CARBOHYDRATES: NOT THE ENEMY - PART I
by
Paul Skinner, MS RD LD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In several conversations with Joanne Sharkey, she revealed that a great deal of you have contacted her with some primary questions concerning your confusion about your diet, and as to whether you are eating the correct type of carbs, especially if you are wanting to lose fat.
I would like to address these questions in my articles with Mike's use of the term "adaptability." Adaptability applies not only to how the body responds to exercise but to carbs as well. I will emphasize this point as to why during the 21st century, unhealthy carbohydrates are being chosen that overwhelm the body's adaptability mechanism to deal with them. This has lead to a slippery slope of over consumption of calories weakening the individuals control over their intake. I use the word adaptability, because our ancestors (cavemen for the lack of a better word) did not have access to fast food restaurants nor did they consume chocolate cakes, cream filled cookies or donuts growing from a vine or tree. The refined carb business was not up and running yet and neither were the plethora of diet related diseases and disorders we have today.
I will explain why simple sugars are not so simple, and why complex carbohydrates are not so complex. After grasping these concepts, you will be able to choose and combine carbs with protein and fat for not only a balanced diet, but also for a steady supply of energy for working out, as well as, other mentally and physically demanding day-to-day activities. Finally, I will discuss how you can learn to formulate an eating strategy to maintain a healthy weight, lose body-fat, or gain muscular weight.
Over the years, I would occasionally re-read through sections of Mike Mentzer's books and old magazine articles and was pleased, though not surprised, that he had advocated the majority of macronutrients should come from carbohydrates. He furthermore added that any amount of calories beyond the need of the growth mechanism turned to fat. In other words, no matter how you slice the pie (no pun intended), whether protein, carbohydrate, or fat, taking in calories above the "need" will result in fat gain. Muscle growth has to be stimulated by high intensity exercise and not food.
There are many books and articles, and perhaps some infomercials, which put forth the notion that those nasty carbohydrates will make you fat. It used to be believed that too much fat in our diets made us fat. However, it is the "high protein, low carbohydrate folks" that seem to be re-hashing their cause these days. Frankly, I do not read every book put out by some self-professed expert on nutrition, whether they are a movie star, businessman, or physician. Although I have read some, I simply trust in the basic fundamentals of biochemistry and the study of macro (nutrients needed by the body in daily amounts greater than a few grams, such as carbohydrate, protein, fat and water) and micro (nutrients needed by the body in daily amounts less than a few grams, such as vitamins and minerals) nutrition.
Our bodies do not use one specific macronutrient exclusively. It depends on the intensity of the exercise. If one engages in high intensity exercise (weight training, vertical jumping or sprinting), the metabolic system utilizes glucose (blood sugar) primarily stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles that comes from carbohydrates. Low intensity exercises mainly require triglycerides as an energy source, and contrary to popular belief, one does not "burn fat" while engaged in the aerobic activity at the time. This occurs after the exercise (assuming you burn up more calories than you take in), and the body breaks down adipose tissue and converts it into triglycerides for the muscles to store and use for energy. Marathoners actually require more protein than bodybuilders, because eventually their glycogen stores become depleted, and they begin to use protein tissue as a fuel source. Even though they are using triglycerides, protein converts to glucose more efficiently when their glycogen stores have been tapped, however, this is like putting wet wood on a fire.
The two major health problems facing Americans today are obesity and diabetes. There are many hypotheses, theories, and answered or unanswered questions as to why both are out of control. It appears that it may be the type of carbohydrates and the subsequent over consumption of calories that may be major contributors. The United States Department of Agriculture has been advocating the "Food Guide Pyramid" for many years now; however, there are some under-emphasized specifics that may have lead to the non-compliance of a healthy diet.
All Carbohydrates in the pyramid, whether grains, fruits, vegetables, and some dairy, eventually are converted to glucose and are used by the muscles during high intensity exercise. The brain relies primarily on glucose for energy, and if you follow a high-protein diet with minimal to zero carbohydrates, you will note the difference in your cognitive abilities.
So what is the "big to do" about high carbohydrate diets and their demonization? Well, I thought I would never have to say this as a dietitian, so let me state it another way. There are healthy carbohydrates and not so healthy carbohydrates. All carbohydrates do, in fact, break down in the gastrointestinal tract to glucose, but unfortunately, some break down more quickly and this is where the problem begins.
When grains are processed, the "dietary fiber" and other nutrients are removed and only the micronutrients are put back in, such as, B vitamins. People are also consuming large amounts of simple sugars (sweets drinks with some fruit juice added, or 100% fruit juice) thinking these are nutritious substitutes for fresh fruits and vegetables.
These two examples of foods, along with many others, cause high spikes in insulin followed by storage of the glucose in the liver and muscles. The body tends to over compensate, so you experience a sugar-high followed by a low that creates a sense of urgent hunger causing you to gravitate toward similar foods that elicit the same response. The pancreas is frequently pumping out insulin to store glucose and triglycerides and depending on your genetics; this can set the stage for diabetes which coincides with heart disease. This up and down experience with blood sugar levels tends to create, as I said earlier, frequent bouts of hunger and an over consumption of calories that have lead to one of the major causes of our obesity problem.
I will analyze the foods in the pyramid and discuss why eating a monolithic diet that eliminates carbohydrate or fat, as a lot of fad diets do, is not metabolically correct. In order to feed the brain and body, you need to understand that there is a purpose and place for protein, carbohydrate, and fat. I believe Mike had stated that there are laws and rules that must be obeyed. Your body has metabolic laws that must be obeyed or serious health consequences may follow.
I hope you will look forward to my next article, where I will delve into the most abused carbs of all - the "grains". I will show what the optimal choices are in this group, and the ones that may act as a detriment to your workouts and cause harm to the blood vessels and overall health.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday 31st Dec
Upper body
Incline dumbbell press supersetted with renegade rows, 3 rounds
Pullups supersetted with chair dips, 3 rounds
PR for pushups
PR for pullups
PR for front plank.
Incline dumbbell press supersetted with renegade rows, 3 rounds
Pullups supersetted with chair dips, 3 rounds
PR for pushups
PR for pullups
PR for front plank.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday 29th Dec
Lower Body
DB squats
BB deadlifts
Step-ups
jump-rope
1 minute rest between exercises, done in a round 3 times
20 sec of running in place, 20 sec rest, repeated 3 times
Stretch.
DB squats
BB deadlifts
Step-ups
jump-rope
1 minute rest between exercises, done in a round 3 times
20 sec of running in place, 20 sec rest, repeated 3 times
Stretch.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday Dec 28th
Upper Body
1st group:
Pushups
pullups
ab rollouts
60 sec rest between exercises, 3 rounds
2nd group:
rope waves, heavy rope doubled.
dips, assisted
standing db curl to overhead press
60 sec rest between exercises, LAST ROUND NO REST.
1st group:
Pushups
pullups
ab rollouts
60 sec rest between exercises, 3 rounds
2nd group:
rope waves, heavy rope doubled.
dips, assisted
standing db curl to overhead press
60 sec rest between exercises, LAST ROUND NO REST.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
CHRISTMAS EVE
Today we will repeat Tuesdays workout for legs, again we will try to beat either reps or weight from Tuesday.
Christmas we will be closed, wrestle with your kids for exercise, or go sledding and pull them around. Try not to eat tooooo much, eat a little of everything, and a lot of the healthy stuff.
Have a Merry Christmas!
Christmas we will be closed, wrestle with your kids for exercise, or go sledding and pull them around. Try not to eat tooooo much, eat a little of everything, and a lot of the healthy stuff.
Have a Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday Dec 23
Today we will repeat mondays workout with the goal to increase our reps on every set, or add weight if the reps are going too high ie: >12.
Good luck
Good luck
"Afterburn" reality?
This is an article sent by my brother in law. It questions the Afterburn effect we have talked about. My response is simple: this study did low intensity cardio work for their exercise. Low intensity burns primarily fat and there is no EPOC, or afterburn, that is why you can do it forever, there is no oxygen debt taking place. The calories burned during exercise are all that is burned, when it's done they are done. They should have done a test group with high intensity training as well to see what the difference was, that might have opened some eyes. As far taking obese people and exercising without losing weight, we all have done that, and most people know that abs are made in the kitchen not the gym. I would not interpret 7 pounds as not losing weight, it's not great for 12 weeks, but it's not bad either, especially without dietary changes.
Phys Ed: Why Doesn’t Exercise Lead to Weight Loss?
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
Sven Hagolani/Getty Images
For some time, researchers have been finding that people who exercise don’t necessarily lose weight. A study published online in September in The British Journal of Sports Medicine was the latest to report apparently disappointing slimming results. In the study, 58 obese people completed 12 weeks of supervised aerobic training without changing their diets. The group lost an average of a little more than seven pounds, and many lost barely half that.
How can that be? Exercise, it seems, should make you thin. Activity burns calories. No one doubts that.
“Walking, even at a very easy pace, you’ll probably burn three or four calories a minute,” beyond what you would use quietly sitting in a chair, said Dan Carey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, who studies exercise and metabolism.
But few people, an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, not without changing their eating habits. A new study from scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver offers some reasons why. For the study, the researchers recruited several groups of people. Some were lean endurance athletes; some sedentary and lean; some sedentary and obese. Each of the subjects agreed to spend, over the course of the experiment, several 24-hour periods in a special laboratory room (a walk-in calorimeter) that measures the number of calories a person burns. Using various calculations, the researchers could also tell whether the calories expended were in the form of fat or carbohydrates, the body’s two main fuel sources. Burning more fat than carbohydrates is obviously desirable for weight loss, since the fat being burned comes primarily from body fat stores, and we all, even the leanest among us, have plenty of those.
The Denver researchers were especially interested in how the athletes’ bodies would apportion and use calories. It has been well documented that regular endurance training increases the ability of the body to use fat as a fuel during exercise. They wondered, though, if the athletes — or any of the other subjects — would burn extra fat calories after exercising, a phenomenon that some exercisers (and even more diet and fitness books) call “afterburn.”
“Many people believe that you rev up” your metabolism after an exercise session “so that you burn additional body fat throughout the day,” said Edward Melanson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the division of endocrinology at the School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. If afterburn were found to exist, it would suggest that even if you replaced the calories you used during an exercise session, you should lose weight, without gaining weight — the proverbial free lunch.
Each of Melanson’s subjects spent 24 quiet hours in the calorimeter, followed later by another 24 hours that included an hourlong bout of stationary bicycling. The cycling was deliberately performed at a relatively easy intensity (about 55 percent of each person’s predetermined aerobic capacity). It is well known physiologically that, while high-intensity exercise demands mostly carbohydrate calories (since carbohydrates can quickly reach the bloodstream and, from there, laboring muscles), low-intensity exercise prompts the body to burn at least some stored fat. All of the subjects ate three meals a day.
To their surprise, the researchers found that none of the groups, including the athletes, experienced “afterburn.” They did not use additional body fat on the day when they exercised. In fact, most of the subjects burned slightly less fat over the 24-hour study period when they exercised than when they did not.
“The message of our work is really simple,” although not agreeable to hear, Melanson said. “It all comes down to energy balance,” or, as you might have guessed, calories in and calories out. People “are only burning 200 or 300 calories” in a typical 30-minute exercise session, Melanson points out. “You replace that with one bottle of Gatorade.”
Related
More Phys Ed columns
Faster, Higher, Stronger
Fitness and Nutrition News
This does not mean that exercise has no impact on body weight, or that you can’t calibrate your workouts to maximize the amount of body fat that you burn, if that’s your goal.
“If you work out at an easy intensity, you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories” than if you work out a higher intensity, Carey says, so you should draw down some of the padding you’ve accumulated on the hips or elsewhere — if you don’t replace all of the calories afterward. To help those hoping to reduce their body fat, he published formulas in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research last month that detailed the heart rates at which a person could maximize fat burning. “Heart rates of between 105 and 134” beats per minute, Carey said, represent the fat-burning zone. “It’s probably best to work out near the top of that zone,” he says, “so that you burn more calories over all” than at the extremely leisurely lower end.
Perhaps just as important, bear in mind that exercise has benefits beyond weight reduction. In the study of obese people who took up exercise, most became notably healthier, increasing their aerobic capacity, decreasing their blood pressure and resting heart rates, and, the authors write, achieving “an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood,” leading the authors to conclude that, “significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss.”
Finally and thankfully, exercise seems to aid, physiologically, in the battle to keep off body fat once it has been, through resolute calorie reduction, chiseled away. In other work by Melanson’s group, published in September, laboratory rats that had been overfed and then slimmed through calorie reduction were able to “defend” their lower weight more effectively if they ran on a treadmill and ate at will than if they had no access to a treadmill. The exercise seemed to reset certain metabolic pathways within the rats, Melanson says, that blunted their body’s drive to replace the lost fat. Similar mechanisms, he adds, probably operate within the bodies of humans, providing scientific justification for signing up for that Thanksgiving Day 5K.
Phys Ed: Why Doesn’t Exercise Lead to Weight Loss?
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
Sven Hagolani/Getty Images
For some time, researchers have been finding that people who exercise don’t necessarily lose weight. A study published online in September in The British Journal of Sports Medicine was the latest to report apparently disappointing slimming results. In the study, 58 obese people completed 12 weeks of supervised aerobic training without changing their diets. The group lost an average of a little more than seven pounds, and many lost barely half that.
How can that be? Exercise, it seems, should make you thin. Activity burns calories. No one doubts that.
“Walking, even at a very easy pace, you’ll probably burn three or four calories a minute,” beyond what you would use quietly sitting in a chair, said Dan Carey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, who studies exercise and metabolism.
But few people, an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, not without changing their eating habits. A new study from scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver offers some reasons why. For the study, the researchers recruited several groups of people. Some were lean endurance athletes; some sedentary and lean; some sedentary and obese. Each of the subjects agreed to spend, over the course of the experiment, several 24-hour periods in a special laboratory room (a walk-in calorimeter) that measures the number of calories a person burns. Using various calculations, the researchers could also tell whether the calories expended were in the form of fat or carbohydrates, the body’s two main fuel sources. Burning more fat than carbohydrates is obviously desirable for weight loss, since the fat being burned comes primarily from body fat stores, and we all, even the leanest among us, have plenty of those.
The Denver researchers were especially interested in how the athletes’ bodies would apportion and use calories. It has been well documented that regular endurance training increases the ability of the body to use fat as a fuel during exercise. They wondered, though, if the athletes — or any of the other subjects — would burn extra fat calories after exercising, a phenomenon that some exercisers (and even more diet and fitness books) call “afterburn.”
“Many people believe that you rev up” your metabolism after an exercise session “so that you burn additional body fat throughout the day,” said Edward Melanson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the division of endocrinology at the School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. If afterburn were found to exist, it would suggest that even if you replaced the calories you used during an exercise session, you should lose weight, without gaining weight — the proverbial free lunch.
Each of Melanson’s subjects spent 24 quiet hours in the calorimeter, followed later by another 24 hours that included an hourlong bout of stationary bicycling. The cycling was deliberately performed at a relatively easy intensity (about 55 percent of each person’s predetermined aerobic capacity). It is well known physiologically that, while high-intensity exercise demands mostly carbohydrate calories (since carbohydrates can quickly reach the bloodstream and, from there, laboring muscles), low-intensity exercise prompts the body to burn at least some stored fat. All of the subjects ate three meals a day.
To their surprise, the researchers found that none of the groups, including the athletes, experienced “afterburn.” They did not use additional body fat on the day when they exercised. In fact, most of the subjects burned slightly less fat over the 24-hour study period when they exercised than when they did not.
“The message of our work is really simple,” although not agreeable to hear, Melanson said. “It all comes down to energy balance,” or, as you might have guessed, calories in and calories out. People “are only burning 200 or 300 calories” in a typical 30-minute exercise session, Melanson points out. “You replace that with one bottle of Gatorade.”
Related
More Phys Ed columns
Faster, Higher, Stronger
Fitness and Nutrition News
This does not mean that exercise has no impact on body weight, or that you can’t calibrate your workouts to maximize the amount of body fat that you burn, if that’s your goal.
“If you work out at an easy intensity, you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories” than if you work out a higher intensity, Carey says, so you should draw down some of the padding you’ve accumulated on the hips or elsewhere — if you don’t replace all of the calories afterward. To help those hoping to reduce their body fat, he published formulas in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research last month that detailed the heart rates at which a person could maximize fat burning. “Heart rates of between 105 and 134” beats per minute, Carey said, represent the fat-burning zone. “It’s probably best to work out near the top of that zone,” he says, “so that you burn more calories over all” than at the extremely leisurely lower end.
Perhaps just as important, bear in mind that exercise has benefits beyond weight reduction. In the study of obese people who took up exercise, most became notably healthier, increasing their aerobic capacity, decreasing their blood pressure and resting heart rates, and, the authors write, achieving “an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood,” leading the authors to conclude that, “significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss.”
Finally and thankfully, exercise seems to aid, physiologically, in the battle to keep off body fat once it has been, through resolute calorie reduction, chiseled away. In other work by Melanson’s group, published in September, laboratory rats that had been overfed and then slimmed through calorie reduction were able to “defend” their lower weight more effectively if they ran on a treadmill and ate at will than if they had no access to a treadmill. The exercise seemed to reset certain metabolic pathways within the rats, Melanson says, that blunted their body’s drive to replace the lost fat. Similar mechanisms, he adds, probably operate within the bodies of humans, providing scientific justification for signing up for that Thanksgiving Day 5K.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Tuesday Dec 21
Lower body:
warm-up with some jogging, jumping jacks, runners stretch, whatever feels good.
Squats. Holding dumbbells at side, go heavy, max. reps, aim for 8-10. Your neck will be sore tomorrow from these.
one minute rest.
deadlifts, with a barbell if you have one, dumbbells if you don't. We will be focusing on perfect form, lighter weights.
one minute rest
Repeat the two exercises for three rounds.
Now go and run some sprints, preferably uphill, push some cars around or drag some sleds, walk up some stairs carrying weights or heavy bags, whatever you feel like.
Cool down and stretch.
warm-up with some jogging, jumping jacks, runners stretch, whatever feels good.
Squats. Holding dumbbells at side, go heavy, max. reps, aim for 8-10. Your neck will be sore tomorrow from these.
one minute rest.
deadlifts, with a barbell if you have one, dumbbells if you don't. We will be focusing on perfect form, lighter weights.
one minute rest
Repeat the two exercises for three rounds.
Now go and run some sprints, preferably uphill, push some cars around or drag some sleds, walk up some stairs carrying weights or heavy bags, whatever you feel like.
Cool down and stretch.
Monday Dec. 20
This ones for the ladies in Texas! Hopefully you are outside and can really get some sweat, I don't think we can sweat till April around here.
We are starting some serious strength training, we have built a decent foundation of body weight training so now we will add weights and intensity and see what happens.
Upper Body:
Incline bench press with dumbbells super set with renegade dumbbell rows(bent over, one arm on ground) Maximum reps, using a weight that will allow 10-15 reps. No rest other than writing it down. After each super set take a one minute rest. 3 rounds total.
Second series:
Circuit of pull ups, dumbbell shoulder press, dumbbell bicep curls, and jump rope. No rest between stations, except to write it down and wait for the next station to clear. jump rope goes till everyone else finishes. Maximum reps. 2 rounds
third round was speed round, no weights, just fast motion, pull ups were switched to dips.
That's it, cool down and stretch.
We are starting some serious strength training, we have built a decent foundation of body weight training so now we will add weights and intensity and see what happens.
Upper Body:
Incline bench press with dumbbells super set with renegade dumbbell rows(bent over, one arm on ground) Maximum reps, using a weight that will allow 10-15 reps. No rest other than writing it down. After each super set take a one minute rest. 3 rounds total.
Second series:
Circuit of pull ups, dumbbell shoulder press, dumbbell bicep curls, and jump rope. No rest between stations, except to write it down and wait for the next station to clear. jump rope goes till everyone else finishes. Maximum reps. 2 rounds
third round was speed round, no weights, just fast motion, pull ups were switched to dips.
That's it, cool down and stretch.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
How to Spot Reduce and Burn ONLY the Fat Off Your Stomach...
(funny article from betterU.com)
How to Spot Reduce and Burn ONLY the Fat Off Your Stomach...
I'll share with you my top-secret technique for burning ONLY the fat off your stomach. This is spot-reducing at its best...you can even apply this technique to ANY other specific areas you want to tone up!
Yep, it's exciting and I know you're curious so I'll get right into it!
To perform this technique, you're going to need a roll of duct tape, 3 double cheeseburgers, a set of jumper cables and a housecat...
Ok, you're going to hate me for this...
The truth is there IS no top-secret technique for spot reducing and burning only the fat from your stomach. I made that headline up in hopes that you would at least read far enough into this article to learn the TRUTH about how your body burns fat and WHERE it burns fat from (and I'll try to keep it entertaining so you actually want to read the whole thing :) ).
And honestly, this type of question is one of THE most frequently asked questions I've gotten in all the years I've been answering questions online...
"How do I get rid of fat from just my [insert area here]?"
Bottom line is, you can't. And even those stupid creams and lotions won't do it (one of these days I swear I'm going to get one of those creams and put it only on the left side of my abs and not the right and see what happens...I'm sure I'll have a ripped 3 pack within days).
To lose fat from any one specific place in your body, you're going to have to lose it from EVERYWHERE ELSE, too. There's really no getting around it.
I like to use the analogy of a swimming pool (I "borrowed" this one from fat-loss guru Tom Venuto)...
When you're filling up a swimming pool (the pool is your total amount of body fat), the deep end fills up first, right? Then the shallow end fills up as the water level rises.
Generally speaking, the deep end can be compared to the areas where you put on fat FIRST. The shallow end is where you put on fat LAST.
When you go to lose fat, look at the swimming pool again...when you drain the swimming pool, you can't drain water from just the deep end! It drains from the whole pool at once...the shallow end shows it first, THEN the deep end last.
So basically (and fairly depressingly!), the fat you want to get rid of FIRST is the fat that's going to come off pretty much LAST. To burn just stomach fat (or thigh fat or back fat), you'd have to figure out a way to defeat the entire system your body uses to store fat.
Sticking a vacuum into your belly with surgery is one way to do it - taking useless pills like Acai Berry definitely WON'T do it, no matter how many "simple rules" you follow (in that case, the simple rule is "give us all your money so you can't afford food anymore" - I guess that one actually WILL work).
And that's not even all your options for losing stomach fat...
1. Starvation dieting - this is THE best way to lose weight...of course, it'll be mostly muscle, which will send your metabolism into a nosedive, which will make it harder to continue to lose weight, which will make it easier to REGAIN weight, which will keep that lovely stomach fat firmly where you left it, even though the precious scale shows a smaller number...oops, somebody changed the calibration on it...you actually weigh more now...never mind.
2. Diet pills - pretty much all of these will work for you, especially the ones that say you can eat anything you want and still lose weight (just make sure you're never more than 15 feet from a bathroom). You know the manufacturers are only interested in your success and well-being, after all! And don't forget, the heart is a muscle and the faster it goes, the more calories you burn, right! Who wouldn't want to have their heart-rate up in the "training zone" while they're sleeping...talk about efficiency!
3. High Impact Aerobics For Beginners - the good news is, soft tissue injuries require a LOT of calories to heal up, so bust out those Step Tae Bosu Dance tapes and go nuts!
Okay, let's move on to some of the more "radical, unproven" stuff ;)...
1. Eating natural, wholesome foods - what a crock! The only thing anybody has ever lost from eating this garbage is fat. Oh wait...
2. Weight training - even more useless than good nutrition, weight training is something to stay away from. All it will do is build muscle and increase your metabolism. Total B.S. Same with interval training...it's the worst.
3. Supplementing with multivitamins, minerals, fish oil and protein - I know...I can't make this stuff up! Some people actually USE these things to support their nutrition while eating natural foods and training with weights for fat loss. I guess their quack doctors wouldn't write out a prescription for Orlistat or Xenical or Gottapoopital.
So bottom line, fat loss isn't rocket science...just don't eat anything, take a lot of pills and thrash around for hours on end until you hurt yourself.
How to Spot Reduce and Burn ONLY the Fat Off Your Stomach...
I'll share with you my top-secret technique for burning ONLY the fat off your stomach. This is spot-reducing at its best...you can even apply this technique to ANY other specific areas you want to tone up!
Yep, it's exciting and I know you're curious so I'll get right into it!
To perform this technique, you're going to need a roll of duct tape, 3 double cheeseburgers, a set of jumper cables and a housecat...
Ok, you're going to hate me for this...
The truth is there IS no top-secret technique for spot reducing and burning only the fat from your stomach. I made that headline up in hopes that you would at least read far enough into this article to learn the TRUTH about how your body burns fat and WHERE it burns fat from (and I'll try to keep it entertaining so you actually want to read the whole thing :) ).
And honestly, this type of question is one of THE most frequently asked questions I've gotten in all the years I've been answering questions online...
"How do I get rid of fat from just my [insert area here]?"
Bottom line is, you can't. And even those stupid creams and lotions won't do it (one of these days I swear I'm going to get one of those creams and put it only on the left side of my abs and not the right and see what happens...I'm sure I'll have a ripped 3 pack within days).
To lose fat from any one specific place in your body, you're going to have to lose it from EVERYWHERE ELSE, too. There's really no getting around it.
I like to use the analogy of a swimming pool (I "borrowed" this one from fat-loss guru Tom Venuto)...
When you're filling up a swimming pool (the pool is your total amount of body fat), the deep end fills up first, right? Then the shallow end fills up as the water level rises.
Generally speaking, the deep end can be compared to the areas where you put on fat FIRST. The shallow end is where you put on fat LAST.
When you go to lose fat, look at the swimming pool again...when you drain the swimming pool, you can't drain water from just the deep end! It drains from the whole pool at once...the shallow end shows it first, THEN the deep end last.
So basically (and fairly depressingly!), the fat you want to get rid of FIRST is the fat that's going to come off pretty much LAST. To burn just stomach fat (or thigh fat or back fat), you'd have to figure out a way to defeat the entire system your body uses to store fat.
Sticking a vacuum into your belly with surgery is one way to do it - taking useless pills like Acai Berry definitely WON'T do it, no matter how many "simple rules" you follow (in that case, the simple rule is "give us all your money so you can't afford food anymore" - I guess that one actually WILL work).
And that's not even all your options for losing stomach fat...
1. Starvation dieting - this is THE best way to lose weight...of course, it'll be mostly muscle, which will send your metabolism into a nosedive, which will make it harder to continue to lose weight, which will make it easier to REGAIN weight, which will keep that lovely stomach fat firmly where you left it, even though the precious scale shows a smaller number...oops, somebody changed the calibration on it...you actually weigh more now...never mind.
2. Diet pills - pretty much all of these will work for you, especially the ones that say you can eat anything you want and still lose weight (just make sure you're never more than 15 feet from a bathroom). You know the manufacturers are only interested in your success and well-being, after all! And don't forget, the heart is a muscle and the faster it goes, the more calories you burn, right! Who wouldn't want to have their heart-rate up in the "training zone" while they're sleeping...talk about efficiency!
3. High Impact Aerobics For Beginners - the good news is, soft tissue injuries require a LOT of calories to heal up, so bust out those Step Tae Bosu Dance tapes and go nuts!
Okay, let's move on to some of the more "radical, unproven" stuff ;)...
1. Eating natural, wholesome foods - what a crock! The only thing anybody has ever lost from eating this garbage is fat. Oh wait...
2. Weight training - even more useless than good nutrition, weight training is something to stay away from. All it will do is build muscle and increase your metabolism. Total B.S. Same with interval training...it's the worst.
3. Supplementing with multivitamins, minerals, fish oil and protein - I know...I can't make this stuff up! Some people actually USE these things to support their nutrition while eating natural foods and training with weights for fat loss. I guess their quack doctors wouldn't write out a prescription for Orlistat or Xenical or Gottapoopital.
So bottom line, fat loss isn't rocket science...just don't eat anything, take a lot of pills and thrash around for hours on end until you hurt yourself.
Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents”
Damage Control For Holiday Eating “Accidents”
Tom Venuto
At this time of year, most people have gone to a holiday gathering and found themselves with a belly stuffed with far more calories than they would normally ever eat. Some feel little shame for eating a cake or drinking half the bowl of punch, but others find themselves feeling guilty afterwards and can’t help but think, “oops, I shouldn’t have eaten that.” In the last couple of weeks, I’ve read numerous articles about about how to deal with this. One article was focused on “controlling damage” by making diet adjustments AFTER an over-sized meal. But is this approach a good idea?
QUESTION: Tom, I have a question which you might want to use in your next Q and A column. I think this is especially applicable during the Holiday season. My question is: If you accidentally pig out or over-indulge at a meal, (a Holiday party for example), are you better off skipping your next meal to keep your daily caloric intake on target, or should you just go ahead and eat your next planned meal and not worry about being somewhat “over” your planned calories for the day?
Michael
Wisconsin, USA
ANSWER: Hi Michael. Thats a very good question, but I have to admit I did get a little chuckle out of the “accidental” part! Do you ever really “accidentally” eat anything? Maybe we eat “impulsively” at times, but I think we all need to take responsibility for everything we eat and how much we eat. With a little bit of meal planning, you can actually work holiday meals into your program without doing any damage at all - in fact, you should.
If you did overindulge, I usually wouldn’t recommend skipping your next meal to make up for it (Unless you were literally too full to eat again). I also wouldn’t recommend skipping meals or cutting back the next day, either.
Any time you fall off the wagon, I generally recommend returning immediately to your “regularly scheduled meal programming,” because this continues to encourage the strengthening of positive habits such as eating the same foods at the same time on a consistent meal schedule every day.
Habits are everything. It’s not what you do once in a while that matters, it’s what you do every day that really counts.
Then, I recommend immediately looking ahead and making plans for how you are going to handle the situation in the future so it doesn’t happen again.
Holiday meals can very easily be worked into your regular nutrition plan. It’s almost always a better idea to allow yourself a couple of weekly “free meals” (aka “cheat meals”) all year round anyways. Why not just plan ahead to make each holiday gathering one of those meals and then enjoy them guilt-free?
If your goal is fat loss and you’ve been in a caloric deficit, sometimes it’s actually beneficial to eat more occasionally, rather than staying on a strict reduced-calorie diet 100% of the time. Your metabolism has a way of slowing down if you keep your calories too low for too long. With occasional (planned) higher calorie days, you’d be using the BURN THE FAT “zig-zag” or “carb cycling” principle, so eating more in this context can be actually a positive thing.
(Note: You can learn more about this technique in the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program).
Although I do recommend calorie levels based on daily (24 hr) needs, I believe it’s also helpful to also pay attention to 3 hour “windows” when you’re thinking about adjusting your caloric intake.
Calories and macronutrients (protein/aminos, carbs/sugar and fat) are partitioned into glycogen, muscle or fat tissue or metabolized immediately depending very much on present moment energy and recovery needs and on what’s going to happen over the next 3 hours or so as the food enters your system.
If you hit the gym and trained with a full head of steam before your “feast”, you probably have little to worry about. If you ate more AND plan to be plopping down on the couch to watch football games for the rest of the day and night after that big holiday meal, beware - you might just want to cut back on that next meal a little, especially starches and sugars.
I suppose that’s part of the problem. Some people stop working out over the holidays because they figure “What’s the use” and “I’ll start on January 1st.
But others turn up the intensity or volume of their training a bit. In fact, hundreds of people are doing just that right now as part of our Burn The Fat Holiday Fitness Challenge at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle.
Just a couple weeks into it, the majority of the challengers are already down at least several pounds and a percentage point of body fat - and that included over Thanksgiving!
Bottom line: It’s okay to eat small amounts of your favorite junk foods once in a while as planned “free meals,” and it’s a good idea to strategically eat more from time to time to keep your metabolism humming along.
However, there’s a big difference between a planned “cheat meal” or a planned high carb, “re-feed” day and an unplanned binge on junk food. You best bet if you’re really serious about fat loss is to avoid huge meals completely.
Enjoy the holiday food - but in small amounts! ALWAYS practice portion control - even on holidays.
If you ever do slip, don’t beat yourself up, just get right back on the wagon with your next meal and remember, the past is behind you and today is a new day.
Tom Venuto
At this time of year, most people have gone to a holiday gathering and found themselves with a belly stuffed with far more calories than they would normally ever eat. Some feel little shame for eating a cake or drinking half the bowl of punch, but others find themselves feeling guilty afterwards and can’t help but think, “oops, I shouldn’t have eaten that.” In the last couple of weeks, I’ve read numerous articles about about how to deal with this. One article was focused on “controlling damage” by making diet adjustments AFTER an over-sized meal. But is this approach a good idea?
QUESTION: Tom, I have a question which you might want to use in your next Q and A column. I think this is especially applicable during the Holiday season. My question is: If you accidentally pig out or over-indulge at a meal, (a Holiday party for example), are you better off skipping your next meal to keep your daily caloric intake on target, or should you just go ahead and eat your next planned meal and not worry about being somewhat “over” your planned calories for the day?
Michael
Wisconsin, USA
ANSWER: Hi Michael. Thats a very good question, but I have to admit I did get a little chuckle out of the “accidental” part! Do you ever really “accidentally” eat anything? Maybe we eat “impulsively” at times, but I think we all need to take responsibility for everything we eat and how much we eat. With a little bit of meal planning, you can actually work holiday meals into your program without doing any damage at all - in fact, you should.
If you did overindulge, I usually wouldn’t recommend skipping your next meal to make up for it (Unless you were literally too full to eat again). I also wouldn’t recommend skipping meals or cutting back the next day, either.
Any time you fall off the wagon, I generally recommend returning immediately to your “regularly scheduled meal programming,” because this continues to encourage the strengthening of positive habits such as eating the same foods at the same time on a consistent meal schedule every day.
Habits are everything. It’s not what you do once in a while that matters, it’s what you do every day that really counts.
Then, I recommend immediately looking ahead and making plans for how you are going to handle the situation in the future so it doesn’t happen again.
Holiday meals can very easily be worked into your regular nutrition plan. It’s almost always a better idea to allow yourself a couple of weekly “free meals” (aka “cheat meals”) all year round anyways. Why not just plan ahead to make each holiday gathering one of those meals and then enjoy them guilt-free?
If your goal is fat loss and you’ve been in a caloric deficit, sometimes it’s actually beneficial to eat more occasionally, rather than staying on a strict reduced-calorie diet 100% of the time. Your metabolism has a way of slowing down if you keep your calories too low for too long. With occasional (planned) higher calorie days, you’d be using the BURN THE FAT “zig-zag” or “carb cycling” principle, so eating more in this context can be actually a positive thing.
(Note: You can learn more about this technique in the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program).
Although I do recommend calorie levels based on daily (24 hr) needs, I believe it’s also helpful to also pay attention to 3 hour “windows” when you’re thinking about adjusting your caloric intake.
Calories and macronutrients (protein/aminos, carbs/sugar and fat) are partitioned into glycogen, muscle or fat tissue or metabolized immediately depending very much on present moment energy and recovery needs and on what’s going to happen over the next 3 hours or so as the food enters your system.
If you hit the gym and trained with a full head of steam before your “feast”, you probably have little to worry about. If you ate more AND plan to be plopping down on the couch to watch football games for the rest of the day and night after that big holiday meal, beware - you might just want to cut back on that next meal a little, especially starches and sugars.
I suppose that’s part of the problem. Some people stop working out over the holidays because they figure “What’s the use” and “I’ll start on January 1st.
But others turn up the intensity or volume of their training a bit. In fact, hundreds of people are doing just that right now as part of our Burn The Fat Holiday Fitness Challenge at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle.
Just a couple weeks into it, the majority of the challengers are already down at least several pounds and a percentage point of body fat - and that included over Thanksgiving!
Bottom line: It’s okay to eat small amounts of your favorite junk foods once in a while as planned “free meals,” and it’s a good idea to strategically eat more from time to time to keep your metabolism humming along.
However, there’s a big difference between a planned “cheat meal” or a planned high carb, “re-feed” day and an unplanned binge on junk food. You best bet if you’re really serious about fat loss is to avoid huge meals completely.
Enjoy the holiday food - but in small amounts! ALWAYS practice portion control - even on holidays.
If you ever do slip, don’t beat yourself up, just get right back on the wagon with your next meal and remember, the past is behind you and today is a new day.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
HIGH INTENSITY STRENGTH TRAINING AND AEROBICS
HIGH INTENSITY STRENGTH TRAINING:
MORE AEROBIC THAN "AEROBICS"
by Greg Anderson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most common question asked by our new personal training clients at Ideal Exercise is: "Where are the treadmills and stationary bicycles?". Most have never heard that great benefits to the cardiovascular system, commonly referred to as "aerobic fitness", can be had through a program of high-intensity strength training with no additional steady-state activity. And while I do certainly spend a great deal of my time explaining why such benefits are certainly possible (and more desirable as it is much more efficient to achieve muscular and cardiovascular benefits in a single program) it usually takes a few workouts before the client understands the depth and magnitude of cardiovascular involvement possible from strength training. As one of my trainees remarked recently (after a set of squats to complete failure followed by 20 seconds of effort against the bar in the bottom position): "My God! (gasp, gasp...) this is more aerobic than aerobics..."
Although (as I shall explain) the statement that high-intensity strength training is "more aerobic than aerobics" is not entirely correct, such an observation on the trainee's part does underscore the profound effect of intense muscular contractions on the cardiovascular system. The current mania for "aerobics" in the fitness industry stems from a misunderstanding of two factors: The function of the cardiovascular system, and the identification of skeletal muscle as the window through which optimum loading of the entire metabolic system(s) --including the cardiovascular system--takes place.
Pictured at left, Mike Mentzer Supervising Mr. Olympia's High Intensity/Bodybuilding Training
A great deal of the misunderstanding of the function of the cardiovascular system arises from the use of the word "aerobics" to describe a particular exercise protocol. The term aerobic denotes a metabolic pathway within the body which yields energy through the oxidation of fat and carbohydrate. Literally, aerobic means: "with oxygen". Most of us have been taught that to exercise aerobically is to perform long duration steady-state activities which produce an elevated heart rate. Note that said participation of the heart and lungs is entirely dependent on muscular activity. Such low intensity activity is said to primarily stress the aerobic metabolic pathway and allow the body to use primarily fat as a fuel source. Additionally, "aerobics" is thought to provide an increase in endurance and provide a protective effect against coronary artery disease. While I will certainly agree that there are some marginal benefits to the cardiovascular system from a program of such activity, the reality is simply that these effects could be achieved in a safer and more efficient manner through the use of high-intensity strength training.
Many bodybuilders that I have spoken to believe that the inclusion of some type of "aerobic" activity in their program is necessary to achieve optimum leanness. I point out to them that from a bodybuilding standpoint, the issues at hand are both the amount of fat that you don't have and the amount of muscle that you do. Since it is very easy to overtrain by including too many exercises or too much additional activity, it seems that any slight fat loss achieved through steady state activity could be more than offset by compromising the ability to build (or even maintain) muscle as a result of overtraining. In fact, research on fat loss performed by Ellington Darden Ph.D. (and duplicated by Ideal Exercise) showed best results with the combination of high-intensity strength training with a reduced calorie diet and the total exclusion of steady state activities. As Mike Mentzer has pointed out, the body only has a limited amount of adaptation energy. It is not as if you have 100 units of adaptation energy for building muscle and 100 units available for increasing endurance; you have 100 units, period!
The following is a reprint of an article which we hand out to all of our new clients at Ideal Exercise...
Why not aerobics...?
"Aerobic" activity is not the most effective form of exercise for fat-loss. Steady state activities such as running, cycling, dancing, etc. do not burn a significant number of calories! One pound of fat can fuel the body for up to 10 hours of continuous activity. "Aerobic" activity is simply inefficient for this purpose!
The most important contribution that exercise makes to a fat-loss program is the maintenance of muscle tissue while fat is lost. Strength training is the only reliable method of maintaining muscle tissue. Aerobics can actually cause you to lose muscle tissue!
Some supposed "experts" have suggested that the important effect of aerobics is that of increasing metabolic rate. Our question is this: If "aerobic" activities burn few calories while you are doing them, then how many calories will they burn (calories burned = metabolic rate) when you are not doing them? The answer to that question is: very few...
On the subject of metabolic rate: Every pound of muscle added to the body of an adult female will require an additional 75-100 calories per day just to keep it alive. The average person, through a program of proper strength training can add enough muscle to burn an additional 3500 calories per week (1 lb. of fat = 3500 calories). The amount of strength training required to effect such a change is less than one hour per week.
"Aerobic" activities are dangerous! Running is an extremely high-force activity that is damaging to knees, hips, and back. Aerobic dance is probably worse. And so-called "low impact" classes or activities like stationary cycling are not necessarily low-force. Don't be fooled by the genetic exceptions who protest that they have never been injured-- overuse injuries are cumulative and we are often not aware that we have them until it is too late. In time, the enthusiastic aerobic-dance participant or jogger will probably pay the price for all that "healthy" activity. If that price is a decrease or loss of mobility in one's later years, then "aerobics" have effectively shortened the individual's life-span. Loss of mobility is often the first step toward loss of all biological competence.
Don't I need some form of aerobics to insure good health?
What about my heart?
Remember: The function of the cardiovascular system is to support the muscular system--not the other way around. If the human body is logical (and we assume that it is) then increases in muscular strength (from a proper strength-training program) will correlate to improvements in cardiovascular function.
You will notice that the word "aerobic" has been set off in quotation marks when it refers to an activity performed for exercise. There is a good reason for this emphasis: There is no such thing as aerobic exercise! We have all heard that activities such as jogging and cycling are "aerobic" while those such as weight training and sprinting are "anaerobic". These distinctions are not 100% correct. The words aerobic and anaerobic refer to metabolic pathways which operate continuously at all times and in all activities. You cannot "turn off" either of these pathways by merely increasing or decreasing the intensity of an activity.
A word on intensity: Few of the "experts" who promote aerobics will debate our last statement. What they do say, however, is that gentle low-intensity activities use the aerobic pathway to a greater degree than they use the anaerobic pathway. We agree with this statement completely and feel that it should be taken to its logical conclusion: The most "aerobic" activity that a human being can engage in is sleeping!
Consider this: Dr. Kenneth Cooper (author of Aerobics, The New Aerobics, Aerobics for Women), the US. Air Force Cardiologist who coined the term "aerobics" (meaning a form of exercise) and has promoted their use for over 25 years now admits that he was wrong! According to Dr. Cooper, further research has shown that there is no correlation between aerobic endurance performance and health, longevity, or protection against heart-disease. He will admit, however, that such activities do carry with them a great risk of injury. Further, he admits that gross-overuse activities such as running may be so damaging to the body as to be considered carcinogenic.
Irving Dardik, MD, former vascular surgeon, contends that: "The basic concept of aerobics conditioning is wrong." He also contends that the best way to train the vascular system is to build flexibility into its response by using short bouts of elevation followed by sudden recovery, then demanding activity again.
Elevated heart rate is not an indicator of exercise intensity, exercise effect, or exercise value. It is quite possible to experience an elevated pulse, labored breathing, and profuse sweating without achieving valuable exercise. Intense emotional experiences commonly cause these symptoms without a shred of exercise benefit.
Even if an elevated pulse is necessary for cardiovascular conditioning (we do not doubt that pulse elevation may be necessary, but we do not believe that it should be the emphasis of a conditioning program) remember that some of the highest heart-rates on record were achieved during Nautilus research performed at West Point. The West Point cadets commonly experienced heart rates in excess of 220 beats per minute during Nautilus exercise. These pulse rates were maintained for periods of 20-35 minutes.
What about endurance? Won't my athletic performance suffer if I don't do aerobics?
Endurance for athletics and recreational activities is primarily a result of three factors: skill, muscular strength, and genetics. Heritable factors (genetics) are considered to be non-trainable or, in other words, you cannot do much about them. Increasing one's skill in an activity is a result of practicing that activity. For long-distance runners skills such as stride length and efficiency can be trained through practice (practice on a treadmill doesn't serve this purpose as it is not the same as road-running). Muscular strength is the single most trainable factor in endurance performance. It is the muscles that actually perform work. When strength increases, the relative intensity of any given task decreases.
Athletes often talk about training their "wind". Actually our bodies' ability to use oxygen is not as trainable as once believed. Consider that in a resting state the lungs can saturate with oxygen the blood moving through them during the first one-third of the total transit time. At maximal exertion, saturation speed might slow to one-half of the total transit time. Even with some compromise of pulmonary function (illness, injury, etc.) the lungs can usually perform their job quite adequately. It is the muscle's ability to use the nutrients delivered to it that needs training. This is most efficiently addressed by strength-training.
More on the subject of "wind": Most exercise physiologists refer to the phenomenon of "wind" as maximal oxygen uptake. One Canadian researcher has determined that maximal oxygen uptake is 95.9% genetically determined.
A 1991 study at the University of Maryland showed that strength training produced improvements in cycling endurance performance independent of changes in oxygen consumption.
Covert Bailey, author of Fit or Fat and advocate of "gentle aerobic exercise" now recommends wind sprints to those seeking to become maximally fit. Why wind sprints? Because sprinting is a much more intense muscular activity than jogging. Why not wind sprints? Because as with other running, the risk of injury is just too great! Pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, and damaged knees are too high of a price for a marginal increase in fitness. Strength training greatly increases the intensity of muscular activity (much more so than sprinting) and greatly reduces the risk of injury!
Ideal Exercise possesses signed testimonials from members who have improved their endurance performance for running, skiing, and other activities while following a program of high-intensity strength training and following this policy:
Aerobics... Just Say No!
(Many thanks to Matt Hedman for his invaluable assistance in preparing this material.)
Copyright 1995, 1997 Greg Anderson. All Rights Reserved.
Home Welcome Articles Tips Books Consultation Catalog
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2002 Mentzer-Sharkey Enterprises, Inc. Site by FX Media, Inc.
MORE AEROBIC THAN "AEROBICS"
by Greg Anderson
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most common question asked by our new personal training clients at Ideal Exercise is: "Where are the treadmills and stationary bicycles?". Most have never heard that great benefits to the cardiovascular system, commonly referred to as "aerobic fitness", can be had through a program of high-intensity strength training with no additional steady-state activity. And while I do certainly spend a great deal of my time explaining why such benefits are certainly possible (and more desirable as it is much more efficient to achieve muscular and cardiovascular benefits in a single program) it usually takes a few workouts before the client understands the depth and magnitude of cardiovascular involvement possible from strength training. As one of my trainees remarked recently (after a set of squats to complete failure followed by 20 seconds of effort against the bar in the bottom position): "My God! (gasp, gasp...) this is more aerobic than aerobics..."
Although (as I shall explain) the statement that high-intensity strength training is "more aerobic than aerobics" is not entirely correct, such an observation on the trainee's part does underscore the profound effect of intense muscular contractions on the cardiovascular system. The current mania for "aerobics" in the fitness industry stems from a misunderstanding of two factors: The function of the cardiovascular system, and the identification of skeletal muscle as the window through which optimum loading of the entire metabolic system(s) --including the cardiovascular system--takes place.
Pictured at left, Mike Mentzer Supervising Mr. Olympia's High Intensity/Bodybuilding Training
A great deal of the misunderstanding of the function of the cardiovascular system arises from the use of the word "aerobics" to describe a particular exercise protocol. The term aerobic denotes a metabolic pathway within the body which yields energy through the oxidation of fat and carbohydrate. Literally, aerobic means: "with oxygen". Most of us have been taught that to exercise aerobically is to perform long duration steady-state activities which produce an elevated heart rate. Note that said participation of the heart and lungs is entirely dependent on muscular activity. Such low intensity activity is said to primarily stress the aerobic metabolic pathway and allow the body to use primarily fat as a fuel source. Additionally, "aerobics" is thought to provide an increase in endurance and provide a protective effect against coronary artery disease. While I will certainly agree that there are some marginal benefits to the cardiovascular system from a program of such activity, the reality is simply that these effects could be achieved in a safer and more efficient manner through the use of high-intensity strength training.
Many bodybuilders that I have spoken to believe that the inclusion of some type of "aerobic" activity in their program is necessary to achieve optimum leanness. I point out to them that from a bodybuilding standpoint, the issues at hand are both the amount of fat that you don't have and the amount of muscle that you do. Since it is very easy to overtrain by including too many exercises or too much additional activity, it seems that any slight fat loss achieved through steady state activity could be more than offset by compromising the ability to build (or even maintain) muscle as a result of overtraining. In fact, research on fat loss performed by Ellington Darden Ph.D. (and duplicated by Ideal Exercise) showed best results with the combination of high-intensity strength training with a reduced calorie diet and the total exclusion of steady state activities. As Mike Mentzer has pointed out, the body only has a limited amount of adaptation energy. It is not as if you have 100 units of adaptation energy for building muscle and 100 units available for increasing endurance; you have 100 units, period!
The following is a reprint of an article which we hand out to all of our new clients at Ideal Exercise...
Why not aerobics...?
"Aerobic" activity is not the most effective form of exercise for fat-loss. Steady state activities such as running, cycling, dancing, etc. do not burn a significant number of calories! One pound of fat can fuel the body for up to 10 hours of continuous activity. "Aerobic" activity is simply inefficient for this purpose!
The most important contribution that exercise makes to a fat-loss program is the maintenance of muscle tissue while fat is lost. Strength training is the only reliable method of maintaining muscle tissue. Aerobics can actually cause you to lose muscle tissue!
Some supposed "experts" have suggested that the important effect of aerobics is that of increasing metabolic rate. Our question is this: If "aerobic" activities burn few calories while you are doing them, then how many calories will they burn (calories burned = metabolic rate) when you are not doing them? The answer to that question is: very few...
On the subject of metabolic rate: Every pound of muscle added to the body of an adult female will require an additional 75-100 calories per day just to keep it alive. The average person, through a program of proper strength training can add enough muscle to burn an additional 3500 calories per week (1 lb. of fat = 3500 calories). The amount of strength training required to effect such a change is less than one hour per week.
"Aerobic" activities are dangerous! Running is an extremely high-force activity that is damaging to knees, hips, and back. Aerobic dance is probably worse. And so-called "low impact" classes or activities like stationary cycling are not necessarily low-force. Don't be fooled by the genetic exceptions who protest that they have never been injured-- overuse injuries are cumulative and we are often not aware that we have them until it is too late. In time, the enthusiastic aerobic-dance participant or jogger will probably pay the price for all that "healthy" activity. If that price is a decrease or loss of mobility in one's later years, then "aerobics" have effectively shortened the individual's life-span. Loss of mobility is often the first step toward loss of all biological competence.
Don't I need some form of aerobics to insure good health?
What about my heart?
Remember: The function of the cardiovascular system is to support the muscular system--not the other way around. If the human body is logical (and we assume that it is) then increases in muscular strength (from a proper strength-training program) will correlate to improvements in cardiovascular function.
You will notice that the word "aerobic" has been set off in quotation marks when it refers to an activity performed for exercise. There is a good reason for this emphasis: There is no such thing as aerobic exercise! We have all heard that activities such as jogging and cycling are "aerobic" while those such as weight training and sprinting are "anaerobic". These distinctions are not 100% correct. The words aerobic and anaerobic refer to metabolic pathways which operate continuously at all times and in all activities. You cannot "turn off" either of these pathways by merely increasing or decreasing the intensity of an activity.
A word on intensity: Few of the "experts" who promote aerobics will debate our last statement. What they do say, however, is that gentle low-intensity activities use the aerobic pathway to a greater degree than they use the anaerobic pathway. We agree with this statement completely and feel that it should be taken to its logical conclusion: The most "aerobic" activity that a human being can engage in is sleeping!
Consider this: Dr. Kenneth Cooper (author of Aerobics, The New Aerobics, Aerobics for Women), the US. Air Force Cardiologist who coined the term "aerobics" (meaning a form of exercise) and has promoted their use for over 25 years now admits that he was wrong! According to Dr. Cooper, further research has shown that there is no correlation between aerobic endurance performance and health, longevity, or protection against heart-disease. He will admit, however, that such activities do carry with them a great risk of injury. Further, he admits that gross-overuse activities such as running may be so damaging to the body as to be considered carcinogenic.
Irving Dardik, MD, former vascular surgeon, contends that: "The basic concept of aerobics conditioning is wrong." He also contends that the best way to train the vascular system is to build flexibility into its response by using short bouts of elevation followed by sudden recovery, then demanding activity again.
Elevated heart rate is not an indicator of exercise intensity, exercise effect, or exercise value. It is quite possible to experience an elevated pulse, labored breathing, and profuse sweating without achieving valuable exercise. Intense emotional experiences commonly cause these symptoms without a shred of exercise benefit.
Even if an elevated pulse is necessary for cardiovascular conditioning (we do not doubt that pulse elevation may be necessary, but we do not believe that it should be the emphasis of a conditioning program) remember that some of the highest heart-rates on record were achieved during Nautilus research performed at West Point. The West Point cadets commonly experienced heart rates in excess of 220 beats per minute during Nautilus exercise. These pulse rates were maintained for periods of 20-35 minutes.
What about endurance? Won't my athletic performance suffer if I don't do aerobics?
Endurance for athletics and recreational activities is primarily a result of three factors: skill, muscular strength, and genetics. Heritable factors (genetics) are considered to be non-trainable or, in other words, you cannot do much about them. Increasing one's skill in an activity is a result of practicing that activity. For long-distance runners skills such as stride length and efficiency can be trained through practice (practice on a treadmill doesn't serve this purpose as it is not the same as road-running). Muscular strength is the single most trainable factor in endurance performance. It is the muscles that actually perform work. When strength increases, the relative intensity of any given task decreases.
Athletes often talk about training their "wind". Actually our bodies' ability to use oxygen is not as trainable as once believed. Consider that in a resting state the lungs can saturate with oxygen the blood moving through them during the first one-third of the total transit time. At maximal exertion, saturation speed might slow to one-half of the total transit time. Even with some compromise of pulmonary function (illness, injury, etc.) the lungs can usually perform their job quite adequately. It is the muscle's ability to use the nutrients delivered to it that needs training. This is most efficiently addressed by strength-training.
More on the subject of "wind": Most exercise physiologists refer to the phenomenon of "wind" as maximal oxygen uptake. One Canadian researcher has determined that maximal oxygen uptake is 95.9% genetically determined.
A 1991 study at the University of Maryland showed that strength training produced improvements in cycling endurance performance independent of changes in oxygen consumption.
Covert Bailey, author of Fit or Fat and advocate of "gentle aerobic exercise" now recommends wind sprints to those seeking to become maximally fit. Why wind sprints? Because sprinting is a much more intense muscular activity than jogging. Why not wind sprints? Because as with other running, the risk of injury is just too great! Pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, and damaged knees are too high of a price for a marginal increase in fitness. Strength training greatly increases the intensity of muscular activity (much more so than sprinting) and greatly reduces the risk of injury!
Ideal Exercise possesses signed testimonials from members who have improved their endurance performance for running, skiing, and other activities while following a program of high-intensity strength training and following this policy:
Aerobics... Just Say No!
(Many thanks to Matt Hedman for his invaluable assistance in preparing this material.)
Copyright 1995, 1997 Greg Anderson. All Rights Reserved.
Home Welcome Articles Tips Books Consultation Catalog
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2002 Mentzer-Sharkey Enterprises, Inc. Site by FX Media, Inc.
SOME GOOD CARBOHYDRATE INFORMATION
Refined Sugar + Refined Carb’s = Excess Body Fat and Disease
November 18th, 2009
Ever since humans switched from nomads and their hunter-gatherings roles, to that of an agrarian-based society, western cultures have looked to the carbohydrate as a primary food staple. For example, an average person in America cannot envision a day without pastries, potatoes, corn, bread, cereal or rice. The media has made us well aware that the excessive intake of carbohydrates has a detrimental effect on our waistlines, but how much do we know about the effect they have on our health? What adds to the sad situation is these carbohydrates are consumed in a highly processed form. What do we get from eating processed starches? Well 65% of Americans are overweight and 30% of them are clinically obese.
These refined carbohydrates in our diets are causing numerous diseases like diabetes in epidemic proportions. The symptoms are very simple, if you experience fatigue, sleepiness, fogged thought process, bloating of the abdominal area, high triglyceride levels, high blood pressure levels or low sugar level (hypoglycemia), this is a sign you are consuming excessive refined carbohydrates. Now, I do not want to rag on complex carbohydrates such as vegetables. You can never go wrong with eating raw and cooked vegetables, good lean protein and you will balance blood sugar and lose body fat every time, but the more refined food we eat, the worse off we are.
Insulin and Sugar
Keep in mind that unlike, say fat, the human body does not need refined carbohydrates in any amount. The human body stores only a limited quantity of carbohydrates for brain function, muscles and other uses. The excess carbohydrates are converted into (triglycerides) or fat (by the use of insulin) and stored in adipose (fat) tissue. When a person consumes high level of carbohydrates, the body has no choice and reacts by secreting increased amounts of insulin into the blood stream to lower glucose (sugar) levels. The end results are a blood stream full of toxins and the body survives by placing excess amounts converting it to fat. Effects of excessive sugar on human body
Sugar consumed in high levels can lead to many complications in the human body. One is to suppress the natural immune system. This often leads to a variety of digestive disorders and promotes allergies. Some chronic illnesses like thyroid issues and diabetes have their roots in excessive carbohydrate consumption, so start thinking about it now. Excessive levels of carbohydrates coupled with over-secretion of insulin causes heart disease and a load of other health disorders. Once a period of low/high blood glucose or sugar sets in, it can cause massive damage to most organs in the human body. In such circumstances, any treatment procedures would be impeded and most dietary and medical restrictions would apply. Moreover, once a condition of imbalanced sugar sets at a high level, you can develop diabetes and it is not possible to survive without regular doses of insulin from external sources.
Body building and insulin
Excessive secretion of insulin is also detrimental in another way since it suppresses the levels of growth hormones and glucagon’s. These two important hormones are important in burning fat and sugar and they promote muscle building. So insulin not only promotes fat accumulation but also impedes the body’s ability to lose fat by burning.
To gain better muscle mass, many people resort to ingesting more proteins. Although this is good, it is important that complex carbohydrates form at least 40% of a body builder’s diet. Ingesting some simple carbohydrates are okay as a recovery meal after a workout, but I’m talking about a banana, not ten chocolate chip cookies.
Regulating carbohydrate intake
With the above reasons it is easy to infer that we need to regulate our intake of refined carbohydrates to practice better body growth, to keep us free of diseases and promote better psychological health. It will help us avoid a foggy memory and depression. Although the role of carbohydrates is very important in our diet due to their energy generation capabilities, regulating and knowing how much to consume is a very important factor. Lower levels of refined carbohydrates can also prove to be dangerous since in such cases the blood glucose levels would fall and the body will start resorting to proteins in order to fill the gap. This will result in a decrease of muscle mass. Research says that about 45% of our body’s energy requirements should come from complex carbohydrates. This will ensure proper functionality of insulin and keeps the body away from disease.
Sugar and weight loss
Since the condition of sugar imbalance needs a special diet, practicing weight loss under such conditions could be very difficult. Since excessive insulin and low blood sugar impedes production of glucagons, the body’s ability to burn fat is substantially reduced. In this scenario, weight loss would be almost impossible unless the sugar balance is restored.
So, be careful about how many carbohydrates (especially refined) you consume despite the mouth-watering French fries or pizzas that have become a staple of the diet in today’s society.
November 18th, 2009
Ever since humans switched from nomads and their hunter-gatherings roles, to that of an agrarian-based society, western cultures have looked to the carbohydrate as a primary food staple. For example, an average person in America cannot envision a day without pastries, potatoes, corn, bread, cereal or rice. The media has made us well aware that the excessive intake of carbohydrates has a detrimental effect on our waistlines, but how much do we know about the effect they have on our health? What adds to the sad situation is these carbohydrates are consumed in a highly processed form. What do we get from eating processed starches? Well 65% of Americans are overweight and 30% of them are clinically obese.
These refined carbohydrates in our diets are causing numerous diseases like diabetes in epidemic proportions. The symptoms are very simple, if you experience fatigue, sleepiness, fogged thought process, bloating of the abdominal area, high triglyceride levels, high blood pressure levels or low sugar level (hypoglycemia), this is a sign you are consuming excessive refined carbohydrates. Now, I do not want to rag on complex carbohydrates such as vegetables. You can never go wrong with eating raw and cooked vegetables, good lean protein and you will balance blood sugar and lose body fat every time, but the more refined food we eat, the worse off we are.
Insulin and Sugar
Keep in mind that unlike, say fat, the human body does not need refined carbohydrates in any amount. The human body stores only a limited quantity of carbohydrates for brain function, muscles and other uses. The excess carbohydrates are converted into (triglycerides) or fat (by the use of insulin) and stored in adipose (fat) tissue. When a person consumes high level of carbohydrates, the body has no choice and reacts by secreting increased amounts of insulin into the blood stream to lower glucose (sugar) levels. The end results are a blood stream full of toxins and the body survives by placing excess amounts converting it to fat. Effects of excessive sugar on human body
Sugar consumed in high levels can lead to many complications in the human body. One is to suppress the natural immune system. This often leads to a variety of digestive disorders and promotes allergies. Some chronic illnesses like thyroid issues and diabetes have their roots in excessive carbohydrate consumption, so start thinking about it now. Excessive levels of carbohydrates coupled with over-secretion of insulin causes heart disease and a load of other health disorders. Once a period of low/high blood glucose or sugar sets in, it can cause massive damage to most organs in the human body. In such circumstances, any treatment procedures would be impeded and most dietary and medical restrictions would apply. Moreover, once a condition of imbalanced sugar sets at a high level, you can develop diabetes and it is not possible to survive without regular doses of insulin from external sources.
Body building and insulin
Excessive secretion of insulin is also detrimental in another way since it suppresses the levels of growth hormones and glucagon’s. These two important hormones are important in burning fat and sugar and they promote muscle building. So insulin not only promotes fat accumulation but also impedes the body’s ability to lose fat by burning.
To gain better muscle mass, many people resort to ingesting more proteins. Although this is good, it is important that complex carbohydrates form at least 40% of a body builder’s diet. Ingesting some simple carbohydrates are okay as a recovery meal after a workout, but I’m talking about a banana, not ten chocolate chip cookies.
Regulating carbohydrate intake
With the above reasons it is easy to infer that we need to regulate our intake of refined carbohydrates to practice better body growth, to keep us free of diseases and promote better psychological health. It will help us avoid a foggy memory and depression. Although the role of carbohydrates is very important in our diet due to their energy generation capabilities, regulating and knowing how much to consume is a very important factor. Lower levels of refined carbohydrates can also prove to be dangerous since in such cases the blood glucose levels would fall and the body will start resorting to proteins in order to fill the gap. This will result in a decrease of muscle mass. Research says that about 45% of our body’s energy requirements should come from complex carbohydrates. This will ensure proper functionality of insulin and keeps the body away from disease.
Sugar and weight loss
Since the condition of sugar imbalance needs a special diet, practicing weight loss under such conditions could be very difficult. Since excessive insulin and low blood sugar impedes production of glucagons, the body’s ability to burn fat is substantially reduced. In this scenario, weight loss would be almost impossible unless the sugar balance is restored.
So, be careful about how many carbohydrates (especially refined) you consume despite the mouth-watering French fries or pizzas that have become a staple of the diet in today’s society.
WEDNESDAY DEC. 9
We are continuing our P90x workouts for the week. Tuesday we did Kenpo.
Today we tried arms and shoulders, not a lot of sweating today but I think we will feel it in the morning.
P.S. Coldest day in the gym so far, somewhere below freezing, not near as bad as outside at 5 degrees. That probably explains the lack of sweating.
Today we tried arms and shoulders, not a lot of sweating today but I think we will feel it in the morning.
P.S. Coldest day in the gym so far, somewhere below freezing, not near as bad as outside at 5 degrees. That probably explains the lack of sweating.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
TOP 5 IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE LIST
(Here's an intersting thought from a blog I read today),
5. Put Your Body In Your Top 5 Important Things In Life List
Look, let me be blunt:
If you are not in shape, you probably do not have your body or
your health in your Top 5 list.
Maybe you think it's wrong to do this. Well, it's not. Without
your body and health at its best, you will limit EVERYTHING
you want to do.
I had a minister tell me once that his workouts were one of
the most important thing in his life. Why? Because they
allowed him to have the energy to carry out his higher
calling... and he lived 20 years longer than most people
thanks in part to his workouts. That meant 20 more years of
his higher calling.
Make sense?
So if your number one thing in life is, say, your children,
think of your workouts as something that will add YEARS to
your ability to be an active parent. Also, you'll be more fit
and energetic, so you can play longer with them. And kids
respect fit parents... in fact I have so many kids tell me how
proud they are of their "really fit" moms and dads.
5. Put Your Body In Your Top 5 Important Things In Life List
Look, let me be blunt:
If you are not in shape, you probably do not have your body or
your health in your Top 5 list.
Maybe you think it's wrong to do this. Well, it's not. Without
your body and health at its best, you will limit EVERYTHING
you want to do.
I had a minister tell me once that his workouts were one of
the most important thing in his life. Why? Because they
allowed him to have the energy to carry out his higher
calling... and he lived 20 years longer than most people
thanks in part to his workouts. That meant 20 more years of
his higher calling.
Make sense?
So if your number one thing in life is, say, your children,
think of your workouts as something that will add YEARS to
your ability to be an active parent. Also, you'll be more fit
and energetic, so you can play longer with them. And kids
respect fit parents... in fact I have so many kids tell me how
proud they are of their "really fit" moms and dads.
POSTING INSTRUCTIONS
If anyone would like to post on this blog you may do so by signing in as:
josh@cartersbodyshop.com
password: bootcamp
Feel free to add anything you may find relevant.
josh@cartersbodyshop.com
password: bootcamp
Feel free to add anything you may find relevant.
Friday, December 4, 2009
HOW TO BRUSH YOUR TEETH FOR FAT LOSS!
I know it sounds gimmicky but here's how you do it:
1. Start brushing your teeth
2. Put a heavy backpack on
3. Sprint up a 30 yard hill
4. Walk back down
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for 30 minutes
6. Spit and rinse.
Actually, we were just talking about avoiding the post-dinner munching by simply brushing your teeth immediately after dinner, it really works, try it.
Friday's workout:
Dumbbell hanging clean and presses
Single arm db rows (supported on bench)
chair dips
pushups to side plank
db flys from floor, slow lowering
db swings
more chair dips
bent over rows(db)
curl to overhead press (db)
pushups to side plank to knee pushups to plank
wide db flys to presses to narrow presses
leg thrusts to ceiling
reverse crunches
plank to failure
Most of these were done to the point of form breakdown with very little rest between exercises.
1. Start brushing your teeth
2. Put a heavy backpack on
3. Sprint up a 30 yard hill
4. Walk back down
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for 30 minutes
6. Spit and rinse.
Actually, we were just talking about avoiding the post-dinner munching by simply brushing your teeth immediately after dinner, it really works, try it.
Friday's workout:
Dumbbell hanging clean and presses
Single arm db rows (supported on bench)
chair dips
pushups to side plank
db flys from floor, slow lowering
db swings
more chair dips
bent over rows(db)
curl to overhead press (db)
pushups to side plank to knee pushups to plank
wide db flys to presses to narrow presses
leg thrusts to ceiling
reverse crunches
plank to failure
Most of these were done to the point of form breakdown with very little rest between exercises.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
MORE STUDIES WHY WHAT WE DO IS THE BEST
Study #1: Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on
excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: implications for
body mass management.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7. Epub 2002
Jan 29.
In this study a 30-minute circuit style metabolic resistance
training session was put to the test. The result was a 38 hour
increase in metabolism - massive AFTERBURN.
Let’s put this in perspective: Say that you worked out at 8AM
on Friday. By way of metabolic resistance training, you’d still
be burning calories from that workout while out at the movies on
Saturday night.
You want to burn calories by watching New Moon? Now you can.
Study #2: Influence of exercise training on physiological
and performance changes with weight loss in men.
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, pp. 1320-1329, 1999.
This study showed that those who added metabolic resistance
training to a reduced calorie diet burned up to 44% more fat than
those who dieted alone.
Don’t get me wrong, diet is the NUMBER ONE component of the
fat loss puzzle, but once you’ve got that down, metabolic
resistance training can really take your results to a whole new
level.
Study #3: Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined
with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting
metabolic rate.
J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21.
This study compared “slow-go” aerobic exercise to metabolic
resistance training and found that the resistance group lost
significantly more fat without losing ANY lean muscle even at an
extremely low calorie intake (not so for the aerobic group).
In fact, believe it or not, while the aerobic group experienced
a decrease in metabolism (and lost muscle), the resistance
training group actually increased overall metabolic rate.
excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: implications for
body mass management.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7. Epub 2002
Jan 29.
In this study a 30-minute circuit style metabolic resistance
training session was put to the test. The result was a 38 hour
increase in metabolism - massive AFTERBURN.
Let’s put this in perspective: Say that you worked out at 8AM
on Friday. By way of metabolic resistance training, you’d still
be burning calories from that workout while out at the movies on
Saturday night.
You want to burn calories by watching New Moon? Now you can.
Study #2: Influence of exercise training on physiological
and performance changes with weight loss in men.
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, pp. 1320-1329, 1999.
This study showed that those who added metabolic resistance
training to a reduced calorie diet burned up to 44% more fat than
those who dieted alone.
Don’t get me wrong, diet is the NUMBER ONE component of the
fat loss puzzle, but once you’ve got that down, metabolic
resistance training can really take your results to a whole new
level.
Study #3: Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined
with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting
metabolic rate.
J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21.
This study compared “slow-go” aerobic exercise to metabolic
resistance training and found that the resistance group lost
significantly more fat without losing ANY lean muscle even at an
extremely low calorie intake (not so for the aerobic group).
In fact, believe it or not, while the aerobic group experienced
a decrease in metabolism (and lost muscle), the resistance
training group actually increased overall metabolic rate.
Thursday Dec 3
LEGS!
Body weight squats
stiff-legged(SL) deadlifts
lunges
squat walks
dumbell squats
bulgarian split squats on chair
weighted SL deadlifts
weighted overhead squats
wall sits
more split squats on chair
single leg deadlifts
single leg wall sits
pistol squats(partner assisted for balance)
hill sprints (4)
TEMP 17 degrees!!
Body weight squats
stiff-legged(SL) deadlifts
lunges
squat walks
dumbell squats
bulgarian split squats on chair
weighted SL deadlifts
weighted overhead squats
wall sits
more split squats on chair
single leg deadlifts
single leg wall sits
pistol squats(partner assisted for balance)
hill sprints (4)
TEMP 17 degrees!!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Strenuous Exercise may help slow aging process
Strenuous exercise may help slow aging process, study says
By John Fauber of the Journal Sentinel
For years, a mantra of medicine has been that you can't do much about your genetic makeup.
A new study has found, however, that strenuous, long-term exercise may have anti-aging properties by virtue of its effect on chromosomes.
"People automatically assume there's not anything you can do about your genetics," said Patrick McBride, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "We can exercise our chromosomes."
McBride, who was not a part of the study, said the new research helps explain on a cellular level many of the known benefits of exercise.
"Regular exercise is an anti-aging activity," he said.
While the study did not show that exercise can change genes, it suggests that exercise may have beneficial properties at a chromosomal level, specifically on telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that are believed to have an impact on aging.
"I think this is a blockbuster study," said Barry Franklin, a physiologist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.
Telomeres are like the biological clocks of cells, said Franklin, who was not a part of the study.
He said the study may help explain why exercise reduces the risk of so many diseases.
In recent years, telomeres, the DNA structures found on the ends of chromosomes, have been the source of an increasing number of studies. The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine was awarded to scientists who discovered how telomeres protect chromosomes.
Telomeres have been compared with caps on the ends of shoelaces, protecting against genetic unraveling, which, in turn, can lead to diseases.
When telomeres become too short after repeated cell divisions, cells die.
As people get older, telomeres get shorter, and some research has linked shortened telomeres to higher rates of death from heart disease and infections. Shortened telomeres also have been associated with cognitive problems and certain cancers, although the relationship with cancer is not fully understood.
The new study, which was published online Monday in the journal Circulation, looks at circulating white blood cells in middle-age lifelong runners, healthy middle-age people who did not exercise and younger distance runners.
The study, which involved about 100 people, is one of the first to show a correlation between vigorous, lifelong exercise and the length of telomeres.
Ulrich Laufs, the study's co-author, who is a researcher at Saarland University in Germany, said one of the key findings was that lifelong exercise was associated with a significant prevention of telomere shortening.
Laufs said the study was not designed to answer the question of how much a person needs to run or exercise to live longer.
But exercise does appear to be a powerful intervention that can help regulate substances that stabilize telomeres.
The people in the study got a lot of exercise. The middle-age subjects, whose average age was 51, had a history of running since they were young, averaging about 50 miles a week.
They were compared with a group of healthy, non-exercisers of about the same age.
The middle-age athletes had less loss of telomere length than the non-exercisers. They also had substantially higher amounts of proteins that help preserve telomeres.
The study follows research from last year that also suggested a benefit from exercise on telomeres.
That study involved 2,401 volunteers who were twins. It found an association between telomere length and leisure time exercise. It concluded that a sedentary lifestyle may accelerate the aging process as the result of telomere shortening.
The most active individuals in twin pairs had longer telomeres.
Other research has shown an association between smoking and obesity and shorter telomeres
By John Fauber of the Journal Sentinel
For years, a mantra of medicine has been that you can't do much about your genetic makeup.
A new study has found, however, that strenuous, long-term exercise may have anti-aging properties by virtue of its effect on chromosomes.
"People automatically assume there's not anything you can do about your genetics," said Patrick McBride, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "We can exercise our chromosomes."
McBride, who was not a part of the study, said the new research helps explain on a cellular level many of the known benefits of exercise.
"Regular exercise is an anti-aging activity," he said.
While the study did not show that exercise can change genes, it suggests that exercise may have beneficial properties at a chromosomal level, specifically on telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that are believed to have an impact on aging.
"I think this is a blockbuster study," said Barry Franklin, a physiologist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.
Telomeres are like the biological clocks of cells, said Franklin, who was not a part of the study.
He said the study may help explain why exercise reduces the risk of so many diseases.
In recent years, telomeres, the DNA structures found on the ends of chromosomes, have been the source of an increasing number of studies. The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine was awarded to scientists who discovered how telomeres protect chromosomes.
Telomeres have been compared with caps on the ends of shoelaces, protecting against genetic unraveling, which, in turn, can lead to diseases.
When telomeres become too short after repeated cell divisions, cells die.
As people get older, telomeres get shorter, and some research has linked shortened telomeres to higher rates of death from heart disease and infections. Shortened telomeres also have been associated with cognitive problems and certain cancers, although the relationship with cancer is not fully understood.
The new study, which was published online Monday in the journal Circulation, looks at circulating white blood cells in middle-age lifelong runners, healthy middle-age people who did not exercise and younger distance runners.
The study, which involved about 100 people, is one of the first to show a correlation between vigorous, lifelong exercise and the length of telomeres.
Ulrich Laufs, the study's co-author, who is a researcher at Saarland University in Germany, said one of the key findings was that lifelong exercise was associated with a significant prevention of telomere shortening.
Laufs said the study was not designed to answer the question of how much a person needs to run or exercise to live longer.
But exercise does appear to be a powerful intervention that can help regulate substances that stabilize telomeres.
The people in the study got a lot of exercise. The middle-age subjects, whose average age was 51, had a history of running since they were young, averaging about 50 miles a week.
They were compared with a group of healthy, non-exercisers of about the same age.
The middle-age athletes had less loss of telomere length than the non-exercisers. They also had substantially higher amounts of proteins that help preserve telomeres.
The study follows research from last year that also suggested a benefit from exercise on telomeres.
That study involved 2,401 volunteers who were twins. It found an association between telomere length and leisure time exercise. It concluded that a sedentary lifestyle may accelerate the aging process as the result of telomere shortening.
The most active individuals in twin pairs had longer telomeres.
Other research has shown an association between smoking and obesity and shorter telomeres
Wed. Dec 2
Rope workout:
Warm-up: untangling the rope!
Standing hand over hand pulls
running rope out
overhead pulls
running rope out backwards
foreward pushing rope in, switch arms half-way
running rope out
giant 2-man jumprope swings
Max reps single set pullups, pushups, dips.
EVERYONE SET A NEW PERSONAL BEST ON ALL THREE!!!
Warm-up: untangling the rope!
Standing hand over hand pulls
running rope out
overhead pulls
running rope out backwards
foreward pushing rope in, switch arms half-way
running rope out
giant 2-man jumprope swings
Max reps single set pullups, pushups, dips.
EVERYONE SET A NEW PERSONAL BEST ON ALL THREE!!!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
LOW CARB DINNER
Paulette made a good low carb soup yesterday.
It was simply sliced carrots, and onions, sauteed in a large pan
she added shreeded turkey from thanksgiving and some water, salt, pepper
whatever else you like. Basically a chicken-noodle soup without the noodles. We ate it with sourdough bread(not low carb) I think it would also be great with homemade wheat noodles, the really thick ones. The boys didn't complain too much, Kolby even ate three bowls! enough said.
It was simply sliced carrots, and onions, sauteed in a large pan
she added shreeded turkey from thanksgiving and some water, salt, pepper
whatever else you like. Basically a chicken-noodle soup without the noodles. We ate it with sourdough bread(not low carb) I think it would also be great with homemade wheat noodles, the really thick ones. The boys didn't complain too much, Kolby even ate three bowls! enough said.
POST-WORKOUT NUTRITION
Discussion: post workout nutrition
Aim for 2 to 1 ratio on carb to protein, simple sugars are fine, this is the best time of the day to go higher carbs as your body is starving. Shakes are great, I like real fruit to sweeten up protein shakes because it's real food, not lab food.
POINT OF EMPHASIS!
We are not dieting! We are teaching our brains to eat healthy food, we know our bodies respond well to healthy food, but our brains have been programed to crave garbage. Don't tell yourself you can't eat certain foods, if you know it's bad for you, fill up on what's good for you, and eat less of the bad, but don't deprive yourself of it all together, especially if you really enjoy it, eating is an important part to the enjoyment of life!
Lower body circuit
Squats w single dumbell
lunges w single dumbell
stifflegged deadlifts with 10ld db
squat walking
back bridge on shoulders 2 and single leg to failure
2nd circuit 30 sec on 10 sec off 2 rounds
jumprope
sprint in place
rope whipping
rest
Aim for 2 to 1 ratio on carb to protein, simple sugars are fine, this is the best time of the day to go higher carbs as your body is starving. Shakes are great, I like real fruit to sweeten up protein shakes because it's real food, not lab food.
POINT OF EMPHASIS!
We are not dieting! We are teaching our brains to eat healthy food, we know our bodies respond well to healthy food, but our brains have been programed to crave garbage. Don't tell yourself you can't eat certain foods, if you know it's bad for you, fill up on what's good for you, and eat less of the bad, but don't deprive yourself of it all together, especially if you really enjoy it, eating is an important part to the enjoyment of life!
Lower body circuit
Squats w single dumbell
lunges w single dumbell
stifflegged deadlifts with 10ld db
squat walking
back bridge on shoulders 2 and single leg to failure
2nd circuit 30 sec on 10 sec off 2 rounds
jumprope
sprint in place
rope whipping
rest
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday Nov. 30
Upper Body
Superset 1: 3 sets to failure
pull ups(assisted)
dips(assisted)
Superset 2: 3 sets to failure
Bent over rows (dumbbells)
push ups
Hill sprints 4 sets
1 jog
2 sprint
3 backwards
4 skipping
Stretching upper body
Superset 1: 3 sets to failure
pull ups(assisted)
dips(assisted)
Superset 2: 3 sets to failure
Bent over rows (dumbbells)
push ups
Hill sprints 4 sets
1 jog
2 sprint
3 backwards
4 skipping
Stretching upper body
Sunday, November 29, 2009
PANCAKES
Here is a quick and easy pancake recipe that will minimize your blood sugar rise and insulin spikes. It allows you to still enjoy pancakes without the guilt of all those calories being stored as fat.
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 scoop protein powder
3 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 c. skim milk
3 egg whites
1/4 c. oil
2 tbsp. wheat germ
2 tbsp. cornmeal
4 tbsp. bran
Heat skillet or griddle to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet. Turn pancakes when edges look cooked and bubbles begin break on surface.
I cooked these this morning using flax seed meal instead of the wheat germ, and I left out the bran, didn't have any. I used one full egg and two whites, but I wouldn't hesitate to use all three yolks.
The boys ate them and didn't say anything about tasting different, so I would say they pass the test. Give them a try and let me know what you think.
Josh.
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 scoop protein powder
3 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 c. skim milk
3 egg whites
1/4 c. oil
2 tbsp. wheat germ
2 tbsp. cornmeal
4 tbsp. bran
Heat skillet or griddle to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet. Turn pancakes when edges look cooked and bubbles begin break on surface.
I cooked these this morning using flax seed meal instead of the wheat germ, and I left out the bran, didn't have any. I used one full egg and two whites, but I wouldn't hesitate to use all three yolks.
The boys ate them and didn't say anything about tasting different, so I would say they pass the test. Give them a try and let me know what you think.
Josh.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Body weight Intro workout by Sydney Carter
November 24, 2009
Warm up:
· Standing high knees—30 sec
· Standing butt kicks--- 30 sec
· Jumping high knees--- 30 sec
· Jumping butt kicks---30 sec
n Repeat until sweating
Legs
Lunges forward--- 15reps
Lunges backward--- 15 reps
Alternate R/L forward and backward--- 30 total reps
Plyo- Split squat jumps ---30 sec
Glutes
Wide leg squats--- 15 reps
Alternating side lunges--- 15 total reps
Wide squat shuffles--- 6 sets of 3 forward/ 3backward =18 total
Plyo- Squat jumps---15 reps/30 sec
Calves
Z hops--- 40 reps right/40 reps left
Water Break
Arms/Core
Push-ups feet--- burn out
Push-ups knees--- burn out
Dips (chair or ground)--- 10-15 reps
Mountain climbers (non-jumping/cross body)--- 30 total reps
Side plank--- 30 sec right and left
Jumping mountain climbers--- 30 sec
Prone plank--- 3 sets/ 30 sec
Supine leg raises (assisted push)--- burn out
Bonus: Killer crunches
Cool down: Stretches--- by request
November 24, 2009
Warm up:
· Standing high knees—30 sec
· Standing butt kicks--- 30 sec
· Jumping high knees--- 30 sec
· Jumping butt kicks---30 sec
n Repeat until sweating
Legs
Lunges forward--- 15reps
Lunges backward--- 15 reps
Alternate R/L forward and backward--- 30 total reps
Plyo- Split squat jumps ---30 sec
Glutes
Wide leg squats--- 15 reps
Alternating side lunges--- 15 total reps
Wide squat shuffles--- 6 sets of 3 forward/ 3backward =18 total
Plyo- Squat jumps---15 reps/30 sec
Calves
Z hops--- 40 reps right/40 reps left
Water Break
Arms/Core
Push-ups feet--- burn out
Push-ups knees--- burn out
Dips (chair or ground)--- 10-15 reps
Mountain climbers (non-jumping/cross body)--- 30 total reps
Side plank--- 30 sec right and left
Jumping mountain climbers--- 30 sec
Prone plank--- 3 sets/ 30 sec
Supine leg raises (assisted push)--- burn out
Bonus: Killer crunches
Cool down: Stretches--- by request
Wednesday: Sydney's workout
Thanksgiving: upper body
Circut 1X3
pullup's, assisted
renegade row's w/10lb db's
db shoulder press 10's
30/s on 30/s off
Circut 2X3 times
Rope waves
rowing machine
jumprope
Cool down
Eat Food!
Friday 27th Nov.
Lower body
Circut 1X3
Body weight squats
Body weight deadlifts
Z-jumps 2 leg, 1 leg on set 3
10lb dumbell on sets 2&3
Hill sprints 4X30sec
Circut 2X3
Reverse lunges, single hand dumbell 10lbs
Stiff-legged deadlifts w/10lb db
Overhead squats, 10lbs overhead
Thanksgiving: upper body
Circut 1X3
pullup's, assisted
renegade row's w/10lb db's
db shoulder press 10's
30/s on 30/s off
Circut 2X3 times
Rope waves
rowing machine
jumprope
Cool down
Eat Food!
Friday 27th Nov.
Lower body
Circut 1X3
Body weight squats
Body weight deadlifts
Z-jumps 2 leg, 1 leg on set 3
10lb dumbell on sets 2&3
Hill sprints 4X30sec
Circut 2X3
Reverse lunges, single hand dumbell 10lbs
Stiff-legged deadlifts w/10lb db
Overhead squats, 10lbs overhead
The first one!
CARTER’S BOOT CAMP
November 22, 2009
Warm-up
Jogging in place
Jumping jacks
Intervals:
40 yard sprints X 4
Burpees
Lunges
Jumping Jacks
Burpees with jump
High knee running in place
Squats with arms extended
November 24, 2009
Warm-up
Jogging in place
Arm swings
40 yard jog
Intervals
Hill sprints X 2
Pull-ups
Jump rope
Baseball transfer
Mountain climbers
Rowing machine
Dips
Step-ups
November 22, 2009
Warm-up
Jogging in place
Jumping jacks
Intervals:
40 yard sprints X 4
Burpees
Lunges
Jumping Jacks
Burpees with jump
High knee running in place
Squats with arms extended
November 24, 2009
Warm-up
Jogging in place
Arm swings
40 yard jog
Intervals
Hill sprints X 2
Pull-ups
Jump rope
Baseball transfer
Mountain climbers
Rowing machine
Dips
Step-ups
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