By Dr. Mercola

Surely you realize just how important exercise is to get optimally healthy. I started exercising regularly about 45 years ago, and in my own journey, I've made many mistakes along the way.

By sharing them, hopefully you can avoid making the same mistakes I made.

One major mistake was not realizing the profound benefits of high intensity exercises.

Walk into a typical fitness center, and you will see the vast majority of people making this same mistake: They're only using the cardio equipment.

Worse yet, they're oftentimes reading a book or chatting while doing low intensity training. While this is certainly better than doing nothing, it's only providing a fraction of the benefits that are possible if you're using the cardio equipment effectively, and exercising more efficiently.

The way you use cardio equipment properly is by doing HIGH INTENSITY workouts. If you only have 30 minutes, you can easily complete a high intensity interval workout session.

Intensity is Key!

The key factor that makes interval training so effective is intensity. To reap maximum results, you need to work out at maximum intensity, with rest periods in between spurts. You can get an idea of what that looks like by watching my two videos below, in which I demonstrate Peak Fitness exercises using an elliptical machine and a recumbent bike.

While you can do Peak Fitness exercises on virtually any piece of cardio equipment, I don't recommend using a treadmill as it can be a bit dangerous due to the speeds involved. It takes much longer both to get up to maximum speed, and to slow down, and when you're tired and can't decrease the speed fast enough, you might get injured. On the bike or elliptical, you can instantly slow down, which makes it much safer.

Although you could do these exercises outdoors as well, specifically sprinting, I would strongly advise against it without proper instruction on how to avoid injury. When I first started, I did sprints and I ended up pulling my hamstring. It took me nearly a year to fully recover. Sprinting is such an enormous force on hamstrings that unless they are very flexible, there is a great chance you can sprain them or other leg muscles.

Core Principles of High Intensity Interval Training

Here's a summary of what a typical peak fitness routine might look like:

1. Warm up for three minutes
2. Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You want to get your heart rate up to your calculated maximum heart rate. The most common formula for this is to subtract your age from 220. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
3. Recover for 90 seconds, still pedaling, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
4. Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery seven more times, for a total of eight repetitions

This takes exactly 20 minutes and requires just FOUR minutes of all out exercise. I typically cool down for another three to five minutes, and use a functional parameter of my heart rate. I like to get my heart rate down to around 120 before I stop, which gives me enough time to recover. I highly recommend using a heart rate monitor when doing these exercises as it is VERY difficult to accurately measure your heart rate without one.

How Often Should You Do High Intensity Exercises?

If this is the only type of exercise you are doing, you can probably do it three times a week and be fine. However, if you're also doing strength training, three times a week may be too much. Personally, after doing this for a few years, my rhythm is to do a high intensity Peak Fitness workout on the elliptical once a week and two weekly strength training workouts. I go up to three Peak Fitness workouts a week if I don't have access to weight equipment when I am traveling.

Recovery is another key factor of high intensity workouts. Many simply don't give themselves enough time to recover, which can be counterproductive. I made that mistake, which is why I cut back on my frequency. If you're competing, you can certainly increase the frequency, but if you're exercising to get healthy and live longer, then make sure to give yourself sufficient recovery time in between.

This brings up an interesting point... You can optimize your exercise in two ways:

1. To achieve extreme fitness for competition, OR
2. To promote longevity and perhaps fertility

Sad to say, this is an area where you simply cannot "have it all." You have to choose your end goal. For example, female professional athletes will oftentimes have difficulty getting pregnant, and this is because they've altered their bodies to achieve maximum fitness (which includes low body fat and high muscle mass), forgoing optimal fertility in the process (women need body fat in order to produce female hormones).

To become fertile again, she must tone down her fitness routine and modify it so she can gain a higher percentage of body fat. Part of the problem is your body is very smart and will not allow you to get pregnant if it is not convinced there are enough calories present to support another life, and part of the way it does this is by monitoring your percentage of body fat.

You Can Super-Charge Your Weight Training Too!

I believe that nearly everyone should do some strength training, regardless of age. By aggressively working your muscle to fatigue, you're stimulating muscular adaptation that will improve the metabolic capability of your muscle and cause them to grow. There are many different ways you can go about lifting weights, but one version that seems to work well for many people is called Super-Slow Weight Training. By slowing everything down, you're actually turning it into a high intensity exercise. The super-slow movement allows your muscle, at the microscopic level, to access the maximum number of cross-bridges between the protein filaments that produce movement in the muscle.

I recommend using four or five basic compound movements for your exercise set. One sample set could be:

1. Pull-down (or alternatively chin-up)
2. Chest press
3. Compound row (A pulling motion in the horizontal plane)
4. Overhead press
5. Leg press or squat

These exercises can be done using either free weights or machines. The benefit of using a quality machine is that it will allow you to focus your mind on the effort, as opposed on the movement. Select a weight that is light enough so you can do at least eight repetitions, but heavy enough so you can't do more than 12. If you can squeeze out more than a dozen reps, then switch to a heavier weight. Here's a general summary of how to perform each exercise:

1. Begin by lifting the weight as slowly and gradually as you can. In the featured video, I demonstrate doing this with a four-second positive and a four-second negative, meaning it takes four seconds, or a slow count to four, to bring the weight up, and another four seconds to lower it. (When pushing, stop about 10 to 15 degrees before your limb is fully straightened; smoothly reverse direction)
2. Slowly lower the weight back down to the slow count of four
3. Repeat until exhaustion, which should be around four to eight reps (once you reach exhaustion, don't try to heave or jerk the weight to get one last repetition in. Instead, just keep trying to produce the movement, even if it's not 'going' anywhere, for another five seconds or so. If you're using the appropriate amount of weight or resistance, you'll be able to perform four to eight repetitions)
4. Immediately switch to the next exercise for the next target muscle group, and repeat the first three steps

This workout will take no more than 12 or 15 minutes. For a demonstration, please see the featured video at the top of this article. Please note that I am NOT demonstrating classic Super-Slow training, but rather hybrid version that uses a count of four rather than the standard ten-count, which is still far slower than most people lift weights.

The Barbell Squat - King of Strength Training Exercises

Many consider the barbell squat to be the KING of strength training exercises. It will rapidly push you to anaerobic metabolism because you are using so many of your muscles. It can give you great abs, increase your vertical jump, your functional strength, and your sprint times. It can also increase the strength of nearly all the muscles in your body because of its powerful effects on stimulating growth hormone. Other health benefits boosted by the squat can include:

• Reduced body fat
• Better sleep
• Increased endorphin production (natural pain killers)
• Increased bone density

Make sure to widen your base by spreading your feet apart in a comfortable stance. Also, for safety's sake, stay inside the power rack frame. That way, if anything should go wrong and you fall or drop the weights, the bar will catch them. If you're doing a free-weight squat then I would strongly recommend using a trained spotter. This is less necessary on a Smith machine but still a good idea.

The downward portion of the lift always begins with your hips moving backward first. If you bend your knees first, you set yourself up for problems in the middle and end of the lift by causing you to have to adjust for your flexed knees... Moving your hips and buttocks to the rear will align your body to perform the squat perfectly. This can be difficult to do if you have decreased hip flexibility. I certainly did when I first started doing them and it took me a long time to change that. Ideally, have a trained professional guide you.

Tips and Guidelines for a Proper Leg Curl and Leg Extension

The leg curl, which is one of the exercises I demonstrate in the featured video, accentuates your hamstrings; the large muscles running down the backs of your legs, above your knees. They are an important muscle group that act as both a hip extensor and knee flexor. Keeping them strong can literally help keep you on your feet as you age. Coupled with strong quadriceps, having strong hamstrings can also help prevent hip and knee injuries that often lead to surgery.

The objective of the slow repetition leg curl is to perform 10 to 12 repetitions with one set to failure; meaning doing the exercise with the maximum weight you can handle in 10-12 repetitions, all in one set. The "failure" part of the exercise is the point at which you can no longer maintain good form and still lift the weights. Calculate your resistance to be 80 percent of your 10-rep max. When using the weight machine, take care to not grip the handlebars too tightly. The grips are only there to help you maintain balance. Holding the grips loosely helps ensure the exercise targets your hamstrings, rather than "borrowing" strength from a strong grip.

Another leg exercise, the leg extension, focuses on the four muscles on your upper leg and thigh - the quadriceps.

These are the other set of muscles that work with your hamstrings. These are also important for maintaining good leg, hip, and knee strength. Make sure to keep your muscles engaged the entire time, with only a quick pause at the top and no rest at the bottom. You'll notice that your stomach muscles work with your legs on this exercise, but be careful not to allow your back to do the work - not only will it NOT build up the muscles you're targeting, but it could strain your back, causing problems that may need medical attention.

Guidelines for Five Common Upper Body Exercises

• The Barbell Bench Press: When bench pressing, it's important to maintain proper alignment. Remember to keep the bar over the center of your chest. Place your hands a comfortable distance apart - but not too far. Do not extend the bar over your face or toward your head, but keep above your chest. Again, remember to perform the exercise at a slow count of four seconds up and four seconds down. Resisting on the way down is what really helps build muscle strength.

The bench press will help you tone your pecs - the pectoralis major and minor - as well as your triceps and forearms. It also helps work your front shoulder muscles and the area from the bottom of your armpit to the middle of your ribcage, often referred to as the "boxer's muscle." As before, select a weight that will allow you to do 10-12 reps to failure, and remember to just barely touch the top of your chest - don't let the weights fall or rest there.

• Lat Pull-Down: When performing a lat pulldown with a supinated grip, you pull the weight down in front of your head with the palms of your hands facing your body. For good form, make sure to keep your shoulder blades retracted as you perform the extension. If you're doing it right, you can feel your torso tighten as you lower the weights to a count of four. Also avoid pressing your legs against the supports. Keeping your feet flat on the floor forces you to direct the work to the muscle groups you're isolating.

The lat pull-down will strengthen your latissimus-dorsi, teres-major, and pectoralis major muscles, and will help reshape your torso.

• Shoulder Press: The barbell shoulder press accentuates your anterior deltoid, the muscle that strengthens your shoulders, helps shape your biceps, and defines the area between your shoulder and pectoral muscles. For proper form, grasp the bar slighter wider than shoulder width. Overall, this exercise helps strengthen your arms and upper body.
• Barbell Curl: For this exercise, make sure you widen your base and bend your knees just a little bit. Also, engage your core, and maintain a good posture. Visually, you should be able to draw a near-straight line down the center of your body. If you can't manage that, opt for lower weights until you can. The only joint that should pivot is your elbow joint.

The barbell curl primarily works your biceps, but it also strengthens your forearms and shoulders. Keep in mind that women, unless they're bodybuilders, often don't want to build up their biceps and triceps like men do. In that case, ladies may wish to level off, and not increase the weight anymore once your arms are at the shape you want them.

• Tricep Press-Down/Pull-Down: Grip the pull-bar with both hands about shoulder-width apart, and push/pull down. Make sure your neck is in a natural, neutral position, looking straight ahead as you isolate the target muscle. Again, if you can't lift and lower the weights without bending over, you're not getting the full benefit of the exercise. If that's the case, then reduce the amount of weight you use. Ladies: this is one way to get rid of those saggy bags under your arms! Build this muscle and you'll see a difference in no time.

Did you know that muscle weighs more than fat?

Some (usually women) will tend to panic a bit when they see the number on their scale go UP instead of down, but don't fret. These heavier muscles are tight and trim, and take up less space on your frame than an equal weight of fat does. So you're really slimming down, although you may be gaining a few pounds.

Completing a marathon is thought of by many as the epitome of health. But every year there are reports of people dropping dead before they cross the finish line.

Most recently, a healthy 30-year-old who was running the London Marathon to raise money for an organization that helps prevent suicides collapsed about a mile short of the finish line; medics were unable to revive her.

Such deaths, though uncommon, are not unheard of.

Eleven runners have died while running the London Marathon since it began in 1981, and every year a handful of runners die while competing in such events (one study put the rate of sudden cardiac deaths during a marathon at 0.8 per 100,000 participantsⁱ⁾.

What's going on in these cases? Is marathon running really as "healthy" as it's made out to be?

Why do People Die While Running Marathons?

Heatstroke can certainly be a factor, as can hyponatremia -- low sodium levels in the blood often caused by drinking too much water during exercise. However, in the vast majority of cases, people die during marathons because of a heart attack. Marathon running puts an extraordinary stress on your heart, one that your body was not designed for.

It's a classic example of a concept known as "the reverse effect" – where too much of something that is normally good for you can have the opposite impact. According to a study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010 in Montreal, regular exercise reduces cardiovascular risk by a factor of two or three.

But the extended vigorous exercise performed during a marathon raises cardiac risk by seven-fold!ⁱⁱ Researchers found that during a marathon more than half of the segments in your heart lose function due to an increase in inflammation and a decrease in blood flow, and this temporary heart damage may play a role in marathon deaths.

Research by Dr. Arthur Siegel, director of Internal Medicine at Harvard's McLean Hospital, also found that long-distance running leads to high levels of inflammation that may trigger cardiac events,ⁱⁱⁱ and a separate study published in Circulation found that running a marathon lead to abnormalities in how blood was pumped into the heart.^iv

There's now overwhelming evidence indicating that conventional cardio or long-distance running is one of the worst forms of exercise there is, and even if you're one of the lucky ones who does not end up suffering from a sudden cardiac event in the middle of a race, in the long run your heart health can still suffer.

Long-Distance Running Damages Your Heart

Do you pride yourself on running mile upon mile, week after week? Do you love the challenge and adrenaline rush that comes from completing a marathon?

Let me preface the information that follows by saying this: as a former sub 3-hour marathon runner myself, I understand the drive that pushes many athletes and weekend warriors to compete in these strenuous events. But now that I have examined the research, I firmly believe doing so may put your heart at risk. For example, two recent studies showed:

• Heart damage after lifelong cardio: In a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology,^v researchers recruited a group of extremely fit older men. All of them were members of the 100 Marathon club, meaning athletes who had completed a minimum of 100 marathons. If running marathons provided cardiovascular benefit this would certainly be the group you would want to seriously examine. So what did they find?

Half of the older lifelong athletes showed some heart muscle scarring as a result, and they were specifically the men who had trained the longest and hardest.

• Heart scarring after elite cardio training: An animal study published in the journal Circulation^vi was designed to mimic the strenuous daily exercise load of serious marathoners over the course of 10 years. All the rats had normal, healthy hearts at the outset of the study, but by the end most of them had developed "diffuse scarring and some structural changes, similar to the changes seen in the human endurance athletes."

Is There a Better Way to Exercise?

Science now suggests that the best fitness regimen is actually one that mimics the movements of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, which included short bursts of high-intensity activities, but not long-distance running such as is required to complete a marathon. The idea behind "hunter-gatherer fitness" is to closely emulate the actions that ancient man took on a daily basis. This is what your body is hard-wired for, after all, and includes such attributes as:

• A variety of exercises performed regularly (weight training, cardio, stretching, etc.)
• Alternate difficult days with easier days
• Interval training sessions performed once or twice a week
• Weight training at least twice a week
• Ample time for rest after physical exertion

Your exercise program should be challenging, as it was for our ancestors, but it should not be excessive and it should be paired with ample time for recovery. Just as too much strenuous exercise can hurt your heart, too little will not be enough to give you the benefits.

The good news is, the most recent research shows that relatively short bursts of intense exercise—even if done only a total of a few minutes each week—can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise.

By doing just three minutes of High Intensity Training (HIT) like Peak Fitness a week for four weeks, you could see significant changes in important health indices. You don't even need a gym to perform high-intensity interval exercise. It can be performed with virtually any type of exercise, with or without equipment. You can just as easily perform interval training by walking or running outdoors as you can using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine.

While it's theoretically possible to reap valuable results with as little as three minutes once a week, it might be more beneficial doing them two or three times a week for a total of four minutes of intense exertion, especially if you are not doing strength training. You do not need to do them more often than that however. In fact, doing it more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between sessions.

One of my favorite new ways of doing high-intensity exercise is sprinting on the beach, and I actually am in the process of completing a video on that. But if you do sprinting be very careful to always stretch your hamstrings first. Stretching is NOT optional if you are going to sprint, as there is a high likelihood you will injure yourself. I demonstrate a very effective stretching program on the video but in the meantime you can view my elliptical Peak Fitness video to get an idea of how hard you need to work out.

Proper Intensity is Key

I personally do Peak Fitness on an elliptical, or sand sprints, once a week and currently, twice a week, I am doing a fairly intense strength-training workout. If I feel that I have plenty of energy and can complete the workout, then I continue in that frequency, but if I get tired and poop out during the session, I know it is time for me to increase my recovery time. In that case, I decrease strength training to once a week and put more time in on the Power Plate.

If you want to do more, focus on making sure you're really pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly sessions, rather than increasing the frequency. Intensity is KEY for reaping all the benefits interval training can offer. To perform it correctly, you'll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 second intervals.

Here's a summary of what a typical interval routine might look like using an elliptical:

• Warm up for three minutes
• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate
• Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
• Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you're doing eight during your 20-minute session. You will notice that the Peak Fitness has 30 seconds rather than 20 and goes for 8 sessions so it is a harder workout.

By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health. The beauty of Peak Fitness is that you don't have to worry about traditional cardio like long-distance running because you're going to get those cardio benefits (and more) through this program, but without risking sudden or long-term damage to your heart.

This program much more closely replicates the fitness regimen of our ancestors … and when combined with the other facets of the Peak Fitness program -- strength training, stretching and core work – is one of the best workout routines there is.

References:

• ⁱ BMJ 2007; 335
• ⁱⁱ LiveScience October 25, 2010
• ⁱⁱⁱ Am J Cardiol. 2001 Oct 15;88(8):918-20, A9.
• ^iv Circulation. 2006; 114: 2325-2333
• ^v J Appl Physiol. 2011 Jun;110(6):1622-6. Epub 2011 Feb 17.
• ^vi Circulation. 2011; 123: 13-22

A type of exercise that doesn't get much attention, but can provide truly impressive health benefits, is Whole Body Vibrational Training (WBVT), also known as Acceleration Training.

The exercise is done using a platform that vibrates in three-dimensions, or three planes: vertical, horizontal and sagittal (front to back).

The vibrations force your muscles to accommodate, resulting in dramatic improvement in strength, power, flexibility, balance, tone and leanness.

Other health benefits of whole body vibration training include: 

• Increased weight loss
• Increased circulation
• Increased lymphatic drainage
• Cellulite reduction
• Increased hormone secretion: IGF-1, testosterone, and HGH (human growth hormone)

Can You "Shake Off" Excess Weight?

While it may sound like wishful thinking, research has shown that whole body vibrational training is remarkably effective when it comes to shedding excess weight. One study, published in the journal Maturitas in 2009ⁱ, found that vibrational training in conjunction with resistance training altered the body composition of postmenopausal women by successfully decreasing body fat.

Another study at the University of Antwerp in Belgiumⁱⁱ, published two years ago, found that the vibrational training was 54 percent more effective than traditional aerobics and strength training in producing visceral fat loss—the type of fat that tends to accumulate around your internal organs, associated with heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Furthermore, those who used vibrational training were far less likely to gain the weight back. The study included 79 obese adults (61 of whom completed the full trial). The study consisted of six months of intervention, plus a follow up at the 12-month mark to see if the weight loss had been sustained. The participants were randomly divided into four groups:

• Group 1 received a low-calorie diet only program
• Group 2 received a low-calorie diet plus conventional fitness program of cardio and weights exercises
• Group 3 received a low-calorie diet and progressive whole body vibrational training program
• Group 4—the control group—made no changes to their lifestyle

Those using a combination of vibration training and a low calorie diet lost twice as much visceral fat in six months as those following a low calorie diet with traditional cardio and weight training. Interestingly, the fat loss they achieved remained steady in the vibration group after 12 months, whereas the other diet and exercise groups returned to their normal baseline levels once the intervention ceased.

The researchers suggested that the maintenance of visceral fat loss in the Acceleration Training group might be related to hormonal changes—specifically, increased production of human growth hormone (HGH). As I've explained in previous articles, HGH is a synergistic, foundational biochemical underpinning that promotes muscle and effectively burns excessive fat. It also plays an important part in promoting overall health and longevity.

Overall, this study suggests that Acceleration Training holds great promise for helping you achieve and sustain long-term weight loss and reduce potentially dangerous visceral fat. In conclusion, the authors stated:

"Combining aerobic exercise or whole body vibration (WBV) training with caloric restriction can help to achieve a sustained long-term weight loss of 5-10 percent. These preliminary data show that WBV training may have the potential to reduce visceral adipose tissue more than aerobic exercise in obese adults, possibly making it a meaningful addition to future weight loss programs."

Banish Unsightly Cellulite with Vibrational Training

Cellulite is a common problem for women of all ages. Here too, vibrational training has been shown to be effective. In a German six-month long research project into the effects of Acceleration Training on celluliteⁱⁱⁱ, 55 subjects were divided into two groups:

1. One group did Whole Body Vibrational Training for 8-13 minutes, two to three times a week
2. The second group performed the identical vibrational exercise, plus another 24-48 minutes of cardio training, two to three times a week

Baseline measurements were collected at the beginning of the study, and repeated six months later. The data collected included:

• Skin condition (the measure of cellulite or evaluation of the deposits of dimpled fat under the skin).
• Circumference of calf muscles, buttocks, and upper thigh.
• Body composition: body fat percentage, lean mass percentage.

After six months, the Whole Body Vibrational training group only had a cellulite reduction of just below 26 percent, while the WBV plus cardio group had a cellulite reduction of just over 32 percent. The authors concluded:

"This study proves that easy, simple and efficient whole body vibration training can defeat cellulite; it can accelerate and enhance collagen remodeling, improve circulation, increase lean tissue, help people to lose fat and reduce the size of buttocks, thighs and calves."

Other Health Benefits of Whole Body Vibration Exercise

Two additional health benefits I want to address here are:

• Improved blood flow and circulation, and
• Increased HGH production

The former plays a key role in tissue healing, making it a particularly helpful adjunct when you're recovering from an injury. A 2007 study published in the Medical Science Monitor^iv found that just three minutes of massage on a Whole Body Vibrational machine doubles the mean circulation for a minimum of 10 minutes. According to the authors:

"The emerging therapeutic modality of Whole Body Vibration as a passive intervention appears to increase circulation in individuals with healthy microcirculation."

Perhaps one of the most important health benefits of Acceleration Training though is its beneficial impact on your hormonal secretions, including human growth hormone (HGH), aka "the fitness hormone." The higher your HGH serum level, the healthier, leaner and stronger you will be, and the vibrations of the acceleration machine activate the fast and super-fast muscle fibers throughout your body, which promotes the release of exercise-induced growth hormones at levels that actually mimic taking HGH injections!

HGH declines rapidly after age 21, and once you reach 30, you start to enter into what's called somatopause when your metabolism really starts to slow down. The amount of HGH you secrete also depends on how much lean body mass and belly fat you have. The more belly fat you have, the less HGH your body produces. Therefore, one major goal of any fitness program should be getting your body to pump up its HGH production, either through high-intensity interval training, such as Peak Fitness, or Acceleration Training.

What's truly exceptional about Acceleration Training technology is, it engages up to 98 percent of your muscle fibers—including the fast and super-fast muscle fibers. So, with Whole Body Vibrational training, you get greater rewards and shorter workouts because you're working muscle fibers every second.  So, how exactly does Acceleration Training work? Read on...

The Mechanics of Acceleration Training

As it relates to your workout, you can think of force as the amount of work done. In order to benefit from your workout, you must increase the forces on your body by increasing one of the two variables, mass or acceleration: To understand how Acceleration Training  works your body, you need to familiarize yourself with Newton's simple but powerful Second Law^v:

F = M x A

The force (F) on an object is a function of its mass (M) and its acceleration (F).

1. When you lift weights, you're increasing mass (the mass of your body plus any weights you use).
2. Acceleration Training increases acceleration. The vibrations are actually very rapid small movements of the platform–mainly up and down. The changes of directions of the platform result in strong acceleration and decelerating forces, 25 to 50 times per second. The mass is simply your body, and vibration is the acceleration.

By increasing either (or both) of these variables, you increase the amount of force on your body, which is what puts the "work" into your workout. Gravity is another form of acceleration. It causes your muscles to develop in response to the effects of gravity, so that you can move. (If Earth had no gravity, you wouldn't develop muscles. That's why astronauts lose significant muscle mass in space.). Vibration adds more GRAVITY to your body, effectively increasing "G forces."

A high quality Acceleration Training machine can generate forces from two to six Gs depending on the frequency and amplitude settings used. Combinations of these frequencies and amplitudes make it possible for six force/intensity settings, which effectively apply between 1.0 G and 6.4 G forces to your body. So, even at the lowest setting, you are almost doubling your body weight in terms of applied forces:

• Frequency settings typically range from 25 Hertz to 50 Hertz (cycles per second).
• Amplitude refers to how far the plate moves during each cycle, which typically ranges from 1 mm (low) to 2 mm (high).

As mentioned at the beginning, high quality Acceleration Training machines vibrate in three planes: vertical, horizontal and front to back. When you stand on the vibrating platform, each muscle in your body reacts in a continuous flow of micro adjustments, contracting reflexively. The up-and-down movement improves your muscle tone. The left-to-right, and front-to-back movements improve your balance and coordination. The net result is a dramatic improvement in strength and power, flexibility, balance, tone and leanness.

Consider this: If you apply 30 Hertz (30 cycles per second) for 30 seconds, you are triggering/stimulating your neuromuscular system a total of 900 times in just half a minute. This means you can train to athlete status with about 12-25 minutes of Acceleration Training, three days a week.

No wonder the results are so impressive!

Buyer Beware: Not All Acceleration Equipment are Created Equal...

There are many cheap machines out there so please understand that not all machines will provide identical benefits. In fact, cheap machines using faulty construction could cause harm. In my opinion, here's what you want to look for when shopping for Acceleration (or Whole Body Vibration) Training equipment:

• Solid steel construction. Avoid plastic platforms as they can and do break. Watch for sturdiness as you watch their demo video.
• Optional vibration settings and the convenience of automatic programs. You may want to challenge your body and increase the vibration setting.
• Adequate weight limit. If it can't handle your weight, it can break or strain to run at a lower intensity level.
• Who is selling the equipment? Know the company and their reputation.
• How loud is it? Many machines are excessively noisy which can contribute to psychological stress.
• Does the company provide a detailed guide and user manual? A video demonstration can be very helpful to learn recommended exercise positions.
• A good warranty and customer service in case you have questions. How long has the company been around? Will they be around long enough to honor their warranty?
• Beware of fake ratings. For example, it appears that the "Koehler Rating" may be fabricated. Don't fall for this type of marketing gimmick.

Be sure to take your time and check the fine print when shopping for Acceleration Training equipment. In my opinion, a reliable, well-built machine is truly a great investment that you'll appreciate for many years to come. Try to demo the machine you're interested. Notice how you feel when you step off. If you don't feel good afterwards, that's a red flag that the machine's vibrations may not be in tune with your body's natural frequencies.

Some foreign-made vibrating equipment is particularly poor with faulty electronics, buttons, cheap bearings and shoddy welds that commonly break. Beware of skinny support posts, unstable units, too small-sized plates, weak motors and units with insufficient power to support the vibration capacity.

With some Whole Body Vibration machines, you may experience a side-to-side type of motion – a "wobble board" effect. Avoid such machines, and look for two motor systems that provide a genuine 3-D workout.

Acceleration Training is Ideal for Virtually Everyone

Whole Body Vibrational training, along with Peak Exercises, proves that exercise doesn't have to be difficult and time consuming to pay off. The near-total muscle fiber recruitment of Whole Body Vibrational training translates into a great high-intensity workout that can be completed in as little as 10 minutes, two to three times a week.

I truly believe Acceleration Training technology represents a revolution in fitness science that can benefit virtually everyone, regardless of age or fitness status.

Obviously, if you have health challenges such as heart disease or high blood pressure, you will want to consult with your health care provider before starting a new fitness program, but overall, Acceleration Training is so gentle that even the most frail can tolerate it, making it ideal even for the elderly and disabled.

References:

• ⁱ Whole-body vibration augments resistance training effects on body composition in postmenopausal women. Maturitas. Vol. 63, pp: 79-83, 2009. Fjeldstad, C., I.J. Palmer, M.G. Bemben, and D.A. Bemben
• ⁱⁱ Obesity Facts 2010;3(2):93-100,
• ⁱⁱⁱ Anti Cellulite Untersuch. SANADERM Professional Clinic for Skin Illnesses and Allergies, Bad Mergentheim, Germany. 2003. Internal publication. Frank, H., B. Moos, A. Kaufmann, and A. Herber,
• ^iv The effect of whole body vibration on lower extremity skin blood flow in normal subjects, Medical Science Monitor. Vol. 13(2), pp: CR71-76, 2007,
• ^v Newton's Second Law

If you're already off to a good start on a healthy fitness plan, and you're looking for ways to take it to the next level, then you might want to consider a form of fasting called Scheduled Eating, or intermittent fasting.

In essence this fitness-enhancing strategy looks at the timing of meals, as well as when NOT to eat. This isn't one of those fad plans, where you eat just one or two things for several days in a row.

In fact, the longest time you'll ever abstain from food is 36 hours, although 14-18 hours is more common. You can also opt to simply delay eating. For example, skipping breakfast may be just the thing to kick-start you off a plateau in your fitness routine.

But hypoglycemics and diabetics beware—there is a proper way to implement fasting, and hypoglycemic and/or diabetics need to be particularly careful in order to not worsen their health.Ditto for pregnant or breastfeeding women.

The plan is supported by a growing body of evidence showing that certain forms of fasting are good for you, and Mark Sisson's excellent series on this topic on his blog on marksdailyapple.com, delve into this topic at some depth.

For me, the issue of fasting is a major shift from my typical recommendations.

I've not been a major advocate for it in the past, but as many of you who have been reading this site for years know, I am always learning. Life is a journey, and no one has all the answers.

I seek to explore the best concepts out there to maximize learning.

To that end, I've been playing around with various forms of fasting for about a year and a half, and I now feel I'm ready to make some suggestions based on my experience.

First of all, I believe that fasting is not something you should undertake willy-nilly. You need to pay careful attention to your body, your energy levels, and how it makes you feel in general—especially if you're diabetic, hypoglycemic, or pregnant. I'll share some precautionary notes in a moment.

Furthermore, remember that the type of diet and/or form of fasting that might be best for you will vary depending on your weight, health, and fitness goals. Is your goal to live a longer, healthier life? Or are you a competitive or elite athlete? It may surprise many to learn that you cannot achieve maximum fitness and maximum longevity and fertility at the same time.

Each goal requires a different strategy, and will not provide you with equal end results. For example, elite female athletes typically have a difficult time getting pregnant—their fitness has been maximized at the expense of their fertility, as female hormones depend on sufficient amounts of body fat.

While most people need to address the foods they DO eat, before considering skipping meals, fasting can provide you with many benefits, and is another tool you can experiment with to help you reach your goals. However, please keep in mind that proper nutrition becomes even MORE important when fasting, so addressing your diet really should be your first step. Common sense will tell you that fasting combined with a denatured, highly processed, toxin-rich diet is likely to do more harm than good, as you're not giving your body proper fuel to thrive when you DO eat.

Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

In part 1, Mark Sisson discusses the merits of using fasting—in whatever form—to achieve weight loss. Overall, the research is very favorable for this goal. He lists three studies from recent years into fasting for weight loss, all of which showed positive results:

1. Non-obese patients lost an average of four percent of their total fat with alternate-day fasting for 22 days. Their fasting insulin also decreased.ⁱ
2. Alternate-day fasting was also effective for obese patients in a 2009 study. On fasting days, participants consumed 25 percent of their daily calorie needs. On average, they lost just over 5.5 pounds in eight weeks, and about three percent of their total body fat. Total cholesterol and LDL ("bad") cholesterol decreased, while HDL ("good") cholesterol remained unchanged. Systolic blood pressure also decreased.ⁱⁱ
3. In young, overweight women, alternate-day fasting was just as effective as calorie restriction for promoting weight loss and improving metabolic markers.ⁱⁱⁱ

One of the mechanisms that makes fasting so effective for weight loss is the fact that it provokes the secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), which is a fat-burning hormone. It also plays an important role in muscle building. Fasting also increases catecholamines, which increases resting energy expenditure, while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.

Hence, if like many tens of millions of people, your goal is to shed excess fat, fasting can be both effective and beneficial for improving many disease markers. The type of fast you choose appears to be less important, so pick whichever one fits your lifestyle, schedule, and temperament the best.

I'll summarize the four different types of intermittent fasting programs that are covered very well in Mark Sisson's excellent series on this subject (see Sources below for links to his blog). Mark is particularly well qualified to report on this topic as he's a leading blogger in the Paleo community, and a former elite Olympic Trials athlete.

Intermittent Fasting for Athletes

One 2008 study that evaluated the effect of fasting during the Muslim observance of Ramadan found it had a positive effect on body mass and other health markers in trained athletes^iv.

While athletes are certainly concerned with shedding excess fat, another overriding concern is the optimization of muscle growth. For this, you need protein. As a general guideline, you'll want to consume a high quality protein 30-60 minutes after finishing your workout—whey being one of the most ideal for this purpose, as it helps your body build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. Research has also shown that high quality protein from meat and whey has a positive effect on blood sugar, muscle building, changing body composition, and sparing muscle while losing fat.

Many find it works out well to break their fast after working out, which would allow you to get the best of both worlds: the benefits of working out in a fasted state, and protein-loading about half-an-hour to an hour afterward. This is my new strategy. I will typically delay my breakfast until 11 or 12 and workout around 9 AM. Since my last meal is typically around 7 PM, I will fast for about 14-17 hours before I eat my first meal. The fact that you are sleeping during most of this time makes it relatively painless and easy to do.

Avoid grain carbs, however. Although popular with many, "carb loading" is a mistake, particularly for people engaged in intense strength training, as you will burn carb fuel very quickly and then "hit the wall." The same goes for most people who start their day with muffins, bagels, or pancakes for example. This type of breakfast typically ignites a vicious cycle of hunger and snacking on even more carbs. And the more you continue eating these carb snacks, the more insulin resistant you become.

Part of what makes working out in a fasted state so effective is that your body actually has a preservation mechanism that protects your active muscle from wasting itself. So if you don't have sufficient fuel in your system when you exercise, you're going to break down other tissues but not the active muscle, i.e. the muscle being exercised. According to Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet, you can quite literally re-design your physique using a combination of under-eating and exercise. However this really only works well once your metabolism has become proficient at burning fat. Mark discusses this in his series.

What about competitive sports athletes who may be exerting themselves in competitions several times a week—should they fast, and if so, when? Mark Sisson offers the following advice^v:

"Personally, I would eat on game days. It might be fun to try out a few fasted games, just to see how you perform, but the likely optimal way to integrate fasting into competition is to save the fasting days for your training days. By doing this, you'll be "training low, playing high," which should result in some beneficial adaptations after training and improved performance in the game (when you're "high" or fully replete with nutrients and calories)."

If you're an athlete, keep in mind that fasting can be contraindicated with overtraining, so be cautious if you're more or less in constant training.

Intermittent Fasting for General Health and Longevity

Fasting is historically common-place as it has been a part of spiritual practice for millennia. But modern science has confirmed there are many good reasons for fasting, including:

• Normalizing your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance (which is what you get when your insulin sensitivity plummets) is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
• Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
• Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
• Lowering triglyceride levels
• Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage

There's also plenty of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact on longevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect. Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also inhibits the mTOR pathway, which plays an important part in driving the aging process. The fact that it improves a number of potent disease markers also contributes to fasting's overall beneficial effects on general health.

Interestingly, one recent study that included more than 200 individuals, found that fasting increased the participants' low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL or "bad" cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL, the "good" cholesterol) by 14 percent and 6 percent, respectively^vi. Why would fasting raise total cholesterol? Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, and the study's lead author, offers the following explanation:

"Fasting causes hunger or stress. In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it to utilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreases the number of fat cells in the body... This is important because the fewer fat cells a body has, the less likely it will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes."

Even more remarkable, the study also found that fasting triggered a dramatic rise in HGH—1,300 percent in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men!

HGH, commonly referred to as "the fitness hormone" plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don't overtrain and are careful about their nutrition).

The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training. If you're over the age of 30, especially if you lead an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, you've likely entered a phase known as somatopause (age-related growth hormone deficiency). As your HGH levels decrease, your levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) also decrease, and this is yet another important part of what drives your body's aging process.

Variations of Fasting

In his blog on marksdailyapple.com, Mark Sisson delves into four different variations of fasting, and how to implement them. The variations he includes are:

1. LeanGains (a fasting protocol by Martin Berkhan^vii )—A daily 14-16 hour fast, during which time you consume nothing, with the exception of non-caloric fluids. Sleeping time is included in this time-frame, leaving an 8-10 hour window during the day when you're allowed to eat.

This protocol is designed with regular exercise in mind, with specific nutrient ratios for workout days and rest days, and is geared for those who want to shed excess fat and gain muscle mass. Hence, it's best suited for those who are actually exercising and lifting weights each week and can tolerate working out in a fasted state.

2. Eat Stop Eat (created by Brad Pilon^viii)—In this protocol, you fast for a full 24 hours once or twice a week. Your fast should be broken with a regular-sized meal (i.e. avoid gorging when coming off your fast), and you can maintain a regular exercise program without any special diet recommendations for workout days.

Fasting for 24 hours can be tough for some people, but I would agree with Mark's advice that eating a high-fat, low-carb diet can make 24-hour fasting easier, as a higher fat diet will tend to normalize your hunger hormones and provide improved satiety for longer periods of time.

3. The Warrior Diet (by Ori Hofmekler)—This is another protocol designed to improve your fitness by exercising in a fasted state. I've interviewed Ori and posted detailed articles on this in the past. His plan calls for 20 hours of fasting, and four hours of "feasting." You exercise during the day in a fasted state. Raw vegetables are allowed during your fast, but no protein, which is reserved for "feasting" or post-exercise recovery meals.

To learn more about the Warrior Diet, please see this previous interview with Ori.

4. Alternate Day Fasting—This fasting protocol is exactly as it sounds: one day off, one day on. When you include sleeping time, the fast can end up being as long as 32-36 hours.

As Mark notes, this may be the most difficult of all types of fasting, as it will require you to go to bed with an empty stomach a few times a week. It's definitely not for everyone.

Mark rounds off his list with one last suggestion: to simply let your hunger guide you and skip meals if you're not hungry. While this should work really well for those who are otherwise healthy and are not struggling with food cravings, it may not work if you're constantly craving food. Food cravings is a sign that you're not providing your body with proper nutrients in the appropriate ratios, so following your hunger in this case could be staggeringly counterproductive.

Who Should Use Extra Caution when Fasting, or Avoid it Altogether?

As I mentioned earlier, if you're hypoglycemic, diabetic, or pregnant (and/or breastfeeding), you need to be extra cautious with fasting, and may be best served to avoid it entirely, until you've normalized your blood glucose and insulin levels, or weaned the baby.

Hypoglycemia is a condition characterized by an abnormally low level of blood sugar. It's commonly associated with diabetes, but you can be hypoglycemic even if you're not diabetic. Common symptoms of a hypoglycemic crash include:

• Headache
• Weakness
• Tremors
• Irritability
• Hunger

As your blood glucose levels continue to plummet, more severe symptoms can set in, such as:

• Confusion and/or abnormal behavior
• Visual disturbances, such as double vision and blurred vision
• Seizures
• Loss of consciousness

One of the keys to eliminating hypoglycemia is to eliminate sugars, especially fructose from your diet. It will also be helpful to eliminate grains, and replace them with higher amounts of quality proteins and healthful fats, However it will take some time for your blood sugar to normalize. You'll want to pay careful attention to hypoglycemic signs and symptoms, and if you suspect that you're crashing, make sure to eat something. Ideally, you should avoid fasting if you're hypoglycemic, and work on your overall diet to normalize your blood sugar levels first. Then try out one of the less rigid versions of fasting and work your way up to a full 24-hour fast.

As for pregnant and/or lactating women, I don't think fasting would be a wise choice. Your baby needs plenty of nutrients, during and after birth, and there's no research supporting fasting during this important time. Sisson lists three studies on fasting during pregnancy, and all three suggested it might be contraindicated, as it can alter fetal breathing patterns, heartbeat, and increase gestational diabetes. It may even induce premature labor.

My recommendation would be to really focus on improving your nutrition during this crucial time. A diet with plenty of raw organic, biodynamic foods, and foods high in healthful fats, coupled with high quality proteins will give your baby a head start on good health. You'll also want to be sure to include plenty of cultured and fermented foods to optimize your—and consequently your baby's—gut flora. For more information, please see this previous article that includes specific dietary recommendations for a healthy pregnancy, as well as my interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.

Others categories of people that would be best served to avoid fasting include those living with chronic stress, and those with cortisol dysregulation.

Fasting—Is it Right for You?

I understand it can get confusing at times, trying to determine when and what to eat in order to optimize your health. Unfortunately, besides a few basic principles that will apply to virtually everyone, such as strictly limiting consumption of sugars (particularly fructose) and grains, the rest is really a matter of figuring out what works for your individual biochemistry. This requires some trial and error.

For example, there is good evidence supporting the recommendation to eat a protein-heavy breakfast if you want to lose weight, and even more so if you exercise first thing in the morning to optimize muscle growth and recovery. But there may be times when you feel like you've hit a plateau, and while your diet and exercise routine may be good, the simple act of skipping breakfast and exercising on an empty stomach could be just the thing that will kick start you onto that next level.

Personally, I skip breakfast and exercise in a fasting state whenever I've gained a few pounds and want to get them off. I find this works well for me. While I'm not eating breakfast, I don't really eliminate that meal entirely; rather I'm simply delaying it until noon or later, in order to reap the metabolic rewards of exercise combined with calorie restriction.

While I have not widely promoted calorie restriction in the past (as I believe most people need to address the foods they DO eat, before considering skipping meals), it is an important piece of the puzzle, and intermittent fasting may be helpful for many, especially if you've already mastered a nutritious diet, which really should be your first step. Fasting combined with a highly processed, toxin-rich diet is not going to do your health any favors. In fact, you may be making things worse, since you're not giving your body proper fuel when you DO eat.

Also remember that fasting does not mean abstaining from ALL food for extended periods of time, but rather a dramatic reduction of calorie intake at regular intervals—whether you opt for a 16, 20, or 24 hour fast once or twice a week, or fasting every other day, or simply delaying certain meals, such as skipping breakfast and exercising on an empty stomach. As always, listen to your body, and go slow; work your way up to full day fasts if your normal schedule has included multiple meals a day. Also be sure to address any hypoglycemic tendencies, as it can get increasingly dangerous the longer you go without eating to level out your blood sugar.

Bottom Line

I will finish off with Mark Sisson's "bottom line," practical, and sound recommendations, as he sums it up nicely^ix:

"... [T]here is no concrete, objective law regarding the suitability of intermittent fasting for a particular person.

If you're truly hungry, eat. Failing to do so will add stress.

If you're stressed, don't IF (intermittent fast). You don't need another stressor.

If you're training six days a week, don't IF. Unless you're genetically blessed, you'll need lots of fuel to prevent overtraining.

If you're not hungry, don't eat. If coffee's enough, skip breakfast.

If life is good, try fasting.

In the end, the prudent path is to simply listen to your body. Don't let CW grazing propaganda drive you to eat when you aren't hungry; don't let the IF dogma make you feel guilty about grabbing a handful of macadamia nuts and jerky in between meals when you are fasting. Try it out, skip a meal, go fourteen hours or so (you already do eight every night) without eating, get a workout in, go for a walk, go about your day and see how you feel. A quick trial is not going to kill you...

Are you lightheaded?

Are you weak?

Did your workout suffer?

Then maybe it's not for you. Maybe you need to fix a few things (Primal eating, sleep, chronic stress) and then try again..."

References:

• ⁱ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition January 2005: 81(1); 69-73
• ⁱⁱ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition November 2009: 90(5); 1138-1143
• ⁱⁱⁱ International Journal of Obesity May 2011: 35, 714-727
• ^iv International Journal of Sport nutrition and exercise metabolism December 2008;18(6):617-27
• ^v Mark's Daily Apple, Fasting Part 7
• ^vi Eurekalert, Study finds routine periodic fasting is good for your health, and your heart, April 3, 2011,
• ^vii The LeanGains Guide, Martin Berkhan
• ^viii BradPilon.com
• ^ix Mark's Daily Apple, Who Should and Shouldn't Try Fasting?

The Globe and Mailⁱ recently published an article outlining "the 5 numbers that most impact your health."

I think they have the right idea, but but I disagree with their test selections.

If you really want to monitor your health, I believe the numbers you should be tracking are the seven listed in the table below.

These are far more important than tracking your total cholesterol, blood pressure, or BMI, as recommended by the Globe and Mail.

Let's take a closer look at these values and what they may reveal about your health.

1.  Fasting Insulin (I)

2.  Cholesterol/HDL Ratio (C)

3.  Percentage Body Fat (F)

4.  Serum Ferritin (F)

5.  Waist/Hip Ratio (WH)

6.  Uric Acid Level (U)

7.  Vitamin D Level (D)

1.  Fasting Insulin Level

Your fasting insulin level reflects how healthy your blood glucose levels are over time. Insulin helps sugar move from your blood into your cells, where it can be used or stored. Chronically elevated blood glucose leads to insulin resistance and numerous chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. Elevated blood glucose and insulin resistance are epidemic today. An estimated one in four Americans are either insulin resistant or diabetic.

One of the most frequent causes of elevated glucose (and insulin resistance) is consumption of too many grains and sugars. Fructose has been shown to be especially harmful due to the way it disrupts the lock-and-key fit between insulin and its cellular receptor sites. Fructose is a powerful endocrine disruptor, capable of rapidly inducing insulin resistance when consumed in what, by today's standards, is a relatively small amount (25 grams or more per day).

Your fasting insulin level can be determined by a simple, inexpensive blood test. A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally you'll want it below 3. If your insulin level is higher than 3 to 5, the most effective way to optimize it is to reduce or eliminate all forms of dietary sugar, particularly fructose.

You can also use a simple glucose test to check your fasting glucose level. Just realize that it's possible to have low fasting glucose but still have significantly elevated insulin levels.Generally speaking, a fasting glucose under 100 mg/dl suggests you're not insulin resistant, while a level between 100 and 125 suggests you're either mildly insulin resistant or have impaired glucose tolerance (sometimes referred to as pre-diabetes).

2.  Cholesterol/HDL Ratio

Cholesterol has been demonized for the past few decades, thanks to a landmark study by Dr. Ancel Keys in 1953 that has been used to justify a low fat diet approach to achieve health. This study resulted in cholesterol's being blamed for just about every case of heart disease in the last 20 years. But the fact is, cholesterol is most likely not going to destroy your health (as you have been led to believe), and is also not the cause of heart disease. Most of the recent credible science has debunked Keys' theory, but the cholesterol myth stubbornly persists in the mainstream because it's so deeply embedded in our culture.

We now know that your body actually requires cholesterol to manufacture vitamin D from sunlight, to synthesize sex hormones, and for proper brain function. Measuring total blood cholesterol tells you practically nothing about your heart disease risk. More value can be derived by looking at the relative types of lipids circulating in your bloodstream, and today we have sophisticated tests that can measure these. The following two ratios are far better indicators of heart disease risk than total cholesterol alone:

• Your HDL/Cholesterol ratio: HDL (high-density lipoproteins) to total cholesterol percentage is a very good predictor of heart disease risk. Just divide your HDL number by your total cholesterol. Ideally, this number should exceed 24 percent; below 10 percent predicts an increased risk for heart disease.
• Your Triglyceride/HDL ratio: Divide your triglyceride number by your HDL. This percentage should ideally be below 2.

3.  Percentage Body Fat

Body composition, meaning your relative amounts of lean body mass to body fat, is a powerful way to measure your overall health. There is a strong correlation between higher body fat and negative health outcomes, such as heart disease and stroke. And percentage of body fat says more about your overall fitness than body weight or body mass index (BMI). BMI can be particularly misleading, causing fit bodybuilders to be classified as overweight as it does not take into account the higher weight of muscle compared to fat. Also, increased organ or abdominal adipose tissue in particular (a "beer belly") has been shown to be more strongly associated with heart disease and a variety of chronic diseases than just weight in relation to height.

The most common way to assess body fat percentage is the skinfold measurement technique, which utilizes a skinfold caliper. (Skinfold measurement is the method most widely used by fitness trainers.) The American Council on Exercise provides the following percentage body fat guidelinesⁱⁱ for men and women:

Category	Women	Men
Essential Fat	10-13%	2-5%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	4-17%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-24%
Obesity	>32%	>25%

 

For even greater accuracy, you can resort to hydrostatic weighing, where you get weighed under water. This measures the density of your body, which is then used to calculate how much body fat you have.

Another technique that is gaining support by medical and fitness experts is the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). To measure body impedance, an electrical signal is passed through your body. Impedance is greatest in fat tissue, which contains low amounts of water, while fat-free mass, which contains up to 75 percent water, allows the signal to pass through fairly unimpeded. This measurement, along with other factors such as your height, weight, and body type, is then used to calculate your percentage of body fat, fat-free mass and other body composition values.

There are now bathroom scales that use this technology. I picked  one up from Eat Smartⁱⁱⁱ that I have been using for the last four months. I find it's  a simple way to monitor my body fat percentage.  It may overestimate a bit as it has me at 13.5 percent when I tested between 11 and 12 percent using other methods, but it is very accurate in measuring day to day variability, and can be an excellent and inexpensive way to monitor your progress on optimizing your body fat so it is  line with your  health goals.

4.  Serum Ferritin

You probably already know that iron is an important nutrient for your body. But you might not be aware that iron is a double-edged sword—both too much and too little can lead to major health problems.

Iron serves many functions in your body, but one of the most important is carrying oxygen throughout your body by binding to hemoglobin molecules in your bloodstream. Without proper oxygenation, your cells quickly begin to die. If you don't have enough iron in your body, you end up with iron deficiency anemia, a common problem among children and menstruating women. But your body also has a limited capacity to excrete iron, so it can build up in your tissues if you're getting too much in your diet.

Processed foods fortified with iron and multivitamins with iron can contribute to iron overload over time. The problem with excess iron is that it's also a very potent oxidative stressor, causing dangerous free radicals that can damage your heart and your DNA, and lead to diseases such as cancer. Therefore, you should regularly check yourself for iron overload with a serum ferritin test. This blood test measures iron's carrier molecule—a protein called ferritin found inside your cells upon which the iron is stored. If your ferritin levels are low, it means your iron levels are also low, and vice versa. Use the following guidelines to interpret your serum ferritin level:

• The healthy range of serum ferritin is between 20 and 80 ng/ml
• The ideal serum ferritin range is 40 to 60 ng/ml
• Below 20, you are iron deficient; above 80, you have an iron surplus.Ferritin levels can go really high. I've seen levels over 1,000, but anything over 80 is likely to be a problem.

It is VITAL to appreciate that about one in five men and postmenopausal women have iron levels that are too high and are actually causing premature disease and death. If you or someone you love has triple digit ferritin levels you need to lower them ASAP. The higher the number the worse it is, with numbers over 250-300 being particularly dangerous. Fortunately there is a very simple way to lower it.  I would not advise using supplements like phytic acid (IP6), which can bind other helpful minerals. The single best way to lower your iron is to simply donate blood.  If you have risk factors that prevent you from having your blood accepted for donation, you can have your doctor write you a prescription for a therapeutic phlebotomy.

5.  Waist Size

There is scientific evidence^iv that BMI (body mass index) is a very flawed measurement when it comes to predicting your risk of dying from heart disease. Waist size provides a far more accurate benchmark for predicting your risk of death from a heart attack and from other causes. Determining your waist size is easy. With a tape measure, measure the distance around the smallest area of your abdomen, below your rib cage and above your belly button. The following is a general guide for healthy waist circumference:

• Men: 37 to 40 inches is overweight; greater than 40 inches is obese
• Women: 31.5 to 34.6 inches is overweight; greater than 34.6 inches is obese

The reason why this is a better indicator of heart disease risk is because your waist size is  related to the type of fat that is stored around your waistline, called "visceral fat" or "belly fat." This type of fat is strongly linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases. It is thought that visceral fat is related to the release of proteins and hormones that cause inflammation, which can in turn damage your arteries and affect how you metabolize sugars and fats. An expanded waistline is associated with insulin resistance, high blood pressure, lipid imbalance, cardiovascular disease, thickening of the walls of your heart, and even increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease decades later.

6.  Uric Acid Level

You may already know that elevated uric acid levels cause gout. But did you know uric acid can serve as a marker for fructose toxicity?

Fructose, when over-consumed, is very taxing to your body's metabolic processes. One of the by-products of fructose metabolism is uric acid, so when you consume too much sugar—particularly concentrated fructose—your uric acid levels may rise. Fructose turns you into a uric acid factory! Elevated uric acid is thought to explain much of the damage fructose causes in your body. This is especially pronounced if you are particularly fructose-sensitive, as I am. I'm grateful to Dr. Richard Johnson, author of The Sugar Fix, for bringing the uric acid link to my attention.  As an aside I have helped proof his new book, The Fat Switch, which is beyond phenomenal and will also be available shortly.

The connection between fructose consumption and increased uric acid is so reliable that a uric acid level taken from your blood can actually be used as a marker for fructose toxicity. I now recommend that a uric acid level be a routine part of your blood screening.

According to the latest research, the safest range for uric acid is between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter, and there appears to be a steady relationship between uric acid levels and blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, even down to the range of 3 to 4 mg/dl. As you know, two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight, and most of these people likely have uric acid levels in excess of 5.5. Some may even be closer to 10 or higher. Dr. Johnson suggests that the ideal uric acid level is probably around:

• 4 mg/dl for men, and
• 3.5 mg/dl for women

7.  Vitamin D Level

Vitamin D deficiency is at epidemic levels in the United States, but many Americans—including many physicians—are still unaware of the implications. In the U.S., the late winter average vitamin D is only about 15 to 18 ng/ml, which is considered a very serious deficiency state. In fact, 85 percent of Americans may be deficient in vitamin D, including more than 95 percent of all seniors.

Vitamin D influences about 3,000 of the 30,000 genes in your body, which is why it's involved with the expression of so many diseases, from cancer to autism to heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis, just to name a few. A study by vitamin D expert Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D. Beyond preventing cancer, researchers have estimated that increasing vitamin D levels could prevent diseases that claim nearly one million lives globally each year. Vitamin D also fights colds and flu because it helps your immune system defend against bacteria and viruses.

You should regularly check your vitamin D level, but you must obtain the correct test. There are two vitamin D tests: 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D. Of the two, 25(OH)D (also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D) is the better marker of overall vitamin D status.

The following ranges were obtained in a large-scale clinical study by evaluating healthy people in tropical or subtropical parts of the world, where they are receiving healthy sun exposures. It seems more than reasonable to assume that these values are in fact reflective of an optimal human requirement. When getting your vitamin D level tested, please realize that many commercial labs are using old, outdated reference ranges, and that their "normal" is likely to be far below these optimal and clinically relevant values.

(Holick MF. Calcium and Vitamin D. Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Clin Lab Med. 2000 Sep;20(3):569-90)

If your vitamin D level is too low, the best way to increase it is with exposure to natural sunlight, in appropriate amounts, or using a safe tanning bed. If neither of those options are feasible, you can opt for an oral vitamin D3 supplement. Just remember that if you supplement orally, it is even MORE important to have your blood levels checked regularly, as there is a wide variation in how efficiently people absorb vitamin D orally.

While the latest research indicates adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D per day to achieve vitamin D levels of 40 ng/ml, you need to monitor your levels carefully in order to determine the dosage you need in order to reach and maintain optimal levels, as this is highly variable.  There is no magic dosage when it comes to vitamin D; rather it's the serum level that really matters.

For more information about vitamin D testing, refer to my comprehensive article on the topic. I also strongly recommend you watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture, included at the top of this section.

References:

• ⁱ Globe and Mail January 5, 2012
• ⁱⁱ American Council on Exercise
• ⁱⁱⁱ Amazon.com, EatSmart Precision GetFit Digital Body Fat Scale w/ 400 lb. Capacity & Auto Recognition Technology
• ^iv J Am CollCardiol May 10, 2011

When you’re stressed or just finished up a hard workout, jumping into a warm shower probably seems only natural.

The warm water promotes blood flow to your skin, helping to soothe tired, achy muscles and helping you to relax.

However, there may be good reason to turn the faucet to cold when you shower,both after a workout and on an intermittent basis.

Exposure to cold temperatures via cold water and ice baths, otherwise known as cold water immersion or "cryotherapy," is a popular technique among amateur and professional athletes, but it may offer health-boosting benefits for virtually everyone.

Why Take a Cold Shower After Exercise?

Cold works by lowering the damaged tissue's temperature and locally constricting blood vessels.

Using targeted cold therapy, such as an ice pack, immediately after an injury helps prevent bruising and swelling from the waste and fluid build-up.

Cold also helps numb nerve endings, providing you with instant, localized pain relief.

On a whole-body scale, immersing yourself in a cold tub of water brings down your heart rate and increases your circulation, minimizing inflammation and helping you recover faster.

In fact, cold-water baths appear to be significantly more effective than rest in relieving delayed-onset muscle soreness, which typically occurs one to four days after exercise or other physical activity.

In one study, after analyzing 17 trials involving over 360 people who either rested or immersed themselves in cold water after resistance training, cycling or running, researchers found the cold-water baths were much more effective in relieving sore muscles one to four days after exercise.ⁱ

Just how cold does the water need to be?

In this case, most of the studies involved a water temperature of 10-15 degrees C (50-59 degrees F), in which participants stayed for about 24 minutes. Some of the trials involved colder temperatures or "contrast immersion," which means alternating between cold and warm water. This study did not show a significant benefit compared to rest for contrast immersion, but some experts do believe that alternating hot and cold water helps drive oxygen and nutrients to your internal organs, while encouraging detoxification. Research also shows it may help reduce pain and speed recovery by decreasing blood lactate concentration.ⁱⁱ

Cold Water Might Increase Your Body’s Tolerance to Stress and Disease

Ever since reading Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Body last year, which first introduced me to the concept, I have been experimenting with this concept. I now go into the shower without allowing it to warm up. I also jump in the ocean without a wet suit on when no one else is in the water. I have found that if I hold my breath it really helps adjust to the shock and I rapidly acclimate to the cold. I have come to enjoy it and now view it as a healthy stress very similar to exercise.

Exposing your whole body to cold water for short periods of time is used to promote “hardening.” Hardening is the exposure to a natural stimulus, such as cold water, that results in increased tolerance to stress and/or disease. This was demonstrated by a study involving 10 healthy people who swim regularly in ice-cold water during the winter.ⁱⁱⁱ

Following exposure to the cold water, researchers noted a:

• “Drastic” decrease in uric acid levels: High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been long known that people with high blood pressure, kidney disease and people who are overweight, often have elevated uric acid levels. When your uric acid level exceeds about 5.5 mg per deciliter, you have an increased risk for a host of diseases including heart disease, fatty liver, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease and more.

• Increase in glutathione: Glutathione is your body's most powerful antioxidant, which keeps all other antioxidants performing at peak levels.

Can Cold Water Help You Burn Fat?

Drinking cold water is known to speed up your metabolic rate, as your body must work to raise the temperature of the water. But cold showers and other types of cold-water or ice therapy may also help boost your fat-burning abilities.

Tim Ferriss also reviews the concept of activating your brown fat to boost fat burning by exposing yourself to frigid temperatures. He claims you can increase your fat burning potential by as much as 300 percent simply through adding ice therapy to your dieting strategy. This is based on the premise that by cooling your body, you're essentially forcing it to burn much more calories by activating your brown fat.

Brown fat is a heat-generating type of fat that burns energy instead of storing it, acting more like muscle than fat. Research has shown that brown fat can be activated to burn more fat by cooling your body.^iv Ferriss’ suggestions, from easy to 'hard core,' include the following. If you want to give his technique a try, make sure you advance slowly. It may be inadvisable to go straight to the ice bath if you're not used to frigid temperatures:

• Placing an ice pack on your upper back and upper chest for 30 minutes per day (you can do this while relaxing in front of the TV for example)
• Drinking about 500 ml of ice water each morning
• Cold showers
• Immersing yourself in ice water up to your waist for 10 minutes, three times per week. (Simply fill your tub with cold water and ice cubes)

Most studies on cold water immersion report benefits with minimal or no side effects, so if you're willing to spend 20 minutes or so in a cold tub of water, this may be another simple and inexpensive tool to support optimal health and longevity. Of course, common sense is advised. When you immerse yourself in cold water, it will shock your body to some degree so you need to make sure the water is not too cold, and that you do not stay in it for too long. As always, listen to your body and work up to the more advanced ice-therapy techniques gradually.

References:

• ⁱ The Cochrane Library February 15, 2012
• ⁱⁱ Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Volume 10, Issue 6 , Pages 398-402, December 2007
• ⁱⁱⁱ Free Radical Biology and Medicine March 1994
• ^iv New England Journal of Medicine 2009 Apr 9;360(15):1518-25

By Dr. Mercola

Many people learn to loathe push-ups thanks to high-school gym class, but they are in fact one of the most effective and simplest exercises to build a strong upper body and midsection.

That is, provided you do them correctly.

An improperly performed push-up is a waste of your precious workout time, but by perfecting the technique, you can actually tweak the exercise to target different muscle groups, including not only your chest muscles but also your abs.

What's the Proper Push-Up Form?

Common mistakes most people make when performing a push-up include going too fast and using only partial range of motion. In the video above, Darin Steen demonstrates the perfect push-up. First, slow it down and use a three-second contraction. Try to really feel the muscle groups you're targeting, and do a full range of motion -- starting all the way down at the floor and pushing all the way up.

Pay particular attention to the alignment of your elbows. The ideal angle from your sides is about 45 degrees. This allows you to effectively work your chest muscles and prevent injuries from overextension. I recommend watching Darin's demonstration of the proper form, but here's a summary of key points to remember:

• Keep your body stiff and straight as a plank
• Elbows at a 45-degree angle from your sides
• Breathe in on the way down
• Lower your body all the way down, allowing your sternum to gently touch the floor
• Breathe out on the way up

How to Get More Out of Your Push-Ups

You're probably familiar with the advice to avoid doing the same exercises all the time. You need to "confuse" the muscle to keep building it. So doing the standard push-up exercise with your legs straight or knees bent on the floor, while certainly beneficial, will start to lose effectiveness over time if you don't add in new challenges. To get more out of your push-ups, try mixing up your routine with these simple tweaks:

• Put your hands on an exercise ball. As the ball shifts, it will force your core muscles to work to keep you in balance, while providing a greater challenge to your upper body. A similar option is to use two medicine balls, place the palms of your hands on top of the balls and perform the push-up from there.
• Alter your hand positions. The placement of your hands will dictate which muscle groups are targeted. Instead of the traditional hand placement (slightly wider than shoulder-width apart), try widening their stance to work your chest and shoulders. If you bring your hands together below your chest, you'll work your triceps. You can also elevate one arm (place your hand on a yoga block, or lift it into the air, for instance), which will challenge your upper body even more.
• Lift a leg. As you extend your leg behind you, your upper body gets a challenge while your core and glutes get toned.
• Elevate your feet. In the traditional push-up position, put your feet on a step, chair, or gym ball, so your feet are higher than your hands. This puts more weight on your upper body, giving your arms, chest and upper back a workout.
• Do push-ups off your fingertips. This is a more advanced technique that will improve the strength and grip of your hands.

Special Tips for Using Push-Ups to Strengthen Your Abs

Your transverse abdominis (TVA) is like an inner sheath that holds your gut in place. On top of that are your internal and external obliques, and on top of that, beneath your skin, is your six-pack rectus abdominis. You also have lower pelvic muscles that are responsible for sexual function and elimination of urine at the bottom of the abdominal wall. On top, you have the diaphragm. The technique Darin demonstrates allows you to focus on and really feel these abdominal muscles at work while you're doing the push-up.

Here are three key points:

1. While in plank position, pull in your bellybutton. Your bellybutton is attached to your transverse abdominis, that inner sheath that holds your gut inside and gives your spine and vertebrae a nice, weight belt-tightening type of support. So by pulling it in, you begin to contract that deep inner transverse abdominis muscle.
2. Next, do a Kegel squeeze. More women than men might be familiar with this term. A Kegel squeeze is performed by drawing your lower pelvic muscles up and holding them up high and tight. For men who aren't familiar with that term, it's similar to trying to stop urinating in the middle of the flow. This squeeze will allow you to feel and focus on your abdominal muscles.
3. Try a push-up dumbbell row. Start at a dumbbell weight suitable to your current level of strength and fitness and progress into higher weights as you go along. Place the dumbbells at a 45-degree angle; pull in your bellybutton; draw up your lower pelvic muscles (Kegel squeeze), and breathe in as you lower your upper body to the floor. Breathe out on the way up, and once your arms are in the fully extended position, perform a row—pulling the right dumbbell up toward your chest.

On the next push-up, pull up with your left. This advanced technique will work your abs from side to side, and target those deep core muscles as well.

If you want to work your six-pack rectus abdominis muscle, drive your chin down toward your toes while you're focused on squeezing your bellybutton in. These techniques are very effective, and will build the deep inner core muscles that lay the groundwork for that six-pack look. Keep in mind, however, that in order to really get "six-pack" abs, you have to shed fat. Men need to get their body fat down to about six percent, and women around nine percent in order to achieve that classic six-pack.

When is it Time to Take Your Push-Up Workout Up a Notch?

Push-ups take a certain amount of strength to perform properly, so if you're just starting out you may want to begin by keeping your knees on the floor. Bring your heels up toward your buttocks, and keep your body straight. Go slow and use full range of motion, allowing your chest to gently touch the floor. By pulling your elbows closer to your sides, you can place more focus on your chest muscles.

Once you can comfortably perform about a dozen push-ups this way, advance to the regular push-up technique, keeping your legs straight and balancing on your toes. Then, when you can do 12, 15, or 18 repetitions for two or three sets, move on to the next level or technique, as described above.

You Can Use Push-Ups as Part of Your Peak Fitness Workout, Too

As many of you are aware, the most recent research shows that relatively short bursts of intense exercise—even if done only a total of a few minutes each week—can deliver many of the health- and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise.

By doing just three minutes of High Intensity Training (HIT) like Peak Fitness a week for four weeks, you could see significant changes in important health indices.

You don't need a gym to perform high intensity interval exercise. It can be performed with virtually any type of exercise, with or without equipment. You can just as easily perform interval training by walking or running outdoors as you can using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine. I typically do Peak Fitness on an elliptical once a week but currently, twice a week, I am doing a fairly intense strength-training workout. You can add in push-ups to your high-intensity routine, specifically:

• Plyometric push-ups: Once your sternum touches the floor, hold your position and breathe for about three seconds, then perform an explosive push upward.
• Three minutes of push-ups: It's quite simply, how many push-ups can you do in three minutes? You need to have good technique, good form, and a strategy. If you go all out you'll lose your energy and likely won't last for three minutes. So go at a pace of about 80 percent of your total ability, and when you can't go any further, rest for 20-30 seconds; stretch, and then resume.
• The handstand push-up (highly advanced): Facing a wall, place your hands at a 45-degree angle about one to two hand-lengths from the wall. Kick your legs up. You can use the wall to stabilize you as you perform the push-up. Breathe in as you lower yourself to the floor, and breathe out as you push yourself up.

Exercising is, hands-down, one of the best physical things you can do for your health.

Besides being beneficial for weight management, exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and depression, and it can increase your energy levels, help you think clearer, and slow down the aging process.

Unfortunately, exercise is also one of the first things that tends to fall by the wayside. And, even with the best intentions and follow-through, progress can stall and intentions can go awry...

Shape magazineⁱ lists eight exercise mistakes that could be keeping you from getting the full benefit of your fitness program.

Interestingly enough, one specific type of exercise can help you circumvent or overcome most of these pitfalls, namely high intensity interval training—exercises in which you go "all out" for about 30 seconds, followed by a 90-second recovery interval.

(One session consists of eight such intervals.) Here, I'll reveal how...

Skimping on Sleep to Work Out Could Backfire

While I do recommend exercising first thing in the morning, I don't advise sacrificing sleep to do so. Fortunately, you don't have to! The research that has emerged over the past several years clearly indicates you don't need to exercise for long periods of time—as long as you're exercising correctly! As it turns out, the most effective and efficient way to work out is to 'remember' your ancestral roots, meaning, how humans used to move.

Both young children and animals clearly demonstrate the proper way to exercise: in short but aggressive or intense spurts with rest in between.

High intensity interval training using an elliptical machine or stationary bike can mimic this, and a growing body of research tells us the benefits from exercising this way are FAR greater than slow, long-distance forms of exercise. Interval training can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities in a fraction of the time--because you're utilizing your body as it was designed to be used.

A high intensity interval session only requires about 20 minutes or less, two or three times a week, opposed to an hour or more on the treadmill, several times a week. Most people can carve out 20 minutes without losing sleep over it. As mentioned in the featured article, getting enough sleep is an important aspect of health, and lack of sleep can hamper weight loss efforts and contribute to a wide range of health problems.

Concentrating on a Single Body Area is Counterproductive

As tempting as it may be to believe you have to do 100 crunches a day to achieve washboard abs, the truth is that such spot-specific focus tends to fail miserably. One of the main reasons for this is that in order to achieve muscle definition, regardless of what area of your body you're targeting, you need to lose fat, and spot-specific exercises like crunches are not an efficient way to boost fat loss...

High intensity exercises can make a dramatic difference here, because these exercises not only boost fat burning, they also automatically help create muscle definition all over your body, while simultaneously improving your aerobic fitness.

While I don't recommend doing just one form of exercise, IF that's all you have time for, then doing short but high intensity Peak Fitness exercises will give you the greatest all-around benefits, and this form of exercise differs from others in that it benefits your entire body. This is because high intensity exercises sequentially recruit all the different types of muscle fibers in your body, starting with the smaller motor units made up of slow-twitch fibers—which are primarily aerobic in metabolism, have a lot of endurance, and recover quickly—to the intermediate fibers; followed by the fast-twitch fibers.

The key to activating your fast-twitch muscle fibers is intensity, or speed.

Your fast-twitch fibers are largely glycolytic and store a lot of glucose. When these muscles are recruited, it creates the stimulus needed to grow muscle. At the same time, it enlarges the glucose storage reservoir in the muscle, which in turn enhances your insulin sensitivity. I've often stated that normalizing your insulin is one of the primary health benefits of exercise, and this is particularly true in the case of high-intensity exercise. Conventional aerobics does not do this as efficiently.

Activating your fast-twitch fibers also prompts your body to create human growth hormone (HGH), also known as "the fitness hormone," which plays an important role in slowing down the aging process.

Jumping on Every Fitness Fad that Comes Along May Hinder Your Progress

As mentioned by Shape Magazine, mixing up your workout is a great way to challenge your body and keep things interesting. But jumping on every exercise fad that comes along can be counterproductive. You need to stick with your program to give yourself the chance to reap the benefits from it.

That said, there's certainly nothing wrong with trying something new. After all, exercise is part and parcel of a healthy lifestyle, so it's a lifelong endeavor. There's plenty of time to explore. I'm a perfect example of this myself; after 30 years of being a dedicated long-distance runner, I stopped running over three years ago and switched to interval training instead once I realized just how much time I was wasting, and how many more health benefits I could reap from the switch.

Now I just do one high intensity Peak Fitness exercise on the elliptical once a week, along with two weekly strength training workouts. I go up to three Peak Fitness workouts a week if I don't have access to weight equipment when I am traveling. But I pay careful attention to my energy level during the workout and during the day. If I notice that I don't have the energy to finish the workout or the weight I can lift is decreasing and not increasing, I know it is time to take a break and get some more recovery time.

Over-Exercising Could Do More Harm than Good...

Switching from long-distance running to high intensity Peak Exercises has saved me a TON of time while improving my physical fitness. There's no doubt in my mind that most people are wasting loads of precious time in the gym, or running outside, as I once was... Some may even be doing more harm than good by exercising too much—either by exercising too intensely, and/or too frequently.

As discussed in the featured article, the "no pain, no gain" methodology can backfire, as can the practice of hitting the gym twice a day... Granted, over-exercising is far less common than not exercising enough. But it does happen, and tends to be counterproductive in most cases—at least if you're exercising for general health and longevity.

Part of the equation of creating optimal fitness is recovery. Besides intensity, recovery is a key factor of high intensity workouts. An equation to keep in mind is that as intensity increases, frequency can be diminished. In fact, you need to allow your body to fully recuperate in between sessions, so it's NOT recommended to do high intensity exercises more than three times a week. Both Phil Campbell and Dr. Doug McGuff have addressed this in previous interviews.

If you don't allow your body to fully recuperate and rebuild, your efforts will not pay off beneficial dividends.... I made that mistake, which is why I cut back on my frequency. If you're competing, you can certainly increase the frequency, but if you're exercising to get healthy and live longer, then make sure to give yourself sufficient recovery time in between sessions.

One of the keys here, as with any exercise program and lifestyle change, is to carefully listen to your body. With exercise you have to pay careful attention to recover if you tend to be someone who pushes yourself hard. If you only work out occasionally, this is a non-issue. But for those who are really committed and disciplined, it is very easy to over train, so please understand that recovery is every bit as important as training and if you work out too much you will not achieve the results you're seeking.

Over or Underestimating Yourself Could Nullify Your Efforts

As described in the featured article, many make the mistake of either pushing themselves too hard, or not hard enough. Or, when it comes to strength training; using weights that are too heavy or too light. In order to maximize your workout efforts, you need to strive for that 'Goldilocks' Zone' where you're pushing hard enough to challenge your body at your current level of fitness. Needless to say, this will change over time, and that's the crux—a lot of people forget they need to continuously up the ante as their fitness improves.

This is especially important as it applies to high intensity exercises. To perform it correctly, you'll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 second intervals. (As a general guideline, you can calculate your anaerobic threshold by subtracting your age from 220.) For a demonstration, please see the videos below.

 

 

Strive for Balance

Shape Magazine advises against sticking with one single workout routine, and I wholeheartedly agree. While high intensity interval exercises accomplish greater benefits in a fraction of the time compared to slow, endurance-type exercises like jogging, I do not recommend limiting yourself to Peak Exercises alone. If all you have is one, two, or three 20-minute blocks of time per week, then by all means, do what you can with what you've got. High intensity intervals will give you the biggest reward for your time investment. But ideally, to truly optimize your health, you'll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates other types of exercise as well. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt.

I strongly recommend incorporating the following types of exercises to create a well-rounded fitness program suitable to your current level of fitness:

1. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
2. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You can also "up" the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
3. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.

You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild. Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.

4. Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching or AIS, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to help repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

Lastly, I also agree with their recommendation to select your workout buddy with care. Because while it can serve as motivation to know someone is holding you accountable, if your workout buddy is more interested in talking or ends up being a frequent no-show, then they're not doing you any favors. You may be better off hiring a personal trainer. Not only will a trainer be able to teach you how to perform each exercise safely and effectively, knowing you have an actual appointment with a professional may be the motivation you need to get you into the gym on a regular basis.

References:

• ⁱ Shape April 3, 2012

Regular exercise, participating in athletics, and even working in your backyard or doing strenuous household chores can leave your muscles stiff, sore, and uncomfortable for days afterward.

You may feel just fine immediately after the activity, but within 24 hours, you start to feel pain.

This is called delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and for some, this discomfort is enough to make you think twice before going back to the gym or engaging in activities you would otherwise enjoy.

Naturally, if given the option, most would choose to prevent the muscle soreness that follows intense exercise or physical activity, but so far the research looking into what methods are actually effective has been scant.

That said, cold water and ice baths, otherwise known as cold water immersion or "cryotherapy," is a popular technique among amateur and professional athletes, as it is thought to help reduce muscle inflammation and pain after exercise, as well as speed recovery time.

Researchers from the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences department at the University of Ulster in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland, recently looked into the science behind this technique, and found cold-water baths did appear to offer relief from sore muscles.

A Cold Water Bath After Exercise May Prevent Sore Muscles

After analyzing 17 trials involving over 360 people who either rested or immersed themselves in cold water after resistance training, cycling or running, researchers found the cold-water baths were much more effective in relieving sore muscles one to four days after exercise.

They concluded:

"There was some evidence that cold-water immersion reduces muscle soreness at 24, 48, 72 and even at 96 hours after exercise compared with 'passive' treatment."

Just how cold does the water need to be? In this case, most of the studies involved a water temperature of 10-15 degrees C (50-59 degrees F), which participants stayed in for about 24 minutes. Some of the trials involved colder temperatures or "contrast immersion," which means alternating between cold and warm water (this did not show a significant benefit compared to rest).

Should You Try This at Home?

Most studies on cold water immersion report no or minimal side effects, so if you're willing to spend 20 minutes or so in a cold tub of water, you may very well find some relief. Of course, common sense must be used. When you immerse yourself in cold water, it will shock your body to some degree, so you need to make sure the water is not too cold, and that you do not stay in it for too long.

If you don't like the idea of full-body cryotherapy, you can also try a more targeted approach by applying a cold pack to a specific area of your body. While this won't give you full-body relief from muscle soreness, it can be beneficial for an injury or a pulled muscle.

Cold works by lowering the damaged tissue's temperature and locally constricting blood vessels. Using cold therapy immediately after an injury helps prevent bruising and swelling from the waste and fluid build-up. Cold also helps numb nerve endings, providing you with instant, localized pain relief.

Ideally, it is best to use cold treatments for the first 48 to 72 hours. You can apply the ice for 20 minutes, then remove for 20 minutes as this will minimize any potential damage. Start early and repeat as often as you can. What kind of cold treatment should you use?

There's ice, of course, if it's available. However, you want to take great care in protecting your skin from the intense cold. Always use a cloth or towel wrap. A bag of frozen peas can come in very handy for this purpose.

Gel packs are an excellent choice as they're convenient and easy to use. (Before you choose a gel pack, know what's inside. Many are filled with toxic chemicals that can eventually leak.) Whichever option you use, to get the best benefits from cold treatment, be sure to use a wrap over the ice pack to improve the contact with your skin and to compress the injured area to minimize swelling.

Could a Cold-Water Bath Speed Up Your Metabolism Too?

There may be more reasons than one to consider lounging in a cold bath after your workout. Aside from helping to ease muscle soreness, it may also boost your metabolism and fat-burning abilities.

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Work Week, also published a book called The Four-Hour Bodyⁱ, which includes the concept of activating your brown fat to boost fat burning by exposing yourself to frigid temperatures. He claims you can increase your fat burning potential by as much as 300 percent simply by adding ice therapy to your dieting strategy. A LiveStrong article backs up Ferriss' claim statingⁱⁱ:

"A NASA scientist told ABC News that's no hyperbole. In studying the effects of temperature on astronauts, he saw people's metabolism boost by 20 percent in environments as mild as 60 degrees. A Joslin researcher told National Public Radio that 3 oz. of brown fat could burn 400 to 500 calories daily."

Ferriss' Ice Therapy is based on the premise that by cooling your body, you're essentially forcing it to burn much more calories by activating your brown fat. His suggestions, from easy to 'hard core,' include the following. If you want to give his technique a try, make sure you advance slowly. It may be inadvisable to go straight to the ice bath if you're not used to frigid temperatures:

• Place an ice pack on your upper back and upper chest for 30 minutes per day (you can do this while relaxing in front of the TV for example)
• Drinking about 500 ml of ice water each morning
• Cold showers
• Immersing yourself in ice water up to your waist for 10 minutes, three times per week. (Simply fill your tub with cold water and ice cubes)

What Else Can Help Prevent Sore Muscles?

Muscle soreness after exercise has traditionally been blamed on the buildup of lactic acid, but lactic acid actually does not remain in your muscles very long, and therefore is not a primary cause of DOMS. According to Steady Health, other possible theories for the cause of DOMS include:ⁱⁱⁱ

• Muscle soreness occurs because of microscopic tears in muscle fibers
• It is caused due to tears in the tissue that connects the muscle and not the muscle itself
• The damaged muscles release chemical irritants, which activate pain receptors
• The damaged muscles become inflamed hence causing soreness
• Changes in osmotic pressure, muscle spasms and a change in the way the muscle cells regulate calcium may be responsible for the soreness

The best strategies to help reduce muscle fatigue and soreness, whether you're a professional athlete or not, are those that will help to address some of these underlying causes. Among them:

1. Eating a diet that includes naturally occurring carnosine, i.e. animal protein such as organic grass-fed beef or free-range chicken

Carnosine is a pluripotent dipeptide composed of two amino acids, beta-alanine and histadine, found in many tissues but most notably in your muscles. It serves several important roles, two of which are:

1. Buffering acids in your muscle
2. Serving as a potent antioxidant

Carnosine appears particularly useful for improving anaerobic high intensity exercise performance, but both of the functions mentioned above also explain how it may help reduce muscle soreness. As mentioned in Steady Health, damaged muscles become inflamed, which can cause soreness. Since carnosine is a potent anti-inflammatory antioxidant,, its presence in your muscle can serve to quell muscle inflammation.^iv

The foods with the highest amount of useful dietary dipeptides like carnosine would be animal proteins, like eggs, whey protein, poultry and beef. If you are considering using carnosine as a supplement it is important to realize that carnosine itself is probably not that useful because enzymes rapidly break it down to its constituent amino acids (beta-alanine and histidine), which are then absorbed by your muscles and re-formed back into carnosine.

2. Taking a beta-alanine supplement

   As explained above, if you do decide to take a supplement, instead of taking carnosine, I recommend taking its primary precursor, beta-alanine, based on the science in this area. Beta-alanine has also been shown to be helpful for preventing muscle soreness when working out.

3. Using acceleration training

   Whole Body Vibrational Training (WBVT), also known as Acceleration Training using a Power Plate, works by stimulating your white muscle fibers—which are your fast- and super-fast muscle fibers. The Power Plate kick-starts your pituitary gland into making more growth hormone (HGH), which helps you build lean body mass and burn fat, as well as accelerate tissue healing.

   Acceleration Training is quite different in that the vibrating plate targets your entire body, focusing on fully integrated motor and neurological patterns, which allows you to work ALL your muscles, and nerves, all at the same time.

   It's a truly revolutionary approach to fitness because it addresses your neuromuscular system as a whole, rather than one limb or muscle group at a time. The net result is a dramatic improvement in strength and power, flexibility, balance, tone and leanness, along with reduced pain and soreness.

   They aren't cheap but I am fortunate to have access to one virtually year-round, and it is my first therapy that I use when I get a muscle injury from an accident or over training.

4. Eating ginger

   Ginger contains anti-inflammatory compounds and oils known as gingerols, which have pain-relieving effects. In one study on people who did exercises meant to induce muscle pain, those who ate two grams of ginger a day had a 25 percent reduction in exercise-induced muscle pain 24 hours after their workout, compared to those who took a placebo.^v Researchers concluded:

   "This study demonstrates that daily consumption of raw and heat-treated ginger resulted in moderate-to-large reductions in muscle pain following exercise-induced muscle injury."

References:

• ⁱ The Four Hour Body
• ⁱⁱ LiveStrong June 6, 2011
• ⁱⁱⁱ Steady Health September 27, 2010
• ^iv Steady Health September 27, 2010
• ^v J Pain. 2010 Sep;11(9):894-903

A recent study looked at the role of protein in modulating post-exercise overnight recovery.

The researchers assessed the impact of protein ingestion immediately prior to sleep on digestion, absorption kinetics, and protein metabolism on 16 healthy young males.

The participants were asked to perform resistance exercises at 8pm in the evening. 

At 9pm, all participants ate a recovery meal consisting of 20 grams of protein and 60 grams of carbs.

Then, 30 minutes before they went to bed, half of them drank a high-protein beverage. According to the authorsⁱ:

"During sleep casein protein was effectively digested and absorbed resulting in a rapid rise in circulating amino acid levels which were sustained throughout the remainder of the night.

Protein ingestion prior to sleep increased whole-body protein synthesis rates and improved net protein balance...

This is the first study to show that protein ingested immediately prior to sleep is effectively digested and absorbed, thereby stimulating muscle protein synthesis and improving whole-body protein balance during post-exercise, overnight recovery."

What and When You Eat After Your Workout Matters

Your post-workout meal can influence the overall health effects exercise has on your body, so what to eat after your workout is an important consideration.

For example, previous research has shown that eating fewer carbohydrates after exercise can enhance your insulin sensitivity, compared to simply reducing calorie intakeⁱⁱ. As I've explained on countless occasions, optimizing your insulin sensitivity is key for maintaining good health.

Generally speaking, after exercise your body is nitrogen-poor and your muscles have been broken down. Providing your body with the correct nutrients after your workout is therefore crucial to stop the catabolic process in your muscle and shift the recycling process toward repair and growth. If you fail to feed your muscle at the right time after exercise, the catabolic process will go too far and can potentially damage your muscle. Amino acids from high quality animal proteins, along with carbohydrates from vegetables (not grains) are essential for this process.

Good sources of animal protein include:

• Whey protein (minimally processed, and derived from organic, grass-fed, non-hormonally treated cows)
• Humanely raised, free-range chicken
• Organic eggs from pastured hens
• Grass-fed beef

Beneficial sources of carbohydrates include:

• Virtually any vegetable (limiting carrots and beets, which are high in sugar)
• Dark green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale or Swiss chard
• Low fructose fruits like lemon, limes, passion fruit, apricots, plums, cantaloupe, and raspberries. Avoid high fructose fruits like apples, watermelons and pears

It's important to combine a quality protein with a veggie-type carb in every meal, no matter whether it's a resistance training day, an interval cardio day, or a non-workout day. However, after strength training (as opposed to cardio training), your body tends to need more rapidly absorbed nutrients and a higher glycemic (fast released, starchy) carbohydrate. Another slight difference between interval cardio and strength training days is the timing of your meal.

• After cardio, you want to wait 45-60 minutes, and then consume a high-quality protein (whole food) and vegetable-type carbohydrate. (An example would be a spinach salad and some chicken, or high quality whey protein like Miracle Whey).
• After a resistance workout (muscle-building day), the ideal time to consume your post-workout meal is 15-30 minutes after finishing your session, in order to help repair your damaged muscles.

Whey Protein - The IDEAL Fitness Food

The high protein drink half of the participants received in the featured study was based on casein, a milk protein. But whey protein, which is also derived from milk, is considered the gold standard of protein by many, and is one of the best types of foods you can consume before and after exercise. 

In a previous study, researchers set out to find which milk protein was the best for building up muscle protein. Three groups of older men were fed a meal-like amount of whey, casein, and casein hydrolysate proteins. Their protein ingestion was combined with an intravenous tracer, used to assess digestion and absorption kinetics, and to calculate their muscle synthesis rates.

According to the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last yearⁱⁱⁱ:

"Whey protein stimulates postprandial muscle protein accretion more effectively than do casein and casein hydrolysate in older men. This effect is attributed to a combination of whey's faster digestion and absorption kinetics and higher leucine content."

One of the reasons whey protein works so well is that it assimilates very quickly, so the protein will get to your muscles within 10-15 minutes of swallowing it, supplying them with the right food at the right time. Another study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise showed the amino acids found in high quality whey protein also activate certain cellular mechanisms, including a mechanism called mTORC-1, which in turn promote muscle protein synthesis, boost thyroid, and also protect against declining testosterone levels after exercise^iv.

Whey protein earns its title as the perfect "fitness food" as it contains not only high quality protein, but also extremely high amounts of leucine, which is particularly important for muscle growth and repair.

Leucine - A Powerful Muscle Builder

Leucine is part of branched-chain amino acid that serves multiple functions in your body, one of which is signaling the mTOR (Mammalian Target of Rapamycin) mechanism, to increase protein synthesis and builds your muscle. However, according to fitness expert Ori Hofmekler, you need VERY HIGH amounts of leucine to reap the optimal effect - definitely far more than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) - because most of it gets used up as a building block rather than an anabolic agent.

The highest concentrations of leucine are found in dairy products; particularly whey protein.

Be aware that taking leucine as a free form amino acid supplement can be counterproductive and wrought with side effects. For example, intravenous administration of free form leucine has shown to cause severe hyperglycemic reactions and insulin resistance. Hence, to get the benefits without the side effects, make sure you get your leucine from food only.

The typical requirement for leucine is 1-3 grams daily. However, to optimize its anabolic pathway, you need as much as 8-16 grams of leucine daily. The following chart presents leucine content in common foods. As you will see, to obtain the minimum eight gram leucine requirement for anabolic purposes, you'd have to consume a pound and a half of chicken, for example, or about 16 eggs! Most would agree that's just not feasible. However, you only need three ounces of high-quality whey to reach the eight gram requirement, making it an obvious choice.

Leucine Content in food / per 100g

Avoid Sugar Before, During and After Exercise!

Besides knowing which foods will help you optimize your exercise efforts, you also want to pay careful attention to what NOT to eat. To maximize the benefits of exercise, including weight loss benefits, you'll want to carefully avoid:

• Fruit juices
• Energy drinks
• Sports drinks
• Most energy bars
• Many "healthy" drinks like Vitamin Water

These, and virtually all other processed foods and beverages, contain high amounts of sugar, including fructose, which will effectively sabotage your efforts and nullify many of the benefits of exercise. Remember, 80 percent of the benefits you reap from a healthy lifestyle comes from you diet, and the remaining 20 percent from exercise. Exercise cannot counteract the harmful effects of a high-fructose diet.

Fructose fools your metabolism and essentially tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your body's appetite-control system. It also rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity ("beer belly"), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure -- i.e., classic metabolic syndrome.

Additionally, consuming fructose, including that from fruit juices, within two hours of a high-intensity workout will decimate your natural human growth hormone (HGH) production - a MAJOR benefit of interval training.

You may be aware that one of my top recommended forms of exercise are high-intensity interval exercises, which are an integral part of my Peak Fitness program. Interval training effectively boosts your body's natural production of HGH, which is a vital hormone that is key for physical strength, health and longevity. However, as previously reported by HGH Magazine^v and fitness expert Phil Campbell^vi, author of Ready, Set, Go!, avoiding fructose is vital for making this type of exercise work.

Consuming fructose will increase production of the hormone somatostatin, a primary purpose of which is to inhibit the production of HGH. Hence:

"A high sugar meal after working out, or even a recovery drink (containing high sugar) after working out, will stop the benefits of exercise induced HGH. You can work out for hours, then eat a high sugar candy bar or have a high sugar energy drink, and this will shut down the synergistic benefits of HGH," HGH Magazine writes.

Granted, there is a small group of elite and highly competitive athletes for whom increasing growth hormone is not a primary goal. For these athletes, consuming some carbs, preferably dextrose-based, in the recovery period is probably a good idea to improve their recovery time and will help to maximize their athletic performance. Since they're competing, they're less likely to be concerned about long-term growth hormone levels. But for most others, increasing HGH through high intensity interval exercise is an important factor for optimizing health, so most of my readers will want to heed to the sugar and juice restriction.

Interestingly, it is virtually impossible to simultaneously optimize for longevity and fitness and/or fertility. If you are seeking to get pregnant or compete you will need slightly higher body fat stores to be in the optimal range. If you are not concerned about fertility or athletic performance, then lower carbs and lower percentage of body fat would be a more appropriate goal.

You also want to avoid sugar and grain carbs at least 90 minutes before going to bed in order to optimize night-time HGH production - a factor that the featured study does not address at all, but that is well worth taking into account. Part of the equation is that insulin and HGH are adversarial hormones - carbs will trigger insulin secretion, which basically nullifies HGH release.

References:

• ⁱ Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise February 9, 2012 [Epub ahead of print]
• ⁱⁱ Journal of Applied Physiology, 2010 Mar;108(3):554-60,
• ⁱⁱⁱ Whey protein stimulates postprandial muscle protein accretion more effectively than do casein and casein hydrolysate in older men, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition May 2011: 93(5); 997-1005,
• ^iv Timing Protein Intake Increases Energy Expenditure 24 h after Resistance Training, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, May 2010: 42(5); 998-1003
• ^v 2 Habits That Stop Your Natural HGH Production, HGH Magazine
• ^vi Limiting Refined Sugar After Workouts, Phil Campbell, Howtobefit.com,

The most recent research shows that relatively short bursts of intense exercise—even if done only a total of a few minutes each week—can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise.

By doing just three minutes of High Intensity Training (HIT) a week for four weeks, you could see significant changes in important health indices.

At some research centers, participants were able to improve their insulin sensitivity an average of 24 percent with as little as three minutes of HIT per week.

BBC News reportsⁱ :

"So how does it work? ... [P]art of the explanation is (probably) that HIT uses far more of your muscle tissue than classic aerobic exercise. 

When you do HIT, you are using not just the leg muscles, but also the upper body including arms and shoulders, so that 80 percent of the body's muscle cells are activated, compared to 20-40 percent for walking or moderate intensity jogging or cycling."

But there's an important caveat...

Just how well high intensity training actually works may in large part depend on your genetic makeup.

Your Genes May Determine How Little Exercise You Need

We often tend to believe that exercise will affect most people in similar ways. But that may be an oversimplification—at least when it comes to how little exercise you can get away with and still maintain good health. In the featured article, Michael Mosley offers the following explanation:

"The fact is that people respond to exercise in very different ways. In one international studyⁱⁱ 1,000 people were asked to exercise four hours a week for 20 weeks. Their aerobic fitness was measured before and after starting this regime and the results were striking. Although 15 percent of people made huge strides (so-called "super-responders"), 20 percent showed no real improvement at all ("non-responders").

There is no suggestion that the non-responders weren't exercising properly, it was simply that the exercise they were doing was not making them any aerobically fitter. Jamie [Timmons. Professor of ageing biology at Birmingham University] and his collaborators investigated the reasons for these variations and discovered that much of the difference could be traced to a small number of genesⁱⁱⁱ. On the basis of this finding they have developed a genetic test to predict who is likely to be a responder, and who is not."

I thought that the recent report in the BBC News was an interesting confirmation of the Peak Fitness approach I have been advocating for some time now. It is important not to get caught up in the non-responder element of the report as it is was related to aerobic fitness, which we now realize is far less important than anaerobic fitness. It is safe to assume that everyone, including you, requires the metabolic challenge to stay healthy and avoid disease. While some people may actually get more aerobically fit than others, virtually everyone seems to benefit if the exercises are done properly.

Less than One Hour a Month Can Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity by Nearly 25 Percent

Mosley tested HIT for himself, and reveals the results in the featured article. He performed the exercises on a stationary bike. After warming up, he cycled "all-out" for 20 seconds, rested for a couple of minutes, and then gave it his all for another 20 seconds. Total time: just a few minutes! After four weeks—which amounted to a grand total of 12 minutes of intense exercise and 36 minutes of relaxed pedaling—Mosley's insulin sensitivity had improved a respectable 24 percent. His aerobic fitness, however, remained unchanged.

He writes:

"It turns out that the genetic test they had done on me had suggested I was a non-responder and however much exercise I had done, and of whatever form, my aerobic fitness would not have improved. My dreams of winning Olympic gold ended there and then. I will continue doing HIT because I can see the benefits. It won't suit everyone, because although it is short, it is extremely intense."

This truly is amazing, and while aerobic fitness is indeed important, improving and maintaining good insulin sensitivity is perhaps one of the most important aspects of optimal health. Previous research has demonstrated that 20 minutes of high intensity training, two to three times a week, can yield greater results than slow and steady conventional aerobics done five times a week. But the fact that you can improve your insulin sensitivity by nearly 25 percent with a time investment of less than ONE HOUR A MONTH really should send people straight to the gym en masse...

How to Maximize the Health Benefits of Peak Fitness Training

However, you don't need a gym to perform high intensity interval exercises. It can be performed with virtually any type of exercise; with or without equipment. You can just as easily perform interval training by walking or running outdoors as you can using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine.

While it's theoretically possible to reap valuable results with as little as three minutes once a week, it might be more beneficial doing them two or three times a week for a total of four minutes of intense exertion, especially if you are not doing strength training. You do not need to do them more often than that however. In fact, doing it more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between sessions.

I personally do Peak Fitness on an elliptical once a week (see below) but currently, twice a week, I am doing a fairly intense strength training workout. If I feel that I have plenty of energy and can complete the workout, then I continue in that frequency, but if I get tired and poop out during the session, I know it is time for me to increase my recovery time. In that case, I decrease strength training to once a week and put more time in on the Power Plate.

 

If you want to do more, focus on making sure you're really pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly sessions, rather than increasing the frequency. Intensity is KEY for reaping all the benefits interval training can offer. To perform it correctly, you'll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 second intervals. Here's a summary of what a typical interval routine might look like using an elliptical:

• Warm up for three minutes
• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate
• Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
• Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you're doing eight during your 20 minute session. You will notice that the Peak Fitness has 30 seconds rather than 20 and goes for 8 sessions so it is a harder workout. But, as the article states, if you do less, you will still get benefits. They just may not be as dramatic as with the Peak Fitness approach.

Even Brief Exercise Produces Genetic Changes

The featured findings also support recent research published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which shows that when healthy but inactive people exercise intensely, even if the exercise is brief, it produces an immediate change in their DNA^iv . While the underlying genetic code in the muscle remains unchanged, exercise causes important structural and chemical changes to the DNA molecules within the muscles, and this contraction-induced gene activation appears to be early events leading to the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength, and to the structural and metabolic benefits of exercise.

Several of the genes affected by an acute bout of exercise are genes involved in fat metabolism. Specifically, the study suggests that when you exercise, your body almost immediately experiences genetic activation that increases the production of fat-busting proteins. Previous studies have identified and measured a wide variety of biochemical changes that occur during exercise. More than 20 different metabolites^v are affected by exercise, including compounds that help you burn calories and fat, and compounds that help stabilize your blood sugar. These biochemical changes create a positive feedback loop.

As mentioned earlier, one of the key health benefits of exercise is that it helps normalize your glucose and insulin levels by optimizing insulin receptor sensitivity. This is perhaps the most important factor for optimizing your overall health and preventing chronic disease.

Aim for a Well-Rounded Fitness Program

While high intensity interval exercises accomplish greater benefits in a fraction of the time compared to slow, endurance-type exercises like jogging, I do not recommend limiting yourself to a few minutes of exercise per week. If that's all you have for now, then by all means, do what you can. But ideally, to truly optimize your health, you'll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates other types of exercise as well. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body.

I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:

1. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
2. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You can also "up" the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
3. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability. You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild. Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
4. Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

References:

• ⁱ BBC News February 28, 2012
• ⁱⁱ The HERITAGE Family study
• ⁱⁱⁱ Journal of Applied Physiology June 2010 vol. 108 no. 6 1487-1496
• ^iv Cell Metabolism March 7, 2012: 15(3);405-411
• ^v Science Translational Medicine May 26, 2010; 2(33):33ra37

Even though exercise is extremely healthy -- it's the closest physical strategy to a "miracle drug" that I can think of -- it's becoming increasingly clear that too much exercise is not.

For most people this is not an issue, because most people are not exercising enough -- and particularly not intensely enough.

But there are instances where you need to carefully consider your exercise strategy to make sure it is in line with, and supporting, your health goals.

Optimizing your fertility and how long you will live are examples.

If You're Normal Weight and Want to Get Pregnant, Avoid Over-Exercising

New research in Fertility and Sterility looked into the association between physical activity and time to pregnancy.

Among women who were overweight or obese, any type of exercise improved fertility.

But among normal-weight women, higher levels of vigorous exercise -- such as running on a treadmill for an hour five days a week -- appeared to make it harder to conceive, as it led to delays in becoming pregnant.

It's long been known that strenuous exercise can cause disturbances to a woman's monthly cycle, leading to a lack of ovulation and menses, along with other fertility problems.

This is particularly common among competitive female athletes and marathon runners.

However, the study's author, Lauren Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, suggested high-intensity exercise might also disturb implantation (when a fertilized egg attaches to the uterus).

Moderate exercise, on the other hand, led to faster times to pregnancy among all women. Only very vigorous exercise -- which was defined as running, fast cycling, gymnastics or swimming for more than five hours a week -- appeared to delay exercise in normal-weight (but not overweight or obese) women. Researchers concluded:

"These findings indicate that PA [physical activity] of any type might improve fertility among overweight and obese women, a subgroup at higher risk of infertility. Lean women who substitute vigorous PA with moderate PA may also improve their fertility."

Why Less is Sometimes More When it Comes to Exercise

A growing body of research shows you may not need to spend as much time exercising as you think -- provided that you are willing to put in some authentically vigorous effort when you do. Incorporating high-intensity interval training such as that advocated by fitness experts Phil Campbell or Dr. Doug McGuff can improve your fitness regimen. These types of exercises dramatically cut down on your exercise time while producing greater benefits—simply because you're using your body as it was designed to be used.

When doing high-intensity anaerobic exercises like Peak Fitness, you can literally be done in about 20 minutes, compared to spending an hour running on the treadmill. And according to Dr. McGuff, if you're doing Super Slow strength training, which is another form of high-intensity type training, all you need is 12 minutes a week. Yes, you read that right: 12 minutes a week!

Download Interview Transcript

If you perform Peak Fitness exercises correctly, it will trigger the release of human growth hormone (HGH), also known as "the fitness hormone," which accounts for many of the health benefits of interval training.

But be mindful of your current fitness level and don't overdo it when you first start out. Also keep in mind that there's no "magical" speed here. It's entirely individual, based on your current level of fitness. Some may reach their anabolic threshold by walking at a quick pace, while others may need to perform a mad-dash to get the same effect.

The remarkable effectiveness of interval training makes logical sense when you consider that this type of exertion mimics how our ancestors lived. This is also how animals and young children behave naturally (long-duration exercise really isn't "natural"). By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health. That said, engaging in these high-intensity exercises two to three times a week is likely to lead to a decrease in body fat.

If you are seeking to get pregnant, or compete athletically, you will need slightly higher body fat stores to be in the optimal range. This may be one reason why lean women engaging in too much vigorous exercise took longer to become pregnant. The study defined about five hours a week as too much, so it's likely that Peak Fitness exercises, which take only 20 minutes for the entire workout (with only four minutes of intense exercise) and should only be performed two or three times a week, max, would actually be beneficial.

What to Eat After Exercise to Help Optimize Fertility

Interestingly, it is virtually impossible to simultaneously optimize for both longevity and competitive fitness in terms of what you eat after a workout. This is because consuming fructose after you exercise will increase production of the hormone somatostatin, a primary purpose of which is to inhibit the production of HGH.

For most people, increasing HGH through high-intensity interval exercise is an important factor for optimizing health and longevity, so most of my readers will want to avoid sugar, fructose and juice following their workouts. But if you are seeking to optimize your fertility, or compete athletically, consuming some carbs, preferably dextrose-based, in the recovery period is probably a good idea to improve your recovery time and maximize your fertility or athletic performance. If you are not concerned about fertility or athletic performance, then lower carbs and lower percentage of body fat would be a more appropriate goal.

More Strategies for Optimizing Fertility

An estimated 1 in 6 American couples struggle with fertility each year, and there's compelling evidence that lifestyle, diet and environmental exposures are largely to blame. Not only are you exposed to hundreds (if not thousands) of toxins each and every day, but some of the most commonly prescribed drugs, poor diet, and common vitamin deficiencies have also been linked to reduced fertility, just to name a few.

As Iva Keene, author of the Natural Fertility Prescription, stated:

"Conventional IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments don't address root causes of infertility. These root causes can include: nutritional deficiencies, toxin exposure, stress, food intolerances, allergies and immune deficiencies. These subtle but critical factors interact synergistically to impact the quality of your eggs and sperm, affecting your ability to conceive and the health of your embryo.

… during the generation and maturation of gamete cells -- sperm and ovum -- that form an embryo [a period of 120 days], everything that you and your partner ingest, inhale or are exposed to will influence the health of your eggs and sperm for better or worse, and the ultimate quality of the genetic building blocks you pass onto your child. This is why it's crucial to follow a good preconception plan for a minimum of 4 months before conception. A baby is a 50-50 product of his or her parents -- therefore optimizing the quality of eggs and sperm is of paramount importance."

Some natural options to consider include:

• Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure, a safe tanning bed or a vitamin D3 supplement. Vitamin D impacts fertility on multiple levels, including boosting levels of progesterone and estrogen in women, which may help regulate menstrual cycles and improve your likelihood of conceiving naturally. In men, vitamin D is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell, improves semen quality and sperm count, and is capable of supporting healthy testosterone levels.
• Avoid genetically engineered food, especially corn and soy. These contain significant concentrations of the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup), which has been linked to infertility in a number of studies.
• Avoid chemicals as much as possible. Bisphenol-A (BPA), phthalates, fluoride (in drinking water), MSG, and many, many others have shown negative impacts on your reproductive health.
• Consume a healthy diet, rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, and low in sugar and grains. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with endocrine disruptors, PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality purified fish or krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity. Eat mostly raw, fresh foods, steering clear of processed, prepackaged foods of all kinds. This way you automatically avoid hidden fructose and artificial food additives, including dangerous artificial sweeteners, food coloring and MSG. As much as possible, purchase and consume organic, locally grown and free-range foods to reduce your exposure to pesticides, fertilizers and other toxins.
• Identify potential gluten intolerance. Celiac disease (gluten intolerance) has been linked to fertility problems in both sexes. In men, it's associated with abnormal sperm, such as lower sperm numbers, altered shape, and reduced function. Men with untreated celiac disease may also have lower testosterone levels.
• Be aware of electromagnetic fields (EMFs), as research suggests cell phones may impact sperm quality as well. One study found men who talked on a cell phone for more than four hours a day had the lowest average sperm counts (50 million per milliliter) and the least healthy sperm.ⁱ

• ⁱ Study presented at the 2006 American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans

According to novel research, obese women can exercise longer if they cool the palms of their hands. 

Fat tissue is a very effective insulator, causing many who are obese to get too hot while exercising.

To investigate whether cooling the hands might help overweight women overcome fatigue and overheating while exercising, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine tested a hand-cooling device already in use by some professional athletes. 

According to MSN Health ⁱ:

"[Researchers] assigned the women to one of two groups: both held the cooling device in their palms, but only one group had cool water (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit) running through the device...

The cooling group shaved more than five minutes off their time for the 1.5 mile treadmill test...

Their exercising heart rate went up, too, 136 beats per minute to 154 beats per minute -- a good thing.

The cooling group also took more than two inches off their waist by end of the 12-week study.

... Their blood pressure also went down, from 139/84 to 124/70. (Below 120/80 is the goal.)

In contrast, the comparison group didn't show any substantial differences in any of the measures..."

The Connection Between Cooling and Increased Metabolism

While such results may sound too good to be true—after all, it's hard to believe that simply cooling your hands could boost fat loss and increase performance. However, there may be more than meets the eye here. I recently wrote about other research that, at least in part, explains why metabolism increases when you're exposed to cold. It has to do with brown fat.

Research suggests that calorie combustion in brown fat may be of significance for your metabolism, and brown fat is effectively activated by cold temperatures. In one recent study, men burned more calories when cooled, and lost white fat, the kind that causes obesityⁱⁱ. This supported findings from previous research, which also found that cold temperatures can increase activity in your brown fat regionsⁱⁱⁱ. In fact, cold-induced glucose uptake was increased by a factor of 15!  

Interestingly, part of the explanation for why the activation of brown fat can help boost metabolism is because it actually behaves more like muscle than fat.

Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, with Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has published at least five studies^iv on the topic of brown fat over the past five years. In one, his team identified a sort of master switch that promotes the production of brown fat. This molecular switch, known as PRDM16, regulates whether immature cells will turn into brown fat or into muscle cells. In an interview with WebMD, Spiegelman said^v:

"We showed that brown fat and white fat have completely different origins. Brown fat is derived from muscle. That was a huge surprise."

While scientists are eager to develop medical interventions to boost brown fat production to capitalize on its fat reducing potential, the non-invasive way to accomplish this might be plain exercise. This was successfully demonstrated in a mouse study, in which the animals converted white fat into brown fat simply by exercising. According to Time Magazine^vi:

 "During exercise, the animals' muscles released a newly discovered enzyme called irisin, which triggered the conversion. It's not clear whether the same phenomenon is true in people, though humans do have the same protein."

Ice Therapy: a Viable Strategy?

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Work Week, also published a book called The Four-Hour Body^vii, which includes the concept of activating your brown fat to boost fat burning by exposing yourself to frigid temperatures. He claims you can increase your fat burning potential by as much as 300 percent simply by adding ice therapy to your dieting strategy. A LiveStrong article backs up Ferriss' claim stating^viii:

"A NASA scientist told ABC News that's no hyperbole. In studying the effects of temperature on astronauts, he saw people's metabolism boost by 20 percent in environments as mild as 60 degrees. A Joslin researcher told National Public Radio that 3 oz. of brown fat could burn 400 to 500 calories daily."

Ferriss' Ice Therapy is based on the premise that by cooling your body, you're essentially forcing it to burn much more calories by activating your brown fat. His suggestions, from easy to 'hard core,' include the following. If you want to give his technique a try, make sure you advance slowly. It may be inadvisable to go straight to the ice bath if you're not used to frigid temperatures:

• Place an ice pack on your upper back and upper chest for 30 minutes per day (you can do this while relaxing in front of the TV for example)
• Drinking about 500 ml of ice water each morning
• Cold showers
• Immersing yourself in ice water up to your waist for 10 minutes, three times per week. (Simply fill your tub with cold water and ice cubes)

Fasting—Another Metabolic Booster Technique

Besides ice therapy or gadgets keeping your palms cooled, there are other techniques that can help give your metabolism a boost to increase fat loss. One often ignored strategy is periodic fasting, which may offer multiple health benefits, as long as it's done properly. Periodic fasting, such as eating very lightly for two days a week, has been found to trigger a variety of beneficial hormonal and metabolic changes that may help prevent age-related brain shrinkage, heart disease, diabetes, and possibly even cancer. 

Recent research also suggests fasting before exercise may help you to achieve your fitness results faster. For example, in one such study^ix, 19 men were divided into two groups—one practiced aerobic training after fasting for Ramadan (which requires fasting from dawn to sunset for one month), and the other trained after eating. During each session, subjects underwent anthropometric measurement, completed a dietary questionnaire, and provided fasting blood and urine samples. The fasting group experienced reductions in both body weight and body fat, the latter of which remained unchanged in the fed group. The researchers concluded:

" … [A]erobic training in a fasted state lowers body weight and body fat percentage. In contrast, fed aerobic training decreases only body weight. In addition, Ramadan fasting induced change in some metabolic parameters in FAST, but these changes were absent in FED."

Exercising while fasting effectively forces your body to shed fat, as your body's fat burning processes are controlled by your sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and your SNS is activated by both exercise and lack of food. The combination of fasting and exercising maximizes the impact of cellular factors and catalysts (cyclic AMP and AMP Kinases), which force the breakdown of fat and glycogen for energy.

Can Fasting Take Your Fitness Program to the Next Level?

According to some fitness experts, such as Ori Hofmekler, fasting may indeed push your exercise program to the next level. The reason for this is because exercise and fasting yield acute oxidative stress, which actually benefits your muscle. According to Hofmekler, acute oxidative stress is essential for maintaining optimal muscle:

"Technically, acute oxidative stress makes your muscle increasingly resilient to oxidative stress; it stimulates glutathione and SOD [superoxide dismutase, the first antioxidant mobilized by your cells for defense] production in your mitochondria along with increased muscular capacity to utilize energy, generate force and resist fatigue. Hence, exercise and fasting help counteract all the main determinants of muscle aging."

But that's not all!

The combination of fasting and short intense exercise also triggers a mechanism that recycles and rejuvenates your brain and muscle tissues. The mechanism in question activates genes and growth factors, including brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) and muscle regulatory factors (MRFs), which in turn signal brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to convert into new neurons and new muscle cells, respectively. This means that exercise on an empty stomach may actually help to keep your brain, neuro-motors and muscle fibers biologically young.

As Ori explains:

"Fasting promotes muscle breakdown along with the removal of broken proteins and damaged cells towards recycling. Nonetheless, to fully rejuvenate your muscle, you need to grant regeneration of new muscle cells. And that's where the short intense exercise comes into play. It turns on the mechanism that converts muscle satellite cells into new muscle fibers. And it targets your fast neuro-motors and helps keep your fast muscle fibers intact."

Guidelines for Exercising on an Empty Stomach

While exercise and fasting may help counteract all the main determinants of muscle aging and boost fat-burning, compared to working out after eating, fasting incorrectly can be more harmful than helpful.

For starters, you need to make sure that you're not fasting to an unhealthy extreme. In other words, fasting does not mean that you starve yourself for days on end. Instead, intermittent fasting involves either fasting completely or simply minimizing your food intake during the day to small servings of light, low-glycemic, mostly raw foods such as fruits, vegetables, whey protein or lightly poached eggs. Eat your main meal of the day at night, so your "fasting" time consists only of the daytime hours, either fasting completely or eating light, mostly raw foods every 4-6 hours.

Hofmekler recommends working out 30 minutes after your latest snack, followed by a recovery meal, within 30 minutes after your workout. This recovery meal is crucial, and must include fast-assimilating protein, as this will help prevent brain and muscle damage from occurring. Whey protein is an ideal option here. Ori explains:

"When you implement intermittent fasting you put your body into a strong catabolic state. Your body is literally eating up and destroying damaged and injured brain and muscle cells. You rapidly accelerate this process when you exercise in this state. It's this very powerful synergy that will allow you to effectively rejuvenate your muscle and brain. This is the radical new approach that very few know about and even fewer have implemented.

The MAJOR danger though is that you will need to rescue your muscle tissue out of this catabolic state and supply it with the proper nutrients to stimulate repair and rejuvenation. If you fail to supply these nutrients at the proper time you can hurt yourself.

Your post exercise recovery meal is critically important. It's needed to stop the catabolic process in your muscle and shift the recycling process towards repair and growth. If you fail to feed your muscle at the right time after exercise, you won't just miss this window of opportunity to restore and build your muscle, you'll actually let the catabolic process go too far and potentially waste and damage your muscle."

A Less Extreme Option: Exercising Before Breakfast

If the idea of fasting—even intermittently—does not suit your fancy, keep in mind that you can get many of the same benefits of fasting and exercise by exercising first thing in the morning, before eating breakfast. As mentioned earlier, training on an empty stomach will effectively force your body to burn fat, while also offering additional benefits. For instance, in one study those who fasted before exercise had increased levels of a certain muscle protein that plays a pivotal role in insulin sensitivity.

My typical exercise program involves exercising in the early AM. On a regular basis, I will try and implement some intermittent fasting by continuing my overnight fast and exercise before breakfast to achieve some of the benefits mentioned above. However, if I notice that I don't have enough energy to complete my workout, I will start eating meals or at least some raw almonds prior to my workout.

As I've explained in numerous articles, insulin resistance is the root cause of most chronic disease, making maintaining proper insulin regulation a primary factor of good health. Just remember that while exercising on an empty stomach can certainly help, it will not make up for a high-fructose diet, so always be sure to cut down on fructose. This includes sports drinks, so trading those energy and sports drinks for pure water is another important factor to keep in mind.

References:

• ⁱ MSN Health March 13, 2012
• ⁱⁱ Journal of Clinical Investigation 2012 Feb 1;122(2):486-9
• ⁱⁱⁱ New England Journal of Medicine 2009 Apr 9;360(15):1518-25
• ^iv http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/13/scientists-find-brown-fat-to-help-lose-weight.aspx
• ^v www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080820/brown-fat-new-key-to-weight-loss
• ^vi Time Magazine January 26, 2012
• ^vii The Four Hour Body
• ^viii LiveStrong June 6, 2011
• ^ix International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism February 2012; 22(1): 11-18

If you're diagnosed with breast cancer, new research suggests that one of the best strategies to improve your chances of recovery is to start a regular exercise program.

This is a radical departure from the now-outdated advice that cancer patients should rest and take it easy the way heart attack patients were treated fifty years ago.

If your oncologist is not yet up to speed on the healing power of exercise, you may want to consider finding one who is …

Exercise after Cancer Diagnosis Improves Survival

A new study has shown that breast cancer patients who start exercising regularly within six months of diagnosis can lower their chances of dying by up to 30 percent.

The researchers found a benefit among those who exercised a minimum of 2.5 hours a week for 18 consecutive months, although the best results came to those who exercised almost every day.

The physical activity supported the women's ability to fight off the disease, improving both overall and disease-free survival.

A separate, earlier study by Harvard Medical School researchers found similar benefits … breast cancer patients who exercise moderately -- 3-5 hours a week -- reduce their odds of dying from breast cancer by about half as compared to sedentary women.ⁱ

In fact, any amount of weekly exercise increased a patient's odds of surviving breast cancer, and this held true regardless of whether women were diagnosed early on or after their cancer had spread.

The new recommendation -- that cancer patients and cancer survivors should exercise at least 2.5 hours a week (an amount that should be easily attainable) -- was buttressed in a report by Macmillan Cancer Support.ⁱⁱ As Jane Maher, chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Support and clinical oncologist, told BBC News:ⁱⁱⁱ

"The advice that I would have previously given to one of my patients would have been to 'take it easy'. This has now changed significantly because of the recognition that if physical exercise were a drug, it would be hitting the headlines."

Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, echoed these sentiments:^iv

"Cancer patients would be shocked if they knew just how much of a benefit physical activity could have on their recovery and long term health … "

You Can Get BETTER Results with FAR Less Exercise

It is important to understand that these researchers were not aware of the superior results of using high-intensity interval Peak Fitness type exercises. That was not part of the study design, but if it were, my guess is that it would have been FAR more effective than the 2.5 hours of exercise they found to be effective. More than likely one hour per week of high intensity would be far more beneficial. But that one hour is TOTAL time including warm up, recovery and cool down. The actual amount of high intensity exercise is only TWELVE MINUTES per week, which is quite extraordinary.

The report noted that evidence is growing to support the role of physical activity at all stages of cancer, both during and after treatment:

"Physical activity is important for cancer patients at all stages of the cancer care pathway. There is evidence to support the role of physical activity for the following stages of the cancer care pathway:

1. During cancer treatment – physical activity improves, or prevents the decline of physical function without increasing fatigue.
2. After cancer treatment – physical activity helps recover physical function.
3. During and after cancer treatment – physical activity can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and mortality for some cancers and can reduce the risk of developing other long-term conditions.
4. Advanced cancer – physical activity can help maintain independence and wellbeing."

Exercise Can Help You Feel Like Yourself Again

A cancer diagnosis is mentally and physically exhausting, and if you are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy as a form of treatment, this can be particularly debilitating (you may want to look into some of the natural cancer treatments available, which do not cause the serious, sometimes deadly, side effects associated with conventional cancer treatment). Exercise can be invaluable here, helping to lessen your symptoms and generally improve how you feel, which means you'll be able to get back to your normal life more quickly.

The Macmillan Cancer Support report highlighted the following ways that exercise can help you to mitigate some of the common side effects of conventional cancer treatment, including the ability to:

Reduce fatigue and improve your energy levels	Manage stress, anxiety, low mood or depression	Improve bone health
Improve heart health (some chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy can cause heart problems later in life)	Build muscle strength, relieve pain and improve range of movement	Maintain a healthy weight
Sleep better	Improve your appetite	Prevent constipation

Why You Should Start Exercising Even if You're Cancer-Free...

Exercise is one of the most powerful strategies available to reduce your cancer risk, so starting a program while you're cancer-free should increase your chances of staying that way.

The notion that exercise may help prevent cancer dates back to 1922, when two independent studies observed that cancer deaths declined among men working occupations that required higher amounts of physical activity. Since then a paper in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise reported that "more than a hundred epidemiologic studies on the role of physical activity and cancer prevention have been published."^v

In the same paper, which reviewed published epidemiologic studies on physical activity and the risk of developing cancer, it's noted that:

"The data are clear in showing that physically active men and women have about a 30-40% reduction in the risk of developing colon cancer, compared with inactive persons … With regard to breast cancer, there is reasonably clear evidence that physically active women have about a 20-30% reduction in risk, compared with inactive women. It also appears that 30-60 min·d-1 of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity is needed to decrease the risk of breast cancer, and that there is likely a dose-response relation."

How Does Exercise Fight and Prevent Cancer?

One of the primary reasons exercise works to lower your cancer risk is because it decreases your insulin receptor sensitivity thus lowering your insulin and leptin levels. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risk. It's also been suggested that apoptosis (programmed cell death) is enhanced by exercise, increasingly the likelihood that cancer cells will die. Exercise also improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood, as well as your lymphatic system, which has no "pump" other than your bodily movements. The job of these cells is to neutralize pathogens throughout your body, as well as destroy precancerous cells before they become cancerous.

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal,^vi which explored the relationship between exercise and cancer, exercise affects several biological functions that may directly influence your cancer risk. These effects include changes in:

Cardiovascular capacity	Energy balance
Pulmonary capacity	Immune function
Bowel motility	Antioxidant defense
Hormone levels	DNA repair

Tips for Exercising Safely if You Have Cancer

You may find that you're able to take part in a regular exercise program -- one that involves a variety of exercises like strength training, core-building, stretching, aerobic and anaerobic -- with very little changes necessary. Ideally your fitness program should be like any other -- comprehensive, providing activities that will improve your strength, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities with high-intensity Peak Fitness exercises.

However, you may find that you need to exercise at a lower intensity or for shorter durations at times. Always listen to your body and if you feel you need a break, take time to rest. Even exercising for a few minutes a day is better than not exercising at all, and you'll likely find that your stamina increases and you're able to complete more challenging workouts with each passing day. In the event you are suffering from a very weakened immune system, you may want to exercise in your home instead of visiting a public gym.

What Else Can You do to Help Prevent Breast Cancer?

It's estimated that about 40 percent of U.S. breast cancer cases could be prevented if people made wiser lifestyle choices. This is not intended to place blame but rather to empower you to take control of your health. I believe these estimates are even far too low, and it is more likely that 75 percent to 90 percent of breast cancers could be avoided by strictly applying the following recommendations.

• Eat healthy. This means avoid sugar, especially fructose, as all forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer. Also, focus on eating whole, organic foods and fresh vegetables while avoiding cancer-causing foods.
• Vitamin D. There's overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. You can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with adequate sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial. The health benefits of optimizing your levels, either by safe sun exposure (ideally), a safe tanning bed, or oral supplementation as a last resort, simply cannot be overstated.
• Get proper sleep both in terms of getting enough sleep, and sleeping between certain hours. According to Ayurvedic medicine, the ideal hours for sleep are between 10 pm and 6 am. Modern research has confirmed the value of this recommendation as certain hormonal fluctuations occur throughout the day and night, and if you engage in the appropriate activities during those times, you're 'riding the wave' so to speak, and are able to get the optimal levels. Working against your biology by staying awake when you should ideally be sleeping or vice versa, interferes with these hormonal fluctuations. It's also important to sleep in complete darkness, as this is what allows your body to produce melatonin, a natural cancer fighter.^vii

  According to Dr. Christine Horner, a board certified general and plastic surgeon:

  "If we, for instance, go to bed by 10, we have higher levels of our sleep hormone melatonin; there's a spike that occurs between midnight and 1am, which you don't want to miss because the consequences are absolutely spectacular. Melatonin is not only our sleep hormone, but it also is a very powerful antioxidant. It decreases the amount of estrogen our body produces. It also boosts your immune system … And it interacts with the other hormones.  So, if you go to bed after 10 … it significantly increases your risk of breast cancer."

• Effectively address your stress. The research shows that if you experience a traumatic or highly stressful event, such as a death in the family, your risk of breast cancer is 12 times higher in the ensuing five years. So be sure you tend to your emotional health, not just your physical health.

I recently interviewed Dr. Christine Horner, a board certified general and plastic surgeon, who shared her extensive knowledge about breast cancer—its causes and its cures, and the pro's and con's of various screening methods. I suggest you listen to that interview now, in addition to learning about the many all-natural cancer-prevention strategies listed above.

Download Interview Transcript

References:

• ⁱ JAMA. 2005;293(20):2479-2486.
• ⁱⁱ Macmillan Cancer Support "The Importance of Physical Activity for People Living With and Beyond Cancer" (PDF)
• ⁱⁱⁱ BBC News August 7, 2011
• ^iv BBC News August 7, 2011
• ^v Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise November 2003 - Volume 35 - Issue 11 - pp 1823-1827
• ^vi BMJ 2000;321:1424
• ^vii GreenMedInfo.com, Melatonin Research

Bryan Ganey weighed 577 pounds when he collapsed, struggling to breathe due to a pulmonary embolism (blood clot) blocking oxygen flow to his lungs.

In about 25 percent of patients, the first "symptom" of pulmonary embolism is sudden death, but Ganey was lucky – he recovered.

While in the hospital, doctors suggested he consider weight-loss surgery to shed pounds, but Ganey refused, as he knew several people who had gotten the surgery and suffered complications.

That, and he knew he could lose weight on his own once he put his mind to it …

130 Pounds Gone in the First 6 Months

It took a near-death experience to put things into perspective for Ganey, but once he decided that his condition was "unacceptable," he began making positive lifestyle changes -- and that made all the difference.

His diet, which once consisted primarily of fast food, pizza and soda (up to a gallon a day), now consists of lean meats, vegetables and fruits.

He works with a personal trainer, exercising regularly.

His job, once the night shift, has been switched to daytime hours. In the first six months alone, Ganey lost 130 pounds, followed by another 140 over the next year. Now, at just under 300 pounds, he's still losing up to 7 pounds a month as he works toward his goal weight of 200 pounds. Aside from the weight loss, the lifestyle changes led to major improvements in other health markers as well:

• He was able to get off many medications he used to take
• His blood pressure medication has been reduced four times
• His LDL (bad) cholesterol is in the optimal range
• He was previously pre-diabetic, but now it appears his future will be diabetes-free

As he told CNN:

"I think what gets lost in the advertisements and everything that's written about weight loss is that if people would keep it simple, that everyone has that power in them. You can change your life."

Opting Against Weight Loss Surgery May Have Been His Best Decision of All

Weight loss surgery may seem like a quick fix to shed pounds, especially in extreme cases where morbid obesity poses significant health risks. However, bariatric surgery is major surgery and with it comes hefty risks. This is true for both types of bariatric surgery, gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass. Gastric banding consists of surgically inserting a band around the top section of your stomach, and cinching it into a small pouch. Whereas gastric banding is at least reversible, while gastric bypass is not, the complications are often so debilitating that patients opt to have the bands removed completely.

In gastric bypass, a section of your small intestine is typically removed entirely, and your stomach is reconnected further down your intestine, bypassing the duodenum, hence the name "gastric bypass." Your duodenum -- that first section of your small intestine -- is responsible for the majority of nutrient absorption. Hence, if you make it through the surgery, malnutrition is a common concern after this type of surgery.

All surgeries have inherent risks, but bariatric surgeries seem to have a much higher ratio of complications. In fact, nearly 40 percent of patients who undergo weight loss surgery experience major complicationsⁱ, including:

Band erosion	Malnutrition	Infection
Kidney stones	Bowel and gallbladder problems	Liver failure
Black-outs	Increased risk of death	Abnormal band expansion

One Out of 50 People Die After Gastric Bypass

People undergoing weight loss surgery typically do so because they believe it will save their life … but according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, you have a one in 50 chance of dying within 30 days of gastric bypass surgery.ⁱⁱ And if your surgeon isn't experienced, your risk is even higher. Within the surgeon's first 19 procedures, the odds of death within 30 days were 4.7 times higher!

Please understand that you could end up making the ultimate sacrifice, losing your life, if you opt for weight loss surgery, which is especially tragic because there are safe ways to lose weight that can help virtually everyone.

This is true not only of gastric bypass, but also of gastric banding. Since 2009, five people have died after Lap-Band surgery from one group of weight loss clinics in California alone. Serious complications are also more the norm than the exception. According to LapBand.com:ⁱⁱⁱ

"Placement of the LAP-BAND® System is major surgery and, as with any surgery, death can occur. Possible complications include the risks associated with the medications and methods used during surgery, the risks associated with any surgical procedure, and the patient's ability to tolerate a foreign object implanted in the body."

Among the potential complications are:

Gastroesophageal reflux	Band slippage and/or pouch dilation	Stomach obstruction
Esophageal dilation	Reduced esophageal function	Difficulty swallowing
Leaking or twisted access port into the stomach	Band eroding into the stomach

You Still Have to Make Lifestyle Changes if You Receive Weight Loss Surgery

This is a point many fail to realize!  The surgery alone will not magically cure obesity, which is why even the Lap-Band web site states:^iv

"The results may seem magical. But the work necessary for you to achieve success is real. While the LAP-BAND® System is a powerful tool for success, you must also be ready to make lifestyle changes that support long-term weight loss. These include:

• Sticking to dietary requirements.
• Adding exercise to your routine …"

In the case of gastric bypass, the dietary requirements are extreme. Gastric bypass involves stapling your stomach into a pouch that's only a half-ounce in size, so it literally cannot hold much. The idea is that you'll feel full faster, since your stomach will be unnaturally tiny, but it also means you'll often be eating meals that are sorely lacking in nutritional requirements.

A small opening is also created to allow food to empty slowly from the pouch. Because the opening is so small (made this way deliberately to keep the small amount of food you've eaten in your stomach longer, making you feel "full"), food must be chewed very thoroughly or it won't be able to fit through the opening, leading to vomiting.

You'll also be instructed to eat the protein portion of your meal first, because you very well may get too full to fit in a vegetable or anything else. Even liquids must be restricted for up to 45 minutes before and after a meal, lest they take up what little space you have to consume actual food. As you might suspect, because bariatric surgery patients can consume very little roughage, constipation is often a problem. It is even described as "normal" to have a bowel movement only once every two or three days!

Hair loss and muscle loss are also common after the surgery -- both signs that your body is not receiving proper nutrition.

If this, plus constipation and vomiting are not enough to make you think twice, you should also know that certain foods, including tomato sauces, mayonnaise, fruit juice, dressings and others, will lead to "dumping syndrome," aka cramps, nausea and diarrhea. Snacking is also expressly forbidden after gastric bypass, as you're only allowed three small meals a day, and you may have to write off certain foods (like red meats, spicy foods, and fibrous vegetables) entirely because your body just can't digest them anymore.

This is simply NOT a healthy way of eating, and the long-term implications from malnutriton are just as severe as the short-term risks. For instance, people who receive bariatric surgery more than double their risk of fractures, and are about three times more likely to break a hand or foot than normal.^v

Lifestyle Changes -- Not Surgery -- are the Key to Healthy Weight Loss

I believe there are two primary dietary recommendations that could make all the difference in the world for most people trying to lose weight, leading to a swift reversal in obesity and the horrific disease trends we're currently facing:

1. Severely restricting carbohydrates (sugars, fructose, and grains) in your diet
2. Increasing healthy fat consumption

I recently wrote about this recommendation in-depth, so for more details, please see This Substance Fools Your Metabolism - and Tricks Your Body into Gaining Pounds. If you want to shed excess pounds and maintain a healthy weight long-term, and RADICALLY reduce (and in many cases virtually eliminate) your risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer, then get serious about restricting your consumption of fructose to no more than 25 grams per day, with a maximum of 15 grams a day from fresh fruit. If you're already overweight, or have any of these diseases or are at high risk of any of them, then you're probably better off cutting that down to 10-15 grams per day -- fruit included.

Cutting soda, regular and sugar-free, from your diet is essential. However many fail to appreciate the importance of cutting out other sources of fructose, including those found in processed foods, fruit juice, excessive fruit and so-called "healthy" sweeteners like agave.

For the majority of people, severely restricting carbohydrates such as sugars, fructose, and grains in your diet will be the key to weight loss. Refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

As you cut these dietary villains from your meals, you need to replace them with healthy substitutes like vegetables, proteins and fats (including saturated fats!). Your body generally prefers the carbohydrates in vegetables rather than grains and sugars because it slows the conversion to simple sugars like glucose, and decreases your insulin level. When you cut grains and sugar from your meals, you typically will need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat, as well as make sure you are also consuming protein and healthy fats regularly.

I've detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this guide if you are trying to lose weight.

The foods you choose to eat will be the driving force behind successfully achieving your weight loss goals -- even more so than exercise. However, exercise is also important -- particularly high-intensity burst-type exercises like Peak Fitness, which will help you burn fat.

In your journey to your optimal weight, and beyond that to optimal health, please remember that you can take advantage of the wealth of free health information at Mercola.com by using the search engine above. It is a treasure-trove of valuable advice that is literally at your fingertips. As mentioned, the two places to look first in your quest for weight loss and health are my comprehensive nutrition plan and Mercola Peak Fitness. Both of these resources are free and can have a powerful and dramatic influence on your ability to lose weight and achieve optimal health.

REFERENCES

---

• ⁱ Arch Surg. 2011 Jul;146(7):802-7.
• ⁱⁱ J Am Coll Surg. 2004 Oct;199(4):543-51.
• ⁱⁱⁱ Lapband.com Weight Loss Surgery Risk Information
• ^iv Lapband.com Getting Emotionally Ready for Your New Life
• ^v Study presented at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting, June 2011, Boston, MA