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Top 10 Things You Want in Your Fridge

When you open your fridge, do you see healthy foods or junk?

Additional Info

Segment Number 3
Audio File train_your_body/1512tb2c.mp3
Featured Speaker Jim White, RD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Jim White, RD, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Youngstown University in Ohio with a B.A. in Nutrition. He is credentialed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a Registered Dietitian and certified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a Health Fitness Specialist. On November 1, 2005, Jim opened his first Jim White Fitness & Nutrition Studios on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. He soon outgrew this studio and opened a larger one in November 2006 on Laskin Road followed by an additional location in 2009 off Great Neck Road, both in Virginia Beach. Jim and his team have helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds. He is currently the National Spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and has the reputation of being one of the top health professionals in the country.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 17, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guest: Jim White, RD

Your trainer, Melanie Cole, is here to motivate and help you perform. It's time now for Train Your Body.

MELANIE: Okay. We're talking about the top ten things you want in your fridge, and we will get through all top ten today.

My guest is Jim White, registered dietician and national spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Jim, we've got to make it through ten, so start with one.

JIM: My gosh, a lot of pressure here.

MELANIE: Yes!

JIM: Great, well, hey, who doesn't raid their refrigerator? Do you raid your refrigerator, Melanie?

MELANIE: I do. Yes.

JIM: You know, it's funny, I raid and I think things are just going to pop out. Some of these things. But, I tell you, by having a lot of unhealthy foods in your refrigerator like sodas, cakes, leftover pizza, you're more likely to pack on the pounds. So, I suggest start organizing your fridge to keep a fit and healthy lifestyle. Let's start off with my top ten best picks for best food in the refrigerator.

MELANIE: Okay.

JIM: Well, number one, I definitely say cut up raw fruits and vegetables. I know we're on a busy lifestyle. I know, especially with kids, when they're cut up, when they're right in sight, when they're looking flavorful, they're more likely to eat them. So, put the color of the rainbow. You know, blues for blueberries, high antioxidants. Greens such as salad and spinach for cancer fighting. Broccoli. A lot of reds, strawberries for high Vitamin C. Oranges for Vitamin C. Carrots for high Vitamin A. So, definitely cut up your vegetables.

MELANIE: Make them cut up and ready to grab so when you reach in, you can just grab.

JIM: Absolutely. Also, number two. Dips with substance. You know, there are so many dips out there that have high calories, but dips can definitely be a vehicle to help get in fruits and vegetables. So, I recommend definitely hummus—high in protein, iron and fiber. Guacamole, which is great. I know you heard on the last show about the avocado's benefits. But, it's a good source of Vitamin E and essential fats. I love salsa, especially fresh salsa. You can dip blue corn chips in there on top of egg whites. Low in calories, flavorful. High in Vitamin C. So, great dips with substance.

Also, dairy sources, number three. This is very important. When it comes to milk, Greek yogurt, low-fat cheeses, the white cheese such as mozzarella, parmesan, provolone and even cottage cheese. Just high in protein, calcium, Vitamin D. Studies showed that it can improve cardiovascular disease. So, definitely keep dairy in the refrigerator. Very important.

MELANIE: Now, I know we are going to get through these, but, not all cheese is created equal. So, you say the white cheeses: goat cheese, sheep cheese, these are lower in fat and calories than, say, Brie cheese and Camembert and things like that.

JIM: Yes, and some of the yellow cheeses. So definitely stick to the whiter ones, a little more on the lower calorie range. Very important.

MELANIE: Okay, hit four.

JIM: Condiments, the flavor spice of life. We can't go without them. I recommend spicy mustard. Maybe organic ketchup. Of course, ketchup providing lycopene to help improve decreased risk for prostate cancer. Olive oil and mayonnaise. You get those good, monounsaturated fats. I always recommend a lot of oil-based salad dressings rather than some of the creamy ones. There are a lot of great low-salt marinades out there than can definitely flavor up your foods without having all the added sodium.

MELANIE: Okay. Hit five for us.

JIM: Let's do it. Whole wheat pita pockets. I think these are great. Or, even tortillas. Everyone's afraid of bread now, and carbs, I know, but I tell you what. They're important. Carbs give us energy. High in fiber and B vitamins and the best thing about the pita pockets or tortillas, you can throw a boatload of vegetables in them. You can throw sprouts, avocado, hummus. Great for vegetarians. If you're non-vegetarian, maybe throw in some turkey. Lettuce, tomato, mustard. If you have a problem with gluten, gluten-free options are available.

So, whole wheat pita pockets or tortillas would be a great choice. Another thing that I definitely have in my refrigerator all the time is a jar of low-sodium marinara. I think this is great. You can create your own and put it on top of pizzas that you can make with bagel halves or even, again, with the whole wheat pitas. You can use it on all kinds of whole wheat pasta dishes or even topping for some of your meatloaves. So, having a jar of marinara is very important. Again, it has a lot of antioxidants, Vitamin E, C, beta-carotene, even lycopene, again. So, I think it's very important to have some marinara in your refrigerator.

MELANIE: Jim, was that number six. Is marinara six or is that part of condiments at five?

JIM: No, number six. We're adding it in special--marinara. Seven, never-ending supply of water. I think this is so key. I even like sparkling water. I'm obsessed with sparking water. It gives me that fizz that I'm sometimes looking for that can replace the sodas. Also, you know, people are so dehydrated in this world, 2% of dehydration can affect athletic performance, so by drinking water it can curb the appetite and give us energy. It's so important for us to have that strong supply of water.

Then, number 8. Almond butter. Great. A nut butter. One of the top nut butters. It has a great source of protein fibers and Omega 3s. Again, it can be used for dips for fruit such as apples. It can be great for cooking and it can be spread easily on whole grain toast. So, have almond butter and the reason is, sometimes with the oil on top, you have to mix it in and then you have to flip it over and put it in your refrigerator for it to solidify. So, it would be a great choice to have in your refrigerator.

MELANIE: I mean, is it better than peanut butter if we have almond butter or cashew butter? Is there a reason you chose almond butter?

JIM: Almond butter has a little higher increase of Omega 3s and a better ratio of Omega 3s to Omega 6 fatty acids than peanut butter, but the bottom line is to have nut butters. If you don't like almond butter, then a great choice would be the peanut butter which would be natural. Or, a cashew butter would be another great choice, but I put almond butter at the top of the list.

MELANIE: Great. Now, number nine.

JIM: Salad mixes. Salad mixes are great, whether it's romaine that you can put with chicken for chicken/lettuce wraps or spinach to put on top of your turkey sandwich. Or, even kale. Put kale in the oven with some olive oil and sea salt to make kale chips. I feel that any type of salad mixes are going to be great. Extremely valuable. Rich in antioxidants. Good sources of vitamins to incorporate in your daily life.

Then, eggs. Number ten. Eggs. I say, eat the whole thing. They're loaded with protein, zinc, iron. A lot of nutrients. Another thing is, if you don't want to crack, you can buy the cartoned egg whites or buy Egg Beaters, they have a longer shelf-life. They have just as much protein and you can add it in. If you don't want the extra fat or the cholesterol, drop the yolk, but I suggest eat the whole entire egg.

MELANIE: Well, so we've made it through ten and I have a few questions for you, but before we do, I'm going to recap. He says fruits and veggies all cut up and ready to eat. Dips, hummus, salsa, guacamole, things that are healthy, low calories, low fat, but really, really good. Add some good spice to those vegetables and fruits. Dairy, cheeses--white cheeses--yogurts, milk. Things like almond milk—very good. Condiments: mustards, olive oil, salad dressings, ketchup, really good. Pita pockets—whole wheat pita pockets. You can throw anything in them and make a great sandwich or a great side to a side to a salad really very quickly. Marinara-- he gave its own little number there for marinara because it's got lycopene. Water—lots of different waters because we are all dehydrated. Almond butter being top, but nut butters for sure. Salad mixes so that you don't have to putz around with cutting up all these things, you can just dump them and eat them, right the way they are, with kale for sure. And, eggs. One of my favorite foods and something we feed our kids almost every day.

So, Jim, we only have a minute left.

Now, eggs have gotten a bad rep over the years, but you said "eat the whole egg" not just necessarily the egg white. So, a little recap on the whole thing. Wrap it up for us, but also touch on eggs.

JIM: That was impressive. You listened. I was about to do the drum roll. I couldn’t even believe it.

MELANIE: Thank you.

JIM: But, yes. Here's the deal. I said, "the whole egg" not "many eggs". Of course, they are still high in cholesterol and saturated fat so, everything in moderation. If we do 3-4 eggs, that can be up to 1200mg of cholesterol a day and, of course, we're shooting for under 300. So, yes, one egg. Throw it in, maybe in a mix of egg whites so I think that's very important to get those added benefits that the egg whites don't offer.

MELANIE: Those are your top ten things that you should keep in your refrigerator for a good healthy lifestyle so that when you open up your refrigerator, as Jim said, to go kind of just mow down on something, that you see all of these choices and so that the choices that you make are not as damaging.

So, you open it up, you see some hard-boiled eggs. You see some yogurt. You see some cut up vegetables. That's what you're going to grab instead of the leftover pizza or, you know, some of the other things that you might grab that are just not so good.

So, write that list down. We'll put it up on RadioMD.

You're listening to Train Your Body – Motivate and Perform with the American College of Sports Medicine right here on RadioMD.

This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for listening and stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Winter Weight: How to Get It Off FAST

So you've got some extra weight from the slow winter months. Want to get rid of it fast?

Additional Info

Segment Number 2
Audio File train_your_body/1512tb2b.mp3
Featured Speaker Felicia D. Stoler, MD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Dr. Felicia Stoler - America's Health & Wellness Expert - is a Nutritionist & Exercise Physiologist and author of Living Skinny in Fat Genes™: The Healthy Way to Lose Weight and Feel Great. She is the Former Host of TLC's show Honey We're Killing the Kids, and the PR Chair/Past President/Media Rep for the NJ Dietetic Association. She is the Past President Greater NY Chapter American College of Sports Medicine, on the NJ Council on Physical Fitness & Sports, and a Part Time Lecturer at Rutgers University.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 17, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guest: Felicia D. Stoler, MD

RadioMD.com. Train Your Body. Here’s exercise physiologist Melanie Cole, MS.

MELANIE: Have you put a little weight on in the winter maybe just 5 or 10 pounds sitting around eating chili and lasagna with the fire. You know, the winter seems to go on for a long time and now it’s spring and you feel like you really need to get this weight off. Maybe you’re going on vacation soon and you feel like you want to get it off a little quicker. You know, it’s not big time weight. You just want 5 or 10 pounds. How do you get it off? Not that slowly.

My guest is Dr. Felicia Stoler. She’s America’s health and wellness expert.

Welcome to the show.

How do we get the winter weight off as fast as we can Dr. Stoler?

DR. STOLER: Food poisoning? No I’m kidding!! (laughing)

MELANIE: (laughing)

DR. STOLER: That’s what my mother always says “I just need a good bout of food poisoning and I’m good."

MELANIE: Mine, too.

DR. STOLER: No seriously. (laughs) I don’t advocate that. Really, I think the most important thing people can do is cut back on their portion size. In terms of not necessarily compromising everything you love to eat, I think the most important thing is cutting back on portion sizes. Most people overeat.

I met some people the other day and the husband told me--so we’re talking, this is March--since September, he’s lost 40 pounds. That’s a lot of weight for an adult male in his 40’s to have lost in a matter of 4 or 5 months. I said, "So, how’d you do it?" And he said, "I cut back on my portion sizes." I mean, I watch people--not that I’m out pointing out to them when they’re overeating--but people eat very large quantities of food. I think that’s the easiest thing for people to do.

MELANIE: I think so too and if you go to some of the restaurants, boy, some of those portions are just incredibly huge and you watch somebody and they eat it pretty quickly. You know, they eat these big huge portions. They eat the whole thing you’re like, "Whoa! How’d you do that?" So, smaller portions, absolutely true. But, when you’re used to eating these big portions and then sitting around afterwards, it’s hard to cut down. It feels like you’re starving yourself.

DR. STOLER: I know. I know.

MELANIE: So smaller portions. What if you want to eat a bigger portion of the healthier, less damaging foods? Some low caloric foods that you can maybe eat a little larger amounts of that won’t damage you and might even help you lose weight?

DR. STOLER: That’s right. And those would be vegetables. (laughs) The foods that people don’t seem to be eating enough of--vegetables. Fruits, second. Vegetables, whole grains going back to that "F word"--fiber. Fiber being very important. The dietary guidelines came out and they basically said that we’re not getting enough fiber and that we’re not eating enough fruit and vegetables. I mean no matter how many times people like myself tell people to eat veggies, they’re just not eating enough of them and if you think about it, a typical serving of vegetables--we’re talking ½ cup of cooked vegetable--can be anywhere from 15-30 calories. That’s not a lot of calories.

MELANIE: No. So, we can load up on vegetables and there are so many on the market today. Gosh, there didn’t even used to seem to be this many. But besides the kale now and chard and bok choy and brussel sprouts and broccoli and cauliflower. I mean, there are 8 million of them and ways you can do stuff. Now, what about people who say, "I don’t even know how to cook all of these things low calorie?" What do you think of all the foods like Lean Cuisine and these kinds of things that you can get in the frozen department and just stick in the microwave and they only have 250 calories and 2 grams of fat. What about those things?

DR. STOLER: I mean, I think for people that want convenience that maybe don’t have cooking skills and, let’s face it, with the internet, you can watch anything. You can get a recipe for anything you want online. You can watch a video on it on YouTube. You can get the recipe. I think the prepared stuff is good for people. My dad, I hate to admit, is on NutriSystem right now. But that’s the kind of thing for him. He doesn’t like to cook. He doesn’t want to think about it. He just wants to eat what shows up at the house every week. Whatever’s going to work for somebody who needs to get their weight down, I’m all for, as long as they're eating and they’re not starving. That is something that I highly recommend. These juice cleanses that are out there, I definitely don’t recommend those. I don’t think that those are the best way to go for most people and, in fact, there are some people that have been doing them that are seeing increases in diabetes and it’s not because it’s because of the sugar, per se, but they’re just not eating right and they’re not getting enough fiber in their diet. I can’t say enough about fiber but there are foods you can buy at a lot of grocery stores. You can buy stuff that is already cut and washed and ready to go. I’ve seen broccoli and string beans that say you can microwave in the bag. All you have to do is stab it with a fork, stick it in the microwave for 4 minutes and boom! It’s done. You can buy pre-washed salads. Eat a salad every day. I tell people that all the time. Whether you eat it for lunch or eat it for dinner, it’s a great way to get veggies in there. There are very few calories in lettuce. Don’t turn it into a bacon double cheeseburger by adding way too much dressing and too much high fat cheese and high fats meats to it.

MELANIE: Now, so foods like avocado, which you and I are both big huge fans of, are also kind of high in calories. And when I was on Weight Watchers, Dr. Stoler I remember them saying stay away from avocados; stay away from bananas; stay away from things that are really kind of high in calories--kind of starchy. What do you think about those things?

DR. STOLER: Well, I would have to say in modern times Weight Watchers has evolved out of that, but I think avocados are terrific. They do have monounsaturated fats which are the good fats but, more importantly, and besides the fiber, eating a slice of an avocado is like eating a multivitamin. It is one of the most nutrient dense foods that are out there. So, whether you consider it a fruit or a vegetable, it’s technically a fruit, but I think that it’s great. You can buy them, you can eat a whole avocado. They have these little 100 calorie snack packs that you can buy. Again, it’s already sort of mashed up for you. I like to use them in place of mayonnaise on a sandwich like a turkey sandwich to keep it a little moist so it doesn’t get stuck in your throat. Again, it is really good for you. For anybody who’s a parent out there, it’s a great first food for babies. My kids, that was one of the greatest foods for them when they were little and when they were able to actually pick it up with their hands. You can cut it into cubes. It’s super easy. The flavor profile is very neutral and mild, so I think that’s a great food for lots of people.

MELANIE: Oh, if you add a little cilantro and lime and a little Tabasco. Oh, boy! I love avocados. I could a whole one every day.

DR. STOLER: (inaudible) I’ve made some really yummy soups/ I like to experiment with foods.

MELANIE: Me, too. And you know now, what about people who say, "I put on all this winter weight?" Now, we don’t have a lot of time, but they say, "I’m just going too fast. I’m just going to eat that one meal. I’m just going to eat one meal," and they end up going crazy because they’re starving.

DR. STOLER: Right. You know, you can’t. Your body, at the end of the day, just wants to get its calories in. The other thing is, by fasting, you’re forcing your body to alter its metabolism. You know, we’ve evolved from people that have survived feast or famine. So, we’ve got those what they call “thrifty genes” where we can slow everything down. We don’t want to hold on to fat. You need to have at least enough calories to sustain your body’s basal metabolic rate--all the amounts of calories we need to just function as a human. We’re not talking about any movement whatsoever. So, just for that you need to have at least enough calories for that and if you don’t, your body just slows down your metabolism. And that is what does it. And let’s not forget the “E” word, "exercise" or the “P” word, "physical activity".

MELANIE: I was just going to say that.

DR. STOLER: They both go hand in hand. You cannot successfully lose weight and keep it off if you are only doing one or the other. You need to do both together in synergy, period.

MELANIE: That is absolutely true and I was wondering if you were going to bring that up or when because we are both exercise physiologists, although you have a Ph.D. and I only have a measly little Master’s degree, but still.

DR. STOLER: Oh, no, no, no. They’re both important.

MELANIE: But, yes, exercise must absolutely go hand in hand. Dr. S wrap it up--weight loss quickly after the winter for spring.

DR. STOLER: Move more and eat less. (laughs)

MELANIE: Okay we have a few more seconds.

DR. STOLER: And also, make sure you’re getting good sleep. We didn’t even talk about that but sleep is important as well because that’s when you burn the most fat for fuel is when you’re sleeping. So, you know if you’re getting enough sleep, you’re not spending more hours up eating and that’s really important. Some people use food to keep them up at night and we don’t want that.

MELANIE: Oh, boy. I love sleeping. That’s a great bit of advice there. So good sleeping, lots of fruits and vegetables, fiber, smaller portions, exercise--these are all ways that you can get some of that winter weight off and keep it off for the summer and the spring to really look your best.

This is Melanie Cole. You’re listening to Train Your Body right here on RadioMD Motivate and Perform with the American College of Sports Medicine.

And if you missed any of our great information you can listen any time on demand or on the go at RadioMD.com. Share them with your friends. Thanks so much for listening and stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Probiotics + Gut Health

Biotics means life, so pro-biotics are good germs for the health of your body.

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File train_your_body/1512tb2a.mp3
Featured Speaker Felicia D. Stoler, MD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Dr. Felicia Stoler - America's Health & Wellness Expert - is a Nutritionist & Exercise Physiologist and author of Living Skinny in Fat Genes™: The Healthy Way to Lose Weight and Feel Great. She is the Former Host of TLC's show Honey We're Killing the Kids, and the PR Chair/Past President/Media Rep for the NJ Dietetic Association. She is the Past President Greater NY Chapter American College of Sports Medicine, on the NJ Council on Physical Fitness & Sports, and a Part Time Lecturer at Rutgers University.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 17, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guest: Felicia D. Stoler, MD

RadioMD.com your trainer Melanie Cole is here to motivate and help you perform. It’s time now for Train Your Body.

MELANIE: Well, you know, you’ve been hearing so much in the media today about the gut and your intestines and your immune system and probiotics. How does that all tune together and go together so that you can have really good immune system health from your gut? My guest today is fan favorite, Dr. Felicia Stoler. She’s America’s health and wellness expert.

Welcome to the show, Dr. Stoler.

DR. STOLER: My pleasure.

MELANIE: So tell us about probiotics. Thank you and that’s your new trademark so congratulations on that.

DR. STOLER: Thank you.

MELANIE: Now, probiotics. Tell us a little bit about prebiotics and probiotics give us a little physiology lesson of how they even help our gut.

DR. STOLER: So, when you think about probiotics and prebiotics and everything in between, what’s interesting is "biotic" means life, right? So, pre-life, pro-life, good life, right to promote life, antibiotics. Antibiotic soap might kill germs, but prebiotics and probiotics, what they do is they help to promote what we call "good germs" in our body. We often think we don’t have them, but we do. They live in our intestines and they serve a number of purposes, but most importantly they’re really helpful with digestion. So, when a baby is born their GI tract is completely clear of any kind of bacteria. We have no gut bacteria whatsoever because when we’re in utero. We are getting nutrients from our blood--from our moms--from the umbilical cord. So really, when babies start to eat, that is when they are first developing this gut flora, as we like to refer to it. Some people have better gut flora than others and whether it be due to disease; or if you take medication; or you don’t eat right; or you don’t go to the bathroom enough--all of these things. Sometimes that medication-prescription medications--not just antibiotics. Prescription medications impact our guts' flora and that impacts our immune system and that impacts how we feel and impacts our ability to absorb nutrients. So, it's really important that we have adequate levels of pre- and probiotics. So it’s not just about supplements. There are foods that people have been eating for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years that have provided that to us.

MELANIE: So, people hear probiotics; they hear bacteria; and, as you say, we think of antibacterial, antibiotics. So these are good bacteria. They’re not going to hurt us. When we get probiotics, whether supplementing or from foods--some kinds of fermented foods--and you’ll talk about those, are they live and can they make things worse or are these always good bacteria?

DR. STOLER: They’re also good bacteria. They are live but they are good, so let’s think about an easy one that people can relate to. Lactobacillus. The easy thing to remember is, part of lactose it’s got that LAC in it. So, what that’s found in is milk. It’s found in yogurt. And so, what that does and for people, especially people that are lactose intolerant, when they have yogurt that has pre- and probiotics in them, it helps them to break down the lactose or the milk sugar, that’s in the yogurt so, they don’t have difficulty absorbing it. That’s a problem. They lack the enzyme Lactaid so, therefore, Lactobacillus that is found naturally (but I believe that they add a little extra to the yogurt when they make it) helps it to absorbs the nutrients in there.

MELANIE: So, are we getting enough if we eat yogurt? If we eat a yogurt everyday--a good Greek yogurt--not one of the ones with weird colors and dyes and little fruity things in them. Are we getting enough?

DR. STOLER: (laughing) Well, you know, I think it’s really hard to measure what is adequate. I think that’s fair. I don’t know if there’s any documentation and I think it depends on who you speak to and I think it depends on what an individual's needs are. Like somebody that maybe has issues with diarrhea, for example, because they may have GI issues--they might have IBS or something like that--they may need a little bit more than maybe someone like myself or yourself. So, it can be challenging to really tease out who needs what in terms of quantifying it. There are other areas where people get it. Think about the different cultures around the world and some of the typical foods that they’ve been eating so in Eastern Europe and in Russia people have been eating fermented and pickled food. When you think about Asia, the entire Asian continent, you think about China, Japan, Korea and you look at a lot of places and, again, I use the term "Asia" to refer to the continent: kim chi, things like that. There are other fermented things that you can buy, other fermented vegetables. But the thing we think a lot about here is sauerkraut.

MELANIE: Love sauerkraut.

DR. STOLER: That’s a very popular kind of fermented food.

MELANIE: Especially after today. People have made their corned beef and cabbage and then when it’s leftover you make Reuben’s with it. So, you put plenty of sauerkraut on there.

DR. STOLER: That’s right.

MELANIE: Okay, so we can find it in sauerkraut, miso, yogurt. So if we eat these foods we’re getting it. Now, what about supplements? And do we take the ones that are liquid? Dr. Stoler I’ve given my kids--when they were littler and having some digestive issues--I gave them the liquid and I called it "bugs". “Here you guys go. Here’s your bugs” and then there are chewables.

DR. STOLER: Right.

MELANIE: And then there are tablets. Does that matter how you ingest them?

DR. STOLER: No, it really doesn’t. And, you know, what’s interesting? You were talking about the “bugs”. I’ve seen them in some markets where they’re liquids and what looks like a little yogurt shake. I’ve seen them in chocolate bars. I mean, I’ve seen them in little squares that look like the calcium chews that are probiotic chews and they taste like chocolate. I’ve used those with my kids. I just take the ones for myself, too, that I have for the kids. I mean, there are all different forms of getting them, if you want to take them as supplements. A lot of times when people have an antibiotic and they know they end up getting yeast infections, for example, secondary infections. Doctors will recommend that people, in addition to having yogurt, will consume some extra probiotics as well.

MELANIE: So, that’s a good point that you’re making.

DR. STOLER: Because what happens is when you lose….I’m sorry?

MELANIE: No. That’s a good point that you’re making. So, a good time also, which, of course you can discuss with your doctor, but a good time also to really make sure you’re getting your probiotics, is when you have a yeast infection. People might think it’s just the opposite. Now, what if your doctor puts you on antibiotics for a sinus infection or something else? You know, a urinary tract infection? And you're on antibiotics. Can you still take probiotics? Will that counter the effect of the antibiotic?

DR. STOLER: Well, what it does is, it helps to restore what the antibiotic is potentially wiping out. So, yes, it is there. I was just going to say that you should be taking that. I almost want to say prophylactically but it’s really taking them in a synergistic way because the good bacteria that is coming in, in the probiotics, is going to help restore what is being wiped out and that’s what I wanted to explain, too. What happens is that it will wipe out the bad. It’s going to wipe out everything. It doesn’t differentiate the good and the bad. You want the bad wiped out, but you need to bring more of the good “bugs” in to restore the gut flora there as well. It’s so important that you’re replacing it because if it’s all wiped out then you’re going to have difficulties with absorption.

MELANIE: So, you have about a minute or minute and a half left, Dr. Stoler, so wrap up and kind of put it into a nice neat little package for us. Probiotics and our gut health and the real importance of them. Why they’re helping our gut and why we should all be taking probiotics.

DR. STOLER: So, the reason why we should be taking probiotics is to help keep our gut working in a helpful manner. Not just for immune function but to help with absorption and the digestion of nutrients from the foods that we take in and it helps to maintain the health of our intestinal tract. Whether it be from food or whether it be from supplements, it is an integral and important part of one's diet in order to maintain overall wellness and health. I can’t say enough about it. I encourage people to get it from food first and supplements second.

MELANIE: Okay. So, from food first and supplements second. Yogurt, miso, sauerkraut, tempe, she’s mentioned a few things that you can get it from. So, look around. See where probiotics are. Make sure you’re getting them if you have a yeast infection or you’re on antibiotics because they really can improve your overall health, not just the health of your intestines and your gut but really help build up your immune system.

You’re listening to RadioMD the show is Train Your Body Motivate and Perform with the American College of Sports Medicine.

This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening and stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

He Said, She Said: When Fitness Rules Fail You

Learn what trainers and instructors teach, as well as how and why they teach it.

Additional Info

Segment Number 2
Audio File train_your_body/1511tb2b.mp3
Featured Speaker Neal Pire & Grace Desimone
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Neal Pire is a nationally noted expert on fitness and personal training. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and has served on the Executive Council of ACSM's credentialing arm, the Committee on Certification and Registry Boards. Neal served as vice president of a leading national health management company and now serves as an Exercise Physiologist at HNH Fitness, a medical fitness center in Oradell, NJ. He is widely sought after as a consultant for athlete training programs, performance enhancement centers and fitness industry management. As a 35-year veteran with deep understanding of the subject matter, he is often asked for background, commentary or analysis by media covering wellness, fitness, and personal training.

Grace DeSimone has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years and brings a variety of experiences in commercial, corporate and community settings. She is the editor of ACSMs Resources for Group Exercise Instructors (LWW, 2011) and is an ACSM certified personal trainer and group exercise instructor. Grace is the National Director of Group Fitness for Plus One Health Management, an Optum Company.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 10, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guests: Neal Pire & Grace DeSimone

RadioMD.com. Your trainer Melanie Cole is here to motivate and help you perform. It’s time now for Train Your Body.

MELANIE: What do trainers teach you? What do instructors teach you? Do they differ sometimes? Are they pretty much the same? Are they teaching you things that you've read are not that good?

My guests are two of my fan favorites here on Train Your Body. Neil Pire, a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, served on the Executive Council of the Credentialing arm and the Committee on Certification and Grace Desimone. She is definitely the class instructor guru. She is the editor of ACSM's Resources for Exercise Instructors and the national director for group fitness for Plus One Health Management, an Optum Company. I keep making sure to get that in, Grace.

GRACE: Thank you.

MELANIE: Okay. "When Fitness Rules Fail You". So, let's just start with some of these ones people do. Behind the neck pull-downs. That makes me absolutely bonkers. Neil, start with you, buddy. What's going on with lat pull-downs and why are people still doing them behind the neck.

NEIL: Let me start the segment just by saying there are a lot of rules that are put out there that really can't be looked at by actual rules by the professionals. Once size never fits all and you never say never. Those are rules that I live by as a trainer. You really have to assess and then prescribe and teach exercises that are pertinent to the individual. That's one of my pet peeves.

MELANIE: Here, here.

NEIL: There aren't too many people that live behind the head, you know, do pulling and pushing behind the head, behind the neck.

MELANIE: No, they don't.

NEIL: So, it's not going to be one of those ADL-type of approaches with people like that, but, I don't know, a longshoreman or something that's doing something funky on a regular basis, anything that you need to be prepared to do on a regular basis. You should train to do it.

MELANIE: If you're training longshoreman that is doing something funky behind his head, you can do it that way. Now, guys, what I want to ask you and, Grace, I'm going to ask you first, sometimes class instructors will teach a way to do something. You know, a lateral raise or a bent over row, and then your trainer comes along and teaches it to you differently. So, even those these things are individual, do class instructors and trainers learn these exercises differently or are we all learning them the same?

GRACE: Great question.

MELANIE: Thank you.

GRACE: And I think that would be like a big mystery in the world. Here's what I can tell you and you will both relate. When I got certified over 30 years ago, I can dictate to you every single rule that I learned. Now, every 2 years after that, you're supposed to get what we call "continuing education" and the industry allows you to choose your own courses. So, if I didn't, on my own, upgrade my level of information, which was kind of our whole idea of doing this piece, I'm kind of stuck back where I'm stuck. So, I can kind of tell, because I audition instructors all the time, when the instructor was certified by what they do as part of their class.

So, for instance, in spinning, there was spinning sort of the way that we learned it originally where you only had 5-10 degree bend in the knee and now spinning of today where they've upgraded the information to allow more flexion in the knee. Pregnancy. Remember this one? You both remember this one. Don't let your heart rate go above 140. I still have people, I swear to you, that come in and I say, "What do you do for a pregnant client?" "Oh, heart rate never goes above 140." They've never upgraded that information. So, I mean, that's sort of like a problem with the industry, but for the listeners out there, you know, do your homework. Don't take what the instructors and trainers give you as "law". Learn a little bit. Gather information. Learn your body and glean those things that make sense to you because you'll hear it two different ways. Ask questions. I think a lot of what we were thinking about was people have not updated their knowledge base about fitness.

MELANIE: So, Neil, when you look into classes because you're in clubs all day long and all the time and you look into classes, do you cringe sometimes at what you see instructors do?

NEIL: Well, you know what you see a lot of? I'll give you an example and Grace could probably expand on this a little bit because she teaches classes. When you're doing like body bar exercise and you're doing a chest press and people are laying out on the step, for example, one of the things I see a lot in group exercise classes is people with their feet up on the step while they're laying down on the step. So, they're in that flat, lower back position against the step, which in their head, means they're better supported as opposed to the classic position in a bench press which is 5 points of contact. You have each foot, that's 2. You have your butt, 3. Shoulders or upper back and head. So, you have 5 points of contact which gives you a wide base of support and you're able to better stabilize your body while you're lifting the weight.

MELANIE: So, are you saying your feet should be on either side of the step?

GRACE: Mmm hmm.

NEIL: Yes.

GRACE: Yes. But, what you're saying is absolutely true. When I teach class, I go through this all of the time and based on, also people who take class. You know, they learned it this way, "It's bad for my back to have my feet on the floor because your spine is in neutral, so…"

MELANIE: That's right. So, they think that they're in…

GRACE: Right.

MELANIE: That's right.

GRACE: And, I always explain it to people and then I give people the option because in class, you're generally not pushing a big load of weight. So, because you have the light weights, you're more than likely okay, but if you are going to be pushing heavier weights, you absolutely should be in that position and that's more training, body building, so your personal trainers are going to be much more knowledgeable about a position like that than your group fitness instructors.

MELANIE: That's great advice, guys. The 5 points of contact, Neil. You spoke that very well and that's a good point to look at when you're taking these classes or when you're working with a trainer that says, "Put your feet up on the bench," because you're very unstable being that way.

NEIL: Exactly.

MELANIE: What about squats? Knees over the toes. Knees not over the toes. Lunges, knees over the toes. Don't do this lunge this way, do it only a back lunge. So, Grace, lunges, when you're teaching your instructors how to teach a lunge, do you talk about the knees? Do you talk about the knees going over squats?

GRACE: We always talk about the knees. So, I give it this way. If you're a beginner, you lunge backwards first because it's easier to learn backwards and it's less stress on the knee. Then, you can gradually move forward, but when you're teaching a large group of people, you need to give them options. So, if this is bothering your knees or you're a little off balance, this is what you're going to do instead. Go backwards first instead of going forward. Load your back leg when you're lunging backward because most people lean forward. Remember how smart your body is. Your body will avoid the exercise as much as it can. So, when you're trying to load the leg, what does your body do? "Hey, let me make this easier or you?" And, your body naturally leans forward, so it takes the weight out of the leg, so that's why we're employed. Otherwise, we would not be in work, right?

MELANIE: So, you're loading it backwards because your body is fighting the exercise. I love that you said that. Now, Neil, because we only have a minute and a half left, guys. These go fast. Squats, the same. You know, squats for trainers, you can teach them in the big pieces of equipment. But, in classes, you know, they're doing them freeform and sticking that tush way the hell out. Do you pelvic tilt? Do you tuck it under? Do you straight back, chest up? Give us a good, perfect squat that you might see so the class and trainers are both doing the same thing.

NEIL: Here's the peeve. The peeve is the fitness rule that always fails you which is, "Never squat beyond 90 degrees. Your thigh should always be parallel to the floor." Generally speaking, that is a safe way to a squat, but it's not necessarily perfect for everybody. I mean, when you look at the fact that in so many cultures around the world, people actually live in that deep knee bend position. They live in that butt to the floor, squat down. They do their laundry that way. They feed their kids.

MELANIE: Yes.

NEIL: And, what's the incidence of knee injuries in those cultures? Zero compared to us. So, it's not about the deep squat. It's about the conditioning and the training and the ability to balance your center of gravity over your feet. That's where the hinge, which is what you're alluding to, comes into play. Cues like "stick your butt back" and "sit back into the squat" help get you into that hinge. I spend more time teaching people to do a proper hinge before they actually squat or deadlift, than actually putting them through the squat. That's something that a trainer can certainly take time and effort to do, that in a group class it might be a little difficult.

MELANIE: Well, stay tuned for more "He Said, She Said". We're going to keep doing these because you're wanting them and they're popular. They're fun and funny, so stayed tuned.

You’re listening to RadioMD.

Thanks for listening and stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

You Won't Believe What Goes on Behind the Scenes at Your Local Gym

From theft of towels to stealing time on machines, you won't believe some of the things that go on at the gym.

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File train_your_body/1511tb2a.mp3
Featured Speaker Neal Pire & Grace Desimone
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Neal Pire is a nationally noted expert on fitness and personal training. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and has served on the Executive Council of ACSM's credentialing arm, the Committee on Certification and Registry Boards. Neal served as vice president of a leading national health management company and now serves as an Exercise Physiologist at HNH Fitness, a medical fitness center in Oradell, NJ. He is widely sought after as a consultant for athlete training programs, performance enhancement centers and fitness industry management. As a 35-year veteran with deep understanding of the subject matter, he is often asked for background, commentary or analysis by media covering wellness, fitness, and personal training.

Grace DeSimone has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years and brings a variety of experiences in commercial, corporate and community settings. She is the editor of ACSMs Resources for Group Exercise Instructors (LWW, 2011) and is an ACSM certified personal trainer and group exercise instructor. Grace is the National Director of Group Fitness for Plus One Health Management, an Optum Company.
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 10, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guests: Neal Pire & Grace DeSimone

RadioMD.com. Train Your Body. Here's exercise physiologist, Melanie Cole, MS.

MELANIE: What do you think really goes on at the gyms? In today's He Said, She Said segment, we are talking about "What Goes on Behind the Scenes?" What goes on with the members? What goes on with the employees? You know, when I was working at a fitness center, I remember there were all kinds of things going on that I was not willing to share, but we are willing to share today.

Of course, I've got Neil Pire with me today. He is an exercise physiologist with H & H Fitness, a medical fitness center in Oradell , New Jersey, and Grace Desimone, who is the national director of group fitness for Plus One Health Management, an Optum company. Welcome to the show, guys.

So, Grace, I'm starting with you. When people say you won't believe what members do and, then, we're going to get with the employees, too, but let's start with the members because you do classes. You're all involved with all the ladies standing around. What goes on? Gives us your favorite thing.

GRACE: Okay. My favorite? I mean, I have tons and tons of stories, but the category is theft. Things that people steal. My favorite thing that someone stole from the health club is the shower curtain from the shower. Now, you have hung a shower curtain. You know how long it takes to hang a shower curtain. Just imagine trying to do this without being seen. Shower curtain. Toilet tissue. We actually had somebody come in and stuff a duffel bag full of toilet tissue. Now, keep in mind there are now cameras around. Back in the days, our early days, all of us when we were in the clubs, there were no cameras, but now there are cameras everywhere in the club except the locker room. So, the locker room is a big place to rip things off. People bring in their own bottles and if the club has amenities, and I'm sure this goes on in hotels, too, the nicer the amenity like soap and shampoo in the shower, people bring their own bottles and pump them up and take the stuff home. They take the towels. You know, you have the blow dryers so, the clubs thought, "Oh, we have this one handled." They cable tied them to the counter. People come in with scissors, cut the cable ties, take the blow dryers. It's utterly amazing.

MELANIE: Oh, that is unbelievable. Okay. Go on.

GRACE: And, the other thing that goes on is they steal other things from others. So, if you are in a locker room, please lock up your things with the knowledge that number one, there are no cameras to protect you and number two, everyone's not as honest as you. If there are digital locks. This is sort of the new technology where you don't have to bring your own padlocks. There are digital lockers. Anybody who is going to steal something will use the most obvious code which is 1-2-3-4. So, try not to choose 1-2-3-4 because we've had many, many people who've had things stolen because somebody went 1-2-3-4 and the thing opens and they take what's in there.

MELANIE: Wow. That's incredible because, and I hear you say, they fill up their own little bottles, and at the nicer places, the nicer hotel fitness centers, boy, they have some beautiful amenities. Are some of the amenities like the wrapped hair brushes, the combs, the little pads, the moist toilettes, all those things that are wrapped up and in a nice little bucket. Are you allowed to take those or do you assume that they're strictly for use there. Can you take a few and shove them in your purse or is that really not cool?

GRACE: Well, in the club, they're intended for your use while you are there. It is not "take your duffel bag and dump the container in your bag". That is not the intention.

MELANIE: That is so funny. So, stealing. Number one thing. Great advice about digital lockers. Don't pick 1-2-3-4.

Now, Neil, because you work with trainers, you work, you see the desk people, you see all of the employees and things like that. Besides just the hooking up stuff, what else is going on? I mean, we don't want to say they're talking bad about members, but, of course, there's always the members that you do talk about a little bit. You can't help it.

NEIL: One of my pet peeves isn't as nefarious, perhaps, as stealing, but it is in some ways, stealing, because it's the "wanna be" trainers. It's the members that are so into fitness and they're so… It's all about what they've last read in Muscle and Fitness and Shape or whatever it is and they want to share that information. The end up actually writing training and diet programs for members.

MELANIE: Wow.

NEIL: So, they actually train people on the side. Sort of a little side gig, which is not cool in just about every club, but most clubs for sure, it's not something you want in your club and you're looking at the most ineffective, the most unsafe training, spotting. It's just wrong. I see that almost in every club. There's always somebody who, you know, is jacked out of their minds or looks really fit and everybody's like, "Oh, he must be an expert," and what he's doing is sharing the latest Mr. Olympia workout with people that really have no business trying that particular workout. So, that's really one of my pet peeves.

MELANIE: Okay, now I'm going to add in one of my own. When you have staff that works the floor at your fitness rooms or in your hotel and they're supposed to be walking around helping people, making sure, but they're secretly training some clients and you see them kind of going off with somebody and kind of looking around, making sure nobody…and then, they end up getting paid for that session while they're on club hours. I think that that probably happens more often than people would even realize. Am I right?

GRACE: Oh, yeah.

NEIL: That happens especially in clubs where you don't have active management or you don't have a floor manager, personal training manager, that kind of thing. If you have someone on the ground level managing their people and directing and tracking activities, then that usually doesn't happen too often. But, in the independent clubs where pretty much everything goes and training is not one of the things that they're driving for revenue, it's really more membership and that's about it, I do see it. I've seen it almost everywhere for that matter.

MELANIE: Now, Grace. What about in classes? Do aerobics instructors…Aerobic instructors. I'm sorry. Class instructors.

GRACE: That's okay.

MELANIE: Do they try and take classes from each other? Do they try and say, "Well, I want that most popular time at 5:00 because that's when most of the people come in for boot camp?" What happens with the instructors?

GRACE: Well, again, it depends on how well the program is managed and how the folks are selected for hire. There can be that competition for the prime time slot and the class does…This is one of my big, big pet peeves everyone who knows me knows this is part of my orientation. Do not rally the members. It really upsets me.

MELANIE: Okay. I was going to ask you about rallying the members.

GRACE: Oh, that makes me crazy.

MELANIE: I know it makes you crazy. It used to make me crazy. So, when they rally the members, the members go to the management and say, "I want this teacher teaching at 5:00 because her class is the best."

GRACE: Yes. Because this is what the employees do. They do this when they're trying to take advantage of the members in some way and that's why I dislike it so much. It's not genuine. If you're really good, let your class, let your training session speak for itself. You don't need to put people up to that. "Oh, go tell so and so how great my class was." Oh, really? You know what? When people are satisfied, they leave with a smile on their face. They don't go run over and tell 10 people. It just happens organically by itself. So, when the instructors are doing that and they're trying to sort of one-up each other and like trip each other down the stairs to get the prime time spots, you know, generally talent and good manners and good teamwork speaks for itself. I mean, that works in some gyms for a little while, but at the end of the day, the folks that are really talented will move up and the cream rises to the top.

MELANIE: You know, you two are two of my very favorite guests.

GRACE: Thank you.

MELANIE: We could talk about this subject for a very long time. But, Neil, I'm giving the last word, baby. One minute to talk about the things that go on in the club that people just wouldn't believe.

NEIL: One of the crazy discretely done things is when you have sign-up sheets for cardio equipment, because you were talking about competition for prime timeslots. You know, Mary comes in, she wants to get on the treadmill. She wants to use it for an hour, but there are 20 minute intervals and limits during the busy times, so people can get on the treadmill and Mary signs up her friend, Jean, who's not in the club and Joe hasn't been to the club in months and then, she's the first one. So, she gets on for 3 time intervals and, you know, Jean who is not there is the next one, so she's on for an hour.

MELANIE: That's a weasely move, signing up your friends.

NEIL: Isn't it, though?

MELANIE: That is such a weasely move, especially if they're not coming. Okay, guys. So, that's it for He Said, She Said. This segment: "You Won't Believe What People do in the Gyms." Absolutely true.

You know, I love this show. Train Your Body: Motivate and Perform with the American College of Sports Medicine. Right here on RadioMD.

I'm Melanie Cole. Stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Strength Training: Your Secret to Getting Stronger & Losing Weight

Strength training can make you stronger AND help you lose weight.

Additional Info

Segment Number 4
Audio File train_your_body/1510tb2d.mp3
Featured Speaker Edward M. Phillips, MD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Edward M. Phillips, MD, is Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and is Founder and Director of The Institute of Lifestyle Medicine (ILM) at the Joslin Diabetes Center. In his work at the ILM, he has directed 12 live CME programs starting in India in 2006 and continuing with twice yearly courses sponsored by the Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education. He is course director of a suite of seven online CME modules in Lifestyle Medicine completed by over 8,500 clinicians from 115 countries.

Additionally, Phillips is a Fellow of American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM) and serves on the executive council that developed and leads the Exercise is Medicine™ global initiative. He is co-author of ACSM’s Exercise is Medicine™, The Clinician's Guide to the Exercise Prescription (Lippincott, 2009) and is chair of the Exercise is Medicine Education Committee. He serves on the Advisory Board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and on the Health Sector of the United States National Physical Activity Plan.

He is Adjunct Scientist at the Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology and Sarcopenia Laboratory where he works as study physician and investigator on several studies that address the areas of exercise physiology, resistance training in the elderly, body composition, and nutrition. He is site PI for the Health Resource Service Administration Preventive Medicine Training Grant (2010-2013) (2014-2018) educating Yale Preventive Medicine residents in Lifestyle Medicine. Phillips has published over 60 scientific publications.

Phillips is an active clinician and researcher who speaks and consults nationally guiding a broad based effort to reduce lifestyle-related death, disease, and costs through clinician directed interventions with patients. His medical school, SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award for his accomplishments in Lifestyle Medicine. The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition has recognized both Dr. Phillips and the ILM with its Community Leadership Award. He appears on national media including Good Morning America, ESPN radio, Huffington Post, Slate, and in Time Magazine.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 3, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS

RadioMD. RadioMD.com. Your trainer, Melanie Cole, is here to motivate and help you perform. It's time now for Train Your Body.

MELANIE: Strength training is a pretty generic term. What does it mean? Does it mean lifting heavy weights and those guys you see in the free weight room grunting and sweating? Does it mean just lifting a little bit like you see the ladies in the aerobics room with their three pound dumbbells? What does strength training really mean? What exercises give you the best benefit? How often should you do it? All of these things are about to be answered by my guest, Dr. Edward Phillips. He's Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehab at Harvard Medical School. He's also the founder and director of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at the Joslin Diabetes Center.

Welcome to the show, Dr. Phillips.

DR. PHILLIPS: Thank you, Melanie.

MELANIE: So, strength training. If someone was to come to you and say, "I want to strength train. What does that mean and how do I start?" What do you tell them?

DR. PHILLIPS: Great. So, let me back up and say I'll just give you what the Federal recommendations are so you understand why all Americans are asked to participate in this. There is a physical activities guideline for Americans that most famously calls for all Americans to be moving 2.5 hours a week, 150 minutes, and we're working really hard to get there. Getting out and doing that brisk walk. The other part of it is that twice a week, we're recommended to do a routine of, it's actually called "resistance training". Resistance training means like anything where you're pushing your muscles against some sort of a resistance. Strength is one outcome. You could do that through lifting weights or through pulling on a resistance band. You can do it with doing body weight training. You can't see me right now, but not only am I standing up, I'm going up and down on my toes and I'm working my calves. I'm just working against gravity. So, what we're looking for is twice a week, and we try to ask you, because of muscle soreness, not to do them two days in a row. So, that's where we're going to start. We're going to try to get you working the major muscles of your body twice a week.

MELANIE: Okay. So, major muscles being what and what kinds of exercises? Squats? Lunges? Do bicep curls count? Push-ups against the counter in the kitchen? Do you have to take that a half an hour or 45 minutes and actually go through a routine? Tell us about what you actually do, the semantics of it all.

DR. PHILLIPS: Sure. So, the full prescription would be that you're going to work all the major muscle groups. For instance, if I'm going up and down on my toes, I'm working my lower leg. If I start doing squats, I'm working my thighs, including the quads in the front and the hamstrings in the back. If I start bringing my legs out to the side balancing on the other leg, I'm starting to work my core and my butt muscles—my glutes. If I start to do to the plank position where it's sort of the top of a push-up, I'm working my core and I might be holding it. If I start to do push-ups from that plank position, I'm obviously working my upper body. So, all of them are good. Obviously, we want you to do all of them, but in answer to your question, even if you did a little bit, it's better than nothing. So, bicep curls are great. What's interesting about our muscles is that they respond specifically to the stress. What that means is, if you do bicep curls, you'll be able to do bicep curls. It's not going to help you run, or, not directly. It's not going to help you with the strength of your back. The muscles will respond to what you do. So, if you say, "Well, I want to have strong legs, strong back, strong arms," you're going to work out all of them. So, you're getting the idea that you're trying to do a general routine of your legs, your arms, your back, and you can do this a couple of times a week.

MELANIE: So, for people that don't know what exercises work what muscle groups because, yes, the muscles react specifically. So, you do something for that muscle and it builds on itself and then it will be stronger at that particular movement or that particular muscle group movement, but how do you know that doing a row works those lats? How do you know that planking works the core if you're not a trainer or you're not somebody who has been doing this a long time?

DR. PHILLIPS: So, two ways of looking at it. One of them is that when I prescribe exercise to my patients, the most common early conversation is, "So, Melanie, what would it take to get you to walk a little bit more?" If I saw you walk in and you're walking out, we know you can do that. You learned this when you were about 1 year old. We've got that. When you need to do strength training, if you haven't been trained, we, actually, will likely send you to some sort of professional. If there is a medical diagnosis, I might be able to send you to a physical therapist. I might want to find a well-credentialed personal trainer, an exercise physiologist—someone that can train you. That works. There are lots of people that will go turn on their iPhone and download a video of some exercises going on. That's one direction.

Another one for the listeners is, my field is rehab medicine and we talk about function. So, what I'm going to do is ask you to strengthen up the parts that need strengthening. Very simply, if you're having trouble getting out of a chair, why not get out of a chair a lot of times? In other words, if you're having trouble getting out once, the prescription is, with a little bit of support, we're going to get you in and out of a chair 5 times. The muscles that you need to work, you do not need to know the names of. I can tell them to you, but you're going to be working the extensors of your hips and your core in order to rise out of the chair. If you can rise 5 times in a row, you may start pushing off with your arms, and you get to the point where you don't even need to push off, those muscles, that functional activity is going to be improved so when you go home and you need to get off the toilet, which is a challenge for many older adults, you can do it.

So, that's an approach of sort of functional rehab or rehab or functional strengthening to do the stuff that you need to do in order to maintain that activity; in order to improve that activity.

MELANIE: That's great information, too, Dr. Phillips, because on the American College of Sports Medicine's fitness trends for the years as they go on, functional fitness training which is exactly what you're talking about, always rises up on the list and that is getting up out of a chair so that you can get up off the toilet. Reaching into your trunk to grab your groceries so that you can reach into your trunk and grab your groceries or lift your grandchildren or do any of those things that make for that function daily to increase your ability to do what you do every day.

So, what about some of those myths that go on with strength training? Women and resistance training--women specifically. I don't know if they're still saying that, but they used to say to me, I've been in the business 25 years, "Well, I don't want to bulk up. I don't want to look like one of those German swimmers." Those ladies work hard and eat like a bird. You know? You can't look like that that easily.

DR. PHILLIPS: Yes. So, the kind of strengthening that needs to go on and the difference between no strength training and modest improvements, meaning that you're stronger, but you have not yet hypertrophied your muscles. That's fancy talk for your muscles have grown larger. In women, seeing the definition is way down the line. If you're just starting to do the strengthening, your muscles are going to get much, much stronger long before they get bigger and you're going to feel much better. Aesthetically, you'll still be improved without sort of bulking up. It's interesting you talked about the German swimmers because when I think about sort of an attractive, strong woman, you know, we've got our First Lady going sleeveless and people talk about aspiring to have Michele Obama arms in a positive way. Like "I want to show a little bit of..."

MELANIE: You want that muscle. You want that definition.

DR. PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

MELANIE: And, she's a bigger woman, too, and yet she is able to have that real nice tone that just looks lovely. So, ladies, you know he's saying, "Don't be afraid of that." Lifting 3 pounds, 5 pounds, 8 pounds, 10, 12's--they're not going to give you these bulky, ugly arms. You can have nice toned arms. So, in the last 30 seconds, Dr. Phillips, wrap it up for us.

DR. PHILLIPS: So, I would say everybody needs to be doing some sort of resistance or strength training. It's going to improve your function. It's going to improve your aesthetics. It's going to improve all sorts of health metrics. You're going to feel better about yourself, have less pain and the more people that do it, the healthier our country would be.

MELANIE: Absolutely. Great information. So, the basics are here, just get out and do it. You want to add strength training into your day. Lift that milk jug 15 times, pick up your children, squat a little, lunge a little. You know, lift your legs, move around. Do core planking, sit on the ball and do some pelvic lifts. Do your bicep curls and your rows and your abdominal exercise. Add them all in because it's all going to add up and make you stronger and more fit and healthier and it feels good and you pants fit better.

So, if any of the other reasons aren't good, well, that last one's probably the best.

This is Melanie Cole. You're listening to Train Your Body right here on RadioMD. Thanks for listening and stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Engineering Physical Activity Into Your Day

The truth is out: a sedentary lifestyle is bad for your health. How can you work enough physical activity into your day to get the benefits?

Additional Info

Segment Number 3
Audio File train_your_body/1510tb2c.mp3
Featured Speaker Edward M. Phillips, MD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio Edward M. Phillips, MD, is Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and is Founder and Director of The Institute of Lifestyle Medicine (ILM) at the Joslin Diabetes Center. In his work at the ILM, he has directed 12 live CME programs starting in India in 2006 and continuing with twice yearly courses sponsored by the Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education. He is course director of a suite of seven online CME modules in Lifestyle Medicine completed by over 8,500 clinicians from 115 countries.

Additionally, Phillips is a Fellow of American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM) and serves on the executive council that developed and leads the Exercise is Medicine™ global initiative. He is co-author of ACSM’s Exercise is Medicine™, The Clinician's Guide to the Exercise Prescription (Lippincott, 2009) and is chair of the Exercise is Medicine Education Committee. He serves on the Advisory Board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and on the Health Sector of the United States National Physical Activity Plan.

He is Adjunct Scientist at the Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology and Sarcopenia Laboratory where he works as study physician and investigator on several studies that address the areas of exercise physiology, resistance training in the elderly, body composition, and nutrition. He is site PI for the Health Resource Service Administration Preventive Medicine Training Grant (2010-2013) (2014-2018) educating Yale Preventive Medicine residents in Lifestyle Medicine. Phillips has published over 60 scientific publications.

Phillips is an active clinician and researcher who speaks and consults nationally guiding a broad based effort to reduce lifestyle-related death, disease, and costs through clinician directed interventions with patients. His medical school, SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award for his accomplishments in Lifestyle Medicine. The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition has recognized both Dr. Phillips and the ILM with its Community Leadership Award. He appears on national media including Good Morning America, ESPN radio, Huffington Post, Slate, and in Time Magazine.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 3, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS

RadioMD. RadioMD.com. Train Your Body. Here's exercise physiologist, Melanie Cole, MS.

MELANIE: Just how much physical activity do you have to incorporate into your day to actually get the benefits that you hear about on this show and so many other media outlets about getting your 150 minutes and walking in between working; getting up from your seat. How much do you really need?

My guest today is Dr. Edward Phillips. He's the Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehab at Harvard Medical School.

Welcome to the show, Dr. Phillips.

DR. PHILLIPS: Thank you, Melanie.

MELANIE: So, physical activity. What is considered truly a sedentary lifestyle? I think of myself as active and yet I'm stuck in front of the microphone—well, not stuck—but, I'm in front of the microphone for many hours a day and at my desk, but I'm on my treadmill and I'm running around with the kids. What is considered sedentary?

DR. PHILLIPS: So, one great example, which a lot of my patients have is, they say, "I get up in the morning. I brush my teeth. I get into the car. I drive to work. I park as close as I can. I wait for the elevator, go up to my office. I sit and I do—and it doesn't really matter whether they're an accountant; they're running a bank; whatever it is, they sit. They do. They sit. They might have a sitting lunch and they drive home and then they tell me, "I'm a little tired so I turn on the television to check the news and brush my teeth," and we've got a day here with not a lot of activity. That's a sedentary lifestyle and it fits the description of just too many Americans. Actually, too many people world-wide at this point.

MELANIE: Okay. So, the sitting and, you know, I've even heard Dr. Jordon Metzl say, "Sitting is the new smoking," so it's really bad for us. We get that, but how much, then, do you need to change? I mean, obviously, you're going to watch TV or you sit down with your family or, you know, you're sitting at work. So, what do you do to change that? Especially if it's part of your daily routine and you're not just sitting around on the couch watching daily reality TV or something.

DR. PHILLIPS: Sure. So, as you mentioned in the intro, the physical activity guidelines for Americans calls for 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity. That's jargon for "take a brisk walk" where you get to the point where, you know, you can talk but you would have trouble singing. You don't have to be in a sweat. You don't have to change. You've just got to be out there. That's over the course of a week. Just two and a half hours.

That's where the science was in 2008 when the activity guidelines were written. They were revised a couple of years ago and what's coming out in the last year or two is that, in addition to that, we have to break up those long periods of sitting. Some of the studies, like the big one in the American Journal of Epidemiology looked at over 120,000 middle-aged folks and they determined that the ones that sat, which is a risk of dying, was appreciably higher for the ones that sat the most as opposed to the ones that sat the least. It was worse in women and the effect of people that were not getting the 150 minutes per week was even more astounding. So, the women were dying at rates twice as high as those that were getting their 150 minutes even if they had sedentary job. So, there are two parts to this. You want to get your 150 minutes and you want to break up the long periods of sitting.

That seems to be the magic. There's no clear length of time. I tell my patients, every couple of hours, maybe every hour and a half, you should be up on your feet and maybe look at this more, flip it around. As I talk to you on the phone, I'm standing. Why not? My voice probably carries a little better. It's obviously healthier for me. I'm not moving a lot. You can hear me. I'm not panting, but I am standing. So, it's breaking up those long periods for all sorts of health benefits.

MELANIE: Okay, Dr. Phillips, you just got me to do it, too. So, I just stood up.

DR. PHILLIPS: Stand up! Everybody that's listening, stand up!

MELANIE: So, instead of sitting my fat tush down in front of this microphone, I just stood up and now that I'm standing up, my producer's probably going to yell at me afterwards.

DR. PHILLIPS: Okay.

MELANIE: But, you're right. So, I see all of these things. You know, there are all these neat kind of desks that some corporations are taking hold of now that are on angles so you can lean against a wall.

DR. PHILLIPS: Yes.

MELANIE: Or, you know, standing treadmill desks. I'm sorry, I couldn't do what I do in front of a treadmill, but sitting on a ball so that you're moving constantly and you're a little unstable.

DR. PHILLIPS: Sure.

MELANIE: So, what do you think about all these kinds of things that corporations are really looking at to get you to not just sit like that.

DR. PHILLIPS: So, what's interesting when you described the desk, you called it a "neat desk" and I don't think you may have been using kind of neat in the way that kids would say, "Oh, that's really neat." I guess I used to say that when I was a kid, but it was actually a phrase coined by Dr. Jim Levine from Mayo, N-E-A-T, and it describes what we're talking about and it's "Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis".

The thermogenesis means that you're creating some sort of heat. It means that you're twitching around a little bit; that you're choosing to stand. You're sitting on a ball, which requires you to keep your balance. It may only account for a few calories an hour, but it adds up and studies that they've done comparing people that were—a non-exercise study. So, they didn't let anyone exercise. Same jobs. They looked at the people to see just how much they kind of twitched or moved around in the course of their day. You know you could describe your friends and family and I can't see you, Melanie, over the phone, but maybe you're one of these people that just keeps on moving like I am. Those people tend to be slimmer, okay? So, that's the neat part of the story here--what works for you.

I've got lots of colleagues, these are physicians, who choose to use a treadmill desk. Not to see a patient, but to do their dictation. To do their typing. You're not sprinting. You're not even walking at a pedestrian pace.

MELANIE: I know. It's like 1 mile an hour. Our Michael Roizen is...

DR. PHILLIPS: You know what? At one mile an hour, in about an hour, you're going to do about 100 calories. Not bad. If you do it for an hour a day, it's 100 calories you hadn't burned up and you're not sitting.

MELANIE: I mean, I guess so and I look at the pictures we've got of our Dr. Roizen and he's got all his papers around him.

DR. PHILLIPS: Yes.

MELANIE: And his computer up there and he's walking on the treadmill, but it just seems to me like I would sound like I'm bouncing or I couldn't type in my computer. You know? Efficiency.

DR. PHILLIPS: But, Melanie, at least we got you standing.

MELANIE: At least you did get me standing, Dr. Phillips. I'm definitely standing now and that's great. So now, give us your best advice for the people listening that do have to sit at the desk, standing up or that their boss is going to give them the hairy eyeball if they get up a lot, how they can get that extra physical activity into their day.

DR. PHILLIPS: So one thing is, we've got the "got to get up out of your chair". If you're on a conference call and you put on a headset and you're standing there, even in a cubicle, the evidence is coming along that he might be giving you the hairy eyeball, he should be doing that to the people that are just sitting there because what was that evidence?

MELANIE: Absolutely.

DR. PHILLIPS: And, given the chance, I would love to go in to talk to the boss, go in to talk to their Human Resources to say, "Your employees that are sitting are not giving you their all because the other folks are perfusing their brains better. They're thinking more clearly. They're moods are better. They're more productive and just encourage them to get out of the chair.

I'll just tell you one brief sidelight. I went to give a talk at a conference center. People heard me speaking one year. By the next year, they had standing desks and I took pictures of them. Then, their employees at another facility, they wanted standing desks and the employer said, "You need a doctors' note." I said, "I'll tell you what. You need a doctor's note if you want to stand?"

MELANIE: That's got to...

DR. PHILLIPS: We need to flip this around. We need to change the culture. The other things that people can do is, if you just say "exercise" and you think about going to the gym, lovely. If you can do it, you want to do it. I do it. Many of my patients do it. But, we just need to engineer some more activity into the day and be really creative.

I'll give you a quick example.

MELANIE: We only have about 30 seconds.

DR. PHILLIPS: Okay. If you come to see me in Boston, do you not park at the local garage for $30 bucks. Park a half a mile away and walk for 10 minutes. Walk back to get back into your car. I challenge anyone who will not take $30 to walk that mile back and forth rather than paying the garage attendant. That's a creative way of just getting a little exercise in. It may be a couple of extra minutes. You've saved some money. You're healthier. You're happier and we can look for examples like that.

MELANIE: And that is great, great advice and in my family, we've got music playing all the time, so my daughter and I, we dance around. We dance around the kitchen--any extra movement that you can get. It may look silly. It may feel a little bit weird, but boy, it sure does work to give you that little extra boost in physical activity.

This is Melanie Cole. You're listening to Train Your Body right here on RadioMD.

Thanks for listening and stay well. I'm standing.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Weigh In Once a Week or You'll Gain Weight

Stepping on the scale is common among dieters, but how often should you actually weigh yourself?

Additional Info

Segment Number 2
Audio File train_your_body/1510tb2b.mp3
Featured Speaker John P. Higgins, MD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio John P. Higgins MD, MBA (Hons), MPHIL, FACC, FACP, FAHA, FACSM, FASNC, FSGC, is a sports cardiologist for the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and the Harris Health System. His research interests include the effects of energy beverages on the body, and screening for underlying cardiovascular abnormalities in 12-year-olds (sixth graders), and steroid effects on the cardiovascular system.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: March 3, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS

RadioMD. RadioMD.com. Your trainer Melanie Cole is here to motivate and help you perform. It's time now for Train Your Body.

MELANIE: Sometimes I'm afraid to step on the scale, but for the most part, and when I was in Weight Watchers, it was something that I did pretty often. Sometimes every day. Sometimes every other day. Some people will say, "Oh, it's not about how much you weight, it's about how your clothes feel or how you feel," but does weighing yourself and keeping that accountability actually help you to lose weight? Or, is it a detraction or a deterrent?

My guest is fan favorite, Dr. John Higgins, sports cardiologist at the U.T. Science Center in Houston.

So, Dr. Higgins, weighing yourself or not. Are you a believer in stepping on the scale? What's up?

DR. HIGGINS: Yes, Melanie, I definitely am. I think it speaks to the fact that any time we want to make some sort of behavior change or when we have a person that has something that they want to change about themselves, the first thing we need to find out is, "Okay, where am I know?" with this person and then, "Where do I want to get to?" and then we kind of figure out the pathway there. We frequently have to check in along that journey to make sure they are on track; they're heading in the right direction. Or if they go off track, that we can get them back on track with some encouragement and some other helpful hints. It's never a direct straight line from "A" to "B", Melanie, especially when there's a lot of snow outside and you're in your car.

MELANIE: Well, absolutely with the ice storms we've got going.

DR. HIGGINS: Yes.

MELANIE: So, okay. So, if we talk about getting on the scale, how often a week would you like us to do that? Do you advise writing that number down just kind of keeping it in your head? I mean, some people say that that turns you into a little bit of an OCD person with that scale and, Dr. Higgins, as a woman--and you probably know nothing about this, because you are not a woman--

DR. HIGGINS: Yes.

MELANIE: But, as a woman, we go up and down on the scale, sometimes by the minute. I'm serious. I could step on the scale and be 5 pounds up before my period and step on the scale after it's done and be 2 more pounds up or 4 pounds down. I mean, seriously, by the minute the scale can change. So, how do we not keep it from turning us into a psychopath?

DR. HIGGINS: Yes. No, that's is a great question, Melanie, and I think you can become overly obsessed and I've seen people that tell me they're weighing themselves in the morning, at noon time, lunch time, and they're trying to make changes during the day and I think that can become crazy and there are certain things you can't control. As you mentioned, Melanie, I mean, particularly with women, you know at different times during the month for pre-menopausal women, fluid retention and all sorts of things are out of your control, so I agree with you that you can overdo this.

But, the interesting thing about this study that came out recently, what they did is they looked at a group of about 40 or so overweight folks and they typically had BMI's over 25 and that's considered overweight and they looked at how often they weighed themselves during a whole year. They just kind of did this without...I mean, they didn't tell them they were doing a study. They basically just looked and saw what happened to their weight over the year.

The interesting thing that came out of this was the more regularly and frequently the person checked their weight, the greater their weight loss was over time. So, now when they pulled back and they looked at those people that actually gained weight over the year, they found that they had more than a week between their weighings that they were checking.

MELANIE: Ah!

DR. HIGGINS: So, in other words, they weren't checking their weight very often.

MELANIE: And, that's true. I know this because when I stop because I'm afraid, because I know I've had a bad weekend of margaritas or I've eaten pizza or some hideous thing like that, I am afraid to step on the scale, so I don't. Then, I get on and then I'm like, "Whoa! Wait a minute!" So, basically, when people stopped doing it...

Now, also, Dr. Higgins, this is something that Weight Watchers has known for years because weighing in is something you have to do for these programs and when we used to have to weigh in, I'm telling you, for those 4 days before you weight in, you are like drinking water and eating lettuce.

DR. HIGGINS: Yes.

MELANIE: And just being so, so good and then, you go to that weigh in, you pee 20 times before it and so, I mean, I get it. If you don't weigh yourself, it kind of goes out of your mind. So, it's like out of sight, out of mind, right?

DR. HIGGINS: Yes. No. Exactly right, Melanie and even to the point now where there are these, I would call them "smart scales" that you can get and they're available at most online stores where kind of a little bit like we've talked on the show before about those devices—the activity measuring devices, like FitBit and all that. All these scales now, they will sync with your apps and they will tell you if you're going too far up. Now, the nice thing about these smart scales speaks to the point that you were talking about before, Melanie, that they realize that peoples' weight varies during the day and, in fact, even during the weekdays. In fact, in this study, they had a very interesting finding. They found that on Wednesday, peoples' weight is the lowest. So, hump day is a great day to weigh yourself.

MELANIE: You know what? I can see that because, first of all, Mondays is the worst. Monday sucks.

DR. HIGGINS: Yes. Oh, yes.

MELANIE: Because you've had your weekend.

DR. HIGGINS: The weekend, yes.

MELANIE: And, Sunday night comfort food dinner.

DR. HIGGINS: Yes. Yes.

MELANIE: All those kinds of things. And then, by Wednesday, maybe it's been the middle of the week, you've had your chance to kind of get yourself back in, so every Monday is kind of your renewing start day.

So, the smart scales. I'm dreading the day the scales talk back to you and say, "Uh oh, you're up 2 pounds again."

DR. HIGGINS: Yes.

MELANIE: What role do you think, Dr. Higgins, that hormones and water play, because, you know, I'm a trainer and, Dr. Higgins, people say to me, "Oh, I gained 3 pounds," and I'm like, "You didn't eat 9,000 calories yesterday. It's water retention."

DR. HIGGINS: Yes.

MELANIE: How do we look at that scale and what's up and what's down and know what's real? We only have a minute or two left, but how do we look at those numbers? Tell us about that.

DR. HIGGINS: Yes. I think this speaks to the fact that, Melanie, we need better ways at monitoring our calorie input and some of the new apps are doing that, but also going along with these smart scales. So, the old-fashioned scale was just, "Okay, you're "X" pounds, "X" kilograms." These smart scales now, they are measuring the resistance of the body tissue, so they're able to give you a better idea of your percentage of body fat; your percentage of body fluid and so some of these smarter scales are now adjusting and also telling you what your dry weight is. So, they kind of compensate for the water.

The nice thing about those scales, too, Melanie is they're also, most of them have Bluetooth capability and they are uploading the data to your smart phone and they're sending you reports, weekly reports, telling you where you are, etc. So, it's not so much that you have to get on the scale and do a lot of work yourself. It looks like these are taking care of a lot of that. They're syncing with your other apps like Fitocracy, RunTastic and those sort of apps and they're also communicating with you when they start seeing a major problem—not a minor problem. Not a minor fluctuation that they think is just from fluid, but a genuine calorie expenditure mismatch which is resulting in your true weight gain.

MELANIE: That's great and that's a great wrap up place, here, Dr. Higgins, because as a woman, we look at those scales, we look at the number and if it can start to sort of disseminate the difference between that water weight that women have got--we all know we get it—and the weight that's actually calories that you got from the Lumelnatti's pizza that you ate last week and the exercise you didn't do, well then, that is a great way for us to keep track so it's down now. We know that weighing yourself does help keep you accountable. It does help keep you in check and keep your weight under control. So, ladies, you know, you heard it here. You've got to weigh yourself. It keeps you accountable, and now, with all the apps, your smart scales can sync in and it can give us more things to be crazy about.

But it might just work to help us keep our weight under control.

You're listening to RadioMD. The show is Train Your Body – Motivate and Perform with the American College of Sports Medicine right here on RadioMD. I'm Melanie Cole.

Thanks for listening and stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Blueberries Every Day Keep the Doctor Away

Daily blueberry consumption may reduce blood pressure and arterial stiffness. How many blueberries do you need to eat to get these effects?

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File train_your_body/1510tb2a.mp3
Featured Speaker John P. Higgins, MD
Organization ACSM
Guest Bio John P. Higgins MD, MBA (Hons), MPHIL, FACC, FACP, FAHA, FACSM, FASNC, FSGC, is a sports cardiologist for the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and the Harris Health System. His research interests include the effects of energy beverages on the body, and screening for underlying cardiovascular abnormalities in 12-year-olds (sixth graders), and steroid effects on the cardiovascular system.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

Is Walking Really an Effective Workout?

Whether your goal is to be more active, lose weight or win a marathon, walking is a great place to start.

Additional Info

Segment Number 4
Audio File train_your_body/1508tb2d.mp3
Featured Speaker Michele Stanten
Organization ACSM
Guest Website my walking coach
Guest Bio Michele Stanten, a walking coach and ACE-certified fitness instructor, has been motivating people to be more active for over 20 years. Michele launched mywalkingcoach.com to help people lead healthier, happier lives. She believes that walking can be the first step (pun intended) to making exercise a habit, which can have positive effects on all areas of your life. Michele also wants to dispel beliefs that walking is only for the very unfit or very overweight. Walking can be a vigorous–yet joint-friendly–workout. She’s on a mission to show the world the many different ways to walk and the powerful benefits it can have.
Transcription RadioMD Presents: Train Your Body | Original Air Date: February 17, 2015
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guest: Michele Stanten

Melanie: So, is walking really a workout? You all know from listening to me all these years that I love walking. I can walk 45 miles. It’s my favorite thing to do, but is it really enough? Does it burn enough calories? Does it get you in enough shape? You know, does it protect against heart disease? How do you take it up to the next level?

My guest is Michele Stanten. She’s a walking coach and an ACE-Certified Fitness Instructor. Welcome to the show, Michele. So, for those of us that like to walk and walk and walk and walk, is this really enough of a workout or aren’t we really doing enough?

Michele: Well, it depends on how you’re walking. One of the great things about walking is number one, we all know how to do it and it’s enjoyable. But, what happens a lot of times when we walk, is we get into a very comfortable pace and it actually becomes more energy efficient, so we’re not burning as many calories. You’ve got to push yourself out of that comfort zone and one of the things I recommend to do that is interval workouts. Interval walks. So, what you’re doing is, you’re speeding up for 30 seconds to a minute and then you go back to you regular walk for an equal amount of time or maybe double. So, you know, a minute or two and then you pick up the pace again and you get your heart pumping. If you’re doing this and walking faster, you really can get all the benefits of vigorous exercise. You just need to put a little bit more effort into your walks.

Melanie: What’s faster? I mean, I walk at 4 ½ miles an hour, or 4. If I’m feeling exhausted one day, I’ll go with 3.8. I pick it up to 4, you know?

Michele: Great.

Melanie: So, when I pick it up past that, it feels like I’m jogging then and I’m not walking and I hate jogging.

Michele: Right. Well, and you know, that’s so interesting. I hear that all the time. So many women love to walk, but then when they think they need to, you know, “I’ve got to lose a couple of pounds,” or, “I’ve got to get in shape for this event,” then they try running or they’ll do one of these high intensity workouts. A lot of times, I’ve heard from them that they get injured because they overdo it, yet they like walking. So, why not put some of that effort into your walk and you can get better results?

As far as the speed, it really depends on where you’re starting from. For some people who are out and taking their walks, they’re walking at a 3.3 or 3.5 mile per hour pace and that’s comfortable for them. You know, they go out, they do the same route every day and that’s the same pace. So they’re going to push it up and they’re going to start to work to get closer to that 4 miles per hour. You’re already up above 4 miles per hour. So, again, you can still push it up. I’ve got women who are walking 5, 5.2 miles per hour paces for their intervals and sometimes even a little higher. The key, if you’re already walking fast and it kind of feels like you’re jogging, is you need to add some technique. No matter what level you’re at, a little technique is going to help you to go faster, burn more calories and get more of those benefits.

Some of the key things with technique is, first of all, you want to stand up tall. Especially this time of year with the winter, so many of us—myself included. I do this--we’re kind of hunched over when we walk to try and stay warm and avoid the wind. But, we also do it in the summer when the sunlight’s kind of coming down. Even if you’re wearing sunglasses, you are kind of looking down. So, a lot of people walk looking at their feet and we really need to stand up tall. You want to be looking out about 10-20 feet ahead of you, even out at the horizon if you can. So, your chin is level to the ground. Your shoulders are back. It helps you breathe better, especially as you start to pick up the pace. So, that’s the first thing.

And, when we run, we don’t run with our arms down at our side. So when you’re walking fast, you want to bend your arms and bring them up to a 90 degree angle. You want them swinging forward and backward; not out to the sides —chicken arms or chicken wings, as I call them. Forward and back from about chest height back to the hip. And really pump them. Draw your elbows back. You can actually get a nice little upper body workout when you’re doing that.

And then, the other key is when people start to try and walk faster, their inclination is to take longer strides. I’m tall so everybody says I can walk fast because I’ve got long legs. That’s really not the key. If you want to go faster, when you’re stepping forward, you actually want to take shorter step forward and take quick, short steps. What happens is, it makes it easier for your body to kind of roll over your foot and go faster. If you’re stepping your foot real far out, it’s almost acting like a brake and you have to work a lot harder to pull your body up over that leg for your next step.

So, the key is: stand up tall, bend those arms and take shorter, quicker steps to get faster.

Melanie: Michele, I’m 4’10” or 11”, so standing up tall is not that easy for me, but I try and I hear what you’re saying. You need to really keep your chest up and your head up and, you know, don’t look at your feet. Don’t hunch all down. So, I get that.

So, what about shoes? I’m always telling people, “I like running shoes the best, even though I’m a walker, because they seem to support my feet so much better than walking shoes. They just don’t do it for me.” So, what do you tell people about shoes if they’re going to be a walker?

Michele: You are not alone. Almost all of my walkers that I’ve ever coached, most of them wear running shoes. There’s a lot more variety out there and one of the things that I find can slow people down is if they’re wearing a shoe that is--and a lot of the walking shoes are--heavier than the running shoes. They’ve got a stiffer sole and so you want something that’s a little more lightweight and a little more flexible. So, shoes should bend easily at the ball of the foot. If you give it a twist, you want a little bit of twist there. Not too much. And, again, depending on the person, comfort is key. If it doesn’t feel good when you’re wearing it, don’t buy it. It should feel good right from the start. You shouldn’t have to break it in. But, a lighter weight shoe, something that’s more flexible and that’s going to allow you to land on the heel, roll through the foot and push off with your toes and that’s going to give you more of that power for your stride.

So, again, running shoes are perfectly fine to walk in. Never run in walking shoes, but you can walk in running shoes.

Melanie: I say the same thing in cross-trainers as well. You don’t want to use cross-trainers for any kind of distance, right?

Michele: Right. Cross-trainers are more designed for some side to side motion. So, a running or a walking shoe, but, again, lightweight, flexible. You don’t want a heavy shoe that kind of weighs you down. You don’t want a big, clunky, thick heel that, again, can kind of act more as a brake than allowing your foot to roll through that natural motion. And, comfort is the key. If you’re going to be doing longer walks, going more distance--I’ve got walkers who train for 10Ks and half marathons and marathons--go up a half a size. What happens is, the longer you’re on your feet, the more your feet swell, so you may need that extra length in the shoe. Also, shop at the end of the day. Our feet are at the largest size at the end of the day, so you’re going to get a better fit if you shop at the end of the day.

Melanie: And don’t take your shoes off mid-walk. If you’re doing like the Avon Walk or something.

Michele: Oh, yeah.

Melanie: Taking those shoes off is about really the worst thing you can do.

Michele: Yes.

Melanie: Even if you feel like you’ve got blisters because then those feet just swell right up and, oh, my goodness.

Michele: Absolutely.

Melanie: Now, what if you get some pain?

Michele: What if you get some pain?

Melanie: What if you get some pain like heel pain, you know? Plantar fasciitis, any of that stuff. Do you think it’s blaming the shoes, blaming the distance, the surface you’re walking on?

Michele: It could be any one of those. One of the keys with people running into pain is, they tend to overdo it. So, if you’re progressing, if you’re working on speed, don’t increase your distance. If you’re working on distance, don’t also try to be increasing your speed. Break that up. So, for example, when I train walkers for half marathons or marathons, we have one day a week where we do our long walk and I always tell them, “Don’t push speed” on that walk. That walk is for the distance. So, don’t push the speed. We’ll have another walk during the week where you focus on speed, and then, you’re going to be doing a shorter walk. You also want to progress gradually. So, if you’re just starting out and you go out and take a walk 10 minutes a day, the next week, go to 15 minutes, and then go to 20. Don’t start with 10 minute walks and/or worse get off the couch and start trying to walk an hour a day. Overuse is one of the biggest reasons people get injured.

If you are wearing shoes that don’t have enough support or have broken down, that can increase your chance of injury. So, a key is that 300-500 miles is the lifespan of a walking or running shoe, so kind of mark the date that you get it and keep tabs on how much you’re walking. For most people if you’re walking, you know, times 30 minutes 5 days a week, it’s going to be about every 6 months that you’re going to need to replace those shoes.

Melanie: And that is great walking advice. So, get up. Walk around. Walk around more in the day. Get yourself a good pair of shoes.

This is Melanie Cole. You’re listening to Train Your Body with the American College of Sports Medicine on RadioMD. Stay well.
Length (mins) 10
Waiver Received No
Host Melanie Cole, MS

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