Sneak it in.

No time to exercise? How about you sneak it in during commercial breaks? You can still enjoy your favorite TV show. When it goes to commercial, do as many stand ups as you can. It combines a modified push up and a lunge. As a bonus, you'll get some cardio training from it.

Let me know what you think.

Brazil makes eating easier: 10 simple guidelines

10 key points in Brazil’s proposed guidelines

The authors of Brazil’s proposed dietary guidelines boiled down the 87-page document into 10 basic steps:

1. Prepare meals using fresh and staple foods.

2. Use oils, fats, sugar and salt in moderation.

3. Limit consumption of ready-to-eat food and drink products.

4. Eat at regular mealtimes and pay attention to your food instead of multitasking. Find a comfortable place to eat. Avoid all-you-can-eat buffets and noisy, stressful environments.

5. Eat with others whenever possible.

6. Buy food in shops and markets that offer a variety of fresh foods. Avoid those that sell mainly ready-to-eat products.

7. Develop, practise, share and enjoy your skills in food preparation and cooking.

8. Decide as a family to share cooking responsibilities and dedicate enough time for healthy meals.

9. When you eat out, choose restaurants that serve freshly made dishes. Avoid fast-food chains.

10. Be critical of food-industry advertising.

Never mind your BMI, worry about your waist.

This is my first contribution to the Health Advisor section of the Globe and Mail. This is a big deal for me. After years of practice, I finally got a national newspaper interested in what I have to say. You can find the article here.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health-advisor/never-mind-your-bmi-to-measure-your-health-its-all-about-the-waist/article17423160/

2 of the top fitness trends in one.

I did not know it. But I was combining 2 of the top fitness trends for 2014. According to an article published in the Chicago Tribune, body weight training and high intensity interval training are on the hot list. Frankly, they are a little late to the party. If you have applied the principles discussed on this blog, you already know how efficient and effective it can be. So keep up the good work.

Here's a link to the article.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-02-05/health/sc-health-0129-fitness-trends-20140205_1_hiit-top-fitness-trends-fusion-fitness

Is sugar the new smoking?

High blood sugar is the source of all evil. It just corrodes your blood vessels. You don't feel a thing until it's too late. It is the #1 cause on non-accidental amputations. Pay attention to it.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/sugar-damages-the-bodys-organs-directly-new-findings-suggest/article16664804/?cmpid=rss1

6 health-related benefits of high intensity training.

It’s not easy. I’ll give you that. But it is very efficient. And if you are willing to work hard, your health can be significantly improved. Especially since free time is at a premium. If you have time to waste, go ahead, exercise for hours. This is probably the best return on investment that you can get. It kind of makes sense since the higher intensity will recruit more muscle fibers. So let’s get started.

1.       Improved aerobic fitness

It is now widely accepted that short bouts (30sec to 4 minutes) of very hard work can improve aerobic fitness or VO2 max. One of the main adaptations is better oxygen usage at the muscle level. And for clinical exercise physiologists, VO2 max is the strongest long-term health predictor. Basically, because a lot of systems have to be optimal in order for you to have a good VO2.

2.       Increased insulin sensitivity

You can’t even feel high blood sugar. But this is one of the worst things you can get. High blood sugar corrodes your blood vessels. And by working at a high intensity, you reduce the glucose levels in more muscle fibers. Your muscle will just be thirstier for glucose to replenish its reverses. Your muscles are planning ahead.

3.       Reduces fat content

If more glucose gets stored in your muscles, less will land in your fat cells. And by making your muscle more efficient at using oxygen, they also become better at using fat as fuel. Which is one of the reasons why this type of protocol helps you lose more fat and get a leaner body. On top of it, by working hard, you get a bonus round of caloric burn. When you work at a low intensity, the extra caloric burn stops shortly after your last step. A higher training intensity will boost your metabolic rate for the next few days. Can you say win-win-win.

4.       Increase bone mass

A recent review article on exercise and bone density reported that higher intensity activities prevented bone loss better. If you have osteoporosis, jumping up and down may not be the best approach. But if your bones are ok, it may be the best prevention.

5.       Improved lower body power

You probably did not think about this one. But the older we get, the more relevant it is. Power is more important than strength. Also, it is a strong predictor of muscle loss.

6.       Exercise capacity.

This is how hard you can work. Yes it is related to your aerobic fitness but it also includes your ability to work through the accumulation of lactic acid. If you improve VO2 you will improve your exercise capacity. But improving exercise capacity does not guarantee an improved VO2. Regardless, it is a very strong long term health predictor on its own. And it is easier to measure than VO2.

Now, is this for everyone? Not really. But you can work your way to it. You need a certain base of fitness before you can sustain the intensity. But just making your exercise routine a little more challenging, you will get additional benefits. 

The high intensity training (HIIT) experiment.

It was only 30 seconds. I was surprised by how quickly it hit me. I had to put a knee down and catch my breath. Then I realized that I still had 2 more sets to do. This is what a short bout of high intensity exercise can do.  This type of training has been getting a lot of ink lately. Maybe you gave it a try yourself. We are all curious because they promise quick benefits for a short time commitment. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Those workouts have different names: Tabata, high intensity interval training (HIIT), sprint intervals (SIT), etc. They are all variation of very hard, intense, short bouts of activity, from 30 sec to 4 minutes, followed by rest or low level activity. But can this really improve your aerobic fitness?

In the world of exercise physiology, aerobic fitness is one the strongest long term health predictors. For your aerobic fitness to be good, a lot of important systems have to be optimal: healthy lungs, proper breathing, a strong heart and muscles that are efficient at using oxygen. Good aerobic fitness means that you won’t get tired as quickly. The traditional approach to improving aerobic fitness involves long training sessions. This is the kind of workouts that endurance athletes would do. It works, but is it necessary?

It is widely accepted in the scientific circles that high intensity training can improve your cardio fitness as much as longer term training sessions. Most studies do 30 seconds of very hard work and take 2-3 min rest. Participants are tested and trained on a treadmill or a bike. But can it work if you have no equipment to work with? So let’s pull this out of the lab and into the real world.

At the clinic, our objective is to find practical tools for our patients. So we did a pilot study to see if we could measure an improvement in aerobic fitness using jump squats as the modality. Using jump squats served another very important purpose. They will improve lower body power which is another very important health determinant. So using the jump squats kills 2 birds with one stone.

All participants were tested for peak aerobic capacity using breath by breath gas analysis and for their vertical jump height. We used a SIT protocol which is an all-out effort. Our subjects did 15 jump squats as high as they could and took 3 minutes rest and did 3 sets. This protocol was performed twice a week for 8 weeks.

The jumping part, 15 repetitions, takes approximately 30 seconds per sets. So the training sessions were seven and a half minutes and a grand total of 1:30 of work or 3 minutes per week. Can it improve cardio fitness?

It looks like the answer is yes. Keep in mind that our participants were recreationally active individuals. Their fitness ranked above average before the start of the study. They still managed to improve their aerobic fitness by an average of 5%. Lower body power was also improved. Not bad for such a short time commitment.

So, can it work the same for you? Maybe. All of our participants knew how to perform a basic squat with proper form. If you skip this step, you will hurt your knees. Also, if you are sedentary, your first objective should be to create a habit of exercise using low to moderate intensity activities. Then, you gradually increase the intensity. Fitness is not rocket science. Challenge your body a little and it will adapt to make its job easier.

If you decide to give it a go, keep in mind that every single repetition has to be a max effort. You want to get to as many muscle fibers as possible. Not everyone is willing to work that hard. It is very uncomfortable. So you have to be physically and mentally ready for the challenge.