Dear Reader,
When it comes to fitness routines, quality beats quantity. You don’t need to do extended “cardio” workouts to burn fat. In fact, we now know that this approach is counterproductive, even dangerous.
It’s also important to consider what your body does after you’re done with a long-duration workout. These prolonged energy drains force it to store more fat when it’s at rest. That’s a wise response, since it’ll need extra energy to burn for all those miles you jog or run. But storing fat’s exactly the opposite of what you want.
And it puts stress on your entire body over the long haul. Your bones and joints suffer from the continuous impact, losing density and flexibility. Your heart and lungs shrink and lose their reserve capacity. The constant physiological “signal” endurance training sends your body to store fat actually boosts triglyceride blood levels and cholesterol oxidation – both substances that clog your arteries and cause heart attacks.
A groundbreaking study of long-distance runners found that after a workout, “bad” cholesterol and triglyceride levels increased, and threw blood-clotting factors off-balance, increasing inflammation and clotting. These are signs of heart distress and precursors to heart attack.1
So make sure your exercise routines follow principles that work with your body, boost heart and lungpower, and burn fat while you’re at rest. My friend and colleague Ryan Lee’s got a great program that does just that. He calls it Quatro Fitness.
It’s based on two simple concepts. The first is total kinesthetic recruitment. This means that each set of movements gives your entire body a challenge. Every muscle group from head to toe gets a work out.
The second is based on short bursts of high-intensity exertion, the core of my own fitness program, PACE®. It’s called, time separated training. This enables you to get a full workout in just 4 minutes.
Here’s a simple exercise I learned from Ryan called the dumbbell squat and swing you can do it at home in no time:
1. Set two dumbbells side by side on the floor. Straddle the dumbbells with your feet shoulder width apart, squat down, and grab the weights with your palms facing each other. You want your back flat and eyes looking straight ahead.
2. Swing the dumbbells back, toward the rear of your body.
3. Quickly reverse direction and stand as you pull the dumbbells straight out to chest height.
4. Let the dumbbells swing back between your legs as you squat back down.
5. Immediately reverse the movement as you stand to complete the next repetition.
Repeat, making the movements fast and powerful but also smooth and continuous.
I have done this program myself and I get a great workout in very little time. Whenever I do any weight training I put it together with more functional movement. For instance, these dumbbell squat and swings work great for me in the morning before I go play tennis.
You can find this program and other useful fitness advice on Ryan’s website at www.quatrofitness.com.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
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1 Liu et al. “A marathon run increases the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation in vitro and modifies plasma antioxidants. American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism. 1999. 276(6): E1083-E1091.