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Let's get you taken care of. So

2:00

back in 2012, I was having

2:02

these episodes of lightheadedness, and it was almost

2:04

always when I was at the grocery store

2:06

and when I was standing in line. So

2:09

I decided to go see the doctor, and

2:11

eventually I was referred to see a vascular

2:13

specialist, and they did an

2:15

ultrasound on the veins in my legs. This

2:18

is the first time I've ever really heard that

2:21

the heart wasn't the only

2:23

thing that was moving blood around the body. I

2:25

think it's normal for us to think your

2:27

heart pumps, and then blood fires

2:29

all the way around the system. Well,

2:32

according to this doctor, several of the

2:34

valves in the veins in my legs had

2:36

degraded. He was reckoned it was from being

2:38

repeatedly kicked in the legs, doing

2:40

martial arts, and the

2:43

blood was now pooling in my

2:45

legs. So

2:47

the reason I wasn't getting this issue

2:49

when I was training or coaching was

2:51

because at those times I was moving

2:53

around. So my muscles

2:55

in my leg were contracting, and that

2:58

was pushing the blood around, not

3:00

allowing it to collect. But when standing in

3:02

line at the grocery store, I was standing

3:04

doing nothing, and the muscles

3:06

weren't assisting in pushing the blood

3:08

back up. The valves had

3:11

degraded, so there was nothing stopping the

3:13

blood from backflowing down into my legs.

3:16

Amazing. So first of all, I did

3:18

have some leg surgery to address this issue, but

3:21

secondly, I retired from competing in martial arts. I

3:23

wasn't getting kicked in legs, and

3:26

I decided that I would work further

3:28

on developing the musculature in my legs

3:30

to support the circulatory system. So

3:33

blood flow is incredibly important. For my

3:35

own clients, there's at least one day

3:37

a week where the

3:39

goal is only to move blood. Now,

3:42

if you're coming back from injuries, you're recovering from

3:44

training, you just want to be

3:46

healthy, improving your circulation has got to be the name

3:48

of the game. Now, especially

3:51

when we're talking about circulation and

3:53

blood flow, people think about aerobic

3:55

activity, and they would be right.

3:58

Aerobic activity will increase. increase your heart

4:00

rate and that enhances blood flow. Furthermore,

4:03

if you can avoid being one of

4:05

those weird mouth breathers, there

4:07

are great benefits to nasal

4:10

breathing. Nasal breathing

4:12

only releases nitric

4:14

oxide, which is a

4:17

compound that dilates blood vessels

4:19

and improves blood flow. At

4:25

Discount Tire, we know how valuable your

4:27

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4:29

shorter average wait time when you buy

4:31

and book online at discounttire.com so you

4:33

can spend more time with friends and

4:35

family this holiday season. Discount Tire. Let's

4:37

get you taken care of. Meet

4:41

Amanda. Her thing is being a master

4:43

to-do list maker. It's a system really,

4:45

carefully refined after years of practice. Recently,

4:48

Amanda took two things off her list by

4:50

getting health screen for blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol

4:53

and glucose from the Walmart pharmacy while she

4:55

shopped. I was actually able to merge two

4:57

different to-do lists into one. Now she can

4:59

stay one step ahead of her health with

5:02

no delay. I've already moved screenings and shopping

5:04

to my done list. And that's how you

5:06

do to-do lists. Welcome to an easier pharmacy.

5:08

Welcome to your Walmart. But

5:15

could it be that there's a role

5:17

for resistance training on top of aerobic

5:19

work for improving circulation? Well,

5:22

my story about the muscles pushing

5:24

blood would say yes, but is

5:27

that really the case? Well,

5:29

the first thing that happens when you start

5:31

to build muscle is that your body lays

5:33

down a transport network for

5:36

the new tissue that's going to be built. Just

5:38

like when a new housing development or new mall

5:40

is being built, the company

5:42

first of all has to build a network of

5:45

roads to transport in the

5:47

building materials that are going to

5:49

be required on site and to remove

5:51

the byproducts of the construction. Likewise,

5:54

when we send a signal to

5:56

our body with doing resistance training,

5:58

they're to cope with the new demand we're going

6:01

to need some new tissue to be

6:03

built. The first thing it does is it

6:05

lays down a network of blood vessels called

6:07

capillaries. This new

6:09

network will deliver oxygen and nutrients

6:11

to the area and carry

6:13

out waste. More

6:16

oxygen being delivered means more reps

6:18

before fatigue and better

6:20

waste transportation means better recovery. Also

6:25

during strength training our

6:27

muscles contract to move our

6:30

joints around and that helps us to move the load. When

6:33

we do this the blood

6:35

vessels which are embedded in the

6:37

muscle itself are compressed. When

6:39

they're compressed just like when you squeeze on

6:41

a hosepipe the blood pressure

6:44

inside the vessels increases and

6:47

that pressure increase drives

6:49

blood back towards the heart. So

6:52

we can say absolutely for certain

6:54

that muscle has a function in

6:56

the regulation of a healthy circulatory

6:58

system. But what

7:00

about the complementary lymphatic system?

7:03

Because unlike the circulatory system

7:06

which has the heart to pump blood through

7:08

it, the lymphatic system

7:11

relies entirely on

7:13

pressure gradients created by the

7:15

action of skeletal muscle and valves.

7:20

And to quote a doctor from the

7:22

British Cancer Association, the lymphatic system is

7:24

stimulated by moving your muscles and

7:26

increasing your heart rate. So

7:30

basically without the heart muscular

7:32

contraction is the pump that

7:34

helps lymphatic fluid to move around the body.

7:37

So it follows that if

7:39

you have more muscle mass and use

7:42

it regularly in resistance training you will

7:44

see benefits to the lymphatic system and

7:47

it will also help to keep your body fat

7:49

mass lower because we know

7:51

that obesity is one of

7:53

the major contributors to lymphedema which

7:56

is where lymphatic fluid gets stuck

7:58

and cannot drive. from certain parts

8:01

of the body. So what

8:04

would a training plan to increase

8:06

muscle mass for the benefit of

8:08

your circulation look like? Well,

8:12

long-time listeners will know I can't really

8:14

answer that question as well as I

8:16

would like because of the whole individuality

8:18

thing, but of course

8:21

there are some overarching concepts. First

8:24

of all, it's really useful to

8:26

have functional muscle contractions. What

8:28

does that mean? Well, these

8:31

muscle contractions have to have a function for you.

8:33

For example, for a triathlete

8:36

cycling is a functional contraction

8:39

because it pushes an adaptation

8:42

to a defined function for that

8:44

organism. For a

8:46

gymnast, cycling is not

8:49

a functional contraction because

8:51

the desired function of a gymnast

8:53

does not involve cycling. So

8:56

a functional muscle contraction will be

8:59

one which creates an adaptation according

9:01

to your desired function. If

9:03

you are listening to this and your

9:05

desired function is to resist entropy

9:08

and improve the markers of aging

9:10

such as circulation,

9:13

then your functional contractions will be

9:15

less specific and more general. But

9:18

you still want to build functional

9:21

contraction capabilities across certain

9:23

patterns, ideally across all

9:25

of the movement patterns which we're

9:27

going to use in human environmental

9:29

interaction. The first of those

9:31

patterns is the core. Everything

9:35

you do has to be anchored to your

9:37

core. In strength

9:39

and conditioning they call it

9:41

proximal to distal. In

9:44

CROSFET I know that they call it

9:46

core to extremity, but it's the same

9:48

thing. Everything that you do

9:50

must start from the center and work its

9:52

way out. That's the same

9:54

when you come to the gym, you go to exercise. If

9:56

you go into the gym, let's say it's

9:58

chest day, You

10:00

don't go in and start with wrist curls. No,

10:03

you go in and you start with chest

10:07

and then you work your way out. So you

10:09

might start with a large pec muscles first and

10:11

then you might do some assistance work for your deltoids which

10:13

are moving out to the side. And then

10:16

after that you might do your triceps and

10:18

then you might do some forearm work and

10:20

then you might do some direct wrist work.

10:22

But you're starting from proximal closest to the

10:24

middle line and moving to distal, furthest away

10:26

from your core. So everything has to anchor

10:28

to your core. Next thing

10:31

is pushing. Remember

10:33

what? Pulling. We've got lunging

10:35

which is kind of like part

10:37

of the gait cycle. If you think about

10:40

doing a lunge you're doing a

10:42

single leg movement where you're splitting the

10:44

hip. And it's the

10:46

same when you're walking. It's a single leg hip

10:48

splitting movement. So lunging and gait is kind of

10:51

in the same category. And then

10:53

we've got squatting and bending sometimes called

10:55

hinging. It's

10:57

really common for everyone

10:59

to have a bias. You'll

11:01

bias certain movements that you enjoy and

11:04

totally ignore movements that you don't. So

11:06

for example, every morning at the gym I see

11:09

an older gentleman training. And I love

11:11

that he's there getting after it but every day he just

11:13

does the same thing. He does some bench

11:15

press, he does some biceps, walks some treadmill and

11:17

then leaves. So he's only

11:19

doing some pushing and some aerobic

11:21

movement. He's not doing any

11:24

squats, he's not bending, he's not pulling. And

11:26

the pushing he's doing is restricted to

11:28

a single range of motion or a single

11:31

plane of movement. And

11:33

that might be less reflective of real life. I

11:35

think it's a lot more common that you have

11:37

to maybe put a load up in a cupboard

11:40

that might be above you, reach up onto

11:43

a dresser than it is

11:46

that you would push something away from in

11:48

front of your chest. But both are relevant.

11:52

Anyway, the point is that you

11:54

should be looking at doing as many

11:57

of these movement patterns as you can

11:59

to build fun. functional contraction

12:01

capabilities. But we

12:03

need to expose ourselves also to

12:05

variety within those. If

12:07

we're talking about GPP, which

12:10

stands for general physical preparedness,

12:13

then exposure to new objects will

12:15

be an important factor. So

12:19

I'm gonna throw some jargon at you now,

12:21

but if we're going to press, then yeah,

12:23

you can bench press, but you can also

12:25

floor press, overhead press,

12:27

push press, Arnold press, spotto press,

12:30

landmine press, French press, Z-press, the

12:32

list goes on. And ditto for

12:34

squats, right? You can front squat,

12:37

back squat, overhead squat, pistol squat,

12:39

shrimp squat, derpter squat. All

12:42

of these variants having an ability to be

12:44

a stimulus to muscle adaptation

12:46

and therefore circulation adaptation. Now

12:49

we said before you wanna have the

12:51

biggest bang for your buck in terms

12:53

of strength, and you're right. So if

12:56

we're doing legs, then you wanna back squat

12:58

as your main movement because that's what's gonna

13:00

build the most muscle mass, but there's nothing

13:02

wrong with doing single leg

13:04

squats as an accessory. So

13:07

my advice this week to anyone listening

13:09

would be, hey, let's do this. If

13:13

you're going to the gym to do something you

13:15

normally do, why don't you have a look at

13:17

a variant of that? So if

13:19

you normally bench press, why not

13:21

go strict press? If you're

13:23

back squatting, why not try some front

13:25

squats or try some single arm overhead

13:28

squats, deadlift day, try

13:30

some rack pulls, some Romanian deadlifts.

13:33

That's your challenge this week. If

13:35

you do, email me and let

13:37

me know what you did differently, what

13:39

movement you tried, how you got on.

13:42

If you have a question or just wanna say hi, then

13:45

email me at getfitguy at quickanddirtytips.com and you

13:47

too could be featured on the show. I

13:49

haven't had many emails recently, so come on,

13:51

get at it. Don't forget

13:53

to share this podcast with your friends and enemies.

13:57

Get Fit Guy is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.

13:59

Thanks to the team. at Quick and Dirty

14:01

Tips, Morgan Christensen, Holly Hutton, Davina

14:04

Tomlin, Cameron Lacy and

14:06

director of podcasts, Brannon Goetches.

14:10

I'm your host Kevin Dunn. Do you have a

14:12

question for me? Leave me a voicemail at 5103533104.

14:14

Send me an email at

14:16

getfitguy at quickanddirtytips.com. For

14:19

more information about the show, visit quickanddirtytips.com

14:21

or check out the show notes in

14:23

your podcast app. At

14:28

Discount Tire, we know how valuable your time

14:30

is around the holidays. Get 30% shorter average

14:34

weight time when you buy and book

14:36

online at discounttire.com so you can spend

14:38

more time with friends and family this

14:40

holiday season. Discount Tire must get you taken

14:42

care of.