Dan Hatch | Recovery work, nutrition, and cardio are crucial for people who want to be fit
Each and every day, he sees the ravages caused by overtraining. Dr. Dan Hatch, a physiotherapist in Newport, Rhode Island, blames popular fads that are ultimately detrimental to our health.
“There’s no quick fix to living a healthy and happy life,” he says. “And preventing injury is key.”
To prevent injury and perform well, it is important to do consistent recovery work, implement good nutrition, complete your cardiovascular training in the right heart zones, address your mental and emotional wellbeing, and strength train.
Dan is no stranger to such injury. After high school, his hopes to attend college on a soccer scholarship were dashed when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
His recovery experience led to his pursuing a physiotherapy degree. Now, he works with professional athletes, including Volvo Ocean Race sailors, whose livelihoods depend on preventing injury.
An avid athlete, Dan participates in triathlon races such as the Ironman. To avoid injury and to perform better, he plans enough recovery work into his weekly routine. He needs to do this if he is to climb the Matterhorn in July and to compete in the Chicago Marathon this coming October — both of which are on his agenda.
Recovery work
Dan defines recovery work as: stretching/pliability work, foam rolling, massage, and time off sport.
Stretching is based on the concept of muscle pliability that was made popular recently by Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots. Brady — now 41 — performs better for his team than he did when he was younger. He attributes this incredible fact to his diet and training regimen, the details of which you can read in his book The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance. The cornerstone to his regimen is muscle “pliability.”
“Everything begins with pliability, the daily lengthening and softening of muscles before and after physical activity. Without pliable muscles, you can’t achieve long-term health,” his website reads.
Dan has seen what happens when clients don’t address their pliability.
“Let’s say for example that we have a muscle that’s one foot long but that now functions at six inches when it isn’t pliable,” Dan says. “Not only do you get access to half the power, endurance, strength, but this can also lead to an orthopedic negative effect. The tendons and joints now experience undue force and this can lead to tendonitis, bursitis, arthritis, and the wearing low of cartilage.”
The key is pliability work, which he says can be done be done in one form with yoga, if it is done in the correct posture and if stretches are held for the appropriate amounts of time. But beware of which type of yoga/instructor you sign up for.
“A lot of yoga out there is power-based,” Dan says. “What people need is flexibility and restoration, or what is sometimes known as restorative yoga. If done wrong, yoga can lead to more injury.”
Nutrition for weight loss
“Nutrition is most important. If you put in bad stuff, you will continue to struggle and get bad stuff out,” Dan says.
For weight loss, he agrees with the clinical opinion that the focus should be 75% food and 25% exercise.
“The old school way of thinking is that I can out-exercise my diet. But the reality is that people are getting hurt because they are over exercising more to make up for bad eating. It’s a bad cycle. We have this image of ourselves as great athletes. The reality is, great athleticism is impossible to achieve with over-exercising and a crappy diet.”
“Diet is often the real culprit. Many people think they are eating healthily, but there is a lot of flawed information out there, including our FDA food pyramid.”
Dan uses the analogy of car maintenance. “Think about not changing the oil or the tires, and not using good fuel. The car won’t perform well.”
There is a lot of confusion about food. The key is to get away from processed food.
“If it comes in a box or bag, it’s probably not good for you,” Dan says, who can attest to this through personal experience.
Since February 2017, he has lost 40 pounds; he trains well and feels well, even emotionally. “I feel great since adopting a whole food plant-based lifestyle. And I’ve tried every single thing, and this is sustainable, enjoyable, and supported by the evidence.”
Although Dan is a big fan of the vegan diet, which has been proven to work and which many Olympic and top athletes have adopted, he says that regardless of what you choose, choose whole foods that are less processed and less animal-based products. He recommends Dr. Michael Greger’s nutritionfacts.org site for tips on a healthy diet as well as Rich Roll’s inspiring book Finding Ultra.
“How do we actually progress back towards that person that we still idolize, our 20-year-old self? Or how can we even supersede that, without hurting ourselves, so we can still connect with our friends through activity and not feel left out? What we eat plays a huge roll. Rich Roll’s inspirational story shows that it’s never too late to become fit and healthy again.”
Workouts: Cardio and weights
Dan recommends cardiovascular activity three to four times per week and weight training one to two times per week.
For cardiovascular training, he says it is key to understand your heart rate zones in order to avoid overtraining and orthopedic injury.
“The sweet spot is 60 to 80% of your maximum heart rate for prolonged cardiovascular activity,” he says. “If you train too high, you go into the carb-burning zone. You only have x amount of readily accessible carbs available or about 15–20 minutes on average.
Dan recommends using a heart-monitoring device, such as a Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch and to start becoming familiar with your heart and how it fluctuates with activity. Learn about your zones in percentages of your max heart rate.
“If you want to be efficient in the time that you are spending going for a walk or a run, you want to be in the fat burning zone the majority of the time.”
To calculate this, a simple formula is to take your age and subtract it from 220 to get your estimated max heart rate. “Now, take 60–80 % of that and it gives you your fat burning zone. While training try to stay toward the higher end of your fat burning zone for the greatest effect.”
“So look at your heart rate monitor and if you are in your fat burning zone, you are being efficient with your time. But if you spend your whole entire time in your carb burning zone, you will burn through your reserves, you will be vulnerable to injury as you will become fatigued, and you will start to burn muscle. You will have the opposite effect of what you want to achieve. You will not teach your metabolism to burn off the fat: the most efficient fuel service that we have available to us.”
“Over time, even the high end endurance athletes we’ve worked with have to do this. We’ve even had some of them start off at a walk to stay in the right zone when coming off an injury. Otherwise, they too would go into the wrong training zone. If you stay in the right zone for a while, you will be able to perform at a higher level with your heart rate at the same level for longer periods of time. This is how you truly improve your heart health.”
DAN’S FINAL TIPS
Just start!
Don’t be overwhelmed by it.
Eat as many plant based whole foods as possible.
Have a balance between sport activity you’re doing and recovery work.
Start in the mornings. It’s a great time. Less pressure. These are the only times that are predictable for a lot of us; the key is to get the workout out of the way.
Go outside for your workouts.
Surround yourself with people with a similar mentality. If your goal is to be fit, surround yourself people who are fit.
Avoid pyramid schemes. Most of the fitness products sold this way are highly processed.
Find a coach — someone who can help you with accountability or a training partner.
If you want to workout in a gym, find one that: is clean; has an area dedicated to recovery work; has friendly staff; has other people who are motivating and positive; and that has a place to eat healthy food.
Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You might get short-term results but not overall health. There’s no quick fix to living a healthy and happy life.
Dan Hatch is owner of NPT HealthWorks in Newport, Rhode Island, offering physical therapy, massage therapy, personal training, fitness and recovery classes, plant-based nutrition counseling, On-Running Shoes, and mental health counseling.