It looks like the principles of my P.A.C.E. program are finally starting to be accepted. At least one, anyway. That training for intensity gives you greater benefit than training for endurance.
In the last few days I’ve seen articles on several conventional health websites explaining how good for you intense workouts are. Even the LA Times has a piece on it. The author concludes what I’ve known for years: The benefits of intense workouts edge out endurance exercises.
I applaud them for starting to come around to the idea, but they’re still not quite getting the whole picture.
The Times cites a study that looked at 47 people doing either traditional endurance exercise or brief, intense sprints. Those working out with a focus on intensity spent 85% less time exerting themselves, and still had significantly lower blood pressure, better aerobic fitness, and lower body mass index (BMI).1
That was just looking at intensity vs. endurance.
Another recent study divided 36 people into three groups. One trained for intensity, one for duration, and the other for strength. The intensity group had the most significant fitness improvement. It was the only group that had their lungs grow stronger.
Their VO2 max (the rate at which your lungs can get oxygen to your body, a measure once thought unchangeable) improved by an average of 14%. And lung strength is the number one indicator of how long you’ll live.2
It’s getting better… intensity vs. strength vs. endurance.
But if they had tested P.A.C.E., the differences would have been more dramatic. Even drastic.
When I tell people about P.A.C.E. they almost always think it’s about high intensity. It’s not. It’s about progressive intensity. That means that not only are your workouts brief and intense, but they are also incrementally more challenging. That’s progressivity, and it’s what gives you back your reserve capacity.
Reserve capacity is the store of energy your heart needs so it can pump more blood faster in times of stress. Reserve capacity for your lungs allows them to deal with high exertion like lifting, carrying, running, going up stairs, or an intense bedroom session with your partner
But P.A.C.E. also uses another equally important component: acceleration. You take a little less time, each time, to get up to your target intensity level. Then you shorten the rest periods between P.A.C.E. sets as you become more fit. That’s accelerating the challenge.
This critical part of P.A.C.E. teaches your body to store energy in your muscles for immediate use. And it retrains your metabolism to build muscle and dump extra body fat.
But don’t take my word for it. Look at my patients from the successful P.A.C.E. study group.
Of the women in the study, S.R. has dropped 30 pounds of body fat, D.W. has dropped 32 pounds, and T.L. has dropped 98 pounds!
The men in the group have dropped tremendous amounts of weight, too. H.C. dropped 40 pounds and 15% body fat. And J.M. went from 16.5% percent body fat down to 6.6%.
Only elite athletes and Olympians have body fat that low. But J.M. was able to get there by ditching the traditional cardio workouts he was using and doing my new P.A.C.E. program for just a few short weeks.
One thing we learned almost by accident was that because acceleration teaches your body to store energy for immediate use, you have that energy available on demand… and you can feel it. It’s there at your fingertips.
When T.L. and J.M. first came to my clinic, they were both quiet, heads down, not saying a whole lot. Now after doing P.A.C.E., they brighten my office whenever they come by to see my staff. You couldn’t get them to stop smiling, and they don’t want to.
You can get these same results for yourself. Give it a try at home and write to me about it. Here’s a workout you can try for yourself, straight from the new POWER Fit program. It’s called a springing tripod.
- Start seated on the ground with your knees in the air and your hands and arms holding you up from behind, a little bit like you were about to do a crab walk.
- Raise your butt off the ground to activate your hips and walk your hands forward a foot or so as if you were about to try to stand up. Your feet should now be below your knees.
- To begin the exertion, tilt over to the right and swing your left arm across your chest until it touches your right and press down into a backwards, one-armed pushup.
- Spring off your right hand and switch, swinging your left arm back behind you, and crossing your right arm over to your left.
- Do the backwards, one-armed pushup motion on the left side, and continue alternating.
You can start out doing just a few, or doing them slowly. To make it a true P.A.C.E. workout, do three sets, increasing the intensity a little bit for each one.
To up the intensity, you can either raise your hips higher off the ground, or you can spring higher into almost a standing position with each repetition before falling backwards into the alternating arm positions.
1 Buchan, D. et al, “The effects of time and intensity of exercise on novel and established markers of CVD in adolescent youth,” American Journal of Human Biology Aug. 2011;23(4):517–526
2 Schünemann, Holger J., MD, PhD et al, “Pulmonary Function Is a Long-term Predictor of Mortality in the General Population,” Chest Sept. 2000;118(3):656-664