fitness

January 26, 2011 Uncategorized

Stop Wasting Time in the Gym! Part II: What you should be doing instead

If you missed last week’s article on how to stop wasting time in the gym, you can read it here.

Now you’ve gotten on the bandwagon and stopped doing really inefficient exercises in the gym. Hurray! Really, when you can get the same amount of stuff done in fifteen minutes as you can in an hour, why in the world would you take the longer path?!

Part of the reason that we’re conditioned to believe we need about an hour of time in the gym to get results is that “leading health experts” have told us so. And yes, if you’re doing time-wasting exercises that are little more than physical busy-work, you will need to spend more time pumping iron to get anything done.

But there’s a much faster way to blast fat and develop slim, sexy muscles…

Introducing the powerhouse of physical conditioning, High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT! Interval training is not to be confused with circuit training where you move from station to station performing different exercises. HIIT is absolutely the fastest way to burn through fat, improve cardiovascular capacity and boost athletic performance.

Whereas most exercise programs – cardiovascular conditioning in particular – choose a target heart rate or heart rate zone that is about 65% of your max, take you up to that zone and keep you there for 30 minutes or more, HIIT pushes your heart rate sky high and then gives you a resting or recovery period.

Why is high intensity interval training so effective? Well, in short, it causes you to burn more calories, flat out. When you perform low intensity exercise, such as 30 minutes on an elliptical machine or exercise bike, you only burn calories while you’re actually exercising. When you do HIIT, you boost your metabolism for up to 24 hours post-workout!

Additionally, interval training is highly beneficial to heart health. During steady state cardio training, such as prolonged periods of running, your heart will become lighter and more efficient. You’re effectively burning away heart muscle! HIIT training causes your heart muscle – actually, all of your muscles – to become larger and stronger. This is important for two reasons: One, a stronger heart is a healthier heart, leaving you less prone to heart disease such as myocardial infarction or atherosclerosis; and Two, larger, stronger muscles boost your metabolism and burn more fat.

The author of the book The Doctor’s Heart Cure, Dr. Al Sears, M.D., who has cured heart disease in over 15,000 patients writes, “When you exercise for more than about 10 minutes, your heart adapts by becoming more efficient. It achieves this efficiency through downsizing. Long-duration exercise makes the heart, lungs and muscles smaller so that they can go longer with less energy, but there’s a trade-off. The cardiovascular system becomes very good at handling a 60-minute jog, but it gives up the ability to provide you with big bursts of energy for short periods. Far from protecting your heart, this loss makes you more vulnerable to a heart attack.”

Basically, heart attacks don’t happen because of a lack of cardiovascular endurance. They happen because of a sudden spike in heart rate due to increased load.

Even more interesting, steady state training doesn’t really translate into real life. I mean, part of the reason we all go to the gym is to make ourselves more able to deal with day to day challenges, right? But when in the real world do you keep a steady heart rate for a prolonged period of time? Say you’re helping a friend move into her house. You’ll likely pick up a piece of furniture, carry it up the stairs, put it down and walk back to the truck. This is exactly like interval training…periods of intensity alternated with periods of rest.

So…how much time does this interval training take? I already mentioned it’s less than you’re used to, but would you believe you can get full-body conditioning in less than 5 minutes? I see you out there raising your eyebrows and shaking your head, but it’s TRUE!

Dr. Izumi Tabata completed a study at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan, demonstrating that just 8 sets (and that’s 8 sets maximum, not minimum) of 20 seconds of intense exercise spaced with 10 seconds of rest in between is all you need to boost your fat burning ability while also improving aerobic and anaerobic capabilities. That’s a total of 3.8 minutes! No more excuses about not having time to exercise!

Here’s how you make this work for you:

1. Pick an exercise, any exercise. The beauty of the tabata set is you don’t even need equipment to get it done. Body weight squats, sprinting, jumping rope, kettlebell swings, cycling, running stairs, or virtually any other kind of exercise where you can modify intensity. The most portable option is, of course, outdoor sprinting.

(Note for you kettlebell sport athletes out there….I find that super efficient GS style snatches, cleans, jerks, etc., are far too efficient to fully challenge you for this kind of exercise, so either go hard style – I know, but it works – or pick something non-kettlebell for tabata sets).

2. Warm up your body and joints appropriately. Your warm up will look different depending on your age and condition, but ideally will contain full body movements and dynamic joint mobility drills to warm up your synovial fluid and tune up your proprioception.

3. Get a great interval timer, like a GymBoss, or just stand in front of a clock with a second hand (best when doing an exercise that allows you to stay in one place, like squats). I often use the timer feature on my iPhone.

4. Perform 20 seconds of your chosen exercise FULL OUT. You should feel like your lungs will explode and your legs will fall off if you have to do just one more squat, take one more set, jump one more loop of that rope. Give 100%. Interval training, like all things in life, gives back as much as you put into it. Put all you have into it. Note: If you have enough breath left to complain about how hard it is, you’re not working hard enough. I know this is tough love, but it is the truth.

5. Rest for 10 seconds.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 a total of eight times, for just under four minutes of exercise time.

7. Cool down. You’ll most likely be shaky and out of breath. Keep your body moving, just shuffle your feet, walk in circles or do whatever you can manage until your heart rate normalizes.

8. Stretch, hydrate, and move on with your day!

This is a very simple way to condition your body, but it is not easy! It’s haaaaaard. Yes, its’ only four minutes of exercise, but those four minutes aren’t so pleasant. But isn’t it worth it to shave 56 minutes off your workout time?

January 19, 2011 Uncategorized

Stop Wasting Time in The Gym! Part I

It never fails to amaze me. People complain, complain, complain about not having enough time to work out, and then I see them in the gym spending hours and hours on exercises that are absolutely useless!

**Warning: If you’re highly committed to your workout routine, this might ruffle your feathers. If you don’t want your feathers ruffled, stop reading now.**

So, most people go to the gym for two basic reasons: to burn fat and to build or tone muscle. These are both great reasons to get your booty in gear and get going on a workout routine. However, I do have a newsflash for you…if you want to shred through fat and get toned, beautiful muscles, PUT DOWN THE 2 POUND DUMBBELLS!

There, I said it. I’ve been wanting to say this for five whole years. I have sat by in frustration as I watched gym-goers, especially women, perform useless exercise after useless exercise. Frankly, I don’t know why women are so weight-lifting adverse. Give a woman a toddler, two bags of groceries, a diaper bag, a purse and a ring of house keys and she’ll drag that load up three flights of stairs no problem. Give her a 20 pound weight and she’ll tell you she can’t lift that and even if she could, she’d have “man arms.”

I’m here to call bull and put an end to all the time wasting going on in gyms across America! And possibly across the world!

Whenever I am at the gym – which isn’t often, because I frequently get to swinging my kettlebell in my living room these days instead of trekking out in the rain (yes, I’m that adverse to water falling from the sky) – I see women agonizingly doing ridiculous exercises that won’t build strength for anything in the real world, and, even worse, are often dangerous. Perhaps worst of all, these women think that the hours they put in at the gym are giving them some benefit. The real truth? You can get a fat blasting workout in 10 minutes or less that will also build strength and cardiovascular endurance. The rest is just icing on the cake.

So, to help you eliminate the useless time wasters from your gym routine, I present to you…

5 things you should never do in the gym:

1. Straight arm raises in front of you with dumbbells – Seriously? What are we building here, folks? The ability to lift buckets of water straight out and put them under a cow’s nose? WHEN will you EVER use this in real life? Not to mention, these little buggers have a nasty habit of causing tension in the trapezius muscles, which makes you come into my office to fix your neck pain. Don’t do this.

2. Any kind of weight lifting while standing on a bosu ball – Next time you stand on one of those half-moon bosu balls, take a look at your ankles in the mirror. Are they horizontal at the ankle joint? No? Well then, you’re in for some serious injuries in your future if you load an unstable ankle joint with weight. Bosu balls are for balance, not weight training. Stay on terra firma for the heavy lifting.

3. Bicep Curls – As my friend and strength coach, strongman, and kettlebell lifter extraordinaire Andrew Durniat says, “Nice biceps, what are you going to use those for?” Biceps can be pretty, sure. But doing bicep curls won’t make you stronger. Why? Well, we never contract one muscle in isolation, especially in our arms. When you lift things in real life, you use your whole body. If you want functional strength – the kind that will translate to carrying 30 pound purses and laptop cases without causing neck strain or low back pain – train across joints. That means, choose exercises that involve bending more than one joint at a time, like the classic overhead military press with either dumbbells or a bar. Bonus: Engaging more muscles means you burn more calories and get a total body workout for better overall muscle tone.

4. Read a book – If you can read while you’re doing it, it’s not super effective. Exercise is for more than your body. Movement keeps your mind young and improves body-mind coordination as well. If you want to read a book while riding a bike, that’s recreation. To get a workout, keep your focus straight. Hint: One of the most underused and overlooked pieces of equipment that almost every gym has is the rowing machine. No book reading possible there, just some serious full body conditioning (but make sure you get someone who knows what they’re doing to show you proper form so you get the maximum benefit without injury).

5. Anything with less than 10 pound dumbbells unless you’re seriously de-conditioned, a senior, or in rehab. If you’re going to the gym to burn fat and tone muscle, you need to add a lot more resistance than the weight of the purse you keep slung over your shoulder all day long. Raise the intensity and do fewer repetitions. You’ll be amazed at the results (and I promise, you won’t turn into the incredible hulk).

Just in case you’re still suspicious and think I’m lying about that last bit, let me share this picture with you from when I was in peak athletic condition for kettlebell training. That red bell over my head? That’s 32 kilograms or about 70 pounds. And yes, I got it up there with ONE ARM. Does it look like I have a lot of muscle bulk? Nope. The trick is training for function – the ability to generate force – instead of isolating each muscle and training it individually. The results are much different.

More on this next week in Stop Wasting Time In the Gym Part II: What You Should Do Instead

October 27, 2010 Healthy Aging

An easy way to improve balance and coordination

Can You Pat Your Head While Rubbing Your Belly AND Bouncing on One Foot?

So, maybe that’s a little much, but wouldn’t you like to have improved balance and coordination so you can waltz gracefully through life instead of stumbling into walls and door jambs? Guess what…it’s easier than you think, and it does NOT involve balancing on a giant ball while pressing five pound dumbbells overhead. In fact, I can’t think of a situation in the real world that would require such a feat, not to mention the ankle stability hazard…

Actually, there is something quite simple you can do while standing on dry land to improve your coordination and balance. You see, we all have things in our cells called proprioceptors. These little guys tell us where our body is in space. Whatever feedback we give them, they respond to, and the more you challenge them, the more fine tuned they get.

Try this: Stand with your feet comfortably underneath your body (just slightly narrower than shoulder width apart will put your feet directly under your hip joint and give you optimal support). Gently shift your weight from foot to foot without lifting either foot off the ground. See how you can move your center of gravity from side to side?

Now, shift it over your right foot and lift your left foot off the ground. This is pretty simple for most people (if this is challenging, stay here and work at this level until you’ve mastered centering your gravity over the narrow base of support of one foot).

While standing on one foot, close your eyes. You’ve taken away visual input to the proprioceptors, and most people’s bodies don’t know how to use only kinesthetic input (the sense of touch or feeling). Now, with your eyes closed, turn your head from side to side. You’re adding movement to the equation and really stretching the capabilities of proprioception!

After a few repetitions on this side, switch so you’re standing on your left foot and repeat. Use this exercise daily to improve balance, coordination, and grace. It will help keep your coordination sharp well into your later years (so you won’t have to worry about balance issues later in life!).