Muscle Quality | Exercise Coach

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

The post MUSCLE QUALITY: IMPROVING IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE first appeared on Exercise Coach.

MUSCLE QUALITY AND THE NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM: PART 1

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 18:01:39 +0000

Welcome to our series on Muscle Quality. In our first post in the series, called Muscle Quality: Improving It Will Change Your Life, we discussed the many long term health benefits that improving one’s muscle quality can provide. In today’s post, we will focus on how improving our Muscle Quality through strength training can improve our neurological system.

As a huge sports fan, July 7, 2011, is still quite an unhappy memory for me. Along with millions of other basketball fans, I watched as LeBron James spurned my hometown Bulls and his hometown Cavaliers, to join forces with two of the best basketball players in the world to form a “super team.” That team, the Miami Heat, has become “the” dominant force in the NBA.

In the context of putting himself in the BEST position to win, it becomes apparent this was the best decision for LeBron. Improve your chance of success by increasing your sources of support. Go out and recruit the best to help you achieve your goals.

EXERCISE IS LIFE CHANGING, IT ALL STARTS WITH RECRUITING MORE TROOPS

This recruitment is exactly the first adaptation that occurs in the human body when you start exercising at The Exercise Coach®. This adaptation is neurological and allows your brain to put your body in the BEST position to improve the quality of your health by recruiting more muscle fibers.

As we delve into how muscle quality improves, and can change your life, we explore the various systems that have the greatest impact, and how our personal training approach here at The Exercise Coach® is truly life-changing.

Just as LeBron James recruited more help to improve his chances of winning a championship, our body must first recruit more motor units, more muscle fibers to increase our strength, and position itself to better realize the benefits of exercise.

The very first change that occurs with our personal training program takes place in the brain. More specifically, our program promotes change to the neuralogical system. When you begin your first set on an Exercise Coach® leg press, it doesn’t take long for your muscles to start burning, your legs to start shaking, and the direct impact of muscle fatigue to be felt. Your neuro response is just like Martin Brody’s response in the movie Jaws, “you are going to need a bigger boat.” Translation for us — we are going to need more muscle fibers.

We are a finely tuned species. Our body has numerous adaptive properties it can call on when needed, and the first is to recruit more motor units/muscle fibers that our body possesses but just aren’t being utilized.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…?

We start to lose muscle mass around age 30 (3-5% a decade).
The loss of muscle mass accelerates as we age (.5-2% a year over 50).
The brain starts to lose nerve tissue around the age of 30.
This doesn’t have to happen!

Throughout our blog series on Muscle Quality, when we refer to exercise, we are referencing exercise that is done at The Exercise Coach® and by our trained staff of personal Exercise Coaches. Our definition of exercise and the hormonal, metabolic, and muscular adaptations we are forcing the body to realize are unique to us.

HOW YOUR EXERCISE COACH WORKOUT IMPROVES YOUR MUSCLE QUALITY

As we age, and if we do not provide a significant stimulus to our muscles, our neural capacity to utilize those muscles diminishes. This is again because our body is adaptive. If we never need to call upon more muscle fiber to do any work, then that muscle fiber becomes really expensive metabolic tissue (it’s like turning the lights off in rooms you never go into). So we essentially wean ourselves off of needing it. This means muscles atrophy and our brain’s ability to recruit those muscle fibers, (our neural capacity), also diminishes. However, our specific form of exercise has been shown to access these motor units threatened by denervation, and reach deep into the motor unit pool to activate hard to reach and at risk muscle fibers. So even though it may be 5 years, 10 years, 30 years, or longer, since you have meaningfully taxed your muscles, they will respond. And it all begins by your nervous system calling upon these dormant muscle fibers to wake up and start working!

Even better, research has shown that no matter the age and condition of our muscles, we can literally change the genetic composition of these muscle fibers to resemble what they were at a much younger age. The catch is that the exercise must be demanding enough to force the body to make these adaptations and recruit the added help that lies within us.

Beginning, continuing or restarting our exercise program gives us the opportunity to unlock the full genetic potential each of us possess. This neural light switch that is flipped back on in our body is the first and most critical aspect in recruiting more help. Recruiting these dormant muscle fibers to amplify the metabolic, hormonal, and physical effects of exercise allows us to reap even more benefits down the road. Next week we will explore additional neurological effects that occur during and immediately following exercise, as well as nutrition’s key role in the process.

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

The post MUSCLE QUALITY AND THE NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM: PART 1 first appeared on Exercise Coach.

MUSCLE QUALITY AND THE NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM: PART 2

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 18:00:04 +0000

In our last post, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 1, we discussed the initial neurological changes that occur when we begin or restart our exercise program. The recruitment of dormant muscle fibers that have been efficiently put to rest by our nervous system are now being called back into action. Similar to when LeBron James recruited the best players to help him succeed, so too does our nervous system recruit more help via it’s “team” of increased muscle fibers.

However, the neurological impact of exercise goes beyond just the adaptive response of recruiting more muscle fibers. It includes the recruitment of potentially denser and greater energy producing fibers, more strength, and its corresponding effects (more muscle mass and increased bone density), as well as an enhanced hormonal response.

USE IT OR LOSE IT

There’s an interesting law of human physiology called the Law of Motor Unit Recruitment, and this is one of the significant points of differentiation with us at The Exercise Coach®. Most everyone knows or understands that as we age, we lose muscle mass (sarcopenia), and bone mineral density (osteoporosis). Our muscles are composed of various muscle fiber types and for purposes of discussion we will refer to the more common, slow and fast twitch fibers. As previously mentioned, if we don’t use these motor units (a motor unit consists of the motor neuron and all of the muscle fibers that it connects to or innervates), they become dormant, decline, or even die. The loss of muscle fibers is preceded by the loss of motor neurons. Since our fast twitch muscle fibers are bigger, more powerful, comprise the greatest percent of muscle mass in our body, and are also the most metabolically expensive, they are the first switches to be shut off. So as we age and lose muscle mass, a great percentage of it is our fast twitch fibers, and this reversal is the key to revitalization.

ACTIVATING AND RECRUITING MUSCLE FIBERS

In order to tap into and reawaken this metabolically active, fat-burning, energy producing tissue, we must sequentially and thoroughly fatigue our muscles. The Law of Motor Unit recruitment states that in order to fatigue and generate growth in our fast twitch muscles we first must fatigue our slow twitch muscle fibers. This critical element of exercise allows our Certified Exercise Coaches to find the Right Intensity of work to induce the proper amount of fatigue in your body. This forces the recruitment of these fast twitch muscle fibers. And, it all begins with reactivating motor neurons. Low intensity or aerobic workdoes NOT and has NOT been shown to have any significant effect on these muscle fibers, and is why simply being active or walking is not a significant enough stimulus to force meaningful adaptations to occur. (Roubenoff, R. 2001. “Origins and Clinical Relevance of Sarcopenia.” Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology 26(1):78-89.).

So, by creating a physically demanding event, (an Exercise Coach® session), our nervous system is forced to call upon reinforcements (see Part 1). Those reinforcements are the precious, metabolically active, yet dormant, tissue known as muscle. This neurological process is not unique to the muscular system, but the common denominator in this process is the physically demanding event! Once we have placed sufficient demand on our muscles, our body and brain are forced to no longer neglect these dormant nerve endings and bring back online thousands of untapped muscle fibers. This then increases our strength, as well as greater tension, leading to better bone growth stimulation, more glycogen depletion, improved insulin sensitivity, more lactate, and greater endocrine response. We will delve into these in greater detail in the coming weeks. As you would expect, the neurological system is the key first domino that sets off the chain reaction inducing all of these benefits to occur.

Check out this video of a client on our leg press as studio owner Amanda Coe explains the effects of our workout on Muscle Quality:

THE FUEL FOR MUSCULAR GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT

One of the key elements in both the loss of muscle mass, and our body’s ability to re-generate the awakening and growth of muscle tissue, is nutrition, and specifically protein synthesis. To give our body the necessary raw elements for growth, research shows that protein is the crucial macronutrient to get the job done. One of the most important aspects of this is consuming enough energy (i.e. food). We are a people that have focused on dieting, specifically caloric restriction, as a means to improved health, but this is a crucial mental barrier we must overcome. Making sure we eat enough food, specifically the food that promotes stable blood sugar, decreases cellular inflammation, and improves gut integrity, is critical. These recommendations fall right in line with our nutrition recommendations and why our members have such phenomenal results.

The idea we have to accept the loss of muscle mass and its consequences as a fact of life doesn’t sit well with me. The fact that 60-70% of nursing homes are populated by those due to the loss of muscle mass is NOT okay with me! So, like LeBron, I want to set myself, my family and everyone who walks into an Exercise Coach® location up for their best chance at success. It starts by recruiting our own “super-friends” that are lying inside of us, patiently waiting to be called upon to help.

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

The post MUSCLE QUALITY AND THE NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM: PART 2 first appeared on Exercise Coach.

MUSCLE QUALITY AND FAT LOSS

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:56:26 +0000

Welcome to our Muscle Quality series. Be sure to check out the other articles in this series: Muscle Quality: Improving It Will Change Your Life, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 1, and Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 2

Arguably, the most complex issue we deal with at The Exercise Coach® centers around fat loss. Weight gain, obesity, and type II diabetes,have been a growing issue in our country for the last 30 years. What are the most common solutions people have been told to fight the “Battle of the Bulge?” Eat less, move more, and have better will power! I’m sure you’ve heard that too.

People typically view exercise as a means to lose weight. When most people think of losing weight – they immediately think, “I need to work out more.” While the end result of weight loss may occur, in most cases, it is not for the reason most think.

ALL CALORIES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

The majority of health professionals would have you believe fat loss is centered around caloric deprivation. Something like this for example:

In this example, with a 500 calorie deficit per day, one could accumulate a 3500 calorie deficit for the week, leading to 1 pound of fat loss. (1 lb. = 3,500 calories). Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Many health professionals fail to take into account that all calories are not created equal. Fact: calories from sugary drinks, cookies, twinkies, etc. are most certainly not equal in quality and effect to the calories of meat and vegetables.

MUSCLE QUALITY DRIVES FAT LOSS

Most importantly, however, is the fact that it is muscle quality, more than anything else, that drives fat loss. It is the execution and performance of the workout which drives the physiological response to create a fat-burning inferno in muscle.

So to best understand this fat loss process, it is crucial we understand how body fat actually accumulates. It does so based on the different macronutrients we eat (protein, carbs, fat). As we eat these various macronutrients, they are digested, and trigger various physiological and hormonal responses. This is a big part of the fat loss equation. When we eat foods,specifically carbohydrates,they are digested, and metabolized into glucose (i.e. sugar). Once the glucose enters your blood stream, it triggers a storage hormone called insulin. Dietary fat actually doesn’t trigger an insulin response in the body, and, there are several other positive physiological responses before insulin kicks in when we eat protein. This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to add body fat as a result of eating protein and dietary fat.

Insulin’s role in glucose metabolism is to help shuttle the sugar out of the bloodstream, and into cells, to be converted to glycogen and used as energy.

When we eat adequate amounts of carbohydrates, our glucose metabolism maintains a certain level of homeostasis where glucose and insulin do not stack up in our bloodstream. Excess glucose (from too many carbohydrates) that cannot be stored in our muscles is sent into the liver, converted into tryglycerides, and then is stored as fat. Thus, it is an excess of carbohydrates, and their conversion into glucose, that cause the fat storage process to initiate.

As a society, we have been told to, and indeed do, consume vast amounts of refined carbohydrates. However, lean body tissue can only store between 200-220 grams of glycogen at any one time with an additional 70 grams or so in the liver. This process is crucial to understand from an exercise point of view.

As we contract and fatigue our muscles, the energy we use is supplied by the stored form of glucose in our muscles, glycogen. One of the primary goals your Exercise Coach helps you achieve during your personal training session, is to deplete as much stored glycogen as possible. Some of the byproducts of fatigue, i.e. the lactic acid accumulation you feel as “muscle burn,” is a great indication that this is occurring. The inability to generate much force by the end of your exercise set is another indicator that you are depleting stored glycogen. This begins the cascade of fat burning effects within our body.

So how does muscle quality turn the fat-burning inferno on?

First, muscle fatigue depletes our energy (the glycogen). Then, your muscles search for a way to replenish their lost energy. If there is no excess glucose readily available, your body will call upon its reserves – your stored fat. This gives us the immediate benefit of creating a need for energy. When none is readily available, we put ourselves in position to start losing fat.

Another benefit of Right IntensityTM Exercise at The Exercise Coach® has to do specifically with the action of insulin. As stated above, insulin is working to help coerce the blood sugar into the muscles to be used. But, because of years of overconsumption of carbohydrates, the insulin receptors attached to the muscle cells begin to wear out. As they wear out under the constant bombardment of glucose, they no longer are able to function, and this is what happens to Type II diabetics. The good news, however, is The Exercise Coach® program has been proven to improve insulin sensitivity itself.

SUMMARY

So we have discussed the effect of glycogen depletion immediately after exercise as crucial to reducing fat, as well as the improvement of insulin receptors in the muscle cells, and we are just getting started!

If you recall, we previously discussed how the initial change in the body is neurological, which allows for the recruitment of more motor (muscle) units. This gives us more functioning musculature. As our lean muscle mass increases, it allows for greater glycogen depletion, which then creates a greater need to call on our stored fat. Each time, through the exercise/recovery period, we multiply the immediate and longer-term opportunities to burn stored fat.

ALL EXERCISE IS NOT CREATED EQUAL

Here again is why The Exercise Coach® program is so potent and effective. Last week we referred to the Law of Muscle Fiber Recruitment and we know it takes high-effort exercise, and Right IntensityTM training to recruit the biggest and most powerful muscle fibers on our body. Well, this is also where the greatest amount of glycogen is stored. Furthermore, if you aren’t exercising like we recommend, high amounts of a fat-promoting substance called triacylglycerol forms and this process will not be reversed.*

THE COUP DE GRAC

Perhaps the greatest aspect to our entire exercise program is that only two workouts a week are needed. The reason for this relates directly to fat loss. Glycogen depletion is a crucial element in starting the fat loss process. In The Exercise Coach® program, we are creating a need for stored energy to be used, we improve insulin sensitivity, we recruit and fatigue our fast twitch (read: larger) muscle fibers to multiply the effect, but, even better, we create an “after burn” effect (it’s more technical term is Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption, EPOC).

While we still hear that fat loss is a goal of many of our clients, it pales in comparison to the number of times we hear, “No way, that’s not possible,” when we tell people we only need them to work out for 20 minutes, twice a week. But it’s the truth! And the fat loss process is the major reason why.

As we discussed, glycogen depletion is a crucial element in the fat loss process. To deplete the most glycogen, we must fatigue our biggest, most powerful muscle fibers, the fast twitch or type II fibers. Doing this activates hormone-sensitive lipase which allows body fat to leave. Those bigger muscle fibers also require more time to recover. As they recover, they are also metabolically active calling for prolonged nourishment, insulin sensitivity stays high, and then fat burning continues to occur for anywhere from 2-7days.

What’s more, the Right Intensity TrainingTM, can, and should, be brief. Prolonging workouts will only affect the effort with no additional benefit to muscle development and fat loss, and may even become counterproductive.

Ahh fat loss! If it were only as easy as calories in – calories out. Health and exercise professionals have struggled through the years telling and blaming people that the reason they are overweight is because they eat too much, don’t exercise enough, or don’t have enough willpower. My response: garbage in / garbage out – both literally and figuratively. There are so many factors in play for fat, hormonal, and genetic factors, as well as nutrition, and exercise. For years, we at The Exercise Coach® have touted our simple solution to the fat loss problem: Whole Food Nutrition + Whole Effort Exercise = A Whole New You. On second thought, I guess fat loss is pretty simple after all.

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

* Body By Science, Dr. Doug McGuff pg 103. See also.

The post MUSCLE QUALITY AND FAT LOSS first appeared on Exercise Coach.

MUSCLE QUALITY AND “CARDIO”

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:52:17 +0000

Welcome to our Muscle Quality series. Be sure to check out the other articles in this series: Muscle Quality: Improving It Will Change Your Life, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 1, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 2, and Muscle Quality and Fat Loss.

EXERCISING “FOR YOUR HEART?”

Perhaps the most misunderstood concept of exercise surrounds the idea of “exercising for the heart.” The main reasons we should exercise are to live longer, be healthier, and feel good about ourselves. However, we often hear, or say to ourselves, that we “exercise for our heart”, “run for our cardio,” or that we have to “get on an elliptical for 40 minutes for cardiovascular fitness”. But what exactly do these things mean? Often, the association is made between aerobic work (low intensity, long duration), and improved cardiovascular function. I believe when people say they need to, “get their cardio in”, they are referring to an idea that they need to sustain a heart rate for a period of time in order to “work their heart.” The thinking is that the heart rate must go up, and that’s the goal. But, the better question is, “What causes the heart rate to rise?” “How is my cardiovascular fitness going to improve?” “What is the best way to attain this goal?”

Let’s further explore cardiovascular fitness.

What do we want from exercise? This is the question we have been answering for the past several weeks. We have discussed the neurological changes that occur, as well as how exercise drives fat loss, all because we improve muscle quality. With all of the adaptations that occur, it is the exercise as stimulus, and it is the right intensity that must be applied. There’s no better illustration of this concept than the notion of exercising for cardiovascular fitness. One thing we have seen over the years is that there is not a clear understanding between cardiovascular fitness and coronary heart disease prevention. There’s a big difference! However, the link between the two is muscle quality. As it improves, so improves your cardiovascular fitness and your health.

Let’s define cardiovascular fitness and its various components.

CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS – WHAT IT REALLY MEANS.

Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen-rich blood to the working muscle tissues, and the ability of the muscles to use oxygen to produce energy for movement. This type of fitness is a health-related component of physical fitness that is brought about by sustained physical activity. A person’s ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles is affected by many physiological parameters, including heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and maximal oxygen consumption.

Heart rate: The number of beats per minute

Stroke volume: Volume of blood pumped from one ventricle of the heart with each beat

Cardiac output: Volume of blood being pumped by the heart, in particular by a left or right ventricle in the time interval of one minute

The most common and important reason why we should exercise is to be healthy, live longer, and feel good. At The Exercise Coach®, our passion is to improve the quality of people’s lives. We have been doing this for over a decade with just two, 20 minute exercise sessions a week. The biggest objection we hear initially is, “What about cardio?” Well, that’s our next question – what about it??? Because we have been force fed by the fitness industry, media, and government telling us we need to “exercise,” for 45 minutes a day, “for our heart,” this notion has become so ingrained in us, that we believe we “must do cardio.” Whatever that means! Well, what exactly does “cardio” or “cardiovascular fitness” mean, and how does it help us be healthy, live longer, and feel good?

As stated previously, “Cardiovascular fitness” is the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen-rich blood to the working muscle tissues and the ability of the muscles to use oxygen to produce energy for movement.

One of the main functions of the heart and lungs is to supply oxygen-rich blood to our body. Our muscles need varying amounts of oxygen. If we are sitting or sleeping, our heart rate is a lot lower than if we are in the middle of a workout, right? The difference, of course, is how hard our muscles are working. So the increased heart rate is the result of muscular work. This is a crucial point: first fatigue the muscles, then the heart rate goes up.

Now, if our goal is to improve cardiovascular fitness, we want to improve the ability of the heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to the muscles. This is determined by a person’s ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles, and this is affected by many physiological parameters including heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max). The question is, how best to do that.

WHAT REALLY ARE WE TRYING TO CHANGE? VO2 MAX.

VO2 max refers to the maximum rate of oxygen consumption as measured during incremental exercise, most typically on a motorized treadmill. Maximal oxygen consumption reflects the aerobic physical fitness of the individual, and is an important determinant of their endurance capacity during prolonged, sub-maximal exercise.

VO2 max is something that can actually be measured clinically. Fortunately, we can look to research to provide answers as to what works the best.

Research shows the greater the effort put forth by the individual the greater the improvement in their VO2 max.* So if the goal is to improve your VO2 max, rest assured your personal trainer at The Exercise Coach® has you covered!

Unfortunately, VO2 max is something that can also be manipulated and is not a great way to gauge true cardiovascular fitness. A great example of this is a story Dr. Doug McGuff retells in his book, Body By Science. McGuff recalls his time in the Air Force when he was a part of a group that were told they had two weeks to prepare for their VO2 max test. Well, several of the group members were competitive runners who assumed their aerobic fitness was just fine. Conversely, there was an overweight and deconditioned person in the group who decided to just replicate the test by using the exact bike, resistance, and time. I bet you can guess who had the best score…yes, the overweight, deconditioned guy.

Moreover, research studies are littered with before and after VO2 max studies that reflect no change whatsoever. How can this be true? Well, maybe because VO2 max testing is not a reflection of cardiovascular fitness at all!

While VO2 max typically refers to our lung capacity, others associate a degree of cardiovascular fitness being more related to muscular endurance. Specifically, it is our ability to perform endurance tasks such as walking, running, or climbing multiple flights of stairs without feeling out of breath at their completion. These are specific muscular actions in sports that demand specific sport training in order to participate and compete.

Back in my basketball playing days, when I started to condition in preparation for an upcoming season, it didn’t make too much of a difference how much sprinting and interval work I did. When basketball practice started, I was still gassed because I couldn’t replicate the intensity and action of a high-level basketball scrimmage. This is why we hear athletes always talk about being in “football shape” or “basketball shape,” because conditioning is specific to the actions being performed.

Although the true definition of cardiovascular fitness is aerobic capacity, and while some may define it as more of an ability to perform muscular enduring tasks, the argument can be made that they are relatively similar. As we discussed above, both of these fitness components can be improved much more by improving muscle quality compared to conventional “cardio”. However, through my experience, it seems the majority of people are more concerned with improving their cardiovascular health, rather than their cardiovascular fitness, in order to live longer, be healthier, and have more energy. There’s no doubt The Exercise Coach® approach, which emphasizes “muscle quality” over “movement quantity,” sets us apart from the field, and sets up our clients to be healthier, happier, and enjoying strength well into their senior years.

*Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise published a review examining the effects of intensity training on VO2 max and they found, the greater the intensity the greater the improvement in VO2 max! (Med Sci Sports Exerc. Shannan E. Gormley, David P. Swain, Renee High, Robert J. Spina, Elizabeth A. Dowling, Ushasri S. Kotipalli, Ramya Gandrakota; 2008;40(7):1336-1343.)

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

The post MUSCLE QUALITY AND “CARDIO” first appeared on Exercise Coach.

THE DOWNSIDE TO PROLONGED “CARDIO”

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:50:25 +0000

Welcome to our continuing blog series all about the impact that Muscle Quality has on many areas of your overall health. Be sure to check out the other articles in this series: Muscle Quality: Improving It Will Change Your Life, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 1, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 2, Muscle Quality and Fat Loss, Muscle Quality and Cardio, and our most recent, Muscle Quality and Cardiovascular Health.

So, we have recently discussed the differences between cardiovascular fitness and cardiovascular health. What we know is that muscle quality is the driving force to improving both. If muscle quality provides the best opportunity to improve both, then what value does conventional cardio, (a.k.a. aerobic activity), have, and beyond that, is it good for us?

A common theme throughout our blog series’ on muscle quality, cholesterol, and wheat has been the prevention of inflammatory conditions. Inflammation is the root cause of roughly 75% of health care conditions and costs today. Our investigation of inflammation in this post centers around aerobic activity and its contribution to inflammation in our body.

“30-60 MINUTES OF DAILY CARDIO” MAY NOT BE DOING YOU MUCH GOOD

This is a topic that has fascinated me personally for years. It is an accepted fact that performing aerobic style cardio is good for us, right? We “need” to spend 30-60 minutes a day running, biking, climbing on a Stair master or elliptical 3-6 days a week! Well, that’s what everyone from doctors to even the government would have us believe. The question is, “Why?” What physiological benefit does aerobic activity provide? As we discussed previously, we are told to do these things, if not for our cardiovascular fitness, then it is for cardiovascular health. We have examined the meaning of these terms and how research proves the combination of muscle quality and Right Intensity TrainingTM is the best combination. So where does that leave us with aerobic activity? Is there any benefit to be derived from it? Could we be doing more harm than good if we engage in this constant aerobic activity?

First, let’s begin by acknowledging the fact that millions of people are engaged in any of the many types of aerobic activity. Let’s also agree that the combination of aerobic activity and improved nutritional habits have resulted in improved health for millions of people. However, how many of us know people (or are those people) who have done a lot of aerobic activity, and have eaten less, and either have not seen any results or have had results briefly, only to give those results right back? (We can define results as fat loss, lack of more energy, no or little change in cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, diabetes risk factors, C-reactive protein, etc.). Collectively, The Exercise Coach® franchise has known numerous instances where this is the case. The question I’m trying to answer is, “Why would eating less and increasing activity yield positive results for some, but not for most?” And, “ if running or biking is truly the cure all end all, why would stories like this exist?”

CONSISTENT AEROBIC ACTIVITY DOES NOT EQUATE TO CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH

Below is an excerpt from the article, “The Scientist and the Stairmaster” by Gart Taubes:

Steve Blair, for instance, a University of South Carolina exercise scientist and a co-author of the AHA-ACSM guidelines says he was “short, fat, and bald” when he started running in his thirties. Now, at age 68, he is short, fatter, and balder. In the intervening years, he estimates he has run close to 80,000 miles and gained about 30 pounds.

When I asked Blair whether he thought he might be leaner had he run even more, he had to think about it. “I don’t see how I could have been more active,” he said. “Thirty years ago, I was running 50 miles a week. I had no time to do more. But if I could have gone out over the last couple of decades for two to three hours a day, maybe I would not have gained this weight.”

So if increasing activity doesn’t yield greater fat loss, and if increasing cardio activity is not the best way to improve cardiovascular fitness and health, should we be doing it?

PHYSICALLY FIT YET CARDIOVASCULARLY UNHEALTHY?

Years ago, Exercise Coach CEO Brian Cygan, gave me a book entitled, The Exercise Myth, by cardiologist Henry Soloman. Some of the direct quotes from the book are:

“There is about the same relationship between activity and longevity as you might find if you were to compare the amount of chocolate pudding children eat with the likelihood of their coming down with chicken pox–that is, no relationship at all.”

“Running injuries are especially common because of the punishing force your body has to take…If you are a 150 pound runner, you generate and must endure over 100 tons of force per MILE.”

“The evidence is unassailable. Coronary heart disease develops and progresses during exercise training and conditioning programs. Exercisers die of heart disease despite exercise.”

The book was written in 1984.

Also occurring in 1984 was the sudden death of author and devoted runner Jim Fixx, whose book entitled, The Complete Guide To Running, was credited with spreading the running and aerobic craze of the late 70’s and early 80’s. These things illustrate the difference between someone being physically fit, but cardiovascularly unhealthy (Fixx died of heart disease).

So as some evidence and questions start to mount against “cardio,” it reinforces the concept that muscle quality (MQ) is what truly allows people to improve their health. So why do people see (or think they see) initial gains with cardio but not lasting ones? Why can heart disease still progress even though someone is moving more or increasing their activity? It simply comes back to a lack of muscle quality and increased inflammation.

HOW ALL THAT CARDIO WORKS AGAINST YOU

One of the things previously discussed was the Law of Motor Unit Recruitment. This means that effort, or Right Intensity Training, is the best way to ensure that all muscle fibers are being recruited and developed. By definition, this does NOT occur with steady state aerobic activity, (i.e. cardio). It also means that the greatest percent of muscle mass on one’s body isn’t being developed and, therefore, muscle mass is never emptied of significant levels of glucose. Thus, the resultant extra sugar ends up being shuttled into the liver, converted into triglycerides, and then ultimately stored as body fat.

Making matters worse, the muscle cell walls grow more resistant to insulin leading to greater inflammation. The body’s response to greater inflammation is to heal it with LDL cholesterol which happens to be oxidized from free radicals that cardio, i.e. prolonged running, produces.*

So a lot of evidence is starting to stack up against the need for cardio.

Aerobic activity is not the best way to achieve cardiovascular fitness (See our blog post Muscle Quality and “Cardio”)
Aerobic activity is not the best way to reduce your risk for heart disease (See our blog post Muscle Quality and Cardiovascular Health and this article on the effects of aerobic physical exercise on inflammation)
Aerobic activity prevents full muscle fiber activation and full glycogen depletion*
Prolonged aerobic activity increases inflammation and the amassing of LDL.**
Prolonged aerobic activity increases free radical production and decreases circulating antioxidants

And these points are just in relation to how ‘cardio’ affects our cardiovascular health and heart disease prevention.

So why are we told to participate in aerobic activity so frequently? Why are we told it’s good for the heart? Does aerobic activity really increase inflammation and increase our risk of heart disease? Most studies are done for relatively short periods of time, meaning 1-6 months. During this period there are some positive adaptations that can outweigh the negatives, e.g. an initial change from the non-exerciser to anyone first taking up an activity that calls for muscular work. However, in order to see long term adaptations and ongoing protection against the risks of heart disease, improved muscle quality and Right Intensity Training is proven time and again to be the perfect combination.

* Body By Science, by Dr. Doug McGuff, pgs. 33-34

** Packer, L. Oxidants, Antioxidant Nutrients, and the Athlete. Journal of Sports Science. June 1997. 15(3), 353-363

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

Effects of High-Intensity Strength Training on Multiple Risk Factors for Osteoporotic Fractures
Effects of strength training on bone mineral density: hormonal and bone turnover relationships
Effects of resistance training on regional and total bone mineral density in premenopausal women: A randomized prospective study

The post THE DOWNSIDE TO PROLONGED “CARDIO” first appeared on Exercise Coach.

MUSCLE QUALITY AND OSTEOPOROSIS

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:49:11 +0000

Welcome to our continuing blog series all about the impact that Muscle Quality has on many areas of your overall health. Be sure to check out the other articles in this series: Muscle Quality: Improving It Will Change Your Life, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 1, Muscle Quality and the Neurological System: Part 2, Muscle Quality and Fat Loss, Muscle Quality and Cardio, Muscle Quality and Cardiovascular Health, and our most recent, The Downside to Prolonged “Cardio”.

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them” -Andrew Gide

Growing up, I was afraid of the dark. Heck, there are times now when I’m still a little apprehensive entering a pitch black room even in my own house! I don’t think I’m alone in this regard. What am I afraid of? It’s my house, my rooms, my furniture etc. But my trepidation stems from not knowing what toy my kids left out for me to trip on, not knowing if I’ll run into a chair or not knowing if someone may be lurking in the dark room waiting for me. As soon as the light goes on my fear subsides because the unknown has been eliminated.

Loss of bone mineral density and the fear of osteopenia or osteoporosis is no different. Especially in the area of health, we are typically afraid of what we don’t know. From my experience, no other relatively common condition provokes as much worry, concern and hand-wringing than an osteoporosis diagnosis. In a recent survey of women with osteoporosis only 33% of women had taken steps to prevent it (and the majority of these women felt prevention meant taking calcium supplements), while 91% wish they had known HOW to take preventative action, and that almost all the participants in the survey (97%), said that all women SHOULD take action.

Like most things, once we get more informed about a particular fear or worry, it lessens to a large degree. Osteoporosis is again, no different. The good news is that The Exercise Coach®’s approach of combining proper nutrition and Right Intensity Training has yielded some great results. Fear no more!

SOME BACKGROUND ON BONES

What is the skeletal system, and more importantly, how do we protect ourselves from the dangers of osteoporosis?

With the skeletal system being the foundation of the body and with bones being the foundation of the skeletal system, it’s important to know how bones maintain their integrity. First, know that bones are constantly being remodeled. They are in a constant state of breaking down and rebuilding themselves. Specifically, osteoclasts break down and eliminate old bone while osteoblasts lay down new bone which is made up of collagen (protein). Hormones are then responsible for laying down calcium to ‘calcify’ or harden the bone.

The main reason behind diminished bone mineral density is a decrease in sex-hormone production.*

It’s hormones that are responsible for the balance between osteoclast (breakdown) and osteoblast (buildup) functions in the body. Specifically for women, estrogen slows down osteoclast activity, which then slows down the breakdown process. Progesterone and androgens (anabolic and estrogen precursors) stimulate new bone formation (osteoblasts). Basically, it’s a cyclic process of bones breaking down and building back up. Then, hormones play a crucial role in our body’s ability to maintain bone mineral density.

Now, peak bone mass occurs between the ages of 20-30. Peak bone mass means the bone itself is becoming denser and harder. As bone becomes denser and harder it weighs more. This should be kept in mind when people are looking for an ideal weight to maintain. Our ideal weight is not when we are 15, 18 or 22.

Peak bone mass correlates directly with peak sex-hormone production. (estrogen and progesterone). Therefore, as sex-hormone production decreases, so too does bone mineral density. As such, it’s normal for women to have less bone mineral density post-menopause or as we age, then pre-menopause or when we are in our twenties.

OSTEOPENIA AND OSTEOPOROSIS, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Osteopenia is a condition where we have less bone, while osteoporosis is when the decreased bone mass puts you a greater risk for fracture.

By definition, kids who have not yet reached their peak bone mass have osteopenia. In fact, people who are beyond the age of 30 are expected to have some degree of osteopenia.

There are two different classification of Osteoporosis:

Senile Osteoporosis – the gradual loss of hormones and the consequent loss of bone mass seen in normal aging.
Menopausal osteoporosis – comes from accelerated loss or hormones occurring around menopause

Notice the commonality of the loss of hormones for both types of osteoporosis.

Now that we have the background on bone taken care of, let’s talk about causes. Other than the normal decrease in hormone production, what contributes to low bone mass?

Other than genetics, there are two main contributing factors for the loss of bone mineral density:

Poor nutrition
Loss or lack of muscle quality

POOR NUTRITION

With the advent of dietary guidelines and the pervasiveness of the low fat way of life, many people have resorted to caloric restriction and at least minimizing, if not eliminating, a lot of protein from their diet. As we referenced above, protein is a primary component in collagen formation and fat is crucial to proper hormoneregulation. If these two building blocks of bone formation are being restricted, it’s natural to see a decrease in those things found in our bodies. Another unknowing side-effect is the belief by some that a healthy weight is one we had in high school or college. This way of thinking increased the belief in the falsehood that caloric restriction and movement quantity was the best way to attain and maintain a specific weight.

LOSS / LACK OF MUSCLE QUALITY

As people’s dependence on “moving more” in order to achieve a certain weight has grown, (and by moving more I’m referring to increased aerobic activity or cardio), it has also led to the belief that certain activities such as walking and running promote increased bone mineral density. However, there are two problems with this way of thinking. First, experts in the field such as Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., author of Strong Women, Strong Bones, says, “NO study has ever shown that a middle-aged or older woman can increase her bone density by taking up walking.”

So what can we do to prevent or rebuild our bone mineral density? First, nutrition is key. We have to make sure we provide our body with the necessary raw materials to build new bones. This includes quality protein consumption and foods that are rich in nutrients such as green, leafy vegetables. The Exercise Coach® Nutrition Playbook is the perfect solution for an optimal nutrition plan, so seek out your nearest Exercise Coach® franchise for more specifics.

Next, we need to improve muscle quality! There is no question that a link exists between Right Intensity Exercise, muscle mass, and higher bone density. **

In the next post, we will explore exactly how improving muscle quality directly impacts the health of our skeletal system by 1) increasing bone mineral density and 2) improving the structural support around our bones by allowing us to absorb more force.

* The Schwarzbein Principle by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein pg 181

** See additional articles on this topic:

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

(CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

The post MUSCLE QUALITY AND OSTEOPOROSIS first appeared on Exercise Coach.

HOW TO COMBAT OSTEOPOROSIS THROUGH STRENGTH TRAINING

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:48:18 +0000

Welcome to our continuing blog series all about the impact that Muscle Quality has on many areas of your overall health. One area which is of special concern to many of us is Osteoporosis. This article, along with our last post, Muscle Quality and Osteoporosis, aim to explain how improving Muscle Quality through strength training can improve your bone density and decrease your risk for developing Osteoporosis.

While the previous post explored what causes diminished bone mineral density and what exactly osteoporosis is, now we want to discuss solutions and things we can do to protect ourselves from the risks of losing bone mass.

Osteopenia: less bone mass

Osteoporosis: less bone mass that results in an increased risk for fracture

Fluctuations in bone mineral density can be normal to some degree. The decreased production of sex hormones, age, genetics can all be responsible for a low bone density score. Furthermore, people with lower muscular strength, lean mass and sarcopenia (age-related loss of muscle mass), are associated with and are indicators of osteoporosis. The concern, however, is not necessarily a lower bone mineral density but the increased risk for a fracture. The lifetime risk of any osteoporotic fracture is high and lies within the range of 40-50% in women and 13-22% for men. So what are we going to do about it? Might I suggest improving your muscle quality?

THE MUSCLE QUALITY – BONE DENSITY CONNECTION

There are two ways in which improving muscle quality directly improves the health of the skeletal system and more importantly protects us from greater risk of fractures from osteoporosis.

Increased bone mineral density
Stronger muscles yield greater structural support to the skeletal system as well as greater force absorption.

First, we have the direct, measurable effect that strength training has in improving bone mineral density. We are talking specifically about improving your ‘score’ or the density of the bone on a bone mineral density test. There are various schools of thought on how activity and exercise can improve bone mineral density. Many health care professionals will have you believe walking is a great way to strengthen bones however this is NOT the case.

I think we can all agree that exercise improves bone mineral density. However, it goes back to what is our definition of exercise (see our definition of exercise in this article). All exercise is NOT created equal. Exercise has to force the body to make a positive adaptation. We at The Exercise Coach® define a positive adaptation to include increased bone mineral density which isn’t always understood by some health care professionals and personal trainers. I feel like the bad guy here but walking and other weight bearing activity like jogging does NOT stimulate bone density improvements. Dr. Nelson discusses this in her book Strong Women, Strong Bones, and the research says the same thing.

What’s more is that moderate intensity strength training where no meaningful demands are put on the musculature does NOT induce bone mineral density improvements either.

So what does work? Right Intensity Training of course!* The reason is because there is meaningful demand being put on the muscles. We know that as muscles become stronger and capable of generating more force the surrounding structures: tendons, ligaments, bone must also become stronger.

Exercise not only needs to induce positive adaptations but also ensure that the body is not being put at risk for injury. We are looking for the sweet spot of exercise intensity that forces positive adaptations while protecting the body from any potential injury. This is where our trademarked Right Intensity Training is the ideal.

This leads right into the fact that stronger muscles result in stronger structural support for our bones. Remember, osteoporosis means that the loss of bone mineral density has resulted in an increased risk of fracture. Furthermore, some may even argue that decreased bone mineral density is a natural part of aging that coincides with hormonal changes and it’s inevitable. Do we just accept our fate and go quietly into the night if thisis true? Of course not!!! So to combat that we must find ways to lower your risk for fracture.

THE MUSCLE QUALITY – OSTEOPOROSIS CONNECTION

As muscle quality improves, several factors can lead to a decreased risk for fracture. First, think of the stronger the supporting musculature the more force absorption your body can tolerate. We see this with the eccentric aspects of our training. Not only are we able to absorb more force but the increased muscle quality also works as a force-dissipating agent to protect our bones.**

Another interesting way to look at reducing your risk of fracture is to understand the structural support of the spine itself. Arthur Jones, an exercise pioneer, said if you stripped away the surrounding muscular support around the spine it would collapse beneath the weight of a can of soda. The reason it doesn’t is because of the muscle mass supporting it.** Stands to reason that it’s as pretty good idea to maximize the muscle we have if we want to prevent and reduce our risk of bone fractures.

To recap, walking, low to moderate intensity activity, and weight-bearing recreation do not and will not stimulate improvements in bone mineral density nor does it reduce your risk for osteoporotic fracture. Right Intensity Training and improved muscle quality is the only and best way to have a positive impact through exercise! Good thing you know where to go for that!

* See articles Effects of High-Intensity Strength Training on Multiple Risk Factors for Osteoporotic Fractures; The effects of progressive resistance training on bone density: a review.

** Dr. Doug McGuff, Body By Science, pg 107

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training

The post HOW TO COMBAT OSTEOPOROSIS THROUGH STRENGTH TRAINING first appeared on Exercise Coach.

MUSCLE QUALITY AND GASTROINTESTINAL HEALTH

PWI admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:47:24 +0000

Answer: Gerd, acid reflux, inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS), diverticulosis, colitis, Crohn’s disease, cramping, and colon cancer. Question: What are the most common gastrointestinal problems people experience?

THE GASTROINTESTINAL HEALTH CRISIS

Gastrointestinal, or GI problems, are rapidly growing conditions that affect 60-70 million people with costs escalating over $142 billion nationwide. While the number of people with these conditions is growing at an alarming rate, some experts in the area are unsure of the causes and even the necessary treatments. While we needn’t rehash here some of the possible mechanisms that cause these GI and autoimmune issues (please see Gerianne Cygan’s posts on grains or check out Dr. William Davis’s Wheat Belly book), you can visit your local Exercise Coach® franchise and feel the difference. We will want to investigate how improving muscle quality and applying Right Intensity Training can, simply yet powerfully, aid in the reduction of these ailments.

HOW THE GI TRACT WORKS

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the path food takes from entering your body until it leaves. Foodstuffs go from your mouth, pass through your esophagus, enter your stomach, are squeezed through your small intestine, and finally pass through your large intestine (colon).

MUSCLE QUALITY AND GASTROINTESTINAL HEALTH

While many GI problems can be dramatically impacted by changing dietary habits, meaningful exercise can have a profound effect. Many GI issues are related to inflammation, which exercise certainly reduces. Inflammation is a topic we will delve into more in the future. While many GI issues harm the quality of our lives, it is the GI issue of colon cancer that is life-threatening. The good news, however, is that positive exercise outcomes have been shown to decrease the risk of colon cancer by up to 50%! While the mechanism by which the risk diminishes so drastically is not completely affirmed, many believe it is the decreased time waste spends in the large intestine, which in turn decreases its exposure to bacteria and carcinogens. Another way that improved muscle quality reduces the risk for cancer is through the relatively high association of Type II diabetes and colon cancer.*

While proper nutrition and Right Intensity Training (which improves muscle quality), are critical in the fight against GI problems, it’s worth noting that overtraining and prolonged aerobic/high intensity training, has been known to increase GI problems. While many of the symptoms experienced are not life-threatening (dizziness, nausea, stomach or intestinal clamps, vomiting and diarrhea), some may have greater effects on the long-term health of our gut (“damage to the gut and impaired gut function is associated with increased intestinal permeability”).

So what’s the takeaway from all this talk about gut health? The same formula that we have already established improves neurological function, glucose metabolism, bone health and heart disease risk: Right Intensity Training + Whole Food Nutrition = Whole New You!

* See articles: What are the risk factors for colorectal cancer? and Type 2 diabetes mellitus as risk factor for colorectal cancer

Read the rest of this series:

How to Combat Osteoporosis through Strength Training