LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

exercise

Fitness Training to Burn Fat; Work Smarter, Not Harder

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I think many of us do not do fitness training because they perceive they don’t have time. NOT true. If you’re looking to burn fat, you need to exercise smarter.

This will not be the first time I have posted about short-burst aerobic activity.  As a matter of fact, this topic has been coming up again and again in the medical literature and continues to show benefits above and beyond sustained aerobic exercise.  And really–in today’s society, who the heck has 45 minutes to spare?  I could almost crank out a blog post in this amount of time…

What seems to constitute short burst aerobic activity?  Depends on the study, but they’re all similar:

  1. 10 – 30 second bursts on an exercise bike at 90% maximal rate
  2. 4-6 sets of 30 second bursts on an exercise bike
  3. 3 sets of 12 – 30 second bursts at 50% maximal rate with a one minute break

Overall, I think you get the idea.  For someone like me, who has a hard time staying focused for more than about 30 seconds at a time, this is just about perfect.

This particular study takes a slightly different angle on the short burst aerobic exercise story.  Here are the details:

  • 18 boys (aged 8-12), of which nine were overweight and nine normal weight boys
  • On 3 separate mornings these boys performed cycling exercises
  • 2 groups: 30 min of continuous cycling or sprint interval (continuous cycling with four-second maximal sprints every two minutes)
  • Exercise was followed by a buffet-like breakfast to measure post-exercise energy intake

So basically, both groups were doing the 30 minute cycling, but 1/2 the boys kicked up the pace for a mere 4 seconds every 2 minutes.  For the math challenged out there, that’s about 1 total minute of higher level exercise.

So what were the results from this 1 minute of faster cycling?

  • Fat burning was similar between both types of exercise
  • However, the interval group burned more calories but did NOT eat more at breakfast
  • The kids noted that they preferred the interval training more and did not find it any harder

So, basically, same time frames, same perceived level of exertion, more enjoyable and more calories burned.  Sounds like a winning program to me.

So, after reading these blog posts on short burst aerobic activity, how have you changed your workouts?  Or, even better, have you started an exercise routine because you now understand that it doesn’t always have to be 45-60 minutes of continuous activity?

Is the High Heart Attack Risk in Diabetes Curable?

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Mainstream medicine does not generally speak of diabetes in “curable” terms. Yet diet and exercise hold massive potential to essentially make diabetes curable.

Despite this, diabetes and the associated heart problems that ensue remain a health scourge in the US.  From my standpoint in addressing risk and lifestyle changes, there is essentially little difference between heart disease and diabetes.  I know this may sound a little crazy, but let’s face it…70% of diabetics die of cardiovascular complications, and this number does not include the large number of people who die of heart attacks or strokes before they became diabetic.

So, from a lifestyle change and risk factor standpoint diabetes = cardiovascular disease.  Simple.  Pick either the cardiology profession or the endocrinologists and we’ll tell one of them to take their toys and go home because the other group is going to handle the patients.  If you manage one you are managing the other.

Clearly diet helps.  “Helps,” of course, is an understatement.  We have seen studies where diabetics are off of insulin in less than a week under a medically supervised very low calorie diet.  That’s powerful.

The right type of exercise clearly plays a role as well.  Regular readers will know that I am a very big fan of the short burst type aerobic exercise.  The research continues to support this approach to aerobic exercise:

So this stuff is pretty easy.  Basically, just leave your exercise bike in the hallway where you have to actually walk around it.  Then, every time you walk by it, hop on it and pedal away like the Dickens for 30 seconds.  Continue on down the hallway.

Here’s the thing.

YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING!

Diabetes is, without a doubt, the absolute worst thing that could happen to you.  Period.  It will kill you.  Just being on the path to diabetes (prediabetes) will kill you.  As in pay-up-your-life-insurance-premiums kill you.

Let’s let this particular study put a number on it.

Researchers compared the physical activity levels in diabetics and compared how this affected their risk of dying of heart disease.  The findings are telling:

  1. In moderately active persons 38% lower risk of DYING
  2. This moderately active group had a 49% lower risk of dying from heart disease
  3. Leisure-time activity and walking were both associated with lower heart death risk
  4. Overall, those with the highest physical activity had a 40% lower risk of dying when compared to the sat-on-their-butt group

The bottom line for you diabetics out there…get moving or die.  It’s that simple.  It’s a choice you make every day.  Make it the right one for those who care about you.

So, if you are diabetic, what exercise do you do every day to protect your heart?

 

Does Your Diabetes Exercise Plan Include This?

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Americans seem to have a natural exercise aversion.  Research is done, not to look at how much is too much, but rather how absolutely little we need to get benefits.

I thought we had found the answer several years ago when researchers discovered that 9 minutes (yes–NINE minutes) of exercise could improve the way insulin worked in the body by 25%.  I was wrong.

There was quite a bit of hype a decade or so ago that involved Russian muscle stim units.  One ad even had models with picture perfect abs demonstrating a belt to be worn around that abdomen that would have you looking like them by the end of the day.  I had always laughed at these ads, knowing that these results were just no attainable using muscle stim units.

Maybe I was thinking in the wrong context.

Certainly, you will not get rock hard abs from using a muscle stimulating device.  But is there a possible positive effect for those of us who may not be able to exercise due to pain, obesity or respiratory issues?  The answer may be yes.

In this particular study, researchers looked at 11 diabetic patients.  They used an electronic muscle stimulating unit (EMS) for 30 minutes after breakfast and found that the use of this device kept blood glucose levels lower up to 2 hours after the meal.

Pretty amazing, huh?

This does NOT, however, relieve those of us able to exercise from doing so.  While this may have a positive effect, I would be surprised if it is even remotely as powerful as exercise itself.  This is a tool that could be used in in patients who just are not able to exercise because of a specific reason, not merely from lack of motivation.

This would also never replace good dietary choices and an anti-diabetic lifestyle.

I’ve done a review of the use of this type of device for pain control in the past (see review here).  This type of unit can be used for muscle stim or for pain control.

What types of conditions do you think might warrant the use of an EMS unit instead of exercise?

Prevent Diabetes With This Simple Exercise

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All origins of man aside, we basically have hunter-gatherer genetics.  I view our needs for exercise with this in mind.  When it comes to aerobic activity, I would challenge anyone to come up with a predator we can outrun for 45 minutes.  On the flip side, what prey would we pursue for 45 minutes?  The answer, of course, is none for both questions.

Envision instead, your ancestor bursting out of the brush to through a spear and chase down a wounded animal for 100 yards.  Sounds more reasonable.  For this reason I think we are better designed for burst-type activities, and several researchers studies over the past few years continue to support this notion.

This means that walking, as a form of exercise, is not even close to what our bodies need.  I always hate to discourage those starting to exercise, but the fact remains that merely walking does not really have all that great of a response in our bodies.  The good news is that intermittent short burst aerobic exercise is very easy to adopt and can take literally only minutes per day.

Overall, the results of previous studies are pretty startling, and this particular study is no different.

DAILY EXERCISE IS FIRST REQUIREMENT TO STAY HEALTHY – (02-27-06)

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Exercise and postprandial lipemia: effect of continuous compared with intermittent activity patterns

We’re always trying to look for that absolute minimum amount of exercise we need to do to stay healthy, and that answer seem to be slowly coalescing. Daily is the first requirement.

This study adds to this, finding that short bursts of exercising throughout the day is just as effective as one 30 min session at lowering triglycerides in the bloodstream after a meal. Yet another reason to take the stairs or park as far away from the building as possible.

Read entire article here

DAILY EXERCISE IMPROVES BETTER LIFESTYLE – (12-19-05)

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Prescribing Exercise at Varied Levels of Intensity and Frequency

Many patients want to know just how much exercise they need. While the actual number for every patient is different, the answer is slowly getting clearer. The article adds further clarification.

The best group in this study was high intensity walking at a high frequency. Other combinations definitely improved health, but only the high intensity walking at a high frequency was able to raise HDL levels. In today’s society, exercise is probably one of the toughest thing for many of us to fit in, but much of the research is pointing to daily exercising as the best. And for most people, walking is NOT enough-more needs to be done to get the full benefits from exercise.

Read entire article here

 

WHY SPEND ON DRUGS WHEN NATURAL COMPOUNDS CAN DO WONDERS? – (02-21-05)

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Phosphatidylinositol increases HDL-C levels in humans You need to know that the next strong push in the research for the pharmaceuticals is a drug that will inhibit lipoprotein lipase in the liver and thereby raise HDL levels. Still amazes me how much money a drug company will spend researching to find a patentable product when natural compounds exist that already work!!  Incidentally, exercise, niacin and soy are also know to increase HDL levels as well… Read entire article here

HOW TO BRING DOWN YOUR CRP LEVELS? – (02-21-05)

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High levels of C-reactive protein with low total cholesterol concentrations

Holy moly!!  Patients with normal/low cholesterol and elevated CRP had an ELEVEN TIMES risk of dying with coronary artery disease.  And there are still clinicians out there refusing to check CRP levels in patients with a family history of heart disease.

There is absolutely no excuse for this and these doctors should be pushed out of medicine.  And remember that fish oils, exercise and managing insulin resistance can bring down CRP levels quite well.

Read entire article here