Quote of the Month
“Exercise to be fit, not ‘skinny’
Eat to nourish your body
Ignore the haters, doubters & unhealthy examples that were once feeding you
You are worth more that you realize”
Happy New Year!
If getting into better shape is one of your New Year Resolutions, you might find this month’s newsletter very useful…
How many hours a week do you need to exercise to lose weight?
The answer is 4…
…minutes (not a typo)!
Everyone thinks they need to exercise a lot and for long duration to lose weight and gain muscle, but that’s just the TV ads and magazine articles talking.
Queens University actually did some research not too long ago (2012) comparing short term interval versus cardio (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22994393).
Here’s a summary of the results:
In the study, college-aged women did 4 workouts per week for 4 weeks in one of three groups.
Group A: did 30 minutes of endurance treadmill training at 85% max heart rate
Group B: did whole-body aerobic-resistance training involving one set of 8 rounds of 20 seconds of a single exercise (burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, or squat thrusts) with 10 seconds of rest between rounds.
Group C: did nothing (non-training control group).
Results: Both training groups increased their aerobic fitness levels by the SAME amount (about 7-8%). On top of that ONLY Group B, increased muscular endurance in common exercises like chest presses, leg extensions, sit-ups, and push-ups. In summary, the Canadian Scientists concluded that “extremely low-volume bodyweight interval style training” will boost cardio-vascular fitness just as well as cardio while giving you BETTER improvements in muscle endurance.
What does this mean exactly? Well, for starters, short intense metabolic conditioning bodyweight workouts work just as well as 30 minutes of cardio… amazing… plus they enjoyed exercising more!
So, if you get more bang for your buck working out for shorter periods and actually enjoyed it more, wouldn’t you be exercising more consistently?
Here are some great Burst Training to help get you started. I personally do some of these…and some yoga too!
Don’t forget that the quality of your diet and lifestyle also play a important roll. If your lifestyle is very stressful, it’s even more important to keep things short and simple.
Did You Know:
- Eating before a workout triggers your body to burn sugar instead of fat
- To burn fat for longer periods, have a protein shake within 30 minutes to an hour after your workout – New Zealand whey or a good vegan fermented protein work best
Here’s a shake I use often:
handful kale
1/2 banana/avocado
1 scoop protein powder (non-soy, no additives, no artificial sweeteners)
1 cup cold filtered water
3 ice cubes
1 tbsp hemp seeds, chia seeds or almond butter
handful frozen or fresh berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or blackberries)
Blend and enjoy – a Vitamix blender works the best – Costco has them, $$$ but will last a lifetime and comes with 2hp motor that even purees chia/flax seed and makes soup for you.