Dave Mills, The Optimal Balance

I am happy to have a guest post to Exercise Neuroscience @ UD.  Megan Gilmore is a Senior Exercise Science major at the University of Delaware and the type of student who makes my job more meaningful.  Enjoy.

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This is Dave. Dave was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 1973 at just 24 years old. After years of questioning his diagnosis, Dave saw another doctor who concluded that Dave actually has Spinocerebellar Ataxia in 1992. As his condition has progressed since then, he has become 98% dependent on his wheelchair. This hasn’t stopped Dave from getting to the YMCA to swim 3-6 times weekly, covering 1-1.5 miles each session. In order to maintain his physical fitness, Dave needs to display strong aspects of social and mental fitness, while arranging rides through his transportation service and keeping a positive attitude to continue exercising, despite the effort it may take to get there. The majority of us are perfectly capable of walking to a local gym, using the exercise equipment of choice, and getting back to our lives within an hour, yet we choose to let our physical fitness take the back burner. Does it take a debilitating event or disease to appreciate the bodies we are given?

Spinocerebellar Ataxia (SCA) is a condition characterized by progressive problems with movement. People with this condition initially experience problems with coordination and balance (ataxia). People with SCA typically survive 10 to 20 years after symptoms first appear. Today in 2015, Dave has been diagnosed with a condition degenerating his ability to move for over 40 years. Watching Dave swim 54 laps in the pool before 10 am on a Saturday morning was moving to say the least. He refuses to receive help from any person or device to get into or out of the pool and moves from one end to the other using mainly his left arm. After getting out of the pool, he said to me, “My right arm doesn’t move too well does it? But it works enough. Everything has its role.” Dave doesn’t take anything for granted and feels fortunate to have any ability in the arm that is lacking the mobility it once had. Comprehensive fitness can certainly be brought back to Dave’s quote. Social, mental, and physical fitness have to work together, each playing  a role, for a person to embody an overall high level of fitness. He utilizes his body as a unit, where everything has a part to play, big or small.

Dave was hospitalized on two separate occasions this May and June for a serious case of pneumonia, adding up to a total of six weeks in the hospital. In neither of these hospital visits did Dave receive a shower. He watched as his able-bodied roommates got up to take showers daily, but this simple daily function would be considered more of a luxury or a treatment for Dave, as the nurses or aides would have to step in and initiate the process. Dave explained that the staff appeared to be too busy to give him a shower, as they were dealing with more “critical” events with other patients.

It shouldn’t take losing mobility for people to realize that there needs to be change. It is education and awareness that can facilitate change in the attitudes people have towards people with limited mobility. Rather than asking himself, “why me,” Dave maintains a positive attitude as he realizes that his disability is a reality that people face. Hopefully this makes you think. As a 22 year old, I know that I am not guaranteed my health. Maintaining comprehensive fitness is the strongest protective measure to combat challenges and ensure resilience. Any day my body could fail me, and I hope I would choose to live like Dave.

REFERENCE:
“SCA1.” Genetics Home Reference. 30 Nov. 2015.   Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Purposeful Fitness

These are the heart rate data from my 5K (3.2 miles) on the treadmill this evening.  It was a 35 minute experience.  It wasn't my typical 5K run.  It was a run-walk-run 5K with a specific purpose.  And the goal of this post is to model the habit of attaching fitness to a purpose.

The purpose of tonight's training was to support personal fitness and family fitness.  In about 12 days my family from Delaware (flat) will be visiting the White Mountains in New Hampshire (not flat). Not too long ago we decided that one of our family goals is to climb all the 4000 footers in the Whites.

Tonight's fitness strategy is informed by experience from last year (Jan. 2015), when the premier hike took us to the summit of Mt. Pierce with a temperature at the summit well below 0.  We have been visiting the Whites for 2-3 days at a time in the summers and winters.  During each visit, our first hike is an easier 'shake-down' hike in which the purpose is to become reacquainted with the temperatures, the terrain, our gear and fitness.

Last year was our first attempt at a Winter 4000 footer.  If you believe in comprehensive fitness, you believe in planning and being prepared.  This list of recommended equipment from the Appalachian Mountain Club will fill a backpack and I haven't hiked with a  full pack in years.  Our shakedown hike was a beautiful hike up Mt. Pemigewasset.  Unfortunately, I wasn't fit for the task and it made me very tired and very sore.  Embarrassingly so.  I bounced back well enough for the larger hikes on the following days but I have absolutely no interest in being unfit again at the wrong time this year, especially with family-welfare at stake.

So this evening's treadmill workout went like this:

• Run a 9-minute mile.
• Walk 1.2 miles at 4 mph with the incline set at 14.  
• Run a 9 minute mile.

This workout was hard for me and it accomplished exactly what I hoped.  It gave me a mild sensation of low-back strain and my tibialis anterior muscles were working very hard.  Both sets of muscles will likely be sore within 24-36 hours (delayed onset muscle soreness).  I will periodically get out of my chair and walk around at work tomorrow. These muscles will recover and if I have a few more workouts like this I will not be sore in New Hampshire due to a task-specific increase in fitness. I'll be better prepared and this elevates the family safety factor - comprehensive fitness.

And yes, my heart rate data probably look weird for someone who knows what they are looking at.  I happen to have a cardiac pacemaker.*  It keeps my heart rate above 55 beats per minute (bpm) and increases it as needed for exercise - as well as modern technology can.  The point of showing you the heart rate data is to demonstrate how much you can increase your cardiovascular demand by walking. Walking can be used sensibly to reduce the impacts that would otherwise occur with running - while still getting great fitness benefits.  Some of my favorite Kinesiology experiments from the 1970s are Scandinavian studies that show substantial increases in VO2 max (the ability to use oxygen for work) due to a program of inclined treadmill walking with ski poles.  Very specific - very purposeful.
  

During my first 9 minute mile of running my HR was around 140 bpm.  When running or cycling, I rarely see my HR at the pacemaker's maximum setting of 160 bpm.  But after the first blue line on the graph, look at how the heart rate goes up with walking at 4 mph on a 14% incline.  It quickly went up to 160 bpm and stayed there as constantly as a machine would (straight lines in natural heart rate data are rare).  And wow, I learned something new about myself.  Once I got my heart rate up to 160 bpm by power walking - it stayed there even after I switched back to the easier 9-minute mile run on the level treadmill.

Bottom line - I am better staying fit when I attach it to a purpose and when the purpose relates to more people than just me.  I hope you can find the higher purpose in your fitness too.

*  The big dips in the HR data are where the monitor strap lost contact with my chest.