Positive Side Effects

After his narrow victory in the next to the last stage of the Tour de France, Tour champion Alberto Contador commented that he had not been feeling too good, had not slept well, and had a stomach ache. In fact, he'd had physical struggles over the entire 2,200 mile race. He commented to reporters, "Cycling is not like mathematics." He might have added, "because our bodies, no matter how well trained or fed, are unpredictable and complex."

Some days when you go out exercise or compete, you feel and perform just the way you hoped. You've got the groove. But sometimes you don't. You're not sick or injured, you just start into your run or ride or lifting routine and your strength or energy just isn't there. Don't feel bad -  this happens to elite athletes as often as it does to the rest of us.

Sometimes you know the cause. Yesterday I did a kettlebell workout and jumps, leaving my legs tired (the squats were a killer). Today I went for a post-work trail run, with temperatures in the mid-90s under a blazing sun. Ttwenty steps up the trail, I knew each step would be tough going. 

Just as often you don't know why your bio has no rhythm. Maybe you haven't recovered enough from your last exercise session (which is what happened to me) so the glycogen levels are low and your system is busy repairing micro-tears in your muscles. You haven't allowed adequate time for recovery. Or maybe you have some stress at work or in your life that is running you down. Or you are not eating nutritious food.

It's very normal to have days like this every now and then. Just because you don't feel your best doesn't mean you shouldn't proceed with your workout. You might start feeling better after your warm-up. Even if you never feel great that day, you still get the benefits from the exercise. Years ago I read an interesting book called Maximum Performance by a UCLA physiologist who had worked with many elite Olympic athletes. Once he did a survey of people who had set world records, asking how they felt minutes before their event that day. Surprisingly, many complained that they had trouble sleeping the night before, had indigestion, and felt weak. Yet, like Contador, they won. 

However, you want to be on alert if this lethargy or "just ain't got it feeling" occurs on several consecutive days. You might be over-training. A good way to find out is to know your normal resting pulse in the morning an hour after you've gotten out of bed when you've been feeling good. If it starts drifting up over a period of days, say 4-6 beats more per minute, you know you've been pushing too hard and need to take more time off before your next workout or lower the intensity of it. An exercise journal is useful to see if something is changing and what might be the cause.

Most times on days when you don't feel so great but go ahead and continue your workout, you're glad you did. 
Even if you're slow and struggle, you still feel better afterwards. Exercise is a drug with very positive side effects.

Not Too Much, Not Too Little

A TOJ needs to be smart about exercise because too much can be as harmful as too little. TOJs like to exercise so much that maintaining a healthy balance between exertion and rest can be a challenge.

In his book Ultra-Longevity: The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You, Mark Liponis, M.D., makes the case that the key to a long and healthy life is to get your immune system functioning at its optimum level. Before explaining how to do this, he gives an overview of the amazingly complex interactions between bone marrow, glands, the lymphatic system, and various types of blood cells which function as your body's Department of Homeland Security. It's the best explanation of the immune system for a lay person I've ever read.

Most times the immune system works perfectly to protect us from toxic viruses, bacteria, parasites, allergens and other types of micro-body snatchers. Working quietly in the background, it turns on and off as needed, 24/7, year round. Only once in a while it lets its presence be known, like when you have a fever because you are fighting a flu or redness around a scrape.

Like most things physical, the immune system isn't perfect. Sometimes it can become hyper-active and not turn off. This can be caused by stress, food allergies, and other subtle culprits. Medical experts call the condition chronic inflammation and suspect it might be the root cause of a long list of diseases, including multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease. Dr. Liponis thinks chronic inflammation also accelerates aging.

In the mid-1990s some alert doctors at Harvard Medical School noticed that when inflammation is present so are elevated levels of C-reactive protein and cytokines. Today there is a standard CRP test that is a very early and accurate marker of heart disease. To keep the immune system in a non-aroused state, Dr. Liponis recommends correct eating, supplementation, good sleep, love/social life and relaxation. He also prescribes exercise because it is associated with "reduced levels of immune activation and lower levels of cytokines and CRP."

But he recommends exercising for less time and at lower intensity than many TOJs would ever limit themselves to. Clearly the target market for his book is not exercise nuts like TOJs, which might explain why he never mentions another probable cause of chronic inflammation -- over-exercising. And that's likely why so many doctors prescribe what could be called Exercise Lite, i.e., sweat, but not too much.

There is no way to avoid a certain amount of inflammation if you exercise hard. It is an inherent side product of developing strength and endurance. Mild inflammation is the reason you are sore a day or two after a tough workout. The miracle is how the body breaks down slightly with each workout, then rebounds stronger if you follow a mindful training regimen that stresses you just the right amount, then gives you time to rest and recover. You do not want to work out so hard each and every day that your body doesn't recover and is in a state of chronic inflammation.

The length of time each of us needs to rest between exercise varies from person to person. But the recovery period is always going to be longer for a TOJ because you do not recover as quickly when you are older as you did when you were a teenager. I notice telltale signs if I am over-exercising. My resting pulse stays slightly elevated, even hours after working out. I feel vague aches in parts of my body that were not specifically stressed during exercise. There is a general feeling of fatigue that lingers for days. Once these are present, I'm vulnerable for a cold or flu.

If some exercise physiologists and medical researchers are right, the risk to a TOJ's long term health due to over-exercising is much higher than just catching a head cold, a topic to explore in my next blog.

A TOJ has to know his or her body well to maintain the subtle balance between too much and too little. Without this balance, exercise, your best friend, can become your enemy.