Absolute Life Chiropractic

The most common excuse, used 75% of the time, is time.

The good news is we are going to show you how to do it in only 12 minutes per week without leaving your home or office. It is not only convenient, it is affordable.

You are going to learn how everything you were once taught about exercise is backwards.

You are going to find out how to not only benefit during the exercise, but benefit for hours and hours after the exercise.

The aerobic craze started with spandex, Richard Simmons, and disco music back in the eighties. Most people acquaint exercise with walking, jogging, or other low intensity, long duration movements.

What we now know is that there are several physiological and hormonal problems related to this aerobic concept. What you are about to read may blow your mind as you discover that all those hours you have spent or thought you had to spend on treadmills and in long aerobics classes may have been doing more harm than good to your physique and fitness levels.

Problems with low intensity, long duration aerobic exercise:

*Raises stress hormones: The stress hormone Cortisol stimulates appetite, is catabolic (breaks down muscle), increases fat storing, and slows down or inhibits exercise recovery.

*Decreases testosterone and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) - both necessary for building muscle and burning fat.

*Decreases immune function post exercise.

Benefits of low intensity, long duration aerobic exercise:

*Lowers resting heart rate and increases Stroke Volume

*Increases HDL cholesterol

*Lowers blood pressure

*Keeps brain young by increasing circulation to the brain

*Aids detoxification, stimulates the lymphatic system

Therefore, while there are benefits to aerobic activity, the response you are left with is a broken down, fat storing, muscle wasting state.

So what do we need? The opposite of low intensity, long duration. What we need is high intensity, short duration. Plus, if you can combine this with an aerobic effect, you will get the benefits of aerobics without the negative side-effects.

By choosing resistance movements are done at a high intensity, you will:

*Raise your growth hormone.

*Raise testosterone.

This ensures that your hormones are working for you rather than against you.

Building muscle has endless benefits:

*Improves glucose tolerance and increases insulin receptor sensitivity.

*Helps preserve balance, flexibility and functionality and protects against falls.

*Creates a bigger metabolic after burn than that of aerobic exercise.

*Lean body mass and not age, sex, or genetics is the single most important factor in metabolism.

Plus with high intensity:

*HGH is released in the body in direct proportion to exercise intensity.

*There is a greater increase in fat expenditure after high intensity exercise due to the GH release.

*There is a positive relationship between carbohydrate expenditure during intensive exercise and fat expenditure during recovery.

*Muscle triglyceride lipolysis is stimulated only at higher exercise intensities.

*Beta-endorphin levels associated with positive changes in mood state are increased in short term intensity exercise (better than an antidepressant).

*HGH, an activator of lipolysis and muscle growth, is stimulated by the exercise intensity threshold.

*Plasma glutamine is decreased after long-duration exercise and increased after short-term high intensity exercise.

*Contribution of both type I and type II muscle fibers; hence, a decrease in age related muscle atrophy.

As a result of high intensity, muscle building exercise, you will not only build muscle and burn fat during exercise, but your body will respond by doing so for hours after.

Plus, with more muscle, your tendency is to produce more muscle, not fat.

Surge training consists of intermittent bursts or surges of energy. It is similar to the concept of interval training only done within the time frame of a maximal output.

After a maximum output, you have shocked the body. Therefore, the body must respond. In this manner, it responds or adapts by altering hormones and physiology so that your body is burning fat and building muscle -during and after the exercise activity.

In a Surge set, you do a maximal output for a minimum of 10-15 seconds and a maximum of 60 seconds. Only elite athletes have the capacity to keep a max output for 60 seconds. Then, you recover just long enough to allow your heart rate to approximate normal or return to your resting heart rate and you surge again.

By doing this on a stepper machine while holding weights and lifting them up over your head and then bringing them back down to your side over and over again, it also combines the two concepts we need - resistance and aerobic training. It is not classic aerobic for 15 straight minutes, but you will be breathing heavy afterwards giving you an aerobic effect.

Example of Surge Training using a stepper:

1) 20 seconds of stepping up and down on the stepper as fast as you can while lifting the weights from your up over your head over and over again.

2) 20 seconds of rest.

3) Repeat step 1.

4) Repeat step 2.

5) Repeat step 1.

6) Two minutes of rest.

Repeat this three to four times. You can go up to 60 seconds, but you must give a maximal effort.

Important notes:

*To find your training heart rate: 220 - [your age] x .75 to .85

*Stop the workout if you are not an elite athlete and your heart reaches 220 - [your age] x 1

*Always consult a physician before starting any new exercise program.