Monthly Archives: August 2011

August 30, 2011 · 6:59 AM

Can Compression Socks Improve Your Running?

Compression garments seem to be popping up everywhere these days. It seems like all of the fitness companies have jumped on the compression bandwagon, making everything from knee-high socks to yoga pants to tank tops. First off, let me start by saying that you should not believe any company’s claims that simply wearing a pair of compression pants or a compression shirt will help you get toned. If you like the way they look and feel and want to buy a pair, by all means, buy them. But if you buy them in hopes that you will get toned while sitting on the couch watching television, please refrain from wasting your money.

So are any compression garments actually useful for runners? While many say that the jury is still out, I believe that yes, when worn in the right way and at the right times, compression socks in particular can benefit runners. I have a pair of compression socks that I wear during and after my long runs and I do feel a difference in my recovery versus when I go without them.

The idea and theory behind compression socks is that they aid in blood circulation, reduce blood lactate concentration during running, and control the amount from muscle oscillation that results from pounding during running (i.e. decrease muscle movement with each stride, thus reducing the impact forces).   All of these things lead to fewer sore muscles, faster recovery, and increased performance.

I was told by several running stores that CEP brand compression socks were the best because they were scientifically proven and people have had the best results from them. Whether that is true or not, I’m not sure, but that is the brand I went with and I personally love them. From CEP’s website:

Used by professional triathletes around the world, CEP running socks are the first scientifically proven compression running socks to maximize power, boost energy, and speed recovery time. CEP Running O2 Sportsocks maximize muscle oxygenation and boost energy with CEP’s unparalleled scientifically optimized ultimate compression technology for all-day benefits. You’ll run with less effort, increased speed, decreased recovery time, reduced fatigue and optimized performance.

CEP compression sportsocks are the first truly functional compression sport socks with a patented pressure flow technology that provide a scientifically proven increase in blood circulation and a consequent increase in performance. In addition to blister prevention, CEP socks provide more oxygen, more energy, an improved metabolization of lactic acid, and faster recovery so you can return to training quicker than ever.

As far as the research behind compression socks, the results are mixed. Some studies have shown no performance benefits while others have. For instance, researchers in Germany noted that although aerobic capacity didn’t differ between trials of runners wearing compression socks compared to those wearing regular socks, athletes did run longer and hit a higher speed during a maximal treadmill test while wearing compression socks. In addition, they found that the compression sock-wearing participants’ running speeds at anaerobic threshold were higher. In terms of recovery, research has suggested that compressive clothing may affect the rate of cellular membrane turnover in damaged muscle following exercise, and alter the inflammatory response to muscle damage, accelerating the repair process. This means that if you do decide to run with compression socks on, it is important to keep them on post-run if possible. I keep mine on for about an hour following my long runs while I cool down, eat, and relax.

The take away here is that if you feel like you could benefit from compression socks, go ahead and give them a try. Don’t expect miracles and know that some runners don’t really notice a difference. Other runners, however, do notice a difference and wear them on every run. Keep in mind, however, that compression socks won’t have much benefit during short runs. They really only come into play during long endurance running.

 

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Filed under Compression socks, Feel Good Running, Marathon Training, Product Review

August 26, 2011 · 9:32 AM

Feeling Strong And Ready To Go Insane

This will probably be my last post about my paleo diet for a while, unless of course there is an overwhelming desire for me to keep you all updated. I don’t want anyone reading this to feel that I am pushing anything at them or preaching that everyone should go paleo. I realize that most people are perfectly happy with their eating habits and have no desire to try a paleo diet, which is totally fine. That was me a few months ago when my husband was trying it and I thought he was crazy.

Anyway, I just want to talk about something I’ve noticed lately since I’ve been paleo and that is my strength. Almost from the very beginning I have felt noticeably stronger, especially during hot yoga. This morning’s class was amazing – I hit every single pose, didn’t fall out of any poses, and felt so strong all the way to the end. What’s more is that when I look in the mirror, I think I look stronger, too. My muscles are slowly becoming more toned and more defined. My stomach, which has always been a little bloated and muffin top-y since the birth of my second child (I had no problem getting my flat stomach back after my first child, but the second one seriously wrecked havoc on my body) is suddenly getting flat again! You have no idea how happy this makes me. Sure, I still have a little extra skin there, but there is never any bloating or bulging and I am actually starting to see some definition in my abs.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but one of the drawbacks to eating gluten, wheat, and refined carbs is that they have the potential to cause inflammation in your body. While I owe a great deal of my recovery from my hip injury to acupuncture, stretching, massaging, and resting, I can’t help but think that cutting carbs from my diet helped bring down the inflammation in my hip and helped me recover faster, too.

So what’s next? On my quest to try new things, I’ve decided to go insane. That is, I’ve been sucked into the late night infomercials for the Insanity Workout and decided to try it and see just how strong and toned I can become. I think it will be great cross-training and strength-training to supplement my running, and I’m always looking for a good challenge. I’ll let you all know if I get killed or not. If it doesn’t kill me, it will make me stronger, right?

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Filed under Acupuncture, Bikram Yoga, Body Composition, Cross Training, Insanity Workout, Paleo Diet, Strength Training, Stretching

August 23, 2011 · 6:50 AM

Skin Calipers vs. The Bod Pod

When getting your body fat tested, which method is more accurate: skin calipers or the Bod Pod? It’s got to be the Bod Pod, right? It’s high tech, state-of-the-art, and claims to be accurate within 1% of underwater weighing (the most accurate method to date). Well, right now I’m not so sure that the Bod Pod really is all that accurate. Or I could just be in denial.

About one year ago I had my body fat tested using skin calipers. I had never had my body fat tested before, so I didn’t really have any idea what my numbers would be. All I knew was what the guidelines and range categories were from the American Council on Exercise, which are as follows:

                          Women          Men
Essential Fat    10-13%            2-5%
Athletes              14-20%            6-13%
Fitness                21-24%            14-17%
Average               25-31%            18-24%
Obese                   32% and up     25% and up

I know that body fat percentage is up there with weight – it’s something that women just don’t admit or talk about. For the sake of argument and to illustrate my point, however, I am going to reveal my numbers to the world. Are you ready? The skin calipers measured my body fat percentage to be 15.5%. I actually had myself remeasured two months later only to find it had gone down to 12%. I realize that this is extremely low and very unlikely, although I will admit that it made me feel good. Most women elite athletes don’t measure as low as 12%, so I did know that it was inaccurate. But by how much I had no idea.

Fast forward one year and I had my body fat tested again, only this time I had it done using the Bod Pod. This space-like contraption, pictured below, claims to be as accurate as the underwater weighing method, plus it is a lot faster and easier. The entire test took about 2 minutes.

I’ve been working out/running/swimming/doing yoga at about the same amount as this time last year. I haven’t gained any weight, either, which leads me to believe that my body fat should be very similar to what it was previously. And I was very anxious to see what the Bod Pod measured to gauge just how inaccurate the skin calipers were.

So what did the Bod Pod reveal? Much to my dismay, the Bod Pod measured my body fat at 24.3%. This is double what the skin calipers measured!! Possible? Yes. Likely? I’m not so sure. Even my friend, who measures people with the Bod Pod regularly and is in the athletic field, said that this was likely too high. Plus, she said there have been several small-framed, lean women come into her lab and their results all appeared way too high. So this makes me believe that I’m not simply in denial, but that the Bod Pod might not be as accurate at they claim after all.

I asked my friend for some possible explanations and she had a few. First, in general it has been shown that women will score higher on methods that measure displacement (bod pod or underwater weighing) because that measures ALL of our body fat…and we carry fat in some significant areas that skinfolds won’t measure (boobs, upper inner thigh etc.). Even if you don’t carry a lot there, it does add up, particularly if you don’t weigh a lot to begin with. Small boobs on a large frame won’t make as much of a difference as small boobs on a small frame. (That last one is me – small boobs on a small frame.)  A second possible explanation is that it is really very hard for women over the age of 30, particularly those who have had children, to have less than 20% body fat…even if you don’t carry it in an obvious subcutaneous way, it is still there, and sadly just increases as we age. I’m not digging this explanation and am not sure that I agree with it.  And lastly, she said that the she and other staff have wondered if there is an issue with the machine (because of me and these other women), but they’ve had it tested and looked at by the company and everything seems fine.  And it does give consistent measurements (even if they seem like “wrong” measurements, they are consistent).

So what does all this mean? I’ve come to the conclusion that while skin calipers are not very accurate, the Bod Pod might not be as accurate as it claims to be either. While it is possible that I am 24% body fat, I’m just not convinced. My friend even mentioned that some reputable studies show the Bod Pod to have a margin of error as high as 8-9%. So what is my real body fat percentage? I’m not sure that I will ever know for sure (unless someone wants to pay for me to do underwater testing). I’m guessing I’m somewhere between the skin caliper measurement and the Bod Pod measurement. Or, I could simply still be in denial…

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Filed under Bod Pod, Body Composition, Body Fat Percentage

August 19, 2011 · 7:17 AM

Acupuncture for Running Injuries

I haven’t really doing much for my hip to speed up the healing, which is probably why it hasn’t felt much better than it did 3 weeks ago. I haven’t been running – I’ve been swimming and doing hot yoga, with the occasional bike ride thrown in, and I was getting frustrated that I could still feel the pain. Even though my doctor suggested physical therapy, I chose not to go that route for financial reasons. Basically my insurance sucks and I can’t afford it. After talking with a friend who regularly goes to an acupuncturist for her running injuries, I was sold on the idea. I had never had acupuncture before, but I’ve always wanted to try it, and now I had a good reason to test it out.

I went on Monday for my first appointment at a local acupuncture school/clinic. Since a licensed acupuncturist and teacher supervises the students, most of which are at the end of their program and therefore have a good deal of experience, I felt that I was in good hands. Plus, this helps keep my costs down.

I really didn’t know what to expect besides being poked with a few needles and I will admit that I was impressed at how in-depth the whole experience was. They asked me tons questions about every organ and function in my body as well as my mind, they looked at my tongue (which can apparently tell you a lot about a person), and they felt my three Chinese pulses as well as the typical western pulse that we know. After that, they came up with a series of locations throughout my body for the needles. I had one in my ear, one in each hand, a few in my left shin, some in my left foot, and several in my hip around the area where I actually felt pain. In all there were 15 needles. They left them in for about 20 minutes, which was actually very relaxing. With the lights off, I almost fell asleep.

When the needles were taken out and I got up, I felt dizzy for a minute and had a very strange sensation as though fluids were rushing through my body. I was told that this was my chi being distributed around my body and was perfectly normal. That’s when I realized that this thing might actually work. I felt something going on and not just like I was poked with a needle and sent away.

I was also given an herbal supplement by the herbologist at the school called Jing Qi Formula. I was told that my Qi was out of balance (I think this was based on the appearance of my tongue) and this herb would help restore the balance of my Qi. The description of the herbs is as follows: Jing Qi Pian is designed for persons who have depleted themselves through excessive stress, work, or sexual activity and who present with kidney and liver yin deficiency, spleen qi deficiency, and slight liver qi constraint. It can be used over a long term to rebuild exhausted qi and jing.

I decided to go out for a walk on Wednesday morning and maybe jog a little to test out the hip. Once I got to jogging, it felt so good that I ended up going 3 miles, with zero pain the entire time. My hip feels great and now with regular acupuncture treatments (twice per week for a couple of weeks), I am very hopeful that I can get back to running regularly again soon. I’ve decided to put off Chicago and instead will try for the Tucson marathon, which is in mid-December. And if this all goes as planned and hoped, I will be a firm believer in acupuncture and will make it my first choice for treatment anytime I get injured!    

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Filed under Acupuncture, Feel Good Running, Marathon Training, Running Injuries

August 16, 2011 · 6:50 AM

Ibuprofen Use While Training or Racing

There is a lot of controversy and confusion around the use of ibuprofen (Advil) during running or any other form of exercise. I know a lot of runners that swear by the practice of popping a few ibuprofen pills before and during their long runs or workouts. I will admit that I used to be one to take a few Advil before a long run, but then I learned that I may actually be doing more harm than good.

Several years ago, a researcher and physiologist named David Nieman studied racers at the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile race held every year in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. In particular, he looked at the stresses that the race places on the bodies of the runners. He looked at the participants’ blood work before, during, and after the race and found some disturbing results. Seven out of ten of the runners were using ibuprofen before the race as well as at regular intervals throughout the race. What Neiman found what that the runners who took ibuprofen displayed significantly more inflammation and other markers of high immune system response afterward than the runners who hadn’t taken anti-inflammatories. The ibuprofen users also showed signs of mild kidney impairment both before and after the race as well as low-level endotoxemia, a condition in which bacteria leak from the colon into the bloodstream.

One of the most common reasons cited by runners and triathletes as to why they take ibuprofen or other NSAIDs is pain prevention. Admittedly, this is why I used to take them, too. They believe that taking ibuprofen will get them through the pain and discomfort of training and racing and will also help prevent soreness afterwards. But research shows that NSAIDs actually have the opposite effect.

In a number of studies conducted both in the field and in human performance laboratories, NSAIDs did not lesson people’s perceptions of pain during activity or decrease muscle soreness later. Further, if taking these drugs did lesson your perception of pain, you could be running through an injury or what could become an injury. Experiencing pain is a sign that you should stop running and let your body heal so that you do not get injured further. If you cannot feel this pain because you took ibuprofen and you kept running, you could get seriously injured and set yourself back weeks or months.

Inflammation is your body’s way of healing and it is a normal part of the healing process. By taking anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen, you are depriving your body of healing properly and are actually causing it to prolong the healing process. Researchers have found that NSAIDs slow the healing of injured muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bodies because they inhibit the production of prostaglandins, which are involved in pain and also in the creation of collagen, which is the building block of most tissues.

Further, these painkillers blunt the body’s response to exercise and can actually lead to injury. Normally, the stresses of exercise lead to denser bones and stronger tissues. If you take ibuprofen before every workout, you lessen this training response. Your bones don’t thicken and your tissues don’t strengthen as they should. They may be less able to withstand the next workout and you may actually increase your odds of becoming sore and injured.

Ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatories do have their place when you have inflammation from an acute injury. In this case, they can be very effective. But if you are a normal, healthy athlete who has no injuries, taking ibuprofen before every workout is a mistake. Most people simply aren’t educated on the subject and just assume that it is safe and effective. That was me. Now that you are educated, I hope that you will think again before taking any NSAIDs while you are training.

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Filed under Feel Good Running, Marathon Training, Racing, Running Injuries, Safety