Well, here we are finishing out our seventh month on lockdown.  Being stuck at home is having some serious consequences on our health.  In some ways it is like being on vacation:  we don't commute to work every day, we don't go to the gym, we catch up on lots of Netflix or get lost on YouTube.  Unfortunately, eating habits are looking too much like a vacation; lots of snack food, take out food, and junk food in general.  It is easy to stick to an 18/6 or 20/4 intermittent fasting protocol when you sleep then zip off to work for the fasting part of the day and only eat when you get home.  When you are home all the time, well, it is easy to eat all the time.  

When do we find time to exercise?  The gyms, yoga studios, and martial arts schools are all closed.  The air has been so bad that running, bicycling, and even walking is out of the question.  Even sports activities are canceled.  How do you play basketball while keeping six feet of social distancing and wearing a mask all the time?  With a little adjustment, you might be able to play softball, but I have not heard of anybody doing it.  Movement is not an option, it is a required nutrient for the body.  It is hard to do on lockdown.

I mentioned eating first and then exercise because the two are intimately connected to the whole reason we are on lockdown – Covid 19.  The number one condition (after vitamin D deficiency) that makes people susceptible to negative outcomes with Covid is metabolic syndrome in its various manifestations like insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes type 2.  Exercise and diet are the key elements in fighting off metabolic syndrome.  Put simply, if you wanted to make a population susceptible to Covid 19, the consequences of lockdown will do it.  The lack of exercise, poor eating habits, and the stress from staying at home make us vulnerable to infection.

I say fight back!  Get strong and fit in spite of being stuck at home.  Generate metabolic flexibility in our bodies instead of slipping into metabolic syndrome.  One key to reversing insulin resistance, the first step in the metabolic syndrome process, is being able to work our muscles to complete exhaustion.  So how can we do that while being stuck indoors at home?  I wrote about this process a couple of years ago in an article on super slow weight training.  With this type of weight training, you are able to work your muscles maximally to complete exhaustion without straining or damaging ligaments or joints.  Even better, you only work each muscle two times per week for a minute or two.  Through this process you drain the muscle of all its stored sugar reserves, forcing it to reverse any insulin resistance, as it needs to be sensitive to insulin to get the sugar it needs to refill its stores.  This is a huge help in reversing metabolic syndrome, thus making us more resistant to Covid 19.

Back when I wrote that article life was a little different.  I was able to go to the gym twice a week and get a full workout in about 25 minutes.  Come to think of it, I am still auto-paying for that membership.  Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I came across a way to do my weight training at home in the midst of this frustrating challenge without any weight equipment.  I don't need any special floor space in the house for some workout gadget that never gets used.  All I need is rubber bands.  Actually they are latex, but rubber bands give you a better idea of what I am talking about.  Just think about really big rubber bands.  It sounds silly, but there is serious science behind this.  Any of you that have had to do any rehab work at a physical therapist's office may already be familiar with rubber tubing and Therabands for working out an injured joint.  So let's just take that to the next step.

I received an email ad about an exercise program that promises to build muscle three times faster than traditional weight lifting.  I don't know if that is true, but the process involved a super big rubber band attached to a stick that you would use to work out various muscles.  Here is a link to the workout videos with this contraption from YouTube. 
X3 Program Week 1 Workout 1

Looking through the first two weeks of exercises showed me that this would be perfect for my patients stuck at home right now.  The problem was that these guys wanted $500 for this metal stick and a couple of rubber bands.  I thought that was crazy, so within a few minutes, I found the same thing for one fifth the price.  Here is a link to my product page for what I found.  Go here.  

I have been contemplating an article on bodyweight exercises for some time.  The trouble with bodyweight exercises is every program I have come across involves lots of floor work.  When I mention such exercises to patients, almost universally I get the response that they can't do anything on the floor because of knee problems, no space, dogs in their face, and concern they will never be able to get up off the floor.  So that has stopped me from writing such an article even though patients need to exercise at home regularly.  I get patients to engage some Foundation back stabilizer exercises on YouTube that don't require being on the floor, but that is about it.  But with this gizmo, everything is done standing up and no equipment needs to use up any floor space.  I like it!

The unit I purchased only came with one heavy weight band, so I purchased some extra bands of different strengths.  This would be important as patients have varying strength levels for different moves.  If you look at the videos I linked above, you notice that you only do three or four exercises in a session and that it only takes about ten reps to reach exhaustion.  So we are not talking about a lot of time here – maybe ten minutes a few times a week.  The cost is minimal, the space needs are almost too easy, the setup is simple, and anyone can do it at any age.  There is no need to get down onto the floor and no special outfits you need to wear.  I am not seeing any downside here and lots of upsides.

The key to the success of fighting insulin resistance is to run through the exercise until you just can't do it anymore.  That is what depletes the stored sugars in the muscle you are working.  That is what triggers the magic.  If you really want to take this to the next level, go on a keto diet lifestyle.  This will fight metabolic syndrome on a whole different level.  Insulin resistance is created by the combination of excess carbohydrates in the diet becoming excess sugar in the blood and systemic inflammation/gut inflammation.  Too much sugar is toxic to your blood vessels so your body tries to shove the sugar into the cells with increased insulin.  But the cells fight back because they don't want all that sugar either, so they start ignoring the insulin telling them to suck up the sugar.  That is insulin resistance.  Your liver tries to convert all that excess sugar in the blood into triglycerides for storage as fat in our fat cells.  So we get fat.  This all involves the activation of various inflammatory pathways in our immune system, which is why it makes us susceptible to the effects of Covid 19.

Bottom line:  exercise muscles to exhaustion to reduce insulin resistance and improve immune function – but do this without injuring your muscles, ligaments, or joints.  Rubber band exercises look like an ideal way to do this.

Take care,

David          

       


We have received a third batch of copies of my book The Balanced Life.    They are available in the office for $17.99, and they are also available on Amazon.com







Ellen update:    

My birthday was last Friday.  To celebrate we actually went out to eat at a restaurant, as in sit down and  indoors.  We had to go up to El Dorado Hills to find a place that was open.  We were recommended to a lovely place called Milestone on the east side of highway 50 in this new shopping area that reminded me of Disneyland - sort of an ideal pretend version of Placerville.  Ellen had the salmon and I had the ribs - yum.