If you're like most people, one of the biggest hurdles you face when trying to maintain an exercise program is finding the time to do it on a regular basis. The great news is, you might never have to resort to this excuse ever again!
There's increasing amounts of evidence supporting the notion that you can cut your workout time significantly while reaping better benefits.
The study above is yet another example of how a significantly shorter workout, performed at greater intensity, can give you better results than your conventional strength training routine.
"Called NeGator, it uses eccentric — or negative — resistance training, which capitalizes on the fact that the human body can support and lower weights that are too heavy to lift.
Through a system of motors, pulleys, cams and sensors it adds weight when a person is performing a lowering motion, and removes that weight when the person is lifting.
… The team has distilled down to what a person needs to do to get the benefit of strength training while doing as few exercises as possible in as little time as possible as infrequently as possible."
Here -- just as in my Sprint 8 exercise -- you're striving for maximum effort during one set. And then you're done.
The NeGator workout described above is a great way to lower your exercise time but it will not increase your growth hormone like Peak 8 exercises do. I have been exercising for over four decades and in my mind this is the biggest improvement in exercise training I have seen in that time.
I certainly didn't invent it. I actually used a specific type of Sprint 8 exercises, interval training, when I was in high school, college, and medical school. But like most people, when I finished school, I stopped exercising like that.
Sprint 8 type exercises are what kids and animals spontaneously do. It is the natural way to stay fit and one of the only ways we know to increase growth hormone naturally.
Evolution of Sprint 8 Exercises
I first became sensitized to this work through Dr. Al Sears' PACE program. I really loved his concept and explanation and was highly motivated to implement the program but I never fully did.
Earlier this year I met Phil Campbell who wrote the book
Ready Set Go. Phil is a major expert in this area and provided me with very detailed and specific instructions on how to implement the program.
How Shorter, Faster Exercises Stimulate Growth Hormone Production
To fully grasp the benefits of Peak Fitness exercises, you first need to understand that you have three different types of muscle fibers:
- Slow
- Fast
- Super-fast
We now know that in order to naturally increase your body's production of human growth hormone (HGH), you must engage yoursuper-fast muscle fibers.
HGH is a vital hormone that is key for physical strength, health and longevity.
Neither traditionally performed aerobic cardio nor conventional strength training will work anything but your slow muscle fibers, and hence has no impact on production of HGH. On the contrary, it has the unfortunate effect of actually causing the super fast fibers to decrease or atrophy, further impeding natural HGH production.
Power training, or plyometrics burst types of exercises will engage your fast muscle fibers, but only high-intensity burst cardio, such as Sprint 8 exercises, will engage your super fast fibers and promote HGH.
Exercise Also Stimulates the Growth of New Brain Cells
You've probably already heard that exercise is good for your brain function too. In fact, it increases production of brand new brain cells, a process known as neurogenesis. More brain cells can lead to improved thinking and processing of information.
The question was largely: how?
Recent studies, published in the journals
Cell and
PloS One are now bringing us closer to the answer.
Part of the answer involves the adult stem cells, which your brain is full of.
Adult stem cells have the capacity to divide into new stem cells or new neurons as needed, but certain factors can slow them down, such as bone-morphogenetic protein, or BMP.
"The more active BMP and its various signals are in your brain, the more inactive your stem cells become and the less neurogenesis you undergo," the New York Times explains. "Your brain grows slower, less nimble, older."
Exercise reduces the impact of BMP, so that your adult stem cells can continue performing their vital functions of keeping your brain agile.
Remarkably, mice with access to running wheels reduced the BMP in their brains by HALF in just one week. In addition, these mice also showed "a notable increase in Noggin, a beautifully named brain protein that acts as a BMP antagonist," the New York Times writes.
It appears that the less BMP activity you have in your brain, the more beneficial Noggin is produced as well.
"If ever exercise enthusiasts wanted a rationale for what they're doing, this should be it. Exercise, through a complex interplay with Noggin and BMP, helps to ensure that neuronal stem cells stay lively and new brain cells are born."
I add this in here to emphasize, again, that exercise is not just about losing weight and bulking up. It's about far more than just looking good – it can also help your brain function, and that's surely something we all want to hold onto!
Two Foods You Should Never Eat After Sprint 8 Exercises
It would be best to AVOID all sugar and fruit juice for two hours after your workout, otherwise you will obliterate the growth hormone response and ruin the major benefit of the workout, which is to increase your growth hormone level. Remember that after age 35, your growth hormone levels radically decrease.
The reason why restricting these carbs after exercise works is that they will prevent the production of the hormone somatostatin. One of the primary purposes of this hormone is to inhibit the production of human growth hormone.
Virtually all exercises, certainly nearly all cardio or standard aerobics, fail miserably when it comes to increasing growth hormone. So if you decide to use the only type of exercise that will increase growth hormone, then it would be a shame to make a foolish food choice that would wipe out most of the benefit from doing these amazing types of exercise.
When you break your exercise session into intervals like this -- short segments that alternate high intensity with a rest period in-between – you can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities in a fraction of the time.
This makes logical sense when you consider that, historically, long-duration exercise isn't "natural." Our ancient ancestors never ran for mile after mile without rest or recovery. Their exercise was primarily hunting -- short bursts of exertion, followed by periods of rest.
By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health, and that includes both the production of growth hormones and the burning of excess body fat.
Please understand that the sugar and juice restriction are really intended for nearly everyone reading this whose primary purpose is to increase human growth hormone naturally, through exercise, to improve their health.
There is a very small group of elite and professional athletes who are actively competing, where increasing growth hormone is not their primary goal. For these athletes, consuming some carbs, preferably dextrose-based, in the recovery period is probably a good idea to improve their recovery time, as they are competing and not so concerned about long-term growth hormone levels.
It is also important to understand that the two hour post workout sugar restriction is for Sprint 8 exercises NOT for strength training or, if you chose to, aerobic exercises. Since neither of these exercises increases growth hormone, there is not an issue with the sugar restriction within the bounds of replacing needs generated from the exercise.
Fast Recovery vs Growth Hormone Release
To expound on this issue further, Phil Campbell provided the following information:
"When I train young athletes in speed – www.40speed.com - I explain to them that the research shows 20 to 25 grams of protein (within 30 minutes of training) with a 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein, starts the recovery process quicker.
This advice is given to everyone as general advice in most fitness magazines today and is mostly based on research led by Dr John Ivey on young cyclists who have to perform several days in a row, and a quick recovery during competition is extremely important. Clearly, young athletes more concerned with fast recovery than maximizing HGH release should use this strategy.
However, if you are middle-aged, or in a non-competitive phase of training, and keeping HGH circulating as long as possible is your goal, then protein intake (20 to 25 grams after training) is a great strategy, but you need to monitor the glycemic rating of carbs because of the variable impact of carbs on insulin, which in turn impacts the HGH release process.
There are a couple of variables that come into play that can change the rules for adults wanting to maximize human growth hormone from exercise.
Research shows that a spike of insulin after training increases somatostatin (the hormone that shuts down HGH).
So, here's where this issue gets complicated, because it's difficult to estimate the glycemic rating of food on different people with different muscle to body fat ratios. And what makes this issue very complicated is that the insulin producing process is variable for every adult to some degree.
It depends on where you are on the Metabolic Syndrome scale. Metabolic Syndrome just became an official medical condition in 2001, and the research shows that even a few carbs can spike insulin for some people with insulin resistance.
If you are lean and do not need to drop a lot of body fat, then you can probably eat some carbs without spiking insulin -- and maybe even some refined sugar depending on the interaction of the carbs with an intake of post-training protein, which will somewhat negate the impact of the carbs on the insulin response – as opposed to an intake of carbs on an empty stomach.
So, as you can see, there are many variables that come into play.
In short, carbs with the protein can be good after training as long as the glycemic response doesn't spike your insulin.
Research shows that the insulin response of an individual is lessened with youth and/or lean body weight (muscle vs. body fat), and that's another reason why it's so important to maintain muscle throughout life.
From a performance training strategy perspective for runners, I would suggest consider training with the strategy of maximizing HGH release (except on really hot days or on the one-long-run-a-week day) because this strategy should build muscle to make you faster, and reduce body fat so you have less to carry.
For competitions, and those hot, long-training days, I'd suggest using the quick recovery strategy of 1 to 4 ratio of protein to carbs, because in this instance, your body does not care what the quality of glucose is; it just needs glucose."
No comments:
Post a Comment