Mythology of a healthy lifestyle
Having looked through a quantity of topics on a health subject on Geektimes I found a flow of myths on a subject. A few examples of what caught my eye.
First of all, swimming is good for back health.
The spine is 33-34 vertebra, and between each pair, in addition to the intervertebral discs, there are several more joints, ligaments, muscles of different sizes, and nerve roots. Back pain (if taken as the most obvious and reliable sign of ill health) can be caused by damage to any of these structures. Does the pool help in all cases and does it help at all?
')
Actually, it was a rhetorical question. Far from all, and not even in the majority. And if you look at what people typically do in swimming pools, you can make a relentless conclusion that for the most part water sports enthusiasts may have more harm than good from such activities.
Of all these structures, muscles receive the most attention for rehabilitation - this is the active part of the vertebral complex, like an adjustable suspension for expensive modern cars, which itself chooses rigidity and clearance height depending on the type of road. If the muscles are not strong enough, they do not cope with this function and any load, from tying the laces to lifting weights, the spine meets not in the most successful position, but the load goes to the ligaments, joints and discs. Gradually, they are injured more and more, which is aggravated by low mobility in everyday life (which means that the blood supply and nutrition of all these elements are disturbed), and it already comes to major injuries and inflammations.
Swimming in the pool strengthens some muscles, but not all of those that are responsible for ensuring that the load is properly distributed between large joints, and not on the structures of the spine. Therefore, the main tool in rehabilitation is not a pool at all, but exercises such as squats, bends, various pressures and presses for the upper shoulder girdle, strengthening the muscles of the body, eliminating imbalances in strength and mobility of various muscle groups. Here they are primarily useful for the health of the back as a preventive tool.
UPD: useful for review - the chapter LOW BACK PAIN from the current attention of the ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription - including it stated that “When LBP is a symptom of another serious pathology (eg, cancer), exercise testing and Ex Rx condition. For example, it’s possible to make a difference. It is a fact that it is not a problem. ”
Muscles can be pumped up in 4-6 weeks.
It is possible, but very little. In the first couple of years of active strength training (without doping) an increase in muscle mass of 5-6 kg per year is an average indicator, you must have a significant deficit of body weight and detraining in order to gain more. For more experienced athletes, the increase in muscle mass usually occurs even more slowly.
All other stories are either urban myths and legends, or stories of the use of doping, or (usually combined with the previous paragraph) marketing lures.
Fractional nutrition helps to lose weight
For weight loss the only important condition is the lack of energy. If you eat less than you spend, then you lose weight. Everything else is secondary, and so how many meals does the daily ration be divided into and is not at all important. By analogy with a car, fill it once with 40 liters or 4 times ten, all the same, with an average consumption of 1 l per 10 km, this is enough for 400 km.
How can you confirm this thesis, in addition to the general logic? Having looked information special studies.
The authors of the frequently cited analysis from 1997 reviewed the existing research and concluded that no significant benefits in terms of energy consumption of those who eat more often could not be identified. In a more recent study on this topic from 2010 , as expected, there were no differences in weight loss and other indicators between the two groups, who ate 3 and 6 times a day, respectively, with the same calorie deficit (about 700 kcal / day).
And there is enough of such research so as not to start a song about the fact that fractional nutrition helps to lose weight.
UPD: I will take out from the discussion a link to a document with a comment:
Here are some clarifications about the ambiguity of improving control of appetite with an increase in the number of meals.
Be sure to drink a lot, the rate - 8 glasses of water per day, and caffeinated beverages are deducted
And if I eat 2 kilos of vegetables and fruits a day, and so I visit the toilet often enough, another 2 liters on top? Regardless of ambient temperature, humidity, level of physical activity, body weight? Understandable where I'm getting at?
You need to drink as much as you need, forcing water into your body makes no sense, and in recent years, the controversy of such “glass” recommendations has been raised in professional discussions in scientific journals, and there are studies that excess fluid intake may not be very useful. ( for example ). How much do you need? Prompt thirst and urine color (it should be a light straw color in most toilet visits, which for a small need, on average, a healthy person has 6-8 if you have not eaten anything that changes its color, of course, such as beets or multivitamins, around which also, by the way, there are enough myths).
And moderate consumption of caffeine does not lead to dehydration , so that on this occasion it is not necessary to include paranoia. However, more than 3-4 servings of tea and coffee a day should also not be drunk, there are still negative effects on excessive consumption of caffeine.
UPD: I will take out from the comments another useful document on the topic .
***
As a summary I would like to urge: Geeks! Treat your health like a geek! :)
UPD: I am glad that the post excited the public a little - it’s good when the thought process and the search for answers to questions are going on, or there are just questions. But taking into account that theses were somewhat radically perceived, I will make small additions and explanations:
- Swimming can be very beneficial for the health of the back - if you swim properly, if this compensates for the lack of physical activity, if the exercises chosen in the pool are suitable for a specific type of disease or back problems. Only this is often not enough, and most of the people who are sent to the pool do there not at all necessary useful things.
- A similar story with the number of meals. A recommendation to eat more often may be useful, but it is not suitable for everyone and not always. Therefore, if frequent meals help you to adhere to a certain food strategy and this makes you healthier / slimmer / more cheerful and other good things, and it is convenient and comfortable for you to eat that way - that’s great, do so. But if you are uncomfortable, do not like to eat in small portions or it does not contribute to a healthier diet - then it does not make sense to rape yourself, it is better to choose other dietary techniques. This is only a reception - not an axiom.
- Fractional nutrition is nutrition in very small portions and very often, it is used to feed sick people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and weakened patients - it seems that not everyone understands that this name generally appears.
First of all, swimming is good for back health.
The spine is 33-34 vertebra, and between each pair, in addition to the intervertebral discs, there are several more joints, ligaments, muscles of different sizes, and nerve roots. Back pain (if taken as the most obvious and reliable sign of ill health) can be caused by damage to any of these structures. Does the pool help in all cases and does it help at all?
')
Actually, it was a rhetorical question. Far from all, and not even in the majority. And if you look at what people typically do in swimming pools, you can make a relentless conclusion that for the most part water sports enthusiasts may have more harm than good from such activities.
Of all these structures, muscles receive the most attention for rehabilitation - this is the active part of the vertebral complex, like an adjustable suspension for expensive modern cars, which itself chooses rigidity and clearance height depending on the type of road. If the muscles are not strong enough, they do not cope with this function and any load, from tying the laces to lifting weights, the spine meets not in the most successful position, but the load goes to the ligaments, joints and discs. Gradually, they are injured more and more, which is aggravated by low mobility in everyday life (which means that the blood supply and nutrition of all these elements are disturbed), and it already comes to major injuries and inflammations.
Swimming in the pool strengthens some muscles, but not all of those that are responsible for ensuring that the load is properly distributed between large joints, and not on the structures of the spine. Therefore, the main tool in rehabilitation is not a pool at all, but exercises such as squats, bends, various pressures and presses for the upper shoulder girdle, strengthening the muscles of the body, eliminating imbalances in strength and mobility of various muscle groups. Here they are primarily useful for the health of the back as a preventive tool.
UPD: useful for review - the chapter LOW BACK PAIN from the current attention of the ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription - including it stated that “When LBP is a symptom of another serious pathology (eg, cancer), exercise testing and Ex Rx condition. For example, it’s possible to make a difference. It is a fact that it is not a problem. ”
Muscles can be pumped up in 4-6 weeks.
It is possible, but very little. In the first couple of years of active strength training (without doping) an increase in muscle mass of 5-6 kg per year is an average indicator, you must have a significant deficit of body weight and detraining in order to gain more. For more experienced athletes, the increase in muscle mass usually occurs even more slowly.
All other stories are either urban myths and legends, or stories of the use of doping, or (usually combined with the previous paragraph) marketing lures.
Fractional nutrition helps to lose weight
For weight loss the only important condition is the lack of energy. If you eat less than you spend, then you lose weight. Everything else is secondary, and so how many meals does the daily ration be divided into and is not at all important. By analogy with a car, fill it once with 40 liters or 4 times ten, all the same, with an average consumption of 1 l per 10 km, this is enough for 400 km.
How can you confirm this thesis, in addition to the general logic? Having looked information special studies.
The authors of the frequently cited analysis from 1997 reviewed the existing research and concluded that no significant benefits in terms of energy consumption of those who eat more often could not be identified. In a more recent study on this topic from 2010 , as expected, there were no differences in weight loss and other indicators between the two groups, who ate 3 and 6 times a day, respectively, with the same calorie deficit (about 700 kcal / day).
And there is enough of such research so as not to start a song about the fact that fractional nutrition helps to lose weight.
UPD: I will take out from the discussion a link to a document with a comment:
However, a review of the 2011 scientific journal ISSN ( www.jissn.com/content/8/1/4 ) provided a critical analysis of the latest literature data on the frequency of meals.
Data for the exact solution is not enough. However, the accumulated knowledge is enough to confidently assume the following:
1. With a sedentary lifestyle, an increase in the frequency of feeding does not lead to a significant change in body composition.
2. If the level of protein intake is adequate, an increase in the frequency of food with a low-calorie diet allows you to save muscles from destruction
3. Frequent meals have a positive effect on health (harmful cholesterol is reduced, lipoproteins, insulin are normalized)
4. Increasing the frequency does not accelerate metabolism and thermogenesis.
5. By increasing the number of meals, suppression of hunger is achieved while losing weight.
Here are some clarifications about the ambiguity of improving control of appetite with an increase in the number of meals.
Be sure to drink a lot, the rate - 8 glasses of water per day, and caffeinated beverages are deducted
And if I eat 2 kilos of vegetables and fruits a day, and so I visit the toilet often enough, another 2 liters on top? Regardless of ambient temperature, humidity, level of physical activity, body weight? Understandable where I'm getting at?
You need to drink as much as you need, forcing water into your body makes no sense, and in recent years, the controversy of such “glass” recommendations has been raised in professional discussions in scientific journals, and there are studies that excess fluid intake may not be very useful. ( for example ). How much do you need? Prompt thirst and urine color (it should be a light straw color in most toilet visits, which for a small need, on average, a healthy person has 6-8 if you have not eaten anything that changes its color, of course, such as beets or multivitamins, around which also, by the way, there are enough myths).
And moderate consumption of caffeine does not lead to dehydration , so that on this occasion it is not necessary to include paranoia. However, more than 3-4 servings of tea and coffee a day should also not be drunk, there are still negative effects on excessive consumption of caffeine.
UPD: I will take out from the comments another useful document on the topic .
***
As a summary I would like to urge: Geeks! Treat your health like a geek! :)
UPD: I am glad that the post excited the public a little - it’s good when the thought process and the search for answers to questions are going on, or there are just questions. But taking into account that theses were somewhat radically perceived, I will make small additions and explanations:
- Swimming can be very beneficial for the health of the back - if you swim properly, if this compensates for the lack of physical activity, if the exercises chosen in the pool are suitable for a specific type of disease or back problems. Only this is often not enough, and most of the people who are sent to the pool do there not at all necessary useful things.
- A similar story with the number of meals. A recommendation to eat more often may be useful, but it is not suitable for everyone and not always. Therefore, if frequent meals help you to adhere to a certain food strategy and this makes you healthier / slimmer / more cheerful and other good things, and it is convenient and comfortable for you to eat that way - that’s great, do so. But if you are uncomfortable, do not like to eat in small portions or it does not contribute to a healthier diet - then it does not make sense to rape yourself, it is better to choose other dietary techniques. This is only a reception - not an axiom.
- Fractional nutrition is nutrition in very small portions and very often, it is used to feed sick people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and weakened patients - it seems that not everyone understands that this name generally appears.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/363069/
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