Pass the vino: Irish and Italians celebrating…
22 March 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Red wine is indeed good for the heart
March 21, 2005 12:28 PM EST
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Mar 18, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) — Drinking two to three glasses of red wine daily is good for the heart, confirms a Connecticut researcher, who suggests anti-oxidants in the wine may be why. There are several studies showing drinking two to three ounces of alcohol each day has a beneficial effect, says Dr. Bauer Sumpio, a professor at Yale in New Haven, Conn. While beer and spirits have some positive effect, research shows the far greater benefit comes from drinking red wine. “The current consensus is that it is not just the alcohol, but something else,” explained Sumpio who is section chief of vascular surgery in the Department of Surgery. Sumpio found that fruit, particularly berries, have polyphenols — anti-oxidants that slow cell deterioration. Polyphenols also help prevent plaque build up on the smooth muscle cells and inhibit platelet formation, which can lead to blood clotting. “A better understanding of the health benefits of red wine and perhaps the specific polyphenolic extracts with the described properties would be a great contribution to society,” Sumpio said.
Letter of the day: Just a few words regarding your cardio article and heart monitors“. I’ve recently starting using one after many years of practicing HeavyHands
. I did a smidge of reading and just a few clarifications that might have helped the article. The maximum heart rate - 220 minus your age - is often inaccurate. A better way to figure it is to strap on a heart monitor
and once warmed up, go all-out for 2-3 minutes and see how high you can get it. And I’ve found I have a different top heart rate for different activities. For me, with HeavyHands
at age 50 my maximum is 189. But if I’m running - say two hundreds at a 35-second clip - as fast as I can go - I can get up to 193. I’m fifty, so my top heart rate should be 170. And I would bet that fitter people than I - older than me - have heart rates near 200.
I also think that it’s important to mention to the weightlifters wanting to get into cardio not to go too crazy and try and go too hard for too long. Tabata style, burst cardio, you can go say 5-minutes (or so) and probably as hard as you want - as long as you don’t do it too many times a week. At my age about once a week is way fine, but a 20-year old might be able to go 2-3 times a week. Maybe world class Olympic athletes could do it 5 times a week like Tabata’s subjects, I don’t know. But hard and long is where I’m headed.
When I started using a heart monitor recently, what I found was that I was going too hard for too long. Because the ice and snow and winter darkness had curtailed my daily 2-3 mile HeavyHands walks, I began going up and down the basement stairs while pumping hand weights. It felt hard, but I had no idea how hard until I took a look at my heart rate monitor.
Sure enough, I was going at about 90% of my max heart rate for 30 minutes 3 times a week. It hadn’t really been helping my fitness. I scaled back on the hand weight size, kept an eye on my rate, and began doing small bouts of sprints within the workout (usually 100 flights). HeavyHands would probably never attract the heavy duty iron crowd. I’ve lifted steadily for the past fifteen years, but don’t really count myself at a lifter.
I’m more of a fitness freak that a gym rat. Lifters will shy away from HeavyHands because doing it makes you look like a dork. Schwartzs physique is incredible for age 70. Im sure lots of 30-year old folks wish they looked that good or felt that good. Anyhow, I enjoy your site. Have tons of respect for you. All the best.
While you can establish a true heart rate maximum with some time and effort, I cannot advise readers to do that on the off chance they might keel over trying to determine actual heart rate max as opposed to blended average. Besides I am not so sure that 100% accuracy is as important as establishing relative benchmarks. To my way of thinking the critical point is to establish a ‘benchmark baseline’ and then set this into a periodization format. Regardless the method of measure the important thing is to identify a numeric benchmark for the session: i.e., I hit 72.5% of age-related HR max in the session.
Now (regardless if this is factually 72.5% of your real heart rate maximum) we have assigned a number to the work effort generated. We now can put the results of the cardio session into a numerical context and measure the current cardio session to those that have occurred and plot a cardio course using periodization methods of what we want to occur. Over time we gradually raise the work level.
Target session length frequency Week 1 65% of age-related HR max 18-minutes 3 x weekly Week 2 67.5% 20-minutes 3 x weekly Week 3 70% 22-minutes 4 x weekly Week 4 72.5% 24-minutes 4 x weekly Week 5 75% 26-minutes 5 x weekly Week 6 77.5% 38-minutes 5 x weekly Week 7 80% 30-minutes 6 x weekly
This is a super-basic cardio periodization template. One thing for sure; will be in a hell of a lot better shape at the end of the seven week timeframe than when you commenced the process. Best of all, because it is based on creeping incrementalism (my phrase) you coax yourself into shape. As Kenny Banya would say, Genius Jerry Genius! Thats Gold Jerry Gold!
Turning up the heatAt first, the unions and management thought a fine of 10K for 1st time roid use would be a-okay; this would be a real hardship for guys making on average $2.5 million pre season.
AP: Baseball Agrees to Drop Steroid Fines
March 20, 2005 11:49 PM EST
NEW YORK - Baseball players and owners agreed Sunday to drop the possibility of fines for steroid use, leaving suspensions as the only discipline. Congressmen repeatedly criticized baseball for the fine possibility during Thursday’s hearing before the House Government Reform Committee. Management officials told the committee they were willing to eliminate the fine provision, held over from baseball’s first drug-testing agreement in 2002, but union head Donald Fehr had said he would have to consult with players. “We do have an agreement with Don that the language after the disjunctive in the various disciplinary levels is going to be eliminated,” Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations, said Sunday. “It will be just the straight suspension, which everybody knew was going to happen anyway. To the degree there was any doubt, I think this change should put to rest any concerns in that regard.” Players and owners announced the agreement Jan. 13 but it has not been finalized. “The agreement still has to be ratified, but the negotiators have agreed to modify that language,” said Michael Weiner, the union’s general counsel. Commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly said during the hearing that his intent was to suspend players for all positive tests. “We’re glad the policy is now closer to what it was purported to be,” David Marin, spokesman for committee chairman Tom Davis, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “If our inquiry achieves nothing more than getting baseball to give its policy the teeth it said it had, we will have done some real good.” Baseball’s new agreement had called for a 10-day suspension or up to $10,000 fine for a first positive test. A second positive was to result in a 30-day suspension or up to $25,000 fine, a third in a 60-day suspension or up to $50,000 fine and a four in a one-year suspension or up to $100,000 fine. After that, discipline is determined by the commissioner. Now, it’s suspensions only. Earlier Sunday, Sen. John McCain said he thought legislation may be needed to force a tougher plan. “It just seems to me they can’t be trusted,” the Arizona Republican told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It seems to me that we ought to seriously consider … a law that says all professional sports have a minimum level of performance-enhancing drug testing.” Davis said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he agreed with McCain’s suggestion that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency could be called in to govern baseball’s testing. The agency oversees drug testing and discipline for U.S. Olympic athletes. “They’ve got this season. We’ll see how they respond when they find someone testing positive,” the Virginia Republican said.
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