valshealthblog.com

Hi,

I saw a headline in Health World a while back that caught my eye.  It said you could double the calories you burn when you exercise. 

As with most claims in the exercise and fitness worlds it doesn’t give you the whole truth. 

The article went on to mention that it was possible to double the amount of calories you burn when you exercise by adding aerobic exercise to your routine. 

It claimed that regular aerobic exercise will burn calories after you stop exercising by up to 8 hours afterwards. 

Somehow they interpreted that “fact” to mean that if you do aerobic exercise and burn 100 calories you will then burn an additional 100 calories after you stop doing the exercise. 

Unfortunately, they gave no proof of this.  Nor did they cite any research proving this. 

And there is a reason for this.  It just isn’t true. 

Pretty much the research shows that regular aerobic exercise does burn calories while you are doing it. 

And you will actually get into a fat burning stage after approximately 20 minutes. 

But, as soon as you stop the aerobic exercise that is pretty much it.  You get no or very little EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.   And certainly not 8 hours worth. 

You might have heard it called oxygen debt.   This is the debt that has to be repaid after intense exercise.  Note the term intense. 

That is the key.  Most people do not do intense aerobics. 

Go to any gym in the country and watch the people doing aerobics on all the different kinds of aerobic machines.  Watch people walking or jogging along the street.

That is what aerobics are for most.  A slow to medium paced workout. 

Very seldom to you see anyone doing sprints or running as hard as they can up 10 flights of stairs. 

I see people looking at me when I am on an exercise bike.  I pedal like a madman for 20, 30, 45 or even up to 75 seconds.  Then I relax and pedal slowly for 10 to 20 seconds. 

I keep doing that for 7 to 20 minutes depending on whether I have done a weight training workout prior to the “aerobics”.

But, you should see the looks I get.  It is almost funny.  I can just see their minds going, what in the hell is that guy doing. 

Well, I am burning fat. 

So in this case  adding high intensity exercise does indeed increase the after burn effect for up to 48 hours afterwards. 

Why is this?  Because low intensity to medium intensity exercise influences your hormones to burn sugars. 

High intensity exercise – even if you burn much less calories during the exercise time – influences your hormones to burn body fat. 

Big, big difference in your appearance.

So yes you can actually more than double the calories you burn over the long term.  But, you won’t be able to do it with low to moderate intensity aerobics.

We’ll talk more about hormones and how they influence your physique in coming posts.  Stay tuned. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

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Hi,

Last post we talked about the guy who exercised like crazy versus the woman (trainer) who did the slowest workout in the world.  Which one had the most productive exercise time?

Now sometimes I and others see someone working out like that and wonder why do they even bother.  It is “obvious” that they are not getting anything out of it. 

But, the real answer is they are getting something out of it.  Any exercise is better than no exercise. 

Maybe the woman trainer was coming off an injury or maybe she was trying as hard as she could.  There is no way that I or anyone could know what her motives were without asking her. 

So I don’t have a problem with people not pushing themselves like I do.  Oh, and I was the guy used in the example, but I am sure most of you figured that out. 

Let me tell you a story about a time when I couldn’t do much either. 

I was born with a deformity in my back.  It is a minor one, but it did bother me off and on throughout my life. 

However, it finally did give out and I had to get surgery.  It was a simple ruptured disc and I could have lived with it, but it affected my leg and my walking.  So I had the surgery and everything was okay.

However, when I went back to the gym, I was lifting 5 pound weights.  And it took a long time before I felt comfortable lifting heavier. 

So I am sure that those people who didn’t know me, were wondering why I bothered.  After all lifting 5 pound weights wasn’t helping me they thought.

But, it was.  All exercise helps.  Now mine was mostly rehabilitative.  And it worked.  Today, I can do the kind of exercise routine shown in the last post. 

Getting back to the woman trainer.  If that is the way she wants to workout, then fine.  My only concern is she teaches her students or clients the same way. 

And this happens a lot with trainers.  I remember one of my buddies was talking about this woman who came in and trained for over 3 years and never changed her appearance at all. 

He said, if he had a trainer that didn’t help, then he would shoot that trainer.  Now he was joking, but he brought up a valid point. 

Whether you have a trainer or not if you are not making progress – by looking better, by becoming more fit, by losing body fat, by getting stronger, etc – then you need to change something. 

If you don’t know what to change and your trainer or coach isn’t helping you, then you have to find a way to make your exercise time more productive. 

That is why I write these posts.  That is why I have been a fitness instructor and coach for years. 

If you are interested in personal coaching to ramp up your exercise time, then just contact me at: mike@valshealthblog.com

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Hi,

I know you might be getting a little sick hearing about exercise time, all the time.  But it is important.

After all you have seen how the old stand by for cardio – ie. doing 30 minutes to get in the fat burning zone – is pretty much BS

Well, is the same true for your weight lifting sessions?  Or fitness sessions?

Yes and no.  It really depends upon what you are trying to do. 

Let me give you an example.  There is a trainer at the gym I go to.  It is a woman, probably in her early 30′s.  She has a decent body, expect for the little pooch around her abdomen.  

She trains, as far as I can tell, a couple of days a week, maybe three.  That is if you can call it training. 

She does an exercise for a few reps only.  Then she rests for several minutes.  She brings a book with her to read.  Even if she does a bilateral movement – one arm at a time – she rests between each arm.  Again for several exercises. 

She is not using heavy weights.  Her cardio is pretty much walking at a leisurely pace. 

When she is training someone else, she is usually sitting. 

And she gets paid for this.  She gets paid to help others get in shape. 

Contrast this with someone else whom I know quite well. 

He goes to the gym and has his exercise log book so that he knows exactly what he is going to do.

First he warms up his joints and muscles.  This takes about 3-4 minutes.  Next he sets up his two exercises.  For this example he does leg presses for 20 reps, then does barbell half squats to a shoulder press for 10 reps. 

He alternates these for 3 sets without stopping.  Then he goes and rides the bike for 90 seconds as fast as he can. 

He is already sweating, he is already breathing hard. 

The next group of back-to-back exercises is leg presses again with more weight and 15 inverted hanging rows.  Again, non stop and again followed by 90 seconds on the bike. 

This goes on for 4 more groups of exercises and 4 more 90 second rides.  The last 90 second ride is followed by a slow ride until the heart rate gets down to 125 beats per minute (as measured by the bike) – usually 60 to 90 seconds.

The whole session takes about 45 minutes. 

So whose exercise session is better? 

From a calorie burning point of view the guy’s session burns a lot more calories in the 45 minutes.  And there will be no after burn from her session.  So she will never lose that pooch. 

From a muscle building point of view, the woman is using too light a weight and resting too long between sets.  There is no reason for the woman’s muscles to get stronger.  The guy’s workout is not a muscle building workout, however he is getting stronger and you can tell because he is using more weight.

From a cardio point of view, the woman gets no benefits.  The guy gets 9 minutes of all out cardio + the non stop movement of the exercises. 

From a fat burning point of view, again the woman gets no benefit while doing the exercise and no benefit after stopping the exercise.  The guy’s metabolism is ramped up within a few minutes of starting the exercises and continues for up to 48 hours afterwards. 

Next post I am going to give you a shocking answer to the question of who’s exercise session is better?  Stay tuned…

Thanks,

Mike Val

PS.  Hey I started a new site over at:

http://www.femfigueres.com  Feel free to check it out.  Thanks.

Hi,

By now you should have an understanding of how best to use your exercise time.  This is especially true for cardio.

Don’t worry we will get to other methods of exercise also.

You have seen how medium to slow paced long term cardio is not the most efficient way to burn body fat. 

Increase the intensity for several seconds and then lower it  is a better way to go.  You can actually burn more calories over a 48 hour period by doing this than you will with 1-2 hours of the more conventional cardio.

So let’s ramp this up a bit. 

But, before we do, there is a warning.  This is intense and stressful to the  body.

So if you have never done this exercise before you have to start out slow and build up to it.

This exercise is running sprints.  This is flat out running as fast as you can. 

This was popular for a short while several years ago and then died out pretty quickly.  The reason for this is because people just started going out and sprinting.

You really need to build up to this or you will have ankle, knee, and hip problems.  Your lower back will take a lot of pounding as will your tendons and ligaments and achilles tendon. 

This came from my chiropractor. 

So, the first time you go out, warm up with a slow jog for 2-3 minutes.  Then do some higher intensity jogging with lower intensity for 2-3 cycles.

Then when you are ready to sprint, do it on a soft surface.  If you can find a modern track, then that is great.  If not, just try not to do it on hard concrete.  That will pound the heck out of your body.

Okay, so start with 15 seconds.  Sprint for 15 seconds and rest until you catch your breath again. 

Repeat this for 4-6 times and that is it.  You can add 2-3 minutes of slow jogging afterwards if you want.

Do not go out and do this the next day no matter how good you might feel.

Take 1-2 days off before starting another sprint session.

As you do this over time you can add more seconds to the sprint time and maybe do 5-7 repetions. 

Build up slow and you will be rewarded with stronger leg muscles, a higher metabolism and less body fat. 

Sprints will really rev up your metabolism while you are doing them and afterwards as well. 

Stay tuned for more about exercise time…

Thanks,

Mike Val

Hi,

Last post about exercise time, we talked about the myth of toning muscles. 

But, that was a little bit off track of our discussion of effective exercise time with cardio. 

You know that the long slow cardio is not efficient.  Especially if you are trying to burn fat. 

While it will help you burn fat (after 20-30 minutes) during the exercise, as soon as you stop you will stop burning calories.

In order to get an after burn effect or burn calories after the exercise stops, then you have to do something else.

You have to increase the intensity of the exercise session.  That means you will move faster for a period of time and then slower. 

You keep alternating these two methods and you will do 2 things.  You will burn more calories while doing the exercise and you will burn more calories after the exercise stops.

So let’s look at this.  If you use a bike at the gym, here is what you would do.

Warm up at a moderate pace for 1 minute.  Then pedal as fast as you can for 10 seconds.  Pedal at a leisurely pace for 50 seconds.  Repeat this pattern for 5 or 6 times. 

As you get better then increase the amount of time you are pedaling fast and decrease the time you are pedaling at a leisurely pace. 

A good target to shoot for is pedal fast for 20 seconds and leisurely for 10 seconds. 

You can do the same on a treadmill or elipitical machine.  You can also do the same outdoors. 

If you are starting out, start by walking and then jog for 10-15 seconds.  Repeat for 5-6 minutes. 

You can also play with the numbers any way you see fit. 

Some days your can do the 20 fast, 10 slow routine.    Then you might change it the next workout to 60 seconds fast and 60 seconds slow. 

All of these ways will burn more fat and they will help you keep your muscle as you burn the fat.

Now you will not burn as much fat for a 5-6 minute exercise session as you will with a 2 hour slow cardio session during the exercise time.

But, every study that has measured the fat burn and weight loss shows the short sessions are much more productive over the long term.

And this is all because of the after burn.  Remember after your long term cardio, the fat burn stops immediately.

After the higher intensity session, the fat burn continues for up to 48 hours afterwards.  And this burns much more fat and calories than the long term cardio by far.

Next post we will ramp this up so that your exercise time is even more productive. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Hi,

Last post talked about exercise time and how low intensity cardio really wasn’t the way to go. 

Before going any further I want to clarify something.  There is nothing wrong with taking a long walk or jog.

In fact, doing that does have several benefits.  This is especially true if you can take your long walk (30 minutes or so) in a park or natural surroundings. 

Taking a walk downtown during rush hour is not going to give you the benefits you need.  And breathing all that polluted air is sort of counter productive to good health. 

The other thing is, if you are just starting out on an exercise program, then starting with even short walks, is a good way to get your body acclimated to moving. 

Just build up from there. 

The same holds true for using weights in your exercise program. 

When you are starting out, use lighter weights and do less reps and sets. 

Build up from there.  You will need to get your joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles used to doing certain exercises. 

However to make real progress and get the full benefits of any weight training you will not be helping your self by using light weights.

A lot of people think you can tone your muscles with light weights and high reps.  Again, this is a fallocy. 

Your body is very good at adapting.  Once it gets used to a certain weight and rep amount, then doing the same will not help you. 

It will not even help you maintain what you have.  This is because your body adapts to the stress that lifting weights puts on it.

If you are lifting 5 pounds for 20 reps in the bicep curl, the body will adapt to that level.  If you continue doing the same weight and the same reps, pretty soon your body adapts and doesn’t use the same amount of energy to do the exercise. 

If you don’t do something to adapt to your body adapting to that level, pretty soon your body will actually get weaker. 

It doesn’t need the same amount of energy, so you are burning less calories to get the exercise done.  You are using less muscle to get the same exercise done.  You are using less mitochondria to get the exercise done. 

The list goes on and on, while you are getting heavier and weaker.

That is why you can go to the gym and exercise and not get any stronger.  That is why you can go to the gym and exercise and not lose any weight.  That is why you can go to they gym and exercise and not change your body.

Yet, people do make progress.   Some make tremendous progress with the exercise time they have. 

Stay tuned to find out how. 

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Hi  everyone,

I am moving my blog to the Word Press Format. 

 As I am not a techie it will take a few days to look

normal.  Back to posting content tomorrow.

Thanks,

Mike Val