Speaker 1: I get a champs. Hey, I hope you're great. Hey,
Speaker 1: So today's been an interesting day. It's Saturday, Saturday. It's Saturday,
Speaker 1: and the person I was going to interview is Crook.
Speaker 1: I couldn't interview that person. They're going to be on later.
Speaker 1: So it's all cool, get the up, butter Cup. But
Speaker 1: I was thinking to myself. I was thinking, self, what
Speaker 1: am I going to do? Do we give it a miss?
Speaker 1: Do we put up something that we did a long
Speaker 1: time ago, or do I do I have a bit
Speaker 1: of a chat to the gang. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: I was doing something before. I was doing a little
Speaker 1: bit of kind of figuring out of stuff, a bit
Speaker 1: of research on like really simple research, but it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: It's a very specific thing. So this is something of
Speaker 1: an atypical podcast. Some of you will find this really interesting.
Speaker 1: Some of you will not. If you're not really interested
Speaker 1: in the kind of fitness exercise is health wellbeing stuff,
Speaker 1: this might not be for you. Might be, but it's
Speaker 1: really relevant for everybody, from people who are completely unfit
Speaker 1: through to people who are a little exercise bunnies and
Speaker 1: fitness kind of addicts. For one, a bedded word, so
Speaker 1: one of the things that I do regularly is because
Speaker 1: I live near the beach. I live about seven or
Speaker 1: eight hundred meters from the beach. I walk to the beach,
Speaker 1: and then I walk in the soft sand. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: walk up above the beach where there's a dirt tracks,
Speaker 1: sometimes on the concrete path that runs exactly by the beach,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I more often than not, I walk at
Speaker 1: least a k or two in the soft sand. And
Speaker 1: it's always amazed me how different it is to walk
Speaker 1: in soft I mean soft sand, not firm sand, but
Speaker 1: soft sand, compared with walking on a hard surface, you know,
Speaker 1: round the street, round suburbia, foot path, sidewalk, whatever you
Speaker 1: call it. And I had a fair idea of calorie expenditure,
Speaker 1: in other words, how much energy, how much more energy
Speaker 1: we would need to complete the same task at the
Speaker 1: same speed, In other words, a five kilometer walk for
Speaker 1: an hour walking at five kilometers per hour, meaning of
Speaker 1: course we walk five k's in one hour, which means,
Speaker 1: of course, how speed is five kph. Of course, now
Speaker 1: comparing that five kilometer per hour walk on a hard
Speaker 1: surface versus a soft surface, like where you don't have
Speaker 1: the same footing, you don't have the same purchase. It's
Speaker 1: obviously much harder to walk one hundred steps in soft
Speaker 1: sand than one hundred steps on a hard surface. So
Speaker 1: what does that do? What does that do to the
Speaker 1: calorie burning? What does that do to the energy expenditure? What? Now,
Speaker 1: I erroneously thought, or I mistakenly thought, it probably increases
Speaker 1: it by about I don't know, thirty to fifty percent,
Speaker 1: which is quite an increase. Guess what I did a
Speaker 1: little I did a little research looking for some actual
Speaker 1: academic kind of study or some journal articles. And so
Speaker 1: let me just preface this with so I used myself
Speaker 1: as the guinea pig. So me eighty one kilo me
Speaker 1: walking at So if you vague, if you're a bit
Speaker 1: lighter than me, you would take these calories down if
Speaker 1: we did same activity five k walk sixty minutes soft
Speaker 1: sand versus hard surface. But eighty one kilogram me would
Speaker 1: burn about or expend more scientifically, about two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty calories. Remembering that our calories energy measurement or measure
Speaker 1: of energy, I should say I would expend about two
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty calories in that five k walk. If
Speaker 1: I was traversing the urban landscape, walking around on a
Speaker 1: hard surface. Now, listen to this. Research indicates that walking
Speaker 1: on soft sand requires significantly more energy than walking on
Speaker 1: hard surfaces. Well, we knew that, but we didn't know
Speaker 1: how much. A study published in the Journal of Experimental
Speaker 1: Biology found that walking on sand says just sand, but anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm going with soft sand demands approximately two point one
Speaker 1: to two point seven times more energy expenditure than walking
Speaker 1: at the same speed on a firm surface. So, in
Speaker 1: other words, more than double and depending on how hard
Speaker 1: you work, almost triple. Now that's crazy, that's crazy. So
Speaker 1: have a listen to the numbers. So remember craig eighty
Speaker 1: one kilo, craig five k walk one hour, two hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty calories in my current shape and weight. Now,
Speaker 1: then we transfer that activity from the hard surface to
Speaker 1: the beach. Now I'm walking in soft sand. I'm doing
Speaker 1: the same Now, this is the fascinating thing, Right, I'm
Speaker 1: doing the exact same thing. I'm just doing it on
Speaker 1: a different surface. So I'm walking, I'm walking at the
Speaker 1: same speed, I'm in the same body, I'm the same weight,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing it for the same duration. All the
Speaker 1: variables are the same except for the surface that I'm
Speaker 1: walking on. So if we look at so two hundred
Speaker 1: eighty calories times, let's go the upper limit, which is
Speaker 1: two point seven times more energy expended. So my calorie
Speaker 1: expenditure would go in that time from two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty calories to seven hundred and fifty six. Now, even
Speaker 1: if we just doubled it, which is lower than what
Speaker 1: they're saying, because their bottom is their ranges two point
Speaker 1: one to two point seven. Even if we just doubled it, well,
Speaker 1: it still is five hundred and sixty calories. If we
Speaker 1: go to the kind of the middle of their predicted
Speaker 1: range two point one to two point seven, we go
Speaker 1: to two point four. So let's go what they say
Speaker 1: the range is. Let's go in the middle of that range.
Speaker 1: That would land me up from two hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: calories up to six hundred and seventy two. Now, how
Speaker 1: good is this? By the way, if you want to
Speaker 1: expend more energy, you want to burn a few more calories,
Speaker 1: you don't have lots of time. This is a good
Speaker 1: thing to know what it's handy, especially if you live
Speaker 1: near sand. If you don't, well, I'll give you another
Speaker 1: option at the end. But what about this? What if
Speaker 1: I decide that I want to burn more energy in
Speaker 1: half the time than my normal five k walk around suburbia.
Speaker 1: So now I do thirty minutes at the same speed
Speaker 1: on soft sand. And if we're going off the top
Speaker 1: number two point seven, so we go, Craig's walking for
Speaker 1: two point five kilometers now, because it's only half the time,
Speaker 1: he's doing the same thing. He's walking his eighty one
Speaker 1: kilogram body. But now in thirty minutes he's burning three
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy eight calories in half the time that
Speaker 1: he is burning two hundred and eighty calories in an
Speaker 1: hour on a hard surface. So more than double the
Speaker 1: energy expenditure, even if we wind it back, double the
Speaker 1: energy expenditure per unit of time. But even in that
Speaker 1: half hour, three hundred and seventy eight calories versus two
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty calories for that hour on a hard surface,
Speaker 1: it's not only does it match the calories at almost
Speaker 1: it's almost one hundred calories more. At the very least,
Speaker 1: we can burn twice the amount of calories per unit
Speaker 1: of time walking on a soft surface like sand. All right,
Speaker 1: So here's my caveats though, here's my little Hey, think
Speaker 1: about this, Be careful of this, because you know they're there.
Speaker 1: I guess the downside, there aren't really too many downsides.
Speaker 1: But if there are any downsides, I guess it's it's
Speaker 1: not a stable surface obviously, So if somebody is really unstable,
Speaker 1: and somebody has real, real balance issues, this might not
Speaker 1: be a good idea. Having said that, like my eighty
Speaker 1: five year old mum, she wouldn't be tearing the sand up.
Speaker 1: But I know that my eighty five year old mum
Speaker 1: could walk if we really just cruised, she could walk
Speaker 1: for a collonnter in the soft sand. We don't have
Speaker 1: to be walking at her normal foot pass speed, but
Speaker 1: she could do it. So it's really I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: it's an individual judgment call. And as I always say,
Speaker 1: if you're not sure about any of this, check with
Speaker 1: a health professional, fitness professional, doctor, whoever it is. I'm
Speaker 1: just sharing some science and some thoughts and ideas with you,
Speaker 1: and I guess the great thing is not that we
Speaker 1: want anybody falling, but having a fall into soft sand
Speaker 1: is way better than having a fall on concrete. We
Speaker 1: don't want any fourth though, And think about now other
Speaker 1: than the chloric benefits, or the energy expenditure benefits, and
Speaker 1: the time saving benefits. There's a raft of other things
Speaker 1: that walking in soft sand does for our body, including,
Speaker 1: but not limited to, so there's a lot more there's
Speaker 1: a lot more total muscle activation because we've got to
Speaker 1: work harder because essentially the ground under us moves, right,
Speaker 1: it's not like concrete that doesn't move. It moves, So
Speaker 1: we've got to work harder. So there's more muscle activation
Speaker 1: in our carbs and hamstrings, the muscle at the back quads,
Speaker 1: muscles at the front of our thigh glues that's our
Speaker 1: bum and those little kind of foot muscles, the intrinsic
Speaker 1: foot muscles. Because we're walking on this unstable surface, we
Speaker 1: need greater engagement and greater activation and use of all
Speaker 1: of these muscles in the lower body. Benefit Number two
Speaker 1: improved ankle and foot strength. Because the sand shifts under
Speaker 1: our feet, we are forced to use all those stabilizing
Speaker 1: muscles through our ankle through like you know, well, our
Speaker 1: whole leg, but specifically for this ankle down, using our
Speaker 1: stabilizer muscles much more than when we're out and about
Speaker 1: walking up and down the hard surface in a supermarket
Speaker 1: or something like that. For example, there are core benefits,
Speaker 1: so your core being the muscles through your waist, and
Speaker 1: really you know you've got stabilizing muscles through your whole body,
Speaker 1: but your core works harder to stabilize your trunk with
Speaker 1: each step when you are on an unstable surface, so
Speaker 1: you can improve core strength. Of course, there's great cardiovascular
Speaker 1: demand because your heart rate's got to climb because you
Speaker 1: are working, because you're still doing the same speed if
Speaker 1: you're based on this example i'm giving, but you're walking
Speaker 1: on a surface that's much harder to walk on. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're going to burn more energy per unit of time,
Speaker 1: but yes, your heart rate's going to need to increase.
Speaker 1: So as your heart rate increases walking the same speed.
Speaker 1: So now instead of I'm just giving you an example,
Speaker 1: let's say you're walking around suburbia. And let's say I'm
Speaker 1: walking around Suburbia and my heart rate is one twenty
Speaker 1: as I'm walking around the street at five k's per
Speaker 1: per hour, which are not super fast for me, but
Speaker 1: it's okay. I would say my heart rate would be
Speaker 1: somewhere up around one sixty, maybe one fifty if I'm walking.
Speaker 1: I'm just guessing, but it would be significantly higher work
Speaker 1: walking on that unstable, soft, loose sand because of all
Speaker 1: of the things I've mentioned before. So there's a real
Speaker 1: fitness benefit, there's a real cardiovascular benefit, improved micro adjustments
Speaker 1: for neuromuscular conditioning. So as as we step, as we
Speaker 1: move through this less predictable landscape than concrete, our neuromuscular system,
Speaker 1: all our nerves and nervous system in general, and all
Speaker 1: of the muscles that are operationalized by these nerves get
Speaker 1: a greater workout. So there are constant micro adjustments which
Speaker 1: equal improved neuromuscular facilitation and coordination that happen in sand
Speaker 1: that don't happen to the same level on a on
Speaker 1: a hard surface. So also think about because we're increasing
Speaker 1: or we're working all those stabilizer muscles, all those stabilizer
Speaker 1: muscles through our hips, knees, an calls, everything, we over
Speaker 1: time we will improve our balance and our coordination and
Speaker 1: our stability, thereby potentially reducing falls and injury risks over time.
Speaker 1: So you know, we're getting fitter, we're using more energy,
Speaker 1: but also we're making our body more stable because we're
Speaker 1: on an unstable surface. That's the thing. It's like, you
Speaker 1: know how people do bench press on a ball? What's
Speaker 1: the difference. One of the differences between bench pressing on
Speaker 1: a ball and a hard bench or hard ish bench
Speaker 1: thing is because you're on a ball, which is convex.
Speaker 1: It is round, and it rolls and moves. It doesn't
Speaker 1: sit like a chair. It just moves all over the joint.
Speaker 1: Then you're lying. You've got part of your body on
Speaker 1: the ball, but most of your body not on the ball.
Speaker 1: Now you are an unstable surface, analogous to walking in sand.
Speaker 1: You're on an unstable surface, which is called the ball.
Speaker 1: And now you're not just using your chest muscles when
Speaker 1: you're bench pressed, you're using all the stabilizer muscles in
Speaker 1: your body because you're lying on something that's fucking rolling around.
Speaker 1: In other words, working on something that's less stable or
Speaker 1: completely unstable in the regards of a ball, means you
Speaker 1: need to employ greater engagement of all your stabilizing muscles.
Speaker 1: You do that for long enough, over time, you become
Speaker 1: safer in an unstable environment. I guess. Also another benefit
Speaker 1: is soft sand reduces ground reaction force, so, in other words,
Speaker 1: less jarring, less impact, less of that negative kind of
Speaker 1: force going through ligaments, tendons, joints, bones, skeleton. So walking
Speaker 1: on a softer surface less stress on knees, hips, and spine,
Speaker 1: and I guess can be can be ideal, maybe ideals
Speaker 1: overdoing it may be suitable for rehab and low impact training.
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean, there are so many, there
Speaker 1: are so many benefits. I've got a few more, but
Speaker 1: I won't, you know, I'll do one more. My last
Speaker 1: one is my last two. Let's do that. So my
Speaker 1: second last one is it improves muscular endurance because walking
Speaker 1: on a soft surface like sand fatigue's muscles quicker, which
Speaker 1: means you are now you're now tapping into, you know,
Speaker 1: an energy system and a level of conditioning that you
Speaker 1: don't when you're walking on the hard surface. So now
Speaker 1: you've got to work harder, in other words, and walk harder.
Speaker 1: So you're going to build not only fitness and strength
Speaker 1: and muscular endurance, but you're making your body, you know,
Speaker 1: more functional and operational. And the last one I just
Speaker 1: mentioned in there, which is lower body strength. So walking
Speaker 1: in soft sand builds functional lower body strength because you're
Speaker 1: working harder. You're now working the amount of resistance that
Speaker 1: you're working against when you're walking around suburbia is significantly
Speaker 1: less than the resistance that you're working against when you're
Speaker 1: on the soft sand. Now I'll get out of your hair.
Speaker 1: But think about how we could correlate this idea, like
Speaker 1: where we go, Well, there's walking, and there's walking, and
Speaker 1: you go, is walking good or bad? Well in terms
Speaker 1: of for fitness or strength, or aerobic endurance or muscular endurance,
Speaker 1: or balance or coordination or neural conditioning or well, it's
Speaker 1: not so much as walking good or bad. It's like,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the different kinds of walking. You know.
Speaker 1: We can talk about anything in this kind of light,
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, maybe it's all about the thing,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's about how we do the thing, you know,
Speaker 1: And that could be anything from walking walking on a
Speaker 1: hard surface to sand to having a conversation. Some conversations
Speaker 1: are easy, some are hard. Maybe we have the easy
Speaker 1: ones and avoid that. It's not about having a conversation.
Speaker 1: It's about the context, it's about the topic. It's about
Speaker 1: how important it is that we have that conversation with
Speaker 1: that person. So think about things that you commonly do
Speaker 1: which you could tweak or adjust, will modify there's one
Speaker 1: variable that you can change in the doing of that thing.
Speaker 1: Like for example, I'll give you a quick example, and
Speaker 1: this is another gym when I apologize. But there's a
Speaker 1: dude I was talking to recently. I see him in
Speaker 1: the gym, and he always he always does the same thing.
Speaker 1: For chest, he always bench presses, he always uses the bench,
Speaker 1: and he always uses the bar bell. I reckon. I've
Speaker 1: seen him for five years and he does that. He
Speaker 1: does that for chest and not much else. And we
Speaker 1: were talking and he was telling me that he's really stunted,
Speaker 1: as in, he's not improving, he's not getting stronger. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, why don't you do the exact same
Speaker 1: movement bench press on a bench, but do it with dumbbells.
Speaker 1: So all we're doing right there is changing one variable.
Speaker 1: We're going. Well, now instead of two hands on a bar,
Speaker 1: we've got two hands on two bars, two small bars.
Speaker 1: And now we're doing a movement in a way that
Speaker 1: we call unilateral. So we're lifting instead of doing say
Speaker 1: one hundred kilos with two hands two arms, now we
Speaker 1: may be doing fifty kilos each hand. That's a totally
Speaker 1: different beast. That's a totally different beast. So think about
Speaker 1: the things that you're currently doing that you can tweak
Speaker 1: or adapt or adjust or do a slightly different way
Speaker 1: for a much, much greater benefit. See you next time.