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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.

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.

High Intensity Interval Training
Take Your Fitness and Fat Loss to the Next Level
– By Dean Anderson, Fitness & Behavior Expert
SparkPeople Sponsors help keep the site free!
If I told you that there was a way to burn more calories, lose more fat, and improve your cardiovascular fitness level while spending less time doing cardio, you’d probably reach for your phone to report me to the consumer fraud hotline, right?

Well, this is one of those rare times when your natural it’s-too-good-to-be-true reaction could be mistaken. If you want to take your fitness and fat loss to the next level—without spending more time in the gym—then high intensity interval training (also known as HIIT) could be exactly what you’re looking for.

Before getting into the details, notice that I didn’t say HIIT would be easier, just that it would take less of your time. In fact, the HIIT approach to cardio exercise is very physically demanding and isn’t for everyone. If you have any cardiovascular problems or other health concerns that limit your ability to exercise at very intense levels, or if you are relatively new to aerobic exercise or not already in good shape, HIIT is not for you—at least for now. If you have any doubts or concerns about whether it might be safe for you, check in with your medical professional before trying HIIT.

What It Is and How It Works
HIIT is a specialized form of interval training that involves short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise. Because it involves briefly pushing yourself beyond the upper end of your aerobic exercise zone, it offers you several advantages that traditional steady-state exercise (where you keep your heart rate within your aerobic zone) can’t provide:

* HIIT trains and conditions both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. You train your anaerobic system with brief, all-out efforts, like when you have to push to make it up a hill, sprint the last few hundred yards of a distance race, or run and hide from your spouse after saying the wrong thing.
* HIIT increases the amount of calories you burn during your exercise session and afterward because it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each exercise session.
* HIIT causes metabolic adaptations that enable you to use more fat as fuel under a variety of conditions. This will improve your athletic endurance as well as your fat-burning potential.
* HIIT appears to limit muscle loss that can occur with weight loss, in comparison to traditional steady-state cardio exercise of longer duration.
* To get the benefits HIIT, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals.

The key element of HIIT that makes it different from other forms of interval training is that the high intensity intervals involve maximum effort, not simply a higher heart rate. There are many different approaches to HIIT, each involving different numbers of high and low intensity intervals, different levels of intensity during the low intensity intervals, different lengths of time for each interval, and different numbers of training sessions per week. If you want to use HIIT to improve performance for a particular sport or activity, you’ll need to tailor your training program to the specific needs and demands of your activity.

General HIIT Guidelines

* HIIT is designed for people whose primary concerns are boosting overall cardiovascular fitness, endurance, and fat loss, without losing the muscle mass they already have.
* Before starting any HIIT program, you should be able to exercise for at least 20-30 minutes at 70-85% of your estimated maximum heart rate, without exhausting yourself or having problems.
* Because HIIT is physically demanding, it’s important to gradually build up your training program so that you don’t overdo it. (The sample training schedule below will safely introduce you to HIIT over a period of eight weeks.)
* Always warm up and cool down for at least five minutes before and after each HIIT session.
* Work as hard as you can during the high intensity intervals, until you feel the burning sensation in your muscles indicating that you have entered your anaerobic zone. Elite athletes can usually sustain maximum intensity exercise for three to five minutes before they have to slow down and recover, so don’t expect to work longer than that.
* Full recovery takes about four minutes for everyone, but you can shorten the recovery intervals if your high intensity intervals are also shorter and don’t completely exhaust your anaerobic energy system.
* If you experience any chest pain or breathing difficulties during your HIIT workout, cool down immediately. (Don’t just stop or else blood can pool in your extremities and lightheadedness or faintness can occur.)
* If your heart rate does not drop back down to about 70% of your max during recovery intervals, you may need to shorten your work intervals and/or lengthen your recovery intervals.
* HIIT (including the sample program below) is not for beginner exercisers or people with cardiovascular problems or risk factors. If you have cardiovascular problems or risk factors should NOT attempt HIIT unless your doctor has specifically cleared you for this kind of exercise.

A Sample Progressive HIIT Program
Please adhere to the general HIIT guidelines above for this program. To maximize fat loss, maintain an intensity level of 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (RPE of 5-6 on the 10-point scale) during warm up, cool down and recovery intervals.

(visit: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=621, for this example)
After completing this eight-week program, you can continue working to increase the number of work intervals per session, the duration of work intervals, or both.

You can adjust this training plan to accommodate your particular needs and goals. If you find that this schedule is either too difficult or too easy for your current fitness level, you can make adjustments to the duration and/or number of high intensity intervals as necessary. For example, if you want to train yourself for very short, frequent bursts of maximum intensity activity, your program could involve sprinting for 20 seconds and jogging/walking for 60 seconds, and repeating that 15-20 times per session.

You don’t need to swap all of your aerobic exercise for HIIT to gain the benefits. A good balance, for example, might be two sessions of HIIT per week, along with 1-2 sessions of steady-state aerobic exercise. As usual, moderation is the key to long-term success, so challenge yourself—but don’t drive yourself into the ground. Get ready to see major changes in your body and your fitness level!

It’s a statistical fact that 93% of people quit going to the gym or quit using their home equipment in the first 90 days because of time and results is a very close follower.

At Quick Gym 90.4% rate Quick Gym’s no wait exercise as important/very important. What’s also important is 90% are Satisfied or Very Satisfied with their results. Especially when compared to the primitive gym (all other gyms) programs.

What does that mean. While 93% quit using other gyms and home equipment because of time over 90% are not throwing money away on a membership they are not using.

So while other gyms may be charging as little as $10 a month or $50 a year, if your membership is not being used regularly, it’s not making you any healthier tithing to the “fitness gods”