Dear Health-Conscious Reader,
“What’s going on out there?”
“It’s D.W. You know how she is since she’s been doing PACE… she brought her old pants in.”
I looked up from reading D.W.’s patient chart. “She brought her pants?”
“Well, she wore them. Her old belt, too.” My medical assistant M.T. was laughing now. “She’s so happy. She even told me, ‘My husband says I’m lookin’ hot now! He wants to do PACE so he can look good, too.’”
Many of my patients who have changed their lives by doing PACE come to my clinic and cry because they are so happy and overwhelmed… but not D.W.
She struts into Melissa’s office wearing her old pants that are way too big for her and says, “I’m just wearin’ these ‘cause now I feel so good in them. They used to be so tight on me before and now they’re so big!”
I love how excited D.W. gets about her new PACE body. She smiles and tells us, “I used to wear a jacket to cover up, but now I want to show off.”
D.W. is part of our PACE Study Group. Have I told you about it?
The home of PACE will be my new Sears Center. One of the things we’ll be researching is how PACE improves body composition and different markers of aging in the modern world.
Even though we’ve closed on the new building, we won’t be able to get in there until after September. But I wanted to study the effects of PACE right away, so I decided to start the PACE Study Group. And it’s been a success.
We had an incredible response. Over 100 people signed up to be a part of it. I started them doing PACE, and put them on a low-glycemic eating plan. I had the medical staff at the clinic follow their progress, and take before and after measurements.
My office manager and study group coordinator T.T. keeps track of all the data. We’re looking at their lung volume, VO2max, cardiac output, fat loss, muscle mass gain, metabolic rate and other measurements we can improve with PACE.
The average fat reduction for the group is 15 pounds, and one man has already dropped 50 pounds of fat! People have also lost an average of 11.6 inches from around their bodies. And they’ve increased their lean muscle mass an average of 5 pounds each.
D. W. has dropped 30 pounds of fat and a total of 25 inches. She looks like a totally different person. She likes to post new pictures of herself on Facebook to show her family and friends. They all go crazy.
And now D.W.’s whole family is doing PACE. She told M.T. they were resistant at first. For most people, “exercise” means tiring, hour-long slog sessions on a treadmill, or pounding away the miles on asphalt. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to put themselves through that.
But PACE is different. D.W.’s family saw her slim down and become more energetic. She was never tired, worn out or injured, which is what usually happens when you go jogging or do “aerobics.”
And when they saw how little time it takes, how fun you can make it, and how easy it becomes, they gave PACE a try, too. One by one, they all joined in and now they do PACE together.
They’ve got their energy and enthusiasm back, and it shows.
You can use PACE to do any kind of exertion you want. In fact, you can start doing PACE today. Here’s a workout you can try almost anywhere. It’s called a Starting Gate Lunge.
Before your start, measure your resting heart rate. Just count the number of beats in 6 seconds and multiply it by 10. You can feel it by pressing your fingertip against the pulse in your wrist or neck.
- To begin, stand with feet hip-width apart.
- Step your right foot back, and lower into a lunge so both knees are at 90 degrees.
- Keep your chest lifted, bend forward at the hips and touch your hands to the ground on either side of your front foot.
- As if you were about to sprint, spring forward and take a long stride, but then stop.
- Return to the starting gate position stepping your left foot back this time, and repeat.
- Do as many lunges as you can until you are slightly out of breath.
- Stop and rest until your heart rate goes back down to about 10 beats above your resting rate, then start another set.
You can make it slightly easier to begin by rising from starting gate position without catching air, then sinking back down.
With each PACE workout, try to progressively increase your intensity. Increase the height of each jump, or try to do more jumps with each set. Also, remember to accelerate – to shorten your rest periods or get to that higher intensity faster. Progressivity and acceleration are what make it a true PACE workout that will give you more energy, available faster, that you can feel.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD