For years, I’ve been teaching PACE® – my interval-training program. Last week, in Health Alert 364, I gave you a starting PACE® workout. Today, I’ll share with you evidence that supports the idea of exercising in short bursts but with a fresh twist.
You’ll find out how interval exercise can restore the rhythm of your “HeartWave.” And how that natural rhythm can prevent – and even reverse – chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Waves within Waves
As head of the US Olympic Committee’s Sports Medicine Council, Dr. Irving Dardik made some startling discoveries about exercise and heart health. One of his achievements was RITE, his Rhythmic Interval Training Exercise.
He started with the realization that in many exercise related deaths, heart failure comes after you stop the exercise – not during the workout. From there he studied the way people move and exercise. He compared and contrasted these exercise practices with native peoples and the habits of animals in the wild.
What he in saw in Nature were repeating cycles of exertion and recovery. He concluded that marathon runners die of heart attacks because their hearts have not been trained to recover.
Animals in the wild run in short bursts. With time for recovery in between. They’re following the natural rhythms of their own heart – and of life itself.
This led him to the discovery of what he termed the “HeartWave.” When someone exercises, their heart rate climbs. When activity stops, it comes back down. This alternating cycle creates a wave.
Inside that, is the constant wave of the heart’s beating – itself an alternating wave of exertion (systole) and recovery (diastole).
To mimic the rhythms of the heart, exercise in intervals of exertion and recovery. By doing this, you create heart rate variability HRV.
Simply
stated, the greater your HRV, the better your overall health. The more limited your HRV, the greater your risk of chronic disease.Balance Your Heart Wave and Reverse Disease
Dr. Dardik believes that the underlying cause of illness is a loss of connection with the basic rhythms of life. With repeated success, he’s shown that interval exercise can reverse these disorders by balancing disrupted wave patterns.
Dr. Dardik has been criticized by some, and misunderstood by others. But his research continues to produce results and compelling evidence. During one study of nurses in a nearby hospital, Dr. Dardik put these women on his interval-training course for just eight weeks.
Even in that short time, the results were remarkable:
• Increased Lung Volume
• Lower Blood Pressure
• Better HRV
• Improved Immune Function
• Lower Stress and Anxiety
• Greater Sense of Energy and Well-being
Dr. Dardik suggests exercising intensely for one-minute intervals followed by rest. When your heart rate recovers, you do another interval. Sound familiar? My PACE® program is built on the same principle.
For more information about PACE® see Health Alerts 58 and 364.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD