Blog : InForm Fitness

Effects of Aging Suck – But You Can Change That

While none of us can escape the inevitability of passing time, we are not entirely powerless over our own aging process, and do not have to surrender to its effects.

I can now, with complete confidence, assert that InForm Fitness is home to the real Fountain of Youth! That’s right folks. The Power of 10 workout can reverse aging, making changes right down to the functioning of your DNA.

While you might be thinking, “Boy, Adam’s sense of self-worth has officially spun out of control,” I offer you scientific confirmation that my contentions of triumph are not unfounded.

It Comes Down To The Mitochondria.

You may be surprised to learn that in studies on aging, that science is increasingly focusing on the role of Mitochondria – the cell powerhouse that generates the majority of the body’s energy from nutrients and oxygen.

Why? Put simply, cellular damage manifests through physical and physiological signs of aging – loss of muscle mass, brain volume, skin elasticity, hair loss and pigmentation, etc., – and may be largely due to ‘malfunctioning’ mitochondria.

The inconvenient truth here is that even through their normal activity, mitochondria generate unstable chemicals that harm the cell as a whole, resulting in genetic mutations. These mutations are found to accumulate with age and over time the number of mutations overwhelms our cells’ ability to make the necessary repairs.

So, ‘malfunctioning’ can be a term used interchangeably in this sense with progressive aging, as the cells these mitochondria fuel wither, increasingly incapable of repairing themselves, and eventually die. As Martha Stewart might say, “It’s not a good thing.” (I can’t believe I just quoted Martha Stewart)

It’s an astonishing thing though, our mitochondria. Our cells can house several thousand mitochondria. The number depends on what that particular cell needs to do. If the purpose of the cell is to transmit nerve impulses, fewer mitochondria will exist than say in a muscle cell that requires substantially more energy. If the cell is lacking sufficient energy, more mitochondria can be created. Sometimes they can even grow, move, and combine with other mitochondria.

Mitochondria also have their own DNA – different from our cells’ genetic material – and are capable of mutating when they multiply. Under normal circumstances, anomalies are corrected by specialized repair systems within the cell.

And how exactly does this relate to high-intensity exercise? Specifically, human aging is associated with skeletal muscle atrophy and functional impairment, also known as sarcopenia, and multiple lines of evidence suggest that mitochondrial malfunction is a major contributor.

So what can we do to slow, halt, or even reverse the inevitable aging process?

STRENGTH TRAINING – and I’m pleased to share three scientific studies supporting my claim that InForm Fitness is the home of the Fountain of Youth.

Study # 1

Pediatrics Professor, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, discovered that exercise reduced or eliminated almost every detrimental effect of aging in mice that had been genetically programmed to grow old at an accelerated pace.

The mice that Dr. Tarnopolsky and his colleagues used were bred to lack the primary mitochondrial repair mechanism, so they did indeed age more rapidly. The study included two groupings of these mice – mice that exercised and mice that did not.

By the time the mice that did not exercise reached 8 months (equivalent to early 60s in human years), they were extremely frail, lethargic, and decrepit, with flabby muscles, shrunken brains, enlarged hearts, shriveled gonads and patchy, graying fur. On an even more extreme note, they were all dead before reaching a year of age.

The group of mice that exercised were still alive at a year of age, and remained amazingly youthful!

Study # 2

In a 2007 study, Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle, researchers Simon Melov, et al. successfully reversed human aging among healthy adult men and women, with a return toward normal youthful muscular function at the genetic level.

Wow! Essentially, the study showed that healthy older adults exhibiting evidence of mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness could, through high-intensity exercise training, markedly reverse cellular conditions back to that of younger levels for most genes. The researchers had subjects perform exercises ranging from leg press, chest press, leg extension, leg flexion, shoulder press, pull-down, calf raise, abdominal crunch to back extensions. Sound familiar? Over the study period, the subjects increased their strength by a whopping 50%.

Practicing doctor, personal trainer and co-author of Body by Science, Dr. Doug McGuff, discusses this exact phenomenon in his blog and pleads that we need not hurt ourselves in the process.

McGuff asserts that the ability to perform high-intensity exercise is a marker of youth, and consequently what gets lost with aging. In a discussion around fast-twitch muscles (the category of muscle targeted through high-intensity exercise), McGuff explains how fast-twitch muscle fibers can be recruited through other forms of exercise training, which are fraught with the potential for injury, both immediate and over time. McGuff goes on to endorse the very type of safe and efficient, high-intensity exercise, found here at InForm Fitness, that stimulates the development of physiologic headroom, in a controlled manner not producing injurious force.

Physiologic headroom is described as “the difference between the most you can do and the least you can do.” When the difference is zero, you’re dead.

Study # 3

According to a study published in Cell Metabolism, people who exercised intensely for as little as 20 minutes, actually changed their molecular make-up.

High-intensity exercise can almost instantly determine which of your genes get turned on or off, triggering epigenetic changes within the body. These ‘epigenetic modifications’ seem to be the early precursor to the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength, structure, and the metabolic benefits of exercise.

“Our muscles are really plastic,” says Juleen Zierath, a molecular physiologist at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and co-author of the study. “We often say ‘You are what you eat.’ Well, muscle adapts to what you do. If you don’t use it, you lose it, and this is one of the mechanisms that allows that to happen.”

Researchers found that short but intense spurts of exercise produced significant, albeit temporary, changes in several types of epigenetic signals. “What this means is that it allowed other proteins’ transcription factors to access the DNA, and this could instruct the cell to make specialized proteins that could support growth and metabolism,” Dr. Zierath explained.

Epigenetics is the study of how environmental changes effect how the genes of our DNA behave – and specifically how high-intensity exercise is stimulating the production of the mitochondria.

The high-intensity exercise used in the Power of 10 program, here at InForm Fitness is exactly the kind of exercise that triggers epigenetic modifications in a safe and efficient manner.

What is profound – earth shattering, man on the moon kind of profound – is that scientists have universally come to the same finding: that it is the mitochondria that effects our aging process. They also universally have discovered that high-intensity exercise stimulates the production and reactivation of our mitchondria of our youth.

So, my some-times inflated sense of self-worth, together with the help of a few scientists, have made my case – InForm Fitness is where it’s at! If you are not already tapping into the true Fountain of Youth, don’t delay and come in for a consultation with our specially trained instructors.

Sugars – The Glucose, The Fructose, and The Sucrose of it all.

It is now the Year 2013 and we all know sugar is the enemy. So, table sugar (aka poison, also known as sucrose) is appropriately in the garbage, and label reading for ‘sugar’ content is now a grocery shopping ritual. Yet, the full sugar story is only partially revealed. Sugars, like fats, are not created equal, and we must also consider the source and relative physiological effects.

There are two basic forms of sugar – glucose and fructose. While there are several forms of sugar, such as everyday table sugar, also known as sucrose, they all contain proportional amounts of glucose and fructose.

Healthy eaters and dieters alike often live under the misguided belief that fruits couldn’t possibly lead to negative health or weight gain. After all, fruit is natural, therefore the sugar found in most fruit – fructose – is natural, and what is natural is good, right?

Hmmm. True, fruit has its nutritional qualities and eating fruit is not the same as scooping granulated sugar into your tea or sprinkling it over your favorite cereal. Logical, yes, but excess fructose consumption has negative consequences, even if the source of that fructose is fruit.

Scientists using newer functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) discovered that fructose can in fact trigger changes in the brain that stimulate overeating and weight gain. In a recent Journal of the American Medical Association publication, an extensive study of 20 healthy adults utilizing fMRI revealed that the brain registered suppressed hunger and fullness within 15 minutes of drinking glucose. As Dr. Robert Sherwin notes, “With fructose, we don’t see those changes. As a result, the desire to eat continues — it isn’t turned off.” In other words, glucose satiates faster than fructose.

So, when consuming a beverage containing fructose, like fruit juice, fructose not only failed to suppress appetite, it actually causes a small spike. Where glucose was shown to augment the body’s general ability to sense true satiety, fructose was not, but could rather trigger hunger pangs. The more fructose you ingest, the more prone to obesity you could be, as you program your body to consume more calories.

How Your Body Metabolizes Fructose Versus Glucose

The body also metabolizes glucose and fructose differently: of 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat; whereas of 120 calories of fructose, 40 calories are stored as fat. The math is clear.

When ingesting fructose, the metabolic burden falls entirely on the liver and is converted into visceral fat far more rapidly than any other sugar. The body can’t metabolize a fructose overload and becomes a sea of toxic byproducts, including uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout. Ouch.

On the other hand, the liver is required to metabolize only 20 percent of the body’s glucose consumption. As every cell in the body, including the brain, utilizes glucose, the majority is immediately burned, making it an ideal source of energy.

Fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat. These FFAs accumulate as fat droplets in the liver and skeletal muscle tissues, often causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Insulin resistance all too often progresses to metabolic syndrome and Type II Diabetes.

Fructose is also known as the ‘fatty’ carbohydrate, as it converts to glycerol 3 phosphate (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store.

Excess fructose consumption is also a major contributor to insulin resistance and obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and other diseases. The byproduct of visceral fat created in the abdominal region collects around organs and is associated with a greater risk of heart disease.

Beyond fruits, fructose is found today in nearly all soft drinks, juices and processed foods, typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Adding insult to injury, the fructose that comes in the form of HFCS is most often made from genetically engineered corn, which is fraught with its own well-documented health concerns ranging from the development of food allergies to the risk of increased infertility, and possibly cancer.

I am NOT anti-fruit the same way I abhor processed foods and those laden with HFCS. What I am trying to make you aware of is that excess fructose, notwithstanding the source being fruit, can yield a host of very undesirable weight and health consequences.

That said, your fructose intake should be limited to fruit whenever possible. If you drink any beverage other than water or eat any packaged food, you are almost guaranteed to absorb some hidden sources of fructose. So while fruit can be a wonderfully beneficial source of vitamins, antioxidants and fiber, informed and conscious consumption is critical. Like anything, moderation matters.

As a standard recommendation, TOTAL fructose consumption should stay below 25 grams per day. To insure that, I would suggest mentally earmarking 15 of those grams for fruit at the most. That’s not much! Fifteen grams represents two bananas, one-third cup of raisins, or two Medjool dates. But, on the other hand, the average 12-ounce can of soda would fast exceed your daily allotment, with a whopping 40 grams of sugar, half of which is fructose. So beware!

Likewise, think again about fresh-squeezed fruit juice. Not only would the juice of 3 or 4 oranges exceed 15 grams fructose, all the pulp fiber from the fruit is lost. Fiber slows the absorption of sugar, helping to improve blood sugar levels, and provides countless other health benefits, such as reduced blood pressure and inflammation.

Eat, don’t drink your fruit. Moreover, try and stick to a moderately sized bowl of berries, or other high-fiber fruit, eat green leafy vegetables liberally and stay away from alcohol, sodas, juices and processed foods.

If you would like to learn more about how fructose affects your “fat switch,” I recommend The Fat Switch, by Dr. Richard Johnson.

Commodity Futures For Coconuts – A Shrewd Investment?

This is a guest post from Nicole Gustavson – InForm Fitness, Leesburg, VA.

I recommend starting each day with a 20-gram shot of saturated fat. Then I suggest that you repeat that decadence at least one more time each day, preferably about 20 minutes before your lunchtime meal. Sound crazy?

No, or at least not by that measure. Many people swear by coconut oil’s health benefits – and I’m one of them! The regimen prescribed above would ensure a daily 2-3 tablespoons minimum intake of coconut oil. I would also use coconut oil to fry eggs, sauté vegetables, and lather your skin after a hot shower.

Why? The health benefits of coconut oil are almost too many to list, but here are just a few:

maintain cholesterol levels
increased immunity from disease and infection
improved digestion and metabolism
relief from kidney problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer
augment dental and bone strength
lend to better weight loss, hair care, skin care, and stress relief

So what about heart disease?

Coconut oil consists of roughly 90% saturated fat. This fact often condemns the oil as being bad for the heart, but that is a misconception. Coconut oil is actually beneficial for the heart because it contains about 50% lauric acid. Lauric acid is a unique fat, which helps prevent various heart problems, including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. The saturated fats present in coconut oil are not harmful like other man-made vegetables oils and do not increase bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. Moreover, the saturated fat in coconut oil reduces the incidence of injury in arteries and therefore helps in preventing the thickening of artery walls.

Mankind has been consuming mainly saturated fats – in the form of butter, lard, coconut oil, etc. – for thousands of years, yet heart disease was rare before the 1920s. If anything, the recent rise of heart disease is most likely owing to the increased use of poly-unsaturated vegetable oils such as corn, safflower and canola, as well as margarine. Uh, margarine – I just cringed.

The bottom line on heart disease and coconut oil is that all saturated fats are not created equal. The operative word here is ‘created’ because some saturated fats occur naturally, while other fats are artificially manipulated into a saturated state through the man-made process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation manipulates vegetable and seed oils producing a rancid, thickened substance that only benefits foods’ shelf lives and corporate profits.

Weight loss, Digestion, Immunity and Infections

I suggested earlier to dosing on 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil about 20 minutes before mealtimes. The reason is simple – your appetite will be cut in half and you will be able to refrain from eating beyond satiety at the proceeding meal. But I’ve only just begun to share with you the benefits of this miracle oil.

The fat content of coconut oil is more easily converted into energy than other oils. Coconut oil is nature’s richest source of medium-chain fatty acids, also called medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). MCTs are easily digested and immediately burned by your liver for energy (like carbohydrates, but without the insulin spike) and actually boost your metabolism and help your body use fat for energy. MCT also help in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems, and increases the body metabolism by removing stress on the pancreas, thereby burning more energy.

Coconut oil also helps control blood sugar, the secretion of insulin, and the body’s effective utilization of blood glucose. How does this contribute to weight loss? See our recent blog the “Exercise to Lose Weight Conundrum”.

Reducing the workload on the liver, preventing the accumulation of fat, and treating diabetes are still just the tip of the palm tree. MCTs not only bolster metabolism, endurance, and performance, but they also improve overall digestion, immune function, and healing.

Your body converts coconut oil’s lauric acid content into monolaurin, a compound claimed to be toxic to viruses, bacteria, funguses and other microorganisms that cause other diseases. Coconut oil thereby enhances immunity strength and fights against a variety of infections due to its antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial and soothing properties.

These properties prevent the various bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc., that cause indigestion, thus improving the digestive system, while aiding in the absorption of other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Such important minerals include calcium and magnesium – essential for bone development. Everyone prone to osteoporosis after middle age should be paying close attention.

Use and Dosage

Just as with any dose-response relationship, appropriate individual prescriptions for introducing dietary coconut oil will differ. Some people report experiencing mild nausea, but quickly build up a tolerance.

If you are not quite ready to ingest coconut oil by the tablespoon, try substituting it for your butter or oil the next time you sauté your shrimp or roast your Jicama home fries. Coconut oil is ideal as a culinary oil because it can withstand high temperatures without losing its healthy properties and more importantly, it does not contain trans-fatty acids.

If you are worried about your food tasting like coconuts, I recommend Omega Nutrition’s Aroma-Free Certified Organic Coconut Oil for a mild, light, and subtle flavor.

And don’t forget to keep a jar in the bathroom, as the skin and hair care benefits continue to astound me.

7 Tips To Sleep Your Way To Weight Loss

As a college student I enjoyed youthful excess and ‘endless’ nights. But now matured, I have learned that ample and quality sleep is absolutely crucial to a healthy, long life. Then I had kids.

Mainstream weight-loss advice typically revolves around exercise and nutrition.

However, the fact that sleep is one of the most important factors to attaining a healthy weight is often left out of the mix. Which is why I dedicated an entire chapter in my book, Power of 10 called “Rest and Recovery”. Being well rested can help control appetite, prevent weight gain, and will give you more energy for exercise and meal planning.

Symptoms you might be experiencing and telling you that you may not be getting enough rest include fatigue, low energy levels, nodding off easily, and irritability. When you’re tired, stress can lead you right to the refrigerator for your favorite ‘comfort foods’. Even worse, it might set into motion engaging in the ill-fated late night snacking.

“When you don’t get enough sleep, your body experiences physiological stress and, biochemically, you store fat more efficiently,” says Michelle May, MD, author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don’t Work.

Research shows that inadequate sleep can torpedo your weight loss efforts, impair your concentration, and even mimic the symptoms of impaired glucose tolerance, which can lead to diabetes and hypertension.

Other hazards of fatigue include a blah mood, or worse, a cranky disposition. Cranky negatively affects your work, your relationships, and your life. Sometimes I think that’s why so many New Yorkers I come across are grumpy. They live fast-paced, highly stressed and achievement-driven lives, and they’re probably not getting enough quality sleep as a result.

Fortunately, this problem can be remedied. Beginning with an increased appreciation for how sleep impacts your weight-loss efforts, the quality of your life, and your overall health. Here are seven tips that can help you more easily enter the Land of Nod:

1. Create the right environment. Get your body and mind in the habit of using your bedroom for sleeping. If you frequently sit in bed to pay bills, do your homework, eat, talk on the phone, etc., your mind will expect that the bedroom is for daytime activities. I thank my wife for curing me of the watching-television-until-I-fall-asleep habit. Now our bedroom is furnished with soft lighting, comfortable bedding, relaxing music and the random Matchbox™ car. Other tricks include turning the temperature down a few notches and turning the clock away from your view.

2. Get into a routine. This may be hard for people with wavering, active schedules, like students and parents. On busy days it is difficult—but crucial—to be firm with a routine. If you normally don’t fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning, or if you don’t have a sleep schedule at all, try going to bed a half an hour earlier each week, or set a time to get in bed and stick with it to train your body.

3. Limit food and beverage intake before going to bed. As you lie down to sleep, acids in the stomach level out, making heartburn and indigestion more likely to occur. Also, your metabolism increases slightly to digest food, which can also raise your energy level. Stop eating at least three hours before your scheduled bedtime. If you must snack on something, keep it small and avoid high-fat foods, which take longer to digest. Alcohol, as you may have discovered, also damages sleep quality. After its sedative effects wear off, your sleep patterns will suffer. I recently read this interesting piece in Scientific American regarding alcohol and sleep.

4. Consider a natural approach. Certain herbal teas can help you relax and fall asleep. Chamomile, for example, is a popular herb that slows the nervous system and promotes relaxation. Other liquids, such as a small glass of warm milk, may also help. Unfortunately, I loathe tea and warm milk so this is not an option for me.

5. Know when and how to nap. Most sleep counselors recommend napping for no longer than 20 minutes. Exceeding 20 minutes could leave you feeling groggier and make it harder for you to fall asleep at bedtime. If you know you have to stay up late, or if you have an erratic sleep schedule (especially new moms), take a 20-minute nap during the day. You’ll be more productive and in a better mood. I know, easier said then done.

6. Take control of your worries. Stress, surprises, and changes can take a toll on your sleep habits. Schedule some downtime each day for meditative activities like stretching or a hot bath – or actual meditation. If thinking keeps you up at night, get out of bed and try to be productive. Deal with those thoughts (pay the bill that you are worried about, make a to-do list, etc.) in a positive way, and come back to bed when you’re ready to sleep.

7. Get a check-up. If you toss and turn most nights, it may be time to see a physician. You could be suffering from one or more sleep disorders, including insomnia or sleep apnea. The sooner you find out what’s wrong, the sooner you can fix it. Sleep disorders are dangerous to your health, so if you suspect something is wrong, please tend to it immediately.

Have a get to sleep tip? Share with us how you get to the Land of Nod.

Excuses Don’t Count

Here at InForm Fitness we are committed to the long-term well being of our clients. It’s an expression of love – tough love – often stern, but with the intent of helping you to achieve what’s best for you.

So when Karen called to let us know she had a broken hand and therefore an entirely valid excuse to cancel her weekly Power-of-10 workout appointment, we thought otherwise. While naturally sympathetic of her plight, we knew a broken hand was a surmountable obstacle, if she still wanted a full-body workout in minimal time.

Really, we’re not sadists (although I’m sure some of our clients would beg to differ), but we do take our tagline – Safe Efficient Exercise” – to heart. And that means that in most cases our amazing instructors can modify your routine and work around that broken bone, sprained ankle, sore knee or aching tennis elbow. That’s our expertise, our job.

Now back to poor, unsuspecting Karen. Her reasoning for cancelling her appointment was logical. Typically, to work out your upper-body, your hands must be used to either pull or push. To workout the muscles of the back, most people utilize the Pull Down or Seated Row machines; for the chest, the Chest Press; and the shoulders, the Overhead Press. All of these machines involve the hands. But as our photos evidence, Karen was able to work out her back, chest and shoulders, without ever putting her hand at risk.

Here is how we adjusted the workout for Karen:

Back: We used a pullover machine where Karen pushed through using her elbows.
Chest: Mission accomplished with a chest fly where the effort comes through the upper arms.
Shoulders: A lateral raise where, again, the upper arms do the work.

Look Ma, no hands!

Always keep in mind, despite a nagging ailment or injury, that you have options. Talk to our instructors and discover adjustments to your routine that will enable you to work around those pesky pains and keep your strength building on track.

Oh, and if you are wondering why it is important to keep up your routine – allow me to share words of wisdom from Arthur Jones, the father of high intensity exercise, the inventor of Nautilus equipment, and author of the Nautilus Bulletins.

“Throw a stone into a pool of water, and it will make a splash – and a wave will run to the far end of the pool; the larger the stone, the larger the splash – and the larger the wave. A very similar effect results from any form of exercise – I have named this “indirect effect”. When one muscle grows in response to exercise, the entire muscular structure of the body grows to a lesser degree – even muscles that are not being exercised at all; and the larger the muscle that is growing – or the greater the degree of growth – the greater this indirect effect will be.”

Even if we take the scenario to an extreme and assume you are in a complete upper-body cast – you should still exercise your lower body, because due to “indirect effect,” your upper body will atrophy less than if you did nothing at all.

We would like to give Karen a big high five (on her uninjured hand) for sticking with her program. May her dedication and perseverance be an inspiration to us all! Remember, no excuses.

P.S. For those of you interested in the history of exercise, the Arthur Jones’ Nautilus Bulletins are to exercise what the Beatles’ White Album is to music. His bulletins rocked the exercise world over 40 years ago and today are still well worth the read.

My Drop Dead Healthy Cameo and How A.J. Jacobs Got it Wrong!

Hilarious, New York Times best-selling author of The Year of Living Biblically and The Know-it-All, A. J. Jacobs documents his hands-on attempts at utterly quixotic tasks and then lives to write about them. Jacobs records in Drop Dead Healthy, “one man’s humble quest for bodily perfection,” as he indiscriminately subjects himself to countless workouts, diets, devices, and health advice, some bordering on the absurd.

An extremely engaging writer (and editor for Esquire magazine), Jacobs weaves his “maximum health” experiences – reporting what practices he learns, implements and adopts – around stories about his extended family, including his long-suffering wife, Julie.

Although most health advice can be summed up with ‘eat less, move more, and relax’ just a few of the more-entertaining highlights of Jacobs’ quest to being as healthy as possible are:

using a treadmill desk, because prolonged sitting is bad for our health;
carrying his own small plate and mini utensils, because eating slowly encourages us to consume less;
making liberal use of cayenne pepper, because spicy foods decrease hunger;
wearing noise-cancelling headphones several hours a day, because noise affects our stress levels; and
squatting in the bathroom, because sitting puts too much pressure on the bowels.

Included in this literary, real-life adventure is Jacobs’ visit to InForm Fitness NYC and his brush with the Power-of-10 ultimate workout. Jacobs’ recount of the initial consultation and his proceeding workout include quoting me as saying:

“When we look back, I believe we will know Jane Fonda and her ilk as the people who destroyed America’s knees….Why would you spend six to twelve hours on cardio, when you can get the same exact thing in twenty minutes a week?”

“Your goal is to reach muscle failure. You’ll be out of this freakin’ torturous machine in a minute and a half.”

After a few workouts, Jacobs decides, in defeat, that he’d “have to continue cardio” and moves on to explore dozens of other workouts. Above all others, however, Jacobs implements and adopts HIIT – what he coined the “aerobic cousin of the slow-cadence weights workout [he] did with Adam Zickerman” – and claims there are more studies with empirical evidence to back it up.

Jacobs was referring to High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), where instead of jogging at 60% of your ability for 45 minutes, for example, you sprint at 100% of your ability for a mere 30 seconds. The workout cycles through sprint, stop, rest and repeat, for a reduced total period of say 12 minutes.

It is my opinion that while Jacobs’ observation that HIIT has more supporting empirical evidence may be true, why I suggested in the title that he Got It Wrong is because I believe his conclusion that HIIT has more merit than resistance exercise, such as in the Power of 10, is misguided. And this is not aimed at Jacobs alone – millions of people misinterpret this.

Jacobs did not make the connection that the studies he refers to support that the results were from the level of intensity of the exercise and not the means, which in turn supports the Power of 10 program. While both the Power-of-10 and HIIT require efforts being dialed up to “10” to achieve the maximum gains in the minimal times recorded – the common denominator between the two workouts’ correlated success is the shared intensity level. Intensity is the key to stimulating our bodies to produce the adaptive responses we desire.

Your muscles don’t know if you are on a bicycle or on a weight machine, it knows only the energy requirements being demanded – and then responds accordingly. High-intensity exertion, whether performed on an aerobic machine such as the treadmill, or a weight machine such as a leg press, ignites the same metabolic response to our body’s energy systems. The harder and more intensely your muscles are made to work, the harder and more intensely the energy systems that support them are made to work. This is the stimulus that brings about the results!

Intense resistance exercise, is in fact scientifically supported. On May 23, 2007 researchers Simon Melov et al, concluded that healthy older adults showed evidence of mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness being partially reversed at the phenotypic level, and substantially reversed at the transcriptome level, following six months of resistance exercise training. Virtually discovering a ‘fountain of youth’ they stated, “The important and novel finding is that resistance exercise training reverses many aspects of the aging transcriptome signature. This implies that a functional improvement in aging muscle due to resistance exercise is associated with a global improvement in the molecular signature of aging particularly for transcripts related to mitochondrial function.”

So to my point, and the point of the Power of 10 program, I call upon McMaster University professor (and a leading HIIT proponent) Martin Gibala’s analogy to the Band-Aid Removal Preference Dilemma: Would you rather rip the band aid off quickly and endure a relatively brief flash of intense pain, or pull it off slowly, dragging on the slighter pain for much longer?

The time commitment to even attempt to achieve the same results of a Power-of-10 or HIIT workout with steady-state activity is staggering and that’s not even saying it’s possible! So, I repeat my challenge — why would anyone waste six to twelve hours a week on cardio when they can achieve results more safely and efficiently with 20 minutes once a week?

The Exercise to Lose Weight Conundrum

Relationships generally interest me, but none more so than those where correlation is misunderstood as causation. This logical fallacy, known as false cause, can be especially misleading when navigating the ‘exercise-to-lose-weight’ conundrum.

It was not all that long ago when it was considered naïve by health practitioners to believe that increased activity contributed to fat loss. Louis Newburgh of the University of Michigan determined in 1942 that a 250-pound man would only burn three calories by walking up a flight of stairs. Newburgh calculated that “He will have to climb twenty flights of stairs to rid himself of the energy contained in one slice of bread!” The only thing Newburgh could say of exercise was that it would make that same man hungrier.

Then, during the sixties, nutritionist Jean Mayer, the future president of Tufts University, contradicted that mainstream thinking arguing that a ‘sedentary lifestyle’ was the primary cause of our Nation’s obesity problem. Mayer and other physicians of the time were shocked to learn that obese patients often ate less food than their leaner counterparts. They also observed that obese people were much less active. Mayer therefore concluded (and heavily promoted) that low levels of activity were the cause of obesity.

It surprises me that today’s medical community still believes that inactivity causes obesity. We frequently hear that as an industrialized and modern nation, we are drastically less active, expend significantly fewer calories, and therefore are overweight.

Our advancements as a society have afforded us convenience and accessibility. True, but this is a perfect example of when a correlation does not realize causation!

Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College, Dr. Herman Pontzer recently put the ‘sedentary lifestyle’ theory to the test. Dr. Pontzer and his colleagues measured the high daily energy expenditure among the Hadza people of Tanzania, one of the few remaining traditional hunter-gatherer populations. Would the Hadza, whose lifestyle is exceptionally non-sedentary, expend more energy than we do?

Unexpectedly, Pontzer and his team found that they don’t expend more energy than us – suggesting that inactivity is not the source of today’s obesity problems. Their findings were published in a study last July.

In a New York Times article (August 24, 2012), Pontzer wrote:

“How can the Hadza be more active than we are without burning more calories? It’s not that their bodies are more efficient, allowing them to do more with less: separate measurements showed that the Hadza burn just as many calories while walking or resting as Westerners do…

We think that the Hadzas’ bodies have adjusted to the higher activity levels required for hunting and gathering by spending less energy elsewhere. Even for very active people, physical activity accounts for only a small portion of daily energy expenditure; most energy is spent behind the scenes on the myriad unseen tasks that keep our cells humming and our support systems working. If the Hadza’s bodies somehow manage to spend less energy in those areas, they could easily accommodate the elevated energy demands of hunting and gathering. And indeed, studies reporting differences in metabolic-hormone profiles between traditional and Western populations support this idea (though more work is needed).”

Asserting that inactivity is not the source of today’s obesity problems, Dr. Pontzer surmises that “the Hadza’s bodies somehow manage to spend less energy” at other times of their daily life in order to compensate for the high “energy demands of hunting and gathering.”

Pontzer is referring to ‘homeostasis’ – the physiological mechanisms that regulate and stabilize all of our biological functions, including energy expenditure. As Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon put it back in the thirties, “Somehow the unstable stuff of which we are composed had learned the trick of maintaining stability”. It is possible that the Hadza slept more in order to maintain an energy balance.

Here’s the kicker folks – most homeostatic regulation is controlled by the release of hormones into the bloodstream. Insulin, a hormone and the primary regulator of how we store fat, is secreted into our bloodstream in response to the carbohydrates in our diets – when our insulin levels are elevated, fat accumulates in our fat cells.

Put simply, insulin can increase the fat our bodies store and decrease the fat we burn, irrespective of our activity levels. Eliminating grains and sugar from our diets is more critical than increasing activity to lose fat because they raise our blood sugar and therefore raise our insulin levels.

While not offering scientific proof, we did however demonstrate in last week’s blog post, The ‘Lose Fat and Get Strong’ Challenge’, the case of Inform Fitness client David Restrepo, who dropped 40 pounds in only eight months and has since maintained his weight. David’s success was attributable to two things: (1) performing the Power-of-10 workout a mere 40 minutes a week at our prescribed level of intensity; and (2) eliminating grains and sugars from 80 percent of his diet. With absolutely no additional cardio, David’s results belie the cardinal rule of conventional weight-loss ‘wisdom,’ that a high level of activity is necessary for sustained fat loss.

It is more likely that by keeping his insulin levels low, David not only decreased the amount of fat he stored, he also increased the amount of fat he mobilized and utilized for fuel (fat burned during his workouts).

We are all different and have different sensitivities to insulin based on aspects of our diet and lifestyle, as well as our genetic predispositions and age. Given the same food and the same amount of carbohydrates, some people will secrete more insulin than others, and that insulin’s exponential effect on our overall level of insulin resistance will vary. In addition, we all have different sensitivities to foods that may or may not stimulate insulin secretion, such as dairy, nuts, diet sodas and coffee.

So we can be fat and sedentary, or fat and active. The hormone insulin and not our activity level is what governs our body-fat percentage. The positive correlations that can be drawn between physical activity and our health, and even our weight, are many! But, it is more than likely that our physical activity levels are not the primary cause of body fat either being stored or burned. The food that we put into our mouths and its effect on the secretion of insulin will determine our state of fatness.

Once again, it’s those darned hormones that are the blame for everything.

The ‘Lose Fat and Get Strong’ Challenge

The Challenge: Exercise once or no more than twice a week using the Power-of-10 workout program, and follow the InForm Fitness recommended nutritional plan.

The Goal: Lose 40 pounds.

The Purse: A stronger, healthier, and slimmer physique, enhanced energy and stamina, and 12 free Power-of-10 workout sessions at the Inform Fitness NYC Headquarters.

The InForm Fitness ‘Lose Weight and Get Strong’ Challenge has another victor! And another victor means another undeniable demonstration of our core beliefs: You can lose substantial fat without steady-state exercise, also known as ‘cardio’. Dramatic fat loss can occur by simply adhering to the InForm Fitness Power-of-10 workout and avoiding grains and processed carbohydrates.

Meet the challenger, David Restrepo, a successful, 36-year-young integrated pharmacist who owns two successful NYC pharmacies, VitaHealth.

A strong silent type, with an impressive work ethic, David accepted my challenge and succeeded over a year ago. Today, the real report is that David has kept the weight off, still works out, and eats as recommended.

Here’s David’s amazing “before and after” story, with his permission of course.

David lost 40 pounds, dropping to a sleek 193 lbs from 233 lbs. He also built substantial muscle mass while performing the Power-of-10 workout at Inform Fitness only twice a week and following a few, incredibly simple, dietary suggestions.

Well… if David was to be entirely honest, and we will out him here, he really only followed our recommended diet during the work-week, and ate whatever he pleased on weekends (apparently there are too many restaurants and too little time).

Notwithstanding, David reached his weight loss goal in 8 months!

The key, you’ll be happy to hear, is to never be hungry because once we deprive ourselves of food, failure is triggered! We encouraged David to eat as much protein and fat from humanely raised animals, fruit, and non-starchy vegetables as he wanted, so that he never reached a state of feeling hungry. Imagine – dieting without measuring cups or portion control.

David confesses that he missed his grains and processed carbohydrates, but made up for it on weekends – so he never ‘went without’ satisfying his cravings for too long. David’s success – aside from listening to me – was that he had the discipline to indulge on weekends and get back to a diet during the week of no grains or complex carbohydrates. These weekend indulgences and several family vacations away from his regular exercise workouts no doubt slowed down his weight loss efforts, but as you can see from the results, they didn’t deter him from reaching his goal.

Also, while David worked out only two times a week – mostly for the added benefit of stress release – once a week would have proved sufficient. To accommodate David’s desire for an added weekly workout session, we modified his program to avoid over-training.

David’s story is not scientific proof, but neither is it magic. David worked hard, efficiently, safely and effectively, and his experience should open you to the possibilities of our rather unconventional approach to exercise and nutrition.

Results will vary, yes, but they will be terrific nonetheless.

How curious are you? Consider the very same ‘Lose Weight and Get Strong’ Challenge officially extended to you. If you’re up for it, and willing to let us show the before and after pictures, let’s talk today!

You Must Be Insane

The overly commercialized fitness industry is forever trying to accommodate society’s never-ending quest to get fit, be healthy and to live forever. Without fail, the body of our dreams is always just one next ‘big thing,’ celebrity diet secret, or magic pill away.

The Insanity Workout is yet another promise for the delivery of miraculous results. Claiming to burn an astonishing (and convenient) 1,000 calories per hour, this 60-day, “max-interval training” uses a technique of “long bursts of maximum-intensity exercises with short periods of rest.” In my opinion, no matter how the workout is packaged and marketed, it’s just another gimmick.

First of all, rarely is anything genuinely new, just discovered, or for the first time being revealed to the general public. At best, it is a spin-off from something that has been around for a while, been tried and tested, and if you read their fine print, “yield results that are not typical.”

P90X, a workout similar to the Insanity Workout (and coincidentally owned by the same company, Beachbody LLC), in 2003 bombarded the market. P90X is a 90-day program that combines a variety of exercise techniques, including various calisthenics, cardio, yoga, plyometrics and stretching. Both the Insanity Workout and P90X emphasize the unproven training method known as ‘muscle confusion.’ The theory behind ‘muscle confusion’ is that by continually varying exercises, the muscles in your body are prevented from adapting to a predictable routine over time and thus hitting the ill-fated plateau.

Nonsense! Muscles can’t be ‘confused,’ duped or even bewildered. Muscles don’t predict, anticipate or get bored.

Every muscle in the body can do two things, and two things only; contract and relax. That’s what muscles do. When you flex your elbow, your bicep contracts, and when you straighten your elbow, your bicep relaxes. So it makes more sense that if you want to avoid that dreaded plateau, simply lift the heaviest weight you can to reach muscle failure for each muscle group and then rest long enough to allow the muscles to rebuild.

Now which theory seems more plausible – muscle confusion or muscle building?

Additionally, P90X and the Insanity Workout claim to burn a thousand calories an hour. Think about that – it just doesn’t make sense. We were never meant to burn calories at that rate – if we were then we would have never survived as a species! Even if we could expend calories at such a magnificent rate, our hunger would be insatiable and our ravenous appetites would replace those lost calories. And, if the calories weren’t replaced, our bodies would compensate for the calorie deficiency with drastically lower metabolisms. The low carbohydrate diets endorsed by these programs and recommended in conjunction with the training regimes are more likely the responsible component for the fat loss reported rather than the insane workout.

That said, what is truly insane about these workout programs are their recommendations to work out six consecutive days a week. That’s six hours a week – or nearly a full working day every week. And with only one day of rest!

Although I agree that an exercise program should be intense, I maintain that rest and recovery are essential for results. The five to seven days of rest recommended by the Power-of-10 protocol is the minimum time required for the body to grow stronger. The building of muscle is the desired adaptive response to the exercise stimulus. Following the correct application of intensity level, the real ‘magic’ takes place during the recovery time.

The frequency, duration and high-force nature of the Insanity Workout and P90X, as well as countless other training methods, often result in injury. These injuries will not only prevent you from being consistent with your workouts, but also from living your life with ease, without injury-related pain, on a day-to-day basis.

The Power of 10 is a safe, efficient, once-a-week exercise program. You’ll achieve the same results safely, while gaining an extra five plus hours each week to do things you actually enjoy!

And there’s nothing insane about that!

Sharing in Mother Nature’s Bounty

As often as possible, I peruse my local Farmers Market in search of fresh organic fruits and vegetables. And, yes, as often as possible, I capitalize on those excursions as opportunities to observe my fellow health-conscious shoppers. My wife calls it staring. Regardless, I think people are fascinating.

So, in a collective pursuit of superior health and nutrition, we, for all appearances, are engaged in a discerning search for chemical- and pesticide-free produce, while at the same time supporting the local farming community. Wonderful! But, why then do some people seem so disapproving of the head of leafy greens riddled with holes?

The irony is that we simply can’t afford to be so picky.

Supermarket conglomerates dazzle the consumer with rows of completely intact, waxy, perfectly symmetrical and vibrantly colored produce, at an enormous cost to our health. Sadly, though, we have grown aesthetically conditioned to desire that still life, picture-perfect bowl of fruits and vegetables, and are thus prone to dismiss the less “attractive” cornucopia of offerings we find at the open market.

Produce will grow strong and beautiful in the absence of heavy pesticide sprays and chemical-rich soils, but the sometimes ugly truth is that insects will also thrive and most likely be the first to partake.

Those little holes in the lettuce leaf – that is the evidence that insects have lavishly fed there before – and is exactly the proof I am looking for to authenticate the organic labeling! Logically, hole-free skin and or leaves tell me that my fruits and vegetables were most likely treated with poisons designed to kill life – a notion I find far less appetizing than a few remnant signs of insect feedings, or even the darned insects themselves.

So, I encourage my fellow organic shoppers to relish the opportunity to share in Mother Nature’s Bounty, and reap the pleasures and benefits of contaminate-free produce. And, as the old joke would assure you, they won’t eat much.

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Sugars – The Glucose, The Fructose, and The Sucrose of it all.

Commodity Futures For Coconuts – A Shrewd Investment?

7 Tips To Sleep Your Way To Weight Loss

Excuses Don’t Count

My Drop Dead Healthy Cameo and How A.J. Jacobs Got it Wrong!

The Exercise to Lose Weight Conundrum

The ‘Lose Fat and Get Strong’ Challenge

Here’s David’s amazing “before and after” story, with his permission of course.

You Must Be Insane

Sharing in Mother Nature’s Bounty

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