In the past when I’ve tried to lose weight I’ve found that one of the things that works best for me is when I workout using high intensity interval training in combination with some form of resistance training (along with eating healthier of course).

Now they’re finding that by using interval training you may be able to cut the amount of time that you’re exercising as well!

From MSNBC:

People who complain they have no time to exercise may soon need another excuse.

Some experts say intense exercise sessions could help people squeeze an entire week’s workout into less than an hour. Intense exercise regimens, or interval training, was originally developed for Olympic athletes and thought to be too strenuous for normal people.

But in recent years, studies in older people and those with health problems suggest many more people might be able to handle it. If true, that could revolutionize how officials advise people to exercise — and save millions of people hours in the gym every week. It is also a smarter way to exercise, experts say.

One of the most common excuses that I hear people make for not exercising is that they don’t have enough time. I may have even used that excuse myself from time to time.   High intensity interval training can help you to cut down the amount of time you’re exercising, and jump start the weight loss!

“High-intensity interval training is twice as effective as normal exercise,” said Jan Helgerud, an exercise expert at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “This is like finding a new pill that works twice as well … we should immediately throw out the old way of exercising.”

Intense interval training means working very hard for a few minutes, with rest periods in between sets. Experts have mostly tested people running or biking, but other sports like rowing or swimming should also work.

Helgerud recommends people try four sessions lasting four minutes each, with three minutes of recovery time in between. Unless you’re an elite athlete, it shouldn’t be an all-out effort.

“You should be a little out of breath, but you shouldn’t have the obvious feeling of exhaustion,” Helgerud said.

In Britain and the U.S., officials recommend that people get about two and a half hours each week of moderate exercise.

My favorite way of engaging in the interval training is by running. Normally I’ll run for around 20 minutes, starting with a warmup and then doing several sets of varying intensity. I’ll start out with a slow jog and continue for five minutes increasing my intensity and speed with each minute, ending each cycle by running fast.   I then go back down in intensity to a jog and work back up to a sprint by the time the five munites is done.  I repeat the cycle 4 times.

Experts say that’s because intense bursts of activity are precisely what the body needs to build stronger muscles. Traditional workouts lasting an hour or more simply don’t push the body enough.

“A lot of the (benefits) from exercise are due to a stress response,” said Stephen Bailey, a sports sciences expert at the University of Exeter. “If you disturb your muscles, there’s an imbalance created and your body will start signaling pathways that result in adjustments.”

Bailey said intense bursts of exercise help the body to convert one type of muscle fiber into another type that uses oxygen more efficiently and is capable of exercising a lot longer. Even though interval training only takes a few minutes, its effects last for hours.

“You’ve exercised at such a high intensity that you’re going to create a massive disturbance in your muscles,” Bailey said. That creates a higher metabolism for several hours afterward, which the body will bring down by burning fat and carbohydrates.

I think I’m going to re-start my workout regimen tonight because I’ve been letting myself slide over the past year. Time to get back into the interval training, and working off some of my excess weight!

Have you tried interval training? If so, what type of exercise do you do? How has it worked for you? Do you do it in combination with anything else? Tell us your experience in the comments.

photo credit: jontunn

Manual muscle testing is a skill that takes time and practice to perform with reliability. However, it is a valuable tool for fitness professionals.

There are visual and verbal cues that can be used to perform an exercise properly but looks can be deceiving.

Let’s use the squat exercise as an example.

If you were to instruct a client on how to properly perform the squat you would probably explain the proper stance width, foot, trunk and head position, staying back on the heels, etc.

And, from what you can see, it appears that they’re doing the exercise correctly but they feel lower back pain.  Now, you could simply modify the exercise or substitute an alternative.

But, what if the pain wasn’t caused by the exercise itself but from the inability to activate the core stabilizing muscles?

Since this isn’t something that can actually be seen, and verbal feedback from the client can be misleading at times, manual muscle testing can help to determine whether or not an exercise is achieving its main purpose.

This is particularly true when performing core stabilization exercises for the abdominals because many times the client will recruit the rectus abdominis but fail to recruit the deep abdominal stabilizing muscles (ex: transverse abdominis).

The client might feel their abs working however without manual muscle testing it’s difficult to know if the right muscles are being activated.

Below are 2 manual muscle tests for assessing core stability:

Modified Deadbug:

Instruct the client to try to hold this position for 30 seconds and ask them what area or part of the body they feel most. If they feel it in the thighs and/or just below the ribcage the abdominal stabilizers are weak or inhibited

Sitting ‘V’ Position

Instruct the client to hold this position for with a slight backward lean of the trunk for 60 seconds and notice any changes. If the chest drops, they feel burning in the thighs, cramping in the hips and/or the lumbar extensors this indicates weakness or inhibition of the abdominal stabilizers.

These tests take time and practice to learn but manual muscle testing is a valuable skill for fitness professionals that can help correct muscle imbalances, prevent injuries and improve the effectiveness of an exercise program.

Unfortunately, muscle testing isn’t taught in most personal training certification courses however there are some excellent resources available on muscle manual testing and core stabilization exercises.

The other night I saw an infomercial for the Bowflex Treadclimber TC5000 which is like a combination of a treadmill and elliptical machine in one that helps reduce joint stress and claims to burn 2 x the calories than on a regular treadmill due to their 3-in 1-technology (which I’m still not sure what that means but it sounds pretty cool doesn’t it?) and that you’ll get more results with less effort in less time…

Now, I’ll admit that I’m all for time efficient workouts that produce better results than traditional high volume training.  However, at times during the infomercial I noticed a block of fine print that quickly flashed on screen.

The fine print is so small you practically need a telescope to read it and the text is white which they cleverly blend into a white background making it barely legible…Also, that fine print is on and off the screen in the blink of an eye so unless you’re one hell of an amazing speed reader with the vision of the bionic man you probably won’t even notice it.

But, thanks to the creation of the DVR I was able to take a closer look and I was shocked at what the fine print said…

So, here’s a summary of the Bowflex Treadclimber TC5000 fine print facts:

Fact #1: Studies were performed with the Treadclimber at 3.2 mph and at level 12 intensity versus a regular treadmill at 6.2 mph and 0% incline

Now, I’ve never actually used a Bowflex Treadclimber but I have used an elliptical trainer at a level 12 intensity and I’m willing to bet that level 12 intensity on the Treadclimber is pretty darn difficult to maintain just as it’s difficult for most people to maintain a 6.2 mph pace on a treadmill for 30-60 minutes.

While the Treadclimber allows you to move at a comfortable walking pace the reality is that you are simply substituting speed for resistance. This is the same thing you can do using an elliptical machine.

Fact #2: The Treadclimber infomercial shows a chart revealing you burn 321 calories on the Treadclimber (at 3.2 mph and level 12) over a 30-minute period which is more than on the treadmill (at 6.2 mph and 0% incline).

However, I’m curious as to how they came up with this number since calorie expenditure is largely dependent upon how much you weigh.

Another thing to consider is that at most only 60% of those calories burned actually come from fat.

So, if we do some quick math we can see that out of 321 calories burned x 60% of those calories come from fat = 186 calories from fat burned…

1 lb of fat = 3,500 calories

This means that you would have to perform about 9 hours on the Treadclimber just to burn 1 measly pound of fat…Coincidentally, this is about the same amount of time it would take to burn 1 lb of fat using a treadmill

Maybe it’s just me but trading 9 hours for 1 lb of fat just doesn’t seem like it backs up their claim of more results with less effort in less time.

Fact #3: The participants in the Treadclimber study lost a significant amount of body weight and body fat.

However, the participants used the meal plan that comes with the Treadclimber which goes to show that you cannot achieve your weight loss goals without controlling your calorie intake.

And, since we now know that it takes about 9 hours to burn 1 lb of fat using the Treadclimber this suggests that a large contributor to the weight and body fat loss is due to proper diet.

The bottom line is that the Bowflex Treadclimber has some advantages versus a regular treadmill (and a hefty price tag) but when it comes to losing weight and reducing body fat cardio just isn’t a very effective option.

While the Treadclimber may burn 2 x the calories versus the treadmill it’s still only slightly more than 5% of a pound of fat for 30 minutes!

The 2 most important factors for weight loss and body fat reduction are: (1) diet and (2) resistance training and you can achieve your goals without fad diets or expensive over-hyped fitness equipment.

This is a guest post by Joe over at joetherunner.com. His site is about how running can change your life; make you a better father, husband, and friend. You can check out his site at the URL above, or by subscribing to his feed here.

My love of running started off like many long lasting and fruitful relationships; rather difficultly. You see I haven’t always had the fondness for the sport that I do now. In fact at first we hated each other. There was simply no mutual respect. I used running as a way to lose some much needed weight and running used me as a moving symbol of how not to run.

However, for one reason or another I kept at it. I did lose some weight but the best outcome of our new relationship was the respect I gained for the wonderful aspects of the sport that were hidden beneath the surface. After years of using running it has become my favorite tool to deal with grief, purge stress, stay lean, maintain a positive attitude, and boost my confidence; and there seems to be a genuine scientific explanation for it.

The Science Behind The Love Of Running

The most popular explanation for my near dependency on running stems from a runner’s favorite little compound – the endorphin. Produced by the pituitary gland endorphins are proven to produce a natural feeling of well being and pain relief, and even in name have a chemical relationship to the morphine family. And though they are proven to have very powerful effects on the human body, there has been some speculation over the notion that running produces enough of them to have a measurable effect.

However, in 2008 the New York Times reported on a study done by researchers in Germany. The published findings were that running does in fact produce a surge of endorphins in the brain. Backing up the study were leading scientists, who were not directly involved, also accepting the researcher findings.

I am glad the debate seems to be satiated, but to be honest I wish they would have come to me first. I don’t know if my personal experience would have been sufficient to warrant publication in neurological journals but I would have let them study the life changing benefits running has had on me, for a fee of course.

Here is what I have discovered. First, running has the ability to do all the things you have heard. It can alter your mood in the most positive ways and has lasting effects. I also attribute it to helping me establish healthy sleep patterns, not something I see mentioned in many discussions. Also, the harder you push yourself the more endorphins are released. This was proven by the same study referenced above and backed up by yours truly.

Not Only Running Can Give You The Runner’s High

It should be mentioned that running is not the only exercise that produces these benefits. It just happens to be the only one I know how to do well. My love of running came when I embraced it for its mental as well as physical benefits. Any fitness quest comes with it fair share of challenges; embracing exercise on multiple levels delivers much needed motivation for the bumps in the journey.

Have you experienced the release of endorphins, and the runner’s high?   Tell us why you love running in the comments!

I won’t go into the benefits and downfalls of running in this article. Instead today I thought I’d list  some alternatives to running that people can do to get in shape.  There’s no excuse for getting bored with your workout!

Alternatives To Running

• Going for a brisk walk
• Swimming at the local club
• Doing a workout video
• Playing basketball
• Rowing machine
• Hiking on local trails
• Spin classes
• Stationary bike
• Roller Blading
• Cross country skiing
• Mountain bike riding
• Elliptical machine
• Treadmill
• Jumping rope
• Circuit training
• Ultimate frisbee
• Step Aerobics
• Handball/Racquetball
• Rock climbing
• Kickboxing

Do you have your own exercises that you enjoy doing (that isn’t running?)? Tell us about it in the comments!

photo credit: kimdokhac

In recent years core training workouts and abdominal training have become synonymous but core conditioning programs need more than just abdominal exercises.

The “core” is the body’s center of gravity and origin of movement and actually consists of many different muscles that stabilize the trunk and hips, allowing efficient movement of the upper and lower extremeties.

Core training programs that fail to address these muscles and focus primarily on abdominal exercises will get limited results at best. Core training exercises need to address the muscles of the trunk and hips to be effective.

Proper core workout training targeted on these muscles help:

• develop better movement coordination and control
• improve balance
• proper load transfer between the upper and lower body
• stabilize the spine and pelvis
• improve joint stability

A strong core is needed to protect the back and hips and other joints of the body during weight bearing activities and to effectively dissipate ground reaction forces.

Core training workouts can help reduce shoulder, back, hip and knee pain and improve athletic performance.

And, core training exercises can be performed using a variety of training tools such as: medicine balls, stability balls, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands and your own body weight.

Movements like the plank, bridge, trunk rotations, squats and multi-directional lunges are very effective core fitness training exercises.

Developing optimum core strength and stability requires core training workouts focus on more than just ab exercises. There are many different exercises to develop core strength and stability.

A qualified trainer or a properly designed core stabilization training program can you help determine which core fitness exercises work best for you.

photo credit: hectorir

When I go running, or workout with weights, I’ve always found that a powerful motivating factor can be the music that I listen to. If I listen to upbeat music that sets a good pace, I’ll often have an extremely good workout. If I don’t listen to music or the music just isn’t as upbeat – the workout isn’t always as good.

Now new research is showing why music helps to motivate us when we workout, and looks at the key elements in music that can get us pumped up for our workout.

For the last 20 years, Costas Karageorghis, a sports psychologist at Britain’s Brunel University, has been setting the research pace for understanding our need to groove and move… According to Kargeorghis, there are four factors that contribute to a song’s motivational qualities: rhythm response, musicality, cultural impact and association. The first two are known as “internal” factors as they relate to the music’s structure while the second two are “external” factors that reflect how we interpret the music.

• Rythm Response: Rhythm response is tied to the beats per minute (bpm) of the song and how well it matches either the cadence or the heartbeat of the runner
• Musicality: A song’s structure such as its melody and harmony contribute to its musicality.
• Cultural Impact: The external factors consider our musical background and the preferences we have for a certain genre of music.
• Association: We associate good things with certain songs and artists, and that music can help to motivate us.

Choosing The Right Music  Can Increase Your Efficiency, Endurance

Another thing the researchers found in their studies was that syncing beats per minute with an exercise pace could increase the efficiency for their subjects:

In a recent study, subjects who cycled in time to music found that they required 7 percent less oxygen to do the same work when compared to music playing in the background. Music can also help block out the little voice in your brain telling you its time to quit. Research shows that this dissociation effect results in a 10 percent reduction in perceived effort during treadmill running at a moderate intensity.

Not only did they find that their efficiency could increase, but they found that the right music choice could increase endurance and lessen the impact of fatigue.

“The synchronous application of music resulted in much higher endurance while the motivational qualities of the music impacted significantly on the interpretation of fatigue symptoms right up to the point of voluntary exhaustion,” Karageorghis reported.

What Is The Conclusion?

So what is the conclusion that we can reach from these studies?  To me it means that I should be making my workouts better by being careful about the music choices I make.  If I choose the right music that has an upbeat tempo (high BPM), has a good association for me, and that can be in sync with my workout, I can expect to have more effective and even longer workouts because of the motivational effect of the music.

So, how do you go about finding the right music for the workout?  There are a variety of softwares out there that will analyze your music library and categorize songs into different playlists according to beats per minute – and some even will create playlists so that you have a warmup, exercise and warm-down.  One example of that is the Tangerine plugin for Itunes.   Use one of those softwares to create your optimal playlist for your workout!

Have you found that music helps you to have a better workout?  Do you have playlists for certain types of exercise, or for certain goals?

The initial results from a new study have suggested that caffeine may have the effects of lessening the pain from intense exercise.  From MSNBC.com

That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.

The study looked at how caffeine helps to block  a certain biochemical that is important in pain processing.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.

What they found was that the caffeine did in fact help with reducing the pain of exercise, both in people who regularly drank coffee or caffeine filled drinks, and in those who didn’t.   Details of the study:

An hour prior to each session, cyclists — who had been instructed not to consume caffeine during the prior 24-hour period — were given a pill. On one occasion, it contained a dose of caffeine measuring 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to two to three cups of coffee); the other time, they received a placebo.
During both exercise periods, subjects’ perceptions of quadriceps muscle pain was recorded at regular intervals, along with data on oxygen consumption, heart rate and work rate.
“What we saw is something we didn’t expect,” Motl said. “Caffeine-naïve individuals and habitual users have the same amount of reduction in pain during exercise after caffeine (consumption).”

So what is the conclusion  that they’ve reached, and what is the practical application?

We’ve shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics.    One of the things that may be a practical application, is if you go to the gym and you exercise and it hurts, you may be prone to stop doing that because pain is an aversive stimulus that tells you to withdraw,” Motl said. “So if we could give people a little caffeine and reduce the amount of pain they’re experiencing, maybe that would help them stick with that exercise.

So drink up!  Starbucks here we come!

Have you ever found that when you’re living an active lifestyle, your mood and temperment tend to be better than when you’re more sedentary?  I know I tend to be in a better mood when I’m working out.

Now a new study has found that men who aren’t active are more likely to “feel hopeless”.

More active men seem to have a rosier outlook on life, new research from Finland shows.

Dr. Maarit Valtonen of Kuopio University Hospital and colleagues found that men who spent less than one hour a week doing moderate to vigorous leisure-time physical activity were 37 percent more likely to report feeling hopeless than men who logged at least 2.5 hours weekly.

The men who got at least 2.5 hours of moderate activity each week were significantly less likely to be hopeless than men who were active for an hour or less weekly, and this association remained even after the researchers adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and other relevant factors. Vigorous physical activity had a particularly strong effect.

When the researchers adjusted for depression, the link between hopelessness and activity remained. But while low levels of fitness were also tied to greater likelihood of feeling hopeless, further analysis found depression was the responsible factor.

Many people, including those who aren’t depressed or otherwise mentally ill, feel hopeless, the researchers note. The current findings, they say, suggest that “hopelessness and depression are overlapping, but distinct entities.”

The findings also suggest that being active can help “ameliorate or protect against feelings of hopelessness” even if a person’s fitness levels don’t improve.

So once again, being physically active is shown to be good for your health – both physically and psychologically.

As for me? I’m still waiting for that study that says eating hamburgers and pizza – and being a couch potato are good for your health. I’m still waiting.