Sugar and Immunity

Since I haven't been feeling all that well lately, I decided to delve into some research about what a low carb diet can do to for your immunity.

Funny thing is, there is none. There is a lot of anectodal evidence about people who have gone low carb and stopped getting colds, or infections, etc, but the medical field has deemed it unnecessary to study up on. Check out peoplespharmacy.com, or lowcarbfriends.com and check out some of their reports. They aren't primary literature, but way more accessible than the technical language filled stuff I was going to sift through.

Briefly, when following a low carb diet, we are forced to eat a higher fat diet. Low carb=high fat, and low fat =high carb. Anyone that tells you different should be scissor kicked. So, if we're on low carb, we get a lot of fat and most of that tends to be good fat. The reason being, it's hard to force down 3 packs of bacon a day, but we can snack on some almonds, or peanut butter, or cook in olive oil quite readily. The higher levels of fat tend to show an increase in metabolism, by which I mean an increas in turnover of cells, and repair of cells. Also, we see an increase in production of prostaglandins (involved in the immune cascade), and a SLOW DOWN of CANCER CELL GROWTH, and ANAEROBIC BACTERIA GROWTH. Wow. There's more to this mechanism, IGF-1, insulin, etc, but that's the gist. We can slow down the growth of most bacteria that we get infections from, or viruses (rhinovirus (cold), to the point where our own immune system can handle them.

Ironically, while writing this post, I've realized that I've taken in a bit too many carbs over the past week or so, and maybe that has something to do with me being sick...

Fast Food, low carb style

So this morning, when I was coming home from Kirksville, MO I felt the pangs of hunger hit me, and decided instead of doing an intermittent fasting day, I need to feed instead. While stuck in the concrete jungle, I thought I'd try to keep the diet relatively clean. Here's what I came up with:

2 Egg McMufffins with only 1 slice of the english muffin total
Coffee (black)
Handful of Almonds I had in my truck

So, I was on the road, in a rush, and still managed to eat pretty clean and not make the day a waste, diet-wise. I was thinking about it, and if you're forced to eat out, you could probably make it pretty decent if you just stay away from the fried and flour products. Anyway, just thought everyone would like to know that even though I hate fast food generally, I ate some today, so boo-yah.

General Physical Preparedness

So I was surfing the web a few nights ago, and I came across this new term "general physical preparedness" or GPP. I was taken aback because in none of my classes or certifications or books or anything I've ever come across had mentioned this fairly obvious idea. Needless to say, I tried to read a bunch and interpret it to myself before posting this, but here is the gist:

GPP is the ability of an individual to do any physical activity required (voluntary or involuntary). The voluntary is fairly obvious, an athletic competition, exercise requirements, marathons, and things of that nature. An involuntary requirement would be something we hope probably never happens, like being chased by a bear, avoiding a car collision while running/walking, or being in a life or death situation...hey, it could happen right?

The higher someone's GPP, the greater ability they have across the board in every measurable aspect of fitness, and the lower it is, the opposite is true. So think about someone who is an offensive lineman on a football team, you know the big guys who push other big mountains of men back a few yards and try to cream the defensive linemen to create a hole for the running back to run through, or protect the quarterback. These guys are very strong at their particular requirment, low speed strength. Think about it, they don't move very fast while pushing another 300lb guy, nor do they run for very long, so they can't sustain that effort for more than 20 seconds or the average time of a football play. So they would have a low GPP, unless they did some other non specific sport training. Is this a bad thing, or just a component of being very good at one thing?

This is the question I asked myself. What if an elite football player, could also have great endurance, great jumping ability, and flexibility, even if it weren't a required trait of his position? This is of course one example, what if a marathoner had great strength and muscularity and sprint speed too, wouldn't that make them an even better athlete overall, without compromising their primary sport?

The answer is yes. Through minimum non sport specific training, we can increase our overall GPP. Even better, is when we're not super elite athletes, and then everything should be GPP style training. We should strive for great endurance, great sprint speed, great jumping ability, great strength and muscularity, and great agility and flexibility. If we can attain great proficiency in all things fitness-wise, and we have no weakness, we are holistically in good shape, rather than having glaring weaknesses. This is where training and programming come in.

Being a trainer is great, because I get to constantly vary my non athletic client's program in such a way to increase their proficiency at all things fitness related. People always ask for programs, like written down programs. And I've always said that a specific plan for workouts is a plan to fail. Coach Glassman confirmed this with this old quote of his:

“Variances in effort, intensity, enthusiasm, and performance are an inescapable part of life. The belief that these natural variances can be planned for months in advance in order to optimize performance at a later date is hogwash.” - Greg Glassman

So basically everytime someone comes in, we're doing something different, whether the intensity, weight, duration, exercise, or interval changes, it's different, and that's how you get good at everything, or in other words your GPP increases.

I would say increasing one's GPP should be the highest goal for anyone looking to achieve fitness across the board. Even if you are a competitive athlete, you should strive to be good at everything, so that in case the demands of your sport change suddenly, you are good to go. Think of a situation in which an offensive linemen has to chase down a defensive back who intercepted a ball. In most cases, the linemen is slow, and runs out of steam quickly. However, if he had just spent a little time working on his GPP, he could probably accelerate fast enough to catch the DB and prevent the touchdown. And it's not like its that hard for an already athletic person to achieve this level of GPP. Just an extra session or modified training session per week that focuses on glaring weakness in a smart manner can yield great results in the long term, which is not even including the health benefits of having better heart and respiration, better oxidative capacity, and a reduced bodyfat.

So the next time you think that just doing the stuff you're good at will get you to your goal whatever it may be (for instance, a runner running, or a cyclist cycling, or a bodybuilder lifting weights for size gains), think outside the box with your training and realize that something you stink at is good for you, and will help be a more well rounded person fitness wise, but probably also increase your proficiency at your main goal, which is something we're all striving for.

Introduction

Hey all,

I just created this blog to keep my train of thought going in between newsletters and to make a more public domain of new stuff I come across and learn everyday. Look forward to new exercises, thoughts on diet, health, and fitness as well as some personal lifestyle entries. I appreciate you reading and commenting. Let the shenanigans begin!!

-Jordan Feigenbaum
CSCS, IFA Sports Nutritionist