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Burst Training or Aerobic Training?

23rd November 2009 by Lisa under Uncategorized     

Burst Training is better.

Maybe we have Jane Fonda to blame, but aerobic training is  a lot more popular than it should be. It doesn’t have all the great health benefits that we have heard doctors and trainers tell us. Jogging for an hour a day is a good health practice, but eventually our results will plateau.

Burst training is what gives us the results we want to see.

Here are some of its benefits:

  • It only need to be done 15-30 minutes a day. This means LESS exercise.
  • It increases our fat burning and fitness levels.
  • It increases our growth hormone which helps us heal better and have more energy.
  • It increases our testosterone. Now ladies, don’t be afraid of this one. It just means that we get better muscle tone and more energy.
  • It decreases inflammation which can reduce our pain and risk of chronic disease.
  • It has less impact on our adrenal glands which gives us better sleep and again better energy levels.

So how is burst training performed?

They should be done with compound movements which are exercises that use multiple joints or muscle groups. For example, push-ups, bench presses, pull-downs, chin-ups, and leg presses are all good exercises to use for burst training.

We should perform rapid movements of these exercises, then rest 1-3 minutes between sets. This allows us to catch our breath. A complete work-out should be 30 minutes or less, and if you don’t have time for that, split it into two sessions. You can do 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening.

Try doing this burst training 3-4 times per week.

According to  research from the University of New South Wales, Australia, running sprints with intermittent rest periods burns 3 times as much fat as running slow, consistent speeds.

As usual, before you start any exercise program, you should consult your doctor first.

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Fun will make you lose weight

18th November 2009 by Lisa under Optimal Health     
If you are on the 6 Weeks to Sexy program right now, somewhere along Week 2 or Week 3 George DeJohn (creator of the program and 21 Day Body Makeover) is going to insist you have fun while exercising.  We all like fun, so why not couple it with something good for us. Kind of along the lines of feeding a kid who doesn’t want to eat, you “trick” him or her by airplaneing the food -with all the sound effects in tow – straight into his mouth.
Fun distracts us and lets us do things longer. I have a friend who regularly attends these exercise classes known as Recess. It’s basically what the name suggests. A group of people gather together to play children’s games like 4 square, catch, whatever it may be that gets the body going and moving. It’s imitating the fun and exercise you had as a child during recess then applying to our lives as adults.
I think this is great. I have been a fun advocate for years, and believe it or not, there are anti-fun people out there. There are people  who think  to be successful you must work hard, which is true, but also that you can’t have fun while you do it, which is not true. Working out or working hard, neither has to be a chore.
There’s a great viral video on YouTube right now about the Fun Theory. We all know that people are too lazy to take the stairs even if there is a crowded line for the escalators. These fun theorists decided to make taking the stairs fun by turning it into a walking, full-out keyboard. Watch the video, it’s quite entertaining and it restored my faith in humanity a little bit.  So, if things are fun, it will make people do it.
If you aren’t looking forward to exercise, go find something you can enjoy.
Make your burst training fun by seeing how many times you can bounce on a stability ball for 30 seconds as fast as you can. Or sing karaoke while kicking your legs around and head banging.  Just burn those calories! (but please do be careful with your neck)

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8 Fitness Myths Debunked

17th November 2009 by Lisa under Optimal Health     

The things  “We should be doing…” as told by nutritionists and fitness experts  that we really shouldn’t be doing.

Myth #1

Crunches will get rid of Belly Fat.

Doing crunches won’t necessarily get us beach body ready, and there’s a chance of doing it in poor form and hurting our necks. Genetics and what we eat plays a large role in the way we hold on to fat. If you’ve been doing crunches for awhile and your stomach isn’t where you want it to be, consider changing up your routine.

Myth #2

Aerobic Exercises boost our metabolism for hours afterwards.

Aerobic exercise will measure how fit you are, but it won’t be what takes you there. We actually only burn 20 more calories (that’s it!) after we do aerobics than we normally would. Burst training is what really pumps up our metabolism and can get us burning hundreds of calories after a work-out.

Myth #3

Swimming makes us lose fat.

Swimming is enjoyable and easy on our joints, but unless you are doing it for hours, you won’t  burn as many calories as you think. What will work is burst training in a pool. Try running 30 seconds in place as fast as you can, then rest, and do it again.  The resistance is good for our bodies and effective in getting us in shape fast.

Myth #4

If you feel OK when working out, you’re not hurting your body at all.

If you’re a “weekend warrior”, a person who crams their work-outs into the weekends, and you do all your strenuous exercise only two days out of the week, you could be hurting your body. If you feel overly sore form a work-out, you’ve probably hurt a muscle.

Myth #5

Machines are a safe way to exercise.

Machines put you in a fixed path of motion. When in life, are you like that? NEVER.  Since you are not imitating natural movements, there’s a chance of hurting yourself. Each case is particular, and this doesn’t mean all machines are bad for us.

Myth #6

If you can’t work out everyday, then might as well not do it.

Any form of exercise is always better than no exercise. If  you don’t have time for a full-fledged work-out everyday, you can try burst training.  Burst training 3 days a week can equal someone who goes through the “motions” of a work-out 6 days a week.  Feeling the burn and pushing through is essential in getting results quickly and burning fat. Work-out smart and hard, not for hours, that’s the trick.

Myth #7

Stretching before exercise reduces injuries.

It sounds so logical, but stretching AFTER exercise is the better choice.  You do still need to warm-up. A warm-up and stretching isn’t the same thing. It’s years of of high-school gym class that has given us this misconception. You can warm-up by doing exercises that imitate the activity you are about to do. For example, if you are going to jog, try jogging in place and doing jumping jacks before your run.


Myth #8

If you stop exercising, muscles will turn to fat.

This one surprised me. These are two completely different tissues, and one can’t turn into the other or vice versa. It is possible for your muscles to get soft as they atrophy from lack of use, but being fat is a ratio (how much fat to muscle) and NOT a size. You can be thin and have a high fat content. You can also be larger set, but actually not that fat at all.

If you want to hear George DeJohn’s podcast on this, you can go here: Fitness Myths – August 22nd.

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Why you need to do burst training

16th November 2009 by Lisa under Optimal Health     

Burst training is something that is so important, but many of us don’t practice. It’s understandable. Going to work-out five days a week is already hard enough.  Doing exercise that actually pushes our body can be even more difficult.

Burst training is an exercise that requires a burst of movement. It’s not an easy feat, though it is quite simple. The point is to work your muscles to exhaustion by doing 4 or 5 exercises as hard as you can for a given amount of time. For example, jogging in place as hard as you can for one minute. Or sprinting as far as you can for a minute. Or 40 seconds of dumbbell bench presses.  Then, you rest, recover, and do it all over again.

Why is it important? Our body is an amazing machine, and it is also highly adaptable. When we starve ourselves, it learns to live off less calories. When we work out enough, it learns to be more efficient at burning calories. Our bodies become acclimated to the exercises we do. We have seen chubby joggers out there. We’re much less likely to see chubby sprinters. That’s why it’s so essential to feel the burn when we work-out. That’s how you see results.

Besides health, many of us want to be able to see a difference. Having that slimmer waist, that muscle definition, that feeling of strength, these are all reasons that working-out is enjoyable. With burst training, you get to see results faster.

Burst training also makes us lose fat faster.

It cuts through the fat. Where aerobic training may be good for getting our heart rates up, it isn’t meant to give us the definition or tone we desire.

If you are a runner or have a work-out routine, you may start to notice after the first initial period of training, you no longer see results. You may still be feeling heatlhy, but your appearance and weight have plateaued.  This is normal. You can run 20miles every week, but if you aren’t pushing yourself with burst training, you aren’t likely to see many changes in your body. In fact, you can still gain weight even though you are so active.

It’s frustrating to see your results plateau, and that’s why there’ s a simple solution to solve it.

Do you have 15 minutes to spare?

Try changing your routine up a bit and add in burst training. Just 15 minutes a day, 5-6 times a week for 30 days – and you will see a difference in your appearance. Give it a chance, and if you don’t like it, no harm done. You can always go back to your old routine.

So to burst train, all you have to do is give it your all for 40seconds to a minute, then rest, then go at it again. Here’s another tip – aim for your big muscle groups like your chest, back, arms, and legs.

So remember, if you are after fast results and fat loss, burst training is the answer for you.


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