G'Day, I recently changed jobs and now have an even more sedentary one than before! So have been looking at changing an exercise program to include more load bearing activity for maintenance of bone strength. To what extent does kayaking provide such exercise? I'm guessing that its mainly the legs which are load bearing in a kayak, not the arms (except in high winds) and not the spine (except when lifting the kayak). Certainly its my legs whch feel stiffest after a days paddling. I'm not sure if load bearing in one part of the body positively affects bone strength in other parts of the body. Can anyone knowledgeable in this area provide any information? All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
=== At 2002-07-17, 06:29:00 PeterO wrote: ======= >So have been looking at changing an exercise program to include more load >bearing activity for maintenance of bone strength. > >To what extent does kayaking provide such exercise? > I'm not sure if load bearing in one part of the body positively affects bone > strength in other parts of the body. Based on what I've read, almost not at all. Bicycling doesn't even provide load-bearing exercise. To be load bearing, you've got to get the weight of your body supported by your bones to have an effect. Impact helps, too, although you have to balance joint health against bone health. Resistance training helps, since the muscles pull against the bone, and so provides for bone growth, but I think this effect is minor compared with running. And this is not like cardio. Bone density development is site specific. Only the bone being worked sees the benefit Steve Cramer cramersec_at_earthlink.net 2002-07-16 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Peter O wrote: >To what extent does kayaking provide such exercise? I'm guessing that its mainly the legs which are load bearing in a kayak, not the arms (except in high winds) and not the spine (except when lifting the kayak). Certainly its my legs whch feel stiffest after a days paddling. last year George Dyson wrote and article for Scientific American about native Aleut adaptation to specialized kayaking skills. In it there was a picture of an upper arm bone from a ancient archeological site showing the mass and thickness compared to a modern Aleut upper arm bone. The implication was that repeated daily padding developed bone mass in the arms. This seems consistent with what little I've read about bone mass build-up. It appears the mass build-up occurs on the bones that are loaded directly (reportedly caused by a die-electric effect in the calcium crystals). If your legs are sore it could be from lack of movement, rather than loading. If it were me, then I would specifically exercise the arms and back, preferably in a way that approximates the way the arm muscles are loaded during paddling (rowing machine perhaps?). Peter *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Peter wrote: <snip>>>>>>>>last year George Dyson wrote and article for Scientific American about native Aleut adaptation to specialized kayaking skills. In it there was a picture of an upper arm bone from a ancient archeological site showing the mass and thickness compared to a modern Aleut upper arm bone. The implication was that repeated daily padding developed bone mass in the arms. This seems consistent with what little I've read about bone mass build-up.<<<<<snip> The implication I took from this was that over many thousands of years of kayak hunting (and in a hard environment to survive in) those males who were most adapted to using the kayak for hunting were probably the ones who survived and reproduced. Most likely their genes produced strong arm muscles with big bones to attach those big muscles to. The area the muscles attached to the bone were also reported be huge relative to the average male today. This is less likely to be due to exercise than to genetics. It is likely in the arctic the dogs were bred to pull and the human males were bred to paddle. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Peter Chopelas wrote: ><SNIP> last year George Dyson wrote an article for >Scientific American about native Aleut adaptation to >specialized kayaking skills. <SNIP> The implication >was that repeated daily padding developed bone mass >in the arms.<SNIP> Matt Broze wrote ><SNIP> The implication I took from this was that over >many thousands of years of kayak hunting (and in a hard >environment to survive in) those males who were most >adapted to using the kayak for hunting were probably >the ones who survived and reproduced.<SNIP> G'day Peter, Matt and Paddlewise, Finally got hold of the Scientific American article and found it fascinating. Thanks for the reference. Had assumed that the differences were between pre and post industrial revolution bodies and wondered what environmental constraints could have driven such fast natural selection. But it turns out that the article compares Russian and Aleut humerus bones of the same age rather than ancient vs modern Aleut. An example of one bone set is given in which the Aleut is thicker than the Russian bone. There is a mention that others were investigated and references to other demonstrations of Aleut upper body strength. The paper suggested evolution might be responsible. Not much data but a compelling circumstantial argument. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Tony wrote:- >I am currently unable to get a copy of >George Dyson's article in Scientific American G'Day Tony, If you could email me your address backchannel I will send a photocopy of the article. I'm not sure of the copyright rules about digitising and emailing the article (does anyone know what Scientific American would allow?). All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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