Month: June 2022

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Gaining Doesn’t Have to be Painful: Sustainable Habits From the Comfort of Your Green Zone

By Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

A couple of years ago I watched a Ted Talk given by Dr. Stephen Seiler, a professor in Sport Science at the University of Agder in Norway. He described a surprisingly contradicting phenomenon he noticed in top-performing endurance athletes that went against the frequently quoted and deeply embedded “No pain, no gain” mentality so prolific in our society. 

So many of us grow up learning that to improve, we have to push ourselves through pain and sacrifice. Cue all the brutal montages in the movies of super-intense training with scrunched-up faces gasping for air and bodies dripping with sweat, and the illusion they are training this way every single day. 

What piqued Dr. Seiler’s interest was when he was out for a run one day and saw one of the top athletes he had previously studied in his lab, approach a hill while on her run. He knew she was capable of high levels of performance, so was taken aback when she stopped running and began walking up the hill. To him, if there was a hill, he’d push himself to run up there as fast as he could, so why was this talented athlete not running when she could clearly do so?

What he discovered was that most of the elite athletes stay in their green zone most of the time. 

  • The green zone is defined as the level of activity where you can hold an easy conversation and feel only a mild level of exertion. 
  • Yellow zones are when you can respond in a few word phrases and feel a moderate level of exertion. 
  • Red zones are where you are gasping for air and feel extremely pushed to your exertional limits (what we see in the movies).

An example was taken from the all-time winter olympian Marit Bjørgen who let researchers gather data from all her training years. During her peak years of training, Marit’s year would be in the green zone for about 800 hours and less than 100 hours in her yellow and red zones. 

Furthermore, the best marathon runner in history, Eliud Kipchoge, takes the same approach. “I perform 80 percent on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then at 50 percent Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday”. Lots of green zone in his training.

Spending most of their practice in the green zones allows the most successful athletes to build a strong foundation for those moments of yellow and red zone intensities. It’s a place where they can practice comfortably, enjoy it, and recover, day in and day out. And that’s where the success comes from.

Practice needs to be sustainable, that’s where our bodies and minds rewire and create new adaptations and improve our performance.

Daily moderately high intensity can lead to burnout and stagnation, and unfortunately, this is what happens to a lot of people when they get excited about hitting a new workout regime hard. They believe they will see more benefits if they go all out every day and get frustrated when they can’t sustain this. It’s because it’s not sustainable, and this idea of No pain, no gain is not realistic.

Now, let’s apply this theme to other skills as well.

Nutrition

  • Green zone examples:
  • Replacing one processed snack with berries / your favourite fruits and nuts instead. 
  • Having a hearty, colourful salad for lunch 1 day per week
  • Incorporating one new fruit, vegetable, bean, or any plant food per month
  • Yellow zone examples: 
  • Having a cup of berries on alternating days for your snacks
  • Having a colourful salad on alternate days for lunches
  • Avoiding eating after dinner on weekdays
  • Red zone examples:
  • Avoiding added sugars and processed foods 
  • Having colourful meals that contain all 7 colours daily
  • Enjoying at least 40 different foods a week

Sleep

  • Green zone examples:
  • Putting blue-light-blocking glasses on as dusk approaches to protect your melatonin
  • Turn on a salt lamp or light candles in the evenings
  • Silencing device notifications 2 hours before bedtime
  • Yellow zone examples:
  • Take your phone/ any device out of the bedroom when you sleep
  • Avoid sitting on the couch watching tv at night, and discovering alternate activities to do instead.
  • Red zone examples:
  • In bed at a time where you achieve 8 hours of sleep
  • There are no devices or screen use at least 2 hours before bed

As you can see, we can apply this green zone style of training to the lifestyle habits that we want to practice supporting sustainable health. Your green zone practices should be relaxing, and most importantly enjoyable. Configure a green zone practice that feels best for you, something you look forward to and will be able to sustain and build up your strength and success in!

Reference:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237096628_Does_Polarized_Training_Improve_Performance_in_Recreational_Runners

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Are Big Cushioned Running Shoes For You?

By Tim Irvine

One of my favorite health and wellness authors, Alex Hutchinson, wrote a great article on running shoes and how cushioning is all the rage. Almost everyone has a pair of ‘joggers’. Those are the ones that distance runners use and are specifically designed to help make running safer, more efficient, and faster. Well, at least that’s what the manufacturers are trying to do.

It only takes a moment in front of a wall of shoes at your favorite running store to see the huge variety in styles. In particular, we are in a time of big cushioning. Ten to fifteen years ago it was minimalist shoes with as little cushioning as possible. ‘Let the foot do what it’s supposed to do’ was the rationale. In part, that is still true, but we’ve evolved since then.

In Alex’s article, he references the Vaporfly by Nike as one of the reasons cushioning has taken off. It made a controversial improvement in elite running times. The improvement was substantial, and people questioned whether it was even fair. To their credit, Nike nailed the ‘performance’ side of their goal. The other great thing was it inspired lots of needed research about cushioning. You can read Alex’s article to find out lots of cool detail about research methodology, but the point of this article is to help educate you on your decisions when picking your own runners.

The most important part, which is also referenced in the article, is to choose a shoe that is comfortable and feels good for you. When I was running marathons, I used New Balance 501s. As I learned more about running, and shoes, the 501s would not have been a recommendation for me based on my foot mechanics and what that shoe was made for. But I have a wide foot and it was a wide shoe, so that was a comfortable fit. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in matching your foot with a shoe that supports it properly, but if it’s not comfortable, it may create problems for you.

When you are buying that new pair, try at least three different models/brands. The more you try, the better your education and ability to find that perfect comfort level. Be cautious about any claims, as peer-reviewed research is growing but the evidence is still light.

Understanding your foot mechanics is also important. If your salesperson can’t provide some basics, then see someone like Victoria Lavinskas or Katie Snowden at Totum. They are exceptional therapists as well as runners and they can provide you an understanding of your own unique mechanics.

Eventually, the research will catch up and provide us with some more definitive guidance on how these different shoe designs help or hurt us. In the meantime, we take in all available information, match it with comfort, and get out and enjoy ourselves.

PS If you are looking to improve your running, or to get started in running and want to do it right, take a look at our RunSmart program. It’s an amazing education!

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How to get the most out of everything you do

By Tim Irvine

The rest is as important as the work! I remember my strength coach in university talking with us about this very fact. In retrospect, it was probably the best program I have ever been on. Lots of variety in programming as well as intensity, and room for some fun too. What I didn’t know at the time was how universally the message applies. I’ve now seen it in action for two decades (plus) with a wide variety of clients, but also with research and real-world experiences.

Let’s start with the obvious, the highest levels of sport. Twenty-five years ago, it was rare to hear about an elite athlete competing at the highest level beyond 30 years old. In 2022, it is commonplace with more and more of them still competing at 40+. The biggest change by far is how much recovery the athletes receive. The old methods applied high intensities in practice along with the same in individual workouts. Fatigue was a natural result and that lead to a greater incidence of injury, performance lag, and in most cases, retiring before 30.

The emphasis on recovery has been incredible, particularly in the last five years. If you heard the term ‘load management’ ten years ago, you would think it related to a forklift in a warehouse. Now it’s common to manage an athlete’s overall workload to ensure proper levels of recovery so they can perform at their best at the most important times.

Moving into the real world, the same theme can apply to non-athletes who are incredibly busy. Imagine a person who works 60 hours weekly. That means long days, as well as weekend time, focused on work. (As I write the number 60, it doesn’t seem dramatically high, but when you think about it, that is a big, big number). Sixty hours a week for 50 weeks will create fatigue that you may not even be aware of. It will compromise your work performance and not allow you to achieve the quality you would like. It will also dull your experiences outside of work. That fatigue is real and if you carry it into your close personal relationships, they will not be as positive as they otherwise would be. Events that should be fun feel like work. This can create a vicious cycle by increasing stress which, in turn, makes it more difficult to recover.

Circling back to the title of this article, the way to get the most out of everything you do is to make sure you have the energy to make it successful, but also enjoyable. Constantly ‘powering through’ life is not a positive strategy. If that is more your norm, then focusing on one or more of the following is a good idea.

  1. Sleep hours each week – >50
  2. Work hours each week – <45
  3. Hours focused on your personal enjoyment each week – >= 7
  4. Social time each week – >=7

As one of my peers recently said to me after going through a tough patch in his life, “You need to persevere, but you also need to live life”. He couldn’t be more right about that and everything you do will get better as a result. The rest is just as important as the work!

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Avoid Loneliness: How to Build Friendships from Scratch!

By Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Loneliness is almost as prevalent as obesity, with up to 60% of adults reporting they feel this way. In my clinical practice, I often ask patients whether they feel lonely, and the majority respond with a “Yes.”

Feeling lonely, as research has uncovered, is as detrimental to our health as smoking and can it take 8 years off our life. The physical impact of this is real. New studies are showing that feeling lonely triggers chronic inflammation in our bodies. In our previous articles, we’ve written about how chronic inflammation can damage our systems and lead to preventable diseases and conditions. 

In her recent book, “Your Better Instincts”, Dr. Stacy Irvine has written about the instinct to form relationships with others. It is instinctual to want to belong, to feel like you have someone there for you, to help you through tough times. Evolutionarily, if we didn’t have that kind of support, our chances of survival greatly diminish. Feeling bonded and having reliable relationships that provide support and interaction, are what helps increase your chances for survival.

One of the things I marvel about kids is how quickly they can make friends. Sure, they can be a little shy in the beginning, but once they figure out, “Hey, do you like ice cream? I do too! Let’s play!” 

As adults we believe we have less opportunities to meet others and collect new friends. There’s been a shift in how we interact with people , and it’s mostly behind screens and in short, often sporadic, blocks of text. What I’m finding is that people are a little nervous about real life/ real time communication these days. The preference is to text over calling, or to meet in the virtual space. As convenient as these methods are, they pale in comparison to full on, real life, deeper connections. We demonstrated in a previous article that it’s the quality of our real-life, positive relationships that matter most to our health and longevity. 

I’d like to challenge this common belief and open the options to build new friendships from scratch just like kids do!

How to build friendships (from scratch):

When you’re in an elevator or at the gym, smile and say hello. A small, simple act with no expectations. Do this time and time again, and you’ll eventually repeat this with the same few people. And this is where the confidence can start to build. A familiar face, maybe a new haircut, or a bike in hand. You can ask them a question… “Where are you biking to today?” and see where the conversation can flow. Being curious about others is a great way to connect. People love to talk about themselves and share with others their experiences and recent adventures. It makes them feel good and lets you focus on learning about someone or something else.

Examples:

  • Invite your neighbour out for a weekly walk
  • Learn the name of your grocers, baristas, or front desk staff at offices/clinics you go to
  • Join a weekly/monthly club (hiking, running, book, gardening clubs), or make your own!
  • Join a gym, rock climbing studio, or a fun fitness class
  • Invite that new workout buddy out for a snack or coffee
  • Have weekly lunch/dinner parties that rotate through various homes

The point is to step slightly outside your comfort zone to cultivate new friends, integrate with the real world, and build your community. Don’t be afraid, because now you know that many people suffer from loneliness, and the impact of building friendships goes both ways. This is one pillar of health we don’t want to forget, and the research is showing us to follow our intuition for meaningful connection and we will reap the rewards.

Are you up for the challenge? 

Reference:

Friends: understanding the power of our most important relationships. Robin Dunbar

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-power-and-prevalence-of-loneliness-2017011310977

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.801746/full

Lomanowska, A. M., & Guitton, M. J. (2016). Online intimacy and well-being in the digital age. Internet interventions, 4, 138–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.06.005

Francis, J., Giles-Corti, B., Wood, L., Knuiman, M. 2012. Creating sense of community: The role of public space, Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 32, pp. 401-409.

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Lessons From the Longest Study on Happiness

Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Taking care of our body is important, but so is tending to your relationships!

The power of our relationships, and how happy we are in those relationships influence our physical and mental health. One of the world’s longest studies on adult life and aging has amassed a huge collection of detailed data on what factors in life correlate to happiness and quality longevity. That last part is important. It’s not just living longer but doing so with a great quality of life.

Many aspects were measured. Money, fame, career status, relationships, mental health, and physical health measures like weight and cholesterol levels. One of the strongest correlations was health and happiness to relationships with family, friends, and community. People who were most satisfied with their relationships were the healthiest in their 80’s. This was a stronger predictor than cholesterol levels!

Satisfying relationships do not just mean when things are smooth and positive. Studies of couples bickering daily still show their mental health remains intact if they feel supported and could really count on others when times get tough. 

The key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.

-George Valliant, psychiatrist (professor at Harvard)

We often think of health as coming from abstaining from smoking, reducing alcohol, eating well, and being physically active. But this study shows a stark absence in our valuation of relationships and the impact that our community plays on our health as well.

I often ask patients to list the qualities in others they enjoy being around and use this to guide how they allocate time spent with others who contribute to their positive relationships. Traits like passion about something, kindness, loyalty, intelligence, being open-minded, etc. 

The number of friends doesn’t necessarily matter, as many of us can still feel lonely despite having lots of people around. We want to make sure we pay attention to the quality of our relationships, enjoying ones that uplift us, challenge us, and make us feel supported with a little tough love thrown in.

Your list is like your home base to help recenter your priorities when we sometimes get swept up with life. What qualities are on your list? Now go enjoy them.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/

https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org