Matt Metzgar

Getting Older

I think one of the biggest disappointments in reaching adulthood is realizing that getting older does not give a person some special wisdom.  For example, when I was a kid, I always thought those old guys smoking cigars at the bowling alley were pretty cool.  Now I realize they were just... old guys at the bowling alley smoking cigars.  Men who may or may not have had family problems, substance problems, etc.

Unfortunately, neither getting older, getting married, or even having kids automatically injects wisdom into a person.  But I guess if adults told kids that, then it would probably create some problems in the social order.  Instead, kids are told about how great things will be when they grow up.

If anything, I see people getting worse as they get older, not better.  Less creative, less flexible, and less athletic.  There are exceptions of course, and everyone would like to be one of these exceptions, but in general I see a trend for people to get worse.

Except for rational thinking, it seems like almost all other qualities are amplified in youth and then gradually fade away during aging.  People usually become better at solving day-to-day problems as they age, but this is more due to experience than anything else.  In evolutionary terms, the mating sweepstakes is in the younger years, so it makes sense that this is when certain qualities would be at their peak.

Highways

I read this interesting article in USA Today.  It talked about how Oklahoma City is replacing an aging interstate with... nothing.  They are actually going to move the interstate away from downtown, and use the space for a park and a boulevard.  The article cites a growing number of cities who want to do away with interstates that cut right through the heart of their cities.

I'm fascinated by this because it's such a departure from traditional ideas.  It makes logical sense that an interstate should go around a city, and not directly through it.  Certainly, an interstate that goes right through the middle of a city will have a negative impact on that area.  The article cites a couple of case studies in San Francisco and Manhattan where removing a highway led to new neighborhood development.  It will be interesting to see how this concept progresses over the next decade.

For Lease: Downtown Buffalo

It's amazing to me how empty downtown Buffalo is.  I would guess that almost half of all commercial space is for lease.  It's not just one section either; it's really all of downtown Buffalo and even some adjoining areas that have a substantial number of empty properties.

Recently, a Harvard economist wrote this piece asking the question, "Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?"  The short answer is no.  Buffalo put all its eggs in one basket, manufacturing, and that basket has left town.  The city never diversified into other industries, and now it's paying the price.

When the economic forces are so powerfully negatively, you have to question whether it's even rational to involve yourself in revitalization efforts.  I'm sure there are groups out there who want to "bring Buffalo back".  It's probably better to just accept things the way they are, and let Buffalo reach its equilibrium as a smaller city.

Barefoot in the Park

I stopped at a local park for lunch the other day.  It was a nice, sunny day out so I thought I'd go for a walk.  I decided to walk barefoot on the grass to give my feet a "workout" so to speak.

Definitely I think shoes "dumb down" your feet.  Walking (or running) barefoot helps maintain the musculature of the foot.  It's not a big leap to think that many foot injuries/problems are the result of wearing shoes over a lifetime.  It would be the equivalent of a person wearing boxing gloves on their hands every day, and then expecting their bare hands to be perfectly functional and healthy.

National Healing Month

One thing that's hard to accept about exercise is that less is sometimes more.  Rest is a necessary and crucial component of any fitness program.  Yet two things appear to be working against incorporating sufficient rest into any program:

• Doing something is usually more fun than doing nothing
• There is no profit to be made from telling someone to rest

I remember reading how Mike Mentzer would often advise new, overtrained clients to take off a month from the gym and then restart with his program.  Of course, he got immediate pushback because the people didn't want to stop.  It's hard to accept that in some situations doing nothing is superior to doing something different.

The body can continue in an overtrained state for a very long time.  And putting the brakes on this overtraining can even lead to a person feeling worse in the very short-term.  For example, even if a person is overtrained and they go to work out, they can usually still get a hormonal boost from it.  Over the long term, they are digging an even deeper hole, but it's a quick fix nonetheless.

Something else I've noticed is that there appears to be a hierarchy to the body's healing process.  Primary injuries or spots of wear-and-tear are healed first.  Then secondary spots are healed.  These secondary spots can be physical problems that have been swept under the rug so long a person didn't even know they were there.

For me personally, I have designated May as National Healing Month and I will be doing no heavy exercise this month.  I've taken various months off in the past, and it doesn't really set you back that much in terms of fitness.  National Healing Month would probably be very beneficial to some, especially recreational athletes who are saddled with minor injuries.  At the very least, it would remind people to give their bodies and themselves a break.

 

Palm Oil

I bought some palm oil at the store this weekend.  I've read that it's used more in Europe and other countries, and so it seemed worth a try.  I actually had trouble finding it - there was only one brand in the organic section of the grocery.

Here's a New York Times article about a recent controversy involving palm oil.  It appears the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is against palm oil due to the saturated fat content.  From what I recall, this Center is some joke organization that I think may even be against meat in general.  They just seem to be plowing ahead with the ineffective low-fat message that hasn't worked the last 30-plus years.  Someone even got mad enough to put up this website, CSPI Scam, that shows all the inconsistencies and problems with the CSPI. 

At any rate, I tried the palm oil on some meat tonight, and it tasted pretty good.  At the very least, it's a way to provide a little diversity in flavors and micronutrients.  With the phasing out of trans fat, palm oil use seems to be on the rise.  More background information on palm oil in America is available at this site. 

Maintaing Muscle Mass

The usual story is that people lose muscle as they age due to disuse.  But more and more research I come across shows that nutrition may be even more important than exercise when it comes to maintaining muscle mass.  Here's a sampling:

• Alkaline diets (high in fruits and vegetables) favor maintenance of lean mass
• Higher protein intake helps maintain lean mass
• Insulin resistance leads to muscle wasting

So if you have all your nutritional ducks in a row, how much exercise and resistance training is needed to stave off muscle loss during aging?  I don't know the answer, but I think it's an interesting question - one that future research will hopefully be directed towards.

Random NBA Update

I finally got a chance to see Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets play on tv the other night.  Holy smokes is that guy good!  He appears to be one of those athletes with tremendous balance.  Even if he is contorted in the air, he seems to somehow land properly on his feet - like a cat. 

I also noticed his footwork is very centered under his hips.  Some athletes take huge strides and put themselves off-balance; Chris Paul seems to keep most of his motion within a certain limited frame which makes his movement more efficient.  I think he will be a great player for many years to come.

High Fat Heaven

Coincidentally, I have been thinking more about high-fat eating, and then Mark Sisson lays down this killer post about it.  Mark has been out of commission for a few months, doing no cardio and some light weightlifting, but his physique has remained stellar due to his correct eating.  He notes that his diet is sometimes up to 65% fat - enough to make a traditional doctor choke, but not that crazy from a Paleo perspective.

I was combing through my own records the other night, and I noticed my waist was the lowest a couple of months ago when I was eating the most fat.  I was literally just drinking spoonfuls of oil, yet my waist and weight declined.  Strange, but true.

I think part of this can be contributed to the idea that you have to eat fat to burn it.  Many scientists think of the body as a fat-hoarding machine, but that doesn't really make much sense to me.  Even at low body fat levels (<10%), there's still plently of fat to use.  In various studies, people have gone 30 days or more on water-only fasts, with minimal ill effects.  So why would the body jump at seeing any calorie excess and direct it to fat storage, if it can go weeks without any food at all?

One other connection to make comes from this statement (originally from a scientific journal) from this online book:

"Fasting or feeding a high-fat diet abolished lipogenesis (fat formation) in adipose tissue and reduced glucose oxidation markedly; lipogenesis increased to the highest levels on a high-carbohydrate, fat-free diet."

So it appears that both fasting (as in intermittent fasting) or feasting on high-fat (Paleo) foods can contribute to lower body fat levels.  This falls in line with my feast/fast model I've discussed previously.

I believe the research will continue to turn away from the dysfunctional low-fat diet model towards higher-fat eating over the next decade.  Scientists are already testing high-fat diets to treat cancer, so the machinery is already in motion.  Until then, many people can potentially benefit from higher-fat eating in terms of health and weight loss. 

The Cheerleader and The Jock

I absolutely love papers like this one(pdf), which shows how female mate choice is influenced by male sports participation.  The paper seeks to validate the common idea that male athletes are more successful at mating than non-athletes.  The study finds this to be true, but it takes things a step further.  It goes on to show that male athletes who are successful in team sports do even better than male athletes in solo sports.

Why so?  The authors believe that team sports showcase other qualities besides pure athletic ability, like leadership, teamwork, and role acceptance.  It is thought that these characteristics would carry over to real-life, producing men who are better providers and parents.  Interesting!

The paper also briefly mentions how this may drive the crazy behavior you see among the parents of some young athletes.  If better athletic performance increases mating opportunities, then in an evolutionary sense the parents actually benefit (in terms of inclusive fitness) if they can propel their male sons to greater athletic heights.  Of course, all this is not really going on at the conscious level, but it is being driven by underlying evolutionary mechanisms.