Diet, Health and Wellness and Exercise

[OBLIGATED]

I had to lose weight to take pressure off my back and knees that a damaged.I cut back on all sodas and sweet tea at first and adjusted.Then I cut back on the processed foods and drive through garbage.Ive Went from 246# at 6'2" to 227-230# but did it over a year so it was a way of life not a temporary diet.I still have a drink here and there and homemade cookies(my weakness)but in moderation.Had to go from freeweights to a machine because I got damaged discs and then ripped one.Doctor got a little pissed so I bought the machine and sold my Hobie 16 and haven't hurt anything else YET.Doctor recommended swimming which I plan on doing when I move to Stuart.Ill eat more seafood as a result too!I feel and look better and fit in my old jean size when I was 30.

[laguna80]

I'm going through a weight loss phase too. I started med school 2 years ago and gained a few pounds. Got up to 240, at 6'4, it's not too bad, but it was affecting my energy levels etc etc. So I started changing my diet by excluding carbs and trying to eat 1g per pound of lean body mass and I started running about 10-15 miles a week, doing pushups/situps etc. I lost 10 lbs in a couple months and then it stagnated cause I started cheating myself. This year I've started weight training again: Squats, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, and power cleans. Just trying to keep it as simple barbell work. I'm trying to get down to 190-200 lbs.

[growingupninja]

Originally Posted by hogphish

OK, I will respond in a serious fashion. The key to freediving and most other strenuous pursuits is the integrity of your cardiovascular system, specifically your vascular endothelium. Some of you may have seen my youtube video so I apologize if I am repeating myself. High intensity interval training is the most efficient way to maintain a compliant vascular endothelium. This is painful and is probably the main reason many people don't do it. Once your vascular system is tuned in and responsive then you can build upon that with hypoxic cardio and breath hold tables. This will will facilitate your lactic acid tolerance, reset your chemoreceptors and stimulate further alveolar/capillary development in your lungs. There is much more to it than this and I am probably boring you so I will mention one more thing. Without proper diet (glycemic control) you will never receive maximum benefit from your exercise program. Insulin screws everything up and the SAD (standard American diet) is so bad that most of our insulin levels are chronically sky high....that sends a bad signal to our cardiovascular system to store fat and glucose because we are in a constant feasting state. Finally we all know that there is no way to replicate depth training other than depth training. So you have to get in the water with an appropriately trained buddy and subject yourself to the barotrauma and adapt to it. OK flame away....

Hogphish, do you have ideas or links to studies that address mitochondria development? I have read most everything i could on the relationship between nutrition, hypoxia, exercise and EPO, which is something I try to maximize since it is a physiological bottleneck.

I have been slowly changing up my training and supplementation... these days more than half of my cardio conditioning involves a hypoxic component at 60% to 85% of my max hr, and I do some weights and plymetrics to maintain muscle mass. No statics whatsoever unless you count aspetto and freefall. When I can't get in deep water I try to get to a pool and do fin sprints to keep my legs in anaerobic shape... i need to figure out a cheap way to test hematocrit; last time I had it tested it was 49.5, no regular training just spearing a couple days a week.

[hogphish]

Great question Growingupninja! The short answer is google "mitochondrial density". As you probably know the number of mitochondria increase proportionately to the energy expenditure of the organ. For example myocardial cells may have up to 10,000 mitochondria per cell. It is estimated the heart burns 12 pounds of ATP daily. Many scientists (including a renowned cardiologist named Sinatra if you want to research him) believe you can increase ATP (produced by mitochondria) with D-Ribose, co-q 10 and L carnitine. Many drugs adversely affect mitochondria and decrease their density per cell. Mitochondria are also the frontline in detoxification. I may not have answered your question but you are way ahead of the game knowing that the key is found at the cellular level. Finally the cheapest way I know to test hematocrit is to donate blood and they will tell you your H/H and cholesterol.

John

[growingupninja]

Originally Posted by hogphish

Great question Growingupninja! The short answer is google "mitochondrial density". As you probably know the number of mitochondria increase proportionately to the energy expenditure of the organ. For example myocardial cells may have up to 10,000 mitochondria per cell. It is estimated the heart burns 12 pounds of ATP daily. Many scientists (including a renowned cardiologist named Sinatra if you want to research him) believe you can increase ATP (produced by mitochondria) with D-Ribose, co-q 10 and L carnitine. Many drugs adversely affect mitochondria and decrease their density per cell. Mitochondria are also the frontline in detoxification. I may not have answered your question but you are way ahead of the game knowing that the key is found at the cellular level. Finally the cheapest way I know to test hematocrit is to donate blood and they will tell you your H/H and cholesterol.

John

Thanks, I will study up on all that.

Problem with donating blood for a freediver is that it undoes weeks and even months of training.

[Old Man Dan]

I don't post too often, but this has been such an interesting thread that I thought I'd weigh in. I swim 3-4 days a week; I do a lot of interval work, and a lot of sprinting (I love sprinting). I also try to work in some hypoxic stuff (e.g., breathing 3-6-9-12 by 100 for 500 yards) and some fin swimming. I'm in my mid-50s, weigh the same as I weighed in college, and I'm just a few seconds slower in the pool. I've read some articles about the link between mitochondria and vigorous exercise, and I think there's something to it. I also strength train 2-3 days a week; I stumbled across Mark Rippetoe's "Starting Strength" about a year ago, and it's completely changed how I strength train. I do all barbell work, like laguna80; squats, bench, deadlift and military press. I also do pullups; they're about the best swim-specific dryland exercise you can do, IMHO. Now if only I could give up the chocolate chip cookies... Regards, Dan

[hogphish]

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/..._and_mortality

[riley's hump]

It always amazes me how some people ridicule others trying gain knowledge about physical fitness, healthy eating, and a healthy life style. I have run into that small mindness a lot after age 50. Now at 68 most of the ridiculers back then are now fixed to a chair infront of the brain sucker or in a hole in the ground. I'm out chasing Ono. I eat what man evolved eating, do lots of core strength training, and aerobic, plus work out at increasing breathhold, clearing and max depth at least once a week on the line. I attribute being able to do about what I have always done to a lot of time in the water, never taking the easy way, and eating real food. I learned over time from some cocky guys years back that aren't so cocky now that it is not what you can do at 25 to 35 but what are you going to be doing at 55 to 60. Comes sooner than you think. Thanks for all the informative input. Will read info further.

[jstiver09]

Originally Posted by riley's hump

It always amazes me how some people ridicule others trying gain knowledge about physical fitness, healthy eating, and a healthy life style. I have run into that small mindness a lot after age 50. Now at 68 most of the ridiculers back then are now fixed to a chair infront of the brain sucker or in a hole in the ground. I'm out chasing Ono. I eat what man evolved eating, do lots of core strength training, and aerobic, plus work out at increasing breathhold, clearing and max depth at least once a week on the line. I attribute being able to do about what I have always done to a lot of time in the water, never taking the easy way, and eating real food. I learned over time from some cocky guys years back that aren't so cocky now that it is not what you can do at 25 to 35 but what are you going to be doing at 55 to 60. Comes sooner than you think. Thanks for all the informative input. Will read info further.

Very motivating post...thank you. Very impressive and insightful.

[dkfreedive]

There are many ways to maintain your health, diet and exercise and many are common sense. I think when it comes to freediving or spearfishing maintaining your adaptation, your MDR, should be number 1 on the list. As far a simple exercises stretching or yoga should be number 2 on the list. 3rd would be building mental confidence, and 4th would be fitness. And I know someone said apnea walking or jogging I really don't recommend this if you blackout or have a LMC most likely your going to fall to the ground and if your not already blackout you will be then. Dive safe

[Gaudi]

Originally Posted by growingupninja

Thanks, I will study up on all that.

Problem with donating blood for a freediver is that it undoes weeks and even months of training.

can you explain this? or anything scientific to back this up?

[growingupninja]

Originally Posted by Gaudi

can you explain this? or anything scientific to back this up?

Besides the air in your lungs, O2 is stored in the blood, specifically the hemoglobin/red blood cells. These cells are constantly being repleninshed as they die off naturally, but it takes a few weeks for a red blood cell to mature and join the blood stream. Percentage of RBC in the blood expressed as hematocrit. Certain hormones promote red blood cell production, especially EPO, which spikes as result of apnea. Regular training and diving PLUS proper diet and nutrition will result in a high red blood cell count in most people. It is worth noting that some people DO NOT respond to apnea in this way, and some people respond very strongly--it's genetic, and has been studied extensively among athletes, specifically as it relates to altitude training. Also there have been studies comparing the hypoxic mutations in high altitude populations, both in the Andes and Tibet. Pretty interesting stuff--Tibetans actually have relatively low hematocrit but high circulation and aerobic capacity while Andeans have extremely high RBC counts. Extremely high hematocrit is detrimental to aerobic capacity because the blood is literally too thick to circulate as efficiently as thinner blood. Also, on the hematocrit note, high hematocrit tends to correlate to higher blood pressure... I always get grief about my blood pressure (it's on the low end of pre-hypertensive) when I get a physical but my hematocrit is also abnormally high from diving so I don't really worry about it.

Anyway, if you lose a certain percentage or your red blood cells all at once either through trauma or donation, it will take at least couple weeks for a new set to be ready, although plasma levels will stabilize very quickly. And if, through training/diving, you had managed to push your hematocrit to abnormally high levels, it will take time to rebuild this. Again, there seems to be a genetic component to this, which has been studied in athletes training at altitude--some individuals respond very quickly to hypoxia and their hematocrit remains high for some days/weeks prior to altitude training, while others respond more slowly or have a very fast fall off in the hematocrit once the stop hypoxic training.

When you donate/sell plasma they pump the red blood cells back in. I did this once and they assured me it would have no impact since I was getting my RBC back. Was not the case. My dives were shit for at least a week. I will never do it again.

There are studies on all this stuff if you care to google and read up on it.

[Gaudi]

Originally Posted by growingupninja

Besides the air in your lungs, O2 is stored in the blood, specifically the hemoglobin/red blood cells. These cells are constantly being repleninshed as they die off naturally, but it takes a few weeks for a red blood cell to mature and join the blood stream. Percentage of RBC in the blood expressed as hematocrit. Certain hormones promote red blood cell production, especially EPO, which spikes as result of apnea. Regular training and diving PLUS proper diet and nutrition will result in a high red blood cell count in most people. It is worth noting that some people DO NOT respond to apnea in this way, and some people respond very strongly--it's genetic, and has been studied extensively among athletes, specifically as it relates to altitude training. Also there have been studies comparing the hypoxic mutations in high altitude populations, both in the Andes and Tibet. Pretty interesting stuff--Tibetans actually have relatively low hematocrit but high circulation and aerobic capacity while Andeans have extremely high RBC counts. Extremely high hematocrit is detrimental to aerobic capacity because the blood is literally too thick to circulate as efficiently as thinner blood. Also, on the hematocrit note, high hematocrit tends to correlate to higher blood pressure... I always get grief about my blood pressure (it's on the low end of pre-hypertensive) when I get a physical but my hematocrit is also abnormally high from diving so I don't really worry about it.



Anyway, if you lose a certain percentage or your red blood cells all at once either through trauma or donation, it will take at least couple weeks for a new set to be ready, although plasma levels will stabilize very quickly. And if, through training/diving, you had managed to push your hematocrit to abnormally high levels, it will take time to rebuild this. Again, there seems to be a genetic component to this, which has been studied in athletes training at altitude--some individuals respond very quickly to hypoxia and their hematocrit remains high for some days/weeks prior to altitude training, while others respond more slowly or have a very fast fall off in the hematocrit once the stop hypoxic training.



When you donate/sell plasma they pump the red blood cells back in. I did this once and they assured me it would have no impact since I was getting my RBC back. Was not the case. My dives were shit for at least a week. I will never do it again.



There are studies on all this stuff if you care to google and read up on it.

Extremely interesting stuff, I will do further reading on the subject, but what you describe makes sense. Thank you for the through explanation.

[brandon cadalzo]

I think it would be interesting to see a study using indirect calorimetry on spearfishermen. It would be neat to see the metabolic demands placed on a diver.

[nesingwary]

Originally Posted by hogphish

OK, I will respond in a serious fashion. The key to freediving and most other strenuous pursuits is the integrity of your cardiovascular system, specifically your vascular endothelium. Some of you may have seen my youtube video so I apologize if I am repeating myself. High intensity interval training is the most efficient way to maintain a compliant vascular endothelium. This is painful and is probably the main reason many people don't do it. Once your vascular system is tuned in and responsive then you can build upon that with hypoxic cardio and breath hold tables. This will will facilitate your lactic acid tolerance, reset your chemoreceptors and stimulate further alveolar/capillary development in your lungs. There is much more to it than this and I am probably boring you so I will mention one more thing. Without proper diet (glycemic control) you will never receive maximum benefit from your exercise program. Insulin screws everything up and the SAD (standard American diet) is so bad that most of our insulin levels are chronically sky high....that sends a bad signal to our cardiovascular system to store fat and glucose because we are in a constant feasting state. Finally we all know that there is no way to replicate depth training other than depth training. So you have to get in the water with an appropriately trained buddy and subject yourself to the barotrauma and adapt to it. OK flame away....

what type of exercises/routines build up hypoxic cardio?