Breaking Down the Formula...F=MA

 This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Functional Range Seminar Internal Strength.  If you have never attended one of their seminars (functional range release, conditioning, assessment)  I would highly recommend it.  

I won't summarize the whole weekend, but I did want to hash out a talk, that really made some of my thoughts much more clear in programming.  The talk was given by therapist John Quint.  John works with some of the strongest people on the planet at Westside Barbell.  

We have all heard the formula F=MA.  F is force.  M is mass.  A is acceleration.  There are a few ways to think of training but they all fall under these methods. 

1.  ME. max effort. 90-100%

2.  DE.  dynamic effort. 50-60 percent of ME

3.  RE.  repetition effort. 40-50 percent of ME

4.  REF.  repetition effort failure (hypertrophy)

Force will be ME.  Once we get an exercise to the ME we desire, lets say 405# on trap bar deadlift, we can then address other issues.  Most athletes are not looking to get bigger.  Runners, bikers, weight class athletes actually improve if they get stronger, but remain the same size.  Hypertrophy is usually not the goal.  REF is not used then in the purpose of bigger muscles.  So M in the F=MA will stay RE for maintenance of the ME or F.  A in the F=MA will the DE.  Moving the weight fast with intent and acceleration.  

This allows you to maintain what you have built in the 405# trap bar deadlift.  Over time, this may well bring negative adaptations in hip quality though.  Continually pushing weights in the same movement pattern is not the recipe for keeping a healthy human being.  

Enter the REF for the M in the F=MA equation.  Repetition effort to failure using CARS (controlled articular rotations) as your exercise (in this example doing the hip) to help the trap bar.  CARS at intense level is designed to get you access to new tissue.  This new tissue will need to be trained to keep it.  It will also be weaker.  So using a percentage in the ME or DE allows you to integrate that new tissue into the programming of the F=MA for the trap bar (any exercise).  

Running this equation this way over and over allows the athlete to not hit a plateau.  Even though the weight (405#) stays the same.  The athlete is continuously integrating new fibers, new recruitment around the hip to keep improving and also not allowing the exercise to ever create negative adaptations.  

Practically what would it look like.  Get the athlete as strong as you think is necessary.  I'm 195 pounds and have decided I want to keep a 2x bodyweight deadlift.  I have worked to get that number.  Now I'm going to work intensely on Hip CARS as part of my workout and my pair then with a percentage of the deadlift done with speed aka DE work.  I could also pair CARS with ME work, again supersetting hip CARS with a few reps at 95 percent of my 2x bodyweight deadlift.  

Quint did a great job of explaining this and made my thinking of this concept so much more clearer for me.  I hope my quick synopsis creates more direction for your training and also more curiosity for theirs.  

Stay strong, stay healthy.  

Coming Back Around to the Warm Up

 "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

My last year of chiropractic school presented with an opportunity to compete to make the USA National Bobsled team.  One of the biggest aspects of training was running fast.  Training to run fast was the goal for the next few months.  One problem it was winter.  I found one indoor running track that allowed me to train on it from 5-6am.  

Me and the old folks.

I had a sprinting background from years in high school and college.  So a standard warm up was between 45-60 min for about 3-8 quality reps that lasted between 3-6 seconds.  Drills, drills, drills.  

"Don't ever stop doing that stuff and you won't ever have any problems like us!"

I remember those words from the same guy that would shuffle around the track every morning while I was there.  My life at the time was train, school, rugby, study.  Day in and day out.  My reference point was training.  My only thought when hearing those words, why would I?  Why would I stop warming up?

Fast forward a decade plus and I know have my own business and a kid.  The shift wasn't training, it was working out.  There is a huge difference. No plan, just get a work out in as time permitted.  The first thing to be lost was the warm up.  I no longer had to operate in the 95-99% of maximum efficiency.  

What was lost?

Warm ups are designed to expose the body to gradual increase in temperature.  10 min has been designated a minimum.  Think of it as gradual body perfusion of increased blood flow.  Blood flow is how things heal.  Cutting out the warm up is cutting out opportunity for helping little niggles to get better.

Warm up use multiple movements in multiple planes.  This is simply doing lots of different movements then what we have done on a routine basis.  Squatting, lunging, reaching, tumbling, gradual exposure into lengthening and loading tissues that haven't been active all day.  Joints have rotational capabilities that need to be expressed daily or they begin to stiffen.  Capsules need synovial fluid to stay healthy.  Synovial reaches the capsule through movement.  If you don't expose the joint to angles it doesn't drive synovial fluid into those spaces.  Cutting out the warm up cuts out the maintenance of joint range of motion.  

Warm ups allow gradual practice of the skill of the movement.  Rep after rep.  Regardless if it's a sprint, a squat, a deadlift or a push up, sprinting and lifting have a skill component that needs to be constantly kept fresh.  Skills that are practiced generally get better.  Cutting out the warm up cuts out the opportunity to practice skills.  

Warm ups allow us to take inventory of body parts and body movements that don't quite feel right.  Maybe, we spend a few extra minutes exploring those.  If something feels off after several days, perhaps we seek help, even if it's just a YouTube search of the area from a trusted source.  If you don't know your shoulder hurts when you do a table top stretch maybe it festers into something worse months later.  Cutting the warm up cuts out that screening process.  

For the general person adding or keeping a quality warm up for 10-15 min can bring many health and performance benefits.  Even if you only had 20 minutes, a 10 min warm up still allows ten minutes for high quality one or two movements.  Allow yourself the opportunity to keep giving your body a chance to move and improve.  Don't let that body get to old to play.  

What Can We Learn From the Potato Blight

 Reading through the fascinating book 1493 by Charles Mann has been a learning experience about how foods like the potato have been influenced by the Colombian Exchange.  Put simply, with the "discovery" of the New World by Columbus, a complicated and world altering exchange of goods, services and ideas from and into Europe, Asia, North and South America was created.

One of the more interesting exchanges was the amazing potato.  Most researchers agree that the potato was cultivated in the Andean area, most likely Peru.  In fact, hundreds of varieties of potatoes exist.  Over the next few hundred years the potato was brought to Europe.  The potato is credited for allowing Europe to grow and not to starve.  For the first time the common man had a surplus of calories.  In a way, you could make an argument that the potato saved Europe.  

Fast forward a few hundred years into the late 1700s and another Columbian Exchange product is becoming worth its weight in gold, guano.  Bird poop.  Guano has been discovered to be the ultimate fertilizer for the soil, for growing better crops.  It is now agreed that somewhere and sometime in the late 1700's a little parasite called P. infestans aka the deadly potato blight, was hitching a ride in the guano.  It was laid into the soil in Europe and slowly spread over the next 50 years to trigger what we now call the Great Famine. 

It is not the potato blight I found interesting though, it was what were the conditions for which allowed such spread.  Why Ireland and what can we learn from this?

First, Ireland was heavily reliant on the potato, more so than many of the other countries.  It had become a mono culture.  The climate of wet cool areas certainly played a part.  The third was the change in growing methods.  This holds the most interest for me.  

Ireland had developed a growing method over the years very similar to the Andean way of growing potatoes called Wacho.  It had become known as Lazy beds in Europe.  They took up the sod and stacked them on top of each other.  This created ridges with a small trench nearby.  Because the ridges were raised up, they heated up in the day earlier and retained heat.  They were dense roots so they held onto the nutrients in the soil and because of the grass resisted erosion.  The densely packed Wacho also resisted weeds.  Because the soil held more nutrients, they didn't need fertilizer (guano).  The fallows from where the sod had been dug up acted like natural drains when it rained.  

This method had been perfected and used from most likely Inca times in Peru and used successfully into Ireland hundreds of years later.  Until, they are told differently.

"Activist like Andrew Wight and Jethro Tull wanted farmers to release soil nutrients by deep thorough plowing, to plant every bit of terrain, to change the land with fertilizer, use ruthless weeding, and maximize yields by efficient harvesting.  Believers in technology, they viewed the newest factory made harrows, drillers and harvesters as God given tools to accomplish these goals."

They got rid of the Wacho growing methods, a decade later the potato blight all but destroyed the potato.  It is quite a harrowing story reading about the Great Famine. 

"During the next forty years, researches attributed the blight to ozone, air pollution, static electricity, volcanic action, smoke from steam locomotives, excessive humidity or heat, gases from the recently introduced sulfur match, and emanation from outer space, various insects..."

New technology and wanting efficiency replaced common sense and experience.  Even giving the name Lazy beds also makes it seem like they were subtly looking down on this growing method, instead of using the name Wacho.

It is interesting seeing the blame placed on various ideas because the real cause was unknown.  It is interesting to see how science was espoused over experience.  This can still be seen in coaching/therapy and almost every profession.  There must be a balance in, this is the way we have always done it and science says we should do it this way.

One quote that has stuck with me, " was simply the latest and worth pathogen to take advantage of the new scientific agriculture, ...on a terrain shaped for technology and not biology."

Makes me wonder how modern life is shaping the biology we call the human body.  

Why You Should Care About the Letter NrF2

Every now and then there will be a headline about how taking a multivitamin can actually be bad for your health or that high dose of this vitamin can be counterproductive.  

On the other end we see all the time how this food or vitamin is an antioxidant.  This supplement ORAC value is the highest ever!  Oxygen radical absorbance capacity.  Does this matter?

Between these two headlines, there is another.  Inflammation is the start of most disease and problems that make you feel less then how you really want to be feeling.  What is inflammation?  

The type of inflammation we are concerned about is not the inflammation that comes to mind.  When you roll your ankle there is some redness, some heat, some pain and some swelling.  This is not what we are taking about.  Para-inflammation is our target.  

""Para-inflammation is an adaptive response of the immune system to low levels of tissue stress (i.e., a low-degree of “danger” stimuli), such as in aging whereby oxidative stress accumulates bit by bit for many decades. The physiological role of para-inflammation is to maintain homeostasis (or re-set the homeostatic threshold of the tissue) and restore tissue functionality."  Medzhitoz 2008.  

In layman's terms, think of para-inflammation as the area between a healthy state and an inflamed state on a time line.  All of us are on this time line in some fashion.  A stress comes along, remember stress can be physical, mental or emotional.   How "healthy" we are determines our response to this stress.  The stress can trigger the para-inflammation into full blown inflammation.  Visualize hot coals that are no longer creating a fire, but stress comes along and blows on them, and boom the coals ignite back up into a full fire.  

Now enter the letters NrF2.  This is the master regulator to protect the cells against stress, to keep them from becoming inflamed.  It is the guardian.  Lets list what NrF2 can do.  Improve cell function, remove toxins, increase mitochondria, eliminates cells beyond repair, protects against cellular stress.  Regulates almost 500 genes!

Addressing the first question of antioxidants.  This old theory was about targeting outside the cell.  It's hard for an antioxidant to have an effect across the cell membrane, gut wall and blood brain barrier.  So it is ineffective for internal cell influence, the cytoplasm.  To target inside the cell we need the NrF2 system.

How do we prime then the NrF2 system?  Phytonutrients.  Plant chemicals.  It only works well if we have a surplus of these.  The best ones studied are: sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts, curcumin from turmeric, resveratrol, carnosol from rosemary , Ginkgo extract, polyphenols from green tea and sulphur from garlic.  

The old way was to take a lot of one vitamin or a supplement that has a high ORAC value to target free radicals outside the cell.  One molecule of vitamin C can in theory grab one free radical, one molecule of superoxide dismutase grabs one billion!  There lies the difference.  Antioxidents are outside the cell.  Priming the NrF2 system gets to the inside cell to get enzymatic activity going.  Which can be constantly renewed.  

Enough phyochemicals can keep the NrF2 pathway primed.  It can block the stress of life from taking our bodies from para-inflamed to inflamed and help keep us on other end of the homeostasis that we call healthy and feeling good.  

I am going to link a recipe for Turmeric Chicken with Garlic and Broccoli.  Now you know what getting these phytonutrients can do
for your body, it is always easier to eat a little better.  

PS.  NrF2 stands for nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2

Racing to Learn

Signing up to do a race can mean many things to many people.  Perhaps it was a goal that forced you to train for something, a deadline that dictated preparation.  More commonly, maybe it is just for fun.  (maybe thats the best reason).  A final test per say for the training or studying that you did.  Trying out new training ideas or nutrition concepts can be tested out.  Racing strategies can be implemented.  

I have always thought that most coaches and therapists should race or compete at something every now and then.  A reminder of the emotions and ideas that percolate.  Empathy.

The night before.  Worried about getting enough sleep.  Being annoyed if it doesn't work out that way.

Waking up feeling a little more nervous then a day of hard training would invoke.  Checking your watch frequently.  On time.  Working backwards from the start, warm up. bathroom, nutrition, breakfast or meal.  Feeling a little more on edge if something disrupts the pattern. 

The jitters at the start.  Trust your plan or go with pace.  Pace to slow or to fast?  A gap forms, do you go with it and risk blowing up.  Can you trust your training to match the attack, do you trust yourself.  Legs feel good, legs feel bad, does it matter?  Should it matter?  If you know your training is there, what do you believe?

Focus.  Don't let the mind wander.  Focus is a superpower.  Pay attention for gaps.  Pay attention to the pack.  The ebb and flow. Let the mind wander and gap formed before you can react and the energy cost of closing it is to much.  

Focus is so important I have been wondering if a supplement for improving focus is a performance enhancer.  Like most things, practice and experience is probably all that is needed.  I noticed significant improvement with making that my primary goal from race one to race two this summer.

The race becomes a teacher, a reminder, a test, and through it all, hopefully some fun was had.  

Framing Challenges and Threats for Better Health

 How we perceive a situation plays a larger role then what we sometimes consider.  We have always been told that a positive outlook is important, but why?

Why would how I look at a situation potentially dictate the outcome, if my actions remain the same?

These are important questions, for not only the patient/athlete but also the clinician/coach.  It is more then just bringing "positive thinking" to the situation.  It will also show the importance of the psyche of the  collective team or the trendy modern phrase "culture" of a group or organization.  How does challenge or threat effect our health?

Challenge or Threat?

When faced with a task or situation do we classify this as a challenge or a threat.  A challenge invokes a chance to learn, potential increase from the outcome,  and while hard either physically or mentally, we believe it will turn out well.  There is generally a sense of control.  

A threat is very similar but just perceived very differently.  A challenge will be high stress/excitement but will reside.  A challenge ends.  Exposure to these will make us better.  A threat has the physiological impact that lasts a long time.  Chronic load, weakens and undermines are health.  

<--THREAT--THREAT---Threat-Challenge--CHALLENGE---CHALLENGE--->

As you can see, there is a sliding scale.  Not everything is a massive threat or massive challenge.  There will always be a scale involved.  

Lets look at the physiology differences between the two and why they have such a different outcome on our health.

A challenge will stimulate something called the SAM pathway.  Sympathetic adrenal medullary.  SAM will have different hormone production depending on if its more a mental challenge or physical.  Mental tasks, will stimulate adrenaline.  This will cause an uptake of the brains use of glucose.  It will prompt the liver to produce glucose and will increase heart rate to drive more glucose to the brain.

A physical challenge will dictate more of the hormone noradrenaline.  This drives fatty acids into the blood stream so the muscles can use this for energy and uses an increase in blood pressure as the method of choice.

The primary driver for this is the neural system.  This allows for the SAM to be shut down very quickly.  The half life of released adrenaline and noradrenaline is 2 min.  This means it is fairly quickly out your system.  This is important.  

A threat is very different.  It will start with SAM and then go to what is called the Pituitary Adrenal Cortical system.  (PAC).  PAC rolls in around 20 min later.  Some big threats to our human psyche are social embarrassment, shame and biggest of all, a sense of loss of control.  

The PAC will ultimately cause the hormone corticotropin releasing hormone and cortisol to come into play.  The hypothalamus release the CRH, CRH ultimately causes cortisol to be released.  If the cortisol gets to high, receptors in the hypothalamus detect the high levels and stop CRH from being released.  Thus ending the cycle.  (Hopefully). 

If we continue to experience threats this keeps going.  

Cortisol will cause the release of fatty acids into the blood stream.  A source of fuel that the brain can not use.  It has a role in limiting inflammation.  It can play a role in breaking down protein, which will ultimately lead to muscle loss to secure enough glucose for brains fuel.   PAC and cortisol will be also involved when you diet or are in a fasted state.  

Cortisol will also dampen the effectiveness of insulin.  More and more insulin requirements can lead to Type 2 diabetes.  Long lasting cortisol can have some immune suppression and digestive issues. 

Not all is bad.  It's the dosage.  Low levels will cause some good things to happen including helping noradrenaline with brain arousal.  It can help with dopamine release to deal with the threat that started the PAC cycle.  The downside is that it can by a few physiological steps to get the amygdala to create anxiety and stress.  

Why have we evolved these cortisol receptors in the hypothalamus and brain?  Good question...the body is pretty cool.  Moderate levels of cortisol help to consolidate memories.  Thus we are learning what to do with a threat and how to cope.  Low levels and high levels do not trigger or help consolidate memories.  High levels,  essentially panic, do not do well with learning.  

Physical activity doesn't help with the threat that would usually would trigger the PAC pathway, but not doing physical activity has big downsides.  The body just released a bunch of fatty acids into your bloodstream.  If it stays there and isn't used in exercise it can contribute to plaque forming in the arteries.  Also, letting negative emotions linger can potentially cause the PAC pathway to keep running.  With a half life of 90 min, it is already lingering in a sense.  Remember the SAM pathway half life was 2 min.  This also gets worse the older we get.  

You can have SAM and PAC together.  Overall SAM increases heart rate or cardiac output.  PAC causes blood pressure elevation without the cardiac output.  Thus challenge can increase CO, but threats increase BP.

We know now that PAC arousal has been shown to increase tension and anxiety and puts you into a fear state quicker.  SAM arousal may enhance a positive or negative state.  This is crucial.  SAM pathway can be thought of an enhancer of what every cognitive state you bring to the situation.  

What are some takeaways we can implement?  

Exercise when you don't feel like it.  Exercise is SAM neutral, but can limit health risks that can accompany PAC.  Try to see activities as challenges.  Even if I fail, I learn.  Mindset.  Stop self focused behavior.  Essentially when we have a negative thought we create self focused thinking.  This interferes with learning and for performing tasks.  I recently watched Thug Rose win her UFC title belt fight.  Before the fight, you can hear her saying loud "I'm the best,"  over and over.  Creating positive emotion to a task at hand.  

These are essentially my notes for a few chapters of the book, "Building Resistance to Stress and Aging."

My Thoughts on Building Your Home Gym

 The last year saw a huge increase in the people starting a home gym.  As someone that owns a gym and also has a decent amount of home equipment, I thought I would go from a slightly different angle if I had to start from scratch.  

First, I'm writing for someone that wants to get strong, but not compete in the sport of powerlifting, olympic lifting or bodybuilding.  2nd, I'm writing for someone that doesn't have an unlimited budget, so choices will be made.  3rd, space is considered.  These are the 3 criterium.  If one of the three doesn't meet the filters you have for yourself then the list becomes less important.  

Right off the bat, lets get the elephant out of the room.  I am not going to list a barbell or a squat rack/power rack.  Here are my reasons.  I'm not enamored with barbell back squatting/front squatting or barbell deadlifting anymore.  I don't practice olympic lifting.  If you want to do these things, that is great, but just realize you don't need them to get strong and stay healthy.  In fact, if you want to stay healthy, I'd advise, the average person against them anyways.  If you want to invest in a high quality barbell that is an investment.  A good one will run a minimum of 300 dollars.  I'd go so far as to point you at Chris Duffins Kabuki Transformer bar at around 700 dollars for staying healthy and getting strong and its versatility.  If money was not a concern, I would consider it at the top of my list.   But if you get a barbell, you must get a squat/power rack.  Again, minimum 300 dollars.  (for the cheapest I can find).  Also, a squat rack takes up space.  Even the ones that fold flat into the wall.  It's still there.  A barbell often means you will most likely get a bench.  Even a bench from ACME will run you a 100 dollars.   Olympic lifting requires bumper plates.  Very expensive when comparing to metal.  But this isn't a list of why nots...lets get into what I would get.  

Trap Bar with High Handles.  With no moving parts, a trap bar is essentially a solid piece of metal.  Nothing fancy.  It combines the best of both worlds a squat and a deadlift.  Depending on the set up and shin angles, I can make the trap bar more "squatty" or more of a "deadlift."  With the center of mass at your sides instead of in front, technique is so much easier to learn.  This translates into less back injury risk.  I can teach someone good form in the trap bar in around 5 min.  You are constantly working on your technique for a convential/sumo deadlift and front/back squats.  Remember powerlifting is a sport.  Research has shown you can develop more power using a trap bar then a conventional barbell.  

The trap bar can also be used for Romanian deadlifts.  Bent over rows.  If you have room, farmers carries.  The handles make a nice handle for elevated push ups.  Jumping squats.  I've even put the end of the trap bar in a corner and did a slightly modified landmine press.  

Best of all it's like 130 dollars.  

Metal weight plates.  Actual weights are at a premium right now, but they can still be had.  While I love lifting with bumper plates, less jarring.  You can't beat the price of metal.  4x45, 2x25, 2x10 2x5 are what we are trying to get to.  Since most trap bars are 55 pounds.  This weight all loaded up would be 315.  Even if you have a 500lb deadlift.  315 pounds for reps will keep you significantly strong.  Remember, you can always add more weight as you go and or get stronger.  

Cost is significant right now at around 2 dollars a pound.  Precovid 50 scents a pound would be a standard for a craigslist of play it again sports.  These are the times.  

Heavy Bands.  Bands are some of the most versatile pieces of home equipment you can purchase.  Purchase from a reputable company like Rogue or EliteFTS.  I still have bands from EliteFTS from a decade ago.  I have baught cheaper bands that have broke with in a year.  These bands are 41" in length.  Get a 2" wide, 1.5" wide, a 1" wide and a 1/2" wide.  The number of different exercises you can do with bands are to numerous to list.  Bands also allow you to overload or add resistance to something like a trap bar if you can't find enough metal weight plates for your liking.  80 dollars.

Wooden Box.  A box that is 20x24x30" is pretty versatile.  Step ups of various heights.  Seated movements.  Bench.  Sled on carpet.  All kinds of body weight movements.  Can attach bands around it for leg variations.  If you can find a craftsman to build one for you, probably under 50 dollars.  Online about 120 dollars.  

PVC Pipes.  2 six foot poles can create an imaginative way to stretch or do mobility style movements.  You can attach bands to the PVC to recreate additional ways to lift.  10 dollars.

Foam Roller.  Outside of being able to roll out quads, calfs and upper back.  Can do some calf/hamstring exercises and ab exercises.  Can replace the ab wheel.  10 dollars.

Back Pack:  This becomes an easy way to add weight to body weight movements.  It can serve as a makeshift kettlebell with great results.  Can be used for Rucking.  Fill it with bags of sand or pea gravel.  Can easily make a bag from 10-60 pounds. 

BONUS:  This is more thoughts on cardio.  If you hate it, but know you need it, look for a fan bike.  Some deals on craigslist can still be had.  A brand new one runs 650 dollars.  A friend just sold an old one for 150.  It can be max effort work with no joint risk.  It can slow and steady.  Very versatile for the price.  Another option is to drop a few hundred buck for a bike trainer and use your own bike or buy a bike.  So you have a bike, but also have a way to use it inside.  Food for thought.   Running is free.  Stair sprints, hills sprints, free.  Jump rope, simple.  

The body doesn't understand the tool.  It understands force and load.  It can be a metal rusty weight, a bag of sand, an Olympic Standard Bumper plate, it all has the same effect when used well.  Even if you belong to a gym, it is always a good idea to have something around for the days when time is limited or you can't make a class.  Having 20 min can still do some great work.  Once you have your gym, you will realize what a great investment it is.   

 

The Value of Water

It is funny how questions can stir memories.  My daughter saw a picture of a lady carrying water on her head the other day.  She asked what she was doing.  I explained she had to walk several miles to get water for her day, perhaps she had to do this several times, every day.  The look of incomprehension, like I had just told her some people have wings.  Explaining the situation further, there was still disbelief.  Water is everywhere and its free.  

My first memory of water was drinking from the water hose during the summer after running around in the woods.  After just a few seconds, it would become the coldest water I have ever tasted.  Colder in my memory then even the fresh Icelandic water I drank from the rivers doing the bike race The RIFT.  

Every morning, I get up and put my glass on the fridge and filtered cold water spurts out.  It can give you ice as well.  We all probably have some sore of childhood "success"  ideas.  Something that represents success to you back then, that almost seems silly now.  "Riches"  This style fridge was another memory that the water brought back.  As a kid, I must have seen it and thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  I didn't own one or live in a place with one till the house I live in now.   But I can remember thinking this represented making it...lol 

Growing up with the ice cube trays and thinking about rationing the ice during the summer.  Later in life, filtering water in a water pitcher.  Now, it is simply there with the push of a button, endless supply.  In a way, the ease of use and supply has created a devaluing of this precious item.  

I think I have sometimes subconsciously packed less water on some longer bike rides on purpose.  To feel the thirst.  To have the thoughts of rationing the water.  To feel the dry mouth and desire for that next ice cold water.  The ordinary becoming extraordinary again.  

Most of us, will never need to worry about water.  If you are reading this, probably 100% true.  The thing is, we are still discovering things about water.  Ever hear of the fourth phase of water?  Gerald Pollocks work on this is fascinating.  E-Z water is its name, exclusion zone. 

Reading the book "Ghost Map" it was the first time science was used to solve the mystery of cholera.  Most sickness was thought to be from "miasma" or bad air.  Why well off/rich people chose to live on hills and why poor people lived in the lower ground.  An earlier book I read "The Mosquito"  talked about bad air and malaria being discovered through mosquitos.  Ghost map, shows the evolution of thought of bad air, to the confirmation of the cholera bacterium carried in contaminated water.  

This defining moment in the late 1800's showed the importance of clean water for health.  Clean water eliminates so much sickness and disease.  We are going on close to 150 years of realizing clean water is a keystone for health.  Yet, clean water is still lacking in many places.  It is estimated a few thousand young kids die every day from it's lack.  The numbers are so large, they lack impact anymore.  3.5 million a year.  2.2 million are kids.  Every year...every year....every year.  

Every morning now I say a small thank you when I push that glass into my fridge and get that clean filtered water.  It is one of the healthiest things we can do for our bodies.  Win the low hanging fruit battles for your health.   Don't let the easy get devalued.  

..................................................

One of the organizations I started supporting was Charity:water.  100% of funds goes to actual clean water projects.  Organizational fees/salaries are funded by donors.  This means the dollars you give go towards actual people without clean water.  

Worth while video watch of the Charity/Water.  The Spring:  Charity water story.