What is the difference between being Fit and being Healthy? Is there a tradeoff between the two? What are the downsides to pursuing fitness or health as a single entity?
A new chapter from my video blog for www.battlereadyx.com

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Keep it real.
Pushkaraj S Shirke



- Pushkaraj S Shirke

Why Strength Training is More important for Older people than Cardio.

Medical professionals still steer older patients towards endurance, to their detriment.
-Mark RippetoeContrary to conventional wisdom, older people need to focus more on STRENGTH training than on CARDIO. here's why:

When you consult a medical professional about exercise, the standard recommendation amounts to a prescription for a certain number of minutes per day or per week. The conventional wisdom equates “exercise” with “cardio” — endurance exercise performed at a low to moderate intensity for a continuous period of time. We call it LSD (long, slow distance). The assumption seems to be that as long as your heart is capable of working at 65% of its assumed maximum capacity, that’s about all you need to do.

The fact is that a properly designed strength training program constitutes a much better use of the same amount of time a “cardio” workout takes, and provides far more benefits to your quality of life.

This is especially true if you are older.

Assuming you are not a heart patient, strength training provides enough cardiovascular work to serve the purpose, and produces an increase in strength that endurance exercise cannot provide. Here’s why:

1. Not doing the things that make you strong has its consequences.

Increased strength is produced by activity that requires you to use your muscles to produce force — more force than you normally produce in daily activities, and more force than LSD requires. When you use your muscles in an effective strength program, sugar fuels the activity, and efficient carbohydrate metabolism is necessary for your health. A lack of active carbohydrate metabolism is very closely correlated with the development of Type II Diabetes and other unpleasant things. Type II Diabetes shortens your lifespan, in addition to making your shorter life a lot more trouble.

This cannot be emphasized enough: using your muscles in a way that makes them stronger also improves the way your body handles the sugar that can cause metabolic problems like diabetes.

When the human body is allowed to sit on its ass instead of doing the muscular work that keeps it strong, it is being placed in a situation that its physiology is not designed for. Muscular activity is natural. Inactivity is not. Intellectual pursuits notwithstanding, doing the things that keep you strong may well be the most important things you do.


2. The deterioration of strength is a serious problem for older people.

The loss of muscle mass is a perfectly natural consequence of not dying, but that doesn’t mean you have to just let it happen. The loss of muscle mass means the loss of strength, which means the loss of physical capacity. An old weak person is not nearly as much fun to be around — or as fun to be — as an old strong person. As we grow older, one of the primary regrets is that we can’t do the things we used to be able to do. Staying strong solves many of these problems.

Staying strong also prolongs life, which is a good thing if you’re strong enough to enjoy it. A 2008 British Medical Journal meta-analysis showed that strength levels correlated better with longevity than any other parameter. Better than BMI, and better than cardiorespiratory fitness.

Stronger people live longer. Which is very interesting considering the fact that we are so often told how important it is to walk/jog/bike, and that we are almost never told to do our deadlifts and squats.

And while we’re here, know that gaining a little muscular bodyweight while you train is also associated with increased longevity. Several studies have shown that being slightly “overweight” is associated with greater longevity than being of “normal” weight, as identified by the Body Mass Index. This probably has as much to do with the fact that the BMI is a flawed metric as it does with the fact that having more muscle is protective against things that kill you.


3. Being strong also requires you to use your muscles in a way that works your bones.

Your skeleton is the system of levers that your muscles operate to interact with your environment. The loads that your muscles move are actually moved by your bones, and they adapt to being loaded the same way your muscles do — they get stronger. For bones, this means denser and harder to break.

Older people are particularly susceptible to falls and the bone fractures associated with them. A pelvic fracture for an older person is essentially a death sentence. People fall when they “lose their balance” — when your body’s weight gets in a position so far from your feet that you lack the strength to control your position. Adequate strength makes falling less likely.

The combination of being strong enough to not fall when you lose your balance and having denser bones if you do fall is much better than Medicare.


4. The process of intentionally getting stronger also improves cardiovascular function.

It has been shown in dozens of studies that a strength program rigorous enough to work well is also rigorous enough to make you breathe harder and elevate your heart rate. This gets you in better cardiovascular shape, even though it’s not distance running.

Contrast this with LSD — the “cardio” usually performed conscientiously by everyone concerned about their health. It makes your heart beat faster, it makes you breathe harder … and that’s about it.

LSD is necessarily performed at a low intensity, and it cannot make you stronger because it’s not “heavy” enough. It doesn’t work your back or your arms, and it uses a short range of motion for the muscles of the hips and legs. And the only load on your bones is that of your own bodyweight, which was already there anyway.

It’s better to spend your time doing a correctly designed program of full range-of-motion barbell exercises that use progressively heavier resistance than doing “cardio.” I know what your doctor told you, and I’m suggesting that you think about it a little more before you decide to just keep putting one foot in front of the other for a couple of miles for the rest of your non-strong life.

original article from:
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/01/29/strength-vs-endurance-why-you-are-wasting-your-time-in-the-gym/?singlepage=true 

Can Osteoporosis be Reversed? YES it Can.

What?? you have osteoporosis? Stay away from workouts and heavy weights. Stop Martial arts. Dont do this and don't do that.

This seemed to be the common advice everywhere.

Initial Diagnosis:
I have had 14 fractures till date. Thanks to osteoporosis that i get as a genetic gift. At just 28 years of age, i had the bones of an old man - with bone density touching -2.5. If i have an accident, i fracture. My wrists hurt. And if i run for more than 3 kms, i get sever shin splints. My neck has a severe loss of cervical lordosis due to constant neck and shoulder injuries - complicated by porous bones. At one point i was also recommended to get a surgery done to repair a cartilage that was totally damaged and jutting into my spinal cord causing blackouts. I was using 2-3 combiflams/paracetemol per day to deal with the pain and that was further ruining my bone density. Also being a coffee addict, i was having 12-14 cups of coffee a day - and the caffeine was again adding to my reduction in bone density.

For a person who loves activity - staying in bed and living a lethargic life is totally unacceptable. So though i took the recommended 2 years of rest for my severe cervical pain to heal, i used that time to research the hell out of the topic.

In those 2 years I researched everything from menopause caused osteoporosis to reduction of bone density in astronauts to the absorption factors behind calcium to the nature of osteoblasts and osteoclasts that are responsible for the maintenance of bone density.
I still keep on researching more whenever i can.

Whatever i derived from my research, i got to put into practice - not with a doctor, but through someon tottally unexpected - a master of strength training and fitness - Kaizzad Capadia.
And the results were AMAZING to say the least.

this was the diagnosis, 6 months ago. severely osteopineated and mildly osteoporotic. 

here is an article from the socalled AUTHORITY on osteoporosis - it says that weight bearing activities like running jumping and skipping should be done to strengthen your bones - i did exactly the REVERSE. Coz these are the activities that cause severe splints not micro trauma - which makes mending the bone tougher. The doctor advised me low weights an more reps and running, skipping, jumping and plyometrics - and did one rep max and 3 rep max super heavy weight training.
AND THIS CRAP ADVICE IS COMING FROM THE NATIONAL OSTEOPOROSIS SOCIETY!!!!!
so this is why i feel medical science is full of shit - i wasted 12 years following medical science and got NO results.

http://www.nos.org.uk/page.aspx?pid=349

I will first detail the protocol i used and got results and then explain why and how it worked. 

The protocol:

TRAINING: HEAVY WEIGHT STRENGTH TRAINING 4 DAYS A WEEK - all heavy weights low reps (K11 protocol)

day 1: back - rear delt - biceps 

day 2: chest

day 3: shoulder - tricep

day 4: quads - calves - hams

(the only reason i divided chest shoulder and tricep on two separate days is coz of my neck injury - i cant push all muscles of the upper body in a single day due to the pain)

NUTRITION: 

10 whole eggs a day was added to my regular high protein high meat diet.

SUPPLEMENTATION:

1000mg calcium citrate maltate with a cup of milk - twice a day. before breakfast and before lunch.

ZMA at night before bed. 

DIETARY CUTOUTS:

No coffee. No aerated drinks. No caffeine in any way.

PHARMACEUTICALS:

1. 2 Calcitonin injections with an interval of 15 days.
(i will be repeating these injections everytime my vit d3 levels drop - so it would be every year)

2. One osteofos 70 (bisphosphonate) on an empty stomach every week.

my recent dexa scan report showed so much improvement that the doctor was visibly shocked.
I went from osteoporotic to just moderately low bone density in a span just 6 months.  

the loss of cervical lordoiss is still there but only due to muscle spasms - that should go away now with some muscle relaxants. a slight scoliosis of the spine is still evident, am working on that with regular physiotherapy.
There is no sign of any defibrillated cartilage anymore and nothing is jutting into the spinal cord anymore. 

WHY DID MY PROTOCOL WORK - and why does the standard medical protocol fail?

Lets examine the high reps low weight - weight training protocol routine usually prescribed by doctors.
First, the low weight more reps protocol puts less weight on your bones and does not promote that high a development of muscle for you to be able to keep going heavier and heavier. I wanted to LIFT AS HEAVY AS I COULD. Coz with more load on my bones, i would be forcing them to build faster an stronger. Plus i also researched the fact that bones do not usually break under pressure, they break on impact. So the most optimal way to force them to develop, would be to place them under as much load as possible - with proper biomechanical form and technique so as to avoid injuries and keep pushing heavier weights. the more time my bones spend under heavy weights, the more they will eventually rebuild with cortical restructuring.

Now lets examine the running and skipping routines usually prescribed by doctors.
Coming from a background in martial arts and a grounding in physical training, i observed that shin splints and microfractures caused by high impact activities did rebuild the bone stronger - BUT IN NORMAL PEOPLE. For me(with osteoporosis), it was a nightmare. Having osteoporosis made it painful for me to recover from shinsplints caused by running and knee pain caused by skipping week after week. I figured that this wont work. I had to apply the highest amount of microtrauma to the bone, while reducing INJURY. Cause injury on an already injured body meant lesser training and slower recovery. So i actually CUT OUT RUNNING, KICKBOXING, JUMPING, SKIPPING and PLYOMETRIC WORKOUTS from my routine entirely for 6 months. Once my bones reach a density where they wont microfracture so much as to get splints at every workout, i will reintroduce all of these back slowly and steadily. But while the recovery is in progress, it was best to cut it out completely.
PS: i also had to stop biking for 3 months because of the stress it placed on my lower back and spine due to riding on potholed road, which is again continuous impact.

Now lets examine why i chose not to follow the doctors prescription for Osteoporosis entirely.
We tend to follow prescriptions blindly. But i had to ask what i prescribed to me and why.
What I realised that what the doctors are prescribing are outdated sources of certain nutrients and in outdated combinations that have now been proven by research to be ineffective.
So i chose to seek out all the nutrients directly from the best sources i knew. I asked Kaizzad Capadia to put me on a sports nutrition protocol used for athletes for the same reconstructive measures - only that i used it to get back to normal while athletes use it to get beyond excellence. Its nutrition - if t works for them, it would work for me at least a little. And it did.
For calcium, Instead of using the standard prescribed CALCIUM CARBONATE or MAGNICAL, we used Calcium Citrate maltate - which i much more readily absorbed by the body.
For magnesium, instead of using the prescribed magnical which is a magnesium and calcium combination - kaizzad recommeded using magnesium an calcium separately since both o them are heavy minerals and tax the body in terms of absorbtion. IE: taking magnesium and calcium together hinders absorbtion of both. So though magnesium is needed to absorb calcium more effectively, we spaced it in such a way that magnesium has already reached its half life by the time the calcium is consumed and the calcium has reached its half life by the time the magnesium is consumed - ensuring that the calcium and magnesium both are brilliantly absorbed.

The only prescriptions from the doctor i stuck to were the calcitonin injections and osteofos 70 (bisphosphonate) as i found that they id their job effectively and no other superior substitute was available.

Despite doctors theories about protein restricting calcium absorbtion, i continue on a high protein diet. Infact, i was on a bodybuilding ketogenic diet for 3 out of the 6 months. Because in my view, the researches one were not on people subjecting their bodies to the kind o load i was or on athletes. the research was done on common people living most probably sedentary lives. With the level of stress i was subjecting my body to, i had to use all the protein i could to rebuild it - and i did. And it in no way has hampered the development of my bones.

So that is all for my osteoporosis for now. NOW i am officially only slightly osteopineated. 
At level two, i will be experimenting with testosterone and nandrolone since testosterone is by far the most proven bone reconstructing agent known to man kind - though it is rarely prescribed in medical science against osteoporosis, it is used as standard protocol for accident victims and astronauts to rebuild bone density. Though i'm still contemplating about its dosages - should i take it in therapeutic doses or bodybuilding does is a matter that needs more research. Once i'm sure, i will be going ahead with it.

At level three, i will be putting my body through every athletic drill possible to bring the bone density back to normal. That will where all the martial arts and plyometrics and marathons will come back in.
hope to see light again at the end o these new tunnels.

Love and regards,
Pushkaraj Shirke

Kaizzad Capadia - Co Founder and Director of the K11 fitnes academy
a sheer man of science and muscle - and my mentor through this experiment of mine.

Fighting Heart Attacks without Surgery

a weird little strange life: Fighting Heart Attacks without Surgery:

My father is a chain smoker. Has diabetes. And is a top contender for a heart attack with triglyceride levels way above normal (290). Within 3 months, his stats were ALL NORMAL.
Instead of going the regular medical way, i went the bodybuilding way to counter it. And it worked beautifully.
And I'm writing this blog as a recommendation of the same to my counseling client - ACP Brendan Bracko of the Mumbai Police. 

Medical science is great. But when it comes to an understanding of body fat and nutrition, doctors unfortunately try to push their expertise even into a field where they truly have only 'conventional wisdom' to flaunt. So I try and steer clear of it and work on what I understand of the human body and how it functions.

Here's what I found works best to reduce high triglyderide levels (whether they have or do not have diabetes as well):1. Do Weight Training.
Don't just jog and walk like an old man (even if you are one) - hit the gym and train as heavy as you can. Push yourself to lift the heaviest weights you can and increase your body's resting BMR. This helps burn away the bad fats all through the day.
2. Change your diet to the ketogenic diet.
The building up of triglycerides can be attributed to high glycemic carbs - not to dietary fat as popularly propagated. So cut out the carbs from your diet and move to an all protein all fats diets. No white breads, breads, rice, potatoes, beans and lumpy veggies. Make meats and cheese your best friends.
3. Supplement your diet with the following food supplements:
a. ALA (alpha Lipoleic Acid) - this helps your body process glycogen/glucose better. Even if you are on ketosis, your body produces its own glycogen too - and ALA helps process it better.
600mg every morning.
b. FISH OIL - good fats help cut down bad fats - that's the most simple explanation i can give here.
2 capsules with every meal.
c. Yohimbe and L-Carnitine capsules every morning to boost the transportation of fat for energy production.
d. Needless to say, you will be having a minimum of 3 hydrolysed protein shakes a day - one every morning, 1 post workout and 1 pre workout (45 mins).

Before you go onto this routine, record your stats.
After 3 months, record them again or do it every month.
And share the reports with me.
I'd love to show the world how well it works.

- Pushkaraj S Shirke