Exercise, Anxiety and Beta Blockers

I've suffered from anxiety for quite a while now.  It's really unpleasant - aside form the emotional effects, he physical effects of feeling anxious can be completely overwhelming.  My heart races or feels irregular, my breathing becomes shallow and rapid, I fidget and feel like running away or hiding or crying.  I have had counselling and learnt a few mindfulness tricks to help manage it and get it under control and they certainly help.  Remembering that "this too shall pass" also really helps, as anxiety can feed itself.  For me, that leads to migraines and nausea.

If I go for a run before I get a headache, then my body deal with the hormones associated with anxiety in the way the body is designed to - after all, the feeling is the fig or flight response.  Unfortunately, during the day I cannot just get up and go for a run … I have a job to do and I'm pretty sure they'd not be happy with me popping on a pair of trainers and disappearing for an hour or so.

So a month or so ago I went to the doctors to talk about it.  I felt that I needed something that would enable me to stop the circle of anxiety, where the physical symptoms feed into themselves to make the feelings worse.  She suggested beta blockers.  During my various exercise courses I had heard of beta blockers.  "Ok" I thought "they cap my heart rate, so I'll not be able to work out so intensively.  I won't be able to rely on heart rate for an indicator of how hard I'm working".  I don't use heat rate monitors much anyway, so I wasn't that worried about their effects.

One day I was feeling particularly anxious and my heart was raving and my breathing shallow, so I decided that I needed to bring it under control and had one of the beta blockers.  Then I remembered that I'd arranged to meet some friends - so I jump on he Nike and frantically cycle up the hill.  I expected to get hot and bothered, but as well as those expected feelings I felt as though my chest was going to explode!  My legs were burning, my lungs felt as though they'd expanded in a vain effort to get as much oxygen into themselves as possible - while my heart just pottered on as though nothing was happening.  It was really confusing for my body.  At least I didn't feel anxious.  But i didn't like the feelings.  "Ok, so don't expect to do anything too intense after having one of them beta blockers" I said to myself.

Yesterday was a difficult day for me.  For no descernable reason I began to feel anxious.  Again my heart began to race and feel irregular and my breathing shallowed.  I had a few pills yesterday and by the evening the physical symptoms were under control and I felt better.  I had a decent nights sleep.

Today I went for my normal Sunday run.  I planned to run 10 miles.  So I start off up the hill.  I can tell early on that my heart was going to cooperate, so I slow right down.  My legs feel as though they were working really hard, but I was barley faster than a walk.  After about 2 miles I stopped.  I just couldn't keep going.  In the end, I resorted to doing intervals to get home - a recommended way of exercising with beta blockers, where you alternate periods of activity with periods of recovery.  I did get home and I felt as though I'd had a work out.  It took me 45 minutes to do 4 miles.  I was not pleased.  So I'll try again tomorrow.

I will probably get anxiety attacks again and I'll probably need to take a beta blocker again - and I will get used to them, but there's nothing quite like experiencing something for oneself to understand what it's like for others.  I don't know how many trainers have tried a beta blocker, but the experience will early help me appreciate and be supportive of others on medication.

Brighton Marathon Photos

Photos taken by the Alzheimer's Society during the Brighton Marathon - probably about 5 miles from the end.  Brings be memories.  I look a state, but that's because it's hard work!  The chap I ran with is in the photo set, but his number is hidden :( 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alzrun/sets/72157644636796744/

Always Wear Hat in the Sun

Andy went out for a run

Which he thought exceedingly fun

    But no hat did he wear

    And 'cause he'd no hair

Was burnt to a crisp by the sun

Gin Gym

Martha went oft to the gym

Hoping to become very thin

    She'd work out all day

    As often as she may

But her water was actually gin

An Ode to Deadlifts

Deadlifts sound so very grim

But believe me, sir, they'll make you thin

By working on those gluts and thighs

They'll help you to reduce in size

And though by mass you'll be a loser

Soon you'll be wearing a looser ... trooser

New Shoes!

After running many, many more miles than I have ever run before in the last 12 months (three half marathons, that Clevedon to Filton run and the Brighton Marathon), I decided that i was way past time for me to buy a new pair of trainers.

Old faithful trainers

You can see in the photo above just how sorry my old pair had become: the tread is completely worn away, the structure is splitting apart in places, the cushioning has collapsed and you can see to the left of the upside shoe that the sole has completely worn away!  That's because I changed from heel striking to mid-foot striking about 18 months ago.

Heel Strike versus Mid Foot Strike

Above I've doodled a picture of the mechanical differences between heel-strike (how I used to run) and mid-foot strike.  The key thing with a heel-strike is the straightness of the leg - all the forces are transferred directly from the heel up the leg and through the knee joint ... I used to get a lot of knee pains when I first started running.

Over the years I strengthened pretty much every muscle in my body, but particularly in my legs and core; this enabled my muscles to take more of the impact and about 18 months ago I shifted from heel-striking.

Initially, I went full on toe-strike - this works for some people, but not for me - it was just too unnatural.

The I compromised and started landing more middle of the foot.  The effects were quite surprising.  My speed increased slightly (don't get me wrong: I am still just a plodder, I just plod slightly faster), and my injuries went down (until very recently - and that was nothing to do with how I was running, just a big increase in distance in a short time).

Mid-foot (and forefoot) running requires much stronger legs - you can see from my amazing artwork above that more joints are flexed so that muscle, rather than bone and cartilage, is taking the strain: and muscle repairs much faster than bone. 

So off I go to Easy Runner.  A small shop just off St Michael's Hill in Bristol - it's the place I've bought three of my last four running shoes.  The one pair I didn't have specially fitted were a real mistake: injuries in next to no time and I had to go back to Easy Runner to be fitted properly.

There was as bit of a wait, but I knew it was going to be worth it: they spend a lot of time assessing how you run and trying different shoes on you.  I lost count of how many pairs I tried on, but the chap knew his stuff: he could see that I no longer needed shoes that compensated for a large amount of pronation (an foreseen benefit of mid-foot strikes are that my feet no longer collapse inwards as I move from heel to toe - and that lack of collapse had transferred itself all up the kinetic chain so that my knees stopped hurting from impact and twisting inwards).

The assistant-chap was really knowledgeable and with some careful observation and gait analysis using a treadmill and a slow-motion camera was able to reveal a few things about my running that I could never know on my own.  I need to do some more glut, hamstring and abductor strengthening work.

Gradually, this chap edged me towards what he described as "transitional" shoes - something half way between the heavily padded types that I'd worn previously and the "bare foot" types that were the vogue a few years ago.

These new pair are even lighter than my last pair and are way more flexible so that they don't fight against the mid-foot striking that I've been doing, but still offer some stability.

So I'll be off for a run soon (when the rain stops) to trial out my new shoes.  Easy Runner are so confident that they'll get the fitting right for me that they'll replace them if they don't work out (as long as I've not been wading through mud).

Shiny New Shoes!

If you're interested, this is Easy Runner's website: http://www.easyrunner.co.uk/

Funky Names of Body Parts

I love the human body, some of the names given to parts of it are magical (or silly); here's some of the meanings I've dreamt up for them … can you think of others?

The Great Trochanter

Cheesy magician for children's parties, catch-phrase Spinnywinnyroundaroom!

Bicipital Groove

Seventies disco group, famous for such hits as Pumping Iron and Feel Those Guns, Darlin'

Fibula

A little lie that supports a bigger one

Teres Minor / Major

Binary star system in the constellation of Umerus

Acromion

Ancient magical text book containing all knowledge of the human body

Sciatica

A Greek Island famous for little old ladies carrying enormous loads on their aching backs

Gluteus Maximus

Roman General, famous for standing up against the Greek king, Iliopsoas at the battle of Pelvis in 104BC.

Angina

Beautiful maiden of legend, said to break men's (and women's) hearts

Brighton Marathon 2014

6am and the alarm goes off.  I turn it off.  Then another goes off, that one goes off too.  Then a third.  I set three alarms: I've been so nervous that I'd not been sleeping so good.  I get up and start moving around.  I can hear others in the hotel moving around as well.  This hotel is about 6 miles outside of town; I some to a hotel owner in town yesterday, he said that he could have let his rooms three times over!

I scoff some cereal and have a cuppa tea and a coffee, dress and jump in the car.  The park and ride is only three miles way, but I'm not absolutely sure where it is.  Anyway, I do miss the exit and then run into a horrendous queue.  But since these are all marathoners too (you can tell), I'm not worried.

The start is a park in the middle of Brighton, a few miles from the beach.  I drop my bag off with my rain mac in and wander around for a bit.  It's quite a buzz.  I am so anxious: I have no clear idea that I can do this.  I say a prayer and talk to my nan for a bit.

Paula Radcliffe does some speech about how she won so many marathons.  Funny, not stopping to take a wee didn't figure in it.

I'm in the less than four hour group.  I know that if I can do the distance, that I can't do it in e time I originally thought I could.  So I find some space at the back and just soak up the vibe.

These events are amazing: the feelings and energy at the start is electric!

Almost without knowing it, the race starts!  A loud trumpet sound and that's it.  I pretty much walk to the start line … I have a feeling that I might need every ounce of energy that I've got!  And, besides, I need to establish in my own head that I need to run at my pace and not get swept along with the crowd.  If I start too fast, I may not finish.

The first few miles of the race wind down towards the pier.  On the way I see someone else wearing an Alzheimer's Society vest, so I wish them luck.  His name is Luke and his story absolutely broke my heart: his mum has Alzheimer's and is in the final stages of the disease.  She's had it so long that he simply cannot remember a time when she was normal.

We stick together for almost the whole race.  He's good company and really helps me to keep going.  He says he's after 10 minute miles; since I work in kilometres that didn't mean too much for me, but his pace feels easy enough and we keep each other going.

The next leg of the race leads eastwards asking the coast tracing white cliffs.  It's pretty undulating, or hilly as is perhaps a better way of putting it.  But the fresh air welcome.  Trotting on it looks like we're about to turn round and then we notice that the turn around is a mile inland somewhere.  All these races do that, make it look like you're at a turn and then lead you off somewhere.

My knees are starting to hurt, so I pop a couple of ibuprofen, which help enormously.

Trotting back towards the town we pass the pier.  The next time we see it, we'll be heading back to the start.  13 miles is only a few hundred meters away from the pier, and just past that is the Brighton Centre - where (if you been paying attention) I've been recently banging on about ABBA, Eurovision and forty years.

Chat chat chat trot trot trot.

Luke says a few times that if I want to run ahead, that I should feel free to.  I say the same to him.  At one point I say that I've got a stitch and say that he'd best go on ahead.  But we stick together.

My emotions are a bit random; sometimes I feel like crying: this whole experience is so amazing.  I am so stunned that I am doing this: that geeky, bullied kid runs a marathon!

We head into some posh residential region.  Suddenly I found that I was tired and bored.  This is a really long straight stretch and it's doing my head in.  Miles fourteen and fifteen are an absolute drudge.  Then sixteen is approaching and suddenly I'm full of beans.  An energy gel might have helped, but I was aware that I was coming up to seventeen miles and I wasn't crippled.  So I'm cheering myself and Luke on, but he doesn't look right.

His furthest run was eighteen miles, only a mile further than myself, and he was now approaching that.  I keep cheering him on.  Then he gets cramp.  The penny drops: he is struggling and can't keep up. I'm really disappointed, but I'm not helping him, so I go ahead.

The final stretch is westward towards some power station type thing and back.  I feel great!  Mile twenty, twenty-one, then twenty-two, then crash!

Pain increases and power fails.  I take more energy gels and drink, but it's become a struggle like never before.

But I can now see the pier.  I know it's less than four miles - that's a windy run home.  An easy run.  I just have to keep going, one foot at a time.  I can do it.  I know I can.  I only have to keep it up for less than an hour.  Then only twenty, fifteen, ten minutes.

Then I pass the pier - only four hundred meters.  I feel as though I'm going to cry and then I can see it!  My legs are moving, but I'm not going any faster, but I am getting there!

Emotions are all over the place, they have been all weekend, all race!  I pass the line and my mind is completely blank!  All I want is to lie down.  My heart it's beating and feels quite unlike anything I've ever felt before.  My hands feel numb.  This isn't good: I have to try and keep moving and come down gently.  God!  I want a cup if tea!

So there you go.  I run 26.2 miles and what I want most is a nice cup of tea!

After the race, I wait around and watch some of the other runners come in.  It's really moving: these people are still moving and this is now five or six hours after the start.  All sorts have run in this race.  As you'd expect, there's the usual young hotties, but there are the old, crippled and flabby running too: these are the ones that inspire me - this is a real challenge for them and they did it!  I don't know any of them, but I feel such immense admiration for them!

I'm so dazed after the race, that it takes me a couple of hours to work out that the bus back to car park was behind me the whole time … and so I come home from one of the most incredible experiences if my life.

When I got to bristol, I continued up to St Peters church to sit by my Nan's grave and show her my medal.

My emotions continue to wander all over the place - elated at one moment and tears the next.

Thank you everyone for your love and support: I could not have done it without you - together we will have raised (including ALD's contribution) about £900.

Remembering why I'm running in the Brighton Marathon next Sunday

I've just completed my last long run before the Brighton Marathon next Sunday - this run was somewhere around 9 miles (the phone spontaneously rebooted half way round, so I don't know for sure).  I'm running with an achy knee and the after affects of a cold.  This is going to be a really tough run!

I was very close to my Nan, she was the one person with whom I could be completely myself when I was growing up.  She gave me so many precious gifts: time and her company and space to be myself – she was never well off and I realise that I never wanted money from her, just to spend time with her.  If I was unhappy, she was the one I ran away to.  She made Christmas complete.  I loved her absolutely.

She gradually got more and more scatty and irritable – that wasn’t like her: she had always been a very kind and patient woman, full of gratitude for her life.  When she was diagnosed with dementia, she was relieved: having a name for what was happening to her brought her some peace.

Over the period of the next ten years she gradually went from a vibrant, colourful woman full of spirituality and life to an empty shell, unable to recognise anyone except on certain rare and treasured occasions.  When she died, I realised that I had been in mourning for her for years and the main feeling was one of relief – that was horrible and I felt very guilty for that.  But her last words to me, only days before she died and after a long period of not speaking were “I love you”.  I am almost in tears now as I write this!  Such a wonderful gift at the last!

Soon after her diagnosis, she made plans for her funeral.  The event, when it came, was all about her and full of her style, elegance and personality.

I hope the Alzheimer’s Society can fund earlier diagnosis of dementia, so that those that have it and their families can make the most of the time they have left.  I hope that ways are found to slow the progress of the disease and maybe even so that it can be prevented, halted and possibly cured.

The thought occurs to me that the Brighton Marathon is the weekend after Mothering Sunday (in the UK); Nan was a member of the Mother’s Union and really enjoyed celebrating the day, which is an important event in the MU calendar.  My Nan’s church had received a bequest long ago, that daffodils would be provided on Mother’s Day for children to give to their parents – many of the children would also collect a bunch to give to my Nan.

I was very blessed to have a Nan like mine, and I know that she is still proud of me wherever she is now.

So I shall be dragging myself around twenty six and a bit miles by my bloody and broken fingernails if I have to!

Thank you to the massive amount of support I've received so far!  If you would like to support me, then I have a just giving page: www.justgiving.co.uk/andyskingsley.  ALD will double (up to £500) whatever I raise, so in total that's already nearly £800!

Food for Thought

As a fitness professional, nutrition is often considered in terms of performance (eat this to go faster, further or improve recovery times) or appearance (body composition, lose or gain weight or improve muscle definition and shape).  Whilst many fitness professionals do have an understanding of how food affects the emotions, very little thought is given to the impact of what we eat on how we feel or why we eat what we do.

Curiously, the impact of food on how we feel is also rarely considered by those in the mental health services - specifically I'm thinking of counselling and psychotherapy professions.  Yet what we eat can have a profound affect on how we feel.

For example, it is known that caffeine and sugar can increase feelings of anxiety and depression despite giving an initial lift to our feelings, therapists will rarely suggest to clients that an alteration in diet may reduce the burden of difficult feelings like anxiety and depression.

This knowledge is often known by fitness professionals, but rarely is it asked for by clients - this is one of the examples of where counselling and personal training can actually meet: the mind and body is ultimately part of a single unit that should be treated as an integrated whole: YOU!

Progress not Perfection

Most clients come to me with very fixed goals in mind - most usually "I want to lose weight".  Goals are well and good, but they can demotivate and are generally temporary. By which I mean that if they are too difficult to achieve, then are too often abandoned or once achieved you spring back to your old habits and lose all the benefits gained through healthy eating and exercise.

I prefer to promote lifestyle change - little by little transforming the way my clients live so that they permanently live fitter, healthier lives.  They may achieve their goals en route, but the goals may become only a secondary concern once the pattern of wellness becomes ingrained.

To make this transition from goal focussed to habitually living well requires that my clients fall in love with the process of eating healthy food and exercising regularly.  That this is seen not as a chore, but as a right and an entitlement: you deserve to look after yourself and have time doing something to make you feel good!

Stair Running

What is it?

Stair running is what it says - running up and down stairs.  Think about how hard you work walking up a few flights of stairs (please tell me you use the stairs and not the lift or escalator!) - it doesn't take much to get you out of breath.

Stair running challenges the body aerobically, as the effort to lift the body vertical is much greater than that of simply moving forwards.  Extra oxygen is required by the working muscles to keep them burning fuel, that requires deeper inhalation of the lungs and stronger and more frequent pumping of the heart, increasing the body's ability to burn fat.  Incidentally, a stair run episode of 20-30 minutes can be twice as effective as a run of the same duration in improving aerobic performance and will burn approximately twice as many calories as a run of the same duration.

Stair running also gets deep into the buttock and leg muscles as the upward motion requires a much stronger response from those big muscles.  In fact, it's more likely to invoke the glutes than standard running, as those muscles only really get involved in the more forceful movements.

Additionally, stair running improves balance and coordination and that makes for safer running.  It can also provide a less impact intensive alternative to conventional running (provided you take it very easy on the descent).

As a result, stair running is an excellent component of any running, half marathon or marathon training program.

What to do

Get warmed up!  This is strenuous exercise and you should be well warmed up before starting.

Find a set of stairs which aren't used that much (so you won't be fighting past people).  Typically, these might be fire escapes (indoors or outdoors), footbridges or you might have access to the steps in a stadium.  I use the steps between IKEA and the other shops at the Eastgate Shopping Centre; there are a set that don't get much use.  I think these are about the equivalent of two flights in a house.

The rest is easy!  Run up the stairs as fast as you can and take about twice as long coming back down to recover.  Repeat any number of times; I do a anywhere between 12-16 runs of one type before changing over and doing a different kind of run.

Types of Stair Run

Basic

Run up the stairs just as you would walk them by placing one foot on the next step up from the other foot as quickly as you can.

Quick Feet

Take one step at a time, placing both feet on the step.  Alternating starting foot so that your left leg leads for the first ascent, then your right foot leads for the second ascent.  This exercise is good for working on agility.

Sideways

Turing sideways to the stairs so that your feet are longwise on each step and your hips and body face the handrail (assuming there is a handrail), move as quickly up the stairs without allowing your hips or feet to twist towards the steps.  This exercise works agility and coordination as well as getting deep into the calf muscles.

Bounding

Take two steps at a time and bound all the way up.  The greater force required will get deep into those big leg muscles.

Leaping

Starting with only single steps, jump forward so that both feet end up on the next step at the same time.  You can increase the number of step to two or three, but do take extra care with this version of the exercise as the risks of falling are greatly increased.

Finally…

For obvious reasons, do take extra care if doing this in the dark or wet!

When Was The Last Time You Changed Your Routine?

A few minutes on the upright bike, a few weights, some crunches and a wee stretch at the end and you're done!  Or are you?  While you may be perfectly satisfied with your routine, and many follow the same routine for years, you might be missing out on boosting your progress - you might not even be making any progress - or worse: performing exactly the same movements day and day out might actually be storing up joint problems.

Perhaps you're one of those into "muscle confusion"?  Doing something different every session with the idea that if your muscles don't know what's about to hit them that they'll adapt more quickly?  Such routines can feel like hard work or they might feel easy, but without a plan and some baselines (which involves having some fixed elements to your routine), you'll never know what works and what works against you.

While changing your routine might seem easy, what people don't realise is that it's best to do it in an organised and planned manner - thinking about how to measure whether the changes are successful or counter productive.  Personal Trainers can teach you how to work a balanced routine, how to modify the routine and how to monitor how your routine is working.  A Personal Trainer will always ensure that your programme is safe and balanced - what's more (provided you're dedicated and stick to the plan), you needn't see your Personal Trainer every week!