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Thank you all for following me here. I hope to see you on the new site.

Sometime between now and December 1, 2010, the running, eating, and general motivation articles will be moving to MidpackRunner.com. Sometime in the new year, the bocking articles will find a home at a rebuilt and redesigned RedmondBockers.com.

As for this site, it will be taking on a completely different flair. Once the migration has happened, TimWoodbury.com will become a programming blog. Radical change, I know. However, given my day job,I’ve decided this site is better suited to being a sort of portfolio than a fitness page.

So, please bear with me as I rebucket my posts into sites that keep my posting relevant to each of you. Thanks for reading.

Better than a PowerBar?

Plenty of theories exist as to the source of this phenomenon. Dehydration. Low sodium or potassium levels. And the solution to all of the theoretical causes has traditionally taken the form of an electrolyte brew.

But a new study suggests that it may be caused by plain old ordinary fatigue. And the cure may be even more ordinary still.

What a Pain

Dr. Kevin Miller is the author of two studies on the subject. In the previously mentioned study, he and his research team initially induced cramps in the big toes of study participants. Participants then proceded to bike until they began to show signs of dehydration. The team then again induced the toe cramp, the working theory behind the experiment being that the dehydrated participants whould cramp more easily than when hydrated. However, the results didn’t bear that out.

In a separate study, the researchers measured the duration of toe cramps caused by electrical stimulation of the tibial nerve. They then re-induced the cramps (noticing a pattern?) but, this time, gave participants either 2.5 ounces of either deionized water or pickle brine. For the participants who were given the brine, symptoms abated after only 85 seconds – approximately a 45% decrease from previous measurements, and 37% faster than those drinking deionized water.

A Dilly of a Pickle

The results from the latter study would seem, at first, to support the traditional view that dehydration and electrolyte depletion cause muscle cramps. However, Dr. Miller noted that the reaction having happened within the first 85 seconds would mean that the fluids wouldn’t have had time to even leave the participants’ stomachs. This, combined with the results of the subsequent study, led Dr. Miller to the conclusion that some component of the pickle brine lead to, “a neurally mediated reflex that… acts to inhibit the firing of alpha motor neurons of the cramping muscle.” And the component most strongly suspected is vinegar.

Vinegar, in addition to its other health benefits, seems to interact the nervous system in such a way as to inhibit the misfirings responsible for muscle cramps. As noted in this article from the New York Times, much of this research is still very preliminary so the conclusions are still speculative.

At the same time, especially for a group like runners who are known for their hyponatremia, the benefits to sitting down with a pickle seem manifold. So the next time you’re craving a snack, reach for a pickle. And stay tuned as I see if I can pry the family recipe out of my Grandmother’s recipe vault to share with you all.

Hungry for more? Check out some other food articles. Or consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com.

I didn’t start this blog because I felt I needed a pulpit. I started TimWoodbury.com hoping to learn as much as to teach, so it’s nice to see you starting to share your opinions and expertise. I genuinely appreciate that you would take the time to add to the conversation here. Thank you!

Before this site grows to the point at which it is too late to do so, I feel it best to establish a few ground rules to keep things running as smoothly here as they have been. You’ll now find that the page footer contains links to my comment policy and disclosure statement. This should help clarify my obligations to you moving forward, as well as your obligations to me and to each other.

I admit, this is a bit of a cop-out as posts go. However, it’s a bit of administrivia that needed to be addressed. Rest assured that regular posting will resume shortly.

Thanks again for reading!

Done with administrivia? Why not consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com?

Mind your form.
The most important, and most often overlooked, aspect of any sport is learning proper form. Take a look at the accompanying image. When on your bocks, you should keep a nice, relaxed posture. Keep your shoulders down and slightly back. Your back should be straight, and you should be able to draw a straight line from the ground through the top of your head. Your head should be roughly parallel to the ground (perpendicular to your vertical alignment).

Make sure to pay special attention to this last point, especially as you start learning to jump. There’s a strong drive as a beginner to look down to see where you’re going to land. The problem is that doing so pitches your whole body forward, moving your center off of the vertical line in the image. The end result is an increased likelihood of falling forward. Instead of looking down, try to focus your gaze approximately 10-20 feet ahead of you. Doing so will allow you to anticipate the terrain without throwing off your center of balance.

The last point on form is that you want to be mindful of your knee and foot alignment as well. Try to keep your toes pointing forward to help avoid hitting your springs against one another. If you notice that you’re starting to bang your springs together with any frequency, that’s a sure sign you’re starting to tire and that your form is suffering.

Keep Moving
Once you can get up on your bocks without the assistance of another person or object, you will need to stay in motion in order to maintain your balance. Small amounts of ongoing fidgeting are perfectly normal. As you gain more experience, you will be able to increase the amount of time between each weight shift. However, simply due to the nature of the hoof design itself, you will almost certainly not eliminate it.

Ease into it.
Finally, one of the bigest mistakes all beginners make is trying to do too much, too soon. When it comes to bocking, your body will be adjusting to a different set of rules than those under which it normally operates. I say this knowing full well that you’ll probably ignore me (Heck, I would’ve): Start slow! Don’t push yourself to run or jump on your very first time out, or even your second. Take your time and let your body adjust to this new way of moving.

You should pay attention to how your body feels as you’re out there. Remember, bocking is great fun but it’s also a lot of work. Keeping your balance on two tiny hooves requires a lot of core strength. At first you won’t realize just how much work you’re asking your body to do but, if you stay up too long, you’ll definitely realize it the next day.

So, as you go out there your first few times, remember to mind your form, keep moving, and ease into it. Follow these tips, and I can guarantee you’ll have an easier go of things than I did.

Still need more tips? Check out some other bocking articles. Or consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com.

Workout? I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave.

Those of you who have been following my writing to this point will know that I’m not one of those fitness bloggers who is always up on a soapbox. I find that type of condescension horribly unbecoming. I also don’t think it projects a terribly positive image of what the health and wellness community is about. It’s for those reasons that I’m going to ask your forgiveness for what I’m about to write. I promise to put the soapbox back where I found it when I’m through.

This week, the Electronic Entertainment Expo descends upon the Los Angeles convention center. For the uninitiated, E3 is where video game publishers spend gobs of money on fancy displays in the hopes of attracting retail support and generating buzz for their upcoming titles. It’s also where, Monday morning, Microsoft unveiled the opening lineup for their upcoming Kinect (formerly Project Natal) motion-control hardware. And, of course, with the announcement of Rare’s sports title came the standard office banter around how fit and healthy gamers would become with this new hardware. And that’s where this post comes in.

Power Pad Redux

Exergaming isn’t a new concept. As a child of the ’80s and a gamer (as well as a game industry employee), the problem I have with the argument that motion control will create a generation of trim and fit gamers is the same one I had when I got this for Christmas.

Aww, sweet! Wii Fit '80s Edition!

As a fitness strategy, exergaming is fundamentally flawed. And I’m hardly the first person to point this out. Most physicians recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. In practice though, in a 30 minute session of Wii Sports Resort, approximately thirty percent of your time is spent actually playing the game. The other seventy percent is spent navigating menus and waiting for your turn. I got similar measurements with Wii Fit Plus and Raving Rabbids. So, in reality, your 30 minutes of exergaming is more like 10 minutes of exercise punctuated by 20 sedentary minutes.

Of course, as a money-making strategy, it’s downright brilliant. What better way to sell games than with the promise of turning weight-loss into a game? Not to mention, kids want to play video games, and parents want their kids to be active. Games like Wii Fit and Kinect Sports are the perfect compromise, right?

A Special Place In Hell Reserved For Marketing

The fundamental issue that I take with all of these games is the way that they’re being marketed. All of these games are being sold as serious health and fitness products. Now, there’s some debate in the fitness community as to whether we should expect consumers to take these claims at face value, and I’m willing to give some leeway to products like Rayman and Wii Sports which are, in fact, games.

However, products like Wii Fit aren’t being marketed as entertainment products. In my book, that’s outright deception. To be sure, there’s a benefit to incorporating any form of activity into your routine if the alternative is being completely sedentary. However, I worry when people start viewing these sorts of products as legitimate alternatives to the gym or even something as simple, yet beneficial as taking a walk.

As Close As You Can Get Without Actually Playing

The one piece of marketing that irks me most, and that I keep hearing, is how each new hardware iteration (be it Wii MotionPlus, PlayStation Move, or Microsoft’s Kinect) makes playing these games “like actually playing.”

See! It's just like the real thing!

But, see, here’s the thing (and I apologize in advance – this is the whiniest bit of this article), they already make an experience that’s like playing all these sports. It’s called going out and playing them. As in, in Real Life™. With a real ball, or puck. In a real pool, or on a real field.

The more we encourage people to participate in these sports by proxy, the less value the real experience holds. Sure, Kinect can map your whole skeleton and help you learn to play these games with proper form, but what’s the point if you’ll never actually play them? You wouldn’t let a surgeon operate on you if she only practiced on a simulation, but never on a cadaver (not that that’s terribly encouraging either), would you?

The Road Ahead

The fundamental problem right now is that we are selling people on “fitness products” with little to no basis in exercise science. I want to be clear, I think that games could be a viable and valuable tool if properly implemented, not unlike home workout videos. However, in their present state they’re little more than a multi-billion dollar disappointment . That is, unless you’re a shareholder.

What do you all think? What do we need to do to transform the exergaming industry from fluff to fit? Let me know in the comments.

Not fired up yet? Check out other fitness articles.  Or consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com.

Mail Call! (Image Source)

I’ve been receiving a quite a few good reader questions lately.  As stated on the contact page, I try to respond personally to your inquiries.  However, I occasionally receive questions the answers to which I feel would benefit all of my readers.  Therefore, it is with great pride that I introduce what I hope will become a recurring feature here at TimWoodbury.com, the Monday Mail Call.

Tim,
I tried your recipe for chocolate pinole. I loved the flavor, but mine didn’t come out nearly as nicely as your pictures.  It came out very crummy.  Definitely not something I could carry with me on a long run.  What did I miss?
Lisa, WA, USA

Hi Lisa,
There are a few things that can help with the texture.  For one, make sure that you grind the chia seeds if you didn’t.  Using whole chia seed not only creates a naturally grainy texture, but also deprives the pinole of the creamy smoothness that the distributed fiber adds (try adding ground chia to oatmeal to see what I mean). 

The second common mistake I’ve made when putting pinole together is not using enough water.  My original post recommended a half cup, but that’s really the baseline.  You should use enough water to give the mixture roughly the consistency of oatmeal.  A little extra water can help keep the pinole moist, which also helps with cohesion.  Just take care to not let the mixture become runny.

Finally, and a bit of an extension to my last point, be careful to not over-bake the pinole.  As I said, the drier the mixture, the less cohesive the final product. (Go hydrogen bonds, eh?)  With the cocoa, it can be hard to see when the pinole is fully baked and the impulse is to leave it for longer.  There aren’t any raw ingredients in pinole, so there’s no health risk from under-baking.  Start with 10 minutes, and check its consistency at that point.  If it falls apart from being too moist, you can always put it back in.

Hope that helps. Happy baking!

Hi Tim,
I’m a new bocker. I just got my bocks a week ago but I can already walk around and jump on my own. I went out bocking the other day and the next morning my back was really sore. Is that normal or am I doing something wrong? How do I keep this from happening again?
John, IL, USA

Hi John,
What you’re experiencing is most likely the phenomenon known as “bocker’s back.”  It’s an overuse injury that a lot of bockers have reported experiencing.  It’s especially common among people who are new to the jumping aspects of the sport, and there are a couple of reasons why.

For one thing, bocking engages your core in a way that few other activities do.  Consequently, most people don’t really have the strength to support particularly the jumping side of bocking.  Add in the fact that most new bockers spend waytoo much time out on their bocks initially, and you have a perfect recipe for bocker’s back.

Bocking can be a lot of fun. There’s a strong temptation is to ignore the signals your body is sending you to eke out a few more minutes of jump time – I know I did when I first started. Don’t ignore those signals!  When you start to get tired, your form suffers. And when your form is poor, that’s when injuries are most likely to occur.  Also, take the day off and rest if you’re in any pain.  Bocking while injured will only make things worse.  Your bocks will still be there when you recover.

Also, be sure to check out this set of bocking tips for beginners such as yourself.

And there you have it.  My very first Monday Mail Call.  If you have a burning question that you’d like to see answered here, pop on over to the contact page and send it my way. You can also leave me a question in the comments on any article and, if other people should know the answer, you may just get featured here.

Still have more questions? Check out other Monday Mail Call articles.  Or consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com.

Greetings, fellow fitness enthusiasts. Happy National Running Day! What is National Running Day!? According to the official website:

“The mission of National Running Day is to designate one national day to promote running as a healthy, easy, and accessible form of exercise”

How do you celebrate National Running Day? Mark Remy from Runner’s World has a few suggestions to add to last year’s humorous offerings. For my part, I have a few suggestions of my own for how to mark the holiday.

Encourage some non-runner friends to join you for a short jog. Most people are completely capable of running, but are afraid that they don’t know how. Most of them just need a slight nudge to join the legions of runners nationwide. Start with walking/jogging intervals. You don’t even have to go terribly far. Just getting out is enough to mark the occasion, and it may have other benefits.

Register for a race. If you aren’t already training for a specific race, consider finding a 5k or a fun run locally to train for. Having a tangible goal like a race you’re training for can help keep you focused and running, even if you don’t always feel like it.

Rediscover the joy of running. If you’re a seasoned runner, try getting back to basics. Turn off your Garmin, leave your iPod at home, and go out and just run. Try running some fartleks, or leash up the dog and go run some circles in the grass. Try and remember that before we started treating running as a serious sport, we all ran just for the sheer exhilaration of feeling the wind on our faces and the ground beneath our feet.

Now go out there and have a great National Running Day! And be sure to come back and leave me a comment to let me know how you celebrated this year.

If you’ve already celebrated, check out some other running articles. Or consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com.

Do you have trouble sticking to your goals? Do you ever feel like you could succeed if you only had the proper motivation? The solution to your problem may be social networking. Don’t die laughing yet – just hear me out.

Feeling Unmotivated? Facebook!

I recently came across an article in Time discussing the normative effect of Facebook updates on marathoning. I’d been hearing about the record setting numbers of marathon participants for some time (not to mention noticing it in the crowded starting corrals), so it was strange have to come across the Time piece at the same time that I spotted an old post by Mark Hayward. Check out the second bullet on Mark’s list: “Have you done something unique such as complete a marathon…?” Could it really be Facebook’s fault that, in the mere 18 months since Mark’s post was written, marathoning had gone from being “unique” to being the domain of Joe Everyman?

Don’t misunderstand me, I think it’s fantastic that so many Americans are finally getting off the couch and putting their bodies to use in the way that we were intended. But could the modern popularity of marathoning, a notoriously difficult task, really be be explained away by a couple of tweets? And, if so, would it be possible to intentionally leverage social networking to your motivational advantage?

It’s Good to Have Friends

It turns out that the idea isn’t as far-fetched as you might imagine. Normative social influence is an extremely well documented phenomenon. In a nutshell, when people that you identify as your peers appear to believe or behave in a certain way, you are far more likely to believe or behave similarly – even if you wouldn’t outside of the context of that social group. In other words, if all your Facebook friends suddenly appear to be running, you’re more likely to become a runner yourself even if you hate running.

Moreover, social impact theory tells us that this effect is stronger if:

• You closely identify with the group – like one would suspect you might with your “friends”
• You are exposed to the group frequently – as in your daily (or hourly) Facebook logon
• The group is large – and it certainly feels like there are more running posts in my newsfeed every day

So, as you read an ever increasing number of posts from runners in your newsfeed, you begin to develop the feeling that everyone else is doing it except you. And in the world of normative social influence, the logical outcome is conformity. You find yourself running as well.

Be a Trend-Setter

If this all sounds incredibly one-sided, it doesn’t have to be. Think about this. Every time you post or tweet about your goals, you exert the same descriptive normative influence on your friends. As they start to succumb, their conformity reinforces the norm which, in turn, makes you more likely to stay the course. Additionally, as people like or post encouraging comments on your goal-oriented updates, the injunctive normative influence makes it that much more likely that you will stick to your posted goals.

So, the next time you feel like you could use a little motivation or some help sticking to your goals (fitness or otherwise), commit publicly. Make like The Beatles and, “get by with a little help from [your] friends.”

Still not motivated? Why not check out more motivation articles? Or read a random article from TimWoodbury.com.

Buy the Right Stilt For Your Weight

Before you even get started on your new life as a bocker, you have an important decision to make: you need to decide on the strength of the springs you’ll need. Bocks are typically sold by weight range. For instance, my bocks are rated for bockers from 176 to 198 pounds.

Purchasing a set of bocks rated below your weight will result in you exceeding the spring’s maximum tension (called bottoming, or bottoming out). If you’re bottoming, your springs aren’t absorbing the shock of your bouncing. That shock is instead transferred into your knees and back, neither of which will thank you for it. Beyond that, routinely pushing the spring past its maximum tension is an easy way to irreparably damage the spring.

On the flip side, purchasing bocks rated for heavier bockers will leave you with springs that feel stiff. Since these springs have a higher spring coefficient, you will initially find it more difficult to transfer your energy into them. Of course with higher coefficients (and, therefore, more potential energy), once you’ve learned to transfer that energy into them you’ll also get a much higher kinetic return. In layman’s terms, the higher the spring’s rating, the higher you can theoretically jump with them. Accordingly, many people will eventually upgrade to a stronger spring as they get better at maximizing their energy transfer. But starting with a heavier spring will make it harder to learn, and will most certainly leave you sore.

It is important to be honest with yourself when purchasing a pair of bocks. Never purchase a weaker spring than you need! Otherwise, try to purchase in your weight class unless you’re within just a few pounds of the top of the class and anticipate gaining weight. As a general rule, if you’re not sure, buy for what you weigh now.

Wrap Your Springs

Once you receive your properly sized bocks, you’re really going to want to take them out for a spin. As Master Po once said, “patience, grasshopper.” As you are out there bocking around, it’s inevitable that the springs will make contact with other surfaces (like the other bock, for instance). Scratching or nicking the springs can significantly reduce their usable lifetime.

Think about a bundle of spaghetti. Together, the strands are incredibly durable. But as the pieces on the outside fracture, the tension of the bundle is reduced and it becomes progressively easier to break. To avoid nicks and scratches, you will want to wrap your springs. If you can find it, I strongly recommend hockey tape for this. If not, electrical or duct tape will suffice.

Start at one end of the exposed spring, and wrap the tape in a tight spiral up the length of the spring. Once you reach the top, you can either come back the way you came, or cut the tape and begin again. If you did manage to find hockey tape, 3 layers should be sufficient. If you’re using electrical tape, you’ll probably want to wrap the spring in closer to 5 layers of tape.

Adjust the Knee Bar or Calf Cuff

In most cases, you will have to adjust the height of the knee bar or calf cuff on your bocks. Your knee support should fit at the top of your tibia, just below your kneecap, such that you can comfortably bend your knee at a right angle. Having this knee support too low will have you driving your bocks through your feet and calves instead of leveraging your (much larger) hamstrings and quadriceps. You also want to make sure you aren’t placing the support, and therefore strain, directly on the patella.

If you have the calf cuff, you have an extra step here. You will want to adjust the side bars on your cuff so that they fit snugly against your leg. Too much lateral flexibility will pull at the fittings on the cuff, as well as reduce your connection with your bocks.

Inspect Your Bocks

This one applies every time you bock. Before you head out, take a few minutes to check out our stilts. Check your bocks from top to bottom, tightening any loose bolts and looking for any signs of excessive wear and tear. If parts look abnormally worn, contact the vendor to purchase a replacement part. If you’ve only had your bocks for a short time, the part may even be covered under your warranty. It is important to replace aging parts as you discover them before they cause serious damage to the frame itself.

As a bit of bonus info, I should also mention that, in my experience, the bolts and fittings on most bocks appear to be metric (which should seem a no-brainer for my UK readers, but is a bit awkward for those of us in the US). Having a good set of metric sockets or nut drivers is a huge help when making adjustments. Following all of the tips above will substantially reduce the chances of having to make a major repair to your bocks. Now get out there and get bocking.

If you’re not quite ready to head out, check out some other bocking articles for more tips, or consider reading a random article from TimWoodbury.com.