According to the definition found in most medical journals, Flat feet refers to a change in foot shape in which the foot does not have a normal arch when standing. The condition is normal in infants and toddlers and occurs because the tissues holding the joints (called tendons) in the foot together are loose.

The tissues typically tighten and form an arch as children grow older. This will take place by the time the child is 2 or 3 years old. Most people have normal arches by the time they are adults. However, the arch may never form in some people.

This can be hereditary or can come from aging, injuries, or an illness that harms the tendons and causes flat feet to develop in a person who has already formed arches.

So what? Does it matter? Do you NEED arches? The truth is that most people with flat feet live with no pain or other problems.

Some adults with flat feet may experience tired or achy feet after long periods of standing or playing sports. Some may also have pain on the outside of the ankle.

I’m one of those cases where my arches never formed. I’ve had flat feet as long as I can remember. My parents may recall otherwise, but I don’t recall even having any pain associated with my foot deformity.

I wore normal shoes as a kid – I had some Larry Bird Converse, Nikes, Kangaroos…you know, all the classics. But once I started running, I was told that because I had no arches, I would have to have running shoes with arch supports to prevent foot pain and injury. Not only that, but I would need inserts (orthotics) in my shoes to provide additional stability and balance, align my body and further prevent the pain that I wasn’t even experiencing.

For a while, I had over the counter (they make prescription ones) orthotics in my running shoes - like the ones pictured below. They were uncomfortable and actually caused me pain in my arches – the opposite of what they were supposed to do. I was told that I would get used to them and the pain would subside.

Being in my early 20’s, I was not the greatest advocate for myself and instead of doing some more research on my own, the foot pain forced me to just stop running. I thought maybe my feet were just not made for me to be a runner.

After several years of lifting weights on doing other things to stay in shape, I signed up for a triathlon and therefore needed to start running again. This time, I decided to forego the insoles, but still took the advice given to me at the shoe store and wore running shoes with a lot of support to offset my flat feet and overpronation.

As I started to train for longer distance races in the subsequent years, I developed plantar fasciitis, patellar tendonitis, and IT Band Syndrome. I have no idea if all or none of these were related to my flat feet, but I was frustrated and started on a quest to learn more about how to prevent running injures.

Around 2011, I read Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run. He believes that modern cushioned running shoes are a major cause of running injury, pointing to the thin sandals worn by Tarahumara runners in the Mexican Copper Canyons, and the explosion of running-related injuries since the introduction of modern running shoes in 1972. This book sent me down many rabbit holes into other barefoot running books and podcasts.

I then learned that it was possible to build, develop and then strengthen arches in flat feet. This was not something that anyone had ever told me I could do. The thought of being able to run injury free AND reduce muscle fatigue in my feet and legs was exciting to me, so I developed a plan!

It started with getting some running shoes with minimal cushion and minimal drop (The 'drop' of a running shoe is essentially the difference between the height/thickness of the midsole under the heel compared to the same measure under the ball of the foot). I would rotate these shoes in for shorter runs, still wearing my more “supportive” shoes on longer runs.

After 6-9 months of running in these more minimalist shoes, I started to incorporate barefoot running into my warmups. Yes, I would actually take off my shoes and socks and run barefoot on the grass. I would jog a mile barefoot on the grass inside the track before my speed workouts. This was once or twice a week.

Next step was to assess all of my footwear. I tossed out my dress shoes for those with no heel. The flat shoes forced my feet to adapt. The constant support of shoes with built-in arches and heels prevented those muscles and tendons from getting stronger. I bought some minimalist shoes to just wear out and about in the evenings and weekends.

I also made it a point to go barefoot around the house and even outside when possible. The more time I could spend without shoes, the better.

I even started doing my weightlifting sessions without shoes. I would just wear socks when lifting to not only improve foot and ankle strength, but my balance and stability.

While still doing all of these things, somewhere around 2017, I transitioned to a standing desk at work. I remove my shoes while standing at my desk and do lower leg strengthening exercises such as arch lifts, calf raises, towel curls, golf ball rolls and toe raises.

The final touch was to start wearing toe spreaders for an hour or so each night before bed. After a lifetime of wearing shoes that smashed my toes together, I needed to return the big toe to its normal anatomical position; that is, separated from the second toe and in line with its metatarsal bone instead of being turned in. Getting my toes splayed would provide the foundation to maintain a strong arch.

It is important to note that I didn’t incorporate all of these techniques and routines at once. In fact, I've been adding something new once a year or so for a long time. Jumping into all of these at once would have undoubtedly led to more injuries. Like anything else, the best way to make change is gradually.

While my ultimate goal was to be injury free – and I have been for a long time now despite doing some pretty intense races and events for the last 14 years – I also set out to grow my arches. While I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it in a long time, it has actually worked.

Just two weeks ago, I was spraying some dog vomit off of our deck (don’t act like you haven’t had to do that before) and was barefoot. After getting it all cleaned off, I was gathering up the hose and my feet got wet. As I walked back across the dry portion of the deck, I was making footprints with my wet feet. My wife Jessica looked down and said “hey…look at your footprint…there’s an arch!”. She was right; sure enough, my feet had been developing arches all this time and the proof was right there in my wet footprint.

Over time, I have been able to build a beautiful foot arch that functions the way nature intended. I’m looking forward to the benefits of having arches, such as improved balance, fewer back problems as I get older, improved posture and fewer leg and foot injuries as I continue to run into my late 40’s!

I’m a member of a peer group of local business leaders that meets monthly. Each month, we have a top-notch speaker come and talk. It’s usually around a business-related topic. However, once year, there is a speaker that comes to talk about health and wellness. While most people in the group dread this topic, I get very excited. This past month, we had a speaker that came to talk about fitness. The speaker was Luke Carlson (great first name) and the title of his presentations was “Sharpen The Saw: Evidence-Based Fitness For The High Performing Executive”.

Over the almost four hours of time he talked with us, he not only debunked several workout and training myths that most people believe, but he also presented a simple resistance workout that anyone can fit into their busy schedule. You can learn more about Luke and his training program at his website: https://www.discoverstrength.com/

One of the more interesting subjects he approached was how many reps and sets you should do when lifting weights.

I started lifting weights around age 13. My Dad knew the benefits of resistance training even back in the early 1990’s. There was some good information available thanks to Joe Weider’s books and magazines and the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger. My Dad encouraged my brothers and I to lift weights to not only get stronger for sports, but to feel better and have more energy. We had some old concrete dumbbells, bars and a bench in the basement and would lift several days a week after school.

Even way back then, everywhere you read told you to do 3 sets of 10. That’s 10 repetitions of the specified weight, followed by a rest period, 10 more reps, rest and then a final set of 10 reps. With the exception of a few periods of time off here and there, I’ve pretty consistently lifted weights for the last 30 years. Throughout that time, I’ve always fallen back to doing something close to 3 sets of 10 whenver I'm in the gym or lifting at home. I would adjust how heavy I lifted depending on my goals at the time but would always do multiple sets of 8-10 repetitions. But why? Where did this 3 sets of 10 come from? Why does everyone do it?

Where Did 3 Sets of 10 Originate?

What I learned during Luke’s discussion was that the thoughts around 3 sets of 10 in strength and conditioning was first coined in 1948 in a paper by T.L. Delorme and A.L. Watkins titled, “Techniques of Progressive Resistance”. The idea seems logical.  3 separate sets of 10 exercises allow muscles to gain strength and endurance. Moreover, in addition the rest period between each set, the first 2 sets ramp up muscles for an intensive third set. But is this the most effective or efficient way to lift weights?

Turns out exercise science has come a long way in the last 70 years, and we now know much more about the human body and the way it responds to training. Many studies over the last decade show that the 3 sets of 10 reps approach is far from the most effective program for several reasons.

Despite this information, most mainstream fitness publications and websites continue to promote the 3 sets of 10 reps philosophy like it was not only the best way but the ONLY way to train. The 3 sets of 10 approach also does not allow for customization of volume (reps and sets) and intensity (amount of weight lifted).

If you have ever started a new training program, you know that your body adapts very quickly to the training stimuli and eventually you will stop responding to doing the same workout over and over. In order to continually progress you should consider breaking out of the 3 sets of 10 mindset.

What Should We Be Doing Instead?

When lifting weights, the goal for most people is to get strong. You may also lift to improve cardiovascular health, reduce blood pressure, increase bone density, improve cognitive and mental health, live longer or even just look better naked. Regardless of your personal why, you should maximize the amount of time your muscles are under tension. Accomplishing this is not possible if you limit yourself to a specific number of reps. If you can easily do 20 or more consecutive reps of the weight you are lifting, why would you only do 10? If you load up a weight that you can only do 6 times, is it too heavy since you can't get to 10 reps? Studies show that, regardless of the weight, it is best to do as many reps as possible until you physically can’t anymore. You’re trying to make your muscle tired. You’re trying to feel something by the end of it. Lifting until you can’t do another will accomplish this. Slowing the amount of time you take to lift and lower the weight can also increase your time under tension.

You should not even have to count the number of reps you do. Simply choose a weight and do as many reps as you can perform of the exercise until you fail. You can even just do one set. That’s right, just one set to failure of any given exercise while maintaining proper form and technique. Not counting is going to be hard for me to do as I often even find myself counting the number sips I take from the water fountain at the gym or counting the steps as I leave. Counting has always been part of my lifting routine, but maybe it shouldn’t be.

A study from the Journal of Sport and Health Science published in November of 2022 found that that a lower volume, higher effort approach should be encouraged. You can read the entire study here, but below are some of the quotes from the conclusion:

If your goal is to gain muscle mass, drop sets is a great way to efficiently lift weights. A drop set is when you perform the exercise until failure, then lower the weight and continue with no rest in between. Or if you have a partner, you can do “negatives” or “eccentric” lifts, where you have assistance lifting the weight and then do reps lowing the weight slowly until failure.

I tried this single-set to failure approach for the first time this morning at the gym. I plan on using it for the next few months to see how my body reacts. I’m excited to not only see the results, but to be able to do more with the 40-50 minutes I have to lift in the mornings.

Leading up to my trip to Greece where I will race in the Spartan Trifecta World Championships, I had to get a medical release form signed. While I was having this physical done, I asked that I have a blood panel done as well. It has been a few years since I had this done and even all of my efforts to be healthy are no guarantee that something might be going on that I’m unaware of.

The normal panel measures several things. For each one, I'll give my results as compared to the "normal" or "recommended" ranges. This range is a set of values that includes upper and lower limits of a lab test based on a group of otherwise healthy people. When comparing my (or your) results to these ranges, there are a few important things to consider:

• A "normal" result in one lab may be abnormal in another: You must use the range supplied by the laboratory that performed your test to evaluate whether your results are "within normal limits." While accuracy of laboratory testing has significantly evolved over the past few decades, some lab-to-lab variability can occur due to differences in testing equipment, chemical reagents used, and analysis techniques. Consequently, for most lab tests, there is no universally applicable reference value.
• A normal result does not promise health: While having all test results within normal limits is certainly a good sign, it's not a guarantee. For many tests, there is a lot of overlap among results from healthy people and those with diseases, so there is still a chance that there could be an undetected problem. Lab test results in some people with disease fall within the reference range, especially in the early stages of a disease.
• An abnormal result does not mean you are sick: A test result outside the reference range may or may not indicate a problem. Since many reference values are based on statistical ranges in healthy people, you may be one of the healthy people outside the statistical range, especially if your value is close to the expected reference range. However, the abnormal value does alert your healthcare provider to a possible problem, especially if your test result is far outside the expected values.

Blood test results generally use the metric system of measurement and various abbreviations, including:

• cmm: cells per cubic millimeter
• arb'U: arbitrary unit
• g/dL: grams per deciliter
• U/L: international units per liter
• mEq/L: milliequivalent per liter
• mg/dL: milligrams per deciliter
• mL: milliliter
• mmol/L: millimoles per liter
• ng/mL: nanograms per milliliter
• pg (picograms): one-trillionth of a gram

Now that we’ve covered all of that, let’s jump in to my results:

Total Cholesterol - 179 mg/dL

The "recommended" range is under 200. Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance produced primarily in the liver. It is used to repair cells, maintain proper hormone levels, vitamin D absorption from the sun, salt and water balance, digestion of fats. It is essential to joint health, hormone regulation, healthy cell membranes, fighting infections, etc. People tend to think of Cholesterol as something bad, but it's essential to a healthy body. Cholesterol is in the body to help, not harm you. Most recent evidence suggests that dietary cholesterol alone (what comes from the food you eat), in the presence of a healthy diet, does not negatively affect blood lipids.

The other part of the lipid panel that gets a lot of attention is the LDL-C.

LDL-Calculated - 94 mg/dL

According to the range listed on my results, anything under 100 is good. But if you notice, the "C" at the end of LDL-C stands for calculated. So your LDL cholesterol is determined using an equation. If you have a higher HDL and lower triglycerides, the calculation will be significantly skewed higher. There is a way to actually measure the number of LDL particles and to distinguish the size of LDL. This requires what is called a NMR Lipoprofile test. You want to see more of the large particles than the small particles. However, if your triglycerides are under 70 and your LDL is over 70, you can assume that most of your LDL is the good kind.

My Lipid Panel measured VLDL, which are the small, dense particles.

VLDV - 9 mg/dL

This is a very small amount of those little guys as anything below 40 is considered good.

So that leads me right into my Triglycerides number.

Triglycerides - 44 mg/dL

Anything under 150 is considered in the good range. I think that lower triglycerides are a much more key marker than total cholesterol and LDL-C. Even though my results said that anything under 150 mg/dL is good, I've heard that under 70 is the optimal number to shoot for. The more unhealthy carbohydrates that you eat, the higher your triglycerides will typically be.

I've skipped over HDL earlier because I wanted to talk about it in conjunction with Triglycerides.

HDL - 76 mg/dL

HDL is what people like to call the "good" kind of cholesterol. Anything at or above 60 mg/dL is considered good. I eat a pretty good amount of saturated fat, but adding even more of these healthy fats will also boost my HDL. When you reduce your triglycerides by cutting the processed carbohydrates in your diet, while consuming more fat to increase your HDL, it’s a fantastic one-two punch. I firmly believe that higher HDL and lower triglycerides are much more indicative of good heart health than the total and LDL cholesterol numbers that most people focus on.

Another number that appeared on my results was CHOL/HDL ratio. This is just the total cholesterol number divided by the HDL number.

CHOL/HDL ratio - 2.3

I don't feel like that total cholesterol number is very important, so this ratio doesn't mean much to me. Even if it was over 3.0, I still wouldn't be worried as long as my HDL was in the 75-100 range.

Triglycerides/HDL Ratio - 0.57

Anything under 1.0 is great!

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Now let's move on to minerals.

Sodium - 139 mmol/L

The recommended range is between 136 and 145 mmol/L, so I'm within range. Sodium is both an electrolyte and mineral. It helps keep the water (the amount of fluid inside and outside the body's cells) and electrolyte balance of the body. Sodium is also important in how nerves and muscles work. It is possible to have low sodium levels following physical activity, but for blood taken under non-extreme conditions, a low level of blond sodium is usually due to a condition such as Addison's disease, diarrhea, diuretic administration, or kidney disease. A high blood sodium level is almost always due to dehydration.

Potassium – 5.1 mmol/L

Normal range is between 3.4 and 5.4 mmol/L. Potassium helps keep the water and electrolyte balance of the body and is important in how nerves and muscles work. Potassium levels can be affected by how the kidneys are working, the blood pH, the amount of potassium you eat and hormone levels in the body. A common cause of high levels of Potassium is kidney disease. Low levels can be attributed to diarrhea or dehydration.

Chloride - 104 mmol/L

Normal range is between 98 and 107 mmol/L. Most of the Chloride in the body comes from the salt that you eat. It is absorbed by your intestines when you digest food. Excess chloride leaves the body through urine. Low levels of blood chloride can be caused by low blood sodium, congestive heart failure, chronic lung diseases and loss of acid from the body. High levels usually indicate dehydration, but can also be caused by Cushing syndrome or kidney disease.

Carbon Dioxide - 26 mmol/L

Normal range is between 22 and 29 mmol/L. In the body, most of the CO2 is in the form of a substance called bicarbonate (HCO3-). Therefore, the CO2 blood test is really a measure of your blood bicarbonate level. When bicarbonate levels are higher or lower than normal, it suggests that the body is having trouble maintaining its acid-base balance or that you have upset your electrolyte balance, perhaps by losing or retaining fluid. Both of these imbalances may be due to a wide range of dysfunctions. Low levels can be a warning sign for Addison's disease, diabetic ketoacidosis or Kidney disease. High levels can be cuased by Cushing syndrome, Conn syndrome or lung diseases.

Calcium - 9.0 mg/dL 

Normal range is 8.4 to 10.2 mg/dL. Calcium is the most common mineral in the body and one of the most important. The body needs it to build and fix bones and teeth, help nerves work, make muscles squeeze together, help blood clot, and help the heart to work. Almost all of the calcium in the body is stored in bone. Blood calcium levels do not indicate levels of bone calcium but rather how much calcium is circulating in the blood. Normally the level of calcium in the blood is carefully controlled. When blood calcium levels get low (hypocalcemia), the bones release calcium to bring it back to a good blood level. When blood calcium levels get high (hypercalcemia), the extra calcium is stored in the bones or passed out of the body in urine and stool. It is important to get the right amount of calcium in your food because the body loses calcium every day. Foods rich in calcium include dairy products (milk, cheese), eggs, fish, green vegetables, and fruit. Most people who have low or high levels of calcium do not have any symptoms. Calcium levels need to be very high or low to cause symptoms. Some causes of high levels of calcium are hyperthyroidism, sarcoidosis, excess Vitamin D, HIV/AIDS and cancer. Low levels can be caused by liver disease, renal failure or malnutrition.

Anion Gap – 9 (arb'U)

Normal range is between 5 and 13 arb/U. The anion gap measures the difference—or gap—between the negatively charged and positively charged electrolytes in your blood. If the anion gap is too high, your blood is more acidic than normal. If the anion gap is too low, your blood isn't acidic enough.

Total Proteins – 6.9 g/dL

Normal range is 6.3 to 8.2 g/dL. Total protein measurements can reflect nutritional status and may be used to screen for and help diagnose kidney disease or liver disease. A low total protein level can suggest a liver disorder, a kidney disorder, or a disorder in which protein is not digested or absorbed properly. I talked about blood proteins quite a bit in my posts on gluten. A high total protein level may be seen with chronic inflammation or infections such as viral hepatitis or HIV. It also may be associated with bone marrow disorders such as multiple myeloma. It's worth mentioning that a high-protein diet doesn't cause high blood protein. High blood protein is not a specific disease or condition in itself.

My report shows total protein, albumin, globulins, and the calculated ratio of albumin to globulins, termed the A/G ratio. Normally, there is a little more albumin than globulins, giving a normal A/G ratio of slightly over 1. Because disease states affect the relative amounts of albumin and globulin, the A/G ratio may provide a clue as to the cause of the change in protein levels.

Albumin - 4.7 g/dL

Globulin - 2.2 g/dL

A/G Ratio - 2.1

A low A/G ratio (under 1.1) may reflect overproduction of globulins, such as seen in autoimmune diseases, or underproduction of albumin, such as may occur with cirrhosis, or selective loss of albumin from the circulation, as may occur with kidney disease. A high A/G ratio (over 2.5) suggests underproduction of immunoglobulins as may be seen in some genetic deficiencies and in some leukemias.

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The Liver Panel is used to screen for, detect, evaluate, and monitor acute and chronic liver inflammation (hepatitis), liver disease and/or damage. The liver serves several important functions in the body, including changing nutrients into energy for the body and breaking down toxic substances. The liver panel consists of four tests.

Total Bilirubin - 0.4 mg/dL

Normal Range is between 0.2 and 1.3 mg/dL. Bilirubin is a brownish yellow substance found in bile (helps digest food). It is produced when the liver breaks down old red blood cells. When bilirubin levels are high, the skin and whites of the eyes may appear yellow (jaundice). Jaundice may be caused by liver disease (hepatitis), blood disorders (hemolytic anemia), or blockage of the tubes (bile ducts) that allow bile to pass from the liver to the small intestine. Low levels of bilirubin are not generally a concern and are not monitored.

AST (aspartate aminotransferase) / SGOT - 100 U/L

Normal range is between 15 and 46 U/L. An AST test measures the amount of this enzyme in the blood. AST is normally found in red blood cells, liver, heart, muscle tissue, pancreas, and kidneys. When body tissue or an organ such as the heart or liver is diseased or damaged, additional AST is released into the bloodstream. Very high levels of AST (more than 10 times normal) are usually due to acute hepatitis, sometimes due to a viral infection. Low levels of AST are not a concern. The AST test is usually done at the same time as a test for alanine aminotransferase, or ALT.

ALT (alanine aminotransferase) / SGPT - 104 U/L

Normal range is between 13 and 69 U/L. As with the AST test, ALT is used to identify liver disease, especially cirrhosis and hepatitis caused by alcohol, drugs, or viruses. AST and ALT are considered to be two of the most important tests to detect liver injury, although ALT is more specific to the liver than is AST. In most types of liver diseases, the ALT level is higher than AST, and the AST/ALT ratio will be low (less than 1).

While both my AST and ALT are outside the normal range, levels need to be closer to 1000 U/L before there is concern around serious liver damage. I do not drink alcohol very often and when I do it’s usually just one drink. I am not on any medications either, which can cause long-term liver damage. I did have a beer the night before the bloodwork, so that might have causes the minor elevation. I will likely ask my doctor if another rest is recommend.

ALP (alkaline phosphatase) - 59 U/L

Normal range is between 38 and 126 U/L. The liver makes more ALP than the other organs or the bones. ALP helps break down proteins in the body and exists in different forms, depending on where it originates. Some conditions cause large amounts of ALP in the blood. These conditions include rapid bone growth (during puberty), bone disease (such as Paget's disease or cancer that has spread to the bones), a disease that affects how much calcium is in the blood (hyperparathyroidism), vitamin D deficiency, or damaged liver cells. A deficiency in zinc may cause low ALP levels. Malnutrition or protein deficiency as well as Wilson disease could also be possible causes for lowered ALP. It may also be caused by celiac disease or a deficiency in vitamins and minerals.

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Next I'll move on to the Kidney tests. Kidney's not only remove waste products and excess fluid from the body, they regulate of the body's salt, potassium and acid content. The kidneys also produce hormones that affect the function of other organs. So needless to say, these little bean-shaped dudes are very important. The blood tests will show how well your kidneys are doing their job and how quickly the waste is being removed.

BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen) - 10 mg/dL

Normal range is between 7 and 20 mg/dL. The BUN test is primarily used, along with the creatinine test, to evaluate kidney function in a wide range of circumstances, to help diagnose kidney disease, and to monitor people with acute or chronic kidney dysfunction or failure. If your kidneys are not able to remove urea from the blood normally, your BUN level rises. Heart failure, dehydration, or a diet high in protein can also make your BUN level higher. Liver disease or damage can lower your BUN level. BUN levels can increase with the amount of protein in the diet. High-protein diets may cause abnormally high BUN levels while very low-protein diets can cause an abnormally low BUN.

Creatinine – 0.95 mg/dL

Normal range is 0.7 to 1.5 mg/dL. Creatinine is a waste product formed by the breakdown of a substance (creatine) important for converting food into energy (metabolism). The creatinine is filtered out of the blood by the kidneys and then passed out of the body in urine. If the kidneys are damaged and can't function normally, the amount of creatinine in the urine decreases while the amount of creatinine in the blood increases. Low blood levels of creatinine are not common, but they are also not usually a cause for concern. They can be seen with conditions that result in decreased muscle mass. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine tests can be used together to find the BUN-to-creatinine ratio (BUN:creatinine). A BUN-to-creatinine ratio can be used to check for problems, such as dehydration, that may cause abnormal BUN and creatinine levels. My ratio was 10.7 - the normal range is between 10 and 20.

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Glucose - 90 mg/dL

Normal range is 74-106 mg/dL. A blood glucose test measures the amount of a type of sugar, called glucose, in your blood. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body's cells use the glucose. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and released into the blood when the amount of glucose in the blood rises. Normally, your blood glucose levels increase slightly after you eat. This increase causes your pancreas to release insulin so that your blood glucose levels do not get too high. Blood glucose levels that remain high over time can damage your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and blood vessels. There are several different types of blood glucose tests, but the one I had done was a Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG). It measures blood glucose after you have not eaten for at least 8 hours. It is often the first test done to check for prediabetes and diabetes. Anything over 126 mg/dL on this FBG test would indicate diabetes. With a family history if diabetes, this is a number that I will always keep a close eye on.

A1C - 5.60%

Normal range is 4.0-6.0%. The A1C test is a blood test that provides information about a person’s average levels of blood glucose, also called blood sugar, over the past 3 months. The A1C test is based on the attachment of glucose to hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. In the body, red blood cells are constantly forming and dying, but typically they live for about 3 months. Thus, the A1C test reflects the average of a person’s blood glucose levels over the past 3 months. The A1C test result is reported as a percentage. The higher the percentage, the higher a person’s blood glucose levels have been.

Now that I’m over 40 years old, I will strive to stay as healthy as possible and will continue to have a blood panel done once every year or two to try and catch anything that might be of concern.

If you haven't had a Basic Metabolic Panel (BMP) in the last few years, I would suggest you talk to your healthcare provider about having it done. The results can give your health practitioner important information about the current status of your overall health, including health of the kidneys, blood glucose level, and electrolyte and acid/base balance. Abnormal results, and especially combinations of abnormal results, can indicate a problem that needs to be addressed. The earlier you catch somethings, they better off you are!

A study published at the end of 2020 found that those who completed afternoon workouts upped their metabolic health far more than those who performed the same exercise earlier in the day. The results are the latest in a line of results that show the time of day we exercise may change the benefits we get from that exercise.

It’s nothing new that what we do when in relation to circadian rhythm influences the quality our health. Studies in both animals and people indicate that every tissue in our bodies contains a kind of molecular clock that chimes, in part, in response to biological messages related to our daily exposure to light, food and sleep.

These circadian rhythms regulate our bodies’ temperatures, hormone levels, blood sugar, blood pressure, muscular strength and other biological systems throughout the day. Studies shown people whose sleep habits do not follow the patterns of light and dark tend to be at higher risk for metabolic problems such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The same is true for people who eat late at night, outside usual dinner hours.

In this new study, the researchers asked adult men at high risk for Type 2 diabetes, based on being overweight (BMI > 26 kg/m2), to ride stationary bikes at the lab three times a week for 12 weeks, while they tracked their metabolic health. Participants were asked to maintain their regular dietary behavior throughout the study.

All subjects performed twice a week aerobic exercise on a stationary bike for 30 min at 70% of a previously determined workload (Wmax), and once a week resistance exercise comprised of three series of 10 repetitions at 60% of the subject's previously determined maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). Resistance-type exercises targeted large muscle groups from the low and high limbs (leg extension, leg press, chess press, lat pull down, triceps and biceps curls, abdominal crunches, and horizontal row).

They then compared the men that had worked out between 8 and 10 a.m. with another group who always exercised between 3 and 6 p.m. They found that the benefits of afternoon workouts decisively trumped those of morning exercise.

After 12 weeks, the men who had pedaled in the afternoon displayed significantly better average insulin sensitivity than the morning exercisers, resulting in a greater ability to control blood sugar. They also had dropped somewhat more fat from around their middles than the morning riders, even though everyone’s exercise routines had been identical.

One of the researchers quoted says he believes moderate afternoon exercise may have an impact on the foods we consume later in the evening and “help to faster metabolize people’s last meals” before they go to sleep. This effect could leave our bodies in a fasted state overnight, which may better synchronize body clocks and metabolisms and fine-tune health.

The researchers concluded that the timing of an exercise training session is a crucial environmental cue when aiming to improve glucose stability and explains that performing afternoon exercise training might be more optimal than exercising at morning hours. Considering the practical limitations of the present study, future human interventions, especially larger prospective randomized controlled trials are required to confirm the present findings.

It is important to remember this study was based on sleeping at normal times and eating three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) at typical times. Pre-exercise meal ingestion was not controlled, and exercise training was performed 2–3 hours after either breakfast or lunch. There have been other studies that showed that fasted morning exercise can have many benefits to health. Clearly, future studies are needed to investigate if and how pre- and post-exercise food intake may affect the results of the timing of exercise on glucose stability.

Please don't interpret this as if you can't exercise in the afternoon, you shouldn't at all. Exercise ANY time of day has masive benefits, but if you are overweight and your goal is to control glucose, afternoons appear to be better.

The results of a new study that was published in August confirms what I’ve been telling people for years – exercise is a horrible way to try and lose weight!

Turns out those “calories burned” calculators on fitness apps or exercise equipment at the gym are not even close to being accurate. Think you just burned 500 calories with a 30 minute session on the elliptical? Turns out it was more like 300 or 350.

If you have tried to lose weight through a new exercise program, you know that most people lose less weight than would be expected based on the number of calories they think they are burning during their workouts, even if they strictly monitor their diets.

The researchers in this study wanted to see why that is, so they set out to see what happens to our metabolisms when we move. They pulled data for 1,754 adults (692 men and 1,062 women aged 18 to 96 years) that included their water consumption, measures of their body compositions and basal energy expenditure, which is how many calories they burn simply by being alive, even if they otherwise are inactive. Subtracting basal numbers from total energy expenditure gave the researchers an approximation of people’s energy expenditure from exercise and other movement, such as standing, walking and general fidgeting.

The study found that we tend to automatically compensate for at least a quarter of the calories we expend during exercise. They also found that this calorie compensation varies from person to person, based on how your unique metabolism responds to workouts.

What they found was that most people seemed to be burning only about 72 percent as many additional calories through movement, on average, as would be expected.

The results also show that carrying extra pounds unfortunately compounds calorie compensation, making weight loss through exercise even more elusive for those who are already overweight. They tended to compensate for 50 percent or more of the calories they burned by being active.

It appears that our bodies compensate by dialing back overall calorie burning the longer or more frequently we exercise or move…to avoid starvation. This is likely part of our ancestral make-up to keep us alive while burning calories to find food.

With this knowledge, in the future it might be possible to screen individuals to ascertain whether exercise would be a valuable fat loss intervention because they are “weak compensators” or a fruitless fat loss intervention because they are strong compensators. The researches also think that there may be other factors that play into your level of compensation, such as a compromised immune system or recovery from injury.

The few national guidelines that have been published converge on the recommendation of a 500–600 kcal/day deficit through exercising to instigate fat loss. These guidelines are general for the population and do not factor in the variation in energy compensation exhibited by people with different levels of fat mass, as demonstrated in the study. Public health strategies for fat loss should be revised to recognize energy compensation as our understanding progresses about which individuals compensate and by how much.

Don’t let this study discourage you from exercising. Even if your body compensates for 50 percent or more of the calories you burn during physical activity – this is still more than if you stayed on the couch! Not to mention that exercise can combat health conditions and diseases, improves mood, boosts energy and promote better sleep among other benefits. Bottom line is that you should not use exercise for weight loss. To drop pounds, you just must eat better…there’s no way around it.

You can read the full study here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221011209

Part of the current Holistic Hundred Challenge is doing 100 body-weight exercises every day! This might sound simple to some of you, but I would challenge everyone to try this, even if you are not doing the Holistic Hundred Challenge.

This time of year, lots of people spend a lot of money going to the gym. They have been lead to believe that in order to get in shape and build muscle, they must be in a gym with machines or free weights. Stand in line at the grocery store and you will see magazines with men and women on them with weights in their hand. I'm even seeing lots of billboards now with people liftting weights or using machines. But to most people, getting “huge” is not the goal and is not even necessary for overall health.

With that in mind, I recommend you try to start doing body-weight exercises every day. Below are a list of my top 5. Start off with 10-20 of each and try to consistently do them to the point where you can increase the quantity or add in variations.

1. Burpees

The burpee may be the perfect body-weight exercise. It combines resistance training and cardiovascular conditioning in one exercise. I started doing them on a consistent basis when training for Spartan races last year and they kick my butt every time. No matter how many I’ve done.

2. Squats

Back when I had a gym membership, I would see people doing squats with a barbell or even on a machine. Most of them had excruciatingly bad form. To the point where they were going to hurt themselves. The body-weight squat is a great exercise to assess your strength, awareness and lower-body mobility. Squatting your body-weight may sound simple, but you’d be surprised how many people struggle with doing these correctly.

3. Push-Ups

Push-ups are a great alternative to the bench press because a slight change in hand or foot position can hit the chest completely differently. They also recruit your quads, glutes and abs, you’re stabilizing your body as you push your own weight.

4. Planks

The plank recruits different types of muscles in order to properly do the exercise. You might think that it just works the abs, but when done correctly, it also recruits the quads and glutes to help keep your body tight in an efficient position. Planks help with core stability and balance, but they can also help with posture and lower back pain. Much like push-ups, there are several plank variations that you can use to increase intensity.

5. Pull-Ups

Out of every exercise you can do for your upper-body, the pull-up is the most efficient. You can purchase your own pull-up bar to hang on a doorframe (this is what I have), or you can use a beam in your basement (or office) or a jungle gym at a park. To ensure you’re getting the maximum results it is crucial to perform pull-ups in a controlled manner. Crossfit has lots of benefits (I'm using their videos in this post to show proper form), but the pull-ups used in their workouts (called Kipping pull-ups) are made for speed and can lead to injury. Do pull-ups in a very controlled manner. Up slow and down slow, avoid swinging your body. You can start by having your feet on a chair under you to assist if you can't do a pull-up the proper way when starting out.

The best thing about body-weight exercises is that they usually require no equipment and can be done just about anywhere.