Roundups

One of the topics I want to discuss this month is one that we’re all too familiar with. Another is one that we’re probably aware of but we probably don’t know a ton about. …

Knee arthritis and how to spot a bad studyRead More »

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Just one topic this month because it’s a topic that is a personal peeve of mine.

We all know by now that sitting all day is bad for our health, right? That’s why we have standing desks. But what if standing all day is worse than sitting all day?

Here’s a thought: all things in moderation. Some standing, some sitting, some walking, some running.

I get so frustrated at times when people insist in an all or nothing solution to a problem. We see this a lot in dietary discussions. Fat is bad. No, carbs are bad. No…all things in moderation are fine. The key isn’t avoiding some bogeyman. It’s finding moderation.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

We all know by now that running is good for us, right? Well, how good is it for us? Some of us may have heard that runners have higher levels of coronary artery plaques. Is this a concern? It would seem to be. As for the bones, we know running strengthens them. How much running does it take, though?

Running and your heart

Is it true that runners have more coronary artery plaques than non-runners? In short, yes. Is this a concern? The obvious answer would be yes. However, things seem to be a little more complicated. The kinds of plaques runners have are more stable and less likely to break loose and clog an artery.

In the end:

But for now, he says, the available data, including these new studies, suggest that prolonged, intense endurance exercise may alter your arteries, but does not seem likely to harm them.

Running and your bones

Running is good for your bones. We all know that. However, how much running does it really take to strengthen your bones? Well, the answer may be surprisingly little. As little as one minute a day. Really.

Obviously, we don’t want to run just one minute a day for other reasons. However, it’s good to know that, for our bone health, we don’t need to do anything special. A small amount of training, far less than I’m sure anyone reading this does, is all it takes.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Fitness and your health

You know that your running is good for your health, right? But how good? Is it better to be naturally fit or to train hard? I think a lot of us have believed or maybe hoped that how hard you worked at it would be more important.

Unfortunately:

What this tells us is that exercise is good for you because it increases your cardiovascular fitness. High fitness, meanwhile, is good for you no matter how you acquire it—which is a lucky break for those who happen to have high levels of baseline fitness thanks to their genetics.

This makes sense in many ways. Just like ability to race fast on limited training varies greatly between individuals, so do health outcomes on limited training.

It’s important to note that exercise is indeed good for us. Just because you don’t have a high level of baseline fitness, don’t give up. Just realize that, just like your race times, we don’t all start at the same place.

Who needs to be gluten free?

If you have celiac disease or are gluten sensitive and you’ve tried a gluten free diet, you’ve likely noticed that, for some people, going gluten free can make a big difference in your life.

However, at the same time, gluten free is the new dietary fad. Like most dietary fads, something with a grain of truth takes off to be blown out of proportion. Many people who have no need to avoid gluten do so just because they hear gluten is bad.

So how do you determine whether or not you really need to be gluten free? Here are some good thoughts.

In short, if you’re concerned that you may have celiac disease, there is a blood test for that but you must be eating gluten in order for the test to work. Go gluten free before the test and it will come back negative even if you do have celiac disease.

More important, whether you have celiac disease, you have some other gluten sensitivity, or you simply benefit from the placebo effect, if going gluten free makes you feel better then do it.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

We all know that pre-race stress is not good for our race performances. But why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. We now have another.

We all also know that calcium is important for our bones and dairy is a good source of milk. But what if one type of dairy is better than others?

Pre-race stress

You already know to avoid pre-race stress because it’s not good for your race performance, right? You might even know some of the reasons it isn’t good, right?

Well, here’s another way:

During acute psychological stress—in this case, seeing and being told they were failing at a pressure-packed task—the triathletes’ pain thresholds decreased significantly.

In short, your pain threshold is reduced after dealing with psychological stress. As a result, you can’t push as hard through the pain that is inevitably a part of racing.

Is yogurt better than milk?

We all know that calcium is important for maintaining bone health and dairy is a good source of calcium. But is it possible that one kind of dairy could be better than others?

It appears this may be the case:

He noted that other dairy products did not produce a similar effect and cautioned that some yogurts are high in sugar, “so we have to be careful about that.”

It’s not everything but it appears yogurt may be a super food (besides the high sugar content in some flavored varieties) in yet another way.