Truckers News

May 2011

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/29112

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 37 of 105

FIT FOR THE ROAD BMI Primer Know the facts about body mass index MISTY BELL does not mea- sure body fat directly. B BMI is a screening tool, not a diagnos- tic tool. Further assessments are ody Mass Index is an indicator of a person’s body fatness but BMI calculation for a person who is 5'10" (70") and 200 pounds: 70 x 70 = 4900 200/4900 = .0408 .0408 x 703 = 28.68 needed to diagnose medical prob- lems in patients. To calculate your BMI, divide your weight (in pounds) by your Getting Out of the Rut thletes from elite through late onset (like me) get into ruts. You start out running, and for several months the improvements are steady. Then you stagnate. The improve- ment stops. Your results may start to get worse. Two typical responses are to quit trying to improve or to try harder at the same thing, but chances are neither will work. A 38 TRUCKERS NEWS MAY 2011 height (in inches) squared, then multiply that number by 703 (see provided example). According to the stan- dard BMI chart, this person is overweight. sidered obese. BMI measurements do not take body type or muscle mass into account, sometimes causing A body mass index of 25 or higher is consid- ered overweight, and a BMI of 30 or higher is con- skewed results. Though some groups have advo- cated using BMI as a tool to gauge whether truckers may be at risk for certain ailments such as sleep apnea, BMI currently does not affect CDL medical certification. Be sure to visit www.fit4theroad. com for more infor- mation on weight loss, healthy reci- pes, information on health products and more. Jeff Clark is a trucker, a grandfather and an eight-time marathon (26.2 miles) finisher. He is dedicated to helping truckers improve their health through better habits. Contact him at marathontrucker@yahoo. com or http://twitter.com/ marathontrucker. There is a third alternative. Back off for a week or two. A lot of ath- letes cycle. They cycle up for a pre- planned length of time. They may peak for a race; then they rest. Elite marathoners usually run two mar- athons a year, with four cycles between races. Think of your body as a rubber band. If you pull it out of the bag and stretch it as far as you can it will break, but if you let the rubber band relax and stretch it again, it will go a little farther. Even for moderate athletes, back- ing off for a week has benefits. Our marathon training group has down weeks. We are preparing to run a half marathon. Our first long run was three miles. Then we increased a mile per week until we got up to 6 miles. We backed off to four miles for a week then went back to six. Then we increase again, and so on. If you walk 30 minutes a day and are happy with it that’s great. You may want to be able to walk two miles in 30 minutes. You are stuck at 1.75 miles and can’t get over that hump. Maybe take a few lon- ger, slower walks and a shorter, faster one occasionally. Your body gets

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Truckers News - May 2011