Those of you who follow my posts know that I believe the most important factor in getting fitness results is the workout intensity, not how frequently you workout or for how long.
Here is a repost of a short article by Mike Boyle, one of the leading fitness trainers and fitness researchers in the industry. Occasionally I agree with his positions.
Article by Mike Boyle....
"It's amazing how much marketing affects truth in fitness.
I remember when machine training was all the rage because it was thought to be safer and more effective.
The problem with this "truth" is that it was a lie or at least a misconception promoted by the manufactures of machines and often backed up by industry-funded research.
Nautilus was advertised as a 12-machine, 12-minute trip to the Promised Land. Today it's Curves.
Tomorrow, who knows?
The Cooper Clinic told us that aerobic exercise was going to change our lives. Suddenly everyone was a runner.
I think the real beneficiaries of the aerobic training boom were the doctors and physical therapists who made millions caring for all those who were injured on the road to the Promised Land.
The aerobic training boom made us aware of things like plantar fasciitis, iliotibial band syndrome, and patella-femoral dysfunction. It gave us RICE (rest, ice, compression, and
elevation) and made sports medicine a household word.
Next came the group exercise phenomenon, the aerobics shoe, and aerobics classes. More marketing, more injuries. More money for the doctors and PT's.
Some of these ideas were well-intentioned attempts at wellness promotion, others flat out lies propagated to make money. In either case, we still don't get it. The truth is that exercise needs to be smart and safe. but it also needs to be hard if possible.
Very little in life was ever achieved without hard work. Fitness is clearly not the exception. Some doctors try to say gardening qualifies as exercise.
Ask yourself this question. "How is kneeling in dirt exercise?"
Others say walking is great exercise. The truth is that something is always better than nothing, but why aim so low?
The reality is that we should be exercising as hard as we are physically able. In fact, the medical professionals themselves said that in 2002 but the information got little coverage.
The New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 346:852-854 March 14, 2002) published a study and an editorial titled "Survival of the Fittest" that said "...the peak estimated exercise capacity achieved during the test (graded exercise treadmill) was the strongest predictor of the risk of death among patients with cardiovascular disease and among patients without cardiovascular disease."
The study went on to say, "Greater fitness results in longer survival." The study said nothing about duration or frequency, it only mentioned performance. The people that lived the longest were not the ones that exercised the most frequently. They were the ones who lasted the longest on the treadmill test.
The key variable that related to life expectancy was fitness, not total time or number of days per week. Those that were able to exercise the hardest lived the longest.
Think about that next time you take a walk or work in the garden. If that is all you can do, fine. However, healthy people need hard work."
End of article.
Post your thoughts to the comments section.
Be well,
Paul
Paul Dziewisz
Active Personal Fitness
http://www.activepersonalfitness.com/
267.626.7478
"You give us the effort...we'll get you the results."
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Agree with your statement about Mike Boyle..."occasionally, I agree with his positions".
ReplyDeleteMe too, but not sure if this is one.
Point well taken in the beginning & middle of his article. It's the end that I question. Not sure which actual doctors say that gardening is exercise, I've never heard that. While I agree that gardening may not qualify as exercise; gardening is HARD work. Mike obviously is limited in his outdoor abilities in taking care of the land and garden. Mike missed hauling, digging, shoveling, wheel-barrowing, dragging, carrying, climbing, squatting, lunging...I'll stop there, you get my point.
Yes, gardening is movement, which as we agree Paul, is very important. Mike also is a strength coach for athletes who primarily hangs out in the gym with machines, muscle heads, and sport specific training. As he said "those that were able to exercise the hardest were the ones that lived the longest" and that came from information from a treadmill test. Treadmills are calibrated machines inside a climate controlled environment. I'd challenge Mike to go spend 8 hrs. outdoors doing everything but his pansy kneeling in the dirt. THAT is the hard work; it is those people who will live the longest...the ones that know how to work outside of 4 walls. The folks that are adaptable to move every which way but tight and boring. Biologists refer to fitness as 'the overall relationship to the environment'. If your environment is the treadmill in a gym, then I call that limited. That's predictable fitness. If the study showed that greater fitness results in longer survival, I doubt that the gym rats would outlast those that know what real hard work is.
Yes, Mike 'healthy people need hard work' and you ain't gonna just find that in the weight room. Unplug. Disconnect. Open the Door and Get Out. You've got a world out there waiting for you!
Ah, thanks for getting my creative juices going again Paul!
Cheers,
Lisa