Obesity and Captivity Go Hand in Hand

From the BBC, a story about obese elephants,

• "...Almost all the elephants kept in temples in the state have been found to be obese.
  

RPT Wk4 W/O3

I'm quite enjoying how my training is going at the moment.  I am pushing things and am uninjured (something I like to frequently reflect upon due to long history of carrying a 'niggle' here and there without trying to resolve it). 

I can feel muscle soreness from my current workload and Lau Gar activities demand I ramp down training over the coming week as I have a 'challenge' next Saturday that requires my A-game.

I am not sure how I will deload.  Do I reduce volume, intensity, or increase rest period?  There is a lot of conflicting advice.  I think I will reduce volume down to one set of heavy.

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Main (35 minutes)
1. Handstand Variations (air squats + side lunges, front lunges + floor touches, front/side/turning kicks, Low Kicks + Reverse Kicks)
2. Manna Progression (three rounds for time)
3. Deadlift (6x130, 8x110, 10x90)
4. Wall Walk (3, 3)
5. Backbridge (15s)

Shoulder Pre-habilitation
6. External Shoulder Rotations (12)
7. External Shoulder Rotations (12)

8. 321 (8L, 8L, 8L)/Bouldering

Weight: 80*

Knee News

Another good episode of Radio 4's Inside Health:

• Dr Mark Porter dispels myths about osteoarthritis. It is usually put down to ageing and the result of wear and tear with people told that the condition inevitably leads to surgery. Mark Porter investigates the latest research on the condition and discovers that a third of patients will get better through the natural repair process.

Porter discusses osteoarthritis which is now being considered as a problem of inflammation rather than 'wear and tear'. The general idea amongst doctors and the wider public is that once you succumb to osteoarthritis, things will only get worse and that surgery is inevitable. Pushed further, many would suggest that there is a scenario of bone-on-bone in the affected joint.  This is incorrect!

It is a thinning of the cartilege that causes pain.  It is a whole-joint disease that is subject to a repair process (your body is trying to make it better), hence the inflammatory response.   Furthermore it CAN get better. Research suggests that 1 in 3 people with arthritic knees get better. Another third get no worse.

Muscle strength protects joints. To help yourself in these situations it is recommended to strengthen your muscles which in turn reduces pain, improves function and 'repairs the arthritis'.  (I've been using a similar approach myself to cure a tension in my left hip as you'll see from the routines).

Don't rest your joint, strengthen it!  Work your body.

RPT Wk4 W/O2

I aim to repeat and consolidate last week's highs, particularly with the chins.

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Main (35 minutes)
1. Handstand Variation (air squats + side lunges, one legged floor touches + front lunges, front/side/turning kicks + hanging kicks)
2. Pistols (6x75kg, 8x70kg, 10x65kg)
3. OACs (5x60kg, 6x55kg, 8x45kg)

Forearm and Wrist Prehabilitation
4. Golfers Elbow Drumstick Rotation (12)
5. Wrist Push Ups (12)
6. Reverse Wrist Curl (12)

Weight : 80kg

Carb Restriction/Higher Fat

Just a quick post to a couple of links regarding macronutrient cycling.

Richard Feinman has an extensive post on carbohydrate restriction:

• It was now clear that we had a consistent set of scientific ideas that supported the importance of insulin signaling in basic biochemistry and cell biology and that there was a continuum with the role of dietary carbohydrate restriction in obesity, diabetes or general health.  All the practical considerations were still problematical but now we had the kernel of a scientific principle. In fact, it was not so much that we had the answer as that we had the right question.  In science, the question is frequently more important than the answer.

And on a sporting front, one of the comments at Gnolls had this item about a low carber winning an ultramarathon (a subject which brings us back to met flex and indeed, Gnolls.org),

• Steve Phinney says that more and more endurance athletes are choosing low-carb, high-fat.  They’re choosing this diet both to get over digestive problems that hit in such a demanding event, and to win the race, and win it BIG!  That’s what Tim Olson did this year.  A self-proclaimed low-carb eater, Tim won the race — with a record-breaking pace.

The Epigenetics Revolution: Nutrition

Some further extracts from Nessa Carey's excellent The Epigenetics Revolution. 

The Agouti mouse is no stranger to those who have spent any time in the paleosphere.  Epigeneticists have used these mice to uncover some pretty intriguing phenomena:

• [Emman Whitelaw changed the expression of epigenetic proteins]. No matter how tightly scientists control the environment for the [agouti] mice and especially their access to food, identical mice from inbred mouse strains don't all have exactly the same body weight. Experiments carried out over many years have shown that only about 20-30 per cent of the variations in body weights can be attibuted to the post natal environment. This leaves the question of what causes the other 70-80 per cent of variation in body weight. Since it isn't being caused by genetics (all the mice are identical) or by the environment, there has to be another source for the variation.

RPT Wk4 W/O1

It was tough working the levers in this workout.  I think that all the punching in Lau Gar through the week fatigues my shoulders.  Being in to so much 'physical stuff' it is hard enough to stay uninjured, never mind improve.  I should perhaps specialise to some degree but when you have the thrill of the fight, of the excitement of climbing/bouldering or the play of gymnastics, how can you choose?

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Main (30 minutes).
1. Stairgators (1)
2. Planche Variations (25s, 25s, 25s)
3. Barefoot Sprinting (1x15s, 1x15s, 1x15s)
4. Rope Climb (2)
5a. MU to Ring Routine (2, 2).
5b. Scissor Splits (3x '2L, 2R, 2C') 
6. Weighted Barefoot Kill Carry (1)
7. Fingerboard Routine (10min)