Review: Becoming A Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett

In a recent blog, I mentioned the discovery of a website called The Art of Manliness that was developed by a guy named Brett McKay. I discovered the website when looking online for exercises to undo the damage caused to our bodies by sitting. While on Brett's site, I read a post on seven exercises focused on undoing the effects of sitting. Within the post, Brett gave a strong review and recommendation for Becoming A Supple Leopard. I decided to investigate further.

After reading a few reviews and learning a little more about the author, Kelly Starrett, and his methodology, I decided to take the plunge and buy the book. The book isn't exactly a simple book on fitness, but it seems like it is highly popular in the CrossFit community. I have seen a few copies in gyms and my sister even has a copy. The book is written as a more academic treatment of mobility and injury prevention. I could see a text like this making its way into a variety of Physical Therapy and Exercise Physiology programs.

The book is huge (like a textbook or coffee table book) and it is filled with page after page of mobility exercises to help improve range of motion, resolve pain, and optimize performance. Dr. Starrett strongly encourages readers to make their way through the book before jumping into the exercises so one can understand the principles that the mobilities are built upon. I heeded his instruction and found myself reading from cover to cover.

The book is extremely helpful for thinking through functional movement and strength, and for equipping people with tools to do self-maintenance to reduce incidence of injury. Starrett explains that the human body is highly adaptive, and he believes that the leading cause of joint pain and injury is poor mobility which the body then adapts to, and subsequently becomes injured through weaknesses and instabilities created by the adaptation.

Fundamentally, I found myself nodding yes throughout the book as I learned more about Starrett's background and framework for addressing preventive care. The thought that our bodies become injured through a lack of mobility and strength in different muscle groups just made sense to me, and the idea of doing self-maintenance to reduce or prevent injury just seemed like a smart thing to do.

Since reading the book on July 5, I've attempted to cultivate a daily habit of 10-15 minutes of mobility exercises and I can tell a marked difference in my mobility as well as my resilience after workouts. I highly recommend Dr. Starrett's book, and I also recommend reading the whole way through to think through the why of his book, and the why of the mobility exercises contained within. What I love the most about the framework is that it gives a sensible and practical pathway for improving mobility, functional strength, and injury prevention. Having been sidelined by injuries in the past, any tools I can use to reduce my risk of injury are tools I want to deploy with consistency.

May we all become supple leopards, always ready for whatever physical challenges come our way.

World Malaria Day 2011 and the Nuru Healthcare Worker Model

The video above chronicles the beginnings of the Nuru International Community Health Worker(CHW) Model--which is currently doing amazing work in Kuria, Kenya. Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see how the model works first hand by traveling with a Nuru Healthcare Field Officer.

During the months of March and April, a big focus for Nuru's CHW program has been Malaria. Malaria is a preventable ailment that takes the lives of 2,300 people daily around the globe. Sixteen percent of children under five in Africa die because of malaria. Imagine dying from a mosquito bite. When I was a little boy, my body would be covered with welts from mosquitos, and even as an adult, no-see-ums love to attack me. Had I been born in a different longitude and latitude, I would probably not be alive to write this blog post. At least not unless someone had educated my family with regard to malaria prevention.

And that's just what the Nuru CHW's have been doing in villages all through Kuria, Kenya. They visit people's homes and talk to them about what causes malaria, what the symptoms of malaria are, and how malaria can be treated. More importantly, during this time, they talk about how malaria can be prevented.

That's the good news, malaria can be prevented. With proper use of a bed net, malaria risk is significantly lowered. While everyone can benefit from this knowledge, the groups at highest risk are children under five and pregnant mothers, and so Nuru is working specifically to help these at risk populations. As CHWs travel from house to house, they not only talk about the benefits of bed nets for malaria prevention, but they also sell bed nets at a low cost to families. This assigns a value to the net, and it also saves a family the challenge of traveling to a town or medical center to purchase this low cost malaria intervention. The health workers also walk through how to properly use a bed net and even how to repair a net if it becomes torn. If someone doesn't know how to use or repair a tool then it will do them very little good.

Nuru's focus on prevention through a CHW model via sales of bednets as an intervention, particularly for pregnant mothers and children under five sets the organization in a unique category for stemming the tide against malaria.

As I write this post, I find myself reflecting back on my childhood, and the mosquito bites that would appear on my arms on summer nights, and I am thankful that families in Kuria, Kenya, are now equipped with the tools to prevent malaria.

Will you help Nuru continue to empower even more families with tools and knowledge to prevent malaria and so much more? Also, if you'd like to learn more about our CHW program and our work to fight malaria, check out this great article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Thanks for being part of lasting change for the people of Kuria, Kenya.

Blood Screening

As part of the Daniel Plan starting point, it was suggested that we get some of our baseline numbers to know how much of an impact this diet has had on our health.  Jamie and I drove down to Fairmont General Hospital to take advantage of their general blood screening and lipid screening tests.  The plan also suggested getting a starting point number for height (not anticipating a change) weight, blood pressure, and waist size.

We both have some great numbers to start with.  Our fasting glucose is in the eighties, and our cholesterol is rocking too.  My total cholesterol is 156, but I need to make some advances in HDL mine is only 39 (Jamie’s is 62!!!).

We both are feeling good about the baseline numbers we have, but we are curious to see what a year of healthy eating will do.  When I started the Daniel Plan, I weighed in at 197, and my waste size was 39 inches (taking the measurement an inch over the navel).  My blood pressure was 120/80, and I’ve been rocking out 6’2” for several years now.

The funny thing about getting bloodwork done was that there weren’t many young people doing it.  Most of us wait until we start having health issues, or questions about some of our numbers before we get our blood tested, but it’s a good idea to get work done to know your numbers in advance.  I had work done three years ago because my mom had breast cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure, and I thought that if I could discover early warning signs and work proactively to prevent similar problems, then I wanted to do it.  In 2008, my cholesterol was 175, so over the last three years, I’ve made some significant improvements.

When was the last time you had your blood checked?  I know it’s not super exciting to wake up early to go to a community blood screening and get stabbed with a needle, but it’s worthwhile to know how your health is looking.  I know I was dreading the numbers when I went to get tested, but I knew that if my numbers were not great, I was in a solid place to begin some lifestyle changes.  Will you do yourself a favor, and check your numbers if you don’t typically do so? Maybe you will see some early warning signs that could prevent problems later.