Gravity Fx Fitness

Should you change your workout routine to meet the “official” guidelines or does it really matter that much?

It depends – what are your goals?  Are you looking to be healthy or do you want to lose weight, too?

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association made some changes when they published their 2007 physical activity guidelines.  This is their current recommendations for healthy adults under 65:

• Moderately intense cardio – 30 minutes, 5 days a week ( working at a 6 on a 1-10 scale and breaking a sweat).
• OR       vigorously intense cardio for 20 minutes, 3 days a week.
• AND    2 days a week of strength (resistance) training.

They further recommend that to lose weight or maintain weight loss, 60-90 minutes may be necessary.  I’ll address this point later.  They also point out that short bursts of activity in 10 minute sessions are equal to 30 minutes of continuous exercise (I agree wholeheartedly with this).

• You should mix up the high and moderate intensity activity.  Again, I give a big thumbs up to this one.  This keeps you mentally and physically “fresh.”
• Schedule your workout times into your week.  For most people this is also very important.
• You don’t have to go to the gym – couldn’t agree more.  Most everything done at my studio can be done at home, if desired.  It may take a lot of personal “drive” and discipline, however.
• Workout with family or friends to stay motivated and have social accountability.  I added in the accountability factor, since this is a missing ingredient in many weight loss programs and why many people give up on their goals.  If you have kids, you definitely want to make sure they are active and develop healthy habits.

They made sure that muscle strengthening is part of their recommendations and I can’t agree strongly enough.  Besides being a big key to fat loss, it maintains joint health and mobility, making your daily tasks easier.

I also agree with the short bursts of activity.  You don’t need to spend hours on the treadmill to get results.  If healthy, up the intensity of your workouts and you just might lose that weight that won’t go away.  I don’t think you need to exercise for 90 minutes to achieve fat loss.

If short on time like most of us, turn up the intensity for increased fat burning after your workout is over.   If you read last week’s article on low intensity biking, you will remember that their metabolism went back to normal as soon as they stopped pedaling.

You want to choose a workout that keeps burning calories after you have stopped exercising.  This requires more intensity – like interval training.  Instead of separating your cardio and strength training, combine them into a shorter workout – one that turns up the fat burning flame.

Multi-joint exercises (multiple muscles) are the way to go.  Tools like the TRX, sandbags, resistance bands, and bodyweight exercises get the job done in minimal time.

Three days a week of resistance training will get better results if your primary goal is weight loss.  I also like to do joint mobility movements to recover from the more intense exercise and to make my everyday movements more efficient.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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What if you could increase your health and reduce your chances of getting the flu at the same time? Would you be interested?

With all the talk about the swine flu and healthcare reform, breaking a sweat can help strengthen your immune system and lower your risk of serious illness.

The effects of being overweight include greatly increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer, yet we hear little talk in Washington of wellness and prevention.

Studies have shown that for every corporate dollar spent on wellness there is a return of two to three dollars, or more.  How much money would we save with a renewed focus on prevention, instead of trying to fix people after they have broken down?

Sweating gets rid of toxins in your skin and the increased rate of breathing with exercise gets rid of even more toxins in your body.  Unfortunately, many people would rather take a pill than put in the work.

This weekend I was at a presentation on flu prevention.  The focus was on what you can do to avoid it without getting a vaccine shot, including chiropractic care and supplements like Vitamin D.  I was in the back to talk to people about coming into my studio for a free week and a vendor with an alkaline water product was also there.

More people seemed interested in taking the water to try and improve their health than in the exercise – maybe because one is passive, while the exercise actually requires some physical effort.

I think many of us have gotten “soft” because of all the modern conveniences we have available.  For thousands of years we have had to work hard to provide food and shelter.

Now, it seems people just want to take a pill for their health, but there is no pill that takes the place of exercise.  Our bodies are designed for movement and function at a higher level when we get adequate movement.

There is no replacement for sweating when it comes to your health and you don’t have to spend hours exercising to see results – you just have to find the right program.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Just read an interesting article by Alwyn Cosgrove on a recent fat – burning study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

This study involved an hour of easy pedaling on a stationary bike.  They were tested to see how much “afterburn” was generated after they stopped exercising.

Turns out that they didn’t burn any more fat than on the days they didn’t exercise and there was no elevation of the metabolism post-exercise.  So if they ate a typical meal, then they ended up canceling the relatively small amount of calories they burned during exercise.

This further points out the benefits of doing interval types of training, with shorter bursts of intense exercise.  This could be resistance training or high intensity intervals, or a combination of the two.

The researchers pointed out that you still receive health benefits from this mild activity, just not a whole lot in the way of weight loss.  This kind of hammers home the effect of intensity on losing weight, as well as a change in diet.

For best results, turn it up a notch or two to rev up your metabolism – “feed the flame.”

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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My fat loss workout burned 457 calories in 30 minutes. What did I do?  Glad you asked.

I only had 30 minutes for my training today so I combined some sandbag exercises with rope training and the X-iser.  I wore my HR monitor to see how many calories I torched.

After Monday’s all sandbag workout I mixed in some other moves for a little variety.  I did burpees combined with sandbag high pulls, alternating between the 30 second (approximately) sprints on the X-iser.

Resting for 30 seconds, I did some of my favorite rope throws – one and two arm grappler’s throws and alternating uppercuts, which is somewhat similar to cross country skiing, only more intense.

I tried to alternate between upper and lower body exercises, in order to keep my intensity high.

I did some various lunges and split squats as part of my warmup.  I also threw in a set of one arm rows on the suspension trainer and a set of ab wheel rollouts to the front and sides (diagonal).

The 30 minutes went by pretty quickly and I stopped my HR monitor to check the damage…..457 calories burned in 30 minutes even.  Of course, your heart rate stays elevated for a while after this type of workout, since you went into oxygen debt with all the short bursts of exercise.

I’ll take those numbers any day of the week.  In a magazine advertisement for the Bowflex Treadclimber they mention 321 calories burned in 30 minutes versus 150 for a treadmill at the same speed but no elevation.

Not bad numbers but not as good as my workout – and with my intense interval training, my metabolism would stay elevated longer after the workout. Plus, I worked my upper body and midsection, too.

More bang for your buck if you ask me.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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There is a new way to do lat pulldowns that might be superior to the standard machine, in my opinion.  Lat machines are a standard in most healthclubs and gyms.

They let you work your back, arms, shoulders, and grip at the same time.  While pullups and chinups are a great exercise, not many have adequate strength to do this demanding exercise.

I was talking to my father recently about his cardiac maintenance program.  About a month ago he graduated from his 12 week cardiac rehab program, after undergoing a quadruple bypass.  Anyway, he mentioned the different exercises he was doing and that some of the people were also doing strength training.

He was trying to describe the lat pulldown exercise – not knowing what it was called – and his description got my attention.  I thought he said something about pulling the bar down behind your head and I wanted to make sure, as this is an exercise that has significant risk of shoulder injury when done in this manner, especially for those over 45.

I then let him know that if he ever did this exercise that you want to pull the bar down in front of your head. I then told the story of an acquaintance of his who injured his shoulder a couple years ago while pulling the bar behind his head.

Due to postural changes and lack of use, many lose their shoulder flexibility over time.  A new alternative to the lat pulldown addresses this issue very nicely.  A seated rope climber called the VLT allows you to do the this exercise with one arm at a time, which has some added benefits.

This allows those with limited range of motion in their shoulders to only reach as high as they can without any pain.  By pulling down with one hand and then the other, similar to climbing a rope, you allow the user to control how high they reach – without fear of losing their grip on the bar.

Not long ago they were featured by trainer Gunnar Peterson in a Muscle and Fitness article……”Using these rope machines is very different from doing lat pulldowns and pullups because the hand-over-hand motion breaks the kinetic chain, forcing you to re-grip each time.”

I got to try them out a a fitness trade show last year and loved it.  Its definitely on the wish list for my studio.  It has 7 different resistance settings and can be used to train strength, cardio and grip all at the same time.  For those like my father who need increased shoulder flexibility and upper body strength, it is a perfect solution – his once powerful hands have become severely atrophied, due to disuse.

I have also seen it used on TV in the training of MMA athletes, including Quentin “Rampage” Jackson.  Pulling hand over hand at an all out pace is an intense and “fun” workout.  It can be included in a fat loss circuit, as well.

Brian Morgan

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You don’t need some exercise gimmick on TV to have great abs and crunches are just too ineffective for most people.  If you want to strengthen your abs and low back while burning more fat in the process, you can’t beat the combination of sandbags, suspension trainers, and resistance bands!

Coach Josh Henkin has some unique sandbag exercises that hit your “core” from every conceivable angle, while improving your work and sport performance at the same time.

These will also help prevent back pain and make your every day movements more efficient.  Remember, if you want to burn that layer of fat off your abdominals, you need to work your major muscles intensely and clean up your diet.

Just training your abs alone won’t burn many calories or do much to increase your metabolism.

For more info on sandbag training, click here.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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If you’re a woman who wants sculpted biceps and triceps you need to drop the light weights and high reps.  Train your arms with some resistance and you might be amazed by the results.

Instead of doing lots of reps with 3 pound dumbbells, use combination exercises that train your upper body as a whole – pushup variations and rowing or pulling movements will work your arms with the large muscles of your upper body simultaneously, for a fast, efficient workout……

one that won’t leave you with bulky arms!

Bodyweight exercises done with a suspension trainer like the Bandit’s Loops or TRX fits the bill.  This type of training can also hit your “core” muscles, giving you a flat stomach at the same time.  Perfect for the busy woman who doesn’t have time to go to the gym.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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