Gravity Fx Fitness

The short and simple reason is that it can help you lose fat while spending less time exercising!

When you do various movements with the ropes for 20-30 seconds you elevate your heart rate significantly.  It is a very simple way to do interval training, which is great for fat loss.  Many of my clients are breathing heavy at the end of their set, often letting out a big “Whoo” because of the hard effort involved.

When you realize that intense effort and increased oxygen intake are vital to your results, there are many different ways to accomplish this.  I like to do cardio strength training because it is a time efficient method for increasing fitness and fat loss.

I have my clients do various resistance exercises to build lean muscle tissue and rope training accompanies these exercises quite nicely.  This way you can increase your metabolism and burn calories after you have stopped training.

Typically in an aerobics class or during a treadmill session you are working at 60-75% of your max HR, which is low to moderate intensity.  After you are done your metabolism returns to where it was previously, in as little as 10 or 15 minutes.

An elite endurance athlete who works at a higher intensity will have a greater “afterburn effect,” but the average healthclub member usually doesn’t work as intensely.  So when you understand that burning more calories is about intensity, you seek exercises that will really get your heart racing.

Obviously, this is assuming you are healthy, injury free and accustomed to exercise.  There are numerous patterns that can be done with the ropes and variety is important for keeping your body from getting stale, but also your MIND from getting stale.

Let’s face it.  There’s a reason that health clubs have all those TV’s in front of the treadmills and ellipticals – to keep your mind off of all the endless repetition going on.  Ropes on the other hand require you to focus on what you are doing and that is elevating your heart rate.

If you’re a busy person like most of us, than training with ropes and doing resistance training in the same session will allow you to lose weight without spending two hours at the gym.  Sounds like a winner for both me and my clients!

Ropes also allow you to get a cardiovascular effect without the pounding on your joints.

Many people seem to forget that you can get cardio training from doing interval work, where you exercise for 20-30 seconds, rest and then repeat, keeping your HR up in the process.

For example, last Saturday I did my workout after the clients had left.  I decided to get my HR monitor out to see how many calories I would burn.  I used the sandbags, TRX suspension trainer and a barbell, going from an upper body exercise to a lower body movement or opposing upper body movement, keeping my rest periods very short.

I used the ropes a few times to finish off the workout and stopped the monitor at 40 minutes.  In forty minutes I burned 552 calories and had an average HR of 77%, which qualifies as cardio activity, with a peak heart rate of 95%, which is pretty intense!

Now, I obviously am used to this type of training and wouldn’t start someone with that much intensity, but I think you get the point – I definitely got my cardio and strength training done in a single session, leaving my metabolism elevated for several hours afterwards.

I spent the next 20 minutes stretching, cleaning and getting the studio ready for Monday’s clients, while re-starting the HR monitor to see what was going on.  I burned an additional 216 calories, with my heart rate at an average of 68%, still qualifying as cardio.

I think you get the point that intense training can create an “afterburn effect” that is due partly to the increased oxygen consumption.  Heavy breathing is definitely acceptable in your workouts.

Training with ropes is also a great stress reliever – after beating the floor intensely for 20 seconds or more, you tend to forget what you were stressed about.  The alternating upper-cut pattern is also a healthy way to “punch” your particular individual stressor, if you wish.

Besides, with about two thirds of adults being overweight, can it really hurt to take some different approaches?

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Is walking a good way to lose fat?

With the warmer weather I have seen many people out walking, enjoying being outdoors and probably trying to shed some Winter accumulation of pounds.

The question is, are these people getting any results or is there something else they should be doing.  Walking is healthy and a nice way to burn some extra calories, but depending on how fit you are, it may qualify more as activity than exercise.

If you are more than 30 pounds over weight or haven’t exercised in several months, walking is a good way to get moving again and you might lose a few pounds in the process.

Start out slowly and gradually build up the amount of time you spend walking.  GRADUALLY placing more demands on your body is one of the fundamentals of progressive exercise – do a little more each time as your body adapts to the stresses.

While walking is simple and easy to do, you have to do a LOT of walking to lose weight and most people can’t keep their weight under control just by walking.  So what you would have to do is gradually increase the intensity – walk faster.

Most people I see are just casually strolling and this doesn’t burn that many calories.  Plus, once you stop walking your metabolism goes right back to where it was in a matter of minutes.  If you want to burn more calories you need to walk fast or go up and down hills.

So once you understand that more intensity is required, it might be more efficient to do something like cardio strength training.  Work your muscles against some resistance while raising your heart rate at the same time – combine cardiovascular exercise and strength training into a single time-efficient workout.

Do this two or three times a week and then do some lighter work on the other days, like walking or bike riding.  These easier movements will help you recover from the more intense workouts, getting some blood flow to the muscles and keeping your joints well lubricated.

Now, you can obviously do some more intense cycling and get a great calorie burn.  I like to do an hour bike ride about once a week in the Summer months.  I pedal fast at times and then back off and pedal moderately, before going fast again, somewhat similar to an indoor spinning class.

Generally speaking, the riders that are pedaling more intensely are fairly lean, compared to some who pedal at a pretty moderate pace.  I frequently see an older guy riding an older style bike with his big belly hanging out.  He pedals pretty slowly and he is still getting some health benefits but he’s not burning a lot of calories.

In societies where walking or biking is the primary or only means of transportation, the overall volume of activity throughout the day or week adds up.  Its rare to see an overweight mail carrier for those who walk to deliver the mail.

Keep this in mind if you can’t or won’t exercise intensely.  It will take a lot of volume (time) to get the weight loss results and you will have to be very strict with your eating.

Several research studies have shown very minimal or moderate fat losses with moderate intensity aerobic exercise, compared to greater fat loss with interval training of a more intense nature.

A leisurely walk can be a great way to unwind or spend quality time with friends or family, but if fat loss is your primary goal, pick up the pace or better yet, do some resistance training to build lean muscle tissue and increase your metabolism, then add in some type of aerobic exercise on your “off” days.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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What does science have to say about training for fat loss?

Is aerobic exercise such as running the best way to burn fat?  What does the research have to say?

I think you might be surprised, unless you are a regular reader of my articles or one of my clients.  Here is an interesting article featured on Alwyn Cosgrove’s website on the science behind weight loss and the most efficient methods for achieving it.

The New Science of Fat Loss

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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If you’re not training for competition, you don’t need to train like a competitive athlete….

you don’t need to follow the training program of an endurance athlete or bodybuilder, if that’s not your goal.  Instead of spending more time walking on the treadmill,  kick it up a notch or two with the intensity.

Cardio strength training is a great way to lose more fat in the least amount of time.  Swinging ropes, lifting sandbags or doing bodyweight exercises on the TRX suspension trainer uses multiple muscles.

When you challenge your large muscles against some type of resistance and keep your heart rate elevated, you burn lots of calories – during the exercise session and AFTER (afterburn effect).

Here are Vicki and Julie pulling a weighted tire, elevating their metabolisms in the process.  Get more work done in a shorter amount of time.

If you are training for an endurance event, this type of training is a great way to supplement your other training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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According to an Australian researcher, increasing adrenaline is the key to losing belly fat! Professor Steve Boutcher was one of the researchers involved in a study that compared intense interval training vs. long cardio for fat loss.

The study (published in 2007) separated 45 obese women into 2 training groups -

Group A did three 20 minute interval training sessions a week.  They pedaled intensely for 8 seconds, followed by 12 seconds of light pedaling on a stationary bike, repeating this for the 20 minute session.

Group B did 40 minutes of slow, steady pace cardio for 3 sessions per week, exercising for twice as much time as the first group.

No changes were made to the diet of either group.  Its been said that you can’t make up for bad eating habits with exercise, so the results of this study are very interesting.

Group A saw significant fat loss, with one participant losing 17.6 pounds in 15 weeks.  Group B didn’t lose fat and one woman actually gained two pounds!

Professor Boutcher believes the results from the interval group was due to the adrenaline increase that occurs with that type of training – the release of these hormones speeds up fat burning.

Adrenaline is also known as epinephrine in the science world and is released into the blood in response to stress – your “fight or flight” hormones.

The 8 seconds of sprinting came about after different studies determined that 20 seconds was too difficult for most people and 2 to 3 seconds wasn’t enough.  He advises to gradually build up to the 20 minutes exercise time and recommends a spinning bike, rower, or cross trainer (Airdyne bike).

He has found that most anyone can exercise in this manner when taking the gradual approach.  Obviously, you should check with your doctor first if you have any health concerns in regards to exercise.

Once again, the lack of time excuse is busted!  This information was borrowed from Turbulence Training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Here’s a video clip from Coach Dos and his Cardio Strength Training.  Notice the contrast between his workout and what the “normal” exercisers are doing in the background.  His version looks a lot more fun to me.

Plus, it takes less time and can burn more fat AFTER the session has ended!

Lack of time to exercise is no longer an excuse.  Neither is boredom.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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A balanced fat loss program should have three components for success – leave out one of the 3 “legs” of the stool and you might not see progress.

1.   You need an effective exercise program.

2.  Proper eating habits are essential to losing weight.

3.  Change your mind set – without the proper social and emotional support you will have a difficult time reaching your goals.  This is the component that causes many people to give up after a month or two of going to the gym or starting a diet.  Its crucial for both losing weight and more importantly, keeping it off.

If you’re familiar with my articles you know that I don’t do things the traditional way and advocate total body resistance exercises and interval-type cardio.  Workouts that last 30-40 minutes are the “norm” in my studio and I like to get your heart rate up while challenging your muscles.

I’ve borrowed my approach from other trainers who help busy people get results in the shortest time possible.  Results Fitness in southern California has been voted one of the top 10 gyms in the country by Men’s Health.   They don’t have their clients do any steady state cardio and don’t have their clients exercise while sitting down.

Follow this link to see how they manage to get consistent results in minimal time.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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I’ve lost 20 pounds in the last 6 months and playing basketball recently has kept it off while exercising just a few hours here and there.

I’ve been playing once a week for the last 7 weeks against guys who are mostly 10-20 years younger.  Our team is made up of men in their forties with one guy in his early fifties and two young bucks of 30 and 25.

I lost the weight prior to starting this league but have kept it off without spending much time doing anything else.  Basketball is a stop and go sport, mixing in periods of higher and lower intensity.

This stop and go nature really generates a lot of body heat, sweat, and greatly increases your oxygen consumption – causing you to suck in extra air at times, which is why us old guys need an occasional “sub” to come in for us.

Two twenty minute halves is plenty of action and our heart rates and metabolism stay elevated for a while afterwards, burning additional calories.  I was in pretty decent shape previously, but hadn’t done specific training for playing hoops, since I didn’t know I was going to play.

One of the things I have done is to do jump rope training between games to prepare for the jumping impact of the games.  I’ll do about 20-30 seconds on and then rest for the same amount of time.  This is for 5-7 minutes and then back to more interval training, keeping my heart rate up with different agility and strength training.

Besides being a time efficient way to workout, these interval workouts prepare you for the stop and go nature of basketball.  One of my personal training clients recently talked about doing step aerobics classes twenty years ago.

“I didn’t lose any weight but it was fun.”  Many people adapt to steady pace activity very quickly and don’t end up losing much, if any weight.  Not long ago, this same client walked on a treadmill 5 days a week for four months and only lost 6 pounds – not the greatest return for her “investment.”

She’s since lost close to 20 pounds by doing shorter bursts of exercise and eliminating processed foods from her diet.

The amount of sweat we produce in these games is a pretty good indication of large amounts of calories burned.  The guy who is 52 remarked about how you can’t get the same kind of breathlessness from doing typical workouts on a treadmill.

This guy is a former college wrestling coach, so he knows a little about training…. and is in pretty decent shape, too.  The take home point is that long periods of exercise aren’t always necessary and sometimes can be counter-productive if you don’t get the weight loss you want and decide to give up because you get frustrated with a lack of progress.

At the same time, if you haven’t done much exercise in a while, start out easy and gradually increase your intensity and/or decrease the amount of rest between exercises as you become more fit.

Train to play the sport and don’t play the sport to get in shape.  Don’t forget to do your strength training to help protect your joints and flexibility/mobility work is also strongly advised.

Get Moving!

Brian Morgan

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To burn fat you need to turn up the heat – dial up the intensity of your workouts!  One of my clients has lost 14 pounds in a month, while spending less time exercising.

Previously, she was walking on a treadmill 5 days a week and 4 months later had lost only 6 pounds.  She’s made more progress by making dietary changes and doing burst-type training.

She is still walking, but now she alternates her pace, going back and forth with periods of higher intensity walking – kinda similar to how your car burns more gas during stop and go driving in the city.

She is doing similar exercise in the studio with dumbbells.  Multi-joint movements that involve multiple muscles to burn more calories, alternating between two exercises with little rest in between.

This causes you to release more of your body’s fat burning hormones naturally.  This gets your metabolism elevated without spending hours exercising.  She can feel the warmth in her muscles as she sweats more, helping the body get rid of toxins that can build up.

I showed her a routine that she can do at home with dumbbells and bodyweight when she isn’t working with me in person.  Its great to get results while exercising less.

Research studies have shown that walking on a treadmill without doing any resistance training doesn’t always lead to much weight loss.  If you’re like most people and short on time, interval strength training and interval cardio are the way to go.

Yeah, triathletes and marathoners are usually pretty lean, but they often spend 10 hours or more per week on their training.  Unless you are training for competition, there are more efficient ways to stay in shape.

Yesterday, I did some interval cardio using the Ropes Gone Wild training ropes.  I did 15 minutes of various diagonal, circular and vertical patterns (beatdowns) with the ropes, elevating my heart rate in a short amount of time, going into oxygen debt.

I had my HR monitor on to see what my body was doing and also to see how many calories I burned.  In the 15 minutes I burned 230 calories according to the monitor, which isn’t all that much…..until you read the rest of the story.

I turned the monitor back on as I did some kettlebell presses, before packing it in for the night, leaving the HR monitor running.  An hour and a half later I stopped it and looked at how many calories I burned.

It said 490 calories in that hour and a half after the interval rope training, for a total of 720 overall!  Got your attention now?!  Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the number is a little high.  Knock off 100 calories and that’s still a LOT of calories burned in less than half an hour of exercise.

The point should be clear – intense exercise keeps your metabolism elevated after you have stopped exercising.  So if short on time, turn up the flame to burn more total fat.  Its fine to mix in longer walks, bike rides or runs with your interval resistance training.  By the way, the monitor is a Polar F6.

If you’re looking for a simple program you can do at home, you might check out Turbulence Training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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In losing 13 pounds and keeping it off for 3 months after stopping the diet, I have learned a couple important things -

there are two phases of eating to lose weight – eating less and getting used to it, and eating better.  Meaning, getting rid of the “junk” that you put in your mouth.

Amazingly, I’m actually used to eating less than I used to.  Naturally, this adds to weight loss when you add in a good exercise program.  But its not just about eating less, its about eating better!

This is a work in progress for me.  For the record, I don’t claim to be a fat loss expert, I just play one on the internet.  All joking aside, I read numerous articles and blogs by people who ARE experts on losing weight and improving your appearance and also attend my share of seminars.

Now that I’m used to eating less, the next step is about improving the quality of food that I eat.  Avoiding or at least minimizing sugar, avoiding processed foods and getting more fiber and good fats into my diet.

I did the Warp Speed Fat Loss program for a month and lost 13 pounds.  Not too shabby considering I didn’t follow the program perfectly.  More importantly, I’ve kept it off after 3 months.  I’m not following the low fat diet anymore, but I am doing my best to eat quality foods more often than I used to.

I’ve also altered the exercise program, as well and think that the slight changes have kept my body guessing.  I’m still doing most of the same exercises, just changing the sets and reps and rest periods – kind of a modified density training workout.

While I’m exercising with decent intensity and little rest, which is key to getting better results in less time, my overall time spent exercising isn’t that much.  I’m convinced you don’t need to spend 90 minutes or more to get results if the intensity is there.

Cleaning up my diet even further is the second phase and the key to getting your bodyfat levels even lower and “uncovering” your six pack abs.  Getting rid of the junk in your diet is also key to eliminating or reducing the environmental toxins that keep you fat and unhealthy.

Why not live to be 100 if your body and mind are both working the way you want them to?  Seems to be working for Jack LaLanne, who turns 95 this Fall!

My body currently looks just like it did at 27, even though I’m in my mid 40’s.  Not bad, but I think I just might be able to improve on that.  Change your mind to change your life.

You might find my previous article Confessions of a Sugar Addict interesting.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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