Exercise is a key factor of optimal health; it's particularly important for controlling your blood sugar and normalizing your insulin levels. I often recommend viewing exercise as a drug that needs to be properly prescribed and "taken" at a proper dosage.

When done correctly, exercise can oftentimes act as a substitute for some of the most common drugs used today for things like diabetes, heart disease and depression.

All of these conditions will improve with exercise and the help of an experienced natural health care clinician. High intensity interval training (HIIT), which is a core component of my Peak Fitness program, is key for reaping optimal results from exercise.

There are many versions of HIIT, but the core premise involves maximum exertion followed by a quick rest period for a set of intervals.

My Peak Fitness routine uses a set of eight 30-second sprints, each followed by 90 seconds of recovery, as taught by Phil Campbell who is a pioneer in this field. Also, while I typically recommend using an elliptical machine or recumbent bike, you can just as easily perform a high intensity routine without any equipment at all.

The Scientific 7-Minute Workout

A recent article in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal¹ shows how you can fulfill the requirements for a high intensity exercise using nothing more than your own body weight, a chair, and a wall.

Best of all, this science-backed routine only requires a seven minute investment, as the program calls for as little as 10- to 15-seconds of rest between each 30-second exercise, which should be performed in rapid succession.

As reported by the New York Times²:

“'There’s very good evidence that high-intensity interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time,' says Chris Jordan, the director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Fla., and co-author of the new article.”

The health benefits of high intensity interval training are well-established at this point, and include:

Significantly improving your insulin sensitivity, especially if you're on a low-processed food-, low-sugar/low-grain diet	Optimizing your cholesterol ratios, when combined with a proper diet	Boosting fat metabolism and optimizing your body fat percentage (as a result of improved conservation of sugar and glycogen in your muscles)
Virtually eliminating type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure	Naturally boosting your levels of human growth hormone (HGH)	Increasing your aerobic capacity

One of the added boons of this 7-minute program is that since you don’t need any equipment, you can easily take this routine with you when traveling. You’d be hard-pressed to find a hotel room that doesn’t at least have a chair in it. When done at the appropriate intensity, which should hover around 8 on a scale of 1-10, the following 12 exercises, which are outlined in the report, equate to doing a long run and a weight-training session.

The exercises are ideally done in the following order, as this allows for opposing muscle groups to alternate between resting and working in each subsequent exercise.

Contraindications

I believe most people can perform high intensity exercises, provided you listen to your body and work out according to your current level of fitness and ability. I personally modified the Peak 8 to a Peak 6 this year as it was sometimes just too strenuous for me to do all eight repetitions. So by listening to my body and cutting it back to six reps, I can now easily tolerate the workout and go all out. That said, the authors stress that there are some contraindications for their program:

“Because of the elevated demand for exercise intensity in high intensity circuit training protocols, caution should be taken when prescribing this protocol to individuals who are overweight/obese, detrained, previously injured, or elderly or for individuals with comorbidities.

For individuals with hypertension or heart disease, the isometric exercises (wall sit, plank, and side plank) are not recommended. The isometric exercises can be substituted with dynamic exercises.

For all individuals, the Valsalva maneuver should be avoided, particularly for the isometric exercises. Proper execution requires a willing and able participant who can handle a great degree of discomfort for a relatively short duration. It is also essential that participants in an HICT understand proper exercise form and technique. As with all exercise programs, prior medical clearance from a physician is recommended.”

I firmly believe that most people would benefit from high intensity exercises but the key is to start very slowly if you have any of the risk factors listed above. You might actually require several months to work up to a high intensity level. But as long as you start at a safe level and continue to push yourself to progressively higher levels, you will eventually reach a level of intensity that will provide the benefits.

Remember, while your body needs regular amounts of stress like exercise to stay healthy, if you give it more than you can handle your health can actually deteriorate. So it’s crucial to listen to your body and integrate the feedback into your exercise intensity and frequency. When you work out, it is wise to really push as hard as you possibly can a few times a week, but you do need to wisely gauge your body's tolerance to this stress.

Why High Intensity Interval Training May Be Ideal for Most

Contrary to popular belief, extended extreme cardio, such as marathon running, actually sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it’s only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods—not for an hour or more at a time. This is the natural body mechanics you tap into when you perform HIIT.

Repeatedly and consistently overwhelming your heart by long distance marathon running, for example, can actually prematurely age your heart and make you more vulnerable to irregular heart rhythm. This is why you sometimes hear of seasoned endurance athletes dropping dead from cardiac arrest during a race. I ran long distance for over four decades. So please learn from my experience and don’t make the same mistake I did.

Compelling and ever-mounting research shows that the ideal form of exercise is short bursts of high intensity exercise. Not only does it beat conventional cardio as the most effective and efficient form of exercise, it also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the “fitness hormone.”

What Makes HIIT so Effective?

Your body has three types of muscle fibers: slow, fast, and super-fast twitch muscles. Slow twitch muscles are the red muscles, which are activated by traditional strength training and cardio exercises. The latter two (fast and super-fast) are white muscle fibers, and these are only activated during high intensity interval exercises or sprints. The benefit of activating these fibers is that they will produce therapeutic levels of growth hormone, which many athletes spend over a $1,000 a month to inject themselves with. So there is no need to pay the money or take the risks when your body can produce growth hormone naturally through high intensity exercises.

Getting cardiovascular benefits requires working all three types of muscle fibers and their associated energy systems -- and this cannot be done with traditional cardio, which only activates your red, slow twitch muscles. If your fitness routine doesn't work your white muscle, you aren't really working your heart in the most beneficial way. The reason for this is because your heart has two different metabolic processes:

• The aerobic, which requires oxygen for fuel, and
• The anaerobic, which does not require any oxygen

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process, while high intensity interval exercises work both your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. This is why you may not see the results you desire even when you're spending an hour on the treadmill several times a week. So when it comes to high intensity exercises, less really is more...

For Optimal Health, Add Variety to Your Exercise Program

In addition to doing HIIT a couple of times a week, it’s wise to alternate a wide variety of exercises in order to truly optimize your health and avoid hitting a plateau. 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 on days when you’re not doing high intensity anaerobic training:

• Strength Training: If you want, you can increase the intensity by slowing it down. 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.

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.

• 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.

Exercise programs like Pilates, yoga, and Foundation Training are great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.

• Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) developed by Aaron Mattes. With 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 repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

By Dr. Mercola

Exercise is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle, and it can be a part of your life no matter what your age. In fact, staying active becomes increasingly important as you get older, both for your physical and mental health.

Even frail seniors of advanced age can improve strength, agility, and even cognitive ability with exercise.

Loss of bone mass is one of the common signs of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it.

In the case of osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones.

A thinning hipbone is a major concern if you are elderly, because any fall increases the risk of a broken hip, which always carries a great risk of complications and usually requires prolonged specialized care for recovery. It's estimated that 25 percent of elderly people suffering a hip fracture die as a direct result.¹

Weight-bearing exercise, like resistance or strength training, can go a long way to prevent brittle bone formation, and can help reverse the damage already done.

Interestingly enough, strength training also has brain-boosting side effects, which can help you avoid age-related dementia.

The above video created by the University of British Columbia Department of Physical Therapy, demonstrates resistance training for older adults and discusses the many benefits of exercise, which include:

• Improved sleep
• Reducing your risk for medical conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, dementia, cancer, and premature death from any cause
• Preventing falls and fractures
• Improving your overall mood and outlook

Majority of Americans Don’t Get Enough Exercise

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),² the majority—79 percent—of American adults aged 18 and over are not meeting federal recommendations for physical activity for either aerobic- and muscle-strengthening exercise. Federal recommendations include getting:

• At least 2½ hours a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or one hour and 15 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity
• Muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups, twice or more per week

Of the 450,000 respondents participating in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an annual CDC phone survey of adults, 52 percent said they meet the aerobic activity guideline, and only 29 percent reported meeting the muscle-strengthening activity recommendation. Disturbingly, as reported in the featured article by USA Today,³ other studies suggest Americans are even more sedentary than what these statistics show:

“Scientists with the National Cancer Institute, using actual motion sensors, found that fewer than five percent of adults in the USA get at least 30 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity in bouts of at least 10 minutes.”

The evidence is overwhelming when it comes to proving that staying active will benefit your health and longevity. As for what type of exercise to choose, the options are limited only by your own imagination and fitness level. Here are a few suggestions from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans,⁴ which would help you meet the minimum exercise recommendations listed above:

• Take a brisk walk for 30 minutes on five days (moderate intensity); exercise with resistance bands two days (muscle strengthening).
• Take a brisk walk for 30 minutes two days (moderate); go dancing for an hour one evening (moderate); mow the law for 30 minutes (moderate); do heavy gardening two days (muscle strengthening).
• Do 30 minutes of an aerobic dance class (vigorous); do 30 minutes of running one day (vigorous); take a brisk walk for 30 minutes one day (moderate); do calisthenics (sit-ups, push-ups) on three days.
• Bike to and from work for 30 minutes on three days (moderate); play softball for 60 minutes one day (moderate); use weight machines two days.
• Play doubles tennis for 45 minutes two days (moderate); lift weights one day; hike vigorously for 30 minutes and go rock climbing one day (muscle strengthening).

Progressive Resistance Training is Particularly Beneficial for Aging Adults

As discussed in the video above, progressive resistance training is particularly beneficial for aging adults. “Progressive resistance” is when you build up strength in your muscles by gradually increasing the amount of weight you use. You can use either gym equipment or free weights. The former may be safer if you’re a novice, as free weights will require better form and control. Whichever one you choose, I recommend having a trainer take you through each exercise to make sure you have the proper form performing the exercise, to avoid injury.

While resistance training will improve muscle and bone strength, which can help prevent falls and fractures, mounting research also shows that strength training can have a profoundly beneficial impact on your brain as well. Brawn and brains are not mutually exclusive, it turns out... In one study, seniors doing progressive resistance training twice a week for one year experienced a marked improvement in their cognitive ability, scoring up to 13 percent higher in tests relating to decision making.

Strength training increases your body’s production of growth factors, which are responsible for cellular growth, proliferation, and differentiation. Some of these growth factors also promote the growth, differentiation, and survival of neurons, which helps explain why working your muscles also benefits your brain. I highly recommend watching the video above in its entirety. It demonstrates simple warm-up techniques and some basic resistance exercises for the target areas you’ll want to work, which include your:

• Core muscles
• Upper back
• Lower body
• Shoulders
• Arms

High Intensity Interval Training as an Anti-Aging Tool

Make no mistake — virtually ALL forms of exercise are beneficial, but aside from strength training, high-intensity interval-type training may also be of particular benefit for aging adults. Once you hit the age of 30, you enter what's called "somatopause," at which point your levels of HGH (human growth hormone) begin to drop off quite dramatically. This decline of HGH is part of what drives your aging process, so maintaining your HGH levels gets increasingly important with age.

Peak Fitness exercises boost your body's natural production of human growth hormone (HGH), which will help address the muscle loss and atrophy that typically occurs with aging. In fact, your production of vital human growth hormone increases by as much as 771 percent during a Peak Fitness workout. And the higher your levels of HGH, the healthier, stronger, and more “youthful” you will be. I’ve discussed and demonstrated high intensity interval training exercises on a number of occasions in previous articles, so for detailed instructions and demonstrations, please see this link.

Yoga After 50

While I believe you need to incorporate more intense forms of exercise for optimal health, such as anaerobic exercise (high intensity interval training) and strength training, there’s no doubt that milder, low-impact forms of exercise such as yoga can be an important part of a comprehensive exercise program. Yoga is particularly useful for promoting flexibility and core muscles, and has been proven beneficial if you suffer with back pain. A recent study has also shown that regular yoga classes can help improve atrial fibrillation⁵ (irregular heartbeat).

A recent New York Times article addresses the benefits of yoga after 50, pointing out that “yoga can be practiced fully and deeply at any age.” Naturally, as your body changes, your practice will need to be modified as well. This applies to any form of exercise; always listen to your body. In the article, Dr. Loren Fishman, a back-pain specialist in Manhattan who uses yoga in his rehabilitation practice, gives the following advice:⁶

“...[A]ging brings impairments of range, motion, strength and balance that can require modifications, even among veteran yogis, like using the support of a chair or the wall for many poses. In addition, students may begin to feel the effects of arthritis, injuries and other ailments that may require students skip certain poses altogether. Someone with osteoporosis, for example, may want to avoid headstands and poses requiring extreme spinal flexion or extension, while someone with glaucoma may want to avoid taking the head below the heart in poses like headstand, handstand, shoulder stand and standing forward bends.”

Yoga is an excellent choice for helping you improve and maintain your balance, so make sure to include one-legged standing poses. Carrie Owerko, a New York-based teacher of Iyengar yoga who was also interviewed, mentions Tree Pose and Eagle Pose as examples. If you need to use a chair or wall for support, that’s okay.

Yoga for Weight Loss and Health Maintenance

The following video, featuring Arthur Boorman, a disabled veteran of the Gulf War, is perhaps one of the most inspiring yoga success stories I’ve ever seen. His injuries had put him on a downward spiral for 15 years, and his doctors had told him he'd never be able to walk unassisted again. Due to his injuries, he couldn't perform high impact exercises, but one day, he came across an article about yoga, and the rest, as they say, is history... If you've ever doubted the transformative power of a low impact exercise such as yoga, I urge you to take a look at this video. It's a truly remarkable story. Not only did he rapidly start losing weight, he also gained tremendous strength, balance and flexibility—to the point he proved his doctors' prognosis wrong by walking unaided in less than a year!

Interestingly, research⁷ published just last year discovered that yoga has a beneficial impact on leptin, a hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure.

Both insulin and leptin resistance are associated with obesity, and impairment of their ability to transfer the information to receptors is the true foundational core of most all chronic degenerative diseases. Leptin tells your brain whether you should be hungry, eat and make more fat, whether you should reproduce, or (partly by controlling insulin) whether to engage in maintenance and repair. In short, leptin is the way that your fat stores speak to your brain to let your brain know how much energy is available and, very importantly, what to do with it.

Therefore, leptin may be on top of the food chain in metabolic importance and relevance to disease. If your leptin signaling is working properly.

When your fat stores are "full," this extra fat will cause a surge in your leptin level, which signals your brain to stop feeling hungry, to stop eating, to stop storing fat and to start burning some extra fat off. Controlling hunger is a major (though not the only) way that leptin controls energy storage. Hunger is a very powerful, ancient, and deep-seated drive that, if stimulated long enough, will make you eat and store more energy. The only way to eat less in the long-term is to not be hungry, and the only way to do this is to control the hormones that regulate hunger, the primary one being leptin.

Rounding Out Your Exercise Program

To truly optimize your health, it’s wise to incorporate a wide variety of exercises. As discussed above, each form of exercise has its range of benefits. Also, without variety, your body will tend to adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. 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. (The first three have all been addressed above):

• Interval (Anaerobic) Training
• Strength Training
• Core Exercises
• 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.

It’s Never Too Late to Take Control of Your Health

Following the advice in this article can go a long way toward maintaining healthy bones and muscle mass as you age. Granted, the earlier you start, the better, but remember, you are never too old to start exercising. Research shows that, no matter your age, you stand to gain significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity through exercise. My mom didn't start working out until she was 74 and now, at the age of 78, she has gained significant improvement in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity.

You can view her demonstrating her strength training program in this previous article. If you’re presently incapable of engaging in aerobic exercise, using Whole Body Vibration training may be just the thing to help you get more active.⁸ I recently discussed this in the article: How Whole Body Vibration Exercises Can Help Improve Fitness in the Elderly. There’s really no time like the present when it comes to taking control of your health, and exercise is a crucial component of optimal health. I guarantee it will make a major difference in your energy level, and probably your entire outlook on life. It is really THAT powerful, whether you're 18 years old or 80!

By Dr. Mercola

Most people, including me, spend a large portion of each day in a seated position. It’s hard to avoid these days, as computer work predominates, and most also spend many precious hours each week commuting to and from work.

Interestingly, a growing body of evidence suggests that sitting in and of itself is an independent risk factor for poor health and premature death—even if you exercise regularly.

An increasingly sedentary lifestyle has led to a steady increase in a number of health problems, including:

• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Osteoporosis
• Muscle wasting

While these disorders were historically associated with advancing age, they now affect increasing numbers of people well before middle-age. Even children are falling victim.

In the video above, Dr. Joan Vernikos,¹ former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, presents a scientific explanation for why sitting has such a dramatic impact on your health, and what you can do about it.

In another words, she was one of the primary doctors assigned to keep the astronauts from deteriorating in space, and what she found has profound implications for each and every one of us.

You might think, like I did, that if you had a phenomenal exercise program that you wouldn’t have to worry about prolonged sitting. But nothing could be further from the truth.

In order to figure out why regular exercise does not appear to compensate for the negative effects of prolonged sitting, some of her research focused on finding out what type of movement is withdrawn by sitting.

The Gravity of the Situation...

What she discovered was nothing short of astounding. “Standing was more effective than walking,” she says. And, it wasn’t how long you were standing, but how many times you stood up that made the difference. In conclusion, she discovered that it is the change in posture that is the most powerful, in terms of having a beneficial impact on your health.

In a nutshell, your body needs perpetual motion to function optimally. As Dr. Vernikos states, the good news is that there are virtually unlimited opportunities for movement throughout the day.

“The key to lifelong health is more than just traditional gym exercise once a day, three to five times a week,” she says. “The answer is to rediscover a lifestyle of constant, natural low-intensity non-exercise movement that uses the gravity vector throughout the day.”

Some of the examples she lists include housecleaning, stirring a pot of pasta sauce, rolling dough, gardening, hanging clothes to dry, dancing... the list is endless, because it covers the entire spectrum of movements you engage in during daily life. Interestingly, recent research^{2, 3} has also found that those who engage in community gardening projects have considerably lower body mass index (BMI) than non-gardeners. Overall, female community gardeners were 46 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than the average woman in their neighborhood, and men who gardened were 62 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than their non-gardening neighbors.

The problem is that our modern society and our reliance on technology has reduced or eliminated many of these opportunities for low-intensity movement and replaced it with sitting. Instead of walking across the street to talk to your best friend, you send them a text while slumped on the couch. Some people even text other family members inside the same house instead of getting up and walking into the next room! All of this sloth-like inactivity adds up.

The answer then, as Dr. Vernikos states, is to reintroduce these opportunities for movement. Part of the mechanism that makes non-strenuous, posture-shifting movement so effective is that it engages what she refers to as the gravity vector. The less you move, the less you use gravity, and gravity, it turns out, is your lifeline. She discusses this in the following video segment.

I’ve previously written about the health benefits of Acceleration Training, or Whole Body Vibration Training, in which you perform exercises on a vibrating platform such as the Power Plate. Acceleration Training works by increasing the force of gravity on your body—which is at the heart of issue, according to Dr. Vernikos.

To a lesser degree, a mini trampoline will also increase the G forces on your body and provide similar, yet less extreme, benefits. A mini trampoline or rebounder subjects your body to gravitational pulls ranging from zero at the top of each bounce to 2 to 3 times the force of gravity at the bottom, depending on how high you jump. Some of the benefits rebounding offers include circulating oxygen and nutrients to tissues and organs, and promoting increased muscle strength.

Mounting Evidence Indicts Sitting as Independent Risk Factor for Poor Health

In recent years, researchers have taken a serious look at the effects of inactivity, and have repeatedly found that not moving or engaging in very limited-range movements for extended periods of time has a profoundly negative impact on health and longevity. For example, one study, published last year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine,⁴ concluded that adults who spend an average of six hours a day in front of the TV will reduce their life expectancy by just under 5 years, compared to someone who does not watch TV.

Again, it’s a matter of allowing technology to severely limit your opportunity for regular movement. If you weren’t watching TV, what would you do? Unless you’re sitting down reading, chances are you’d be doing something that requires you to move your body.

Another recent analysis⁵ of 18 studies (which in total included nearly 800,000 people), found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sat the least. And, while prolonged sitting was linked to an overall greater mortality risk from any cause, the strongest link was to death due to diabetes. According to lead researcher Thomas Yates, MD:⁶

“Even for people who are otherwise active, sitting for long stretches seems to be an independent risk factor for conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.”

A 2009 study⁷ highlighted much of the recent evidence linking sitting with biomarkers of poor metabolic health, showing how total sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems—even if you exercise regularly. According to the authors:

"Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting -- the activity that dominates most people's remaining 'non-exercise' waking hours."

In other words, even if you're fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week -- you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk or on the couch.

Counteracting the Ill Effects of Sitting, Using Foundation Training

While sitting down is not the only thing that can cause trouble (adopting any particular posture for long periods of time can slow down your circulatory system), sitting is one of the most pervasive postures in modern civilizations. So how can you increase your activity levels if you have a fulltime “desk job,” as so many of us do these days?

One of the things I do to compensate for the time I spend sitting each day is to regularly do Foundation exercises developed by a brilliant chiropractor, Eric Goodman. These exercises also address the root cause of most low back pain, which is related to weakness and imbalance among your posterior chain of muscles. It is easily argued that these imbalances are primarily related to sitting. I recently interviewed Dr. Goodman about his techniques, so to learn more, you can check out that interview.

Below are two video demonstrations: “The Founder,” which helps reinforce proper movement while strengthening the entire back of your body, and “Adductor Assisted Back Extension,” which will teach you how to properly extend your spine.

Besides “disengaging from the gravity vector,” when you sit, your head and shoulders drop forward, and your hip flexors and abdomen shorten. This misalignment is a major cause of chronic pains. Every exercise included in Foundation Training lengthens the front of your body, which is over-tightened, and strengthens the back of your body, which will help you stand tall and move with strength and flexibility. I do these exercises daily and it is a great tool to build a stronger and more stable low back. As explained by Dr. Goodman:

“The place to start is learning how to hinge effectively. Learn how your hamstrings, lower back, and glutes are designed to work and stretch together. Once that part is in place, you can then advance to all the exercises that build upon that foundation, that build upon The Founder exercise.”

The basic Foundation Training program takes about 20 minutes, and is ideally done daily. You can purchase the Foundation Training DVD from my online store. FoundationTraining.com also offers several free videos , and their thought provoking first book called: Foundation: Redefine Your Core, Conquer Back Pain, and Move with Confidence.

Grounding or Earthing—Another Lost Factor Robbing You of Good Health

Grounding, described in the simplest of terms, is simply walking barefoot on the earth. When your body is directly connected to the earth, via your bare feet, a transfer of free electrons from the ground into your body takes place. These free electrons are a very potent source of antioxidants, which are responsible for the clinical observations from grounding experiments, such as:

• Thinning of your blood
• Beneficial changes in heart rate
• Decreased skin resistance
• Decreased levels of inflammation

It's thought that the influx of free electrons from the earth's surface help to neutralize free radicals and reduce both acute and chronic inflammation, which is at the root of many health conditions and accelerated aging. As written in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine:

"It is well established, though not widely known, that the surface of the earth possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons as a consequence of a global atmospheric electron circuit. Wearing shoes with insulating soles and/or sleeping in beds that are isolated from the electrical ground plane of the earth have disconnected most people from the earth's electrical rhythms and free electrons.

…A variety of... benefits were reported, including reductions in pain and inflammation. Subsequent studies have confirmed these earlier findings and documented virtually immediate physiologic and clinical effects of grounding or earthing the body."

The simplest way to ground is to walk barefoot outside. The ideal location for doing so is on the beach, close to or in the water, as seawater is a great conductor. Your body also contains mostly water, so it creates a good connection. A close second would be a grassy area, especially if it's covered with dew, which is what you'd find if you walk early in the morning. Concrete is a good conductor as long as it hasn't been sealed; painted concrete does not allow electrons to pass through very well. Materials like asphalt, wood, and typical insulators like plastic or the soles of your shoes, will not allow electrons to pass through and are not suitable for barefoot grounding.

Studies suggest that benefits such as pain relief and stress reduction may occur in just 30-80 minutes of barefoot time a day. This can obviously be a challenge during the winter, or if you live in an urban area without easy access to parks or other barefoot-friendly surfaces, so the other option is to use a grounding or Earthing pad, which allows you to get the benefits of the Earth's electrons even if you're indoors, especially when you're sleeping. I use one myself, especially when I travel by plane, as air travel is a suspected cause of weakening bio-electric currents.

Use Your Body the Way it was Designed

Like physical movement, walking barefoot outside is a grossly neglected foundational practice that you can easily correct. You just have to take the time to do it. Avoiding sitting for long periods of time may at first seem “impossible” if you commute to a fulltime desk job, but really, all you need to do is alter the way you work and travel in small ways.

I plan on interviewing Dr. Vernikos in the near future, but I watched all her videos and she was really clear that standing every 10 to 15 minutes could easily compensate for the majority of the damage from sitting. I look forward to listening to her for more details in our interview.

So stand up at regular frequent intervals, about 40 times a day if you can. Also, shift your position and pay careful attention to your posture. Incorporate Foundation Training, and instead of parking yourself in front of the TV at night, consider doing something else, or at the very least engage in some minor activity while the TV is on. Whenever you can, take off your shoes and connect to the Earth—and while you’re at it, bare some skin to take advantage of the many health benefits sun exposure can provide.

Dr. Vernikos’ research is powerful evidence that many of the health problems people suffer today are linked to modern lifestyle modifications that are incompatible with optimal biological functioning. So the answer is quite simply to revert back to a lifestyle that incorporates natural movement. Using your body the way it was designed is the most powerful way to optimize your health. High intensity interval training (HIIT) is another example of this. This type of Peak Fitness exercise mimics the way ancient hunter-gatherers used their bodies, and research has again and again confirmed that HIIT outperforms traditional aerobic cardio exercise.

By Dr. Mercola

A little over three years ago, I was introduced to high intensity interval training, commonly referred to as HIIT, when I met Phil Campbell at a fitness camp in Mexico. I refer to it as Peak Fitness Training.

Since then, researchers have repeatedly confirmed the superior health benefits of HIIT compared to traditional and typically performed aerobic workouts.

For example, high-intensity interval-type training gives a natural boost to human growth hormone (HGH) production—which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor—and has been shown to significantly improve insulin sensitivity, boost fat loss, and increase muscle growth.

Anaerobic HIIT can be performed on a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine, or sprinting outdoors (with proper guidelines to avoid injury).

While there are a large number of variations, the HIIT routine I recommend involves going all out for 30 seconds and then resting for 90 seconds between sprints. Total workout is typically 8 repetitions. In all, you’ll be done in about 20 minutes, and you only need to perform HIIT two or three times a week.

But researchers such as Dr. Izumi Tabata have shown that even shorter workouts can work, as long as the intensity is high enough.¹

The video above shows a modified high intensity workout from the DVD Mash Up Conditioning. It demonstrates 30 seconds of high intensity followed by 30 seconds of recovery with repeated intervals. There are 3 different levels demonstrated at the same time in the video.

Personal Modifications

I personally modified the Peak 8 to a Peak 6 this year as it was sometimes just too strenuous for me to do all 8. So by listening to my body and cutting it back to 6 reps, I can now easily tolerate the workout and go full out and I no longer dread doing them.

Another tweak is to incorporate Butyenko breathing into the workout and do most of the workout by only breathing through my nose. This raises the challenge to another level. I will discuss more of the benefits of this in a future article but I do believe it has many benefits.

I then finish my Peak 6 workout with Power Plate stretches, 10 pull ups, 10 dips and 20 inverted pushups, and call it a day. I personally have never tried the Tabata protocol as it seems too intimidating and I’m not sure I could do it, but it is yet another option that people can use.

Can You Get Fit in Just Four Minutes, Four Times a Week?

After monitoring the Japanese speed skating team in the early 90’s, Dr. Tabata noticed that extremely hard but intermittent exercise appeared to be at least as effective as standard workouts that require several hours a week. The training protocol he came up with as a result requires a mere four minutes, four times a week. The caveat? Extreme intensity.

Dr. Tabata's HIIT protocol calls for just 20 seconds of all-out drop-dead effort, followed by a mere 10 seconds of rest. This intense cycle is repeated eight times. According to Dr. Tabata:²

“All-out effort at 170 percent of your VO2 max is the criterion of the protocol. If you feel OK afterwards you've not done it properly. The first three repetitions will feel easy but the last two will feel impossibly hard. In the original plan the aim was to get to eight, but some only lasted six or seven.”

When performed four times per week for six weeks, participants in one experiment increased their anaerobic capacity by 28 percent, and their VO2 max (an indicator of cardiovascular health) and maximal aerobic power by 15 percent. This is in contrast to the control group, who performed an hour of steady cardiovascular exercise on a stationary bike five times a week. These participants improved their VO2 max by just 10 percent, and their regimen had no effect on their anaerobic capacity.

Dr. Tabata also has forthcoming research findings showing that his protocol reduces your risk of diabetes, which other HIIT studies have already suggested. And, according to the featured article:³

“Another soon-to-be-published finding, which Tabata describes as 'rather significant,' shows that the Tabata protocol burns an extra 150 calories in the 12 hours after exercise, even at rest, due to the effect of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. So while it is used by most people to get fit – or by fit people to get even fitter – it also burns fat.”

As Little as Three Minutes of HIIT Per Week Can Improve Your Health, Previous Study Suggests

Dr. Tabata’s claims may sound crazy, but previous research has also found that performing high intensity exercises for just minutes per week can significantly improve important health indices. One such study found that just three minutes of HIIT per week for four weeks improved participants’ insulin sensitivity an average of 24 percent. 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.

Other research has also 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 shows that you can significantly improve your health without having to eliminate hours of other commitments from your calendar.

As I mentioned previously I have not even attempted this protocol as I know how hard Peak Fitness is with a 90 second recovery. I shudder to think how painful the Tabata protocol is with only 10 seconds to recover. That said, I believe that while it’s theoretically possible to reap valuable results with as little as three minutes once a week, it might be more beneficial to do these exercises 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 HIIT more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between these intense sessions. If you feel the urge to do more, make sure you’re really pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly sessions, rather than increasing the frequency. Remember, 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 seconds. Phil Campbell suggests that it needs to be even higher than your maximum calculated heart rate, which is about 220 minus your age.

Why High Intensity Interval Training May Be Ideal for Most

Contrary to popular belief, extended extreme cardio actually sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it’s only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods—not for an hour or more at a time. This is the natural body mechanics you tap into when you perform HIIT.

Repeatedly and consistently overwhelming your heart by long distance marathon running, for example, can actually prematurely age your heart and make you more vulnerable to irregular heart rhythm. This is why you sometimes hear of seasoned endurance athletes dropping dead from cardiac arrest during a race.

Compelling and ever-mounting research shows that the ideal form of exercise is short bursts of high intensity exercise. Not only does it beat conventional cardio as the most effective and efficient form of exercise, it also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the “fitness hormone.”

What Makes HIIT so Effective?

Your body has three types of muscle fibers: slow, fast, and super-fast twitch muscles. Slow twitch muscles are the red muscles, which are activated by traditional strength training and cardio exercises. The latter two (fast and super-fast) are white muscle fibers, and these are only activated during high intensity interval exercises or sprints.

According to fitness expert Phil Campbell, author of Ready, Set, Go, getting cardiovascular benefits requires working all three types of muscle fibers and their associated energy systems -- and this cannot be done with traditional cardio, which only activates your red, slow twitch muscles. If your fitness routine doesn't work your white muscle, you aren't really working your heart in the most beneficial way. The reason for this is because your heart has two different metabolic processes:

• The aerobic, which requires oxygen for fuel, and
• The anaerobic, which does not require any oxygen

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process, while high intensity interval exercises work both your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. This is why you may not see the results you desire even when you're spending an hour on the treadmill several times a week. Interestingly enough, when it comes to high intensity exercises, less really is more. You can get all the benefits you need in just a 20-minute session, start to finish, performed two or a max of three times per week.

How to Properly Perform Peak Fitness Exercises

If you are using exercise equipment, I recommend using a recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill, or sprint anywhere outdoors. Just beware that if you sprint outside, you must be very careful about stretching prior to sprinting. 

I personally prefer and recommend the Peak Fitness approach of 30 seconds of maximum effort followed by 90 seconds of recuperation, opposed to Dr. Tabata’s more intense routine of 20 seconds of exertion and only 10 seconds of recovery. But some might like his strategy more. His approach may be better suited to fitter athletes who want to kick it up another notch, but may be too intense for most people. For a demonstration using an elliptical machine, please see the following video. Here are the core principles:

• 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)
• Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent

By the end of your 30-second high-intensity period you will want to reach these markers:

• It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt.
• You will start to sweat. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
• Your body temperature will rise.
• Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn."

Some Suggestions to Take Into Consideration

Remember, while your body needs regular amounts of stress like exercise to stay healthy, if you give it more than you can handle your health can actually deteriorate. So it’s crucial to listen to your body and integrate the feedback into your exercise intensity and frequency.

When you work out, it is wise to really push as hard as you possibly can a few times a week, but you need to wisely gauge your body's tolerance to this stress. When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of Peak Fitness. That’s okay! As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight. And if six is what your body is telling you, then stop there.

If you have a history of heart disease or any medical concern please get clearance from your health care professional to start this. Most people of average fitness will be able to do it though; it is only a matter of how much time it will take you to build up to the full 8 reps, depending on your level of intensity.

For Optimal Health, Add Variety to Your Exercise Program

In addition to doing high intensity interval exercises a couple of times a week, it’s wise to alternate a wide variety of exercises in order to truly optimize your health. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. 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 on days when you’re not doing high intensity anaerobic training:

• Strength Training: If you want, you can increase the intensity by slowing it down. 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.

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.

• 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.

Exercise programs like Pilates, yoga, and Foundation Training are great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.

• Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) developed by Aaron Mattes. With 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 repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

One of the many perks of exercising is that it is well known to support your brain health through BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor). This even spurs the creation of new brain cells (a process called neurogenesis).

Exercise boosts brain health through multiple pathways, including improving your hormone levels, increasing blood flow to your brain,reducing stress, and many others likely yet to be discovered.

The benefits of exercise can be felt rather quickly, which is great for motivation… but what happens if you stop exercising? As you might suspect, new research suggests your brain may quickly revert back to its pre-exercise state…

Move It or Lose It: You’ve Got to Keep Exercising to Sustain the Brain Benefits

If you work out religiously for three months, then suddenly stop for an extended period, your muscle tone will definitely suffer. This is one of the more obvious examples that your body is designed for regular exercise, not sporadic or infrequent activity.

Likewise, two new studies presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience also revealed that the brain benefits of exercise also quickly fade if your exercise program stops.

In the first study, active rats that had a week of inactivity were pitted against completely inactive rats while performing memory tests. The previously active rats completed the tests much faster and had at least twice as many new neurons in the hippocampus region (the “memory center”) of their brains. But remember, this was after just one week of inactivity.

At three weeks of inactivity, their new neurons began to decrease, as did their performance on the memory test. After six weeks of no activity, the neurons declined even more, as did their memory test scores, leading the study authors to suggest the “exercise-induced benefits may be transient.”¹

In the second study, rats that were active for 10 weeks, followed by three weeks of inactivity, had brains that were nearly identical to those of rats that had been completely inactive. In prior studies, it was shown that exercise had a favorable effect on the animals’ moods, making them less anxious and more resilient to stress. However, the new research suggests that such benefits “wear off quickly.” As the first study’s senior author noted:²

“Brain changes are not maintained when regular physical exercise is interrupted… though our observations are restricted to rats, indirect evidence suggests that the same phenomenon occurs in human beings.”

It’s Not Too Late to Get Moving!

While the benefits of exercise might fade fast, they can also be achieved relatively quickly. Exercising – even briefly – can change your DNA in a way that readies your body for increased muscle strength and fat burning. It also boosts your natural human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is important for maintaining muscle mass as you age. If you’re approaching middle-age or beyond, you might be thinking that it’s too late for you to get in shape, but this is not the case.

Remember, you are never too old to start exercising.

In fact, exercise gets even more important with advancing age. Research shows that, no matter your age, you stand to gain significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity through exercise. It’s also been revealed that if you're fit at 50, you're much more likely to be healthy into your 70s and 80s.

According to new research, men and women who'd been the least fit in their 40s and 50s developed the most chronic conditions early in the aging process, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, COPD, kidney disease, and lung or colon cancer.³

Essentially, being physically fit "compresses the time" you are likely to spend being debilitated during old age. Clearly, exercising throughout your lifespan is highly beneficial, and the earlier you start, the more profound the benefits will be. It makes sense, then, that if you exercise regularly, you are preventing and reducing chronic disease processes throughout your entire life. This will make a major difference in your quality of life at all ages …

More Exercise Isn’t Necessarily Better

One of the most common reasons why people give up on exercise, and therefore lose out on all of its priceless benefits, is a lack of time. So if you think you need to spend an hour pounding the treadmill every day in order to be fit, then you'll be pleased to learn this is an outdated myth.

Research has disproven it many times in recent years, such as in one study that found those who spent 30 minutes per day exercising lost more weight than those who spent a full hour at it every day.⁴ While it may be counterintuitive, the results showed moderate exercisers got more for their effort – they lost more weight in half the time.⁵

So it really is possible, and imperative, to fit regular exercise into virtually any schedule. Previous research has shown that just 20 minutes of high-intensity interval training, two to three times a week, can yield greater results than slow and steady conventional aerobics performed five times a week.

A Fitness Plan to Live By

The more active you stay, the better your brain (and overall health) is likely to be. This includes not only specifically engaging in exercise and other physically demanding activities but also making an effort to sit less. To get all the benefits exercise has to offer, you'll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates a variety of exercises. 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. High-Intensity Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods. In the video below, you can see a demonstration of this in action using Peak Fitness.
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 below.

Download Interview Transcript

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.
5. Foundation Exercises: One of the things I do to compensate for the time I spend sitting each day is to regularly do Foundation exercises developed by a brilliant chiropractor, Eric Goodman. These exercises are used by many professional and elite athletes, but more importantly can easily address the root cause of most low back pain, which is related to weakness and imbalance among your posterior chain of muscles. It is easily argued that these imbalances are primarily related to sitting.

By Dr. Mercola

A little over three years ago, I was introduced to high intensity interval training, commonly referred to as HIIT, when I met Phil Campbell at a fitness camp in Mexico. I refer to it as Peak Fitness Training.

It dramatically altered my own fitness regimen, health and fitness level, and my subsequent exercise recommendations. In recent years, mounting evidence confirms that HIIT really is a cut above the rest when it comes to the health benefits exercise can provide.

In the video above, Niles Rickey Wheeler, better known as “Bodyman47” in the Vital Votes forum, shares his personal fitness routine, inspired by my discussions about Peak Fitness and high intensity strength training.

Wheeler was introduced to total body circuit training at the age of 27, when he got the chance to meet Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus equipment. In his early 50's, he won several physique competitions. Then, at the age of 52, he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

After his recovery, he got back to training, but never returned to the condition he wanted—until he discovered this site. He now credits my optimized Nutrition Plan, Pure Power whey protein, and total body circuit training for successfully bringing him back to his former level of performance.

I couldn’t be more pleased, and I thank him for sharing his success story. This is what it’s all about for me—to make a difference in people’s lives and helping you be as healthy as you can possibly be, for as long as possible.

Wheeler is a perfect example of how you can take control of your health and reap the benefits—regardless of your age.

Like Wheeler, I too feel like I’m more fit today than I was 30 years ago—in large part due to my Peak Fitness regimen. While I can’t run a 2:49 marathon (and wouldn’t want to) like I did back then, there is no doubt in my mind that I am much healthier as a result of shifting my exercise program from cardio to high intensity and strength training. In the first three months alone after I switched from long distance running to HIIT, I dropped five percent body fat without ever touching a treadmill! Before that, I’d been a long distance runner for 42 years.

How to Turn Your Strength Training Routine into a HIIT Session

Now in his mid-60’s, Wheeler completes a total body workout two to three times per week, which takes him an average of just 15-20 minutes. As I’ve mentioned before, you can turn virtually any exercise into a high intensity exercise, including strength or weight training. Metabolically speaking, both forms are very similar to each other. High-intensity interval-type training gives a natural boost to human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor. I've discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions, so for more information, please review this previous article.

The primary differences are as follows:

• Anaerobic HIIT (high intensity sprints) can be performed on a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine, or by sprinting outside. Here, you go all out for 30 seconds, and then rest for 90 seconds between sprints. Total workout is typically 8 repetitions/sprints.
• High intensity strength training makes use of free weights or resistance equipment. You turn your weight training routine into a high intensity routine by slowing down your movements.

The first inch should take about two seconds. Since you're depriving yourself of all the momentum of snatching the weight upward, it will be very difficult to complete the full movement in less than 7-10 seconds. Slowly lower the weight to the same count.

• Repeat until failure, meaning the point at which you can no longer maintain good form and still lift the weights. (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). Immediately switch to the next exercise for the next target muscle, without resting in between.

Wheeler’s workout is a modified form of the super slow workout, as his movements are not slow enough to qualify as ‘super slow.’ It’s more similar to the hybrid version I demonstrated in a previous article, using a four-second positive and a four-second negative motion (meaning it takes four seconds, or a slow count to four, to bring the weight up, and another four seconds to lower it), rather than the super slow count of 10. Still, this is far slower than most people lift weights, and Wheeler is clearly getting results. He also does one classic super slow workout once per month, as well as one super slow negative-only workout, for which you need assistance. As a general rule, he never does the same workout twice in a row.

“I either change weight, reps or order,” he says. “This is called muscle confusion. It keeps the muscle from adapting to the same thing and increases speed of growth and conditioning.”

Whatever form you choose, remember to start at your own pace. The important part is to make sure you’re progressing, and the way to do that is to continually keep pushing yourself just a little bit further. The only competition you have is yourself. Progression and consistency are the key to any fitness program.

The Bodyman Workout

Here’s a summary of Wheeler’s routine, which he demonstrates in the video. First, he begins with a few Active Isolated Stretches (AIS). The stretches are only held for a couple of seconds, and are completed in repetitions. You want to avoid static stretches as these can do more harm than good by weakening the muscle.

Wheeler recommends keeping your workout to 12-15 exercises, alternating single joint isolated movements with compound movements. An important factor is to focus on the muscle you’re working. You want to feel the muscle contraction, and focus on your form. As Wheeler says, this is your mind and body working in tandem. Throughout, use a weight that you can get at least 8 repetitions with, and exercise through full range of motion. Remember to use slow, deliberate movement, focusing on feeling the muscle contraction, and repeat to failure. The upper and lower body exercises he demonstrates are as follows, beginning with legs:

1. Leg extension (single joint isolated movement)
2. Compound multi joint leg press, keeping constant tension on the muscle. (Avoid locking out your knees)
3. Leg curl

Next, the upper body workout, starting with the largest muscle: your latissimus dorsi (lats):

1. Lat pullover with dumbbell, done to failure. Place your feet on the bench to prevent any leverage advantage
2. Underhanded pulldown, to keep your bicep in the strongest position. (Overhand you lose the strength of the bicep. Keep your hands in supinated position)
3. Row, which works both your lats and rear deltoids
4. Chest fly
5. Chest press on a slight incline
6. Lateral shoulder raise using dumbbells or a lateral raise machine
7. Upright row
8. Overhead press
9. Bicep curl
10. Overhead tricep extension.
11. Bicep curl full contraction full extension
12. Standing tricep pushdown

Why High Intensity Strength Training Works So Well

Dr. Doug McGuff is a strong proponent of the super slow workout, stating you can cut your workout from about 20 minutes doing HIIT on an elliptical, three times a week, to a mere 12-15 minutes once a week while still achieving the same growth hormone production. Intensity is key for making it work. As explained by Dr. McGuff, the higher the intensity, the lower the frequency required. In fact, in order for your exercise to remain productive, you have to disproportionally decrease the frequency as your fitness level improves (as this will increase the intensity at which you’re working).

For example, as a weak beginner, you can exercise three times a week and not put much stress on your system. But once your strength and endurance improves, each exercise session is placing an increasingly greater amount of stress on your body (as long as you keep pushing yourself to the max). At that point, Dr. McGuff recommends reducing the frequency of your sessions to give your body enough time to recover in between. Recovery becomes increasingly important as you boost the intensity of your exercise, and as you get increasingly fit, you will need anywhere from three to seven days of recovery between sessions. In the interview below, Dr. McGuff explains why:

"[Y]our adrenal gland… sits right above your kidneys, and it's arranged in layers. On the outermost layers, you have mineral corticoids that control your sodium and your electrolyte levels. In the middle layer, you have your corticosteroids that control sugar and generate stress hormones. And in the innermost layer is where you generate growth hormones and the sex steroids, or that's involved in the axis, in the feedback loop that generates that.

The old saying in medical school to memorize the three layers is 'salt, sugar, sex' – the deeper you go, the better it gets. But you got to remember, your adrenal gland is an integrated organ. Those three layers are not perfectly divided.

If through high-intensity exercise you're trying to hammer that adrenal gland three times per week, but now you're much stronger and your body hasn't fully recovered from your Monday session and you come back and hit it again on Wednesday… you're going to tap down into that deeper level. Instead of growth hormones spurt, you're going to get in a cortisol spurt. You're going to completely undermine what is it that you're after."

When asked about the parameters of how to know if you are recovered from your exercise, Dr. McGuff says:

"You would have a restless energy and feel like you have to engage in some type of physical activity. You will spontaneously just want to work out." I previously interviewed Dr. McGuff about his super slow fitness regimen, so for a refresher, or to learn more, you can review the full interview here.

Going Super Slow: Guidelines for Five Common Upper Body Exercises

1. 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 either four seconds up and four seconds down (or 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down for the classic super slow count). 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.
4. 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.

5. 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.

Greater Safety—Another Benefit of High Intensity Strength Training

Super-slow weight training has another benefit that makes it ideal for virtually everyone, regardless of age or fitness level, and that is safety, as it actively prevents you from accidentally harming your joints or suffering repetitive use injury. By depriving yourself of the acceleration, you’re delivering virtually no punishment to your joints, which prevents repetitive use injury.

I'm convinced that incorporating HIIT into your fitness regimen can have a profoundly beneficial impact on your health, whether you do it using a bike, elliptical, sprinting, or using weights. I’m grateful to “Bodyman” for sharing this video and telling his story. I have no doubt that those of you who put this information into practice can reap the benefits, just like he has. I hope you'll give it a try!

By Dr. Mercola

Strength training is an integral part of a well-rounded exercise program, and is recommended for both sexes of all ages, including kids and seniors. In the video above, Skyler Tanner, the youngest Superslow™ certified instructor in history, discusses how to make intense exercise safe, effective and efficient.

Unfortunately, many ignore weight training when devising their exercise plan, thinking they don't want to "bulk up."

But gaining more muscle through resistance exercises has many benefits, from losing excess fat to maintaining healthy bone mass and preventing age-related muscle loss as you age.

The intensity of your resistance training can achieve a number of beneficial changes on the molecular, enzymatic, hormonal, and chemical level in your body, which will also help slow down (and many cases stop) many of the diseases caused by a sedentary lifestyle.

Therefore it's also an essential element if you want to prevent common diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, or weakening of your bones (osteoporosis), limited range of motion, aches and pains.

Strength Training Beneficially Impacts 10 Biomarkers of Aging

As explained by Tanner, above, biomarkers of aging are “the 10 determinants of aging that you are capable of controlling. They are things that tell you how old you would be if you didn’t know how old you were.” This includes the following — all of which strength training has a beneficial impact on:

Strength and muscle mass (which results in greater balance, as you get older)	Body composition	Blood lipids
Bone density	Cardiorespiratory fitness	Blood pressure
Blood glucose control	Aerobic capacity	Gene expression, and telomere length

Why Those with Heart Disease Should Not Shun Strength Training

According to Tanner, strength training may be of particular benefit for those with heart disease, and here’s why:

“Chronic congestive heart failure is the inability of your heart to supply your body with a sufficient amount of blood... [In one study] they put these individuals on a leg press [and] inserted the central catheter to measure exactly what was going on, on a moment-by-moment basis.

What they found was that at the highest intensities on a leg press, over 80 percent of their one rep max... the more the vascular system opened up and allowed for blood flow to occur.

This in part is because in order for the heart – again, it’s a closed hydraulic system – to pump, it has to be getting blood back. The way this works is that your left ventricle, the largest, pumps [the blood] out. It comes back to the right aorta, which then moves the blood into the right ventricle (which pumps it through your lungs), and then back in the left aorta (which moves in to the left ventricle), back to move out of your body.

That’s why the left is larger. It’s got to move the blood the larger distance, rather than just front and back to your body.

What happens is with these smooth, controlled contractions of a leg press... the muscle’s actually constricting on the vascular system and shortening the amount of blood that’s moved each repetition. If you think about running, it’s a series of [short] repetitions. More smooth, heavy effort leg press [exercises] is pumping huge amounts of blood back to the heart, so it’s more efficient.

If you don’t have to pump very fast, if your rate of [exertion] is smooth and consistent, you don’t have to constantly adjust to these changes in a pressure. That’s why strength training shows a slight increase in arterial stiffening, an increase in vasodilation, and a reduction in blood pressure while working. People with heart failure, you guys, you just need to work out hard leg press, and your heart’s going to be in great shape.”

Strength Training for Blood Glucose Control

Normalizing your blood glucose is also very important if you want to avoid, are at high risk, or have already been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. By controlling your glucose levels, you can reduce your risk of a cardiovascular disease event by a respectable 42 percent. Strength training can be very beneficial for glucose control. According to Tanner:

“Strength training drains glucose like you wouldn’t believe. Two sets of 10... use about five grams of glucose, or to keep it simple, carbohydrate. So, a workout might use 35 to 60 grams of carbohydrates, depending on how long it is, with weights. It’s not nearly as aggressively draining those muscle tissues with a cardiorespiratory-type training.

The thing about your muscles is they do not like losing any glycogen at all, so there’s a process called super compensation. When you drain them, they make room for more glycogen to be stored. If you’re constantly somewhat emptying the tank, you always create a headroom to take on any amount of glucose – or not any.

There’s a limit. It’s something to the effect of 1,200 grams for 180-pound person. That’s about the maximum amount of intramuscular glycogen only for short periods of time, and only after fully unloaded tissue. We’re talking about endurance athletes big time. [For] your average person, maybe it’s about 500 grams. But if you’re constantly pulling out of this tank and reinvesting, pulling out and reinvesting, your body makes room for more of this. You don’t have to ever have abnormal blood glucose levels, because it always has somewhere to go.”

Intense Exercise = A Potent Anti-Aging Strategy

While it’s never too late to start exercising, the earlier you begin and the more consistent you are, the greater your long-term rewards. Having an active lifestyle is really an investment in your future well-being. Interestingly, strength training has been found to have a beneficial impact on your gene expression — not only slowing aging but actually returning gene expression to youthful levels in seniors who start using resistance training. According to Tanner:

“...they showed that strength training in the elderly reversed oxidative stress and returned gene expression in 179 genes to a youthful level. It moved them back to about 10 years. Let me repeat that. The genes got 10 years younger. That’s impressive.”

Biological aging, and eventually death, can be defined as “the changes in structures and functions of humans with the passage of time that does not result from disease or gross accidents.” Tanner believes that under the right conditions, you can live indefinitely, as long as you can prevent or recover from biochemical, cellular and physical accidents.

Diet accounts for the majority, about 80 percent, of the health benefits you reap from a healthy lifestyle, but exercise is a crucial component and adjunct to a healthy diet. As Tanner states, exercise, and strength training in particular, from his point of view, is a force multiplier and the great leveraging agent. I couldn’t agree more, although I believe that, overall, high-intensity interval training may give you even greater payoffs than strength training. Ideally, you’ll want to incorporate both.

One of the Best Ways to Fight Osteoporosis

A recent article in Forbes magazine¹ highlighted the benefits of strength training for the aging population, rightfully asserting that it plays a far more important role than aerobic exercise. As Tanner joked, what good is a healthy heart if you don’t have the muscle strength and stability to get out of your chair? According to Forbes:

“[T]he average 30-35 year old person will experience roughly a 25 percent decline in his or her muscle strength and tone by the age of 70-75, and up to a 50 percent decline approaching the age of 90. Simply doing aerobic exercise such as walking or light treadmill workouts will not be adequate to preserve muscle tone, bone health, balance and posture. If you are not engaging in strength or resistance training, the chances are high that you will lose strength and become less functional as you age.

... Research has clearly shown that strength training can help to reduce the pace of bone loss, while some studies have demonstrated that such training can actually help to build bone... Movements and exercises that place stress on bones help to form additional calcium deposits and stimulate bone forming cells.”

Weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis. For example, a walking lunge exercise is a great way to build bone density in your hips, even without any additional weights. The last thing you want to consider is to take a drug to improve your bone density, as without question, that is more likely to cause long-term harm than benefit.

Weight Training IS Cardiovascular Training…

Research over the past several years has really revolutionized the way we look at exercise. Not only have researchers found that traditional aerobic exercise is one of the least effective forms of exercise, it's also one of the most time consuming, and could even be counterproductive. You're really getting the least amount of bang for your buck when you spend extended amounts of time running on a treadmill.

High intensity interval training on the other hand, has consistently risen to the top as the most effective and efficient form of exercise.

While the fitness industry divides exercise into categories such as anaerobic, aerobic and cardiovascular training, fitness experts like Dr. McGuff and Phil Campbell point out that in order to actually access your cardiovascular system, you have to perform mechanical work with your muscle. How you do that is up to you; you can do that on an elliptical machine, on weight training equipment, or using free-weights. So truly, weight training isn't just strength training, it's a cardiovascular workout. To better understand this, you need to know that your heart has two different metabolic processes:

1. Aerobic, requires oxygen for fuel, and
2. Anaerobic, does not require any oxygen

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process. High-intensity interval training, such as Peak Fitness, on the other hand, work your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. You're actually getting MORE benefits from high-intensity training than you do from aerobic/cardio, in a fraction of the time — all because you're utilizing your body as it was designed to be used. You can literally be done in about 20 minutes, compared to spending an hour running on the treadmill.

Similarly, you can turn any weight training routine into a high intensity routine by slowing it down. Besides Tanner, Dr. Doug McGuff is another proponent of Super-Slow strength training. You only need about 12 minutes of Super-Slow type strength training once a week to achieve the same growth hormone production as you would from 20 minutes of Peak Fitness sprints.

The key to make it work is intensity. The intensity needs to be high enough that you reach muscle fatigue. If you've selected the appropriate weight for your strength and fitness level, that would be somewhere in the neighborhood of just seven or eight repetitions. Furthermore, when the intensity is high, you can also decrease the frequency of your exercise. In fact, in order to continue to be productive, the higher your fitness level, the more you can decrease the frequency without losing benefits.

This is because, as a weak beginner, you can exercise three times a week and not put much stress on your system. But once your strength and endurance improves, each exercise session is placing an increasingly greater amount of stress on your body (as long as you keep pushing yourself to the max). At that point, you'll want to reduce the frequency of your sessions to give your body enough time to recover in between. To learn more, please see my previous interview with Dr. McGuff on his Super-Slow weight training recommendations.

Keep Yourself in Motion!

Optimal health is dependent on an active lifestyle; eating fresh, whole foods, avoiding as many processed foods as possible, exercising regularly, and addressing the stress in your life. Ignoring any of these basic tenets of health will eventually lead to a decline in health and any number of diseases.

Ideally, you’ll want to include a variety of exercises for a well-rounded fitness regimen. Strength training is an important component as it’s the number one way for you to remain strong, young, and independent well into old age, and what good is living long if you’re too decrepit to enjoy it?

The BOSU ball is a deceptively simple, relatively inexpensive piece of fitness equipment that can expand your workouts and fitness level by leaps and bounds.

With a flat platform on one side and a rubber dome on the other (resembling half an exercise ball), BOSU originally stood for “Both Sides Up,” meaning you can use either the flat or the rounded side depending on your workout.

Since being invented in 2000 by David Weck, BOSU has come to mean “Both Sides Utilized,” and is meant to help expand your movement capabilities, reshape your body and even strengthen your mind.¹

BOSU Provides a Total Body Workout

Because the BOSU is inherently unstable, it adds intensity to your workouts, requiring you to engage your core muscles in order to maintain balance. It’s a form of functional training that can not only get you in shape but make you better equipped to better perform the movements you need to get through the day, which becomes especially important as you get older.

For instance, every time you walk your body must adapt to uneven terrain. The BOSU ball also forces you to maintain your center of gravity while performing various activities, providing a phenomenal way to prepare and tone your body for everyday life.

Plus, virtually any workout can be enhanced by incorporating the use of a BOSU ball; because it requires you to use more muscles to stabilize your body, it means your workout will be more intense and you’ll burn more calories too. BOSU benefits include:

Balance training	Enhanced flexibility	Cardio workouts
Building strength	Fine-tuning sports skills	Core training
Kinesthetic awareness (an awareness of how your body is positioned, which often declines with age)	Proprioception (sensing the relative position of neighboring parts of your body)	Increased endurance

Balance Training May Reduce Falls in Older Adults

The real-life benefits of balance training using an unstable surface like the BOSU have been scientifically proven. In one study, a 12-week proprioception training program in older adults, which included work on the BOSU ball, was found to help improve postural stability and static and dynamic balance.² Researchers concluded it:

“ … could lead to an improvement in gait and balance capacity, as well as to a decrease in the risk of falling in adults aged 65 years and older.”

A Total Body BOSU Ball Workout to Try

About.com recently featured a total body workout using a BOSU ball³ that is definitely worth trying. You can complete each exercise in order, increase it to two or more sets of each, or break the routine down to focus on just upper or lower body moves, if you’re short on time. A sample of the exercises include:

Warm-Up 

• Triple Squats

With the platform side down, stand to the side of the BOSU with your right foot on top. Squat down, then step onto the dome with your left foot and lower into another squat. Next, step to the other side of the BOSU and squat, repeating the sequence of triple squats for about a minute.

Lower Body Exercises

• Power Lunges

Perform a typical lunge, but start with your right foot on the BOSU dome. As you rise from the lunge, jump up and switch legs in the air so your left foot lands on the dome and your right foot is behind you. Continue this jumping/lunging motion for up to 16 repetitions for excellent endurance and heart benefits.

• Hamstring Tilts

With the dome-side down, lie on the floor on your back with your knees bent and both feet on the platform. Lift your hips a few inches off the floor and press the dome forward and backward with your feet to work your core muscles and hamstrings (repeat up to 16 times).

• Hip Extensions

Get on your hands and knees with your knees on the dome-side of the ball and your hands on the floor. Lift one leg up in-line with your hip, keeping your knee bent, and press your heel toward the ceiling. Repeat up to 16 times and then switch to the other leg. A weight can be placed behind your knee for even more intensity.

Upper Body Exercises

• Pushups

Perform a regular pushup, but place your hands on the platform-side of the BOSU instead of on the floor. Along with working your chest and arms, this move also works your core.

• Back Extension

With the BOSU ball platform-side down, lie over the ball on your stomach with your hands under your chin. Contract your abs to lift your head and feet off the ground, extending your back. Lower and repeat while holding your abs tight, for a total of one to three sets of 8-16 reps.

• One-Armed Row

Place the BOSU platform-side down, then kneel with your left knee on the dome and your right hand on the floor. Your right leg should be extended straight out behind you. With a weight in your left hand, bend your elbow and pull it to your torso. Lower and repeat for one to three sets of 8-16 reps, then switch to the other side.

Core Exercises

• Plank

With the dome side down, get into a push-up position but keep your elbows straight, not bent. You can keep either your knees or toes on the ground, holding the plank position (with your abs tight) for up to 60 seconds.

• Full Crunch

Place the platform side down, then lie on the ball on your back. Pull your knees into your chest and keep your hands behind your head. Squeeze your abs and lift your shoulders and hips off the dome in a full crunch. Repeat up to 16 times.

An Inexpensive Fitness Essential

The BOSU ball is on my list of inexpensive fitness essentials that you can pick up to start your own in-home gym. The home version of the BOSU ball is about $100, or there is a professional version, which is designed with extra strength in the platform, for $130, both available on Amazon.

As with most things in life, a balanced routine works best, so you'll want to avoid placing too much emphasis on cardio, strength training or any one type of activity, as this can lead to imbalances that may actually interfere with optimal health.

This is why it's so important to maintain a well-balanced fitness regimen that includes not just functional training with a BOSU ball, but also strength training, stretching, and high-intensity interval training like Peak Fitness. The use of the BOSU fits in nicely to just about any comprehensive fitness routine, and can be used with virtually all of your activities, from stretching and strength training to aerobics.

By Dr. Mercola

Exercise is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle, and it can be a part of your life no matter what your age. In fact, staying active becomes increasingly important as you get older.

Even frail seniors of advanced age can improve muscle strength and agility with exercise, which is important for preventing falls and injuries.

For seniors who have a hard time performing aerobic exercise, using a Whole Body Vibration (WBV) platform (such as The Power Plate) can help them improve performance, allowing them to become stronger, faster and more agile, according to recent research¹.

As explained by Dr. Keith DeOrio, M.D²., WBV stimulation affects your entire body musculature, as well as your internal organs and glands.

Your muscle spindles fire secondary to the mechanical stimulation produced by the vibrating plate, and this rapid firing of the muscle spindle causes a neuromuscular response that leads to physiological changes in your brain as well as your entire body.

How Whole Body Vibration Can Improve Fitness in Those Over 65

The featured study was funded by the Spanish government, and while small in scale, it suggests Whole Body Vibration (WBV) training can stimulate muscle growth and improve overall fitness in the elderly. As reported by Reuters:

“Twenty-four men and women over 65 performed 10 squats held for 45 seconds on the vibrating platform, with a minute rest in between, three times per week for 11 weeks. The study also included 25 people who did not take part in the vibration exercises.

... Those who did the exercises were, on average, able to do two more reps of upper and lower body strength exercises, had almost half an inch more lower body flexibility, and walked 33 yards one second faster than before the vibration training...”

Other studies have also demonstrated significant gains in most measures of muscle performance in sedentary and elderly individuals when using WBV. It has also been shown to provide a number of additional health benefits in the elderly. For example, one study, performed by the University of Liege in Belgium³, investigated the effects of controlled whole body vibrations exercises on overall health in elderly patients and found that after six weeks (performing 4 one-minute sessions, 3 times a week), the participants experienced:

143 percent improvement in physical function	57 percent improvement in the quality of walking
77 percent improvement in equilibrium	41 percent reduction in pain
60 percent improvement in vitality	23 percent improvement in general health

Reduce Bone Loss with Whole Body Vibration

Loss of bone mass is one of the common signs of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it. In the case of osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones.

A thinning hipbone is a major concern if you are elderly, because any fall increases the risk of a broken hip, which always carries a great risk of complications and usually requires prolonged specialized care for recovery. It's estimated that 25 percent of elderly people suffering a hip fracture die as a direct result⁴.

Weight-bearing exercise, like resistance or strength training, can go a long way to prevent brittle bone formation, and can help reverse the damage already done. WBV training can also be helpful here, especially in the elderly.

In a study⁵ by Medical College of Georgia researchers, using vibration therapy 30 minutes daily for 12 weeks improved bone density in mice, a finding that adds support for their use in humans, especially the elderly. It's thought that the vibrations prompt movement of the cell nucleus, which may trigger the release of osteoblasts to build bone. Previous studies have also found that WBV training increases bone density in the hip and inhibits bone loss in the spine and hip areas.

Vitamin D and K2 Are Also Critical Factors for Bone Health Throughout Life

For optimal bone health you also need to optimize your vitamin D levels, and make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2. Both of these nutrients are essential for healthy bone formation and maintenance, and they work in tandem. This is why, if you take high doses of vitamin D3, you also need to take extra vitamin K2.

The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries.

So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. Together, these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.

While the ideal or optimal ratios between vitamin D and vitamin K2 have yet to be elucidated, Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, author of Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life, suggests that for every 1,000 IU's of vitamin D you take, you may benefit from about 100 micrograms of K2, and perhaps as much as 150-200 micrograms (mcg). So, if you take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D3 per day, that means you'd need in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,000 micrograms (0.8 to 1 milligram/mg) of vitamin K2.

Exercise is one of the “golden tickets” to preventing disease and slowing the aging process. One reason for this is because exercise is one of the most effective ways to regain insulin and leptin sensitivity and reverse insulin and leptin-resistance, which is a key to staying healthy as you get older.

But another reason why exercise is sometimes regarded as a real-life fountain of youth is because, when done intensely, it boosts your body's natural production of human growth hormone (HGH), a synergistic, foundational biochemical that addresses the serious muscle loss and atrophy that typically occurs with aging.

Intermittent fasting has many of the same benefits, including dramatically boosting HGH and optimizing insulin- and leptin sensitivity, which I’ll discuss more toward the end of this article.

Recent research¹ also shows that ingesting carbohydrates (sucrose) with added whey protein isolate during short-term recovery from 90 minutes of treadmill running increases the growth hormone response to a second exhaustive exercise bout of similar duration.

However, I’ve previously discussed the issue of implementing an exercise and diet plan based on your desired goal, either:

• Athletic performance, or
• Health, longevity and reproductive success

If you are seeking to optimize competitive athletics, then carb-loading as used in the featured study can be useful. However it is not a wise strategy if you’re seeking long-term optimal health, as that requires a different approach. Avoiding carbs then becomes paramount, along with making sure you’re using only high quality protein sources. (Clearly, competitive athletes could also improve if they used high quality organic, grass-fed whey rather than the far inferior whey protein isolate.)

Interestingly, in the wake of Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven titles and banned from cycling for life after being found guilty of doping, one study known as the "Goldman Dilemma", showed that more than half of Olympic-level athletes would gladly use a drug that would kill them within five years as long as it guaranteed them a gold medal.²

To most people, however, this would be an unacceptable exchange. The featured approach clearly will not kill you in five years, and I suspect most of the adverse longevity consequences are reversible, but in my opinion carb-loading is not ideal for long-term health.

Why Carb-Loading is Not Recommended if You Exercise for Longevity

The idea behind carb-loading is to saturate yourself with carbs so your muscles will have plenty of glycogen to go on while you exercise. This works fine for really fit athletes that have an intense workout regimen. They also have the muscle mass that could accommodate large glucose surges as muscles can rapidly utilize glucose. Additionally most athletes have optimized insulin and leptin signaling and are exercising which also allows them to better use the carbs.

However, I believe it is totally inappropriate for the vast majority of non-athletes that exercise casually, or just to get healthy as their muscle mass isn’t as well developed and their insulin and leptin signaling is typically impaired. Another point to consider in this study is that, while whey is great for stimulating muscle protein synthesis, I disagree with the use of whey protein isolate as whey protein concentrates are clearly superior.

As I'll discuss below, the focus on carbs is one of the most detrimental pieces of advice that is still widely promoted to athletes and non-athletes alike, and there are FAR better ways to boost HGH production than what was tested in the featured study, in which participants ran for 90 minutes with a four-hour long break in between repeated session.

First, it’s important to remember that what you eat can either add to or detract from your exercise benefits, and if you're devoting the time to exercise for health and longevity, you'd be well advised to harness your meals to support your goals, not detract from them.

First and foremost, contrary to popular advice, to maximize the benefits of exercise you'll want to avoid fructose and other sugars unless you are engaged in intensive and prolonged cardio exercises that will allow you to burn these sugars, especially fructose, and not store them as fat.

However, exercise, which in and of itself improves insulin and leptin sensitivity, will NOT completely compensate for excessive use of fructose. This means that most casual exercisers and those seeking to improve their body composition and optimize health and fitness rather than boost athletic performance or competitiveness, need to ditch the energy drinks, sports drinks, most energy bars and even "healthy" drinks like vitamin water, as these will effectively sabotage your exercise benefits.

Fructose, which is found primarily in the form of high fructose corn syrup, is particularly detrimental as it tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your body's appetite-control system. This happens because fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") and doesn't stimulate leptin (the "satiety hormone").

The end result is that you end up eating more, causing uncontrolled accumulation of sugar metabolites in your liver, which then leads to insulin resistance. Fructose also rapidly leads to decreased HDL ("good" cholesterol), increased LDL ("bad" cholesterol), elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure – i.e. classic metabolic syndrome. And if that's not bad enough, fructose has shown to increase the levels of TNF-α, a pro-inflammatory cytokine known to inhibit fat burning and promote muscle wasting.

Eating Whey Protein During Your Exercise Recovery May Boost HGH

Your production of vital human growth hormone increases by up to 771 percent during a high-intensity, interval workout like Peak Fitness because you are stimulating your fast twitch muscle fibers, which are rarely used during most exercise programs. The higher your levels of HGH, the healthier and stronger you will be.

Once you hit the age of 30, you enter what's called "somatopause," at which point your levels of HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This decline of HGH is part of what drives your aging process, so maintaining your HGH levels gets increasingly important with age.

Some athletes choose to inject HGH for its performance enhancing potential, though it is a banned substance in nearly every professional sport. I do not recommend injecting HGH however, due to the potential side effects, the cost and, more importantly, its potential to cause more long-term harm than good. Besides, as we now know, taking such risks is unnecessary because if you eat and exercise correctly, you will naturally optimize your HGH.

What You Eat in the Two to Three Hours After You Exercise is Extremely Important

After an intense workout, there's an exercise recovery phase of two to three hours during which you have to be somewhat careful about what foods you choose to eat. Specifically, in order to promote HGH release, you do need to restrict sugar intake post-exercise (although carbs can benefit those more interested in fast recovery, such as professional athletes). Fitness veteran Phil Campbell explains:

"What we recommend... is to get 25 grams of protein afterwards within that 30-minute golden window. There is a lot of research to support that, but there's also some research done by Dr. John Ivy of the University of Texas, a great researcher on a young cyclist who made recovery. They're not looking at growth hormone or maximizing growth hormone. They're trying to get to recover as quickly as possible so they can cycle several days in a row.

They showed that getting a ratio of 4:1 carbs to protein is better for recovery... 4:1 starts recovery faster. If you're going after recovery, that's the best strategy... [if] you're not looking for growth hormone, that is.

But on the other side, if your goal like most middle-aged adults and older is to maximize growth hormone, and to get this wonderful hormone circulating for that full two hours in the surging window for going after body fat (just about like you're doing cardio for two hours), you can do that. ...if you throw too many carbohydrates in... then that releases the hormones called somatostatin. That, for whatever reason, just shuts down growth hormone. That's clear in the research."

So it's important to avoid carbs, especially sugar or fructose-containing foods, in the two hours after your workout, and this includes sports drinks, to be sure you're getting the full HGH benefits. Consuming whey protein, however, appears to be nearly ideal, as it is a protein that assimilates very quickly, and will get to your muscles within 10-15 minutes of swallowing it, supplying your muscles with the right food at the right time to stop the catabolic process in your muscle and shift the process toward repair and growth.

Whey Helps With Muscle-Building, Too

An important review found that consumption of ~20–25 grams of a rapidly absorbed protein, such as whey protein, may serve to maximally stimulate muscle building after resistance exercise in young healthy individuals;³ high-quality leucine-rich proteins, such as whey, may be particularly important for the elderly to maximize muscle protein synthesis as well. Further, consuming whey not only immediately following your workout but also for up to 48 hours after resistance exercise may still offer some benefit:⁴

"...since resistance exercise increases MPS for up to ~48 h [hours] consumption of dietary amino acids 24-48 h post-exercise recovery would also likely convey the same synergistic effects on MPS [muscle protein synthesis] as those that are observed when amino acids are provided immediately after resistance exercise. The synergistic enhancement of pre-existing resistance exercise-induced elevations in MPS by protein provision is greatest immediately post-exercise and wanes over time, but may still be present up to 48 h later.

We have recently shown that feeding 15 g of whey protein, a less than optimally effective dose of protein for maximizing MPS, ~24 h after acute resistance exercise results in a greater stimulation of ...protein synthesis than the same dose provided at rest. ...We propose that there is, at least in young individuals, an extended 'window of anabolic opportunity' beyond the immediate post-exercise period that persists for at least 24 h..."

A recent study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise demonstrated that consuming whey protein (20g protein / serving) 30 minutes before resistance training also boosts your body's metabolism for as much as 24 hours after your workout.⁵ In practical terms, consuming 20 grams of whey protein before exercise and another serving afterward will most likely yield the double benefit of increasing both fat burning and muscle build-up at the same time.

Intermittent Fasting: Another Way to Boost HGH Naturally

Just as combining whey protein with high-intensity exercise appears to work together synergistically to boost HGH production, so too does exercising while in a fasted state. Research has found that fasting raised HGH by 1,300 percent in women and 2,000 percent in men!⁶ And 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.

It’s important to realize that this fitness-enhancing strategy is more about the timing of meals, as opposed to those fad plans where you essentially “starve” yourself for several days in a row.

On intermittent fasting, 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 step to get you off a plateau in your fitness routine. Personally, I've revised my own eating schedule to eliminate breakfast and restrict the time I eat food to a period of about six to seven hours each day, which is typically from noon to 6 or 7 pm. 

For more information on healthy, safe intermittent fasting, read this.

Intermittent Fasting for General Health and Longevity

There's 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 as insulin sensitivity is critical for the activation of the mTOR pathway, which along with IGF-1 plays an important part in repairing and regenerating your tissues including your muscles and thereby counteracting 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.

Even if you take the exercise component out, 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 after prolonged periods of over-secreted and elevated insulin) 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

Tying it All Together

Whether you seek to optimize your athletic performance or health and longevity, incorporating 1-3 sessions of high-intensity exercises per week will help you achieve your aims by significantly boosting HGH production. Adding intermittent fasting can kick it up another notch. The same cannot be said for your diet, however.

Whereas carb-loading can be useful for professional athletes, those seeking health and longevity will not benefit from this strategy. On the contrary, severely limiting sugars and grains is part and parcel of any diet designed to optimize overall health and prevent chronic disease. Furthermore, it’s important to note that consuming fructose within two hours prior to or after high-intensity exercise will nullify HGH production... So carb-loading while doing Peak Exercises will amount to wasted effort.

By Dr. Mercola

Brazilian researchers have revealed a simple test that may help predict your longevity in the next six or so years: how well you can sit and rise from the floor.

The test is different from the long-used "chair test," which physicians sometimes use to gauge an elderly person's lower body strength by how well they can stand up from sitting in a chair.

The new test, a sitting-rising test (SRT), involves a score of 0-5 for each movement (sitting and rising), with a combined 10 being the highest score, awarded for those who can sit and rise from the floor without any assistance from their hands or knees.

Getting Up and Down Easily from the Floor is a Marker of Longevity

The SRT test, which can be used on middle-aged and elderly adults, is incredibly simple. Sit down on the floor, and then get up, using as little assistance from your hands, knees or other body parts as possible. For each body part that you use for support, you'll lose one point from the possible top score of 10.

"Application of a simple and safe assessment tool such as SRT, which is influenced by muscular strength and flexibility, in general health examinations could add relevant information regarding functional capabilities and outcomes in non-hospitalized adults," the researchers noted.

For instance, if you put one hand on the floor for support to sit down, then use a knee and a hand to help you get up, you'll "lose" three points for a combined score of 7. What do the numbers mean? They correlated strongly with participants' risk of death during the study period of just over six years. For each unit increase in SRT score, participants gained a 21 percent improvement in survival. Specifically:¹

• Those who scored 0-3 were 6.5 times more likely to die during the study than those who scored 8-10
• Those who scored 3.5 to 5.5 were 3.8 times more likely to die
• Those who scored 6 to 7.5 were 1.8 times more likely to die

While I wouldn't take the results of this study as "gospel" and become distressed if you are 30 years old and score a three, it does provide an interesting perspective on the connection between mobility and health and can provide encouragement for many to get back in shape. Even if you have been exercising like I have for coming up on five decades it still can be a challenge.

Personally I found the only way I can do it is to roll backward and use my momentum to help me get up. But I am working on it and hopefully will regain the flexibility/muscle strength to get up unassisted.

What is it That Makes the Sitting-Rising Test so Useful?

Quite simply, it's a measure of your fitness at the most basic level, testing not only muscular strength but also flexibility, balance and motor coordination. All of these attributes are essential for day-to-day living, and for maintaining your independence as you age.

And though the study didn't measure this directly, there's quite a good chance that those who are capable of easily sitting and standing without assistance are also those who engage in regular physical activity, which is helping to keep them agile and healthy.

Over 50 percent of American men, and 60 percent of American women, never engage in any vigorous physical activity lasting more than 10 minutes per week – and only 25 percent of women and 31 percent of men engage in vigorous exercise at least three times per week.² This is despite a growing body of research clearly showing that "exercise deficiency" threatens your overall health and mental well-being, and shortens your lifespan.

In fact, according to research published in the American Journal of Physiology,³ the best way to stay young is to simply start exercising, as it triggers mitochondrial biogenesis, a decline of which is common in aging. This reverses significant age-associated declines in mitochondrial density, and in effect, stops aging in its tracks. A 2011 review in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism⁴ also pointed out that exercise induces changes in mitochondrial enzyme content and activity, which can increase your cellular energy production and in so doing decrease your risk of chronic disease.

Increasing Mitochondrial Activity Via Regular Exercise May Help Keep You Young

Aside from impacting your skeletal muscle and fat tissue, researchers noted that exercise induces mitochondrial changes that may also benefit your liver, brain and kidneys. The mitochondria is the "power plant" of your cells, responsible for generating the energy that drives all metabolic functions.

Increasing mitochondrial activity is extremely important because free radicals, which are toxic byproducts of metabolism as well as exposures to chemicals, pollutants and other toxins, can overwhelm your body's defenses, leading to oxidative damage to cells and tissues that can destroy cellular proteins, lipids and DNA; this process often leads directly to the loss of mitochondrial function. In the long-term, irreversible damage in the mitochondria can occur, leading to:

• Impaired ability to utilize carbohydrates and fat for energy
• Insulin resistance
• Lower threshold for physical exercise
• Excessive weight gain
• Accelerated aging
• Cancer

Too Much Sitting is Especially Damaging

Even if you exercise regularly, sitting for long periods is also correlated with a shorter lifespan. Unfortunately, most people spend a large portion of each day in a seated position. It's hard to avoid these days, as computer work predominates, and most also spend many precious hours each week commuting to and from work, and then watching TV or surfing the Web during their leisure time.

Recent research estimates that if you cut back on the amount of time spent sitting to less than three hours a day, it could add two years to your life expectancy.⁵ On the other hand, according to a study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise⁶ the more time you spend sitting down, the greater your risk of dying from all causes.

Arguably, those who spend the most time sitting and the least amount of time exercising are also those who are likely going to score lower on the sitting-rising test. If you haven't already, I recommend trying the sitting-rising test for yourself. If your score is lower than you'd like, it's a good signal that you should start incorporating some of the longevity tips discussed below.

A Foundational Exercise to Combat the Ravages of Too Much Sitting

One of the things I do to compensate for the time I spend sitting each day is to regularly do Foundation exercises developed by a brilliant chiropractor, Eric Goodman. These exercises are used by many professional and elite athletes, but more importantly can easily address the root cause of most low back pain, which is related to weakness and imbalance among your posterior chain of muscles. It is my belief that that these imbalances are primarily related to sitting.

Foundation Training is all about your core. Your core is anything that connects to your pelvis, whether above or below it, and this includes your hamstrings, glutes, and adductor muscles. Foundation Training teaches all those muscles to work together through integrated chains of movement, which is how you're structurally designed to move, as opposed to compartmentalized movements like crunches.

"The Founder" is one of the key exercises, which helps reinforce proper movement while strengthening the entire back of your body by dispersing your weight through the posterior chains. As a result, your weight shifts back toward your heels and "untucks" your pelvis. By doing so, you lengthen your hip flexors, gaining length at the front of your body. The Founder is an excellent exercise that can help reverse the effects of frequent and prolonged sitting.

Simple Tips for Improving Your Longevity

One of the key things you can do to extend not only the sheer quantity of your years, but more importantly the quality, is to make a few simple changes to your lifestyle. One of the most important changes is optimizing your insulin function through diet and exercise. Regulating your insulin and leptin levels in this way have been found to be key factors in slowing down the aging process. Consuming sugar and grains will increase your insulin level, which is the equivalent of slamming your foot on your aging accelerator. There's simply no more potent way to accelerate aging than sticking to a diet full of sugar and grains.

Previous research has shown that you can extend your lifespan by reducing your caloric intake, but the problem is that most people do not understand how to properly cut calories. In order to remain healthy, you have to cut out calories from a specific source – namely, carbohydrates.

Protein intake should be about one gram per kilogram of lean body mass or less than half a gram per pound of lean body mass. Most people are currently consuming two to three times this much. The key to success with this anti-aging strategy is not necessarily to reduce your calories but replace the missing carbs and protein with healthy fats such as butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, the fat from pastured animals, or nuts. Here are the rest of my top "anti-aging" recommendations:

• Proper Food Choices: For a comprehensive food guide, see my free nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (organic vegetables, grass-fed meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as small organic farms near your home. For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Personally, I aim to eat about 75 percent of my food raw, including raw eggs.

Topping the list of foods to avoid is fructose. Eat plenty of natural, unprocessed salt with your food, as higher salt intake has been tied to longevity. I recommend Himalayan crystal salt. Also include liberal amounts of fermented foods in your daily diet, which are important for optimal immune function.

• Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness: Even if you're eating the best diet in the world, you still need to exercise effectively to reach your highest level of health. This means incorporating core-strengthening exercises, strength training, stretching and high-intensity activities into your rotation.

High-intensity interval training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor. I've discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions.

• Stress Reduction and Positive Attitude: You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional components of your health. Your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease, from heart disease and depression to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms and stress management are major factors in promoting longevity, in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), meditation, yoga, prayer, social support and exercise are all ways to help you maintain emotional equilibrium.
• The Right Amount of Sleep: Not only is sleep important in preventing illness, but recent research suggests it correlates with longevity as well. Not just enough sleep – but the right amount of sleep. In a 22-year twin study,⁷ adults who slept more than 8 hours per night, or less than 7, showed increased risk of death. Of course, the quality of your sleep is also important, not just the quantity.
• Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D: We have long known that it is best to generate your own vitamin D from sun exposure. If at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis during the months that UVB rays are able to penetrate the atmosphere. To learn more about how to determine when you can effectively generate vitamin D from sun exposure, please see my previous article, Little Sunshine Mistakes that Can Give You Cancer Instead of Vitamin D.

During times when no UVB's are able to penetrate, and hence will not lead to vitamin D production, you can use a safe tanning bed or an oral vitamin D3 supplement. There is preliminary evidence suggesting that oral vitamin D may not provide the identical benefits, but it's still better than none at all.

• Take High-Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats: Animal-based omega-3 fats are a strong factor in helping people live longer. Many experts believe it's the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest-lived race on the planet.
• Get your antioxidants from foods: Good sources include blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, beans, and artichokes. Many may also benefit by adding supplemental astaxanthin as a profoundly potent antioxidant.
• Use coconut oil: Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known to reduce your risk of heart disease and Alzheimer's disease, and lower your cholesterol, among other things.
• Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible: This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
• Avoid Prescription Drugs: Avoiding drugs and the conventional medical system is a good idea if you want to live a long and healthy life. According to data collected by the National Center for Health statistics, poisoning by prescription drugs has now surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. The most commonly abused prescription painkillers (including OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax, and Soma) now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

Making sure your doctor is properly accredited is also important when you seek medical care. According to a book about degree mills, there are well over 5,000 doctors operating with fake medical degrees in the U.S., and people have died as a result. Additionally, more than half of all PhD degrees in the U.S. are reportedly fakes.

By Dr. Mercola

It is nice to see the intermittent fasting approach that I have recommended for some time now is starting to catch on. This is no surprise to me as it is one of the most powerful interventions I know of to move your body into fat burning mode and have your hunger nearly magically disappear. It is a powerful tool to help you keep a healthy weight.

In a new diet book, The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting, Dr. Michael Mosley¹ suggests the best way to lose weight is to eat normally for five days a week, and fast for two. On fasting days, he recommends cutting your food down to ¼ of your normal daily calories, or about 600 calories for men and about 500 for women, along with plenty of water and tea.

Dr. Mosley himself claims to have lost 19 pounds in two months by following this recommendation. I lost about seven pounds when I implemented the approach last year, but the most amazing aspect is not the weight loss, it’s the absence of hunger and sugar cravings once you are fat adapted. Your desire to eat unhealthy foods seems to disappear; at least that was my experience.

I prefer to think of intermittent fasting as a lifestyle rather than a diet. It’s a way of living and eating that can help you live a longer, healthier life. I promoted the health benefits of intermittent fasting well before it hit the mainstream, and have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating in my own life for the past two years. I currently restrict my eating to a 6-7 hour window each day.

In the featured BBC interview,² Dr. Mosley also points out the importance of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — especially in conjunction with fasting — and how sheer inactivity is actually more detrimental to your health than lack of formal exercise. He recommends getting up every 15-20 minutes if you have a desk job, to avoid the health hazards associated with prolonged sitting. For more helpful tips and recommendations, please see my recent article Sitting Less May be Key for Maximum Longevity, in which I discuss this issue.

HIIT, which is a foundational part of my Peak Fitness Program, is another aspect of optimal health that I’ve been trying to drill into my readers since the mid-2000’s, when the science behind it was showing signs of being really solid. Now the mainstream is finally starting to catch up on this as well, and proof that it really does work as advertised is becoming increasingly evident as people are trying it out.

Intermittent Fasting Becoming Mainstream Health Recommendation

In related news, MSNBC³ recently featured David Zinczenko and Peter Moore, co-authors of yet another book expounding on the health benefits of intermittent fasting:

“Can Americans trim their waistlines by spending less time at the dinner table? In 'The 8-Hour Diet,' best-selling authors David Zinczenko and Peter Moore argue that people can lose weight (and combat our 24-hour eating culture) by only consuming food during a set 8-hour time period.”

This is another version of intermittent fasting, in which you simply restrict your daily eating to a specific window of time. Zinczenko and Moore recommend an eight hour window, which is doable and convenient for most people, but you can restrict it even further — down to six, four, or even two hours, if you want, but you can still reap many of these rewards by limiting your eating to a window of about 8 hours. This means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the day instead.

Remember, you’re NOT supposed to starve yourself. You’re not even required to restrict the amount of food you eat when on this type of daily scheduled eating plan, just chose healthy foods and be careful to minimize carbs and replace them with HEALTHY fats, like coconut oil, olive oil, olives, butter, eggs, avocados, and nuts. It typically takes several weeks to shift to fat burning mode, but once you do, your cravings for unhealthy foods and carbs seems to disappear as you’re now actually able to burn your stored fat and not have to rely on new carbs for fuel.

As discussed in “The 8-Hour Diet”:

“Consider this 2007 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study: Researchers divided study participants into two groups and had each group eat the same number of calories — enough for them to maintain their weight. The only difference: One group ate all their calories in three meals spread throughout the day, while the other practiced intermittent fasting, eating the same number of calories but in a restricted time frame.

Among the results: Participants who ate in a smaller window of time had a 'significant modification of body composition, including reductions in fat mass.'

Part of that fat burn comes simply from the body’s searching for energy and finding it in your belly. But part of it is also from a surprising source: According to Panda’s research, restricting the time period during which you eat makes your body burn more calories throughout the day. That’s right: The longer you feed, the lazier your metabolism becomes. But fit your food intake into an 8-hour window and your body steps up to the plate, burning more calories day and night. And new evidence shows that weight loss is just the beginning of intermittent fasting’s range of health benefits.”

Keep in mind that the 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.

Also, please remember that proper nutrition becomes even MORE important when fasting, so addressing the foods you eat 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.

This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

How “Scheduled Eating” Can Promote General Health and Longevity

Aside from removing your cravings for sugar and snack foods, melting the pounds of excess fat away, and making it far easier to maintain a healthy body weight, modern science has also confirmed there are many other good reasons to fast intermittently, such as:

• Normalizing your insulin and leptin 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 study⁴ 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. 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 human growth hormone (HGH)—1,300 percent in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men! The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training.

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).

Cut Diabetes and Heart Disease Risk Just by Changing WHEN You Eat

In a 2005 study,⁵ Danish researchers showed that intermittent fasting quickly increases insulin-mediated glucose uptake rates. Eight healthy men in their mid-20’s fasted 20 hours every other day for 15 days. At the end of the trial, their insulin had become more efficient at managing blood sugar.

According to the authors, this appears to confirm the theory of “thrifty genes,” which is similar to Dr. Richard Johnson’s finding that metabolic syndrome is actually a healthy adaptive condition that animals undergo to store fat to help them survive periods of famine. The problem is that most all of us are always feasting and never undergo fasting... Our bodies have not adapted to this yet and as a result, this beneficial adaptation actually causes damage to contemporary man. According to the Danish researchers:⁶

“Insulin resistance is currently a major health problem. This may be because of a marked decrease in daily physical activity during recent decades combined with constant food abundance. This lifestyle collides with our genome, which was most likely selected in the late Paleolithic era (50,000–10,000 BC) by criteria that favored survival in an environment characterized by fluctuations between periods of feast and famine. The theory of thrifty genes states that these fluctuations are required for optimal metabolic function.

...This experiment is the first in humans to show that intermittent fasting increases insulin-mediated glucose uptake rates, and the findings are compatible with the thrifty gene concept.” [Emphasis mine]

So, by mimicking the natural fluctuations in food availability with an intermittent fasting schedule, you naturally optimize your metabolic function without actually changing what or how much you eat when you DO eat (keeping in mind the quality of the nutrients you eat, of course).

Studies have also found compelling links between fasting and reduced risk of heart disease.⁷ One of the most recent studies, published in June 2012,⁸ found that those who fasted regularly had a 58 percent lower risk of coronary disease compared to those who never fasted (90 percent of the participants were Mormons who are encouraged to fast one day a month). Regular fasting was also found to be associated with lower glucose levels and lower body mass index (BMI) overall.

Intermittent Fasting May Also Boost Your Brain Health

A recent article in the Washington Post⁹ highlighted yet another important health benefit associated with intermittent fasting, namely brain health and protection against dementia. Mark Mattson at the National Institute on Aging told the paper:

“We know from animal models that if we start an intermittent fasting diet at what would be the equivalent of middle age in people, we can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”

A clue to the mechanism behind this benefit is offered in the following paragraph:¹⁰

“A fast is considered to start about 10 to 12 hours after a meal, when you have used up all the available glucose in your blood and start converting glycogen stored in liver and muscle cells into glucose to use for energy. If the fast continues, there is a gradual move toward breaking down stored body fat, and the liver produces 'ketone bodies,' short molecules that are byproducts of the breakdown of fatty acids. These can be used by the brain as fuel.”

Mattson’s research suggests that fasting every other day (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories), tends to boost production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent, depending on the brain region. BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

“In mice engineered to develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, alternate-day fasting begun in middle age delayed the onset of memory problems by about six months,” the Washington Post reveals¹¹. “'This is a large effect,' Mattson says, perhaps equivalent to 20 years in humans.”

Growing evidence indicates that both fasting and exercise trigger genes and growth factors that recycle and rejuvenate your brain and muscle tissues. These growth factors include BDNF, as just mentioned, and muscle regulatory factors, or MRFs. These growth factors signal brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to convert into new neurons and new muscle cells respectively.

Interestingly enough, BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.) So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue—and why the combination of intermittent fasting with high intensity exercise appears to be a particularly potent combination.

Give Intermittent Fasting a Try

Consider skipping breakfast eat lunch and dinner and make sure you stop eating three hours before you go to sleep, so you’re eating within an 8-hour time frame every day. In the 6-8 hours that you do eat, you want to have healthy protein, minimize your carbs like pasta and bread and potatoes and exchange them for HEALTHY fats like butter, eggs, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts. The type of fats the media and “experts" tell you to avoid.

This will help shift you to fat burning mode from carb burning mode. Remember it takes a few weeks, and you have to do it gradually, but once you succeed to switch to fat burning mode, you will be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. Your cravings for sugar will magically disappear and it will be much easier to achieve your ideal weight.

The other “magical” benefit that occurs is that you will radically improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Why is this a good thing? Because supporting healthy gut bacteria, which actually outnumber your cells 10 to one—is one of the most important things you can do to improve your immune system so you won’t get sick, or get coughs, colds and flus. You will sleep better, have more energy, have increased mental clarity and concentrate better. Essentially every aspect of your health will improve.

Hopefully these new books and studies, along with my own pleasant experience and positive results with intermittent fasting will encourage you to give it a try. It’s another powerful tool to help you and your family take control of your health.

Humans have the largest brain and number of neurons among primates, which is a bit of an anomaly, because we do not have the largest body. Ordinarily, the mammalian brain grows in proportion to total body size, but human brains have outgrown those of other, far larger, mammals. It is, in fact, about three times larger than would be expected, given your body size.¹

It is your large brain size that has allowed human beings to excel and prosper evolutionarily speaking, and researchers have been trying to uncover how this extra growth happened.

One of the newer theories suggests that exercise, which lead to more athletic bodies capable of great physical endurance, played a key role in not only the survival of the species, but also in influencing superior intelligence.

Did Exercise Help Shape the Human Brain?

It’s long been known that early humans’ hunting and gathering lifestyle required significant aerobic fitness. Your early ancestors were also able to access new food resources, such as animal protein, because they were able to stay aerobically fit.

However, researchers are now suggesting that the increases in aerobic capacity and physical activity that occurred during human evolution may have directly influenced the human brain, which may, in turn, explain changes in our brain size and cognitive function.²

The researchers examined data that found animals bred to be proficient endurance runners developed higher levels of substances that promote tissue growth and health, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons. BDNF also triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health.

“We think that what happened,” David A. Raichlen, a University of Arizona anthropologist involved with the new report, told the New York Times,³ “in our early hunter-gatherer ancestors... is that the more athletic and active survived and, as with the lab mice, passed along physiological characteristics that improved their endurance, including elevated levels of BDNF. Eventually, these early athletes had enough BDNF coursing through their bodies that some could migrate from the muscles to the brain, where it nudged the growth of brain tissue.

Those particular early humans then applied their growing ability to think and reason toward better tracking prey, becoming the best-fed and most successful from an evolutionary standpoint. Being in motion made them smarter, and being smarter now allowed them to move more efficiently.”

Exercise is Essential for Maintaining Brain Health and May Enhance Your Memory

It’s not only your early ancestors who stood to benefit from regular physical activity, of course. Growing evidence indicates that exercise triggers genes and growth factors that recycle and rejuvenate your brain and muscle tissues. These growth factors include BDNF, as just mentioned, and muscle regulatory factors, or MRFs. These growth factors signal brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to convert into new neurons and new muscle cells, respectively. Interestingly enough, BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation.

The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.

So BDNF is actively involved in both your muscles and your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue. It, quite literally, helps prevent, and even reverse, brain atrophy as much as it prevents and reverses age-related muscle decay.

So just as exercise may have been pivotal in helping to shape the modern human brain, it is also an essential element of maintaining brain health today.

For instance, exercising for four weeks enhanced memory in previously sedentary young adults.⁴ The effect was particularly pronounced among those who exercised on the actual test day as well. Among older adults, aged 50 to 85, exercising even briefly (for just six minutes on a stationary bike) also lead to improvements in memory – and this benefit occurred among those who were mentally healthy as well as those who had memory deficits.⁵ In the latter case, the benefit was thought to be largely due to the brain chemical norepinephrine, which has a significant impact on memory and was found in higher levels after exercise.

Slow Alzheimer’s and Boost Brain Structure with an Active Lifestyle

Additional research has also found that maintaining an active lifestyle, which includes not only exercise but also active “hobbies” like gardening, yard work, dancing and recreational sports, helps preserve gray matter in older adults’ brains, a finding that may have implications for warding off Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Study author Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D. told Medical News Today:⁶

"Gray matter includes neurons that function in cognition and higher order cognitive processes. The areas of the brain that benefited from an active lifestyle are the ones that consume the most energy and are very sensitive to damage.”

Exercise also provides protective effects to your brain by reducing the pathological properties of damaged proteins residing within your brain and which appears to slow the development of Alzheimer's disease. In animal studies, significantly fewer damaging plaques and fewer bits of beta-amyloid peptides, associated with Alzheimer's, were found in mice that exercised.⁷

Less Sitting, Plus a Varied Exercise Program, is Best

The more active you stay, the better your brain (and overall health) is likely to be. This includes not only specifically engaging in exercise and other physically demanding activities but also making an effort to sit less.

To get all the benefits exercise has to offer, you'll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates a variety of exercises. 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. High-Intensity Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods. In the video below, you can see a demonstration of this in action using Peak Fitness.
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 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.

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 below.

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.

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.
5. Foundation Exercises: One of the things I do to compensate for the time I spend sitting each day is to regularly do Foundation exercises developed by a brilliant chiropractor, Eric Goodman. These exercises are used by many professional and elite athletes, but more importantly can easily address the root cause of most low back pain, which is related to weakness and imbalance among your posterior chain of muscles. It is easily argued that these imbalances are primarily related to sitting.

On average, Olympic medalists live longer than the rest of the population, although generally only by about three years. This was true irrespective of country, medal or sport, which makes sense since exercise is well known to extend longevity.

However, I've often described exercise as a drug that needs to be taken in the ideal dosage to impart the optimal benefit. Too little, and you won't get any benefit. Too much, and you could do harm.

Two recent studies in the British Medical Journal echoed these sentiments and found that, even among Olympic athletes, there can be too much of a "good thing."

Overly Strenuous Exercise is Not Necessarily Better

In the first study, which looked at the lives of over 15,000 Olympic medalists since 1896, researchers found that about 13 percent more athletes who competed in endurance sports (running, cycling) or mixed sports (cricket, golf, croquet) were alive 30 years after winning their medal, compared to non-Olympians of the same age and region.¹

This was significantly more than among medalists in power sports (weight lifting and hammer throw), of which just 5 percent more were alive 30 years later compared to the control group.

Likewise, the second study, which included both Olympic participants and medalists, found that athletes in more strenuous sports (rowers, runners) lived similar lifespans to those who competed in less intense sports (golf, cricket).² Furthermore, those who engaged in the most extreme contact sports, such as rugby or bobsledding (which involves frequent crashes), had shorter lifespans than other athletes.

So if you want to live as long as an Olympian, the most important factor seems to be the dedication to exercise, first and foremost. Engaging in the most strenuous types of exercise did not yield greater benefits in terms of lifespan, and in some cases, such as with power sports or contact sports, even shortened it. Researchers noted:

"Among former Olympic athletes, engagement in disciplines with high intensity exercise did not bring a survival benefit compared with disciplines with low intensity exercise. Those who engaged in disciplines with high levels of physical contact had higher mortality than other Olympians later in life."

When Exercise Causes More Harm Than Good …

Your body is meant to be active throughout the day, and it's also designed for intense, vigorous activity – although the latter appears best limited to short intervals instead of long, strenuous workouts.

Extreme endurance cardio, such as marathon running, actually damages your heart, and can negate the health benefits you'd otherwise reap from a regular fitness program. In the TED talk above, Dr. James O'Keefe, a research cardiologist and a former elite athlete, discusses the fact that extreme cardio can actually do more harm than good ...

As Dr. O'Keefe describes, extended extreme cardio sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it's only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods — not for an hour or more at a time. Repeatedly and consistently overwhelming the heart by long distance marathon running, for example, actually prematurely ages your heart.

Veteran endurance athletes have a five-fold increased risk of atrial fibrillation, a dangerous irregular heart rhythm. Worse yet, some endurance athletes also present ventricular tachycardia (a heart rhythm faster than 100-120 beats per minute), which can lead to ventricular fibrillation — a leading cause of sudden cardiac death.

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!³ 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,⁴ and a separate study published in Circulation found that running a marathon lead to abnormalities in how blood was pumped into the heart.⁵

Exercising in the "Goldilocks Zone" is Key

Too much of something that is normally good for you can have the reverse effect, actually causing harm in lieu of benefits. This is definitely true of exercise, and Dr. O'Keefe summarized the premise nicely in relation to runners. As he said, runners do live longer — in general, nearly 20 percent longer than non-runners. However, he described new research that found that, to optimize the health benefits from running, you'll want to run 5-20 miles per week — the ideal amount being 10-15 miles per week. Once you reach 25 miles or more per week, the benefits actually disappear!

Also, if you run too fast — over eight miles an hour — the benefits tend to go away (note we're talking about speed in long distance endurance running here, not interval sprinting). It won't make your health worse than a non-runner, but as Dr. O'Keefe says, if you put in that much effort, surely you'd want to get some benefit from it!

In order to obtain the health benefits and increased longevity from long distance running efforts, it seems best to limit your pace to six to seven miles per hour (about a ten-minute mile). Lastly, if you run seven days a week, the benefits also seem to disappear. The ideal amount was found to be between two to five days of exercise a week. Instead of trying to figure out the narrow window of therapeutic potential from long-distance running, a better alternative may be what's known as high-intensity interval training.

High-Intensity Interval Training: The Most Benefits in the Shortest Amount of Time

An accumulating body of clinical research 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 20 minutes twice each week — can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise.

It also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the "fitness hormone." According to fitness expert Phil Campbell and author of Ready Set Go, getting cardiovascular benefits actually requires working all three types of muscle fibers and their associated energy systems -- and this cannot be done with traditional cardio. Here's a quick review:

• Slow twitch (red muscle): Activated by traditional strength training and cardio exercises
• Fast twitch (white muscle): Activated by high-intensity interval exercises (sprints)
• Super-fast (white muscle): Consists of fast twitch AND super-fast fibers, activated by high intensity interval exercises

Unfortunately, most traditional cardio and strength training exercises work only red muscle fibers, completely missing your white muscle fibers, which then atrophy. If your fitness routine doesn't work your white muscle, you aren't really working your heart in the most beneficial way. Your heart has two different metabolic processes: the aerobic, which requires oxygen for fuel, and the anaerobic, which does not require any oxygen.

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process and the slow twitch (red) muscle fibers. On the other hand, high-intensity interval exercises work your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. This is why you may not see the results you desire even when you're spending an hour on the treadmill several times a week. You're only working HALF of your muscle fibers!

In the case of these kinds of Peak Fitness exercises, less is more, as you can get all the benefits you need in just a 20-minute session performed twice a week. In fact, you should not do these exercises more than three times a week, as if you do it more frequently than that you may actually do more harm than good -- similar to running marathons or engaging in the more strenuous Olympic sports.

Simple Tips to Exercise for Maximum Longevity

If you are using exercise equipment, I recommend using a recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill, or sprint anywhere outdoors. Just beware that if you sprint outside, you must be very careful about stretching prior to sprinting. Also, unless you are already an athlete, I would strongly advise against sprinting outdoors, as several people I know became injured doing it the first time that way. For a demonstration using an elliptical machine, please see the video above. Here are the core principles:

• 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)
• Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent

In addition to doing high-intensity interval exercises a couple of times a week, it's wise to alternate a wide variety of exercises in order to truly optimize your health. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. Along with high-intensity interval training, I also recommend strength training, core exercises and stretching (especially active isolated stretches).

By Dr. Mercola

In the TED talk above, Dr. James O'Keefe, a research cardiologist and a former elite athlete, discusses an important point that can be difficult for some to accept, namely the fact that extreme cardio can actually do more harm than good...

I am about two years older than Dr. O'Keefe and had a similar running history. Dr. O'Keefe actually won the largest sprint distance triathlon in Kansas City five years in a row, from 1999 to 2004¹ . 

Although I was never an elite athlete like Dr. O'Keefe, I had run a 2:50 marathon previously. It is satisfying to hear Dr. O'Keefe validate what I have been writing about for years now. I suspect we both wised up and stopped running at about the same age, after many decades of intense endurance training.

The myth that extreme endurance cardio is good for your heart took off at full speed when, in 1977, Dr. Thomas Bassler boldly proclaimed that "completing a marathon confers immunity against heart attack." Many die-hard runners still believe this to be true.

However, in the years since, research has shown that the complete opposite may be true². According to one study, presented in the video above, once you reach 40-50 minutes of vigorous exercise per day, the benefits from your efforts plateau, and further efforts do not convey further improvements in life expectancy.

When it comes to light to moderate exercise, on the other hand — such as walking, housework, and similar less strenuous day-to-day activities — more is better. It's not as effective as vigorous exercise (performed less than about 40 minutes a day), but the more active you are throughout the day, the better your life expectancy.

Survival of the Moderately Fit

As Dr. O'Keefe says, "Darwin was wrong about one thing. It's not survival of the fittest, but survival of the moderately fit." If you can dance, or lightly swim, or jog at six miles an hour, your mortality rate plummets compared to someone who can barely walk a flight of stairs. However:

"Further attainments of peak fitness do not translate into further increases in life expectancy. It plateaus out," Dr. O'Keefe says. "We weren't born to run. We were born to walk, and we need to be walking more... you need to be moving your body more than sitting — every chance you get, move! "

I've often described exercise as a drug that needs to be taken in the ideal dosage to impart the optimal benefit. Too little, and you won't get any benefit. Too much, and you could do harm.

As Dr. O'Keefe describes, extended extreme cardio actually sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it's only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods — not for an hour or more at a time. Repeatedly and consistently overwhelming the heart by long distance marathon running, for example, actually prematurely ages your heart.

Veteran endurance athletes have a five-fold increased risk of atrial fibrillation, a dangerous irregular heart rhythm. Worse yet, some endurance athletes also present ventricular tachycardia (a heart rhythm faster than 100-120 beats per minute), which can lead to ventricular fibrillation — a leading cause of sudden cardiac death.

Runners Live Longer — But Only Those Who Run Within the Goldilocks Zone...

Dr. O'Keefe also summarizes new research about to be published, showing that, yes, runners do live longer — in general, nearly 20 percent longer than non-runners. The study in question followed 14,000 runners and 38,000 non-runners for up to three decades. And they found that, to optimize the health benefits from running, you'll want to run 5-20 miles per week — the ideal amount being 10-15 miles per week. Once you reach 25 miles or more per week, the benefits actually disappear!

Also, if you run too fast — over eight miles an hour — the benefits tend to go away (note we're talking about speed in long distance endurance running here, not interval sprinting). It won't make your health worse than a non-runner, but as Dr. O'Keefe says, if you put in that much effort, surely you'd want to get some benefit from it!

In order to obtain the health benefits and increased longevity from long distance running efforts, it seems to be best to limit your pace to six to seven miles per hour (about a ten-minute mile). Lastly, if you run seven days a week, the benefits also seem to disappear. The ideal amount was found to be between two to five days of exercise a week.

Another Danish study, also discussed by Dr. O'Keefe, found similar results. It followed 20,000 Danes since 1976, and found that joggers live about six years longer than non-runners, but again the benefit disappeared in those who overdid it... The best survival rates were among those who ran at a slow to average pace for a total of 1 to 2.5 hours per week, divided between two to three runs per week.

High Intensity Interval Training May Be the Ideal for Most

Mounting research is showing that the ideal form of exercise isn't related to long-distance endurance after all. Rather, short bursts of high intensity exercise has been shown to beat conventional cardio time and time again as the most effective and efficient form of exercise. It also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the "fitness hormone."

According to fitness expert Phil Campbell and author of Ready Set Go, getting cardiovascular benefits actually requires working all three types of muscle fibers and their associated energy systems -- and this cannot be done with traditional cardio. Here's a quick review:

• Slow twitch (red muscle): Activated by traditional strength training and cardio exercises
• Fast twitch (white muscle): Activated by high intensity interval exercises (sprints)
• Super-fast (white muscle): Consists of fast twitch AND super-fast fibers, activated by high intensity interval exercises

Unfortunately, most traditional cardio and strength training exercises work only red muscle fibers, completely missing your white muscle fibers, which then atrophy. If your fitness routine doesn't work your white muscle, you aren't really working your heart in the most beneficial way. Your heart has two different metabolic processes: the aerobic, which require oxygen for fuel, and the anaerobic, which do not require any oxygen.

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process and the slow twitch (red) muscle fibers. On the other hand, high intensity interval exercises work your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. This is why you may not see the results you desire even when you're spending an hour on the treadmill several times a week. You're only working HALF of your muscle fibers!

In the case of these kinds of Peak Fitness exercises, less is more, as you can get all the benefits you need in just a 20-minute session performed twice a week. In fact, you should not do these exercises more than three times a week, as if you do it more frequently than that you may actually do more harm than good -- similar to running marathons.

Your body needs regular amounts of stress like exercise to stay healthy, but if you give it more than you can handle you will actually lose your health. So it is really crucial to listen to your body and integrate the feedback into your exercise intensity and frequency. When you work out it is wise to really push as hard as you possibly can a few times a week but you need to wisely gauge your body's tolerance to this stress.

Improve Your Heart Health and Your Insulin Sensitivity

High intensity interval exercises offers pretty astounding benefits to your heart and risk of chronic diseases, like diabetes. A Canadian research team gathered several groups of volunteers, including sedentary but generally healthy middle-aged men and women, and patients of a similar age who had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease³. The participants were asked to undertake a program of cycling intervals as their exclusive form of exercise.

After several weeks on the program, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness. Most remarkably, the cardiac patients showed "significant improvements" in both heart and blood vessel functioning. And, contrary to what popular belief might dictate, the intense exercises did not cause any heart problems for any of the cardiac patients.

The conventional widely held belief is that the short exposure of the exercise actually helps insulate your heart from the intensity!

Equally remarkable were the results of yet another study, in which unfit but otherwise healthy middle-aged adults were able to improve their insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation after just two weeks of interval training (three sessions per week)⁴. A follow-up study⁵ also found that interval training positively impacted insulin sensitivity. In fact, the study involved people with full-blown type 2 diabetes, and just ONE interval training session was able to improve blood sugar regulation for the next 24 hours! 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.

A Simple to Follow Approach to Peak Fitness and Longevity

If you are using exercise equipment, I recommend using a recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill, or sprint anywhere outdoors. Just beware that if you sprint outside, you must be very careful about stretching prior to sprinting. Also, unless you are already an athlete, I would strongly advise against sprinting outdoors, as several people I know became injured doing it the first time that way. For a demonstration using an elliptical machine, please see the following video. Here are the core principles:

• 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)
• Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent

If you have a history of heart disease or any medical concern please get clearance from your health care professional to start this. Most people of average fitness will be able to do it though; it is only a matter of how much time it will take you to build up to the full 8 reps. By the end of your 30-second high-intensity period you will want to reach these markers:

• It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt.
• You will start to sweat. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
• Your body temperature will rise.
• Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn."

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, and that includes the production of growth hormones, the burning of excess body fat, and improved cardiovascular health and stamina.

Remember to Add Variety to Your Exercise Program

In addition to doing high intensity interval exercises a couple of times a week, it's wise to alternate a wide variety of exercises in order to truly optimize your health. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. 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:

• Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
• Strength Training: You can actually "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.

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.

• 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.

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. In a related article, Pilates Platinum owner Healther Dorak shares three moves you can do at home or in the gym. To see a demonstration of each exercise, please check out the article posted on FitSugar.com⁶.

"Each of these three moves targets and challenges several different muscle groups at once so you get more bang for your buck," says Dorak. "Do this routine three times a week, and you'll start to strengthen and tone your abs, legs, glutes, and arms."

• 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.