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By Marc Dupuis, DC, CCSP, ICCSP, health, wellness & fitness expert
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The podcast currently has 28 episodes available.
Welcome to the Peak Performance Podcast
I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!
Today’s topic: How to Run Faster AND Prevent Common Running Injuries.
Join us as Dr. Marc Dupuis takes you on a deep dive into proper run form & mechanics needed for optimizing your run!
This concludes today’s episode of The Peak Performance Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE take a moment to Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts, Thank you very much for listening & Have a Great Day!
The post How to Run Faster AND Prevent Common Running Injuries appeared first on .
Welcome to the Peak Performance Podcast
I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!
Today’s topic: BFR training: If you have not heard of it, get ready as this could really shake up your training by literally turbo charging your strength & conditioning plan! In a nutshell, BFR training is one of the best, if not the #1 way to increase muscle hypertrophy and strength without the risk of joint injury or excessive muscle damage!
Of course: Please NOTE: There are certain risks associated with this type of training, be SURE to consult with your health care provider prior to beginning any BFR training
Before we dive into the specifics of BFR training, we need to take some time and review the basics of muscle building and strength building so that you will be able to understand just how BFR training works and Why NOW Is the time to add it to your training plan.
Let’s call this muscle hypertrophy 101
There are TWO basic Ways to increase muscle size or technically muscle hypertrophy
1. BY Applying Mechanic stress (which ultimately creates muscle damage): traditional strength training: lifting increasingly heavy weights to create damage. Then when the body is at rest, if given enough time and adequate nutrition,it will rebuild the muscles bigger and stronger than they were before, this is known as the principle of super compensation.
2. By creating Metabolic stress accumulation (this involves building up lactate, while simultaneously failing to clear it from the muscles as well as the accumulation of hydrogen ions in the working muscles which are the by-products of ATP hydrolysis). Most people that exercise regularly are aware this happens, as this is what you feel when your muscles are burning at the end of a set or sprint etc, but not that many people know this accumulation of metabolites is also a direct trigger of muscle hypertrophy.
Now let’s move on the some basic Principles of Exercise Physiology
We will start with Muscle fiber. There are 2 primary types of muscle fibers:
Type 1: slow twitch /more aerobic and
Type 2: fast twitch / more anaerobic
This is important because there is a Size Principle of Motor Unit Recruitment
Type 1 fibers are recruited first, these fibers as I said are more aerobic, meaning they primarily utilize oxygen, now as demand increases during a particular exercise the body will then recruit Type 2 fibers which as I noted are more anaerobic.
here is a Key Point: Hypertrophy does NOT always = greater strength. A bigger muscle is not always a stronger muscle.
Hypertrophy plays a role in building strength, but it is the Central Nervous System’s involvement in learning to recruit more motor units and also synchronize these additional motor units, which allows them to fire together> that COMBINED with a larger or hypertrophied muscle, equals greater strength.
Now for muscle hypertrophy 202: There are Hormones needed for muscle hypertrophy; such as:
Growth Hormone is the major player here, keep in mind GH is only optimized with adequate: sleep, nutrition, exercise)
mTOR major pathway activating muscle protein synthesis and skeletal muscle hypertrophy; Think of mTOR as the Body’s on/off switch for muscle growth
Then there is IGF-1, which is an upstream trigger via the Akt pathway which activates mTOR.
You may have heard of mTOR, it’s been a suddenly hot topic of discussion especially from many so called online health experts and by many in the biohacking space, often it is seen as the enemy because excessive mTOR activation has been linked with degenerative changes and CA, however, like most things in life, it is all about BALANCE. we MUST have mTOR activated for certain portions of time if we want muscle hypertrophy and increased strength!!
Now, mTOR > yes stimulates protein synthesis, AND it also stimulates VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) > this promotes Angiogenesis which is the formation of new blood vessels. Why is this important?
Simple: While Building muscle is good, you need more than just that to be stronger, since the more muscle you have, the more blood vessels are needed in order to deliver greater amounts of nutrition into the muscle and also meet the greater demand for waste products removal! – in other words, increasing muscle mass requires an increased vascular network in order to get the most work out of that muscle!
Up until now, MECHANICAL STRESS VIA lifting heavy has been the main method for increasing muscle mass and stimulating CNS involvement in building strength, simply because no other methods were shown to be as effective. theoretically we’ve known about METABOLIC STRESS ACCUMULATION but did not have any practical methods to achieve it that did NOT also involve MECHANICAL STRESS OR LIFTING HEAVY
Here are some of the Leading Authorities on Muscle Hypertrophy:
ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) Guidelines for Muscular Hypertrophy
To build muscle you need a Load or amount of weight to lift that equals:
70-85% 1RM for novice to intermediate athletes
70 – 100% 1RM for advanced athletes
Volume
1-3 sets of 8-12 reps for novice to intermediate
3-6 sets of 1-12 reps for advanced
Rest period
2-3 min for higher intense exercises that use heavier loads
1-2 min between lower intense exercises with light loads
NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association)Guidelines for muscular hypertrophy is similar
This is THE Challenge: Science says we need to push the athlete or patient to lift heavy enough to achieve some degree of muscle breakdown, but for many they cannot do the amount of work that the science says is needed due to a number of different factors such as fear of injury, fear of re-injury in the athlete or patient that is trying to come back from an injury or surgery, lack of experience with this type of training, or fear due to being in pain, etc
The Solution: Enter BFR training!
Basically, BFR Training: tricks the body into thinking it is doing 70-100% of 1RM type work while using much lighter loads that do not carry nearly the same risk for injury!
How it works:
Constrictive Bands are placed onto the arms or legs that limit the venous return. This allows metabolites to be “trapped” into the muscle and local tissues. The bands while tight enough to limit or occlude venous return, they DO allow some arterial blood flow into the muscle/limb. BFR training utilizes much lower weights, but allows one to do much higher reps, often until failure. As the reps continue the trapped blood begins running out of nutrients, this stimulates the CNS to require more muscle fibers to lift the same small weight, this achieves the same type of fiber requirement that would have been needed to move a much higher weight say 85% of a 1 RM!
Not only does this type of workout create a build up of exercise metabolites or by-products such as lactate and Hydrogen ions that cause more muscle fibers to be recruited, it also triggers a cascade of events!
This cascade of events triggers an anabolic or muscle building environment similar to doing high percentage 1RM work without any of the joint stress or actual muscle damage that typically accompanies that type of workout! BFR training takes advantage of the 2nd method of increasing muscle hypertrophy: metabolic stress accumulation!
BFR training, Really is a Game Changer for patients that are at risk of injury, have pain or other limitations and for high performing athletes that want the benefits of high intensity training without the RISK of injury that could force them OUT of competition!
SIDE note: This is NOT Occlusion training, BFR training uses bands that reduce but not block all blood flow!!
Results of BFR training in the literature:
increased muscle hypertrophy and increased strength
Training to fatigue with BFR has shown Non-traditional recruitment patters, (Type 2 fibers before type 1)
Increased hormone changes enhancing protein synthesis, involving GH and IGF-1
Increased cell signaling for mTOR
Building of non-contractile tissue (may lead to increased strength over time while decreasing future injury risk by improving the individual’s connective tissue, talk about a win-win)
Less fatigue compared to traditional strength training; this can allow for more training sessions per week with less accumulating soreness & fatigue!
BFR Systems:
They utilized Pneumatic Cuff Systems: Two basic types
Automatic systems: very effective, very expensive!! often only makes sense for health care providers and trainers
Manual Systems: more portable, ease of use, much more cost effective: better for the individual athlete or patient, if properly trained.
**(Doppler Ultrasound: allows one to find min occlusion pressure (mop): min amount of pressure needed to fully occlude limb: We want to be BELOW that! (certain % based off of literature)
Helpful with patients with comorbidities
needs 8 mHz probe
Audio output/headphone jack**
There are Only TWO places to put bands: (Remember: Many effects are SYSTEMIC! Therefore, there is no need to put them anywhere else! (See Results slide)
1. Proximal UE, as high into axilla fold as possible
2. Proximal LE, as close to gluteal fold as possible
The Radial artery pulse is assessed when using UE bands (occluding cephalic & basilic veins)
The Posterior Tibial artery pulse is assessed when using LE bands (occluding Deep and Femoral veins)
Exercise Prescription with BFR training IS Different
You will fatigue sooner!!
Heed the modifications!!
In most cases body weight exercises are MORE Than adequate!!
Cuffs stay inflated through the entire workout, do not inflate/deflate between sets/exercises
Begin around 8 min per total workout
Building to 15 minutes,
longer if the person using them is a more trained athlete
Load: Most Bodyweight
IF you add weight: no more than 20% of 1-RM
3-5 min of rest post BFR training for recovery and perfusion
*** Higher the pressure you trained at, more time needed for perfusion
Instead of adding weight, alter tempo: Longer eccentric 4 sec, 2 sec hold, 2 sec concentric**
Basically utilize 2-4 Total Exercises Per Arms and 2-4 exercises per Legs
Max 4 sets (3 most common)
For reps, you target a Max 30 reps during the 1st set
30-60 sec between sets*** STICK to this NO PHONE USE etc
Maintain pressure throughout
Remaining sets should be reps until failure, rarely should you be able to get to another 30 reps, as fatigue should be setting in if cuffs are set appropriately.
**Common reps per sets 1-3
20-10-10 or 15-8-8 common early
30-15-15 later rehab**
Safety of BFR Training??
Compared to High Intensity Resistance Training
Decreased Stroke Volume
Less Muscle Damage (none!)
Decreased Oxidative Stress
Not as severe BP systolic spike
Many people ask about clot risks? Research shows, No change in coagulation activity. In fact, when using bands increasing pressure on limbs, the body actually increases its production TPA, which is the body’s own clot busting chemical!
Signs and Symptoms to STOP: If these occur, the cuffs often need to be adjusted
Sensation of numbness
Pins and needles
Uncomfortable tingling
Severe discomfort
Lightheadedness/dizziness
Contraindications: Conditions where one should NOT do BFR training
Acute Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
Acute Sickness or Fever
Blood Pressure Greater than 180/100 mmHg
Early Postoperative period: check with your surgeon, this can vary greatly
Higher class arrhythmia or coronary ischemia
Pregnancy
Varicose Veins
A-Fib or Heart Failure
BP: Systolic >160 mmHg; Diastolic 95 mmHg
Athletes: There is still value in lifting heavy! So BFR is not to permanently replace high intensity resistance training, rather ADD this INTO your current training plan to be a more well-rounded, strong athlete! And especially during peak season so you can still improve your strength yet minimize the risk of injury during competition season!
So there you have it, BFR training is a groundbreaking method of increasing muscle hypertrophy and strength with minimal risks and faster recovery times!
Case Study: Early Post-Op ACL
15-8-8
Body wt.
tempo 2020
30s rest between sets
45s rest between exercises
3-5 min post BFR
exercises:
1. Supine isometric quad sets with NMES
2. Supine Isometric HS curls
3. Side Lying hip abd
4. Standing calf raises
Mid Post-Op ACL Late
15-8-8-8 20-10-10-10
BW BW
tempo 2020 4120
30s 45
45s 60
3-5 3-5
1. Stationary bike 1. SL squat
2. Mini (partial) squats 2. Lateral lunges
3. Step-ups 3. Bridging with roll in
4. Bridging 4. RDL
This concludes today’s episode of The Peak Performance Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE take a moment to Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts, Thank you very much for listening & Have a Great Day!
The post Supercharging Muscle Strength & Mass With Blood Flow Restriction Training appeared first on .
I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!
New forward head posture study, just came out this past July 2022
Journal of Sport Rehabilitation: high level journal
Comparison of Sensorimotor Integration and Skill-Related Physical Fitness Components Between College Athletes With and Without Forward Head Posture
authored by Ibrahim Moustafa, Meeyoung Kim, Deed Harrison.
Case control study. What is a case control study?
This is pretty neat. First you identify a condition you want to investigate. Then you design a study to try and determine, if the condition in question, has any effect on a particular function/task/performance or on health.
Then you must come up with two groups of people to study.
The first group has the condition you want to study
The 2nd group does not have the condition in question.
Next you match the groups in terms of certain factors like age/sex/work/ etc to try to ensure equality in the groups you are comparing minus the key condition being studied
Then determine what types of tests to perform on each group to see if there is a difference between the people with and without the condition
This study looked at the condition of:
Forward head posture
100 Young athletes
College Level athletes high performing athletes
NO symptoms
Q: Was there a Difference in athletic performance skills tests between those with FHP and those without?
How did they determine if someone had FHP?
They used a postural measurement called the CVA (cranial vertebral angle) ear (tragus) relative to C7 spinous relative to horizontal. This measurement can be confusing to clinicians not familiar with it because a bigger angle, means the head is being held in a more neutral position; while a lower angle means they have more FHP. Here the CVA cut point was 50°
The Cut point was based of other well-established studies in the literature
cranial vertebral angle (on 4 view posture screen)
What do these values mean in terms of x-rays
55° or more = Less than 20mm FHP. That is consistent with what research has shown, most people can get away with about 20mm of FHP and not have any negative consequences. MC neck p, Has, cervical degeneration & disability
Their cut point of 50° = ~ 25mm or more FHP 1’’
They measured Sensory motor integration: which is how a
stimulus at either the wrist/hand/finger – is processed in the higher centers of the brain
If there is a difference in Sensory motor integration, does it affect athletic skills tests:
They used 4 key tests, which highlight skills useful in ALL Sports: Basically: Do you have speed/power/strength?
T-test
Time sprint T test:
Sprint 10m straight
Sprint left 5m
Sprint right 10m makes “T”
Sprint back to center 5m
Sprint back to start
Vertical Leap
Static Single Leg Balance Test – stork
Dynamic Stretch Balance Test – 3 plane dynamic stretch test for agility
Findings: They DID Find a Difference between the 2 groups in amplitude in regions of the brain that process sensory motor integration as it goes into the motor cortex. Problems in this region would in theory create down going / descending motor cortex issues. As we have known for some time, abnormal sensory inputs create abnormal motor output.
The athletes with FHP and differences in sensory motor integration, DID in fact score worse on all 4 of the athletic skills tests, and YES, the differences were statistically significant?
On the T-test: They were 10% slower, 1 full second. For College level athletes, that is huge!
They scored 9 cm lower on the vertical jump!
They were Several seconds longer on static balance test!
AND the were Less agile!
As if those findings were not enough the researchers took it one step further. They wanted to know: Is this difference linearly related: Is the magnitude of the FHP linearly correlated with the actual dysfunction. In other words, did athletes with greater amounts of FHP have worse skills tests? The answer was> YES!
Implications:
Athletes: if you want to have optimal performance you have to correct FHP if you have it! This is HUGE, the amount of athletes I see everyday with severe FHP has gone up exponentially in just the last few years! Two big reasons come to mind, the .1st is obvious = Text neck, all of us are looking down at our phones WAY too much and for some it is literally HOURS per day. You cannot have poor posture for hours at a time and expect to snap out of it for practice or competition!!
2nd, COVID, I cannot tell you have many kids have developed the bad habit of doing their schoolwork while sitting on their bed. Sadly, many spent countless hours on zoom classes over the last two years which grossly exaggerated their FHP!
All elite professional, college athletes and of course HS & grade school athletes!!! Addressing this NOW can cause significant improvements in your athletic performance
Journal of sport rehabilitation
July 22, 2022,
Weekend athletes, you are physically weaker when you have FHP.
Older patients, non-athletes, you are less agile when you have FHP, which can easily lead to a greater risk of falls! Falls in the elderly can be deadly and as mentioned above, you are weaker with FHP. Also, FHP increases the functional weight of the head, altering loads in the cervical spine which is a major cause of degenerative joint and degenerative disc disease, which often cause neck stiffness, neck pain, headaches, and disability!
This can be one major factor in developing sarcopenia – loss of skeletal muscle which is correlated with increased insulin resistance and even increased mortality!
Overall conclusions:
First and foremost, this is extremely important and exciting that this study:
1. This study Validates that chiropractic subluxation (spinal misalignment/deformity/displacement) causes nerve interference, with real health consequences. Sadly, too many health providers and even some chiropractors think the adjustment is for just spinal pain. No, nerve interference can manifest itself in a variety of ways in each individual, many will have loss of function, balance, agility and more!
2. FHP is linearly correlated with brain body/body brain dysfunction with real word decreases in strength, agility and balance! The greater the forward head posture, the greater the dysfunction!
3. FHP over 20mm is enough to cause significant performance impairments. That is only about 1 inch! Look around, next time you are out in public, you will see many, many people with well over 1 inch of FHP, this is truly another epidemic!
4. Athletes of all levels, grade school, high school, college athletes and pros, if you want to perform optimally, you have to keep an eye on your posture. If you have FHP, text neck, you are likely underperforming and correcting this condition is a must if want to perform at your highest capacity! Now, let’s talk about correcting forward head posture. Can you correct forward head posture? Absolutely, at Back to Health Chiropractic, we utilize Chiropractic BioPhysics methods and strategies to do so. These are, hands down, the most research supported methods on the planet for forward head posture reduction. Its it easy? NO. It takes time and it takes work. The longer you have had FHP the more time it will take. We use a mulit-modal program that includes, traditional adjustments, mirror image exercises, mirror image traction in-house and home care exercises.
So there you have it!
This is another high-quality research study that shows that subluxations can cause significant problems, much more than just pain. Remember, the people in this study where high-level athletes without pain, yet those with FHP subluxation had measurable decreases in function, decreases that can lead to real health challenges! So, take some time to look at your posture, check the posture of your family, friends and loved ones and if you spot FHP make sure they see a corrective care chiropractor to get to work ASAP on correcting it. You can find a corrective care chiropractor near you by going to www.ideal.com.
Links
https://donorview.blob.core.windows.net/docstorage555/7469a1a6-ea33-488b-9e65-f763a8eee1cf/FHP_Athletic.pdf?sv=2018-03-28&sr=b&sig=v4KIP40ie83%2FjFNnA7wh%2FHjWRB%2BW9nJjngd7NvlqzMM%3D&st=2022-10-10T16%3A13%3A49Z&se=2022-10-10T16%3A43%3A49Z&sp=r
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35894888/
This concludes today’s episode of The Peak Performance Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE take a moment to Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts, Thank you very much for listening & Have a Great Day!
The post The Negative Effects of Forward Head Posture on Health & Performance! appeared first on .
In this podcast our host discusses the top 5 things to do NOW to ensure a Great 2022 Race Season!
The post 5 Steps To Having A Great 2022 Race Season! appeared first on .
I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!
In today’s podcast Dr. Dupuis brings on Back to Health Chiropractic’s own Dr. Nikki Holt. Dr. Holt swam for four years on scholarship at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, NC. They discuss the best strength exercises for improving your SWIM!
Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE take a moment to Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts, Thank you very much for listening & Have a Great Day!
The post Best Strength Exercises For Improving Your SWIM! appeared first on .
I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!
Today I’m stoked to bring you this interview with one of America’s top professional triathletes, Skye Moench!
While relatively new to the professional ranks, in just her 3rd year as a Pro in 2019 she made her presence known on the highest stages of triathlon with four Ironman 70.3 podium finishes and a breakthrough win at the Ironman European Championships!
Skye was ready to carry that momentum to her debut race in Kona later that year but a devastating bike crash just a few weeks out from race day caused her to miss out.
Fast forward to December 2020, after overcoming multiple broken bones sustained in the bike crash, recovering from multiple surgeries to repair those broken bones, she not only got back to race form but was the first American finisher, 6th place overall at the PTO Championships in Daytona Florida!
Links
Skye Moench Instagram
www.Skratchlabs.com
The post Ironman European Champion, Ironman 70.3 Champion, 6th place finisher / first American finisher at the recent 2020 PTO Championships: Professional Triathlete Skye Moench! appeared first on .
Today I’m excited to bring you this interview with one of America’s top professional triathletes, Dr. Matt Hanson!
Matt is a 5 time Ironman Champion , a 4 time 70.3 champion and most recently finished 2nd, top American at the Professional Triathlete Organization’s 2020 Championship in Daytona Beach Florida where he laid down the fastest run of the day! A bit of background on Matt.
Dr. Matt Hanson is a professional triathlete and coach for triathletes, cyclists and runners. He has an extensive background as an athlete and is highly-educated in all things sports-related.
As an athlete, Matt comes from a wrestling background, but running has always been a passion of his. In 2014, his first year as a pro, Matt set 3 run course records and won Ironman Chattanooga.
He has since tallied 10 professional wins, including 3 North American Championship titles. He also owns the fastest ever time at an Ironman-branded, full distance event (7:39:25) where he also clocked the fastest ever marathon off the bike with a 2:34.
In addition to racing as a professional, Matt is the owner of Matt Hanson Racing!
Links
Matt Hanson Tri .com
Matt Hanson Racing
Matt Hanson Twitter
Matt Hanson Racing on Twitter
Matt Hanson Facebook
Matt Hanson Racing on Facebook
Matt Hanson Instagram
Matt Hanson Racing on Instagram
Matt Hanson YouTube Channel
First Endurance Nutrition
The post Ironman Course Record Holder, 10X Champion & Recent 2nd place finisher of the 2020 PTO Championships: Professional Triathlete Dr. Matt Hanson! appeared first on .
Good day everyone! Today’s topic, Insulin Resistance, a leading cause of Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Diabetes, Obesity, Inflammation & More. Learn what causes it and what you can do to both prevent & reverse it! Now, for all you athletes out there and especially those of you training and competing in endurance events: Because carbohydrates make up the vast percentage of calories consumed for many of you, believe it or not, even though you may be fit, ripped and lean, you can still readily develop insulin resistance and the biggest danger is that because you do not look unhealthy, it can easily be missed! Its true! Although it seems like a paradox, the reality is for a certain number of athletes, the improved insulin sensitivity that typically results from exercise, simply is not enough to offset the massive amount of carbohydrates that they are consuming. Additionally, if these athletes have other risk factors that we will get into shortly, it is likely that they will develop insulin resistance! So, let’s get started:)
I want to begin with some basic definitions. First and foremost. Glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar and is one of the main fuel sources of the body. It is the key component to many carbohydrates. Carbohydrates or saccharides as they are also known are the sugars, starches and fibers found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. One thing you must understand is this: Ultimately, all carbohydrates are made up of sugars. All carbohydrates effect blood sugar with one exception. Fiber. Fiber is considered the roughage portion of plant-based foods that cannot be fully broken down by the human digestive system. Digestion is the process of breaking down the larger, macromolecules of food that we consume into their fundamental building blocks for use in the body.
Insulin resistance occurs when cells in your body do not respond well to insulin. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas and its job is to allow glucose from the blood stream, to enter into cells, either for the production of energy now or for the storage of energy later. Therefore, when someone has insulin resistance and their cells are not responding well to insulin, the cells cannot take in as much glucose as they normally would, given a certain amount of insulin secreted. This results in higher levels of blood glucose over time.
This is not good. Although glucose is a main source of fuel, taking in much more than you need is NOT healthy. Like so many other things in life, while some glucose is good, more is definitely NOT better. Think of it this way. Glucose for your body is like gasoline for your car. Let’s say you have a 10 gallon gas tank and run it close to empty. If you go to the gas station and put in about 10 gallons of gas, things are good. You can drive away, you’re happy, the gas station owner is happy. However, if you try to pump in 20 gallons of gas and spill 10 gallons all over the ground, now you have a problem, it becomes a hazmat situation because that excess gas on the ground Is damaging to the environment. Well, this is exactly what happens if you take in more glucose than you need.
The average person can store around 1-2 hours of glucose-based fuel in their bodies, depending on how well they are trained. Glucose that is to be stored is converted into glycogen where it is kept in our muscles and in our liver. If you do some exercise and burn off some of your glucose stores, you should be eating some sources of glucose to replenish your reserves. However, if you go overboard and take in far more than you need, it becomes dangerous. Normal glucose levels are handled well by the body, but high levels of glucose are inflammatory in nature and what’s worse is this: The same story applies to Insulin. High levels of insulin are also inflammatory in nature. So now you can begin to see the issue. If you are consuming so much sugar that your body is constantly secreting insulin to try and allow the cells to utilize the sugar, your cells can become less responsive to the insulin which is how one becomes insulin resistant. Now if you do not change your lifestyle, you can easily have two different substances capable of causing increased inflammation at dangerously high levels!
If you cannot get your cells to take in glucose, yet you continue eating carbohydrates your blood glucose levels will steadily increase which results in type II diabetes or previously called adult onset diabetes. This is how insulin resistance leads to diabetes. It is sad that the reason type II diabetes is no longer called adult-onset is because we have so many young children developing it! It used to take the average person decades of eating above average levels of sugar and carbohydrates to cause IR and eventually become diabetic, well now our food industry is so terrible that young children can get there in just a few years! Just one energy drink combined with one candy bar can easily provide more than a day’s worth of carbohydrates for the average, sadly, sedentary child. Many of these young children consume more sugar and refined carbohydrates in one year than their grandparents likely consumed over 10-15 years, its an absolute fact. 100 years ago, the average American consumed about 10 lbs of sugar per year. Today, the average American consumes over 150 lbs of sugar per year. Now think about this. If your energy stores are fully topped off, yet you continue to consume sugar and carbs, what does your body do with that extra sugar? The answer: It primarily gets converted into triglycerides and is stored as body fat! Has our population gotten bigger as a whole in the last 100 years, absolutely.
So excessive sugar intake is by the main cause of IR but there is more to this story. Not all sugars are equal. Some sugars are worse than others. Fructose is potentially the worst one for three major reasons:
1. Fructose converts more readily into body fat, even if your glycogen stores are not yet topped off.
2. Fructose plays a much bigger role in developing Leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone produced by our fat cells that is supposed to inhibit hunger. Leptin should be keeping us from eating more if we do take on more body fat. So you can see the danger with Fructose, it builds body fat more readily and also can lead to leptin resistance which can ultimately lead us to being more hungry more often even after storing more body fat.
3. Fructose appears to facilitate the conversion of purines into uric acid. Elevated levels of uric acid can cause a spike in free radicals produced which can damage our mitochondria which leads to reduced energy levels since the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and is where our cellular energy is made. When the body’s energy levels are low, the body will generate hunger as it believes you just need to eat more to fulfill the energy demand. However, that is the least of the body’s problems if there are damaged mitochondria. Damaged mitochondria are now known to be a major factor in the development of cancer. That is the essence behind the metabolic theory of cancer. I strongly urge everyone listening to read “Tripping Over The Truth. How the Metabolic Theory of Cancer is overturning one of medicine’s most entrenched paradigms” by Travis Christofferson to lean more.
Now lets pivot and talk about some of the most common sources of fructose. Table sugar is about 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Most fruits are also composed of about 50% glucose and 50 fructose. Now for the biggie. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), the cheap, massed produced, by-product of our subsidized corn industry, is added to so many daily, common foods, to make them sweeter so you literally are more likely to become addicted and ultimately but more of those sweetened foods! HFCS is 55% Fructose, 45% Glucose. Think of soda, soda alone is a massive source of sugar and particularly fructose for so many people. Now, what is very important to know is this: The combination of vitamin C along with fiber seem to block fructose’s effects on uric acid production. This is why eating some fruits, like an orange is okay, but, if you just drink orange juice, you are not getting any fiber and that is why fruit juice is actually damaging to the body. Yes, I said, damaging to the body. How many of us start or at least started every day with a large glass of OJ? I know I did growing up. The sad reality is the science is clear on this one, drinking juice is not a good move. However, this does not stop the marketers and their TV commercials, online ads and clever sales displays trying to tell us otherwise. Remember, folks, in the end, like so many other food industries, they just want you to buy their stuff.
Now we have to dive deeper into the causes of IR. While the overconsumption of sugar, carbs and particularly fructose, is the major driver, there are other causes.
1. Having a poor Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio. This creates increased inflammation which can interfere with insulin receptors on your cells. In general, Omega 3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory in nature, while Omega 6 fatty acids are PRO-inflammatory in nature. Now inflammation itself is neither good nor bad. Inflammation is a key component in both our Immune system and our body’s healing & repair systems. However, just like glucose, while some inflammation is necessary, too much can be damaging. Excessive inflammation can result in healthy tissues being damaged which is why excessive inflammation is a main factor in all chronic diseases! In a perfect world our bodies would have an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of around 2:1. However, the average American has an Omega 6:3 ratio of around 25:1! How did it get this bad? By Overeating grains and especially vegetable oils such as corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil and safflower oils. Grains and vegetable oils are rich in Omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids, the best sources are wild caught cold water fatty fish and coconut oil. But wait, weren’t vegetable oils supposed to be good for us? Wrong. In the US we subsidize the growing of grains, including wheat, corn, soy, canola etc. therefore the advice to consume those industry’s oils is purely economical, sadly, no real science supports consuming those highly inflammatory oils.
The next cause of IR I want to mention is:
2. Consuming Trans Fatty Acids. Anytime you read a label and see “partially hydrogenated”, that product contain trans fats and those toxic fats greatly interfere with insulin receptors. Once again, think of how many people listened to the terrible advice of so many experts and bought margarine thinking they were doing something healthy. Now most people know that margarine is toxic! The so-called experts that promoted it for years, were paid off by the fake spread manufactures and sadly, the number of people sickened and even killed by this terrible lie is almost too many to count. In fact, a report by Dr. Walter Willett, of Harvard University estimates that trans fats could be responsible for 30,000 of the annual heart disease related deaths in the US alone!
The last cause of IR I want to talk about are Ceramindes.
3. Ceraminde exposure. Ceramides are fats that cause insulin resistance in the brain. The two most common sources of ceramides are alcohol and nitrosamines (nitrites and nitrates frequently found in white flour, processed cheese, most bacon and lunch meats)
Okay, so now you know the main causes of IR.
Overconsumption of sugars and carbohydrates
Having a Poor Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio
Trans Fats and
Ceramides.
So: With causes of IR now known, Its time to make an Action plan of steps one can take to both prevent and reverse it!
#1 Is the most important. Reduce your sugar intake, reduce all carbohydrates! As a general rule, the average person, who is not regularly exercising, often does well with around 100 grams of carbohydrates per day. Again, this is just an average, it can vary widely from person to person, but it can serve as a starting point for many. Because excessive sugar/carb intake is the number one driver of IR, you cannot ignore this step. Now there will always be companies out there trying to pitch the next miracle drug, promising a fix, but at what cost, save yourself from needless side effects and address the underlying cause! For those that are ready to make a change now and are ready to do whatever it takes I highly recommend looking into the Whole 30 Food Plan. The Whole 30 way of eating, eliminates all grains, added sugars and dairy. Yes, that can be very difficult to do over the long term, however, those that do it see great results, not only in terms of improved insulin sensitivity, most people report weight loss, decreases sugar cravings and increased energy. Now for those that just can’t handle all of the rules and strict nature of following the plan word for word, here is a much more tolerable way. Start by making 2-3 Whole 30 dinners per week. Over time try to advance to following the plan 2 or 3 entire days per week and go from there. Another great option is looking into the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet eliminates grains, refined sugars and dairy products. It is less stringent than the whole 30 and is a preferred plan for a lot of the world’s top athletes. For additional information I highly suggest the books, “It Starts with Food. Discover the Whole 30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways” by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig, “The Primal Blueprint” By Mark Sisson and for athletes, “The Paleo Diet for Athletes: The Ancient Nutrition Formula for Peak Athletic Performance” by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel. Another simple step to take is by incorporating intermittent fasting into your routine, either daily or even just a few times per week. This can be done by simply extending the time between when you eat dinner and when you eat breakfast the following day. Research suggests that health benefits, including improved insulin resistance can begin to be seen with a break of eating of just 14 hours. So if you have dinner at 7pm, try not to have breakfast until 9am the next morning. If you can go longer before eating breakfast, great! If not, no worries! Intermittent fasting has suddenly become very trendy and there are so called intermittent experts popping up everywhere you turn and most are convinced that their way of doing it is best. As always, there will likely never be a hard set, perfect amount of time for intermittent fasting because we are all unique individuals, with subtle variations in biochemistry, genetics, thoughts, emotions and more. There will never be another YOU and therefore in the end, we you just need to find what works best for YOU.
#2 Balance your Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio. How do you know what your ratio is? You must get the tested. The good news is testing is easy, there are many labs that offer an in-home test kit which only requires a drop of blood from a finger stick, similar to what a diabetic does to check their blood sugar. For those in my area, reach out to us at the office and we can get you set up with a test kit. If your ratio is off, you must reduce your consumption of vegetable oils and grains and increase your Omega 3 consumption, often Omega 3 supplements can be helpful in these cases.
#3 Eliminate consumption of Trans Fats, there is no shortcut on this one either folks, these are toxic, damaging oils. Read your food labels and toss out anything with the words, “partially hydrogenated”.
#4 Exercise: Both strength training and cardiovascular exercise have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity. The good news here is that you do not need to go overboard. Strength training 2 times per week and aerobic exercise 3-5 times per week can be very effective. As mentioned at the start of this conversation, for those that love endurance events, as I do, just be mindful of how much carbohydrate you are consuming.
#5 Reduce Ceraminde consumption by limiting alcohol, limiting processed meats and processed white flour.
#6 Consider training your body to thrive off of Ketones which are an alternative fuel source for the body. This can be achieved by following a ketogenic diet. Supplementing directly with ketones and or Medium Chain Triglycerides, known as MCTs (which break down into ketones in our muscles) at specific times can help your body use this alternative fuel source. Fueling off of ketones reduces the need and often reduces the craving for carbs which can lead to less intake which leads to less insulin secretion which can help to improve a cells response to insulin over time.
Please note, there can be significant side effects when trying to convert to a ketogenic diet, particularly in those with pre-existing medical conditions so please do so only under the close supervision of a qualified health professional
So there you have it, today we covered what insulin resistance is. What causes it and what we can do to both prevent and reverse it. I want to close with a few moments about why I chose to record this episode today which is December 12th 2020. As I mentioned at the onset of today’s talk, Insulin Resistance is the leading cause behind the Top Three Pre-existing Conditions that put people at risk for COVID-19 complications. We know that over 99% of all people infected with COVID-19 will fully recover. So, what happens to those that don’t survive? It is not like they get a different virus than the 99+% of people that survive.
What is it that people who are obese, diabetic and have heart disease have in common that puts them at most risk from dying from COVID-19? They all have a condition driven by excessive inflammation! If a person has higher levels of inflammation in their body and the get COVID-19, often their body’s immune system can go over board and that results in the “Cytokine Storm” which ultimately results in death. Cytokines are substances secreted by certain immune system cells. Sadly, their immune system over-reacts and this results in damage to their own lung tissues! The medical world has known about the cytokine storm very early into the pandemic! Yet time and time again you hear, stay home, social distance, wear masks, but where is the talk about simple steps we can all do to improve our health now! Where is the talk about simple steps to improve our immune system function now! Well, all of the action steps discussed here have research behind them to support improvements in health and reducing excessive inflammation! Just think, where we would be as a nation, as a world if we all focused on what we can do to improve not only our immune systems but our overall health! So with that said, if you found this information to be helpful please share it with anyone you think may benefit from it!
Until next time. Have a great day!
Links:
Tripping Over the Truth: How the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Is Overturning One of Medicine’s Most Entrenched Paradigms
It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways
The Primal Blueprint
The Paleo Diet for Athletes: The Ancient Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance
The post Insulin Resistance (IR), a leading cause of Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Diabetes, Obesity, Inflammation & More. Learn what causes IR and what you can do to both prevent & reverse it! appeared first on .
I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!
Today I’m Pumped to bring you this interview with an absolute LEGEND in the sport of triathlon, Greg Bennett! Greg Bennett raced as a professional triathlete for 28 years! Over his time as a professional Greg won 2 ITU World Series Titles, One Triathlon World Championship, 6 World Cup Titles, was ranked the world’s #1 triathlete in 2002 & 2003, is a 3X Olympian and won 6 Ironman 70.3’s, the last at 41 years of age! His last world title, the 2011 World Championship (non-drafting) in Des Moines, Iowa was won just before turning 40 years old. If there was one triathlete who figured out the recipe for staying fit, fast & strong for nearly 3 decades of professional triathlon racing it is Greg Bennett!
Greg, welcome to the show! It is such an honor to have you with us today! When I was just getting triathlon in the late 2000’s I really enjoyed reading and following what was going on amongst the pros in our sport. What really stood out was this: When so many of your peers from the ITU circuit were crossing over to long course racing, which seems to be what happens to most professionals as they get older and lose some of their top end speed, there you were, not only staying with short course racing but continuing to win!
Overview
Strength Training
Training Volume
Racing Volume
Mindset
Recovery
Nutrition
Greg’s New Podcast
I strongly advise all of you listeners check out Greg’s show, the in depth interviews he has done with other of our sports top performers are packed with information that can help all of us become better athletes!
Greg, as we get ready to wrap things up today, do you have any last words of wisdom for our listeners?
Greg, thank you so much for providing our listeners so much actionable advice! One last question: How can people connect and follow you?
I will put a link to each of the ways you can connect with Greg in our show notes page @ www.peakperformancepodcast.com.
Greg, thank you so much, I wish for you an abundance of success this year and in the years ahead!! Cheers!!
Links
BE Bennett Endurance
Be With Champions
Bennett Consulting
Instagram: Gregbennettworld
This concludes today’s episode of The Peak Performance Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE take a moment to Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts, Thank you very much for listening & Have a Great Day!
The post Staying Fit, Fast & Injury Free with the Legendary Greg Bennett appeared first on .
An Introduction to Winter Hiking
Welcome to the Peak Performance Podcast
I am your host, Dr. Marc Dupuis
Today’s episode is a live recording from a recent presentation by my colleague & fellow Back to Health Chiropractic Chiropractor Dr. Tyler Kuntz
For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Kuntz, here is a brief bio:
Dr. Tyler Kuntz is a Chiropractic Physician at Back to Health Chiropractic. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Palmer College. While studying at Palmer, Dr. Kuntz was a clinical Radiology Intern and a Chiropractic Rehabilitation and Sports Injury Intern.
When outside of the office, Dr. Kuntz’s outside interests include hiking, running, swimming or any other outdoor activities that New England has to offer. He is an avid runner and competitive ultramarathoner.
Especially relevant to tonight’s presentation, Dr. Kuntz is an accomplished hiker. He has completed all of the 4,000 ft mountain hikes in New Hampshire, twice and is working on completing the ultimate challenge of the White Mountains 4,000 ft GRID….keep in mind, he has only been in New England for two years! That is quite the accomplishment!
What I love about today’s show is this: Winter hiking is a phenomenal way to cross train while continuing to build a solid cardiovascular base for the upcoming race season but in a way that uses muscles differently compared to standard swimming, biking and running. Now more than ever it can be all too easy to fall into the habit of only swimming, biking and running all year long without any breaks. With the advent of virtual training programs like Zwift for biking and now even running we can push right on through the end of our race season and not take any time off which of course sets the stage for developing overuse injuries.
For those of us that live in climates that provide a snow filled off season, winter hiking and cross country skiing can be the answer to figuering out how to build early season fitness while simultaneously lowering your risk of developing overuse injryies!!
And with that, I present to you: Dr. Tyler Kuntz
That wraps up today’s show, An Introduction to Winter Hiking. I hope you found this talk helpful and that you can apply what Dr. Tyler taught you today for some fun, safe winter hiking in the near future!
You can find links to some of the gear, websites and related information that Dr. Tyler spoke of on our show notes page at www.thepeakperformancepodcast.com
If you can, please rate & review us on Apple Podcasts, that can help us tremendously by staying relevant and well placed in search results.
Thank you very much for listening & have a great day!
links:
Mountain-Forcast.com
Mt. Washington Observatory’s High Summits Forecast
New England Trail Conditions
MSR Snowshoes
MSR Hiking Poles
Hiking Gators
Microspikes
Musher’s Secret Pet Paw Wax
The post An Introduction to Winter Hiking appeared first on .
The podcast currently has 28 episodes available.