Gravity Fx Fitness

If you want to increase your metabolism and lose fat but have limits to how much time you spend exercising, there are certain activities that you should focus on. First, what are the determining factors in your metabolism?

According to wikipedia, “metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life.  These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures and respond to their environments.”  Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) makes up 60-70% of your total metabolism.

This is the amount of calories needed to maintain your basic functions while at complete rest.  This is largely determined by your muscle mass (lean muscle tissue), so any fat loss program should include resistance training to build or maintain lean muscle tissue.  About 20-30% of your daily calorie burn comes from your activity levels.  Strength Training or Cardio Training?

Many people have extremely busy lives, with both work and family commitments that limits the amount of time they have to exercise.  Fat loss expert Alwyn Cosgrove has come up with a Hierarchy of Fat Loss to explain the best options if you fall into this situation.

1.  Correct nutrition

2.  See number 1

3.  Activities that burn calories, maintain/build muscle mass and elevate metabolism

4.  Activities that burn calories and elevate metabolism

5.  Activities that burn calories but don’t necessarily maintain muscle or elevate metabolism

Four Factors for Fat loss Training

1.  TIED -

Metabolic resistance training

Strength training

2.  High intensity anaerobic interval training

3.  High intensity aerobic training

4.  Low intensity aerobic training

For a more detailed look at this read Alwyn’s article on the Hierarchy of Fat Loss.  Many of my clients are extremely busy and only have 3 or 4 hours per week to exercise.  So for them to get the biggest bang for their buck, I focus on strength training and/or metabolic conditioning training.

The resistance or strength training focuses on building or maintaining lean muscle tissue with complex exercises – meaning multiple joint movements such as pushing and pulling where several muscles are used with each exercise.  For the lower body this means various squat, lunge and step-up patterns where the large muscles of the leg and hip are working together.

An example of a “big bang” exercise is sled pushing.  Almost every muscle in your body is working to some extent when pushing the Prowler sled.   Not just for football players, it works well for women too, as you can see by the shape of these two.

Metabolic conditioning training uses total body workouts that are more about strength endurance or conditioning, often using timed intervals, such as the TRX Rip trainer and battling ropes class at my studio.

After about 15 minutes of dynamic warmup you then alternate between 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest for 20 minutes.  This is one type of interval training and it compliments the strength training that is done on the other days.  The first 5 minutes doesn’t feel so bad but in the last 10 minutes that 30 second break seems to get shorter.  Heavy breathing and plenty of sweat is par for the course with this type of training.

Alwyn provides plenty of research and real world results in his articles and at his gym Results Fitness in southern California.  How you train for a marathon or strength competition is obviously different than what we are talking about here, but marathoners, triathletes or endurance cyclists not only spend numerous hours preparing for competition but exercise at a higher intensity level in most cases than the average person (hi vs. low intensity aerobic).

So if your goal is losing fat and we know that maintaining or building lean muscle tissue is crucial to your success, than walking at a leisurely pace, while still being good for your health, is not going to be your first exercise option.  At least it shouldn’t be.

You can take leisurely walks to relax, de-stress and catch up with friends or family and do other low intensity activities like mowing the grass, raking leaves, etc. for additional calorie burning, as long as you remember what your primary focus is.  If you only have 20 or 30 minutes to workout you can still get a boost in your metabolism by choosing 3 or 4 exercises and going from one to the other with little rest, choosing an upper body pushing and pulling movement and a squat or lunge pattern.

Now that you know how important muscles are to keeping your metabolism elevated you can better understand how men can sometimes seem to get away with eating whatever they want, at least while they are young, but it will catch up to them some day.  Remember, you can’t out-train a bad diet and nutrition is at the top of the list.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Regardless of your opinion on these, they are going to keep physical therapists busier over the coming years.

There is definitely a positive effect of these various programs – getting people to exercise more intensely.  There is also a negative aspect to this growing phenomena – getting people to exercise more intensely.

Many research studies in the last decade have shown proof that intense exercise, particularly various forms of interval training, cardio strength training, getting more work done in a shorter amount of time, can keep the metabolism elevated for several hours after the workout and burn lots of calories.

Therein lies the rub, with the increased popularity of these programs comes the increased risk of injury, IF simple progressions are not followed.

The key to doing successful resistance training is to LOGICALLY follow a progressive method of increasing resistance – GRADUALLY increase the amount of weight/resistance, the amount of sets and/or repetitions…..

making sure that the individual is prepared for the training for that session.  I recently heard of a woman who had come in to physical therapy for elbow pain.  She had completed 120 pushups in her exercise class.

I’ve seen this woman and she is in incredible shape for a 50 year old.  She can probably run circles around many college age women….but unless she GRADUALLY built up to doing this number of pushups, no matter what kind of shape she is in, she will likely get injured…..and she did.

One of my clients told me of a friend of hers injured her knee recently in an exercise class doing 180’s – this lady is 61 years old and the only 180 exercise I’m familiar with is a 180 degree jump, which can be seen in a popular infomercial promoting a home fat loss program.

I asked my client if her friend is in really good shape and she said she wasn’t.   Many of my 50 something clients have had a past injury or two or three, making jump training something where the risk is not worth the rewards.

You might make the argument that people over 60 lose not just muscle strength and mass with aging, but also have a reduced amount of muscle power which is related to how quickly a muscle can generate force.  How quickly a muscle generates force can make the difference between falling and not falling.

Obviously, falling is not good.  So while I believe that there is always an exception to the rule, I don’t have any of my clients that age doing jump training.  Kettlebell swings are a much better way to generate muscle power without the joint forces and twisting of 180’s.

Last week I was having lunch at a local grocery store when a woman approached a couple sitting at a table near mine.  When one woman said something about boot camp class I tried to listen in without being obvious.

One of the women said something about her knees bothering her and going to physical therapy or needing surgery or something to that effect.  Upon leaving, she told the other woman that she hopes her back starts feeling better?!?

Am I making my point clear yet!!  All of these events happened within a period of ONE WEEK in Iowa.

So yes, while the best benefits happen when you push your body out of its comfort zone, make sure that you are READY for that level of intensity and you GRADUALLY built up to that point.

By the way, having a 430 pound individual run on a treadmill…to the point where he couldn’t keep up and fell on his knee, luckily not injuring it….is NOT a good idea!

Train hard but make sure to train smart, also.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Is the typical bodybuilding diet wrong for the average person? Can this practice of eating frequent meals actually encourage you to store fat?

Do you need protein supplements to build muscle and get lean?  In order to optimize your hormones for burning fat and increasing your overall health, I encourage you to listen to this awesome podcast with kettle bell expert Mike Mahler and Dr. Perry Nickleston.

Mahler had a near death experience with severe pneumonia which caused him to search for answers, especially since he thought he was eating right and exercising properly, yet nearly died from a severe infection.

He is a tremendously strong and well built individual, yet he is also a vegan and consumes far less protein than many people recommend.  Another top trainer that is a vegan is coach Jon Hinds of the Monkeybar Gym.

These guys are big yet lean, which is the kind of look that most any drug-free athlete would take in a heartbeat.  Mahler discusses stress reduction and not just managing your stress levels.  He also discusses cortisol and the idea of eating “real foods” and various spices to reduce inflammation in the body.

I’m no expert in diet and nutrition, that’s for sure.  Luckily, I have found people like this to listen to – people who aren’t in some science lab and have never worked out much, but people who are involved in intense workouts – the kind that can elevate your fat burning hormones.

Mahler also addresses detox diets and energy drinks.  If you have heard of the common practice of taking in large amounts of carbohydrates with some protein immediately after your workout, you might think twice.  He recommends waiting half an hour to an hour and not taking in all those carbs, unless you’ve been running a marathon.

In the past I’ve taken various protein drinks and sometimes used creatine monohydrate, also.  While I had some decent muscle size I also was bloated and sometimes gassy, which is not always a good sign.  I’ve seen this in other guys too and sometimes more emphasis is placed on the supplemental items than on eating high quality foods.

I highly recommend that you listen to this informative audio interview which may explain why you aren’t making progress with your exercise program.  Hormone optimization is definitely the way to go for losing weight and being healthy.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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This was a question I got recently from a 15 year old who had tagged along for his aunt’s training session. She was training with another 50 something friend and another man in my studio on a Saturday.

He is currently doing typical barbell lifts such as the bench press and squat and didn’t quite understand my training methods, which make use of sandbags, suspension trainers like the TRX, resistance bands, ropes and dumbbells.

I have a barbell tucked in a corner, which I use with some clients as a leverage press, but other than that, no barbell lifts.  At one point he asked her if they bench.  We do some dumbbell bench presses on a flat bench or on a stability ball, but my preference is some kind of pushup variation or presses using a flex band, in a standing position, which trains core stability.

Many people tend to think of barbells and dumbbells when “lifting weights” or some weight machine, like a lat pulldown.  When you realize that the point is to challenge your muscles with some type of resistance, than that resistance can take the form of your own bodyweight, sand, flex bands, or whatever.

He talked about doing weight training and I mentioned using heavy sandbags and how they can feel much heavier than a barbell.  He then picked a 140 pound sandbag off the floor using the parallel handles and found out what I was talking about.

A little later he asked me directly, “do you lift weights?”  Presumably, because I look like I do some resistance training (hopefully).  I told him I used to do all my training with barbells and dumbbells but now stick to what you see in my studio and think the results are about the same, with fewer injuries.

Obviously, if you are training for some type of strength competition that involves lifting weights, you need to train that way, but if you are just training for general fitness, general strength and fat loss, the previously mentioned tools work just fine, at least my clients think so.

When using sandbags, suspension trainers, bands and ropes, there are an almost unlimited number of exercise combinations that can be used.  Besides getting great results, this also prevents boredom from setting in.  Lack of time and boredom are the two biggest excuses people have for not exercising, so this is another reason for these methods.

Here are some of my 50 something clients who have lean, muscular bodies and can do all the physical activities they want with no problems.  They are happy with the results they get and it doesn’t hurt when someone in a store asks them how they got their arms in that kind of shape.

When they tell them about my studio it makes me feel good as well.  Proper nutrition goes a long way, also, but resistance training does a body good no matter what your age or gender you are.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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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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