Just the Facts!

Know the facts to lose the fat!

The American College of Sports Medicine identifies a desirable weight loss program as one that meets the following criteria:

1. Provides intake not lower than 1200 kcal/day for normal adults and allows a proper distribution of foods to meet nutritional requirements.
2. Provides a negative caloric balance (not to exceed 500 to 1000 kcal/day) resulting in gradual weight loss.
3. Includes an exercise program that promotes a daily caloric expenditure of more than 300 kcal.

The National Weight Control Registry found that 80% of people who lost 30 or more pounds and kept it off for at least one year accomplished their goals through a combination of diet and exercise- only 10% succeeded using diet alone and only 1% using exercise alone. See our previous blog post  Succesful Losers for more details on what actually works.

Because I SAID So…

The Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID) principle, also known as the law of specificity, states that our bodies will adapt specifically to the stresses we regularly place on them. With this basic principle of training we know that in order to improve a certain component of physical fitness, we must train specifically for that component. For example, exercises for strength may do little to improve flexibility, and exercises designed to improve the endurance of arm muscles may do little for the legs. The principle applies to muscle groups, movement patterns, and type of contraction. This is the concept behind cross training; doing a variety of modes of exercise. The best illustration of the SAID principle is seeing it in reverse. The law of reversibility is the opposite of the law of specificity. If we are not training regularly, there is no need for our bodies to adapt. You’ve heard the saying “if you do not use it, you lose it.” Observe the atrophy of muscle of someone with a broken arm or leg once the cast has been removed. If not used, we lose the muscle and the resulting functional ability. I’m often amazed at witnessing this as people age. A very good illustration of the SAID principle is to observe older adults that get very little activity and began to lose functional ability in activities of daily living we take for granted. This process is often blamed on the ‘aging process’ but is in reality the SAID principle in reverse. Our bodies will not allow us to have abilities that we do not regularly and progressively perform.

The SAID principle correlates closely with the progressive overload principle. If you want to improve in those activities you need to perform them at a progressively more intense level as your muscles adapt. An example being if you want to be a better runner, you need to run. If you want to be a better biker you need to bike. And if you want to sit and stand and climb up and down stairs easily as you age, you need to perform those activities, and do exercise that mimic those movements. I see people in their 80’s and even 90’s that have the functional ability of a healthy individual 20 years or more their junior. You probably know of someone in their 60’s or even younger who is already losing functional ability in common activities of daily living, like the simple act of sitting and standing up from a chair. Take note of this and do appropriate exercises that will bode well for you later in life.

Train Smarter, Not Just Harder

Fat Attack Plus! The right mix of "Hard and Smart".

There is a growing popularity for very intense Boot camp style programs as the answer to our being whipped into condition. However, for the same reason that extreme diets fail for 95% of those that use them, any too extreme program will usually have a stronger failure rate than a success rate.

Although we do advocate specialized intense small group training programs at our facility, the programs are advised only for those in condition and are prescribed along with other more comprehensive modes of exercise. There are some positive points with these extremely intense workouts, but there are many negative points to consider. These points should not be ignored in an attempt to give exercisers a tough workout.

Although some of the non-traditional exercises used in such programs can be beneficial, many risks are involved with the way in which the workouts are conducted. Speed is usually emphasized over proper form. Unfortunately, I believe some rogue trainers don’t take the key exercise concepts into account, and just want to make their clients feel like they were worked really hard. Other problems exist with this ‘hard core’ philosophy. First, no differentiation is made in the workouts for different levels of fitness. Senior citizens and deconditioned participants are supposed to do the same workouts as elite athletes. The second contraindication to this type training is the rebellious nature of the participants who view injuries as badges of honor.

Proper strength training must consider the progressive overload principle, with progressive being the key word. Beginners should definitely not jump right into one of these workouts. They need to start gradually with exercise and follow sound training programs to build their fitness and strength levels gradually in order to avoid injury.

Even experienced exercisers are taking big risks with some of these routines. Associated Press (Oct 2008) reported an ex-sailor winning a $300,000 lawsuit against a Manassas World Gym over an exercise he says left him permanently disabled. Makimba Mimms says the CrossFit workout he did in 2005 caused him to urinate blood and his legs to swell.

In a similar story, a NY Times article reported that Brian Anderson, a former Army Ranger, had to go to the emergency room the night after completing one of these workouts. Doctors informed him that he had developed rhabdomyolysis, which occurs when muscle fiber breaks down and is released into the bloodstream. He spent six days in intensive care. Rhadomyolysis is a life threatening injury. It’s not a hard workout where you just get sore. It is serious cellular structural damage than can poison your kidneys and kill you.

Even without a concern for injury why would you want to go through needless pain and discomfort with a program that has not been proven to be more effective in the long run than a more scientifically sound and safer comprehensive program? Be sure to balance appropriate intensity levels with the other factors important in having an effective and safe program that you will be able to stick with. In other words train hard but most importantly train smart!

At PT Gym…South Georgia’s only Kinesis Studio!

Kinesis is an innovative and unique system that focuses on movement through balance, flexibility, and strength. The Kinesis wall is constructed of four panels with cables, grips, and weight stacks that allow movements to be easy, natural and without restrictions. Designed to accommodate movement in any direction and from any position, Kinesis provides unlimited exercises and movements to improve strength, flexibility, and balance.

Users of all fitness levels and backgrounds can benefit from Kinesis. Those looking to burn calories while toning up will find that training on Kinesis recruits more muscle groups than traditional strength training, resulting in 30% more calories burned. Kinesis helps to train and improve balance with movements that simulate everyday activities, making it a useful tool for rehab patients, active aging members, deconditioned users, and anyone looking to strengthen the connection between mind and body. Athletes find that Kinesis programs can be designed to mimic their sport to help maximize performance.

Kinesis trains muscular strength and endurance; it also helps to improve balance, stability and flexibility. Kinesis is an elegant way to achieve functional fitness.

 Kinesis Training Recommendations

We recommend one to two Kinesis sessions a week in conjunction with your current workout or activity program to optimize your training routine. If you are new to exercise, or returning after a long break, Kinesis is an ideal activity that will allow you to simultaneously train balance, strength, and flexibility. Our Kinesis sessions are led by certified instructors who have completed intensive and specialized Kinesis training. Each session is 30 minutes in length, with two to six participants.

Those looking to burn calories while toning up will find that training on Kinesis recruits more muscle groups than traditional strength training, resulting in 30% more calories burned.

Definition of a Workout

What is a workout?

A workout is 25 percent perspiration and 75 percent determination. Stated another way, it is one part physical exertion and three parts self-discipline. A workout makes you better today than you were yesterday.

It strengthens the body, relaxes the mind and toughens the spirit. When you work out regularly, your problems diminish and your confidence grows. A workout is a personal triumph over laziness and procrastination. It’s the badge of a winner – the mark of an organized, goal oriented person who has taken charge of his or her destiny. A workout is a wise use of time and an investment in excellence. It is a way of preparing for life’s challenges and proving to yourself that you have what it takes to do what is necessary.

A workout is a key that helps unlock the door to opportunity and success. Hidden within each of us is an extraordinary force. Physical and mental fitness are the triggers that can release it. A workout is a form of rebirth. When you finish a good workout, you don’t simply feel better, you feel better about yourself.

- George Allen

George Allen, now deceased, was football coach for the Washintgon Redskins. I first saw this quote printed on a President’s Council on Physical Fitness poster  in the early 80’s. It’s still one of my favorites.

Get a SMART Start

When you wish to accomplish any task in life, developing defined goals will enable you a greater chance of success. The first step in starting a successful fitness plan is to set a goal. This simple act, when done correctly, will instantly give you the feeling of success. You need to get SMART!  You may already be aware of this much used acronym. There are a number of slightly different variations, but we will use a definition that will be more suited for you to accomplish your fitness and wellness goals. Here’s how to make your goals S.M.A.R.T.

Specific: What do you want to accomplish with exercise? Is it to lose weight and shrink your waist? Is it to lower your blood pressure or improve your health? Do you wish to improve your performance in a sport or is it to simply pick up a bag of groceries with more ease? Specify exactly what you want to achieve. Do not be too general or vague.  An example is “I want to lose 23 pounds of body fat” vs. “I want to lose weight.” Your goal should be clear and well defined. Only by having a specific goal can you structure an effective strategy and tactical plan of action.

Measurable: You have to be able to track your results to measure your progress. What gets analyzed gets done. What you measure will depend on what your specific goal is. You can measure pounds, body fat percentage, inches, and blood pressure. It could even be fitting into some pants that you haven’t been able to wear or maybe just measuring the improvement in the way you feel.

Action-oriented: A goal without a plan of action is just a dream. Your course of action should be relevant to your goal and be results-oriented.

Realistic: You should set goals that are stretching, but you are setting yourself up for failure and frustration if they are not realistically attainable.  This step involves asking two questions. First, what type of program would you realistically stick with? Look honestly at your abilities, but don’t underestimate yourself either. You’ll need to push yourself to achieve your goal. The second question, is it physiologically possible and probable with your action plan? Otherwise you defeat your purpose. I find for many this is the number one reason for failure. As an example, it is impossible to lose 5 pounds of fat a week. Notice, I said fat. It is possible to lose 5 pounds of weight but then you’ll be fatter at a lighter weight. It is possible to lose 2 lb of fat a week, but you may not be able to be compliant. If you have fifty pounds to lose it won’t all come off in a month. Setting unattainable goals simply sets you up for failure.

Time Based: Set an exact time to achieve the goal. Every great goal is set on a time line. Keeping the above steps in mind, give yourself an exact date and time that your goal needs to be accomplished. Your time line should match up with your realistic step. If you have a major fat loss goal then break it down into small attainable goals. As you achieve each smaller goal you will reinforce your progress and ultimately can attain any desired goal.

Before setting a goal make sure it is relevant to what you want to ultimately accomplish, is significant and worthwhile. There is always a plan of action that follows a goal, so set goals that are meaningful and motivational. To keep you accountable, be sure to write down your SMART goal and place it somewhere that you see often then tell three people of importance in your life about your goal. The goal should be tangible and rewarding, so decide how you will treat yourself when you accomplish the goal.

Finding Time to Live

The death of three ‘bigger than life’ celebrities this week made many of us pause and think of our own mortality. Each of us have 168 hours in a week. How well do you use yours? If we are fortunate enough to live to be 100, how much living have we actually accomplished? If we have balanced lives (most of us don’t) and we spend 8 hours a day sleeping and 8 hours a day at a job we don’t really like we have ‘lived’ only 33 years! If you subtract the time for chores we must do, mundane activities of daily living and trivial arguments along with other wasted moments, our sands of time are depleting quickly.

What can we do? I certainly don’t have your answer, but I do know we need to enjoy every moment, while striving to positively impact the lives around us. We need to find some enjoyment in everything we do, including work and exercise. We cannot save time by missing sleep and exercise and eating for convenience instead of nutrition. We will defeat our purpose by dying sooner or losing our muscles’  functional ability as we age. So, reflect on your life for just a moment then take action including devoting 5 of those 168 hours/week to exercise. Only by doing so, will you have the confidence, energy and ability to enjoy your borrowed time on this planet, whether that is 33 years or 100 years plus.

What’s Your Excuse?

Younger Every Year

 

He works hard at the gym. The workout is a comprehensive program that includes a treadmill warm-up followed by an intense strength training program. Just for fun when not in the gym, he likes to ride his bike in events up to 100 miles long. I’m talking the kind you have to pedal, not the bright yellow motorized version he likes to ride to the gym on nicer weather days.

Her weight training workouts are just as grueling. She lunges, pushes, pulls, and twists. For a cardio workout she likes the elliptical and Precor AMT machines. She also has a passion for riding a bike. As her warm-up she will bike to the gym and also likes to do the evening spin class.

Dr. Eugene Clark and Bettye McCraine have been two of our most diligent members over the years and an inspiration to all at PT Gym. Oh, and did I mention they both just celebrated their 80^th birthday! Happy Birthday Doc and Bettye. Wishing you both many more happy, active years ahead.

Successful Losers

Does your diet take and keep weight off?

Most diets don’t work in keeping the weight off according to researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. An analysis of some of the more popular diets including Atkins and The Zone show they failed for the majority of dieters in the long run. In this blog we will lay out the principles of what has scientifically proved to work at losing weight and keeping it off.

Why do most people gain the weight back?

Simply put, people regain their original weight (and more) when they stop doing what made them successful in the first place. Research shows that people who regained more than five pounds reported exercising less, eating more fatty foods and allowing themselves to overeat more frequently. This explains why “fad” diets and programs may help lose weight quickly but eventually it is gained back. Most people are unable to maintain the drastic changes most fad diets require. Fad diets do work at losing weight, but they only work on a short term basis. Keeping the weight off requires the real challenge of making proper lifestyle and behavior changes.

Successful losers keep the weight off.

Annually, over 60 percent of Americans actively try to lose weight.  Is there any wonder we are bombarded with diet books and late night infomercial weight loss gadgets? Some “new and improved” system is readily available to take our money. Although many people do succeed at losing weight, few manage to keep the weight off for an extended time. Research studies of these “successful losers” reveal the keys to permanent weight loss.

The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) http://www.nwcr.ws is the largest ongoing study on long-term weight loss. The NWCR was developed to identify and investigate the characteristics of individuals who have succeeded at long-term weight loss. To be included in the study, you must have lost at least 30 pounds and kept the weight off for at least one year. On average, the 5,000 participants have lost 66 pounds and maintained the weight loss for five and a half years. Consider the following findings from the NWCR:

       98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.

       94% increased their physical activity.

       78% eat breakfast every day.

       75% weigh them self at least once a week.

       62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.

       90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

And consider the following if you think you are an exception and are destined to be overweight. The majority have an obese parent and were obese as children. The range of weight loss is 30 to 300 pounds, so your weight loss goal is very possible.

Keys to permanent weight loss:

Most of the successful losers had low calorie/low fat balanced diets (3 or more servings vegetables, 2 or more fruit, 3 or more servings whole grains) and plenty of water as a beverage. So much for the low carb diets that make up many weight loss programs. Other research along with the findings of the NWCR identified  these behaviors of sustained weight loss.

• Eat breakfast daily
• Exercise approximately 60 minutes a day
• Check weight at least once a week and log your progress
• Measure your food and track fat and calories consumed
• Watch less TV and cut out late night binging
• Maintain a consistent diet on weekends and weekdays
• Plan meals on most days of the week
• To stay accountable find social support. Whether it’s a friend, coach, or health professional, it’s important to have someone who will listen and give feedback.
  

Why do these principles work and how can they work for YOU?

Weight loss can be achieved in many different ways as long as you consistently burn more calories than you consume.  The principles presented above are all ways to more easily and comfortably accomplish this. 

Checking your weight regularly helps you stay in tune with your body and allows you to adjust your intake or activity if your weight goes up. Limiting TV time will not only keep you from becoming a couch potato but will also keep you from mindlessly snacking. Planning your meals and eating consistently each day of the week, including weekends, helps prevent you from eating more than you need, which over time leads to weight gain. Finally, tracking what you eat keeps you aware of what and how much you eat. This is especially important in weight control since most of us underestimate how much we actually consume.

To achieve and sustain results, follow the examples of successful losers who selected behaviors they could maintain for life.  Keep in mind that you can start by making small changes. Exercise does not need to be painful or that intense to lose weight. Walking was the favored exercise for most. Find what works for you now and for the long term and  become a successful loser. 

Our next post will discuss one of the most important steps to success. Setting goals and being SMART about it is also the first step required for success. Stay tuned!

 

Progress Not Perfect

For fun I was browsing through photos, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia I have collected over 30 years.  As I was reminiscing, I came to the conclusion that the more I learn the less I know.  As a teenager and young adult I did a lot of things to get in shape that I now know were incorrect methods. Yet I was able to progress and achieve most of my personal fitness goals.

I’m always fighting the urge to be a perfectionist and I think that is where many of us fail. Fitness does not have to be that complicated. Just get moving, or as the Nike slogan goes,  just do it! There is not one perfect system so don’t get lost in the plethora of information out there and fall victim to paralysis of analysis. As you learn, definitely use scientific principles and methods of exercise that will keep you safe and produce results more efficiently. Remember, science doesn’t change. Only our knowledge of it changes. What worked 20 years ago will work 20 years later. You do need to alter your training as you learn better methods, but in the meantime just get moving and you’ll accomplish at least 80% of your potential. Strive for progress not perfection.

What I also find amusing, is trainers that have their clients doing all kinds of functional movements and the ‘latest’ exercise techniques, but will use outdated equipment or bizarre training methods like lifting boulders or doing other manual labor chores. Kind of the ‘wax on, wax off training philosophy’. At least Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid movie of 1984 was accomplishing a purpose. It is good to train for Activities of Daily Living, but ideally on state of the art equipment designed to exercise you appropriately so you will have less chance of incurring an injury when you do perform those activities. If you have no other means to exercise, then yes you should use common household items and your bodyweight resistance as exercise. If you need to condition for a specific sport or activity the law of specificity states you should indeed practice that activity but you still need proper conditioning to help prevent overuse injuries and compensate from potential muscle imbalances caused from doing any movement repetitively.

We get too many ideas from Hollywood. Sylvester Stallone in his portrayal of Rocky Balboa, felt he needed to get back to his roots and not use any sophisticated equipment and training methods. Yet in real life, he trains his body using the most sophisticated equipment and methods, including his own personal Kinesis equipment.

In the TV reality show series “Biggest Loser” we see people being whipped into shape by going from the extreme of inactivity to the extreme of  their physical limitations. Anything done in extremes will have a greater variance of success or failure in the short term. That’s why diets work great for 6 to 12 weeks but fail in the long run. Anytime you get sick exercising, you’ve done too much. Anytime you get extremely sore where it’s hard for you to function the next day, you’ve done too much. A little delayed onset muscle soreness is okay and can be expected if you’ve had a layoff or step up the intensity on your program. If we’re motivated enough, we can exercise under any condition, but if we have choices why would we want to? If you make exercise more painful than it needs to be you will find it hard to stay compliant and be more likely to fail.

In reality, the person that trains most consistently and progressively will get the best results. As much as I want to see you in our facility, as long as you’re active doing anything you will get results. A better training environment and equipment will ensure a more enjoyable and safer approach to getting those results.

If your sport happens to be like four times World Strongest Man winner Magnus ver Magnusson, then you may need to do some non traditional type training. For most of us, we can accomplish our goals in less extreme methods.

 

Stay tuned for our next blog post Does your diet take and keep weight off? Most diets don’t work in keeping the weight off according to researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. We’ll analyze some of the more popular diets including Atkins and The Zone and why they failed for 95%. So not to leave you in a a state of frustration, we’ll also lay out the principles of what has scientifically proved to work at losing weight and keeping it off.