Top 20 Reasons to Exercise

Everyone exercises for different reasons. But regardless of your initial motivation, you still get ALL the benefits. Below are the top 20 reasons why you should workout. If you can find even one benefit on this list, you'll have enough reason to begin an exercise program and take steps to take care of yourself.

Regular Exercise Can...

• Help you lose weight and reduce body fat
• Improve your physical appearance
• Increase your level of muscular strength and endurance
• Maintain your resting metabolic rate to prevent weight gain
• Increase your stamina and ability to do continuous work
• Improve fitness levels, or your body's ability to use oxygen
• Provide protection against injury
• Improve your balance and coordination
• Increase bone mineral density to prevent osteoporosis
• Lower resting heart rate and blood pressure
• Lower Body Mass Index (BMI), your fat to height ratio
• Reduce triglycerides and bad cholesterol
• Enhance sexual desire and performance
• Reduce heart disease risk and stroke
• Reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer
• Increase insulin sensitivity, prevents type 2 diabetes
• Reduce your level of anxiety and help you manage stress
• Improve function of the immune system
• Improve your self-esteem and restore confidence Help you sleep better, relax, and improve mood

originally posted on 11/20/06

Evolutionary Fitness

"If you look at our ancestral activity patterns, you can see that we had lots of languid periods of rest interspersed with a few short bursts of very-high-intensity efforts.... I believe in variety and intensity of exercise." - Arthur S. De Vany, professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, speaking on segment 108 ("Can you really extend your life?") of the PBS’s "Closer to Truth"

Evolutionary Fitness

Art De Vany, author of the forthcoming book Evolutionary Fitness, maintains that short bursts of high intensity exercise are better than slow steady exercise. Sprinters are much healthier and more in tune with our evolutionary nature than long distance runners, according to professor De Vany. He comes to these conclusions primarily by studying the activity patterns of our Paleolithic ancestors, who lived during the early Stone Age between 2-6 million and 10,000 years ago.

"I try to imagine the environment in which the human genome and human metabolism developed," says De Vany. He sees an evolutionary environment in which the vast majority of our ancestors survived by hunting wild animals – which would mean long periods of walking or jogging combined with sprints and often violent struggles -- and gathering wild plants and other sources of food and water. That’s important because our genes still "think" we are hunters and gatherers. Most scientists agree that our genetic makeup developed over millions of years -- the pace of biological evolution is glacially slow – and is largely unchanged in the last 10,000 years. Genetically our bodies are virtually the same as they were 40,000 years ago. As the authors of The Paleolithic Prescription (Harper & Row, 1988) told us, 100,000 generations of humans have lived as hunters and gatherers, 500 generations as farmers, and only 10 generations have lived in the industrial age. In terms of genetic makeup, we are still hunters and gatherers.

A reader and friend called my attention to professor De Vany’s evolutionaryfitness.com website several months ago (thanks Seth). A short time later I read about De Vany in Chef Jeff’s Weekly Health Update, and more recently I communicated with him by email. Art De Vany is no armchair scientist. He’s a former professional baseball player – a game of high-intensity bursts separated by long lulls – and a lifetime fitness buff. At 6' 1'’ and 205 pounds, he’s a living example of what he preaches. "I know what really works," says De Vany, "I’m 63, and I have seven percent body fat." Three years ago, based on body composition, strength, flexibility, reaction time and blood profile, a research institute rated his biological age at 32. That’s not surprising, says De Vany: "Hunter gatherers don’t age like Westerners do because they retain their metabolic fitness." In short, De Vany is a modern-day version of Cro-Magnon man.

Variety is Crucial

De Vany’s program combines Darwinian thinking with his interest in chaos theory and complex systems. We’ll have to wait for the publication of his book for a complete explanation, but he believes that most modern exercise regimens are off the mark. "Variety is crucial," says De Vany. He believes that too much endurance training is harmful. "Chronic aerobic exercise overtrains the heart, reducing the chaotic variation in heart rate which is essential to health," he says. "Boston Marathon participants have a high rate of brain cancer," he said on the PBS program Closer to Truth. "Lots of joggers die of heart fibrillation," he added. Likewise, he believes that most weight training involves too many reps and sets, and too much routine.

"High intensity, intermittent and brief training mixed with power walking and play is closer than aerobic exercise, high-volume weight training, or sedentism to how our ancestors lived," says De Vany. His general advice to both weight trainers and aerobic exercise enthusiasts is to cut duration and frequency, and increase intensity. "Our muscle fiber composition reveals that we are adapted to extreme intensity of effort," he explains.

De Vany says that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies rarely experience the diseases which plague modern man, such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. "The primary objectives of any exercise and diet program must be to counter hyperinsulinemia (chronically elevated insulin) and hypoexertion (wasting of the body’s lean mass through inactivity) – these are the number one health risks in western society," he says on his website. "Intermittent, intense exercise in brief spurts," as he recommends, "promotes hormone drives that quench hyperinsulinemia and build muscle and bone density that keep you young and lean."

Pending the completion of his book, Professor De Vany says the best explanation of Evolutionary Fitness training is an article by Australian author John Macgregor in the July 29, 2000 issue of the UK magazine New Scientist. That article combined with our personal communications provides more details of De Vany’s training philosophy.

For beginners, he recommends three sessions a week -- upper body and lower body weight workouts focused on the large muscles and a third session aimed at improving overall fitness -- lasting not more than 40 minutes. "For most people, a move from mechanistic training to adaptive training would consist primarily of cutting back on the number of sets and how often they work out," says the professor.

De Vany himself generally does two weight sessions, upper body and lower body, totaling about an hour and a half a week. He gives his workouts a chaotic character with ascending weights and descending repetitions. For example, on squats a typical workout would be 15 warmup reps with the bar, 15 with 135, 8 with 225, and 3 to 5 with 305. He rests little between sets and never stops before producing "a good burn." He never goes to failure, however. In keeping with his preference for randomness, he’s not particular about the precise amount of weight on the bar; he uses the amount that’s easy to load quickly. "Most people spend too much time resting at the top of the squat and dramatically lower the intensity," says De Vany. "That’s because they’re trying to do too much weight." Interestingly, after racking the weight on the final set, he does vertical jumps "as high and as many" as he can. (Sure sounds like a violent struggle worthy of a caveman, doesn’t it?)

In addition to gym sessions, he adds a wide variety of other activities that vary randomly in intensity and duration. When I communicated with him, he was doing walk/sprint intervals in the hills ( "running up hills and then walking on"), Tabata-protocol type sprints and "stretching, lengthening workouts aimed at grace and symmetry." From time to time, he also does Rollerblading, bicycling, tennis, basketball, hitting softballs and trekking with a grandson on his shoulders.

The X-Look

De Vany takes grace and symmetry seriously. "I don’t want to sound egotistical about it," says De Vany, "but I am the most symmetrical person in any gym I’ve been in. People remark on it all the time." That’s important from the evolutionary standpoint. It’s Mother Nature’s way: survival of the fittest. "Symmetry is a reliable evolutionary clue to health," he says. "Tumors and pathologies produce gross asymmetries, and our love for symmetry reflects the reproductive success of our ancestors, who were sensitive to these cues." He strives for what he calls the X-look, which Macgregor describes as "a symmetrical balance of mass in the shoulder girdle, upper chest and back, the calves and lower quads." That’s an evolutionary clue to the female of the species that good genes are present. De Vany says the X-look also makes men look taller, which women find attractive. (Guess that leaves me out.)

Our ancestors were highly sensitive to clues of health and clear skin and the right waist/hip, shoulder/hip ratios are quite reliable indicators of health," says De Vany. Research clearly shows that obesity is harmful, but most harmful when it is concentrated in the abdomen. "Our genes knew this before research demonstrated it," De Vany observes.

Can’t Wait for the Book

I find Professor De Vany and his theory of training fascinating, and not only because of the obvious similarities to my own approach. Evolution based fitness makes perfect sense. It goes without saying, of course, that evolutionary fitness is a flexible concept subject to many interpretations. I eagerly await the release of the book for a more complete explanation for the path chosen by Professor De Vany. He wouldn’t tell us when Evolutionary Fitness will be finished, but we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

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http://www.cbass.com/EvolutionaryFitness.htm

The Biggest Workout Mistakes People Make

I see it in every gym, people giving 110% doing some of the craziest things. People spending hours and hours in there daily for 7x a week, yet they look the same month after month. Clients spending $1000/month on private training yet their trainer has them doing stuff that is not even related to what their goals are. What is going on? There are more people working out nowadays, belonging to gyms, hiring personal trainers, buying supplements, on so called “diets”, and yet the results are not showing! Sadly it seems most people are making so many mistakes when it comes to training, yet they just keep right on trying. If we can see what we need to be doing, and more importantly what we don’t need to be doing….then maybe the results will start to finally show! These are the biggest workout mistakes that I see today:

• Focused on How Many Calories are Burned Working Out: Honestly what does this matter in the overall scheme of the whole day and fat burning? Assuming that fat burning is your goal, does that mean doing more and more exercise just burns more and more fat? NO! Who said you are even burning fat in the first place? What about stored glycogen? What about breaking down muscle? What about that subway sandwich you had an hour ago? Really this mentality is what is keeping most people from focusing on what matters, your eating! Diet/Nutrition is where 85% of your results come from and will even tell the body hormonally when to burn fat, and when to NOT burn fat. Forget how many calories you are spinning away, you don’t know what is really going on inside of you. Prime your body for all day fat burning and use your workouts as the right hormonal trigger for it.

• More is Better When it Comes to Working Out: This goes hand in hand with thinking that you are burning more fat with more exercise, which is not true. Not too mention the more people workout, the lower they drop their blood sugar and if they go too hard and go into a hypoglycemic state guess what will happen, they will rebound with sugar cravings and most likely end up drinking/eating more calories than they even burned in the first place. Not too mention the increase of cortisol you will get from extended workouts (over 45-60min) that will start to break down and use muscle as fuel. Also when it comes to resistance training, I see people wanting big muscles yet they do the same workout 4x a week. How is your body supposed to grow muscles if you keep breaking them down and never give them time to grow? Remember the saying that “muscles do not grow in the gym”. So resistance train a few times a week, then go home and eat and sleep to grow the muscles. How do you expect the build a big house (muscles) if you keep smashing it down during the construction period?

• Carb/Sport Drinks are OK Before, During and After a Workout: This could be titled instead “don’t believe everything you see on TV or read in advertisements”. If you look around you would think that you need Gatorade all day long (did you know they have an AM version? Are you kidding me?). So you have people working hard on a bike, rowing machine, treadmill (whatever) and then drinking a sugar drink for more energy? Ok, if you are an athlete and are training for increased endurance or power during a 3 hour workout and need ongoing fuel, then maybe you need something….but if you are the average person trying to burn fat and pumping sugar into your body in the process…..you are somehow expecting the rules of fat burning to not apply to you! Forget the workout drinks, drink some water and go burn some fat instead…..well that is only if your diet is also on target to allow you to.

• Not Lifting Heavy Enough: Whether it is women afraid to get bulky muscles (won’t happen), magazines saying you need high reps to “tone” (which is a fancy word for burning fat around a muscle….which doesn’t happen lifting something 50 times), or just people afraid to challenge their muscles for safety reasons. Hands down you get the best results for strength and muscles when you lift in a range of 5-10 reps. So if you are new to exercise, hire a trainer to show you how to properly and safely lift. Exercises and heavy weights do not hurt people……people doing all the wrong things hurt themselves! So forget all those magazines with 40 reps of some lying side leg lift…..go do some lunges and eat right and you will be more tone than anyone reading those magazines….as those people tend to have a lifetime subscription for a reason.

• Having No Real Set Plan (aka “Winging It”): While you don’t need anything overly complicated, you do need to have a plan. Whatever it may be, you need to know if you are progressing in your workouts and not just doing whatever exercises you “feel” like doing. That and you need to keep your rest periods short to get through your workout in 30min (40max). If you can’t get a workout done in 30min, you need a new plan! Most people at the gym are socializing and trading facebook profiles, and they also stay there for hours and look the same month after month. Do your workout, have a plan, get out of the gym and get on with your life……as life should be more than just working out.

• Using the Whole Maze of Gym Machines (Just because it is there): Just because a gym has 100 pieces of equipment to target your calves and rear deltoids….doesn’t mean you need to use them. In fact all you need is a few pieces of free weights and you get done all the exercises that really count. All the rest are just there to keep memberships up and to keep people coming back. Forget isolation exercises and focus on the basic compound movements (listed below). Machines may help people will some movements but overall you don’t need 95% of what is in a commercial gym nowadays.

• Mentality that You Need a Gym to Get in a Good Workout: This is probably the worse mental mistake people are making. Say you don’t have time to get to the gym, or are on the road travelling, or whatever other excuse you want to use…..so does that mean you can’t workout? NO. But many people will not because the gym is seen as the only place that they can workout. The gym industry is a tragedy in the sense that they make most their money off the 90% of people who sign up, show up for a week or two and then come back like 3x in the next year….yet get billed monthly. If you knew the break even point on membership for gyms you would probably laugh (as a small gym may need 500-1000 members, and a bigger gym 10,000+). You don’t need a gym to go run a trail, do some pushups on your living room floor, lunge across the kitchen, take the stairs at work, do some pullups at the park on the kid’s monkeybars, or whatever. No more thinking you need the gym….the gym may need you, but you don’t need it!

• Spot Reduction and Isolation Movements are the Focus: Want big triceps? Do some heavy dips. Want big biceps? Do some heavy chinups. Want big calves? Sprint! While you can add in some isolation movements in a workout if you like, they should be at the end and all done within 10minutes. The bulk of your workout (whether you goal is fat loss or gaining muscle) should be with compound body movements (see a pattern here?) like squat, deadlift, overhead press, pullups, etc. Isolation movements are for bodybuilding magazines to keep writing about so they can sell new subscriptions for years to come. Want abs? Then hold something heavy over your head and brace it with your abs….or do a plank. Forget the situps and go focus where it matters….with your eating.

Ok so we have gone over alot of mistakes people make, but now what are some of the solutions then? It’s easy…..keep it simple and focused and consistent…..results will follow!

• Eat Real Whole Foods to Burn Fat and Exercise will just Accelerate it: We know that eating whole non-processed foods are the best way to burn fat and gain muscle. Eat whole food proteins, healthy fats, veggies, fruits, nuts….and skip the breads, cereals and other processed foods. You need amino acids, vitamins, minerals and many other nutrients available in plenty with whole foods for maximum fat burning and muscle building. Eat a diet of whole foods, forget the stuff that is destroying your body (esp sugar!)

• Keep Your Main Workouts Short and Intense: It doesn’t matter how many calories you burn during a workout, what does matter is how much fat you can burn all day! Short and intense workouts are not only great to stimulate fast twitch muscle fibers but to also get the right hormones going (such as GH) to burn fat and build muscles. Keep your rest short (30 sec) between your sets if you are lifting weight and add intervals before any cardio session. Doing that along with proper eating will get amazing results.

• Have an Active Lifestyle, Go Play! Life is fun! So go play with your friends, dog, kids or just off by yourself. Go hiking, biking, walking, rowing, dancing, boxing, frisbee in the park…..whatever you find fun and interesting. Some of the best bodies you will ever see are people who are very athletic and active (and may not even have a clue how to lift weights and workout). Enjoy what you do and chances are you will do it for a long time to come (and probably live longer because of it)

• Keep Your Workouts Simple and Effective. Focus on Movements that Count: I always say get in-get out in 30min. If you can’t get a good workout in 30min, then you need to rethink what you are doing. More is not better when it comes to resistance training, smart is better! You don’t need some super secret Russian-East German Progressive Overload training system from 1965 either. The basic full body movements like squat, lunge, pushup, bench, pullup, bent rows, overhead press, cleans, snatches, and deadlifts will get your more bang for your buck if you challenge yourself and keep the progress going. I don’t care if you do 5×5 or 3×10s. Do them with intensity and with heavy enough weights and then go eat and recover. You can add in secondary movements at the end of your workouts (like arms or planks for abs) but they are not the main focus. Results are simple yet we think we need a super complicated program to get them. Don’t get “paralysis by analysis”, just take action and modify as you go. Need more help for what to do for workouts? Well guess what….your solution is now here.
  

• Stop Listening to Advertisements and Magazines: You don’t need a gatorade, you are not training for 4 hours a day like a professional athlete, there is no such thing as spot reduction no matter how many ab crunches you do (or whatever ab-infomercial tries and sell you on). Advertisements and magazines are there to sell you on something, just remember that.

• Do Your Workouts Anywhere and Just do Something Daily: Have some fun and make fitness a part of your daily lifestyle! Think you can’t get a good workout at home or at the park? Think again…..all you need is your body and a way to make it move and work the muscles. Pushups, pullups, squats, lunges, planks, dips…lots of things to do. You can also use minimal equipment and bring it with you like some dumbbells, kettlebells, set of bands and use simple equipment outdoors like a playground, set of rings or bodyweight bars (as seen above). Do it in your backyard, on your porch, in your garage…wherever!

• (Re)Read these Posts: I made these a while back to help people know what really matters, and it helps to keep re-reading and seeing where you need to focus on for results: Fat Loss 101 and Muscle Building 101.
  

So there you have it. All the things you need to be successful in your workouts. Again remember the most important things are to focus on eating right, keep your workouts simple and intense, do the major movements with resistance, and then just keep active and consistent with your workouts. Before you know it, months will pass and you will be amazed at where you are! So start today with something….and most importantly just enjoy your fitness lifestyle! Go Play!

Shedding Fat

There are many fads and fallacies regarding fat loss. The bottom line is this; you will not lose fat if you cut calories dramatically, and you will only lose body fat (and keep it off) if you burn calories through regular exercise! It really is that simple. The part that everyone finds so challenging is figuring out this balance between calorie consumption and calorie expenditure; what do I eat, when do I eat it and what kind of exercise will optimize fat loss. Then the only hurdle is actually doing the work!

One thing I know for sure: DIETS DON'T WORK!!

This is particularly true with females. In the book "Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell", Debra Waterhouse makes it very clear that females come equipped with significantly more lipogenic (fat storing) enzymes and significantly less lipolytic (fat releasing) enzymes than their male counterparts. She also cites studies showing that a female's lipogenic enzyme count increases and lipolytic enzyme count decreases after a calorie-restricted diet, making it increasingly harder to lose weight with each and every successive diet!

A man's body doesn't appreciate dieting either. It's not uncommon to seemany male back pain patients undergo hospital directed diets, lose 60 pounds, and gain it all back in as little as a month. Coming off a diet to start eating "normally" again is like the tide coming in!

Instead of starving your body to shed fat, a more effective method is to increase the amount of energy you expend. Muscle cells are fuel hungry machines. Consequently any exercise that increases the size of muscle cells and makes them work more often will increase metabolism for optimal fat loss. Sounds to me like resistance training tops out again! It is well known among strength training professionals and researchers that there is a significant post-exercise elevation of metabolism, lasting up to 3-4 hours after your weight training session ends. This is an important consideration when deciding between cardio work or resistance training for fat loss. Since cardiovascular exercise provides very little post-exercise elevation of metabolism, your cells stop burning extra energy when you get done with your run, bike, swim, etc. Compare this to a good, solid weight training session where your metabolism keeps nibbling away at that fat for hours.

To see this in action, look at any group of athletes whose predominant exercise consists of resistance training, or short, high intensity sprint work. Sprinters are some of the very leanest athletes in the world. Olympic Weight lifters would rather be castrated than go for a run, yet they are predominantly a very lean group. Bodybuilders, by simple observation, are far leaner than those trying to lose fat by aerobics alone.

Body Pump is a highly popular free weight training class choreographed to music and taught in a group setting. Take a look around - you'll be amazed at the incredibly lean, fit looking bodies in the room. If you view an aerobics class, you just don't see the same thing. In fact, IDEA released a study a couple years ago indicating that aerobics instructors had an average body fat of >20%, which is suprisingly high for what could be considered a professional athlete.

The whole physiology of someone who lifts weights is geared up to burn calories. The opposite is true of aerobicisers, whose physiology is like that of a Honda Civic; stretching a gallon of fuel for 40 miles. When you want to lose fat, you want to be like a Cadillac or a Hot Rod; you want to be fuel inefficient! Therefore you want to do exercises in such a manner that fuel efficiency is sacrificed.

I have had very good results using the following circuit concept: 5 compound exercises back to back with less than 1:30 seconds rest. The rest periods become progressively shorter as the clients' condition and tolerance for lactic acid improves. Initial weight loss may be due to the fact that they are woofing their cookies between circuits, but within a few sessions clients learn to come rested and with less in their stomachs! This format causes huge caloric expense during and after training because the exercises chosen are predominantly closed chain with free weights. This type of program causes your body to reach states of near meltdown, which activates your thermo-regulatory system, burning even more calories. The program is done 3-4 times per week with intensities of 70-80% 1RM, cycling various exercises in and out to prevent injury.

Another useful method is to eat dinner within three hours of going to sleep. I highly recommended a large protein-rich breakfast, a well-balanced lunch, and dinner as the smallest meal of the day for those needing to "shake some weight".

So there you have it, if you want to lose fat, do the following:

1. DON'T DIET! Eat a nutritious well balanced diet to discourage "survival" fat storage.
2. Make your first two meals of the day the largest. Eat snacks as needed to convince your body you're not starving, so you don't activate lipogenic enzymes
3. Eat your smallest meal of the day for dinner, remembering to give three hours between eating and hitting the sack.
4. Use resistance training to increase muscle mass, increase cellular metabolism and become FUEL INEFFICIENT
5. Apply periodic cycles of high intensity circuit training. Format your circuits with 5 compound exercises, short rest periods, bring a towel so you don't sweat all over everyone and prepare to up-chuck if you eat too close to your training session.

I have been applying these principles with great success. I am sure you can create the body you've always wanted with them if I can!

RECOVERY and EXTRA workouts

Folks, whatever your PRIMARY workout each day should be your focus. People think that they need to do extra workouts EVERY day to get faster results. This is simply not true.

Realize that your body has a FINITE amount of energy to repair/build muscle and recover from your workouts. If you are applying the PROPER intensity to your workouts, you don't need to do ANYTHING else. Every time you do additional workouts during the day you are taking away from your body's ability to recovery.

SIMPLE RULE: NO RECOVERY = NO PROGRESS Make no mistake about this.

Remember my Note a few weeks ago about Leaning out by adding muscle? How can you add muscle if your body can't recover from 2 workouts a day?

RECOVERY is the key to EVERYTHING folks.

Think of your body like a Bank account:

Your RECOVERY is deposits in the Bank. Your workouts are withdrawals from the Bank.

What happens when your withdrawals outnumber your deposits?

We need to be stronger EVERY day. You can't get stronger if you can't recover from your workouts.

Realize that building metabolism enhancing muscle will get you leaner FASTER than tons of EXTRA cardio will.

I will give you an excellent example: ME

During my first round of the P90X I was doing the EIFB (Extreme Interval Fat Burner) almost daily during the last 30 days in an effort to get as lean as possible.

I did get very lean, and I also got down to 168 lbs. Too light for my frame. I burned precious muscle in an effort to lean out.

Lets compare this to my current strategy to lean out for my end of year in 2007.

I did NO extra cardio in my efforts to lean out. I was getting STRONGER every workout and giving each workout 100%.

Emphasizing getting stronger, building muscle, and RECOVERING has made all the difference in the world for me.

Here are some thoughts on RECOVERY:

Workouts provide the stimulus for change; the change itself (an improvement in fitness level) takes place during the periods between workouts. How quickly and completely this recovery takes place is result of many commonly overlooked factors, including specific dietary habits, supplementation, age and personal stress levels, just to name a few.

Factors That Effect Recovery Rates

Age - Older individuals will need longer recovery periods than their younger counterparts. It is suggested that around 25 years old is when most trainees will need to start to allow for longer recovery periods.

Experience - More experienced trainees will need less recovery time than new trainees will.

Psychological Factors - Never underestimate the power of the mind. Work, finances, personal relationships and basic everyday life can all cause stress. If left unchecked stress can have very powerful physical manifestations - headaches, insomnia and an increase in catabolic hormones such as cortisol, just to name a few.

Replenishment of Nutrients - The availability of key micro- and macronutrients in a person's nutrition will have a large impact on recovery.

While not usually considered therapeutic, nutrition plays a huge role in the speed and completeness of recovery. Your body needs raw materials to repair and restore bodily systems stressed by training and without adequate nutrition those materials will not be available. Vitamins, minerals, water, protein, carbs and fats must all be present in proper amounts in order for the body to fully recover from training.

A deficiency in even one key nutrient could slow this process down greatly, if not grind it to a complete halt. Proper nutrition can not be stressed enough when talking about the overall success of a fitness program and most trainees' frustration about their lack of progress can be traced back to this recovery factor.

RECOVERY folks...How is yours?

A HUGE factor in Adding Muscle Mass

...Neuroendocrine Adaptation

Neuroendocrine adaptation is a change in the body that affects you either neurologically or hormonally.

Most important adaptations to exercise are in part or completely a result of a hormonal or neurological shift. Current research, much of it done by Dr. William Kraemer, Penn State University, has shown which exercise protocols maximize neuroendocrine responses.

I’ve been known to be critical of isolation movements as being ineffectual. Due to current research and testing we now know why - one of the critical elements missing from these movements is that they invoke essentially no neuroendocrine response.

Among the hormonal responses vital to athletic development are substantial increases in testosterone, insulin-like growth factor, and human growth hormone. Exercising with protocols known to elevate these hormones eerily mimics the hormonal changes sought in exogenous hormonal therapy (steroid use) with none of the deleterious effect.

Exercise regimens that induce a high neuroendocrine response produce champions! Increased muscle mass and bone density are just two of many adaptative responses to exercises capable of producing a significant neuroendocrine response.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of the neuroendocrine response to exercise protocols. Heavy load weight training, short rest between sets, high heart rates, high intensity training, and short rest intervals, though not entirely distinct components, are all associated with a high neuroendocrine response.

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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http://www.cbass.com/FATBURN.HTM

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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http://www.cbass.com/INTERVAL.HTM

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!

http://www.chekinstitute.com/articles.cfm?select=71

Making Exercise Work For You

SET A GOAL THAT IS MEANINGFUL TO YOU!

Before you start any kind of gym routine or workout program, it is always important to set some sort of goals (other than just exercising itself). If you don’t have a reason to go the gym, you’ll never feel any real sense of accomplishment and absent any sense of accomplishment it’s going to be hard to enjoy your routine or stick to it. Setting a goal also helps you to track your progress. And just as the sight of the finish line gives a runner the strength to make the final dash at the end of a race, as you get closer to achieving your goal you’ll feel more drive to go the gym or do your exercise program.

When you have a goal in mind, it is also much easier to choose exercise types as well as exercises. For example, if you want to lose weight and improve your body shape, contrary to popular belief, I would recommend resistance training, not cardiovascular exercise. Resistance training builds muscle, which has the highest metabolic rate of all our tissues. The more muscles you have, the more calories you burn, even when resting! Cardiovascular training does the opposite, and tends to take muscle off your body. This is particularly related to the fact that prolonged steady-state type cardiovascular exercise, such as running on a treadmill at a constant pace for 30 minutes, stimulates high levels of stress hormones called glucocorticoids. Glucocorticoids are antagonistic to strength and muscle development. On the other hand, sprinting can have the opposite effect since it stimulates anabolic or tissue-building hormones, provided your sprinting program is properly designed. The difference in exercise types explains why distance runners and sprinters have different bodies. Distance runners tend to be so skinny because their training is antagonistic to building muscle, while sprint training is anabolic and results in the heavily-muscled sprinter’s body.

Although many people’s motivation to exercise is to lose weight or drop dress sizes, your goal does not need to be aesthetic at all. It may be to take your kids camping, get in shape to play for your local touch football team, dance the night away at your 25th high school reunion or simply come home after work each day and have energy to enjoy your hobbies. Whatever you choose it must be important to you otherwise when it is “inconvenient” to exercise, your goal will not be enough to motivate you to get up and get out there.

GET EXCITED ABOUT YOUR GOALS!

Once you’ve set your goal, you need to make achieving it fun. For some of us, exercise is an exciting part of our day. Those that love to exercise typically know enough about exercise and know enough exercises to keep it interesting. But if you do anything repetitively without variety, it gets old pretty quick. That’s the sticking point for lots of people, especially if you aren’t an athlete or experienced in the gym. So to keep motivated, you need to be able achieve your goals using a variety of different methods to keep your workout routine interesting. Now you may be saying, “But I don’t know how to do anything in a gym and I’m not an athlete…” That’s OK. We can apply the variety principle to any activity, such as walking. Here are a few ideas to make walking more enjoyable:

• Change your route regularly.
  
• Alternate between walking briskly for a given period (1 to 3 minutes for example) and at a more relaxed pace for the same period.
  
• Alternate the terrain. Find some trails, walk through the park, find hills, take short cuts.
  
• Get a dog and take it for walks. Or, get a big dog and it will take you for walks! There are plenty of people who would be happy to lend you their dog from time to time!
  

If you don’t have much of an exercise aptitude due simply to lack of exposure, there are many things that you can do. To begin with, most gyms have a variety of classes going on and the methods of exercise range from the calmer and less invasive yoga and Pilates methods, all the way to cardio kickboxing. Try out different classes with different instructors and find the ones that appeal to you. Then add these into your exercise routine. Classes can also be helpful if getting to the gym is a challenge for you; since they start at a set time you have an external motivation to get there on time.

Don’t let the fact that you don’t have a gym near you or the fact that you may be unfamiliar with a gym get in the way of setting fitness goals either! Both of these problems are easy to fix. If you don’t live close to a gym, you can reach your goals with a few simple pieces of equipment, like the Swiss ball and a bit of knowledge.

Whether you exercise at home or at a gym, there are now more exercise toys and tools than ever before as well. As I mentioned earlier, the Swiss ball is great piece of equipment that can be used in all sorts of ways. You can also incorporate medicine balls, wobble boards, Bosu balls, and functional exercise machines like the Pro Fitter. Not to mention the virtual smörgåsbord of cardiovascular conditioning machines. If you are an elliptical trainer addict for example, try a rowing machine for a change. Many of these toys are inexpensive, can be delivered direct to your home or are available in many gyms and can provide fun exercise alternatives to avoid boring repetition in your routine.

If you really lack inspiration, then hire a fitness professional to design a personalized exercise program for you, that you can then do by yourself at your gym or at home. Make sure you select a well-trained professional who will listen to your goals and help you to reach them, not someone who will just give you the latest one-size-fits-all fad workout!

So to keep yourself fit and healthy remember this simple formula. Set a goal and make getting there fun! Add a little variety to your workouts and you’ll find yourself getting results that you never thought possible before.