MORE ON STRENGTH TRAINING & CARDIO

The American Heart Association (AHA) says resistance training is very good for that most important of muscles--the heart. In a new scientific advisory, the AHA says that for healthy adults--and some cardiac patients--a regular program of weight training not only increases muscle strength and endurance, it also improves function of the heart and lungs, enhances glucose metabolism, reduces coronary-disease risk factors, and boosts well-being. “Over the last five or six years, there's been increasing scientific evidence that resistance training offers far more than just ‘body beautiful,’” says physiologist Barry A. Franklin, a coauthor of the AHA advisory and director of the cardiac rehabilitation program at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. “After reviewing the literature, we came to the rather startling conclusion that resistance training, like aerobic exercise, can improve cardiovascular function and favorably modify many of the risk factors associated with coronary heart disease.”

OUR TRAINING APPROACH

The most important advancement in the history of exercise science is the realization that one does NOT need to spend more than once a week working out to become healthier, fitter and stronger. This was established during a landmark study performed at Nautilus North and published internationally by Ironman magazine.

Based upon the peak gains and dips of all of those who participated in the study, the “average” optimal training frequency is once every 6.6 (or 7) days. Training prior to this period will actually see the trainee interrupt the growth process. Note also that the immediate effect of a workout is a negative; i.e., the lean content of the body dips, making the trainee weaker and increasing the risk of injury. Optimal gains are produced by the body during the rest period following the workout. Even working out once every 14 days produces substantially better results than training every day or every other day.

INTENSITY OF EFFORT IS THE KEY

The key to successful training is that you invest each workout you perform with a high intensity of effort. If you can perform 12 repetitions in a given exercise but choose instead to stop at 8, 9 or any number shy of 12, then your body has no reason to change its present level of strength and size. As far as it is concerned, it still has energy in reserve that you didn’t come close to tapping. As such, only effort that is performed at a high intensity level utilizes the greatest amount of energy and requires the greatest adaptation to occur. Nautilus North's high intensity protocol places a large demand on the body’s energy systems and initiates this adaptive response from the body.

BRIEF WORKOUTS

Intensity and duration exist in an inverse ratio to each other; the harder the effort you put into doing anything, the briefer must be the time you can spend doing it. This is an important physiological fact that has eluded many in the fitness industry; in some respects, this knowledge is the gift of time, saving trainees thousands of hours (if not years) in wasted or unnecessary effort. Each time a trainee becomes stronger he has increased the intensity of his workout, and each time the intensity of his workout is increased, a corresponding reduction must be made to the volume of his efforts during the workout. For the same reason that an all-out sprint is more intense than a walk, it cannot be continued for as long a period of time (i.e., you can walk for miles but only sprint for a handful of yards), the same is true in strength training; i.e., the more intense the workout, the shorter its duration must be. Because high intensity training taxes your muscles so much more thoroughly than conventional exercise methods, anything beyond 12 minutes (or 4-5 exercises) usually compromises precious recovery resources. Our advanced trainees have produced exceptional results (5 pounds of fat loss and 3 pounds of muscle gain) from performing but one set of exercise a week – IF that one set is performed properly.

ONE WORKOUT PER WEEK

Results from exercise are dependent not only upon the intensity of effort applied during your workout, but also upon adequate time for recovery of the body and its supply of bio-chemical resources. Exercising too frequently has been shown to actually hinder the progress you are trying to make. Once the demand to grow has been placed on the body via the imposition of a high intensity training stress, a period of sufficient rest and recovery is absolutely mandatory. According to the scientific literature and the patterns observed by larger training centers that specialize in personal training (and whose existence depends upon producing results for their clients), “The average person requires five to seven days to recover from an exercise session and training too frequently will quickly lead to overtraining.” (Exercise Inc., New York) These institutions, among others, have discovered that their members who have been training more than one (1) month do NOT require two (or more) sessions per week, and that training more frequently than once a week will prevent the production of the benefits their clients’ workouts have stimulated. Exercise is very much like medicine; it must be taken in the right concentration, the right amount and at the right frequency for optimal results. Rather than relying on the commercially suspect prescriptions of the fitness industry, Nautilus North has preferred to look to exercise science and physiology to determine the correct “dosage” of exercise. This has determined our approach to exercise and, indeed, the success of our clients.