Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

New research on the effects of ageing on body fat suggest that there are a number of components of ageing which mean that gaining fat stores with age is a ‘natural’ process and that losing fat becomes more difficult. Changes with age that promote fat gain are:

• a decrease in lean body mass: and therefore a reduction in metabolic rate. This may be compensated for by such activities as resistance training, although the extent to which this can occur is not dear at this stage. Metabolic rate is thought to decrease naturally by about 2 per cent per decade after the age of 20.

• changes in fat oxidation. The rate at which the body bums fat as an energy source in contrast to blood sugars, decreases with age, possibly as a result of the increase in body fat mass. This means fat is stored more readily and used less easily as a fuel source in the elderly.

changes in the influences of stimuli which ‘break down’ fat (lipolytic stimuli). Hormones such as growth hormone and testosterone all decrease with age and catecholamines from the adrenal glands appear less effective with age. Hence, the normal status of older people promotes fat gain

• decreases in spontaneous physical activity (SPA). As well as a decrease in physical activity (through sport and games) it now appears that even if older people consciously exercise vigorously to lose fat, they may unconsciously decrease their rate of physical activity at other times during the day: they simply get more tired than young people as a result of exercise, and unless an effort is made to maintain SPA, the net effect may be no real gain in overall physical activity.

• increased associated health conditions: heart disease, arthritis and other muscular-skeletal problems.

• a decrease in intra-muscular fat as an energy source. There are significant stores of fat in muscle tissue. The storage of fat in the muscle tissue decreases with age as the binding protein decreases. This means fat from the muscle is less readily available as an energy source during exercise and a greater reliance is placed on other energy stores.

• increased eating. Although this is often under-reported, there is evidence to suggest that eating and drinking may actually increase with age, rather than decrease or remain stable, as would be necessary to stabilise body fat. Accurate monitoring of food intake in the elderly will be necessary before this can be verified.

On the positive side, it appears that moderate fat gains with ageing do not appear to be as dangerous as those in the young and a BM up to 27kg/m2 is considered within the normal range for older people. However, this point is still hotly debated and in the meantime caution is still advised.

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Tags: Weight Loss

When dealing with the area of managing body fat levels we must have a basic understanding of how energy is balanced in the body. We consume on average anywhere from 1500kcal-2500kcal per day. This adds up to an energy intake of about 555 000-1 million kcal (2.33-4.17 kj) per year. But what about expenditure? How does the body balance energy intake with expenditure? Why can some individuals seemingly consume relatively greater quantities of food than others, and at the same time end up with lower stores of body fat? Dr Klaas Westerterp and his group from the University of Limberg in the Netherlands, have estimated that over the course of a lifetime, there is an actual discrepancy between energy intake and energy expenditure of only around 1 per cent, making the system an extremely well balanced one.2 What this implies, of course, is that body weight is not just equal to the amount of energy intake minus energy expenditure, but that energy intake + expenditure must change, as a function of a number of factors, to help balance the system. To understand this, we need to understand the components of energy expenditure. There are three main components of energy expenditure.

1. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) or basal metabolic rate (BMR), which equals sleeping metabolic rate (SMR) and arousal.

2. The thermogenic effect of food.

3. Exercise, or daily physical activity and spontaneous physical activity (SPA).

The vast majority (i.e. around 70 per cent) of daily energy expenditure (EE) in the average person is accounted for by RMR. Thermogenesis contributes about 15 per cent and daily physical activity is the most variable being around 10-25 per cent in sedentary individuals.

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Tags: Weight Loss

This is one of the most serious, and potentially most dangerous surgical emergencies of childhood. It is most common between the ages of five and twelve months. It is not often seen and most family doctors will see only a small number of cases in their professional lifetime, unless dealing with large numbers of infants. In most cases no specific cause can be found.

The chief event is telescoping of one part of the bowel into the part of the bowel that follows on. It can only get worse, and the risk is that the blood supply to the telescoped part is impaired. If this happens, the bowel will die. It is essential that the bowel be disentangled as urgently as possible. Necrosis (death) of the affected part of bowel may take place within 12 to 36 hours.

Symptoms are usually clear cut. The child appears fit and healthy. Then there is a sudden onset of sharp recurring abdominal pain. It comes and goes. The child tends to perspire with the discomfort and draws the legs up in an attempt to gain relief from the pain. For the first two hours, the child seems all right in the pain-free intervals between the attacks. Vomiting may set in, but not necessarily. The condition tends to become progressively more severe with the passage of time.

If left without treatment, the patient tends to become shocked, sweats, looks pale, is listless and in a state of lassitude. A fever sets in. After five hours or more, the patient becomes dehydrated. The eyes tend to sink in. Often a sausage-shaped mass can be detected in the abdomen by the doctor, when carefully felt. If there is a bowel action, it may have a dark red coloration.

Treatment

With symptoms of this nature, urgent medical attention is essential. Never neglect abdominal pain occurring in a child. This is even more vital in a normally healthy child who suddenly complains. If associated with vomiting, a fever or abnormal bowel actions, the situation becomes more acute. Surgery is the usual method of treatment. When carried out early, the results are excellent. The longer the child is left, the higher the risk factor, and the chances of a prompt, successful outcome progressively lessen also.

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Tags: General health

At birth, the brain has many inborn factors. But these are constantly being added to or altered by the input from the surrounding environment, via the various sense receptors. Emotions, and tensions and stresses from the environment—such as a family that is constantly feuding and fighting—are similarly transmitted to the subconscious where they are likewise stored. Bit by bit, an individual’s reaction to any situation will be governed by the combined program that the brain’s subconscious computer system holds. It cannot be any other way.

With advancing years, the system tends to attune to situations that are taking place in the surroundings, and learns how to cope with them. But as the input from emotional stresses, frustrations, fights, anxieties and tensions keeps recurring, the reaction often shoots off on an interesting tangent. Instead of passively receiving this material, accepting and storing it all, the mind may suddenly overflow. It’s a bit like a telephone switchboard. As long as the input of calls is normal and steady; the operator can readily cope with the situation, answering each and directing each caller to the number required. But as the board hots up and increasing numbers of lights start flashing, the operator reaches a stage where he simply cannot cope with the massive input. Finally, he might throw up his hands, and run from the board yelling, probably holding his head which by now has a thrashing pain searing through it.

Similarly, as the input to the brain steps up, a stage is easily reached where it cannot cope. Result? Symptoms suddenly loom in some part of the body. It may be a sudden outburst of temper, maybe the sudden development of pains, in the head, abdomen or limbs. It may be a sudden sharp bout of vomiting, or diarrhoea, or the onset of an attack of asthma. Or a young boy may start biting his fingernails, resort to food and overeat, start twitching his face, or have nightmares or night horrors. Blushing, fainting, refusal to eat, rushing headlong into obvious danger and sustaining an accident, are all part of the scene. Infants might develop colic, or hold their breath. The variation is enormous.

Some children will unconsciously channel their tension overflow regularly into the same region. That’s why so many children develop asthmatic attacks. Others get a knot in the stomach, others have sleep disorders. Often it is a recurring pattern for each individual.

Frequently, certain symptoms are related to certain age groups. A list is given at the end of this section setting out the better-known types of disturbance and the age range in which they are most likely to occur. It is not an exact list, and by no means a complete one, but it does give some idea of what parents might expect. They all have the same underlying cause: stress, tension and anxiety.

It is worth noting that children have an enormous capacity for absorbing data. In fact, it is claimed that during the first five years of life more data are absorbed and stored in the brain than during all succeeding years combined. After all, baby starts at zero, and apart from what is naturally programmed into the brain at birth everything else must be learnt; from walking, eating, and performing actions we put down as normal, to everything else.

But children are also frequently a mirror-image of their environment. In short, they tend to reflect what goes on about them, and this includes the actions of their parents. The way those around them behave becomes part of them, for all actions witnessed are also interpreted for storage in their memory system. Therefore, how they will subsequently react to situations is governed by the way in which their parents (and others with whom they have greatest, most intimate and most frequent contact) react. Therefore, infants bred in a family full of obvious stress and with obvious outbursts, will tend to react similarly. If everybody in the family tends to develop aches and pains at every setback, the young child will tend to have that type of personality also. Once established, these patterns will tend to persist throughout life.

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Tags: General health

An incurable disease of the nervous system, multiple sclerosis, or MS, results from inflammation and scarring of the sheaths surrounding the nerve fibres of the central nervous system. The symptoms of the disease vary according to which nerves are affected. Characteristic symptoms include weakness or pins and needles in a limb. Pain in moving the eyes and deterioration in sight result when the optic nerve is affected. Vertigo and ataxia (poor balance) are also symptoms.

The first attack usually takes place between the ages of 20 and 40. A course of relapses, or attacks, and remissions over many years is the pattern of the disease. The degree of improvement after each attack diminishes over time. A few sufferers do not have any remission.

Long term results of the disease can be loss of the use of the lower limbs, slurred speech, loss of control over bladder and bowels and muscular tremors. Depression is a common side effect. However about 50 per cent of sufferers are only mildly affected and stay in almost complete remission.

MS affects about one in 2000 people. The cause is unknown and is the subject of much research. Orthodox medicine has no cure, although there are treatments which can help maintain bodily function. It has been shown that levels of certain fatty acids are lower in the bodies of MS sufferers but it is not known whether addition of these acids to the diet (found in sunflower, safflower and evening primrose oils) are helpful.

For advice and support the Multiple Sclerosis Society can be contacted. There are branches throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Yoga can stimulate the nervous system and relax constricted muscles, stimulating the use of affected limbs. Massage also helps to maintain muscle tone. It is advisable to cut alcohol and stimulants such as tea and coffee from the diet and to stop smoking, avoiding passive smoking also. Since depression often affects sufferers, coming to terms with the limitations which may be imposed by the disease is important.

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Tags: General health

One of the commonest symptoms of anxiety is the abnormal awareness of the action of our heart. Palpitation is a normal accompaniment of a response to danger. In this case the increased action of our heart serves to prepare us to meet the threat. However, as soon as the danger passes the action of our heart returns to normal and we cease to be aware of it. But when we suffer from anxiety, the unpleasant awareness of the action of our heart is often constantly with us.

Besides the persistence of the palpitation there is another factor. In our normal response to real danger our heart does in fact beat more strongly. But in the palpitation of anxiety there may be little actual overactivity of the heart, and the unpleasant awareness is due to our hypersensitivity to the normal beating of our heart rather than to overactivity of the organ.

The feeling of palpitation focuses our attention on our heart. We are all familiar with the dangers of heart attacks from coronary thrombosis. We soon come to feel that something is wrong with our heart. To reassure us our doctor takes an electrocardiogram and tells us that it shows our heart to be quite normal and that the palpitation is only due to our nervous condition. But we are not reassured. A lurking feeling remains that there is something wrong. In fact, it is hard to be reassured so long as our anxiety is still with. us.

A few years ago I saw an industrial tycoon, a man of strikingly pleasant personality and such exceptional ability that in a matter of a decade he had amassed a great fortune. But over the previous two and a half years he had suffered from pain over his heart and quite violent palpitation; and as a result was unable to enjoy the material success he had achieved.

In the manner of the real tycoon he was determined at all costs to get himself fixed up. He was not sure whether it was ten or twelve cardiologists that he had consulted in the various capital cities of Australia. He had gone to America to the most famous cardiological clinic in that country. He had been treated by a psychiatrist in America and by three psychiatrists in Australia.

“You can tell when there is something wrong with your heart, you can feel it,” he asserted.

There was obviously no point in having a head-on collision with such a man, so I merely said, “Anyway, you would be more comfortable if you were more relaxed.” And we went on from there.

One day about eighteenth months later I was driving home, when I caught sight of him in his car. In typical style he shouted, “Never better in my life.”

I must also tell you something of the other side. Last week I saw a healthy, athletic student who was becoming crippled by pain over his heart. Two leading cardiologists had assured him that his heart was perfectly normal. He was really brought to me against his wishes, by his father. He is convinced there is something wrong with his heart. He will not listen to me. He refuses to come back. Yet I am sure that if he would only do what I suggest he would soon be free of the pain.

Rejection by the patient like this does not happen often, but it is the most common cause of failure.

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Tags: Anti Depressants

By now most of your body should be far more relaxed. But if you’ve been concentrating hard, your face is probably very tense and, apart from being a waste of energy, that’s also the quickest way to get wrinkles. So relax it quickly. I should warn you that relaxing all the muscles in your face is going to make you look really gormless. So here goes! Imagine that you’ve got a slice of lemon in your mouth and it’s extremely sour. Squeeze the whole of your face against it, mouth, nose, eyes and cheeks. Blow out one small candle and let your face sag, so that your mouth falls open, the flesh sags off your cheekbones, and your eyelids feel heavy and close of their own accord.

Check for the last time that you are relaxed everywhere. Then lie peacefully where you are for a little while. Most people feel rather sleepy when they’re as relaxed as you are now. Some actually fall asleep. Relaxation is a good cure for insomnia.

Enjoy your rest. But be warned. Take your time about getting up again after relaxation like this. On no account jump up suddenly or you will feel giddy. Your body is now functioning at a much lower level; your breathing is more shallow; your heartbeat is slower. You’ve calmed everything down and made the whole of your body work at a slower speed. So you need to take time to get back to normal. Don’t rush anything.

When you want to get up, start by clenching and unclenching your fists several times so that your blood will circulate a little more quickly. You might find that your fingertips begin to tingle when you do this. Now sit up slowly and swing your legs over the edge of the bed, or sit with your knees raised if you are on the floor. Get used to the new position and then finally you will be ready to stand up and walk around again.

Back to normal. How was that?

Practise regularly until you can relax at will. Certainly try to find twenty minutes to half an hour each day if you can. Early in the morning or late at night—choose the time that suits you best. Gradually you will begin to feel better all over. Regular relaxation is the key to coping with both the cramps and the aching miseries. As you grow more proficient, you will learn which part of your body is most tense and so requires the most attention to relax. It’s different with everybody.

Outside help-Some people find it hard to learn to relax with or without a friend to help and wish there was someone around to teach them. The National Childbirth Trust has been running relaxation classes for expectant mothers for over twenty-one years now and some of their groups can provide teachers for women who suffer from period pain. If you live in the Leeds area you’re in luck, for the Leeds branch is particularly well organized in this respect. In any case, look up the Trust in your local telephone directory; there may be a branch near you. Or contact their headquarters, at 9 Queensborough Terrace, London W2 3TB (Telephone: 01-229 9319).

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Tags: Pain Relief

In order to further study the question of spray residues and their effect on health, I asked three of my patients to take part in an experiment. Each of them was known to be susceptible to a wide range of chemicals. I invited them to my office for a peach-eating session, using fruit from the local market. After eating these commercial peaches, one patient developed a rash, with itching, burning and stinging, and the formation of red wheals (urticaria). The second had a frightening attack of asthma. The third developed a headache. To make the test complete, similar-looking peaches were obtained from an abandoned orchard where the fruit grew wild, unblessed by the exterminator’s spraygun.

After an interval, the three were given some of these peaches, without their being identified as unsprayed fruit. To these items they had no reaction at all: they tolerated them perfectly well. In the following season, I tested 15 more patients in a more elaborate experiment which was mentioned briefly in the previous chapter. I obtained four lots of peaches, all of the same type, but each treated quite differently. The first were picked from trees in an abandoned orchard, having received no sprays, fungicidal treatment, or fertilization for the previous three years. The second lot were the same as the first, except that they had been manually dusted with sulfur as an antifungus measure. The third were from one of the University of Illinois plots which had received the recommended spray schedules using DDT and dieldrin. The fourth were peaches from the same source sprayed with the pesticides parathione and dieldrin.

For several days before the test, all of the patients avoided both peaches and chemicals to which they knew they were susceptible. The patients were assembled in my office and were given the various peaches, without any knowledge of which batch they were receiving. Three of the fifteen became ill when they ate plain, uncontaminated peaches. They were evidently allergic to peaches per se. A larger number of the others reacted to both the sulfured and the sprayed peaches. Some of them became so ill, in fact, that they refused to go on with the testing. This was good common sense on their part, but it detracted from the completeness of the experiment. Nevertheless, several of those who had no reaction to the organic peaches were made ill by the sprayed peaches, regardless of the type of spray used. Clearly there were people who were made sick by eating infinitesimally small amounts of insect spray, similar to the amounts millions of people eat every day.

One good effect of this discovery was that patients who had long stopped eating fruit, from the belief that they were made sick by it, were able to start again, provided they ate only organically grown, uncontaminated fruits.

“Multiple fruit sensitivity” turned out to be not such a very rare condition. An investigation of spraying practices exposed some of the underlying reasons for this problem. Peaches, apples, and cherries were the most commonly contaminated, as well as the most heavily contaminated, fruits. Although the total number of spraying applications varied with rainfall and other conditions, peaches, apples, and cherries were often sprayed between ten and fifteen times each season. Recommended spraying started with blossoming and ended only a few weeks prior to harvesting. Needless to say, these fruit were fairly well saturated with spray.

They are hardly unique in this respect, however. It turned out that most of the commercially produced fruits in the United States are copiously sprayed. Some of them are sprayed with many different agents, and it became almost an impossible task to decide which spray caused which symptom in a patient. This problem has increased year by year.

Once a fruit has been sprayed with a combination of pesticide and kerosene, or some other chemical solvent, there is no known way of removing the spray residue. Air passes quite readily through the skin of a piece of fruit and with it comes the spray ingredients, to be incorporated into the pulp itself. Washing, rubbing, peeling, cooking, and any other attempt to clean the spray off do not eliminate spray residues. The experimental proof of this assertion is the chemically sensitive patient, who gets sick from commercial, sprayed fruit no matter how he rubs or washes it.

Some individuals, however, who are not violently susceptible to chemicals, may be able to eat stewed fruit, but not raw, fresh specimens of the same lot. The reason appears to be that when the fruit is stewed, some of the pesticides are boiled off. Some of my patients have, in fact, gotten sick simply by standing over a pot of stewing commercial fruit, inhaling the vapors which contain part of the pesticides escaping into the atmosphere. Stewing organically grown fruit does not have that effect on these patients, however.

It must be emphasized that a highly susceptible person, eating an ordinary diet, rarely suspects the fact that a daily piece of fruit causes any problem at all. The reason for this is that the small, daily dose of pesticide may merely serve to reinforce and perpetuate his symptoms of illness. All he knows is that he felt badly yesterday and feels just as badly today. He naturally does not associate his headache or his asthma or his fatigue with something so innocent, and apparently unconnected, as the supposedly beneficial fruits and vegetables. It is only when he overindulges and takes in an extraordinary amount of these products (and pesticide) that he breaks out of the level of chronic disease and precipitates an obvious reaction.

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Tags: Allergies

Convulsions are uncontrolled contractions or spasms of the muscles. If a child who has a fever goes into convulsions, there are two possible causes. The convulsions may be caused by the fever itself or by certain diseases involving the brain that also cause fever.

Febrile convulsions are convulsions that are caused by the fever itself. Five to 10 percent of all children have febrile convulsions. How quickly the temperature rises is more important than how high the temperature is. A sudden rise of only one or two degrees Centigrade may cause convulsions, but a gradual rise of two or three degrees may not.

Febrile convulsions may be thought of as shaking chills that become extreme. They are most common between the ages of three months and three years. Febrile convulsions occur less and less often from age three to age eight. After the age of eight, febrile convulsions are rare. One episode of febrile convulsions usually means the child is more likely to have them in the future. However, the tendency to have febrile convulsions does not mean the child will later have epilepsy.

Diseases involving the brain that cause convulsions include meningitis, encephalitis, and abscess of the brain. When convulsions occur with these diseases, the child will usually have a fever. But the disease (not the fever) causes the convulsions.

Signs and symptoms

During convulsions with fever, a child will fall unconscious, become rigid, and may stop breathing briefly. The child may turn blue, lose control of the bladder and bowels, and vomit. The limbs, torso, jaws, and/or eyelids will jerk uncontrollably. The child will quickly begin normal breathing again. The seizure activity may last two minutes to 30 minutes or longer. After regaining consciousness, the child will not remember that the convulsions occurred. Several traits of febrile convulsions can help you distinguish them from convulsions caused by diseases like encephalitis, meningitis, or brain abscess. A major sign of febrile convulsions is that the child recovers quickly (within minutes). Immediately after a febrile convulsion, the child is alert, can respond, and is not prostrated (not collapsed or exhausted). After a febrile convulsion, the child can bend the neck forward. There is often a family history of febrile convulsions.

After convulsions caused by diseases involving the brain, the child often cannot bend the neck forward and may be in a stage of collapse or exhaustion.

Home care

Do not panic! Your child is in no pain and is in more danger from improper treatment than from the convulsion. Protect the child from injury while the convulsion is occurring. Call your doctor immediately.

Precautions

• Do not give aspirin or any other medication by mouth to an unconscious child. An unconscious person cannot swallow and may choke on the medicine.

• Do not give artificial respiration. Breathing muscles are temporarily in spasm, and forceful artificial respiration may be harmful.

• Do not place a convulsing child in a tub of water to reduce the child’s temperature. Accidents such as scalding and injuries against the sides of the tub have occurred; this practice is not recommended.

• If the child cannot bend the neck forward after the convulsions have ended, or if the child is collapsed or exhausted, report this to your doctor. These may be signs of serious illness.

Medical treatment

Your doctor may give an injection of medication that controls convulsions—usually Phenobarbital or Diazepam. The doctor will perform a complete physical examination, taking blood tests and a spinal tap. If the febrile convulsion is unusual, or if convulsions occur often, your doctor may order additional tests such as an electroencephalogram and CAT (computerized axial tomography) scan. Daily medications to control convulsions are prescribed for several years under some circumstances.

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Tags: General health

Lifting weights makes you stronger because your muscles will adapt to the extra stress you’re putting on them. So you look better and you feel better. You’re also healthier, in ways that a lot of people don’t normally associate with muscle building.

For example, strength training builds lean muscle mass, which helps to burn more calories. In doing so, it helps to burn fat, which, of course, helps to maintain an appropriate body weight. And trained muscles metabolize glucose much better and lower your insulin resistance. That helps prevent diabetes.

Where strength training really does its job is making you feel more alive. Think about how much dedicated gym rats like to talk about how great they feel. (Some of them, you may have noticed, talk about it a little too much.) Then think about how much other men talk about how lousy they feel as the years go by. Strength training can turn that gym-rat attitude into an age-proof lust for life.

“If you don’t want to lose a lot of your muscle power as you get past 40 or 50, strength training can have a big effect,” Taranta says. “Without it, you won’t be able to do things as well, so your activity level will decrease. This can lead to heart problems, cholesterol problems, hypertension -all of that.” Here’s how to get the best benefits from strength training.

Shock your system. Lifting weights once in a while when you’re in the mood won’t get the job done. “You have to shock your muscular system on a regular basis or else muscles will lose their strength,” Dr. Baechle says. How often is that? Well, you need to give your muscles a day off after working them with weights, but you shouldn’t let them rest more than three days before “shocking” them again, according to Dr. Baechle. “Two days a week will work,” he says. “Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday are fairly common systems, but three times a week (for example, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) is a little better.”

Work the major muscles. Those would be your chest, back, shoulders, legs, abdomen, and arms. Some movements with weights work the entire group; others pick out individual muscles, such as your biceps. “Try to do one exercise for each major muscle group to get a balanced effect,” Dr. Baechle advises.

Hit your number. For general health purposes, repeating each exercise 12 to 15 times without stopping is the ideal, according to Dr. Baechle. “That seems to be a number where you can really concentrate on the technique involved, on the breathing and rhythm, and on range of motion, without being so concerned about how much weight you’re lifting,” he says.

Learn to fail. The amount of weight you lift varies with the exercise, of course, but the rule of thumb is that the last time through the movement-in this case, say, the 15th repetition-should be the last you could possibly do. That, in weight room talk, is called working to failure, a case where failure is a good thing. Start light. If making it to 15 repetitions is too easy, add weight. If you can’t make it to 12, lighten up, says Dr. Baechle.

Do it once and for all. When you finish your 15 repetitions of any exercise, you’ve done one set of that exercise. If you rest and do it 15 more times, you’ve done two sets. How many sets should you do? That question starts arguments across the great schism in the church of iron about the relative benefits of multiple sets over a single set. But there’s fairly solid agreement that for the beginner interested in general health there’s no need for time-consuming extra sets. “One set’s enough when you’re starting out,” Dr. Baechle says. “But for continued improvement, try to increase the number of sets and weight loads as you get stronger.”

Get organized. There’s a reason that you see those guys walking around the gym making notes between exercises. They’re keeping track of what they did and how much they did of it. Catch-as-catch-can workouts are better than nothing, but you need a set routine in order to chart and make progress. “Your body really needs to know what you’re expecting of it,” Dr. Baechle says. “When you keep changing the exercises, it compromises the muscles’ ability to adapt and become stronger. Staying with the same routine for about a month provides an ideal opportunity for muscles to adapt to training.”

Besides, there’s something encouraging about being able to quantify your progress. “Part of the fun of training is recording the results of your workout,” Dr. Baechle says. “It’s reinforcing to be able to look back and see how much weight you are using-that is, how much stronger you are.”

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Tags: General health