Visceral Fat Build-Up Is the High Cost of Inactivity

Inactivity leads to significant increases in visceral fat, and a moderate exercise regimen can keep this potentially dangerous form of fat at bay, according to the results of the first randomized clinical trial evaluating the effects of exercise amount and intensity in sedentary overweight men and women.

Additionally, the Duke University Medical Center researchers found that increasing amounts of exercise can reduce visceral fat. In terms of overall weight gain, the patients who did not exercise would gain approximately four pounds per year, the researchers said.

Visceral fat, the form which accumulates around the organs inside the belly, particularly concerns physicians because increased levels have been associated with insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic syndromes. Visceral fat is located deeper in the body than subcutaneous fat, which lies just under the skin.

"In our study, the control group that did not exercise saw a sizable and significant 8.6 percent increase in visceral fat in only six months," said Duke exercise physiologist Cris Slentz, Ph.D., lead author of a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology. "We also found that a modest exercise program equivalent to a brisk 30-minute walk six times a week can prevent accumulation of visceral fat, while even more exercise can actually reverse the amount of visceral fat.

"We believe that these results shine a clear spotlight on the high costs Americans are paying for their continued inactivity," Slentz continued. "I don't believe that people in general have gotten lazier – it's more that they are working too hard or are at their desks working on computers with fewer opportunities for exercise. The situation is out of balance."

The modest exercise program cited by Slentz is consistent with the latest recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine. However, Slentz believes that the public health message needs to be modified, especially for a country where two out of three adults are overweight or obese.

"Until we are able to prevent the weight many dieters regain following short-term dieting success, we should place a greater national emphasis toward prevention," Slentz said. "It will be a challenge to change the message from 'exercise now to lose weight' to 'exercise now so in five years you won't be 20 pounds heavier.'"

To better understand the effects of differing amounts of exercise, the researchers studied 175 overweight sedentary men and women who were beginning to show signs of lipid problems. They were randomized into one of four groups: no exercise, low dose/moderate intensity (equivalent of 12 miles of walking per week), low dose/vigorous intensity (12 miles of jogging per week) or high dose/vigorous intensity (20 miles of jogging per week).

Since the trial was designed solely to better understand the role of exercise, patients were told not to alter their diet during the course of the trial, which lasted six months for the group that did not exercise or eight-months for the exercise groups. The additional two months for the exercise group came at the beginning of trial, when participants slowly ramped up their exercise to their designated levels.

The exercise was carried out on treadmills, elliptical trainers or cycle ergometers in a supervised setting. The researchers used computed tomography (CT) both before the exercise program began and eight months later to determine the extent and distribution of fat change.

"There were no significant changes in visceral, subcutaneous or total fat in either of the low exercise groups for men or women, which suggest that this amount of exercise is adequate to prevent significant gain in fat around the stomach, and that the amount of exercise is more important than the intensity," Slentz said.

"On the other hand, participants who exercised at a level equivalent to 17 miles of jogging each week saw significant declines in visceral fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat and total abdominal fat," Slentz continued. "While this may seem like a lot of exercise, our previously sedentary and overweight subjects were quite capable of doing this amount."

Specifically, those participants exercising at the highest level saw a 6.9 percent decrease in visceral fat and a 7 percent decrease in subcutaneous fat.

Source

64-Slice CT High Definition Coronary Artery Scans

Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Every 60 seconds, someone in this country suffers a fatal heart attack. In half of those cases, there is NO warning or previous symptoms.

When detected early, chances are good that the progression of the disease can be halted or even reversed and heart attacks or strokes can be prevented.

Studies have shown that the "usual" risk factors, such as cholesterol levels, are no better at predicting who will have a heart attack than a coin-toss. Seventy-percent of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels.

Stress tests don't show any abnormalities until an artery is at least 60% narrowed. Most heart attacks occur in arteries that are less than 50% narrowed and are therefore NOT detectable by any form of stress testing.

A coronary artery scan can determine if you are at risk for a heart attack years before the first symptoms.

By detecting calcium deposits in the artery walls, the Seimens Sensation 64-Slice High Definition Heart Scan can detect the presence of blockages in your coronary arteries that may not yet be severe enough to show up on other tests.

The Coronary Artery Scan is the most sensitive non-invasive method currently available to accurately identify the presence of early coronary artery disease.

For more details visit the Princeton Longevity Center

Forget The Fat-Burn Zone

High Intensity Aerobics Amazingly Effective

"The rate of increase in V02max is one of the highest ever reported." - Izumi Tabata, Japan

"Fat burn is greater when exercise intensity is high." Metabolism

I believe in high-intensity aerobics. In Ripped 3, for bodybuilders, I recommended "a variety of relatively short and infrequent aerobic sessions interspersed with explosive muscular effort." In Lean For Life, published six years later, I emphasized high-intensity aerobics even more; I reduced the frequency of aerobic sessions to two times a week (in Ripped 3 I recommended up to four) and substantially increased the intensity. But it wasn't until recently, when my friend Richard Winett, Ph.D., publisher of Master Trainer, called my attention to new research findings, that I came to fully appreciate the superiority of high intensity aerobics compared to the usual prescription that heart rate be maintained between 60% and 80% of maximum.

As explained in the nearby FAQ (Low intensity aerobics?), high intensity aerobics burns the same amount of fat as low intensity, but the expenditure of calories is substantially greater; plus, intense aerobics produces a higher level of fitness. Importantly, the more fit you become, the more likely you are to use fat as fuel for any given activity. And now, research in Japan and in Canada shows that short, very intense aerobic sessions are amazingly effective for both fitness and fat loss.

Maximal oxygen uptake, or V02max, is generally regarded as the best single measure of aerobic fitness. As the rate of exercise increases, your body eventually reaches a limit for oxygen consumption. This limit is the peak of your aerobic capacity, or your V02max. As intensity increases beyond V02max, your body must shift to anaerobic (without oxygen) energy production. An oxygen debt begins to build at this point and blood lactate levels climb. In general terms, one's ability to continue exercising in the face of rising oxygen deficit and lactate levels is called anaerobic capacity.

This is important because many high-intensity sports (including basketball, football, soccer and speed skating) require a high level of both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Clearly, total fitness involves both high V02max and high anaerobic capacity. A training protocol that develops both would be a godsend.

Izumi Tabata and his colleagues at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan, compared the effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on V02max and anaerobic capacity. (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (1996) 28, 1327-1330). Interestingly, the high-intensity protocol had been used by major members of the Japanese Speed Skating team for several years; it's a real-world training plan. As you will see, however, the protocol is unique among aerobic training programs for its intensity and brevity.

Many studies have been done on the effect of training on V02max, but little information has been available about the effect on anaerobic capacity. That's because until recently methods for measuring anaerobic capacity have been inadequate. This study used accumulated oxygen deficit to measure anaerobic energy release, and is one of the first to measure the effect of training on both aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

Notice that the duration of the moderate-intensity and the high-intensity protocols are drastically different: (excluding warm-ups) one hour compared to only about 4 minutes per training schedule

Tabata's moderate-intensity protocol will sound familiar; it's the same steady-state aerobic training done by many (perhaps most) fitness enthusiasts.

Here are the details (stay with me on this): In the moderate-intensity group, seven active young male physical education majors exercised on stationary bicycles 5 days per week for 6 weeks at 70% of V02max, 60 minutes each session. V02max was measured before and after the training and every week during the 6 week period. As each subject's V02max improved, exercise intensity was increased to keep them pedaling at 70% of their actual V02max. Maximal accumulated oxygen deficit was also measured, before, at 4 weeks and after the training.

A second group followed a high-intensity interval program. Seven students, also young and physically active, exercised five days per week using a training program similar to the Japanese speed skaters. After a 10-minute warm-up, the subjects did seven to eight sets of 20 seconds at 170% of V02max, with a 10 second rest between each bout. Pedaling speed was 90-rpm and sets were terminated when rpms dropped below 85. When subjects could complete more than 9 sets, exercise intensity was increased by 11 watts. The training protocol was altered one day per week. On that day, the students exercised for 30 minutes at 70% of V02max before doing 4 sets of 20 second intervals at 170% of V02max. This latter session was not continued to exhaustion. Again, V02max and anaerobic capacity was determined before, during and after the training.

In some respects the results were no surprise, but in others they may be ground breaking. The moderate-intensity endurance training program produced a significant increase in V02max (about 10%), but had no effect on anaerobic capacity. The high-intensity intermittent protocol improved V02max by about 14%; anaerobic capacity increased by a whopping 28%.

Dr. Tabata and his colleagues believe this is the first study to demonstrate an increase in both aerobic and anaerobic power. What's more, in an e-mail response to Dick Winett, Dr. Tabata said, "The fact is that the rate of increase in V02max [14% for the high-intensity protocol - in only 6 weeks] is one of the highest ever reported in exercise science." (Note, the students participating in this study were members of varsity table tennis, baseball, basketball, soccer and swimming teams and already had relatively high aerobic capacities.)

The results, of course, confirm the well-known fact that the results of training are specific. The intensity in the first protocol (70% of V02max) did not stress anaerobic components (lactate production and oxygen debt) and, therefore, it was predictable that anaerobic capacity would be unchanged. On the other hand, the subjects in the high-intensity group exercised to exhaustion, and peak blood lactate levels indicated that anaerobic metabolism was being taxed to the max. So, it was probably also no big surprise that anaerobic capacity increased quite significantly.

What probably was a surprise, however, is that a 4 minute training program of very-hard 20 second repeats, in the words of the researchers, "may be optimal with respect to improving both the aerobic and the anaerobic energy release systems." That's something to write home about!

What About Fat Loss?

Angelo Tremblay, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Physical Activities Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Quebec, Canada, challenged the common belief among health professionals that low-intensity, long-duration exercise is the best program for fat loss. They compared the impact of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and high-intensity aerobics on fat loss. (Metabolism (1994) Volume 43, pp.814-818)

The Canadian scientists divided 27 inactive, healthy, non-obese adults (13 men, 14 women, 18 to 32 years old) into two groups. They subjected one group to a 20-week endurance training (ET) program of uninterrupted cycling 4 or 5 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes; the intensity level began at 60% of heart rate reserve and progressed to 85%. (For a 30-year-old, this would mean starting at a heart rate of about 136 and progressing to roughly 170 bpm, which is more intense than usually prescribed for weight or fat loss.)

The other group did a 15-week program including mainly high-intensity-interval training (HIIT). Much like the ET group, they began with 30-minute sessions of continuous exercise at 70% of maximum heart rate reserve (remember, they were not accustomed to exercise), but soon progressed to 10 to 15 bouts of short (15 seconds progressing to 30 seconds) or 4 to 5 long (60 seconds progressing to 90 seconds) intervals separated by recovery periods allowing heart rate to return to 120-130 beats per minute. The intensity of the short intervals was initially fixed at 60% of the maximal work output in 10 seconds, and that of the long bouts corresponded to 70% of the individual maximum work output in 90 seconds. Intensity on both was increased 5% every three weeks.

As you might expect, the total energy cost of the ET program was substantially greater than the HIIT program. The researchers calculated that the ET group burned more than twice as many calories while exercising than the HIIT program. But (surprise, surprise) skinfold measurements showed that the HIIT group lost more subcutaneous fat. "Moreover," reported the researchers, "when the difference in the total energy cost of the program was taken into account..., the subcutaneous fat loss was ninefold greater in the HIIT program than in the ET program." In short, the HIIT group got 9 times more fat-loss benefit for every calorie burned exercising.

How can that be?

Dr. Tremblay's group took muscle biopsies and measured muscle enzyme activity to determine why high-intensity exercise produced so much more fat loss. I'll spare you the details (they are technical and hard to decipher), but this is their bottom line: "[Metabolic adaptations resulting from HIIT] may lead to a better lipid utilization in the postexercise state and thus contribute to a greater energy and lipid deficit." In other words, compared to moderate-intensity endurance exercise, high- intensity intermittent exercise causes more calories and fat to be burned following the workout. Citing animal studies, they also said it may be that appetite is suppressed more following intense intervals. (Neither group was placed on a diet.)

The next time someone pipes up about the fat-burn zone, ask them if they are familiar with the Tabata and Tremblay research reports.

[You'll find high-intensity aerobic workouts for bodybuilding in Ripped 3 and for balanced fitness, strength and endurance, in Lean For Life; both books are in the products section of this site. Routines specifically applying Tabata-type intervals are explained in chapter 5 of Challenge Yourself. Keep in mind that VO2max can only be measured in the laboratory; you'll have to estimate 170% of VO2 max. Don't try to make it too complicated. Simply chose a pace that brings you near exhaustion on the final 20-second rep; you should become more fatigued with each rep. Increase the pace as your condition improves. It's always better to underestimate your ability at the start. Begin a little slower than you think you can handle, and then adjust the pace from workout to workout. Don't attempt high-intensity intervals unless you are in good condition; they're not appropriate for beginners. Note the medical warning which follows.]

Warning

The Tremblay group and Dr. Tabata, in his e-mail response to Richard Winett, emphasize this warning: "High-intensity exercise cannot be prescribed for individuals at risk for health problems or for obese people who are not used to exercise."

For more information on Richard Winett's Master Trainer newsletter GO MT.

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Intervals for Fitness and Fat Loss

(Q & A with Dr. Pat O'Shea)

"Short-term intense interval training is highly effective in altering the ratio of lean body mass to fat without compromising muscle mass." - Pat O'Shea, Ed.D.

For two months now we've been challenging the common belief that low intensity, long duration exercise is best for fitness and fat loss. We've shown that very brief and very hard interval training is amazingly effective in developing both aerobic and anaerobic capacity - and far superior for fat loss.

Now, it's time to step back and ask where intense intervals fit in the total spectrum of fitness training. What's best for endurance athletes? Bodybuilders? Older athletes? For total conditioning?

Who better to go to for a broader perspective on interval training than Patrick J. O'Shea, Ed.D, Professor Emeritus of exercise and sports science at Oregon State University? Not only has Pat been a student of sports physiology for four decades, he has excelled as an Olympic and power lifter, a cyclist, a mountain climber, a skier and a coach.

We were very interested in what Pat had to say, and believe readers will be informed as well. Enjoy. (Italicized emphasis in the answers is ours.)

Bass: You've used intervals in your own training and also published research on the subject. Were you surprised that Dr. Tabata's group found that only 6-8 very hard 20 second intervals with 10 second rest periods substantially improved both aerobic and anaerobic capacity?

O'Shea: No, not at all. Dr. Tabata's study is excellent and his findings confirm previous studies that have looked at the effects of intense interval training on aerobic and anaerobic performance. (See O'Shea, John P., Bicycle Interval Training for Cardiovascular Fitness. The Physician & SportsMedicine 10:156-162, October, 1982). Coaches and athletes need to understand however, that short-term intense interval training has very limited application to long-distance events such as marathon running and the Tour de France. Long distance endurance athletes need efficient "fat burning" bodies. Their muscles must be trained to utilize energy from free fatty acid oxidation while conserving the limited stores of glycogen which are necessary for nerve and brain function. (Nerves and the brain derive energy only from glycogen - not fat.)

Long-term aerobic training increases the enzymes associated with fat metabolism and trains the working muscles to utilize oxygen more efficiently. The result is an increase in oxygen uptake capacity of the trained muscles, and not in the untrained. This is important for athletes to know as it involves the principle of specificity. For example, competitive swimmers develop high aerobic capacity specifically for swimming. Out of the water their aerobic conditioning is not transferable to running, because different sets of muscles are involved which are aerobically untrained.

To train, smart athletes need at minimum an elementary understanding of the cardiovascular and circulatory processes leading up to aerobic metabolism within muscle. While the following description is highly simplified, it does provide an overall picture of the steps involved. Initially, it begins with the ability of the lungs to take up and then unload oxygen in the blood; the ability of the red blood cells to pick up the oxygen as it flows through the lungs; the ability of the heart to pump a large volume of blood (stroke volume) to the working muscles; and finally, but most critical, the efficiency of the working muscles to take up oxygen from the blood and use it for oxidative energy production. Physiologically, this whole process is what cardiovascular fitness is all about.

Another important consideration in understanding aerobic and anaerobic metabolism is that muscles differ in their ability to utilize oxygen. Slow twitch muscles are noted for their endurance and have the ability to use large quantities of oxygen required for fat metabolism during aerobic exercise. Fast twitch muscles are the strength and power producing muscles. They are good for explosive bursts of anaerobic energy for sprinting, jumping, lifting and interval work. However, they fatigue fast and are not efficient fat burners. Glycogen is their main source of energy during intense work making them ideal for anaerobic exercise lasting up to three minutes. Exercise lasting longer than three minutes is aerobic.

The bottom line is that short-term intense interval work is not designed to train the body to become an efficient fat burner as is required for long-distance endurance activities. However, for sprint cycling or running (up to 400 meters) intense interval training definitely offers major physical benefits. In the overall scheme of training for athletes participating in stop and go power sports (e.g., football, basketball, ice hockey and gymnastics) short-intense interval work has a major role to play in maximizing performance.

Q. Exercise physiologists have traditionally believed that volume, not intensity, is the key to successful aerobic training. Where do you come down on the volume versus intensity question?

A. My position is that in order to become a successful endurance athlete (cyclists, runner, etc.) one must cross-train. A training program based on volume, such as running a hundred miles a week, will not maximize aerobic capacity or develop a high anaerobic capacity. What is required is a cross-training program encompassing aerobic and anaerobic workouts. The aerobic workout is LSD (long-steady distance) running or cycling at just below the anaerobic threshold (or race pace). During an LSD workout the heart rate is usually 75-85 percent of the age related maximum. (The only time V02max can be utilized to set or measure intensity is in a human performance lab where it can be monitored.) Anaerobic running, on the other hand, consists of interval training at distance ranging from 200m to 800m, and for cycling 800m to 1500m, at a heart rate of 90-95 percent of maximum. Following high intensity interval workouts there needs to be several days of light recovery workouts of low to medium intensity.

Also, both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems can be effectively cross-trained in a single workout session, which should closely duplicate the physiological race demands of volume and intensity. For example, in a 100 mile bike race, which encompasses both high work volume and intensity, it is imperative that the cyclists focus on maximizing aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. Typically, in such a race the cyclist encounters varying terrain from flats to rolling hills and breakaways and attacks by other riders. Aerobic power is essential for sustaining a hard fast pace on the flats, while anaerobic power plays key roles in initiating a breakaway or not getting dropped when one occurs; chasing down a break or lead group; attacking and accelerating on hills; and sprinting to the finish. Anaerobic power and explosive strength are the two factors which allow the cyclists to control the race. Applying strategy that calls for numerous breaks and attacks on hills, an elite cyclist will wear down weaker riders and psychologically destroy them. It is imperative then that a cyclist's long-range training program include lots of cross-training workouts that call for volume (distance) riding interspersed with speed work and interval hill repeats.

Q. In your book Quantum Strength and Power Training (Gaining The Winning Edge) (1996), you wrote: "Statistically, there is a close relationship between V02max and lean body mass." Were you surprised when the Tremblay group - challenging the common belief that low intensity, long duration exercise is best for fat loss - found that short intervals (30-90 seconds) produced substantially more fat loss for each calorie burned exercising? Why?

A. No, I was not surprised by Tremblay's findings showing that low intensity, long duration exercise is not as effective as short intense intervals in reducing body fat. It is relatively easy to explain why this is so.

During strenuous exercise, the rate of metabolism rises, going to about 15 times the basal metabolic rate (BMR) and even higher during intense interval work. For example, running 5 mi/hr the oxygen uptake required is 28 ml 02/min/kg of body weight with 3.7 cal/hr./lb burned, while a short burst of intense interval work may require 100 ml 02/min/kg with 13.8 cal/hr/lb burned. By maintaining the high level of training over a 5 or 6 week period one would expect a significant increase in the ratio of lean body mass to fat. Over a three month period you would be RIPPED like never before.

Intense interval work utilizes a greater percent of the body's muscles, both slow and fast twitch. Also, performing high intensity work places added energy demands on the respiratory system, cardiovascular system and nervous system. Thus more fat and glycogen are burned to support the expanding energy demands of the body during - and after - intense exercise. In other words, the cost of short intense interval exercise is very high in terms of energy demands in comparison to low intensity aerobic exercise. What's more, while at rest trained active muscles burn more fat night and day, contributing to further fat loss.

Q. I'm preparing for the treadmill test at the Cooper Clinic. (They increase the grade one percent every minute up to 25%, and then the speed, to exhaustion.) In the past, I've lasted between 28 and 29 minutes. Would Tabata's 20 second intervals on the Air-Dyne, rower and treadmill be a good way to prepare? Should I add some training that more closely parallels the test protocol?

A. The key in preparing for a treadmill test is concentrating on improving anaerobic power - i.e. pushing back the anaerobic threshold which is the point at which lactic acid begins to accumulate at a high rate in the blood. This is an indication that oxygen uptake at the muscle cell level can not keep up with the work demands. Once this threshold has been exceeded your V02max is calculated.

Training with an Air-Dyne or rower to raise your anaerobic threshold for the treadmill test is going to produce very limited results. It is not specific enough to the test. Hard interval repeats of 2-3 minutes duration on a treadmill, stairmaster, hill, or stadium steps will provide the best results. These training activities not only develop anaerobic power, but also strong quadriceps that are required to run on a grade.

Q. Is there a lesson here for athletes preparing for specific events?

A. Yes, there is a very important lesson to be learned and understood. While the specificity principle is the cornerstone of athletic training, variety or diversity in training is required to achieve the highest level of total conditioning. Training variability encompasses the concept of cross-training. It allows for the simultaneous training of multiple physiological variables (e.g., aerobic and anaerobic, power, strength, speed, and power) that contribute to peak athletic performance in all sports.

Q. As I point out in Ripped 3, bodybuilders have a problem using aerobics for fat loss, because endurance exercise can work against gains in muscle size. Would the Tabata protocol of high-intensity intervals be good for bodybuilders who want to preserve muscle mass while losing fat?

A. The answer is definitely a big yes. As discussed in question 3, short-term intense interval training is highly effective in altering the ratio of lean body mass to fat without compromising muscle size. Intense interval work is an excellent way of losing weight while simultaneously getting ripped for peak contest shape.

Competitive bodybuilders will find another highly productive method of interval training outlined in my book Quantum Strength & Power Training, Chapter 10, "Interval Weight Training (1WT)". It is one of the most challenging, intensive methods of cross-training yet devised for muscular endurance and anaerobic power. IWT is heavy-duty quantum training - physically tough and mentally demanding. If you are a serious bodybuilder and like a new challenge try it for several weeks. The results will amaze you.

Q. What about healthy older people who want to be lean and fit? Would it be advisable for them to do short, hard intervals?

A. The answer is yes and no. First, it is not advisable for anyone to attempt interval training without first getting medical clearance preferable from a sports medicine physician who has a clear understanding as to the physical demands to be encountered. For any person having coronary heart disease the answer must be a big no. For a healthy person having a reasonably good level of aerobic fitness - (i.e., a minimum V02max of 50ml/kg/min) there should be no problem. However, as an added safety measure, it would be a good idea to take a treadmill stress test to be sure that there are no cardiac abnormalities.

For best results and safety, the intensity of the interval workouts should be set using a percent of one's age-related maximum heart rate. An easy method of determining maximum exercise heart rate for interval work is to subtract your age from 220 and then use 90-95 percent of that figure. For a 40 year old individual the interval exercise target heart rate would be 171 (220 - 40 = 180 x .95 = 171). Remember too, interval training is very stressful on the body and joints and should not be done more than two times a week. Yes, young athletes are more resilient than master age-group athletes. They recover quicker and more fully between workouts which allows them to do interval training with greater frequency.

Bass: Thanks Pat. Good luck at the World Masters Games!

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Paul Chek's Cardio Perspective

Most of you reading this article are indoctrinated in the philosophy that regular cardiovascular conditioning is important for your health and that such training reduces your risk of heart attack. If you do agree with this premise, you are also very likely to believe that to achieve cardiovascular conditioning, you must regularly perform cardiovascular exercises, such as running and biking or using a cardiovascular machine. But is this the case?

First, let’s look at the issue from a perspective of natural history. Our evolution into the human species from our ape ancestors is thought to have occurred some 2.8 million years ago. Spanning the duration of this vast period, it should strike you as interesting that the first reported heart attack in the U.S. occurred in 1920, only 12 years after the grain industry began hydrogenating plant and grain oils. Now, I personally find it interesting that there is such hype over cardiovascular exercise as necessary prevention for heart attack or even heart disease, when such diseases were relatively nonexistent less than 100 years ago. That’s but a flash in the pan of human evolution.

Our next logical question should be, did our ancestors regularly participate in cardiovascular exercise? Not likely. First of all, it would not be energy efficient to run around gathering berries, firewood and nuts in your target zone. Nor would it have been wise to run through the bush trying to get a workout while hunting, since any animal would hear you coming from hundreds of yards away and be long gone by the time you got there. If there was a cardiovascular stressor in our native environment, it was most likely when we had to send a messenger to a neighboring village or during times of battle, when you were either running or fighting for your life.

When you look at most sports played today, recreational activities, and work related tasks, the great majority of them place anaerobic demands on the body. Now, surely some of you grew up on a farm or have done hard labor before. When performing any intense work, you begin breathing faster and faster…in fact, you will go aerobic within a few minutes if the work efforts demand so much of your anaerobic energy systems that the demand for energy can’t be replaced by intermediate and anaerobic energy systems (fast glycolytic and aerobic).

I have many memories of bucking hay; the bails weigh 75-120 lb., yet you’ve got to keep up with the tractor as it moves through the field (no, my dad didn’t let me stop for a minute every 12 bails).

When you have thousands of bails to haul in, and will be in the field for hours at a time, you will soon find that your anaerobic stimulus (the bails) produces a demand that the purely anaerobic phosphagen system can’t maintain on it’s own (it only lasts about 8-12 seconds), resulting in ATP production by anaerobic glycolysis and aerobic metabolism respectively. By this very mechanism, our anaerobic capacity is recharged during sports such as tennis, soccer, hockey, basketball, etc., that require explosive movement for prolonged periods of time.

I use hay-bucking because it is a real-world example of how we have maintained aerobic fitness from the beginning of human evolution. If you can follow my logic here, you should be wondering why we are so encouraged to offer aerobic exercise to our patients and clients by most every medical, physical therapy, chiropractic and personal training education program that exists. It’s simple actually. It’s the very same reason we are being told that we must eat a high carbohydrate diet for energy…why doctors tell people they must take this or that drug…BIG INDUSTRY INFLUENCE.

Quite simply, there’s not much money in the manufacture and sales of dumbbells, weight plates and Olympic bars, but there are huge amounts of money to be made if you can convince the masses that aerobic exercise is necessary for disease prevention. After all, have you priced a treadmill, step mill, spin bike, rowing machine, elliptical machine or any such equipment lately? They cost anywhere from several hundred, to several thousand dollars per unit! They often have hundreds of moving parts, which wear out, break and need to be replaced. How many Olympic bars or dumbbells have you replaced lately? It is not at all unusual for a gym or rehab clinic to spend $75,000-$100,000 on cardio equipment alone, and, they will need to be replaced every few years; the same facilities often don’t spend more than $15,000-$20,000 on free weight training equipment and it can last the life of the gym. Yes, I know they spend large sums of money on fixed axis resistance training machines, but that is but another sign of industry influence and professional passivity!

When you get several large equipment manufacturers with multi-million dollar investments in the production of aerobic exercise equipment, you can rest assured there will be a comparatively large commitment to creating an aerobic exercise consciousness. The proof is all around you, in your exercise and bodybuilding magazines, trade journals, on TV infomercials, in your training manuals from most educational institutions. Who do you think sponsors the educational institutions and pays for the supportive research?

So Who Needs It?
The issue is not one of prevention of cardiovascular disease by aerobic exercise, it is an issue of getting the right kind of exercise to benefit both your physiology and meet the demands of your work and sports environment. For example, aerobic conditioning is not general. If it were, any world-class marathon runner could jump on a bike and win the Tour De France, or even the Hawaii Iron Man! Strength training is also not general; there is a very finite amount of carryover from one lift or movement pattern to the other. Otherwise, the best squatter would be the best dead lifter too.

Everyone needs to build fitness, yet for fitness (aerobic or anaerobic) to last, it must be built upon foundation health principles. Proof of this premise can be seen when world-class marathon runners (Jim Fix) and champion bodybuilders (Lou Barry, a former Mr. Australia) die of a heart attack at an early age. When we eat correctly for our metabolic type, eat high quality organic foods, eat regularly to maintain our blood sugar levels in an optimal range, get to bed at a reasonable hour and learn to manage our stressors, the addition of an exercise program of any type becomes truly therapeutic and offers disease prevention. Aerobic fitness atop the standard American diet (SAD!) of Carbohydrates, Refined sugar, Additives and Preservatives (CRAP!) will not offer resistance to disease. In fact, it may well bring it on! Why? That’s simple…because exercise is a stress and if you add more stress to an already stressed system, it will crash.

You may think this is simple, logical, straightforward stuff, but it isn’t, because again, there is BIG money involved here. I will site one of hundreds, even thousands of examples; Scripps Hospital here in San Diego recently partnered with McDonalds. So now McDonalds feeds all those sick and dying people in the hospital their SAD CRAP, while they pedal away on bikes, pump pedals on stair masters, and about every other expensive aerobic machine you can imagine!

Functional Aerobic Fitness
While you are in the process of vitalizing your body from the inside out, I recommend that you choose movement patterns that offer injury prevention and improved performance in the environment where you work and play.

While exercising, all you need do is wear a heart rate monitor and determine your target heart rate zone. If you want a greater aerobic stimulus than your work or training environment is currently providing, simply shorten your rest periods. In short order, you will progressively get a greater aerobic response to the stress impinging upon the system via the activity you have chosen. If your heart rate begins to rise too high, simply take a little longer rest period or decrease the number of repetitions you are performing or the amount of time under load.

If you follow this simple guideline, you will learn to “eat, move and be healthy!” and, you will have the greatest form of prevention of heart disease you could ever have, HEALTH!

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