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Those who follow me on Facebook will know that I frequently signify the completion of each of my workouts with a status that simply says “Dose”.   I do this largely to share the message with others that exercise, all by itself, is simply one of the most powerful tools we have for the prevention and treatment of many disorders, dysfunctions, and diseases.  I want them to know that Exercise is Medicine!

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More importantly, my hope is that by sharing when I’ve had my “dose”  this will incite others (even if it is just ONE person) to move that day and begin to make a difference in their own lives and the lives around them.

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Now, if I’m being honest, the phrase above isn’t my own. “Exercise is Medicine” is actually the name of an initiative coordinated by the American College of Sports Medicine and I have borrowed it because it is such a powerful statement and I think it speaks to a lot of people.  Because of this, I want to use today’s post to touch briefly on the medicinal (and almost magical) benefits of exercise.  More specifically, I want to focus on the improvements that can be had with exercise EVEN IF WE DON’T RESTRICT CALORIES.

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1. Improved Cholesterol

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Exercise alone has been shown to increase HDL (good) cholesterol, which is a valuable improvement for heart health.  And while some might argue that cholesterol is largely related to genetic factors and another faction might even argue that improving cholesterol isn’t linked to many “hard” outcomes (like improving mortality rates), I feel it is still worthy of attention and it is formally considered a risk factor for cardiac issues is most medical establishments.

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2. Decreased Triglycerides

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Triglycerides, in the simplest sense, are the fats that float around in our bloodstream and when they become elevated can put us at increased risk for heart disease. Exercise can burn off these fats and it has been shown (in many cases) to be even better than calorie restriction for this very purpose.

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3. Decreased Blood Pressure

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High blood pressure (otherwise known as hypertension) is a leading cause of strokes and it is often called “the silent killer” because you don’t necessarily notice the change happening as it slowly increases over time. Exercise can reduce both systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number) blood pressure thereby reducing our risk of stroke.

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4. Improved Insulin Sensitivity

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When we eat a carbohydrate (vegetables, fruits, starches, and candy) the sugars from those foods goes into our blood stream. Our pancreas then releases the hormone insulin to tell many of the cells in our body to take up and use those sugars. *Note to fitness peeps – Don’t crucify me here, I’m simplifying for the masses*

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When our cells become insulin resistant they fail to listen to the signals given by insulin (kinda like I do to my wife when she asks me to take the garbage out) and the sugars in the blood continue to rise. Left unchecked, this problem can become worse and eventually may lead to diseases like Type 2 Diabetes which can bring with it a whole host of other problems like vision loss, neuropathy, and kidney problems.

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The most incredible thing though, is that as soon as you begin to move your body shuttles the sugars from your blood into your cells for use, blood sugar normalizes, and your sensitivity to insulin jumps up drastically. In fact, this jump is so drastic that if you want to show the effects of exercise on chronic changes in insulin sensitivity (not just those from the most recent exercise bout) you have to wait FOUR DAYS to test for this. So the result is INSTANT and lasting.  The second you move…you improve!!!

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Add to that the fact that over time insulin sensitivity will become improved even while you’re not exercising if you continue to maintain that active lifestyle!!!  Whether you’re currently healthy, insulin resistant, or Diabetic exercise can help.

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5. Reduced Waist Circumference and Visceral Fat

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You’ve probably heard that certain body shapes are more at risk for cardiovascular issues and that is probably an understatement. While there is some research suggesting this is not the case, most professionals would agree that fat stored around the waist (more specifically around the organs – called visceral fat) is a ticking time bomb.

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Fortunately, exercise can decrease abdominal fat and waist circumference EVEN WITHOUT WEIGHT LOSS. I’ve seen cases where people are losing 8-10 inches off their waists in 6 months with no change in weight so not only does it look better, but they have drastically reduced their risk of death from cardiovascular causes.  So you can get new jeans and be healthier!  Score one for activity!

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6. Improved (or maintained) Bone Density

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As women get older – or for those who have had their ovaries removed – the risk for bone loss increases leading to hip fractures, immobility, and other complications increases. Simple higher impact activities or moderate resistance training can prevent bone loss and even increase it if you work hard enough.

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7.  Increased Strength

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I could go on all day about the virtues of being strong, but in terms of every day activites, it just makes life easier.  From picking up groceries and children, to lifting stuff at the gym getting strong is like a magic pill that helps make things that were once difficult feel simple.  Exercise can make you stronger and THAT is medicine.

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8. Stress Reduction

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Whether this is brought about by neurochemical changes in the brain or some psychological factor I don’t know.  Frankly, I don’t even really care.  To me, lifting heavy things helps to vent my frustrations through the iron.  But at the same time, going for an afternoon in the park with my wife and daugher, running on the climbers, and swinging on the swings does exactly the same thing for relaxing my mind and bringing me in touch with what is REALLY important in life.

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9. Increased Muscle Mass

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As muscle mass is corrlated with strength, metabolism, and absolute sexiness (okay…I made up the last one…but I figure it helps with that too) you can’t go wrong by getting active.  You’ll be stronger, leaner, and sexier for your efforts.  In fact, those who lose weight without activity tend to lose muscle mass, reduce their metabolic rate, and have a harder time overcoming plateaus.  So whether you’re dieting or not…movement is good.

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10. Weight Loss

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I’ve said in the past that I don’t think adding exercise to an already solid diet does a lot in terms of absolute amount of weight lost.  In that case, I think it comes down to more of what kind of weight is lost.  With activity involved, a greater proportion of the weight lost will be fat and more muscle will be retained so exercise obviously has a role here.

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But even without calorie restriction, moderate intensity exercise can bring about a weight loss if the appropriate amount of activity is done.  Below 150 minutes per week you’d be looking at 9lbs in a year, over 150 minutes per week and you’ll achieve closer to 18lbs in a year, and once you exceed 200 minutes per week (about 30 minutes per day) you can score yourself about 33lbs of weight loss in one year with NO DIETARY CHANGE!!!  Of course, changing your diet is good too, but in terms of health you could lose weight and become more active and you’d be reducing TWO risk factors for heart disease!

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Frankly, I could probably go on forever and talk about the effects of cardiovascular fitness on reducing mortality and so forth, but I think you already get the idea.  My two most major points are that exercise is NOT just about weight loss (although it helps) and that regardless of how much you’re willing to do, the benefits are incredible as long as you start.

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Even if it sounds like a HUGE leap for you…take small steps as I suggested HERE.  Plan week by week and set achievable action plans.  The medicine and the magic of exercise will pay off.  And when it does…you’ll feel awesome!  So walk, run, swim, dance, or lift.  It doesn’t matter.

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Exercise is medicine!  Just move and get your dose!

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*Note – I realize that I’m probably preaching to the choir here (or at least a lot of you) so please share this with those who need to hear it via Facebook, Twitter, email, or whatever method you can.*

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Every so often we tend to let our weight get a little beyond where we might like due to work stress, having kids, etc and we rationalize that we’ll just have to “take it off later”.  However, recent research on leptin shows that perhaps this doesn’t work exactly as we might expect.

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You see, leptin is a very interesting hormone that was evolutionarily responsible for protecting our body from starvation.  At our normal weight (i.e., when we are not calorie restricted) leptin levels remain stable and our metabolism plugs along just fine.  However, as we lose weight our leptin levels fall which can slow down our metabolism and make us want to eat more to restore us to our original weight and bring leptin back up to its original levels.  This is normal and anyone who had tried to lose weight in the past will know exactly what I’m talking about.

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But here’s the kicker, when we gain extra weight and carry it around for a while our leptin threshold (the point leptin levels have to reach to keep us weight stable) becomes higher.  In other words, we’ll have to eat more to restore leptin to that higher level and this predisposes us to go right back to that weight.  So basically, once we gain weight and carry it around for a while, it will actually get harder to maintain any future weight loss.  Shit!

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And to make the problem worse, the new leptin threshold (you know…the one we created by allowing ourselves to carry around the extra weight that we were going to take off later) does not appear to go down even if we take off the weight and maintain that new body weight for a long time.  Instead, the higher leptin threshold appears to be permanent and once it is changed there doesn’t appear to be much we can do about it.  Double shit!

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So what can you do about it?

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 If you’ve gained some weight and you’re not where you’d like to be then you need to immediately implement a plan consisting of several well thought out action steps that will carry you to your goal before your body adapts to your current weight.

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Alternatively, if you’ve been at your current weight for a while and you think your body may already have adapted, what you can do is start by taking action today to prevent future weight gain.

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Of course, if you need that extra litte bit of incentive to finally take action I should remind you that today is the last day to Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle product before the end of day and you’ll have the opportunity to get lean, and defeat leptin, and win an all inclusive trip to Maui all at the same time.

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Whether or not you decide to use Tom’s product is up to you, but frankly, the incentive to go to Maui is pretty convincing to me.  But the very least you need to do is start taking some action today (no matter how small) to start moving in the right direction.

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Recently there has been a lot of buzz in the fitness industry about a new study showing that 45 minutes on vigorous activity boosts post exercise calorie burning by 190 calories.  Frankly, I think the study was done VERY well, but I think people are taking it to mean more than it does.  I figured I’d do a quick review to share a few of my thoughts.

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In short, the researchers took 10 subjects had each one spend 24 hours in a metabolic chamber on two separate occaisions.

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For the uninitiated, a metabolic chamber is an 8 x 10 foot room with a 7 foot ceiling that is completely sealed for the period in which the subject is studied.  (In other words, if you don’t like enclosed spaces you’d probably freak right the hell out)

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On one occaision the subjects did no physical activity within the chamber other than what was necessary for daily living (washing, brushing teeth, etc).  The rest of the time was spent sitting and no additional activity was permitted.

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On another occaision, the same methods were followed except that subjects performed 45 minutes of exercise at a “vigorous” intensity (75% VO2 max – actually VO2 peak, but that’s just being picky). 

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On both occaisions subjects received meals that were designed to keep them in calorie balance so on the exercise day subjects were fed more food to account for the calories expended from activity.

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The results of this very strictly controlled study showed that when the subjects exercised they burned 514 calories from the exercise bout itself and an additional 190 calories in the post exercise period.

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So what does this study actually tell us?

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This study shows that you’ll burn 190 extra calories after doing vigorous exercise than you would if you did absolutely nothing!

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Mind-friggin’-blowing isn’t it?!?

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I think the researchers did a very good job at answering the question they asked, but I’m not sure the the research is of much relevance to non-researchers (i.e., people who want to lose fat).  I don’t think there is really anything new here.

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Previous research has demonstrated that intensity and duration can both contribute to the post exercise calorie expenditure so this research just reinforces this fact. 

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.And more importantly, does it really matter?

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To illustrate the effects of such a protocol in the real world a training study would have to be conducted to show that fat loss would result as a chronic effect of this protocol.

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But again…you’d be looking at doing nothing versus doing something so I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be surprised to see that the exercise group might come out on top.

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In summary, exercise versus not exercising DOES result in increased calorie expenditure.  You might even hypothesize (probably correctly) that this would result in greater weight loss over time. 

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Would there be a difference between two exercise intensities if done for the same time with both groups already in a calorie deficit and free living conditions (i.e., not being told to sit down all day in a box)?

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I don’t know the answer to that.  But I’m not holding my breath since exercise really doesn’t tend to result in more weight loss in trials where diet changes are already in place.

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In the end, this study does show we burn more calories when we exercise which is good (not surprising).  But it doesn’t really tell us much more than that.

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.—

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Knab AM, Shanely RA, Corbin K, Jin F, Sha W, Nieman DC. A 45-Minute Vigorous Exercise Bout Increases Metabolic Rate for 14 Hours. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Feb 8. [Epub ahead of print]

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Side Note - I found it interesting that this study actually had two references from Eric Poehlman whose career has come crashing down after admitting to falsifying data in grant applications and several studies.

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If you’d like to review studies like this for yourself, check out my product How to Read Fitness Research.

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I have a confession to make.

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I use interval training with my clients for fat loss.

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For those who are new to this blog this will probably come as no surprise as interval training is pretty trendy and everyone and their mother “knows” that interval training is better than steady state exercise for fat loss.

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However, my regular readers will know that I’m not buying this at all.  As far as the research is concerned, I don’t think that there is any evidence to date showing that interval training is vastly superior in terms of total fat loss compared to steady state exercise.  In fact, there are only a handful of studies (less than 5) actually looking at this and the differences in fat loss between groups are actually quite small.

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To further complicate matters, in studies where intervals and steady state have been compared, there was no calorie restriction.  As I mentioned previously, adding exercise to diet rarely yields additional weight loss so I’m wondering just how much of an extra effect intervals would have if this was added to the mix.  I’m guessing the divide between intervals and steady state would get even smaller!

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Until a study is conducted where steady state is compared to intervals with dietary restriction and a similar amount of mechanical work,  I think the jury will be out on the true effectiveness of this method for fat loss.  I could be wrong, but in the end, I think they may just pan out to be even.

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Of course, some might find this shocking given the amount of media hype about how intervals will make you lose 26 pounds of fat in 18 seconds.  But the truth is, that if you prefer steady state exercise or you don’t love puking on your shoes after repeated sets of sprints, you don’t necessarily need to jump on the interval bandwagon if you want to get lean.  After all, people used steady state exercise to get lean for years before intervals were “in”.

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So why would I use intervals in my fat loss programs???

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One word.  TIME.  I certainly don’t believe that intervals are better, but I know they are faster and that is where I believe the big distinction is.  Maybe it is semantics, but I don’t think it is fair to tell people that intervals are superior when the research doesn’t support it.

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If you only have time for short bouts of activity then I’m in full agreement that intervals are a good choice (which is why I think so many facilities that use them feel intervals are superior).  But for those who prefer steady state exercise and have more time available for this I don’t feel that we need to force them into interval training.

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Both work.  Find what you like, get it done, and be consistent.  Diet is probably more important anyway.

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What do you think?

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A while back I did a guest post for my buddy Bret Contreras where I basically stated that the acute rise in hormones like testosterone and growth hormone from certain types of training protocols has no additional  effect on muscle hypertrophy (growth). 

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Then, just a couple weeks ago, one of my friends emailed me a recent study showing exactly the opposite with the primary difference being the timing of the “hormone inducing” workout.

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In both studies the authors had the subjects train one arm in a low horomone condition and the other arm in a high hormone condition on alternate days.  In the first study though, the authors had the subjects perform additional leg exercise AFTER the arm training to increase anabolic hormones in the high hormone condition.  In the more recent study, the subjects  performed the leg exercise to increase growth hormone and testosterone BEFORE the arm exercise in the high hormone condition.

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In the first study they found no difference in strength and muscle growth between the two conditions and in the more recent study they found that the higher hormone condition increased the strength and muscle growth to a greater degree.

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At first glance, it appears that boosting hormones via training BEFORE training your smaller muscle groups (like biceps) can increase your results.

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However, one other major difference was that in the first study they gave each subject a drink containing protein both before and after the workout.  In the more recent study, they “encouraged” subjects to consume something afterward, but nothing was formally provided.

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Previous studies have demonstrated that there may be a maximum level of protein synthesis that can be achieved and that giving a bolus of protein in conjunction with exercise would make this easily achievable.  Because they didn’t give a peri-workout beverage at all in the second group, it is hard to know whether the differences would have been seen if protein synthesis had already been maxed out.

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So it MAY be that doing hormone inducing exercise before your smaller muscle groups can accelerate muscle growth.  Or it may be that doing hormone inducing exercise before training your smaller muscle groups can accelerate growth when protein synthesis isn’t already maxed out from pre or post workout nutrition.

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The moral of the story though, is that since the second study didn’t control peri-workout nutrition, we just don’t know.  For now, I’m still leaning towards the conclusions of the first study since the second study lacked the appropriate control to really answer this question.

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If you’d like to review studies like this for yourself, check out my product How to Read Fitness Research.

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