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If you are afraid to exercise because you think that after you stop, your muscles turn to fat, you are out-of-shape for the wrong reason.

Quick Gym’s program burns fat and builds, not turns fat into muscle.

Muscles can’t possibly turn to fat. When you exercise, your muscles become larger and stronger because exercise causes extra protein building blocks, called amino acids, to deposit in muscles. All day long, amino acids pass from your muscles into your bloodstream and then back into muscles, with exercise as the major stimulus to force amino acids back into muscles. When you stop exercising, fewer amino acids go back into muscles and they become smaller. Amino acids that do not go back into muscles, are picked up by your liver. Since your body has no way to store extra protein, your liver uses them for energy or converts them into fat. So if you stop exercising, you have to eat less or you will become fat, but muscles never turn into fat.

Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

Many body builders and weight lifters are overly concerned about what they eat and what food supplements they take. If you want to grow larger and stronger muscles, you should concentrate on lifting weights, but you can help muscles grow larger by understanding how what you eat affects how you recover from hard exercise. Just exercising will not make you strong and it will not help you to grow large muscles. If exercise made you strong, marathon runners would have the largest muscles. The only stimulus to make muscles larger and stronger is to stretch them while they contract. When you lift a heavy weight, your muscles start to stretch before they start to contract. This tears the muscle and causes soreness on the next day and beyond. If you rest and let the muscle heal, it will be stronger than before you stretched it lifting weights.

The training principle of stress-and-recover is so strong that you can enlarge a muscle by lifting weights even if you are fasting, losing weight and all your other muscles are getting smaller. In one study, obese, un-athletic women were instructed to restrict food and lift weights. They averaged a weight loss of more than 35 pounds in three months and gained a lot of muscle.

Training for sports is done by taking a hard workout and then having sore muscles on the next day. Then you take easy workouts or you take off until the muscle soreness disappears. You improve by taking hard workouts and your muscles grow and heal while you recover on your easy days. Of course, if you could recover faster from a hard workout, you could do more work and be a better athlete. Scientists have known for years that you recover faster by eating carbohydrates immediately after you finish your hard workout (2). Other studies show that eating extra protein on the day that you take hard workouts helps you recover even faster. Eating extra protein reduces muscle damage during hard exercise (3). Eating carbohydrates along with a protein building block called leucine helps you to recover even faster (4).

Chronic muscle fatigue in athletes can be associated with low blood levels of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins (1). The sooner you eat protein after you finish your hard workout, the quicker you will recover. The benefits of eating protein soon after you lift weights does not apply just to elite athletes. A study from the University of Arkansas showed that eating meat helps older people grow large muscles when they also lift weights(5). Muscles are made primarily from protein building blocks called amino acids. Muscles heal from a hard workout when amino acids and other nutrients travel from your bloodstream into the muscles. Eating food, particularly protein, immediately after you finish your workout helps muscles heal faster. This study showed that men between the ages of 51 and 69 recover faster and grow larger muscles when they include meat than when they eat only dairy, fruits, vegetable, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts.

1) JE Donnelly, T Sharp, J Houmard, MG Carlson, JO Hill, JE Whatley, RG Israel American Journal of Clinical Nutrition OCT 1993;58(4) .

2) KJ Kingsbury, L Kay, M Hjelm. Contrasting plasma free amino acid patterns in elite athletes: association with fatigue and infection. British Journal of Sports Medicine 32: 1 (MAR 1998):25-32.

3) Nancy Rodriquez. The Journal of Nutrition July, 1999.

4) Hayward R et al. Effects of dietary protein on enzyme activity follwoiing exercise-induced muscle injury. Med Sci Sprts Exerc. March, 1999. 31(3):414-420.

5) WW Campbell, ML Barton, D CyrCampbell, SL Davey, JL Beard, G Parise, WJ Evans. Effects of an omnivorous diet compared with a lactoovovegetarian diet on resistance-training-induced changes in body composition and skeletal muscle in older men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1999, Vol 70, Iss 6, pp 1032-1039.

There are two distinct methods to increase calorie consumption through exercise. The one method that is known by most people is to engage in long duration repetitive motion work. The other method is to increase muscle metabolism. A pound of muscle can metabolize an average of about 55 calories per 24 hours but it will not do that unless stimulated to do so. The muscles can be stimulated to metabolize by stretching them under resistance. The larger the range of motion of the exercise, the larger the amount of muscle cells stimulated. That is exactly what happens during Yoga or Pilates exercise, stretching under resistance through long ranges of motion. People who practice yoga on a regular basis will always be lean. If you find a fat person who professes to do yoga on a regular basis, you found a liar who is talking yoga and who does not practice it. Most yoga practitioners are also vegetarians, but that is not the reason why they are lean. There are many fat vegetarians, but those fat vegetarians do not practice yoga. Practicing yoga or Pilates requires many hours per week and therefore it is as impractical for the average public as 30 to 90 minute exercise routines. The ROM is the 4 minute solution to stretch all your muscles through long ranges of motion and in addition it increases muscle strength and it yields significant cardio benefits. Below is a comparison of calories burned during and after exercise from a 60 minute treadmill workout and from a 4 minute ROM workout:

A regular exercise program helps to lower high blood levels of homocysteine, according to a recent study from multiple medical centers (European Journal of Applied Physiology, November 2006). Everyone agrees that high blood levels of homocysteine increase your risk for heart attacks, but at this time, nobody knows why. More than 200 papers show high blood levels of homocysteine are associated with increased risk for heart attacks, strokes and dementia. However, three recent studies show that lowering blood levels of homocysteine does not prevent these conditions. This has disturbed many researchers because they cannot explain how lowering a risk factor for a disease does not help to prevent that disease.

It may be that homocysteine does not cause heart attacks, strokes or dementia, but is just a marker associated with them. For example, homocysteine comes from methionine, an essential amino acid found primarily in meat. Meat is also a rich source of saturated fats which are known to increase risk for heart attacks and strokes in people who ingest too many calories. So, lowering homocysteine does not prevent heart attacks, strokes and dementia because homocysteine does not cause these conditions. However, lowering saturated fats does help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Saturated fats are harmful to a person when he gets too many calories. Dietary saturated fats go to the liver where they are broken down to 2-carbon units. If the body has enough calories, the liver uses these 2-carbon units to make cholesterol. On the other hand, if the liver does not get enough calories, the 2-carbon units are burned for energy to carbon dioxide and water and never form cholesterol. Exercise helps to burn calories. So exercise uses up calories that would other wise have been used to manufacture cholesterol. Stay tuned; the issue is not settled.

We know that regular exercise helps to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Researchers at Michigan State recently showed that high-intensity exercise may prevent these diseases more effectively than low intensity exercise (Thrombosis Research, August 2006).

Most heart attacks and strokes occur when plaques lining the arteries break off and pass down the artery to form a clot that completely blocks the flow of blood to the heart or brain. Intense exercise helped prevent clotting by increasing tissue plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 far more than low-intensity exercise did. Other studies show that vigorous exercise also more effective in helping people lose weight. However, vigorous exercise can precipitate heart attacks and strokes, so it’s a good idea to get a stress electrocardiogram before you start a new exercise program or increase the intensity of your current regimen. If your doctor agrees, gradually work up to the point where you can increase the intensity of your workouts once or twice a week.

January 15, 2007

How much do you need to exercise to lose weight? In one study, researchers asked people to walk and count an extra 2000 steps each day (Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, August 2006). This is really a minimal amount of exercise. They also kept complete food diaries. They lost weight and did not increase their food intake. When you start an exercise program, your appetite may increase, but this will not increase your caloric intake to equal the extra calories that you burn. For example, if you burn 600 calories with added exercise, you may take in 200 calories extra and you will lose weight.

Exercise helps you lose weight by raising your metabolism so you burn more calories for several hours after you finish exercising. However,  ONLY VIGOROUS EXERCISE ( such as HIIT) that increases body temperature and causes you to sweat will increase your metabolism enough to continue burning more calories after you finish. Overweight is a major cause of premature death and increases risk for heart attacks, strokes, cancers and arthritis. If you are out of shape and want to lose weight, get a stress cardiogram and ask your doctor to clear you for an exercise program. Start slowly and then gradually increase the intensity of your exercise over several months.

The key is blood flow.

Short bursts of exertion ramp up blood flow far beyond anything you could get from aerobic exercise.

Here’s how:

The University of Rochester reports that vigorous exercise causes an increase in blood flow, boosting the supply of nitric oxide in your body.1

Nitric oxide is critical for a marriage relationship*. It causes your arteries to relax and decreases inflammation.

When you become aroused your body boosts its levels of nitric oxide. It relaxes the delicate lining of your blood vessels, allowing blood to flow where it’s needed.

For men, releasing enough nitric oxide is important. That’s exactly how many of today’s most popular prescription drugs work. By boosting the amount of nitric oxide that flows to the right places and fighting back the enzymes in your body that try and limit the amount of nitric oxide that’s produced.

But many men suffer from a lack of this key chemical, because it declines as you age, causing problems in the certain areas.

As you age, you may just need a boost of nitric oxide.

A single good workout can prime your body, says Jim Pfaus, PhD, a professor at Concordia University in Montreal, who studies the biology of desires. “When you increase your blood flow, you have a much easier time getting excited.”

One of the best ways to get more nitric oxide is with a short, high-intensity workout.

But c’mon, who wants to do aerobics for 45 minutes a day? It’s not pleasant, and it’s not safe. It causes more harm than good. If pounding on the pavement or in an aerobics class for hours at a time sweating and gasping for air doesn’t have you thrilled about exercise, you’re not alone. Most of my patients aren’t going to put themselves through that type of high-intensity torture.

The good news is you don’t have to.

You can get the benefits of a high-intensity workout with my PACE (Progressive Accelerated Cardiovascular Exertion) program, without having to strain yourself. Over time you will accomplish the same benefits without stressing yourself unnecessarily.

PACE helps you by boosting the amount of exercise incrementally through time. You control your progression and can even alter the type of workouts you do to keep it fun and interesting.

During my research I came across a study showing that an incrementally intensive workout program like PACE increased blood flow levels by more than 400 percent.2

Nitric oxide can help improve your marriage life. But before you turn to drugs, I recommend you try to boost your flow naturally with a regular, high-intensity workout program.

Here’s an easy PACE outdoor running workout you can start right now.

You can even try it as a walking program if you haven’t exercised in awhile. It only takes a few minutes a day, and you can try it out around your own neighborhood.

(Note From Quick Gym. The workout below is only for cardio, no strength training or flexibility involved. Having some light hand weights or doing strength training separately is recommended for upper and lower body)

1. Warm up. Warm up for about one or two minutes.

2. Start. Once you’re warmed up, start at low to moderate intensity, and increase the level of intensity after each set. Start first by running for two minutes.

3. Recovery. Now relax. Notice your heartbeat, and keep track of how long it takes to get back to normal.

4. Repeat. Then run for 90 seconds, followed by rest. Repeat this and decrease the exertion period each time from 90 seconds, to 45 seconds, 30 seconds, then 20 seconds for a total of six sets. This shouldn’t take you more than 8-10 minutes.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

1 Zheng-Gen Jin; “Ligand-Independent Activation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2 by Fluid Shear Stress Regulates Activation of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase” Circulation Research. 2003;93:354-363.
2 Adapted from: von Ardenne M. “Oxygen Multistep Therapy,” Thieme, 1990, p144.

If you eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercise at least three times a week and are
still overweight, you probably need to pick up the pace (International Journal of Obesity,
June 1998).  Hard exercise burns more calories while you exercise.  It also gives you
larger muscles that burn more calories at rest, and it increases your metabolism so
that you burn more calories after you finish exercising.  You do not increase your
metabolism with slow, relaxed exercise.
Some books recommend that you should exercise at a slow rate because you burn
a greater percentage of fat when you exercise slowly than when you exercise intensely.
This is foolish because when you exercise at a low level of intensity, you burn fewer
calories during and after exercise, so the total number of calories you burn in a 24-
hour period is far lower. Burning fewer calories causes you to lose less weight.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Fitness and Health E-Zine
April 4, 2010

Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training.

http://bloghealthwolrd.blogspot.com/2010/04/drmirkins-ezine-intense-intervals.html

To be competitive, all athletes must train very intensely
some of the time. New research from McMaster University in Canada
shows that short term, high-intensity interval training on a bike
can also provide you with all the health and fitness benefits of
exercising less intensely for a much longer period of time (The
Journal of Physiology, March 2010). Subjects used a standard
stationary bicycle and performed a workout of ten 1-minute sprints
with a 1-minute rest between each at 95 percent of their maximal
heart rate, three times a week. This takes less effort than an
all-out sprint at close to 100 percent of maximal heart rate.
The study supports other research that shows that high-intensity
training improves speed and endurance far more than long slow
distance and is necessary for training for athletic competition.
The same authors showed that a similar short workout of
all-out sprinting at maximal heart rate took about 90 minutes per
week (three workouts of 30 minutes each) and was as effective in
achieving fitness and health benefits as many hours of exercising
at a much more leisurely pace (The Journal of Physiology,
September 2006). High intensity, short-interval training improves
fuel and oxygen delivery to muscles, helps the removal of waste
products, and increases the number and efficiency of mitochondria
that help muscles use oxygen to burn food for energy. These
changes have been shown to reduce risk for heart attacks, strokes,
diabetes, weight gain and even some cancers.
The authors make no mention of alternating intense stress
and low-intensity recovery workouts, in which you spend more than
80 percent of your exercise time going at a very low intensity.
Training intensely without recovery workouts markedly increases
your chances of injuring yourself.
High-intensity training can cause heart attacks in people
with blocked arteries and muscle injuries in anyone. Before
starting, a) check with your doctor to make sure your coronary
arteries are open and b) you should be able to pedal on a
stationary bicycle slowly for at least an hour a day for several
weeks. A program of high-intensity intervals:
* will improve speed and endurance much more than slow long-
distance workouts
* should not be done when muscles feel sore or you feel sick
because it increases your chances of injuring yourself
* should be part of a “stress and recover” program in which you go
intensely never more often than three times a week and spend far
more time exercising less intensely.
High-intensity interval training causes muscle burning and
severe shortness of breath, so don’t do it unless you enjoy the
thrill of competition.

Dr. Richard Johnson is professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, where he runs the kidney division and is in charge of transplantation and research in blood pressure. He has also written the best book on the market on the dangers of fructose called The Sugar Fix.
About 70 percent of his work involves research and, for a number of years, he has been studying the effects of FRUCTOSE (fructose is one of the most potent ways to raise uric acid!) on the metabolic system in animals and cell culture, as well as in clinical studies.
Most of this research is focused on how fructose might cause obesity, high blood pressure, kidney disease, fatty liver, and other health-related problems.
Here, Dr. Johnson discusses how uric acid in your blood can wreak havoc on your blood pressure, insulin production and even kidney function.

In fact, he discovered that newly diagnosed adolescents with high blood pressure had elevated uric acid levels 90 percent of the time. And by lowering uric acid in these obese, hypertensive adolescents, he was able to normalize blood pressure in 87 percent of all cases.

You may realize that fructose is a sugar, but you may not realize that it’s metabolized through very specific pathways that differ from those of glucose, for example, and through its distinct metabolic action, uric acid is generated typically within minutes of ingestion.

What is Uric Acid and How Much is Too Much?
Uric acid is a normal waste product found in your blood. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been known for a long time that people with high blood pressure, overweight, and people with kidney disease, often have high uric acid levels as well.
It used to be thought that the uric acid was secondary in these conditions, and not the cause – but Dr. Johnson’s research indicates that it could be a lead player in the development of these conditions, rather than just a supporting actor, when its levels in your body reach 5.5 mg per dl or higher.
At this level, uric acid is associated with an increased risk for developing high blood pressure, as well as diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.
Interestingly, uric acid functions both as an antioxidant, and as a pro-oxidant once inside your cells.
So, if you lower uric acid too much, you lose its antioxidant benefits. But if your uric acid levels are too high, it tends to significantly increase inside your cells as well, where it acts as a pro-oxidant.
Dr. Johnson believes the ideal range for uric acid lies between 3 to 5.5 mg per dl. As already mentioned, above this range your risk of developing all the problems listed correlate quite well.
In the following statement, Dr. Johnson explains just how closely tied uric acid levels are to fructose consumption:
“If you give animals fructose, they develop diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and fatty liver. And in most of these conditions, if we lower uric acid, we can prevent many of these conditions, [although] not completely.
So lowering uric acid seems to benefit some of the mechanisms by which fructose causes disease.
So a very important point is that if you take two animals and you feed one fructose and feed the other one the exact same number of calories but give it as dextrose or glucose, its only the fructose-fed animal that will develop obesity, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and high triglycerides, signs of inflammation, vascular disease, and high blood pressure.”
This bears out in humans as well. Over the last 20 years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in fatty liver disease throughout the world, and studies done by Dr. Johnson and a group of researchers at Duke University showed that people who develop fatty liver drink a lot more soft drinks, and ingest far more fructose than the average person in the community.
Folks, this is exactly why I am so passionate about educating you on the dangers of fructose! I am thoroughly convinced that it’s one of the leading causes behind the massive rise in needless suffering from poor health and premature death.
One of the people who truly opened my eyes and educated me on this issue is Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California in San Francisco.
If you still haven’t watched his excellent lecture on the dangers of fructose and other sugars, I strongly recommend you take the time to do it. ( copy/paste this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=player_embedded)

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