Greg:
Tonight we’re talking about developing your
optimal exercise program for weight loss and health.
Hi! Who
just joined us?
Greg:
Hi, Shannon. We’re just getting started.
We’re talking about developing your optimal
exercise program for weight loss and health.
I
am going to present an ideal exercise situation for
weight loss and health.
You want to get as close as possible to this
ideal exercise situation. Some weeks you may be there,
and some weeks you might not quite make it. Maybe,
because of your circumstances, you can’t ever do the
ideal situation.
I
am not saying, “either you do this or it’s useless”.
Whatever part of this you can do is good -
much better than doing nothing.
So don’t be discouraged if it sounds like more
than you can handle.
Anything moving in that direction is good. Anything is better than nothing and that applies specifically
to exercise itself. Getting out and taking a 10-minute
walk is always better than doing nothing. So never
feel like your time is wasted if you can’t do as much
as you feel you should.
But,
this ideal program is what you should shoot for.
Tonight,
we are going to break it down into two sections. We’re
going to talk about aerobic exercise and anaerobic
exercise. If
anybody has questions, please feel free to stop me
and ask. I’ll
be glad to stop along the way.
Let’s
take aerobic exercise first of all.
If you have read very much of my material,
you know that I’m a strong believer in daily aerobic
exercise. Let me tell you why.
It’s because I see the powerful effect this
has on basal metabolic rate, and thus, on weight loss.
Let me give you an example of how powerful
it is, and why it’s so much better than just exercising
a couple of days a week.
For example, let’s say you're exercising three days
a week. You
decide to double your exercise and go to six days
a week. Well,
you would expect that the results you get from that
would also double. But, they actually quadruple! So,
there’s a tremendous multiplicative effect when you
go from three days a week to six or seven days a week.
So for that reason alone, it makes a lot of sense
weight loss and metabolism-wise, to do that.
The
second thing is, most people find it easier to get
into the habit of doing exercise daily simply because
it becomes part of your schedule.
Let’s say you get up and exercise first thing
in the morning.
It becomes part of your routine on a daily
basis. You don’t have to get up and think, “Well,
am I going to exercise today, am I not?
Is it one of my “off” days or one of my “on”
days?” Anything that you don’t do consistently day after day, it’s
more difficult when you skip days, especially something like exercise. So, it’s
easier to get into that daily habit. Plus, the benefits
are tremendous when you can do a little bit on a daily
basis. Also, your eating habits will improve when
you're exercising daily. People always tell me that
daily exercise puts them in a "healthy frame
of mind" which affects their eating habits.
Now,
just as I mentioned earlier, don’t fall into the trap
of thinking, “Either I can get out and do 30, 40,
50 or 60 minutes, or it’s not worth getting out”.
You will have days when you can only get out
and take a ten-minute walk. That ten-minute walk is
so much better than doing nothing, because you are
giving your basic metabolic rate the stimulation that
it needs every day. It makes a HUGE difference in
how your metabolism is elevated and how you lose weight. So, even if you only have ten minutes at work during lunch,
any time that you can squeeze in a little time is
far better than doing nothing.
When
people come to me and say, “Greg, I want to get started
with weight loss, but I don’t feel like I can jump
into everything, eating and exercise all at the same
time. What should I do?”
My answer is always, “Develop a daily aerobic
exercise habit. Even if it is only 10 minutes to start
with every day.
Get out and take a 10-minute walk tomorrow
morning. The
next morning, do the same thing.
It gets easier. It gets to be more of a habit,
and your metabolism benefits tremendously from that.”
So, the number one thing I’d say if you are
not exercising is, get out and take a 10-minute walk
tomorrow morning. Develop that daily habit. Later,
you can worry about extending that time.
Now,
what is your optimal time goal?
Optimal is 30 to 60 minutes per day. But, some
days that is just not going to happen and less is
still far better than doing nothing. But, ideal is
30 to 60 minutes.
Secondly,
intervals are another very powerful way within aerobic
exercise to boost your basic metabolic rate.
Now, if you are not familiar with intervals,
they are just short periods of time - in our case,
I like to use a minute.
One minute of more intense exercise once every
five minutes throughout your workout.
If
you are a walker, here’s what it would look like.
You would start with your warm-up.
Warm-up for any exercise is just five minutes
of a lower intensity version of that exercise. So
if you’re walking, it would be slow walking for five
minutes, gradually building up your speed, and then
you’re into your regular workout portion of your walk.
So, for the next four minutes, you’re walking
at your workout pace. The fifth minute is your interval
minute. For
that minute, you pick up the pace. It should be a
pretty quick pace to where you are very ready to stop
at the end of that minute.
The next four minutes are your regular workout
pace. The fifth minute, you pick it up again for a
minute. You do that throughout your workout. It has a tremendous effect on basal metabolic rate, raising
your fitness level, and it sort of breaks up your
exercise and helps the time to pass a little more
quickly. It is something that you definitely want
to be including in your aerobic exercise.
Another
aspect of aerobic exercise that is important is target
heart rate range. This plays a big role in how effective
you are at weight loss. There are a lot of people
you see walking around the streets and neighborhoods
who are “strollers”.
There is nothing wrong with that and it is
certainly better than sitting on the couch eating
ice cream. But,
the benefit you get when your intensity is high enough
is tremendous compared to what it would be if you
are just kind of taking a little stroll.
Again, there is nothing wrong with a stroll,
but it is much more effective when you have a faster
pace and you are actually within your target heart
rate range.
Missy:
Greg, what about the fat burning zone?
Greg:
Yeah - in fact, it’s a myth.
I have an article on that in the manual.
It’s a myth that there’s a fat burning zone
that’s low. And I won’t go into the details, but the
myth started with the fact that you are always burning
a mixture of carbohydrates and fat when you are doing
anything, moving, exercising.
The fat in that mixture is a little bit higher
with lower intensity.
But it doesn’t relate at all to weight loss.
So, it’s kind of this myth that took off 10
or 15 years ago, and just has no end.
Jennifer:
So, it's not as beneficial to exercise at a lower
heart rate?
Greg:
Exactly.
Absolutely. Because in fact, it’s much less
effective for weight loss if your heart rate is down
where that is talking about. But if you use this calculator, the calculation I use in the
calculator is the ideal one. It’s recommended by the
American College of Sports Medicine. So, that’s where
you should be for fitness, for metabolism and for
weight loss, etc. But be sure that you are plugging
in a resting heart rate that is accurate. You want
to do that over a couple of mornings and take an average.
But be sure that it’s first thing in the morning,
before you start walking around.
Now,
a lot of times at the beginning of your workout, it
won’t jump up there immediately. Sometimes it will
take 10 or 15 minutes before it actually slowly rises
into that zone. That’s okay.
You just want most of your workout within that
zone. Questions
on that? Yes?
Sherry:
Are the calorie counts on exercise equipment accurate?
Greg:
All of those machines use different calculations
and most of them are off. They do it based on weight,
so, if you plug a weight into the machine, that’s
the only way it can give you an accurate appraisal
of that. But
even so, they all use different calculations. They
all like to claim that their machine burns more calories
than the others.
So
here is the thing with caloric expenditure.
In general—and this is just a good general
rule of thumb—The harder you’re working (and your
heart rate is usually a pretty good indicator of that),
the more calories you are burning.
And your heart rate usually correlates with
the way it feels to you—if it feels moderate or middle
of the road, then you’re burning moderate, middle
of the road calories.
If it feels harder, you are burning more calories.
So caloric expenditure is in direct proportion
to how hard you are working.
I know that there are a lot of numbers on there,
and it is nice to see those calories tick off, but
a lot of those calculations are off.
They are close, but I wouldn’t put much faith
in that. Just know, harder work, higher heart rate,
means more caloric expenditure.
Bill:
Greg, you talk about daily exercise, but should you
take one day off per week.
Greg:
This is what I recommend.
Some people like taking a day off, and that’s
fine. One
day a week I do what I call a “very easy day”.
It might be a leisurely jog, walk, or a leisurely
stair-climb. It is usually shorter and easier. I find
for myself, and this works well for a lot of people,
though some people prefer actually taking it off—I
don’t like breaking my routine.
So I do something every day.
Sometimes it’s just a leisurely 20-minute walk. But
it is still in my routine and it helps me to be consistent.
What I have seen with a lot of people is, if
they take a day off, then taking the next day off
becomes a little bit easier.
For people who are able to just take a rest
day and then get back into their routine, there is
nothing wrong with that. You do need either an easy
day or an off day.
Good question.
Okay.
A couple of other things with aerobic exercise, and
then we’ll more on to anaerobic exercise.
We
talked about doing intervals. We talked about your
program being almost daily. We talked about being
within your target heart rate range.
By
the way, if you don’t have a heart rate monitor, and
you can invest $35 or $40, those things are wonderful
and very motivational, to just look at a watch and
be able to see exactly how fast your heart is beating.
The brand that I really like is called Polar.
You can buy those at Wal-Mart, or at least some Wal-Marts
have them. Sporting goods stores have them. The kind
you want, the only kind that is really accurate, is
the kind that uses a chest strap that goes just under
your chest against your skin and upper abdomen. It’s
like a little rubber electrode. It senses the electrical
signal that your heart gives off every time it beats.
It transmits that via radio signal to a wristwatch.
So you can look at the wristwatch at any given time
during your workout and know exactly how fast your
heart is beating.
It is motivational to see it, and it helps
you to know that you are actually within your target
heart rate range.
A
couple more things on aerobic.
Do cross-training. Cross-training simply means
doing different types of exercise. Walking, cycling,
rowing, exercise videos—mix it up. You always want
to do most of what you like. For example, if you are
a walker and
you really enjoy walking, then do that four,
five or six days a week, and on the other days try
to mix in something else. Mentally, it helps to take
some of the monotony out of it.
Physically and physiologically it helps because
you are giving your muscles a little bit of a different
type of work. Sometimes that helps because the muscle
is used in a bit of a different way, and it helps
with improvement.
Also, it helps to decrease the incidence of
injury because when you do the same thing over and
over again, you are more likely to develop repetitive
use injuries, which are simply injuries that occur
from doing the exact same thing over and over again.
So, I am not saying not to do what you like.
Do that mostly, but occasionally try to mix in some
other things.
By
the way, I mentioned exercise videos. They are a great
way to do something inside, even if it’s not your
favorite. Maybe you can’t get outside, you have kids
at home and you can’t leave, or the weather is too
hot or too cold or rainy or snowy—That’s a great way
to get a quick workout inside. There are some really
good ones out. If
you have a few of those at home, it’s very easy. I
mean, we don’t need much of an excuse not to exercise.
If you wake up and you are going to go out
for a walk and it’s raining, it is real easy to say,
“Well, forget exercise for today!”
But having an exercise video, even if you just
do 15, 20 or 30 minutes, is a great way to get something
in, indoors.
Now
let’s talk about a couple of things on anaerobic exercise,
which is commonly what we refer to as weight training:
Weight training is an important part of the one-two
punch in your assault on weight loss. It is really
critical, and brings a complement to aerobic exercise.
Without it, you are really missing a lot of the benefit
that you can get toward weight loss.
Most
people do not weight train for a variety of reasons. But I really want to encourage you that if you are not weight
training, it is something that does not need to take
a lot of time. In fact, in 20 minutes three days a
week, you can do enough weight training to really
get a powerful benefit from it metabolically, raise
your metabolism, and also to tone your muscles. So,
it doesn’t have to take long, but there is really
a lot of benefit there.
On
the member site, you can click over to the Every Day
Exercise site. On there I have animated illustrations
of about seven or eight different weight training
exercises that you can do at home, inexpensively,
with small hand weights - dumb bells.
You don’t need expensive equipment. This can
really be done quickly and inexpensively at home.
On the site, you can see exactly how to do
the exercises. If you do all the exercises there you
are getting a very comprehensive workout that will
help with metabolism, help with weight loss, and tone
your muscles.
There
are a couple of important things about weight training.
It only needs to be three days a week, preferably
with a day in between. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
for example, is good.
You can really do the workout in about 20 minutes.
So again, it doesn’t need to take very long.
One
critical mistake that most people make when they're
weight training is that they're using a weight that
is not sufficiently stimulating or challenging the
muscle. Here is how you choose the proper weight.
This is through trial and error. You choose a weight
that fatigues your muscle for a particular exercise
somewhere between 12 and 15 repetitions. If you use
a weight and you can’t do more than 8 or 10 repetitions,
then it's too heavy.
Vice versa, if you can do 25 repetitions, it's
too light. Ideally, between 12 and 15 repetitions,
you reach the point of failure where you can barely
do another repetition. That is the weight that you
want to use for that particular exercise.
You determine that individually for each exercise.
Write it down so that the next time, two days
later when you come back to do it again, you know
the exact weight you should be using for each one.
This is very important, in order to really
see results with weight training. You should start
with one set of 12 to 15 repetitions of each exercise
for two weeks. After that, move to two sets of 12
to 15 repetitions, and that is where you should stay.
That is ideal.
One
more important thing with weight training is that
you should be using slow, fluid movements.
You have seen people lifting weights quickly
and kind of swinging the weights. When you are doing
that, momentum actually does a lot of the work, and
not the muscle. So you want to be sure that your movements
are slow. You
should take roughly two to three seconds in each direction
and actually allow the muscle to do all of the work.
WHEN
should you do weight training?
Ideally, it should be done after aerobic exercise.
The reason is that it is very easy to injure your
muscles and tendons, to develop tendonitis when you
are exercising cold muscles. If you exercise just
after your aerobic exercise, walking for example,
your muscles are warm and supple and very much less
prone to injury. Muscles work better when they are
warm too. That
is ideal. If
you can’t do it just after aerobic exercise, try to
at least get in five or ten minutes of some type of
movement, walking in place, something to warm up your
body’s musculature a little bit before you actually
do the weight training.
Okay.
I would just encourage everyone again.
Realize that this is an ideal scenario and
don’t feel like it is worthless if you can’t do everything
that you really should be doing.
ANYTHING—and I really mean that—is better than
doing nothing. Tomorrow morning if you are pressed
for time, a 10 minute walk is so much better for your
metabolism than doing nothing. Having that daily stimulation,
even if it is just for 10 or 15 minutes, is so important.
And it has such a different effect on basal metabolic
rate compared to doing nothing.
So
start with what you can, gradually build up, but keep
in mind that if you can do a little bit, squeeze something
in at lunch time, that ANYTHING is better than nothing.
Okay!
Thanks everybody!
