Summer Time is highlighted by warm nights, grilling and sweaty workouts. In fact, depending on where you live, sweating is pretty much just a fact in the summer no matter what you are doing. Your sweat glands are essentially appendages of your epidermis and the liquid that they expel to cool your body and discharge waste can tell us a lot about what is going on deep inside your body. Scientists from Penn State have just released the smallest Sweat detection device ever so I decided to do some digging into the science of sweat and how we can use it to make us healthier as athletes and humans.
First off, Sweat is important to the microbiome. No the microbiome Im always writing about in your GUT, rather the colonies of bacteria on your skin! Your largest organ, the skin is covered with both harmful and beneficial bacteria. Sweat contains DERMCIDIN which is a peptide that contains 47 amino acids which both kill off bad bacteria and aid in the health of good bacteria on the skin. Scientists have routinely measured the amount of this amino acid in those who have a high risk factor for METASTATIC and PROSTATE CANCER. When the cells of the body exponentially duplicate in the cancer process, a ton of Dermcidin is produced and released from sweat glands.
Drug and Alcohol use can be measured through sweat analysis. Many of the pills that we take for ailments both acute and chronic are NOT water soluble and so they move through the kidneys unbroken and are expelled through the skin. Scientists often measure the drug content of your sweat to see how well your body synthesizes medication.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease that effects your kidneys and liver. These organs are also responsible for removing waste and metabolites front he body. Your sweat has a specific glucose and Ph level that can inform those who may be pre-diabetic or have full blown diabetes about the status of their organ health.
The list of measurable components goes on; from diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis to Schizophrenia the depth of understanding in what you expel from your sweat glands is as informative as measuring urine or feces. I dont know, but I find this pretty interesting.
So as athletes what we can look out for is evolving technology that is either wearable or stuck to the skin to measure data. There is a fully integrated smartwatch that uses this technology now as well as the the dermal patch that I referred to in the introduction. We will soon be able to get real time data that can track trends in our perspiration so that we can make qualitative changes to our diet and lifestyle! Just as technologies have evolved to track performance through sleep, vis-a-vi WHOOP , so can we expect a deep dive into our sides with sweat analysis.
So here is your food for thought about Sweat and how It tells us more than we think. And I didn’t even dig into smells… Ohhh if you want to really go deep in Sweat we can talk about why people naturally smell the way they do and how everyone is unique.. That is interesting stuff. Well, Ill save that one for later. For now, love and be loved and Ill see you next week.
Love
Eric
Programming Notes 6/29-7/3 ** This is week 5 of the Sprint Block. We sprint on Wednesday an Friday this week. Prepare because mMonday and Tuesday are heavy days. Since it is 4th of July week, Ive put into of my favorite benchmarks, one a hero WOD and the other From CF New England.
6/29
Baseline:
3X
15 Cal Bike
10 Divebomber Push Ups
5 Trunk Circles
Shoulder Mobility:
1:00 @ Each
-Lat Banded Stretch
-Bully Stretch
-Scapula Distraction Stretch
Snatch Warm Up:
7@ Each
-Snatch Deadlift
-Snatch High Pull
-Muscle Snatch
-Overhead Squat
-Back Rack Press
-Hang Power Snatch
-Squat Snatch Below the knee
Snatch Complex:
Every :90 for 5 Rounds *Alternating*
A) 2 Snatch Pulls
B) 1 Power Snatch
Anaerobic Work:
8 Minute AMRAP
5 Deadlift 275/185
9 Toes TO bar
6/30
Baseline:
6 Min Quality Circuit Warm up
25 Double Unders or 25 High Knee Rope Skips
12 Ring Rows W/ :02 hold at top
12 Reverse PLyo Lunge -Lunge back and jump back up
12 Divebomber Push Ups
Chest TO bar Progression:
-banded pull
-Jumping C2B
-Australian Pull Up/barbell Pull up
-Kipping C2B
Front Squat :
Spend 6 Minutes working up to workout weight. Practice pullIng from Floor, good squat form.
Double Under Progression:
-singles
-high Singles
-cadence Drill
-Dubs
AGILITY Skill work:
4 Rounds;
10 Lateral Cone Touches @ 15’
+
6 Staggered Stance Vertical Leaps
WOD:
"Heartbreak Kid"
3X
10 Front Squat 155/105
20 Chest TO Bar
50 Double Unders
7/1
Baseline:
3X 25 meters @ Each
-Elbow To Instep Lunge
-Heel walk
-Toe Walk
-Low Skips
-A Skips
-B Skips
-Jump Back and Run
-Carioca
-Groiners
-Power Skips
-Sprint Starts
Sprint Start Practice:
3 X 25m @ Each
-Striding Start
- Jump Back Starts
-Lateral Hurdle Start
-Pop Up Starts
Sprint WEEK #5
7 Rounds
100m Sprint
100m Farmer Carry (Heavy)
-Rest 2:00-
7/2
Baseline:
500m Row
3X
10 PVC Pass Thru
8 Divebomber Push Ups
6 Plyometric Push Ups
4 V Ups
Shoulder Work:
3X
15 barbell Bent Row
20 Banded Pull Aparts
Interval Conditioning:
5X
1:00 @ Each
1. Burpee box Jump
2. Pull Up
3. Hang Clean and Press 115/75
4. Assault Bike
5. Full Rest
7/3
Baseline:
Agility Warm Up @ 10m Each
Elbow To instep Lunge
Heel Walk
Toe Walk
High Knee Pull
Quad Pull + Up Onto toes
Squat 180 **stepping the leg high over hip, swing opposite leg to 180, squat
High Knees
Butt kickers
Marching High Kicks
Groiners
Straight leg shuffles
A Skip
B Skip
Fig 4 Drill
Lateral Shuffle
Carioca
Lateral Bounding
Sprint W/ Change of Direction
Shoulder Prep:
10 @
Banded Pull Aparts
Banded Pass Thru
Banded Bench Press
Banded Press and Rip
Banded Reverse Flys
Running Intervals
2 Rounds
:45 Rest Between Intervals
3:00 Rest Between Rounds
__
400m Run
>
300m Run
>
200m Run
>
100m Run
HERO WOD:
“Arnie”
21 Turkish Get Ups “R”
50 KB Swing
21 OHS “L”
50 KB Swing
21 OHS “R”
50 KB Swing
21 TGU “L”
*To Be done with 70# KB
