercise regime "train the body, and the mind will follow".

personally im still nowhere near figuring out what foods are ideal as this forum is somewhat void of answers I seek atm..

You seem to have missed some very important threads here

We are not designed to run

Ultra-marathoner, died from heart disease

Excess exercise 'hurts the heart'

I could explain about the other points too
but I don't want to derail this nice thread.

[macchoi]

Originally Posted by mumbles12

Im gonna check out this paleo diet once and for all,

It's definitely worth learning about. Many on this forum can testify to the benefits of eating an ancestral diet, though many will argue about what an ancestral diet truly consisted of--but let's leave that discussion to the other threads.

More from the book's exercise section, pertaining to the subject of this thread:

"Our muscle mass is some of the most metabolically active tissue in our bodies. When people talk about their "metabolism", it is not some weird item in their socks or in their armpit--it is their muscles! You may not think about muscle as being "healthy", but your level of muscularity is inversely proportional to your likelihood of dying. Starvation and advanced stages of AIDS share the feature that they become fatal once a certain threshold is passed in which an individual loses too much muscle. The muscles act as a protein reserve for amino acids, which provides fuel for the brain in times of scarcity. An equally important, but oftentimes overlooked, feature of muscle is its ability to remove glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen. Why is this important? - if you recall, advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are highly reactive and underlie many of the modern diseases processes. Muscles act as a storage depot for carbohydrate and, in many ways, protect the rest of the body from damaging effects of AGEs"

...

CARDIO!
"It's almost impossible to talk about exercise and not have the topic shift to cardiovascular fitness. In fact, this is usually where the conversation starts and stops! For years it was assumed all we needed for health was "cardiovascular fitness." Those were the "running years", and health was emulated by a heart and lungs suspended in an emaciated bag of bones and scrawny muscles. So long as your heart was healthy, you were healthy--or so we thought. Thankfully, times have changed.

The Cooper Institute, which is the place that popularized the term aerobics, no longer recommends "aerobics" as it has been classically practiced. They now recommend strength training and interval training to provide not only cardiovascular fitness, but also an all-encompassing fitness, which includes, strength, flexibility, muscle mass, and hormonal optimization."

...

"As we dig into the details of our ancestral fitness, we find a balanced physique capable of most anything. Powerful muscles mixed with cardiovascular fitness was the norm for most of humanities existence. By emulating the amounts and types of activities our Paleolithic ancestors, we can affect remarkable changes in our physique, mental outlook, hormonal state, and overall health."

...

"Most people associate strength and "big muscles" with bodybuilders, football players, and chemists. OK, maybe chemists are not at the top of your list when you think about strength. But if you ask someone what "strength" is, they will usually relate strength (in the physical realm) to picking something up. From a physics or exercise science perspective, strength is the ability to exert force. Now, you may not have thought about it like this, but simply moving your fanny through the world necessitates a certain amount of strength. Have you ever seen someone who was quite frail who could not stand under his or her own strength? Someone who is that weak is likely to have small muscles, poor blood sugar control, weak immunity, and frankly, the person is at a high risk of sudden death. It is very likely the individual has little to no cardiovascular fitness because they simply cannot do anything.

People can debate what features of fitness are most important, but I'm going to put strength and mobility at the top of the list. If you have those two components, you can do just about anything. The nice thing about strength is it improves very quickly, even win the aged. Although there are different features of strength, which include adaptations by the nervous system, as well as changes in the muscle, we are going to focus mainly on strength improvements from a perspective of increasing muscle mass".

- Rob Wolf, The Paleo Solution

[mumbles12]

Originally Posted by macchoi

It's definitely worth learning about. Many on this forum can testify to the benefits of eating an ancestral diet, though many will argue about what an ancestral diet truly consisted of--but let's leave that discussion to the other threads.

More from the book's exercise section, pertaining to the subject of this thread:

"Our muscle mass is some of the most metabolically active tissue in our bodies. When people talk about their "metabolism", it is not some weird item in their socks or in their armpit--it is their muscles! You may not think about muscle as being "healthy", but your level of muscularity is inversely proportional to your likelihood of dying. Starvation and advanced stages of AIDS share the feature that they become fatal once a certain threshold is passed in which an individual loses too much muscle. The muscles act as a protein reserve for amino acids, which provides fuel for the brain in times of scarcity. An equally important, but oftentimes overlooked, feature of muscle is its ability to remove glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen. Why is this important? - if you recall, advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are highly reactive and underlie many of the modern diseases processes. Muscles act as a storage depot for carbohydrate and, in many ways, protect the rest of the body from damaging effects of AGEs"

...

CARDIO!
"It's almost impossible to talk about exercise and not have the topic shift to cardiovascular fitness. In fact, this is usually where the conversation starts and stops! For years it was assumed all we needed for health was "cardiovascular fitness." Those were the "running years", and health was emulated by a heart and lungs suspended in an emaciated bag of bones and scrawny muscles. So long as your heart was healthy, you were healthy--or so we thought. Thankfully, times have changed.

The Cooper Institute, which is the place that popularized the term aerobics, no longer recommends "aerobics" as it has been classically practiced. They now recommend strength training and interval training to provide not only cardiovascular fitness, but also an all-encompassing fitness, which includes, strength, flexibility, muscle mass, and hormonal optimization."

- Rob Wolf, The Paleo Solution

Ill take a look, if you get chance take a look at my post on the ecto thread, or my rant on tap water, the thing about lack of muscle mass (im currently underweight) just reminded me how much I suck at life..

[macchoi]

Can Resistance Exercise Improve Insulin Function?

By Michael A. Smith, MD

Lean, toned muscle not only looks good, but also improves sugar metabolism. It does this by helping your body respond better to the all-important hormone, insulin. Insulin is the hormone that directs blood glucose into cells. Once inside a cell, glucose can either be burned for immediate energy or stored as glycogen.

However, with age, poor diet and lack of exercise, your body can resist the positive effects of insulin, allowing the buildup of blood sugar. It turns out that this “resistance” to insulin is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes. Exacerbated by lack of exercise, sarcopenia, the loss of muscle tissue due to aging, has recently been linked with insulin resistance.1

So this begs the question: Can muscle-toning resistance exercises improve insulin sensitivity and help people with diabetes better manage their blood sugar?


Skeletal Muscle Dictates Insulin Sensitivity
So here’s the theory: Most of the cellular receptors for insulin are found on skeletal muscle. Of course that makes sense when you consider that skeletal muscle is very active and requires a lot of energy. If you keep your skeletal muscles healthy and strong, the muscles’ sensitivity to insulin will improve. The result will be optimal uptake of glucose from the blood.

But if you lose muscle mass (sarcopenia) and you get a little flabby, you could experience the opposite effect — reduced insulin sensitivity and a buildup of sugar in your blood.

To overcome this, your body will produce more and more insulin. Over time this could have a dampening effect on your insulin’s effectiveness. This means that managing blood sugar for diabetics, even with drugs, could be way more difficult.

Please note: Improving insulin resistance through muscle-toning resistance exercises may not work for obese people, as they seem to have different physiological responses to exercise than normal- weight people.

Resistance Exercises for Improved Insulin Function
Resistance exercises are all about toning major muscle groups. Adults should try to exercise each major muscle group two or three days a week using a variety of exercises and equipment. Very light or light intensity is best for older people or previously sedentary adults who are just starting to exercise.

Typically, two to four sets of each exercise will help you improve your strength and power. Here are the major areas to focus on:

1. Biceps
2. Triceps
3. Shoulders
4. Chest
5. Stomach
6. Legs

Resistance exercises use relatively light weights and a high number of repetitions. For instance, 20 repetitions in 3 sets is a great way to improve muscle tone and endurance. Adults should typically wait at least 48 hours between resistance training sessions to rest and recover.

Circuit Training is a more Advanced Option
Now this is a workout! And it should only be done by people already in an exercise program with approval from their doctors. We like circuit training because it is a form of conditioning combining resistance training and high-intensity aerobics.



It’s designed to be easy to follow and targets strength building as well as muscular endurance. An exercise "circuit" is one completion of all exercises in the program. When one circuit is complete, you begin the first exercise again for another circuit. Typically, the time between exercises in circuit training is short, often with rapid movement to the next exercise.

Benefits of circuit training include:

• An effective means of improving strength endurance (or muscular endurance).
• May be easily structured to provide a whole body workout.
• May not require expensive gym equipment.
• Participants normally work in small groups, allowing beginners to be guided by more experienced individuals, as well as benefiting from the supervision of the instructor.
• Can be adapted for any size workout area.
• Can be customized for specificity; easy to adapt to your sport.

So if you’re taking diabetes medications and sticking to your diet plan but are STILL having problems controlling blood sugar, Perhaps muscle is your missing link. Talk to your doctor to see if resistance exercises are right for you!

References:

1. Endocrine. 2012 Apr 21. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22527891
2. Sports Med. 2012 May 1;42(5):415-31.