PROGRAM FITNESS NEWS

Program Fitness News

www.profitness.net.nz April 2003

Inside This Issue
1	Happenings and An Aussie View
2	Just Your Cuppa? and Your Foot Map
3	Are You Tired and Drink Up
4	Drugs!! and More Water
5	More Water Still

Happenings

16^th Whenuapai Half Marathon
Sunday 6th April 2003

21.1km Walk

Place	Number	Name	Time
1	537	Soanes Marcia	2:12:44
2	542	Thompson Brad	2:21:41
3	508	Doughty Steve	2:30:35

That's the way the list showed in the results of the Whenuapai 1/2 Marathon. Marcia Soanes is stamping her impression on the local walks scene again and is one happy lady. Her sights are now firmly set on the 10km event at the annual Taranaki Walks weekend in New Plymouth at the beginning of June.

Sunday 13^th April, 03, Marcia took part in the ASB Step Ahead 10km in the St Heliers area and once again walked under 60 minutes for the distance. On what she described as a hilly course, she produced 59 minutes 30 seconds of hard effort to show a set of clean heels to those in her dust.

To top it off, Marcia was the top student in her course last year at Auckland University of Technology.

The rest of us have been taking it a little easy. However, Asta Wistrand had an enjoyable four days of orienteering over the ANZAC Weekend, with a good 5^th place result on one of the four days.

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Remember to take look at our website

http://www.profitness.net.nz/

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Green Tea – A Touch of the Orient for Your Health?

Camilia sinensis – or more commonly known as Green Tea has been used in China for thousands of years. This highly common herb or herbal extract has been studied for a variety of uses from dizziness, headache and indigestion to prevention of cancer, atherosclerosis, cavities and high cholesterol.

Part of the interest in green tea is that it is considered a natural antioxidant as it contains polyphenols. Polyphenols are a class of phytochemicals found in high concentrations in green tea, and have been associated with heart disease and cancer prevention. The slight astringent, bitter taste of green tea is attributed to polyphenols. Catechins are a category of polyphenols. In green tea, catechins are present in significant quantities, more specifically; epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG makes up about 10-50% of the total catechin content and appears to be the most powerful of the catechins – with antioxidant activity about 25-100 times more potent than vitamins C and E. A cup of green tea may provide 10-40mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant activity greater than a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots or strawberries.

Antioxidants are thought to prevent free radicals, which attack healthy cells. Antioxidants help prevent damage to healthy cells and may affect everything from heart disease to cancer. While its full mechanism of action is not understood, green tea has been shown to reduce the incidence and number of tumors in animal disease models.

"THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF ANY KNOWN ANTIOXIDANT IS FOUND IN GREEN TEA..."

A study conducted in September of 1997 by Dr. Lester Mitscher at the University of Kansas concluded that the highest amount of any known antioxidant is found in green tea.

Green teas also have Theanine - an amino acid that produces tranquilizing effects in the brain, theanine is a unique amino acid found in the tea leaves. Theanine is quite different from the polyphenol and catechin antioxidants for which green tea is typically consumed. Through the natural production of polyphenols, the tea plant converts theanine into catechins. This means that tea leaves harvested during one part of the growing season may be high in catechins (good for antioxidant benefits), while leaves harvested during another time of year may be higher in theanine (good for anti-stress and cortisol-controlling effects).

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Textured insoles could prevent common sporting ankle and foot injuries

[Football boot insoles and sensitivity to extent of ankle inversion movement 2003; 37: 170-5]
Textured insoles in boots and sports shoes could prevent the all too common foot and ankle injuries that plague sport, suggests research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Conventional boots and sports shoes, with a smooth insole, mask vital sensory cues to the extremely sensitive soles of the feet. These relay information about pressure differences in the areas underneath the feet, known as the "dynamometric map." The common inclusion of air cushions or gel cells in boots and trainers to absorb shock only serves to make matters worse, say the authors.
The researchers designed textured rubber insoles to fit the boots of 17 players from the Australian Women's soccer team. Ankle movement on both sides was tested 300 times, using a specially designed automated device, in boots with and without the insoles, or bare-foot.
The results showed that movement discrimination (the ability to move the ankle appropriately for the required conditions) was significantly worse while wearing smooth insole boots and socks than it was while barefoot. The
textured insoles significantly improved the scores to barefoot levels. The increased movement sensitivity afforded by textured insoles could help reduce foot and ankle injuries, conclude the authors, who suggest that football boot and sports shoe design should be modified to take account of this.

Contact:
Dr Gordon Waddington, Physiotherapy Department, The Canberra Hospital,
Canberra, Australia
Highlights from the February 2003 issue of the BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS
MEDICINE

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Jack Daniels, Ph.D. said:

"The primary reason to have a coach is to have somebody who can look at you and say, 'Man you're looking good today.'"

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An Aussie Perspective (or questions not to ask an Aussie)

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? (UK)
A: You are a British politician, correct?

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of
youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Do you have perfume in Australia? (France)

A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Australia where the
female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)

A: Only at Christmas.

Q: Are there killer bees in Australia? (Germany)

A: Not yet, but for you, we'll import them.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)

A: No, we are a peaceful civilisation of vegan hunter-gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can
dispense rattlesnake serum.(USA)

A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia,
but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees.
(USA)

A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because
they drop out of gum trees and eat the brains of anyone
walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to
contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross.
Can you help? (USA)

A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speek English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

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WATER-INDUCED HYPERHYDRATION INCREASES TOTAL BODY WATER TO A GREATER EXTENT THAN GLYCEROL-INDUCED HYPERHYDRATION: A CASE STUDY OF A TRAINED TRIATHLETE

Eric Goulet, Susan Labrecque,Michel O. Mélançon,Donald Royer.

Glycerol-induced hyperhydration (GIH) prior to endurance exercise is a strategy that is increasingly used by athletes. Compared with water-induced hyperhydration (WIH), GIH has been shown to reduce diuresis, thereby increasing total body water (TBW). It has never been demonstrated that WIH proved to be more efficient than GIH for increasing TBW. Therefore, we report the case of a trained triathlete in whom WIH, compared with GIH, increased TBW during a 110-min hydration protocol. On two separate days the subject ingested, in a randomized double blind fashion, either 26 ml.kg^-1 body mass (BM) of water or 26 ml.kg^-1 BM of water with 1.2 g glycerol.kg^-1 BM. Compared with GIH, WIH increased TBW by an additional 511 ml. It is proposed that WIH was effective in decreasing urine output and, therefore, in augmenting TBW, because the water ingested during this treatment was integrated into the body fluid pools relatively more slowly than that ingested during GIH. Practically, this finding implies that it could thus be possible for researchers and athletes to find out that on occasion WIH increases TBW more than GIH over a period of hydration of 2 h.

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SPORT MASSAGE

Anyone feeling that they would like to try the benefits of sport massage, can contact Gary at 846 6671 to organise a massage session. Gary has certificated both sport and Swedish massage techniques.

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BIOCHEMICAL AND IMMUNOLOGICAL MARKERS OF OVER-TRAINING

Michael Gleeson

Athletes fail to perform to the best of their ability if they become infected, stale, sore or malnourished. Excessive training with insufficient recovery can lead to a debilitating syndrome in which performance and well being can be affected for months. Eliminating or minimizing these problems by providing advice and guidelines on training loads, recovery times, nutrition or pharmacological intervention and regular monitoring of athletes using an appropriate battery of markers can help prevent the development of an overtraining syndrome in athletes. The potential usefulness of objective physiological, biochemical and immunological markers of overtraining has received much attention in recent years. Practical markers would be ones that could be measured routinely in the laboratory and offered to athletes as part of their sports science and medical support. The identification of common factors among overtrained athletes in comparison with well-trained athletes not suffering from underperformance could permit appropriate intervention to prevent athletes from progressing to a more serious stage of the overtraining syndrome. To date, no single reliable objective marker of impending overtraining has been identified. Some lines of research do, however, show promise and are based on findings that overtrained athletes appear to exhibit an altered hormonal response to stress. For example, in response to a standardized bout (or repeated bouts) of high intensity exercise, overtrained athletes show a lower heart rate, blood lactate and plasma cortisol response. Several immune measures that can be obtained from a resting blood sample (e.g. the expression of specific cell surface proteins such as CD45RO+ on T-lymphocytes) also seem to offer some hope of identifying impending overtraining. If an athlete is suspected of suffering from overtraining syndrome, other measures will also be required, if only to exclude other possible causes of underperformance including post-viral fatigue, glandular fever, clinical depression, poor diet, anaemia, asthma, allergies, thyroid disorders, myocarditis and other medical problems interfering with recovery.

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NEW MEMBERS

If you know of a friend or acquaintance who might benefit from being a member of PROGRAM FITNESS, tell them about us and pass their contact details to Gary. There will be no obligation to join but they will receive full details on how an exercise package to suit their needs can be obtained.

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Risky Business; Olympian Curt Clausen researches the more than two dozen products he uses, but labels may not tell the whole story
Brian Cazeneuve

In December 2001 Curt Clausen, a two-time U.S. Olympic racewalker, was fighting muscle fatigue after his 100-mile-a-week workouts. Clausen, who lives at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, Calif., received a tip from Pavle Jovanovic, a bobsledder who had just qualified for the Salt Lake Games. Jovanovic suggested to Clausen a number of protein and carbohydrate supplements, which claimed to be free of banned substances. But when Clausen subsequently researched the products on the Internet and saw that they were marketed mostly to bodybuilders, he decided to pass on them.

The following month Jovanovic tested positive for 19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone, both metabolites of the banned steroid nandrolone. Although he blamed the test result on the contamination of one of the supplements he was taking, Jovanovic was dropped from the Olympic team and suspended from competition for two years.

"[Our] message has never wavered," says U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief Terry Madden, whose group oversees the domestic testing of Olympic athletes.

"You cannot take supplements without assuming the risks. A number of positive tests have been blamed on contaminated supplements, and athletes have been warned for years about the dangers and health risks associated with taking dietary supplements.

This is not an athlete health issue. I believe it is a health issue for the American public."

Although he did not follow Jovanovic's recommendations, Clausen, like many other athletes, takes supplements while he is in training--up to 30 pills, powders and drinks each week. "Replacement of carbs and electrolytes is too difficult through normal food consumption," insists Clausen, who says he eats five or six meals a day and is still a rail-thin 6'2", 165 pounds, "but you have to educate yourself as to what's safe and what's legal."

The USADA has a website that lists what is and is not banned and also an information help-line that offers a standard refrain for inquiring athletes: Supplement at your own risk. Product labels can be rendered meaningless if, for example, a manufacturer omits an ingredient from the label, or if the same equipment is used to make different types of tablets, allowing the residue of a banned substance to contaminate one that is not banned. A recent International Olympic Committee study of over-the-counter products showed that 45 out of 240 manufactured in the U.S. tested positive for banned ingredients that were not listed on their labels.

Clearly, no matter how many labels he reads or doctors he consults, Clausen is navigating a minefield of supplement consumption. In August 1999 he missed out on the first medal ever by a U.S. walker at a world championship when he placed fourth in the 50K race in Seville. But two years later he was awarded third place, after Russia's German Skurygin, the gold medalist, was disqualified for a doping violation he blamed on supplements he'd taken during an illness.

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From Gym to Swim: How to Turn Indoor Exercises into a Water
Workout
by Maia Appleby

So it's too hot to walk or run outside in the summer, you say? Don't feel like riding a bike or playing tennis in the brutal heat? Do you want to enjoy your outdoor summer exercise without that sweaty, sticky feeling?

How about hopping in the pool and doing your workout the luxurious way? The pool just might be the only place where you can do cardiovascular work, toning and stretching without even feeling like you've broken a sweat!

CARDIOVASCULAR: THE WARM-UP
Swimming laps is one of the best things you can do to strengthen your heart and lungs. If you're a decent swimmer and enjoy lap swims, spend a few minutes a day at it to warm up for toning and stretching.

Otherwise, walking or running in the pool is just as effective. It may sound easy, but just try it! If you go in up to your shoulders and run, you'll get your heart rate up with no problem.
It may be very difficult to sustain at first, but try to build up your time to at least twenty minutes. One very important thing to remember is to keep your feet as fully planted as possible while you do your pool exercises, especially when walking and running. If you tiptoe (which people tend to do without realizing it),your calves will be killing you the next day. Keep those heels down!

TONING: EIGHT GREAT MOVES YOU CAN DO IN THE POOL
The wonderful thing about water is that it gives you natural resistance with absolutely no impact to the joints. For those with severe arthritis or other joint problems, it offers the perfect alternative to lifting weights. You really can tone up in the pool. Just like weight training, your muscles are contracting against resistance, becoming stronger with each session.

There are exercises you can do for every muscle group, and your risk of injury is extremely low. Think about exercises you do with free weights. The beauty of resistance training is that it is very easily modified. Anything that you do with dumbbells can be translated into a water exercise. If you already have a routine with free weights, you have a license to create your own water move that does the same thing. Be creative, but also be mindful at all times of your body position (which can be thrown off in the water). Keep your weight distributed evenly and check your posture often. Keep your abdominals tucked in to support your back throughout every exercise. Don't bend, stretch or reach any further than you do on land. It takes time to grow accustomed to the gravitational difference in water, but as your experience grows, your body will become more in-tune with the water. Here are a few examples of modified free weight exercises:

For the quadriceps (front of the thighs), hamstrings and glutes: Stand with your feet hip-width apart in shallow water with your arms bent at your sides, hands out flat with fingers together and palms up. Slowly bend your knees into a squat position, sticking your derriere out behind you (don't worry about looking silly - you're under water!). Do not allow your knees to extend beyond your toes, but try to simulate a sitting-in-a-chair position. Cupping your hands, keeping your back neutral (not arched) and abs tucked in, exhale and stand up straight. Turn your hands to return to the starting position. Be very careful to maintain perfect form throughout this exercise.

For hips and glutes: Facing the edge of the pool, hold on with both hands and slowly bring one leg out to your side, keeping your back straight. Exhale while you bring it up as high as you comfortably can without turning at the ankle (this probably won't be as high as you could if you did turn your ankle). Bring it back down and repeat, doing a full set for each leg.

For glutes: KICK! You can breeze around on a kickboard or hold onto the side of the pool, but the scissoring motion is great for the buttocks and hamstrings, and it indirectly tones the abdominals. What could be more fun than this?

For the back, shoulders and arms: Do pull-ups. Grasp the side of the pool and lower your body as far as your arms will allow. Keeping your knees bent, exhale and pull yourself up as high as you can (the range of motion for this will vary greatly from one person to another). For the chest: Standing in water up to your neck, reach your hands out to each side, with your elbows unbent and your palms forward. Slowly bring them together, clapping your hands, and then turn your hands to return to the starting position.

For triceps: Stand straight, with your open hands palms-down on the surface of the water. Keeping your elbows locked at your sides (pretend they're glued to your ribcage), exhale and push down until your hands are beside your hips. Turn your hands and bring them back to the starting position.

For biceps: Bring your open hands to the side of each hip, palms forward, with your fingers close together. Exhale as you slowly bend at the elbow to bring your hands toward your shoulders.

For abs, you can simulate crunches, or here's a toughie: stand with your back to the side of the pool, holding onto the rim with your elbows. Keeping your knees unbent, slowly bring both legs up to a sitting position and hold it for ten seconds. Do not hold your breath, though. Breath slowly throughout this exercise. Then bend at the knee to bring them down, repeating this as many times as you'd like to. Be careful to keep your back straight throughout this exercise. There are lots of gadgets available for toning; you can get these at most department stores or athletic supply stores. They make the work a little more challenging and possibly give you speedier results, but it's better to begin water exercise without them. Once you feel like you need to push yourself a little harder, go ahead and use them. They'll add a new flavor to your old workout, keeping you motivated and interested.

STRETCHING: THE DESSERT
Just about any of the stretches you do on land can also be done in the water. When you're finished with your toning, hold the side of the pool with one hand, stand on one foot, bend the other knee and grasp your ankle with your free hand to stretch your quadriceps and hip flexors. Hold the side of the pool with one hand and turn your body by pointing your toes away from the wall to stretch your biceps and pectorals. There are many, many stretches that you can do. Just make sure that you're properly warmed up (this takes a little longer in the pool) and keep your feet flat on the floor at all times.

Finito! You're done. Remember that your perceived exertion is a little off in the pool - you may feel like you didn't work that hard, but you did. You also may be a little sore the next day, so don't push yourself too hard until you know how much you can handle.

IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU ARE NOT A FISH! You don't have gills to keep your body hydrated, and it is possible to become dehydrated in the pool, so make sure you drink water before and after your workout. Once working out in the pool becomes a part of your summer lifestyle, you may begin to think you're a fish, but that' s only because pool exercise is so fun, it has you hooked!

Maia Appleby is the President of Ideal Fitness, Inc., offering a
group of health promoting websites including www.inch-aweigh.com
and www.mightyvitamins.com. Please visit her sites for hundreds
of articles on fitness, nutrition and weight loss.