I Listen to a retired US Army General Mark Hertling on physical fitness. His talk was at the US Armies office training college at West Point.
I found it a remarkable talk why? He was talking about general health and fitness of army recruits coming into the army. Poor level of fitness in the US populace in general. He stated that it had become a strategic concern even a national security issue!
High percentage of the new US Army recruits were overweight with BMI ( Body Mass Index) over the prescribed allowance for fighting soldier, poor muscular skeleton bone mass very poor diet full of soft fizzy drinks full of sugar high fat saturated food such as burgers etc.
Mark is of my generation a baby boomer born in the 50’s where we had to self entertain ourselves. We went out to play with our friends either walking or cycling travelling far and wide. My family never owned a car or an automobile. I walked to school the only time my parents ever took me to school was on the first day of the new term when I entered my middle school at the age of 7.
No one collected me in a car I always walked home from my school. We had sports afternoons to play football, cricket or like me who loved running and later cycling.
There were no computers or anything like that we entertained ourselves I had toy soldiers I use build small fortifications lay on the ground with my small toy soldiers doing different military manoeuvres I was totally absorbed in my little war games.
I loved reading about the American Civil War. The famous generals and battles? Bull Run and Gettysburg. Stonewall Jackson General Sherman Robert E Lee. I read everything I could about the American civil war but as young boy you don’t understand the implications and carnage of warfare.
Back to nutrition and physical fitness from a wee boy I was always involved with physical activities such as running or cycling I joined a local cycling club call Birkenhead North End Cycle club.
We’d meet at the club in the week and at weekend especially on a Sunday we’d all meet up at Two Mills cafe on the way out to Deeside Wales. One of the oldest cyclist cafes in Great Britain. Now called the Eureka Cafe
On Sunday with the club seniors as I was only a junior we’d ride out to the Horse shoe pass and down the pass to Llangollen back up the pass to the top. It was good 100 mile cycle ride from my home town of Wallasey to Llangollen and back home. I remember when I returned home I was always starving mum would say “your dinner is in the oven”. The gravy by then was nice and dry but I always “woofed it down”. Basically it never hit the sides of my stomach!
I was very fit and my quadriceps muscles were huge well for 14 year old boy they were. But in those days we never thought about fitness training as modern athletes do. We just went out and enjoyed our cycling and in the process got very fit.
Over past few years I’ve undertaken many Future Learn course’s one was about the musculoskeletal system. What is the musculoskeletal system anyway?
Skeleton and the Sketel muscle
Skeleton is made of;
Bone
Cartilage
Ligaments
Tendons
Joints.
The nervous system is vital link between the musculoskeletal and the brain. Ensuring coordinated movement and control. And good blood supply is also essential! Especially to the muscles which consume large amounts of energy. There are 306 bones supporting the weight of the body. The majority are a dense , strong outer layer, called cortical bone.
Inside the cortical bone, there is a spongy bone material called trabecular bone. In this way, the bone is lighter and easier to carry around but still strong to support us. In the trabecular bone, there is a soft tissue substance called bone marrow.
The bone marrow, in contact with the bone, produces all the blood cells: red blood cells which carry oxygen all over the body, and white blood cells, which protect us from infection. Bones are made mostly of collagen and calcium.
Collagen is a protein that provides a soft structure, and calcium phosphate is a mineral that gives the bone its characteristic strength and hardness. This combination of collagen and calcium makes bones strong enough to support the body and flexible enough to enable movement.
Bone is a living tissue with a blood supply. It is constantly being dissolved and reformed, and can repair itself if a bone is broken. Calcium is essential for cell function, without it, cells do not operate properly.
If there is not enough in the blood, special cells called osteoclasts will dissolve small areas of the bone to release calcium into the bloodstream. New bone is formed by cells called osteoblasts, which also regrow and repair the bone if it breaks.
Bones grow continually from birth up to our mid-20s. Bone mass is at its maximum density around the age of 30. When bones stop growing, they continue to be maintained by the osteoclasts removing old bone and osteoblasts replacing it with new bone.
Bones are linked together by joints. The most common type are called synovial joints, and include hinge joints like the knee and elbow, and ball-and-socket joints like the hip and shoulder.
If two bones just moved against each other, they would eventually wear away. This can happen in people who have a condition called arthritis. To stop this happening, the ends of the bones in a joint are covered with a tough, smooth substance called cartilage, which is kept slippery by a liquid called synovial fluid. Bones are held together at the joints by ligaments and attached to the muscle by tendons.
Both are fibrous connective tissue primarily formed of collagen. But whilst ligaments are flexible and help to provide stability, tendons are inelastic and serve to move bones, transmitting the contractive forces generated by the muscle. Skeletal muscle functions to carry out movements and maintain posture.
Muscle is made up of thousands of specialised cells called muscle fibres, each of which can be up to ten centimetres long. The length and diameter of the fibres determines the muscle’s strength and range of movement.
Each muscle fibre contains many mitochondria, the sites of energy production in all cells, which are absolutely essential for muscle function. Muscle moves the skeleton by contracting.
This contraction is generated using the energy from the mitochondria and by the movement of specialist proteins called myosin and actin, which run along the length of the fibre and give it a striated appearance under the microscope. The muscle fibres are packaged into bundles and kept together by collagen.
There are different types of muscle fibre distinguished by their strength, whether they are fast or slow, and how quickly they fatigue. Each muscle also has a blood supply and is connected to the nervous system.
The whole muscle is enclosed by a sheath of connective tissue so that all the muscle fibres work together. The musculoskeletal system has many components which must all work together to allow us to move about in our daily lives. If any of these components start to fail, it can have a serious knock-on effect on the whole system.
The above was taken from the transcript of the future learn video. Looking after your musculoskeletal frame is really important at any age in your life but even more so when you get older. Nature has given us all a wonderful biological entirety it’s in all our interests to look after it throughout our lives.
Physical activity has to be an important daily element in our lives. No question if we want to live a healthy long and happy life. Astronauts In zero gravity environment have to spend each day exercising or artificially placing a load on their musculoskeletal frame. It’s critical in maintaining bone mass.
Now I’m nearly 71 I have always had a personal fitness regime I’m of the Einstein school of thought “Keep it simple if not simpler”.
I walk everyday at least 10,000 steps and I use a basic exercise contraption called a BullWorker. What’s a Bull Worker you my ask?
the 1950s, German scientists Dr. Erich Albert Müller and Theodor Hettinger observed that contractions involving less than about one third of maximum strength do not train the muscle. If the contraction of a muscle exceeds one third of its maximum strength, its mass grows and hence also its strength”.
Furthermore, it is said that he concluded that muscle growth can be attained by exerting 60% of existing muscle strength against a superior resistance for only seven seconds once a day, a fitness technique known as isometrics.
The study at the Max Planck Institute consisted of over 200 experiments over a ten-year period. Theodor Hettinger published his book Physiology of Strength. They both developed a training program based on isometrics exercise.
In the 1960s, professor James A. Baley put isometrics to the test with a class of 104 college students at the University of Connecticut.
The Bullworker manual claimed that study resulted in the isometric training group improving three times faster than the sports training group on tests measuring increases in strength, endurance, coordination, and agility. However, the original article is far more complex even if it showed significant gains after a 4 week program of isometric exercises.
I’ve used mine for many years and isometric exercise is to load the musculoskeletal everyday by using the bull worked to load each and every muscle in 26 exercise routine which you hold for 10 second intervals. Simple to use especially on sailing boat. It maintains muscular definition even for someone of my age. Walking is an important part of my exercise routine not owning a car I simply have to walk each and every day.
Also I like to cycle but because of prior neck jury it’s safer for me to walk.
Now I don’t want to look like the Incredible Hulk so all I want to achieve is to maintain my muscular definition so I still look relatively good and to maintain a manly posture.
I Don’t like the modern gym type man or mountain ape like muscles physique, for me that’s ugly. When I was extremely fit young special forces soldier the toughest men I knew were actually small and wiry not in any way like the Incredible Hulk. A Fit combat soldier muscle bulk would be a hindrance to movement more than a help.
Why would you want to cart around all that extra bulk? No toughness is about minimalism in body size and superior mental toughness. To carry on when others would give up. The inner strength or mental strength plus personal fitness is what makes the Ultimate soldier. The will to win with the use of your own intelligence and clarity of thought to analysis a combat situation and to read the ground. However that said to be able to adapt and learn what works and what doesn’t work.
What happens when we walk? The general gait for humans is bipedal walking. Strangely enough walking is controlled falling and we are perpetually in danger of falling.
This very morning a lady had fallen over and hit her face in the fall damaging her nose. She was being assisted by another person when I asked if I could help. The pavement was slightly uneven and she had lost her balance. The marina has long walk way around it and is popular for Spanish to take their daily walk or promenade.
The poor lady was only out for her daily exercise and had inadvertently fallen over. So the greatest risk we have as bipedal humans is risk of falling over or loosing our balance. The biggest risk to this happening comes when turning. Cognition plays an important part in keeping us upright. Everything is in play balance, muscle contraction, vision, sound, and of course the environment.
It’s all connected with our gait. The other important element is being in the moment with our minds not dwelling on extraneous thoughts outside of our control. Footwear is important as I know from experience wearing the wrong shoes that have “seen their sell by date” can cause problems such as base of the foot or the ankles aching.
A study in 2010 concluded that 21% of the years lived with disability in the world were due to musculoskeletal disorder such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, low back pain and other conditions. The lost income and care costs in the US around $874 billion.
The challenge for us is to promote and maintain healthy lifestyles which means being active and having a nutritious diet.
Resistance Exercise is not only for weight lifters or body builders but for everyone. The Bull worker is a simple isometric or resistance exercise tools even for elderly people.
The increase force or loading the muscle adapts and the muscle fibre increases in diameter they hypertrophy (enlarge or increase in size). Causing an increase in their strength and bulk.
Because muscle is increasing in size the efficiency can also be influenced by nutrition.
My bull worker exercise regime probably last about 15/20 minutes maximum. Plus my daily walks of 30/45 minutes., modern man/woman have very sedate lifestyles and chair bound through use of computers and the use of the cars for short journeys.
Nutrition for health is equally important as exercise. Latterly I started to move away from the eating meat to a more vegetarian type diet. However I still eat fish and prawns. I do like stir fry’s and quiches plus fruit and salads. Start of day is always a bowl of porridge with nuts inside almonds and cashew nuts. I don’t drink much alcohol and have never smoked during my life.
The food we eat contains nutrients that we all need to survive, function and grow. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are called macronutrients, as these are needed in large quantities. They occur in foods as complex forms that are not readily absorbed by the body.
Complex carbohydrates contain chains of sugar molecules. Proteins contain chains of amino acids. And fats occur mainly as triacylglycerol, a complex of three fatty acid molecules attached to a sugar-like molecule called glycerol.
Our digestive system helps us to break down these nutrients into small, soluble substances that can be absorbed into the blood and converted into energy. This process begins in the mouth, where chewing breaks food into pieces that are more easily digested.
Saliva provides lubrication to help with processing and swallowing, and contains important molecules called enzymes that break large molecules into smaller ones. On swallowing, food passes from the mouth through the oesophagus and into the stomach. In the stomach, muscle contractions continue to mechanically break down food, churning it and mixing it with digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid.
In the small intestine, nutrients are absorbed through the intestinal wall and into the blood. Only small, soluble substances can pass across the wall. So just like the stomach, the small intestine has its own special blend of enzymes that continue to break the food down into smaller molecules. Specialised cells then help absorbed materials cross the intestinal lining into the bloodstream.
Once in the bloodstream, the digested food molecules are carried around the body. The nutrient-rich blood first enters the liver, which absorbs a large amount of the sugars and amino acids.
When the blood enters the pancreas, the rising level of glucose triggers the release of the hormone insulin. This signals to the body to start using glucose as the main source of energy, and to store any excess glucose for future use as glycogen in the liver and muscles.
Fats are stored for energy in adipose tissues, and amino acids are used to make new proteins, replenishing those that have been lost through natural turnover. The absorption of sugars and amino acids reaches a peak about 30 to 60 minutes after eating.
Fat absorption peaks around three hours, and all the nutrients in a meal are normally fully digested and absorbed within four to five hours. After a meal, as the levels of absorbed nutrients in the blood go down, the level of insulin decreases while the level of another hormone, glucagon, rises.
This switch in hormone levels signals to the body to stop storing glucose and fats, and start releasing them to maintain energy production. The body’s stores of glycogen are converted back into glucose and can provide energy for around 12 to 24 hours.
Stores of fat in adipose tissue can provide energy through the release of free fatty acids for several weeks, meaning that fat acts as a long term or emergency source when foods are scarce.
Protein can also be used to provide energy during starvation. But as there is no dedicated store of protein, especially for energy production, the body will break down proteins from muscles and other organs for energy.
Food provides energy for physical activity as well as giving us the nutrients we need to develop, grow and stay healthy through life.
A healthy diet and regular exercise throughout life can help reduce the risk of developing diseases of the musculoskeletal system such as osteoporosis (weak bones) and sarcopenia (muscle loss) that affect many of us as we get older.
All tissues in the body need a steady supply of energy and for most tissues, energy metabolism changes very little throughout the day. The process that releases energy for use by cells is called respiration (a word which is sometimes mistakenly used for the process of breathing, which is properly called ventilation).
In aerobic respiration, carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the diet supply the body with smaller carbon-based molecules that combine with oxygen to create carbon dioxide and water, with the release of energy. When the energy is not used immediately to create heat or to do work, it is stored in cells as chemical energy that can be called upon when it is needed.
(One of the most important energy storage molecules in cells is adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Adenosine 5′-triphosphate, abbreviated ATP and usually expressed without the 5′-, is an important “energy molecule” found in all life forms.
Specifically, it is a coenzyme that works with enzymes such as ATP triphosphatase to transfer energy to cells by releasing its phosphate groups. The molecule consists of three components: an adenine bicyclic system, a furanose ring, and a triphosphate chain.)
Skeletal muscle has a relatively low resting energy metabolism (basal metabolic rate) compared with other tissues, if we consider it on a per pound or per kilogram basis. Weight for weight, the liver uses about fifteen times as much energy as resting skeletal muscle, while the heart and kidneys use about thirty times as much as skeletal muscle in the resting state.
But if we consider how much skeletal muscle there is in the body compared with these other tissues, overall it accounts for a considerable part of the body’s resting energy metabolism. In non-obese adults, skeletal muscle accounts for around 40% of body weight and this accounts for 20 – 30% of resting oxygen consumption, while the liver, heart, kidneys and brain account for most of the rest.
When we consider energy metabolism during heavy physical activity, muscle tissue can account for up to 90% of the body’s oxygen consumption. The largest part of the energy we need as adults over and above our basal metabolic needs is required for physical activity.
Our body’s daily needs for energy are therefore closely linked to our habitual daily physical activity level and to our basal metabolic rate.
Nutritionists and dietitians express physical activity level (PAL) as a number, calculated by dividing total energy expenditure over 24 hours by the basal metabolic rate. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) accounts for between 45% and 70% of total energy expenditure in most adults, and it is dependent on gender, body size, body composition (lean vs fat) and age
Types of Food to eat for a healthy musculoskeletal health
As the old adage says “we our what we eat and drink”. Sensible balance diet with low alcoholic consumption with plenty of moderate daily exercise is the answer to a long and healthy life.
Remember if you don’t service your car or automobile on a regular basis changing oil and the filters what’s going to happen the engine will breakdown. Us humans have the finest biological entity ever devised by nature and an amazing Brain, and an amazing body so we have to constantly maintain it through good diet, nutritious healthy food and regular moderate exercise. Quite simple really. If we don’t control out minds and our bodies daily we’re going to suffer from health problems.
Finally I believe how we think has a lot of bearing on our health. Meditation is for me another daily mental exercise why is this so important.
It allows you to rest your brain. How? by disciplining yourself to stop thinking. It’s difficult at first very difficult. But if you allow yourself to sit or lay quietly and control your breathing by using a simple mantra; when you breath in say “calm the mind”, when you Breath out say “ relax the body” yes you will get thoughts come into your mind say it’s a “thought” don’t dwell on that “thought” just acknowledge the “thought” and let it go. This is so important and give yourself 10/ 15minutes to the quietening of the mind each and every day. Think of tranquil water that has no agitation and is flat calm. Use that thought as a mental analogy when you meditate. I can assure you daily meditation is good for your health and well being. I promise you it will make you a much happier and more content person.