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February 2007 Newsletter "Don't do aerobic work- it makes you dumber and fatter." Charles Poliquin, World-Renowned Strength and Performance Coach Is Your High-Intensity Cardiovascular Exercise Really Effective? Does high intensity cardio really help people to get a healthy heart, a slim body, and maintain fitness for life? Here at Total Fitness, we don't just accept conventional wisdom. Through our ongoing study of the latest research, reading, listening and interviewing the top experts on the cutting edge of fitness, we teach our clients, students, and radio show listeners how to work out smarter, not necessarily harder. In this part one of this article, I'll explain three scientific facts that challenge the long- held myth that you have to do a lot of cardiovascular exercise to get slim and stay that way. Next month, in part two, I'll discuss how high intensity cardio affects our ability to deal with stress, balance our hormones, have babies, and recover successfully from injuries and disease. Humans have been running and walking since they first stood on two legs thousands of years ago, yet the modern-day emphasis on performing aerobic exercise has existed for less than 40 years. The U.S. Air Force physiologist, Dr. Ken Cooper, M.D., may have been the man who inadvertently helped to launch the trend of what we now call aerobics, or cardiovascular exercise. During his observations of athletes, Cooper was puzzled why muscular individuals had a hard time swimming, cycling, and running long distances. His 1969 book, Aerobics, taught people how to become aerobically fit, and started the fitness industry's love affair with cardiovascular exercise. Today, we see strong evidence that this relationship is still strong. In almost every gym and health club, there is an abundance of treadmills, cross-trainers, rowing machines and exercise bikes. Today, we see strong evidence that this relationship is still strong. In almost every gym and health club, there is an abundance of treadmills, cross-trainers, rowing machines and exercise bikes. The personal fitness coaches who work in these gyms are told to teach people that performing cardiovascular exercise will keep them slim, help reduce body fat, improve blood circulation, and increase arterial pliability. While these seem to be tangible benefits for some people, wouldn't it just be better to stop or reduce the activities that slow circulation, cause the accumulation of body fat, and stiffen arteries? If aerobic exercise is done for these reasons, we must question whether it has merely become a medically-approved "sticky- plaster," enabling people to blindly continue the self-destructive habits that made them overweight and in poor health in the first place? Just like all fitness professionals worldwide, when I started in the fitness industry in London, I was originally taught to recommend the use of treadmills, bikes, and other aerobic equipment as the primary means of reducing body fat and having a healthy heart.Just like all fitness professionals worldwide, when I started in the fitness industry in London, I was originally taught to recommend the use of treadmills, bikes, and other aerobic equipment as the primary means of reducing body fat and having a healthy heart. My basic physiology training taught me that performing high-intensity cardiovascular exercise for a minimum of 20 minutes, three times a week, is the most effective way of being heart healthy and slim. For the purposes of this article, high-intensity cardiovascular exercise is defined as performing a continuous and repetitive aerobic activity for more than one minute, at an intensity that stops you being able to say an uninterrupted complete sentence. In this article, the definition of high-intensity aerobic exercise does not include sprint training where the intensity is so high that you can barely talk, and the activity is performed for no more than 60 seconds. Low-intensity aerobic exercise is any continuous aerobic activity during which you can say a complete sentence and effortlessly maintain a conversation. In the fitness industry, target heart rates are used to demarcate what is high and what is low intensity exercise, although it is easier for people to relate to physical signs such as breathlessness or the inability to speak to tell them how intense their exercise is. One way to look at whether high-intensity aerobic exercise really gets you slim and keeps you that way is to examine what happens in your cells when you exercise. When you perform resistance training, your body requires glucose and converts each molecule into 2 units of ATP or adenosine tri-phosphate, which is the gasoline your cells need to live. This is fuel inefficient and uses lots of energy in the form of glucose. In contrast, aerobic exercise is a very fuel-efficient way of powering your muscles because each molecule of fat is part of a complicated process that produces 32 molecules of ATP. Therefore a little bit of fat can go a long way, and it takes a lot of time to use up our body fat stores when performing cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular and aerobic training use two different types of fuels, yet what really counts is what happens after the exercise session finishes. As a health-conscious consumer, what you really need to know is that fitness trainers are also told that continuous cardiovascular exercise (high or low intensity) produces a temporary boost in metabolism, for around 6- 15 hours after finishing the exercise. Resistance training, however, permanently boosts metabolism. The bottom line is that to reduce body fat, your metabolism needs to be increased, and increased permanently. When the speed of your metabolism is increased, your muscle cells want more energy from your fat stores, and so they use more fat per hour compared to when your metabolism is slower or temporarily revved-up. When your metabolism is permanently boosted as a result of lifting weights, you become a walking, talking, and sleeping fat- burning machine because your muscles take calories (energy) from your fat stores during all of your everyday activities. Doesn't it make sense to have this fat-burning effect working for you 24/7, rather than for 6-15 hours only on the days you exercise? A third factor that affects a person's ability to become and stay slim is their amount of muscle mass. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, and requires calories to live. Every hour, each pound of your muscle requires anywhere between 39 and 59 calories of energy, which can be taken from your fat stores. Therefore the more muscle you have, the more calories your muscles need to survive. Having muscle mass means you will remain slim, providing you do some resistance training to challenge your muscles. Numerous studies have shown that neither high nor low-intensity aerobic exercise promotes the growth of muscle. In fact, high- intensity exercise actually blocks muscle growth and can also reduce your muscle mass, which makes it an inefficient way of staying slim. The only way to build muscle and lower your fat stores is to lift weights regularly. And by regularly, I mean at least two to three times a week, and for no more than 45 minutes at a time, keeping each set to a maximum of 60 seconds of 12 repetitions. We now know that based on three simple scientific principles, your body uses less fat after cardiovascular exercise than after resistance training. Why then do some people stay a slave to their treadmill, arguing that high intensity cardio keeps them slim? The answer is that to keep their metabolism boosted, they have to perform aerobic exercise at least 5 or more times each week. This is how young long-distance runners maintain slim physiques. However, when the runner, or serious aerobic athlete sustains an injury and can't train in their regular way, their metabolism isn't being temporarily revved-up every day, and so it falls, leading to increases in the amount of stored body fat over time. Often this affects women faster than men, and the effects are magnified as a woman approaches her 40s and nears menopause. The constant revving-up and slowing down of a woman's metabolism from years of aerobic activity has adverse hormonal implications. When this is coupled with stress or an injury, as we shall explore in part two, eventually she finds that cardiovascular exercise no longer keeps her slim. The ability to stay slim, reduce body fat, or get healthy is affected by more than just exercise. You can read more about these factors in Pump up the hormones! Stress, exercise, and junkies, an article from our Dec 2003 newsletter. In part two of this article next month, we'll review how high-intensity cardiovascular exercise effects your overall health, the health of your heart, your hormone balance, and whether it is necessary from the perspective of human evolution.
Additional resources about this topic: Learn more about how to get the most from your weight training sessions with radio show number 7 and number 59 with Former Mr. Universe, Frank Zane. How To Reverse Heart Disease Naturally by David Getoff,
naturopathic doctor, DVD Review The highly-experienced California naturopath and nutritionist David Getoff has added another informative DVD to his list of hot health topics. David's focus in this production about heart disease is to give you the key information you need to avoid and recover from this all-to-common condition. In this disc, David gives you answers to the most common questions about heart disease. The tips and information David shares are easy to understand, and he also explains what he does with his patients and the reasons for his advice. When the DVD is inserted, the menu is comprehensive, easy to navigate, and the key topics are divided into well-labeled chapters. Some of these include discussions about the foods and supplements that help the heart, which lab tests you really need, and the scientific truth about cholesterol and the medications prescribed for heart conditions. Also included on this information-packed disc are chapters citing all of the books David refers to throughout the interview, plus each of the specific supplements he mentions, along with guidelines on how much to take. There are also hints on how to verify whether a health practitioner is credible, regardless of their qualification, and advice on taking supplements and drugs. David delivers the key information you need right to your armchair. As a health-conscious consumer, you would be wise to educate yourself and add this title to your DVD collection. At $39.95 plus shipping, you'll learn more than you'll ever get from visiting many doctors, and at a far cheaper price, making this product an outstanding value. You can learn more about and purchase this DVD at the Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation by calling 1-800-366-3748 or following the link below: http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=38&osCsid=b9d81924ad258eb2df2522d71fd3fe39 Our listeners have been asking for it, our clients ask for it and everybody needs it - so our business manager, Henry Edmunds, has built it for you - a FREE healthy recipes page. Visit www.totalfitness.net/nutrition recipes.htm. There you will find all the latest recipes from each week's Total Fitness radio show compiled by Nina Lynn, as well as some of our favorite recipes, menu ideas, juicing tips, nutrition information and much, much more. Feel free to to print out your FREE copies of these healthy recipes. Client Testimonial: Theresa Dean, Registered Nurse Theresa Dean, a registered nurse and the coordinator of health, safety and legal programs for Westminster Schools, has always worked hard on her fitness, nutrition and overall health. She was referred to us by her gyrotonics instructor. "During my annual physical," Theresa recalled, "I told my physician that my gut was way too hyper. This seemed to be my main complaint at the time of my last three annual physicals. "When I asked her if the foods I was eating could be causing this, she said she did not think so but wanted me to see a gastroenterologist. I thought the GI work up may shed some light on my food questions, but that physician did not want to discuss food but wanted to schedule an endoscopic procedure. "I did not want to subject myself to that procedure, so I started reading more on food sensitivities. "I discovered that the authors described my symptoms and explained that even when we eat healthy food that is good for you, not all digestive systems can tolerate these food such as soy, gluten, corn, wheat, etc. and that daily discomfort and bloating is not normal for a healthy gut. I was looking for a nutritionist to help me discover what my personal food issues were rather than just starting to eliminate food groups from my diet." Although Theresa had eliminated wheat and soy on her own, she and I worked together to identify the specific foods that were irritating her gut. But we didn't just stop there. Many people struggle with eating a very strict diet for years because no one has taught them how to heal their gut. We also put her on a program to heal the inflammation that had been plaguing her system and bloating her belly for years. "After approximately six weeks of avoiding my food sensitivities, my gut is much calmer and I anticipate more improvement. I have much less flatus, cramping and bloating. I also participated in a two week diet to reset my blood sugar and I feel this contributed to me being even more aware of my body and what I can do to feel optimal every day," Theresa said. "I think the key was regulating my blood sugar and discovering my food sensitivities." In addition to working with her nutrition, James Williams did a postural analysis and wrote an exercise program to correct her scoliosis. "I want to be on board with my health management but needed more information specific to my body." Upcoming Guests, Total Fitness Radio Show Tune in every Friday to www.voiceamerica.com at 10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PST for the latest edition of Total Fitness. Call in and have your fitness, nutrition and healing questions answered during our live broadcast at 1-866-472-5792. Afterwards, you can listen to the archives for FREE, 24/7, by visiting this link: http://www.totalfitness.net/radio_show_past_shows.htm
March 1: Dan Kalish, D.C., author, Your Guide To Healthy Hormones. To listen to the archives of our previous shows for FREE, 24/7, visit the following link: www.totalfitness.net/ radio_show_past_shows.htm. Or purchase your copies to listen on your iPod or MP3 player while you exercise or driving in your car from our webstore. Purchase individual shows for $5.95 or compilations of our greatest hits by visiting the link below: https://www.totalfitness.net/acatalog/1ShoppingCatalog/total_fitness_cds.html.
Total Fitness Classes in Atlanta Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Yoga Classe: Every Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. Qi Gong Class: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. 1951 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class.
Booking appointments with Total Fitness To schedule an appointment to find out about a personalized fitness, nutrition or healing program that will help you get results, please contact us: In Atlanta:Catherine Carrigan catherine@totalfitness.net James Williams james@totalfitness.net In California: Nina Lynn nina@totalfitness.net You can also visit us on the web at www.totalfitness.net |
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