What is osteosacropenia?

Loss of muscle mass and function (sarcopenia) and loss of bone mass (osteopenia or osteoporosis) are major problems for the elderly population.  These two age related conditions often go hand in hand and have recently been termed osteosacropenia. Loss of bone and muscle increases risk of falling and fractures which can lead to loss of physical abilities (e.g., being able to walk across a room without help) and even death.

Studies have shown that bone loss begins between age 30 and 40, and rapidly increases for women post-menopause. The causes of muscle and bone loss are multifactorial; genetics, hormonal changes, nutrition and lifestyle. The biggest factor with muscle loss is disuse – use it or lose it!

The good thing is that osteosacropenia are preventable and manageable! Think of bone and muscle loss like withdrawing from your retirement savings. The more money you contribute and the longer you contribute, the better off you’ll be later in life. Building muscle and strong bones should start as early as childhood but it’s better to start late than never.

There are numerous behaviors that help prevent and manage osteosacropenia:

• Strength training or resistance training – this is what we’ll focus on in this article.
• Adequate calcium from food and supplementation
• Adequate vitamin D from sun exposure and supplementation
• Speak to your doctor about a bone density test and possible medications
• Avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol 

How can we prevent and manage osteosacropenia?

Resistance training is a low-cost and effective non-pharmacological strategy for building and maintaining both muscle and bone. For exercise to affect your bone and muscle health, the mechanical load needs to exceed those experienced in daily activities.

Aerobic exercise (e.g., swimming, cycling, and walking) is widely beneficial to all body systems, but none of these activities provide an adequate stimulus for bone and muscle growth. Regular walking, which is frequently prescribed to prevent osteoporosis, also has little or no effect on bone loss.

Resistance training involves progressively loading your body with modalities such as free weights, machines, medicine balls, and body weight exercises. It has been shown to be safe and effective for improving muscle mass, size, and strength in middle-aged and older adults, including the frail elderly and even those with a history of fracture.

Resistance training involves progressively loading your body with modalities such as free weights, machines, medicine balls, and body weight exercises. It has been shown to be safe and effective for improving muscle mass, size, and strength in middle-aged and older adults, including the frail elderly and even those with a history of fracture.

In terms of frequency of resistance training, the WHO recommendation for people 65 years and above is that muscle-strengthening activities should be done 2 or more times per week. I’ll add that the same recommendation should be applied to those under 65 as well. 

In addition to the bone and muscle benefits, a well designed individualized program will develop other qualities such as coordination and balance which help reduce risk of falling and better prepare you to handle a fall.

Please note that these should be avoided if you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis:

• Foam rolling
• Spinal flexion based movements like crunches or rounding your back to bend over  

While the osteoporosis statistics may be frightening, think of how many behaviors you can use to be stronger, healthier, and more capable in your life.  Strength training is one of the best things you can do to improve your bone health and other aspects of your life and is beneficial for people of all ages.

Further reading:

Article about Dr Catherine Walter, the 71-year-old powerlifter

The US Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health fact sheet

National Osteoporosis Foundation fact sheet

Bone Loss: Epidemiology of bone loss

Muscle and Bone Mass Loss in the Elderly Population: Advances in diagnosis and treatment

Effects of Resistance Exercise on Bone Health

The post Why Bone Health Matters and How Strength Training Helps appeared first on Andrew DiMicelli Personal Training.

What is pain?

“An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”

Notice that pain is not necessarily caused by damage to your body, get away from the idea that you need to be “fixed.” You can be severely damaged without any pain, have excruciating pain with no damage, and anything in between.

Pain is multifactorial; it is affected by and influences many aspects of your life other than any injury/damage to tissues (muscles, joints, bones, etc) including your work, family and social life, beliefs about pain, etc. This is called the Bio – Psycho – Social model of pain. This may make the situation more complex but it’s a good thing because it means there are a lot of things within your control you can do to influence your pain.

When pain persists it becomes less about damage and more about your sensitivity. A useful analogy is to think of your pain sensitivity like a cup. There are always mechanical, psychological, social and emotional stressors in your cup but if it starts to overflow then your pain may be triggered – “ouch, I tweaked my back!”

How do we keep your pain cup from overflowing?

This can be done by either removing stressors from your cup and/or building a bigger cup. People don’t just decide to run a marathon one day without preparing. They train to develop their ability to handle the stresses of running over time. Similarly, you can increase your resiliency to stress gradually. Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways to make your cup bigger.

1. Aerobic exercise. Basically any form of physical activity has been shown to help people with many different types of pain. Go for a walk, bike ride, swim, etc. At least 20 minutes and only moderately intense, you should feel good after this. Even better if you’re outside and go with friends or family.
2. Strength and mobility training. Many of my clients benefit significantly from regular strength training two to three times a week which helps them move and feel better, get stronger, improve range of motion, and get more out of the activities they like to do for fun. This is more than just doing planks “because your core is weak and unstable,” a comprehensive strategy to strengthen your whole body and work on your movement limitations, breathing, and mobility/flexibility is more effective and will benefit your health and life in many ways.
3. Meditation. Train your mind to be more aware and more capable of handling stress more effectively. My favorite apps are Waking Up and Head Space.
4. Improve your sleep. Not only is sleep associated with pain, it’s also vitally important for the health of every system in your body. Ideally, you’re getting 7-9 hours per night and on a consistent schedule – going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. Since sleep behaviors are some of the most difficult to change, one easy thing you can start doing with minimal effort is blocking blue light at night which messes with your circadian rhythm and production of melatonin. Wear blue light blocking glasses during the 2-3 hours prior to sleep, download f.lux on your computer, and make sure Night Shift is set on your iPhone.
5. Nutrition. Chronic pain if often linked to chronic inflammation. So what you’re putting in your body can worsen or improve your pain. Without clinging to any specific diet plan, the general approach is to consume more whole foods (pasture raised animal products, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, and good fats like ghee and olive oil) and avoid processed foods (basically anything that comes in a package).
6. Do something you enjoy. Remember, social and psychological factors affect your pain. Smiling and doing something fun, especially if it’s with other people, can help improve your pain.

Act now! Don’t let your pain hold you back from living life. 

• Make a list of stressors that are in your cup right now.
• Make a list of strategies that you would consider trying.
• Contact Andrew to schedule your complimentary assessment and personal training session. 

Credit to Gregory Lehman for these ideas and his fantastic pain workbook. Please see the workbook to learn more about this topic:  http://www.greglehman.ca/pain-science-workbooks

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Everyone seems to agree that stretching is good, but many are confused about why it actually matters and what they should be doing. In this article, I am going to explain what mobility is, why it matters for surfing, and how to begin training it.

Part of my education is in Functional Range Conditioning (FRC), a mobility training system that is a powerful tool in preparing your body for physical performance and mitigating injuries. Mobility training will not directly translate to better technique, that must be practiced in the water, but it will give your body more options for ways to move and indirectly improve your surfing.

What Is Mobility?

“Mobility refers to the amount of USABLE motion that one possesses across a particular articulation (joint)” –https://functionalanatomyseminars.com/

Flexibility is passive whereas mobility is active. For example, you can easily use your arms to pull your knee towards your chest when lying on your back (passive) but may struggle to get your leg underneath you when popping up on your board (active). If you have the passive range of motion but can’t access it actively then it’s close to useless.

Mobility is like the great grandfather for strength, power, stability, and endurance. Without the prerequisite mobility, you won’t be able to develop these other qualities that you need to be successful with surfing.

Injury Mitigation

Not only does more mobility help you perform better, it reduces risk of injury and the severity of injury when it does occur (and it will at some point). 

Injury happens when the load experienced by your body exceeds the capacity of your tissue (muscle, ligament, tendon, etc). By improving your range of motion and your strength throughout it, you provide your tissues with a greater capacity to absorb forces in different ways. This reduces the chances of something being strained, pulled, or breaking when you’re carving it up or getting thrashed by a wave. 

Use It Or Lose It

This is an important concept that rules all fitness qualities, including mobility. Based on the positions you commonly assume, such as sitting at a desk, and the movements you are regularly exposed to, such as arching your lower back when paddling, your joints will maintain or lose the ability to move in certain ways. 

To improve your skills and longevity in the water, we need to optimize mobility at several key joints used in surfing: wrists, shoulders, neck, thoracic and lumbar spine, hips, knees, and ankles. This entails regularly working in the full ranges of motion that you need at each joint. This could mean doing a daily mobility routine in the morning and/or before surf sessions, or whenever it fits into your day. At the end of the article is a video showing you how to get started. 

There are common positions and movements that you need to be able to perform to be successful in every sport and activity. Appropriate mobility will make sure your body has enough movement options to access key positions and have the ability to adapt to the significant variation that you experience in the constantly changing water. 

Take a look at these pictures to see some common joint angles required in surfing. 

Many joint movements are required to pop-up effectively & efficiently:

• Hip flexion (her right leg)
• Hip internal rotation (her back leg)
• Scapular protraction (spreading the shoulder blades when pushing with arms)
• Spinal flexion (rounding your spine)

Movements that occur during paddling include:

• Shoulder external rotation and flexion as you reach forward
• Shoulder internal rotation and extension as you complete each paddle stroke
• Thoracic and lumbar spine extension

How To Get Started

Controlled articular rotations (CARs) are one layer of the FRC system. CARs are basically circles that take each joint through its full range of motion to help maintain its health and range of motion by lubricating the joint and stimulating the receptors in the joint capsule. We’re going to start with using CARs just to get your body moving and feeling a little looser and ready to go when you start your day or hit the water to paddle out. 

Below is a two and a half minute video to use before your next surf sessions and introduce you to mobility training through upper body CARs. 

The post How To Level Up Your Surfing With Intelligent Mobility Training appeared first on Andrew DiMicelli Personal Training.

Repeat this circuit 2-4 times for an efficient full body workout. Rest as needed.

1. Cross connect step up x8-10 per leg. Drive down through your top foot and push off your bottom foot as little as possible. Inhale as your reach opposite elbow to knee, exhale as you lower slowly.
2. Incline push-up x8-10, you can modify the difficulty by using the benches & walls of varying heights in the park. Maintain a slight knee bend and tail tuck as you move slowly through the push-up = more abs.
3. Single Leg Hip Thrust x8-10 per leg. Upper back goes on the bench. Drive down through your heel to lift your hips. Look forward and don’t arch your back. You want to feel glutes.
4. Bear hold with hand/foot lifts x0-5 per side. Begin with just with doing a bear hold – push your chest away from the ground, tuck your tail, lift your knees 1 inch and BREATHE. If that’s easy, as you exhale, lift one foot at a time then move to lifting opposite hand and foot.

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