Are you tired of taking all of the “experts” advice on how to get fit, lean or muscular? Have you tried different fitness paths that promised you all the results you could ever want and had them come up short? On some level did you feel like you failed? The good news is it was not your fault! Take a moment and roll that around in your head and let the idea really sink in. All your failed attempts to lose weight, or diet, or achieve X pounds off in X weeks were doomed before you ever started them. It wasn’t your fault.
The fitness world is a massive industry (with revenue in the tens of billions of dollars) that exists to make businessmen money. And they are making the majority of it through your failures. Each time you fail, they know you’ll eventually come back to the next fad diet or workout craze and hand over your hard-earned money all over again. It actually benefits them for you to NEVER be able to get in better shape and stay that way! The amazing part is that after you fail to achieve the results they promised you, they make you feel like it was your fault.
I encounter people every day who are down on themselves about their inability to look and feel better, and it makes me so mad. That’s how Pete’s Body Shop came into existence. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I am letting the obvious, common sense truth come out so everyone can see that being the best you, is really not all that complicated or time-consuming. I don’t have a gimmick or a fad or a wink-wink secret that no one else knows. I have the truth…
Myth #1:
Aerobic exercise, such as jogging, biking or stepping burns more calories and is more effective than strength training at cutting fat.
Fact:
After an hour on a cardio machine you see on the display that you’ve burned 300 calories, which you feel pretty good about. What the manufacturers of these machines don’t tell you is that this number incorporates your Basal Metabolic Rate (the amount of calories burned at rest). The machine calculates your BMR when you enter your body weight and age, which is about 140 calories per hour. Essentially, an hour on the treadmill only burned an extra 160 calories. If you stay the course and perform 22 days of jogging, biking or stepping, you’ll burn one pound of human body fat which yields 3,500 calories of usable energy. This is assuming you don’t lose any lean muscle during the process, which is what happens as a natural defensive response from the body.
As you continue training this way, your body adapts and becomes more efficient with its fuel. You’re now burning even fewer calories while exhausting yourself. On top of that your body will naturally decrease its muscle stores to provide energy for the increased aerobic exercise, and your metabolism will slow dramatically, promoting an increase in fat stores.
If you were instead to train for increased strength and lean muscle mass, your metabolism would surge. With just 5 lbs. of added lean muscle you will burn an extra 250 calories per day at rest. Twenty-five days later, you will have burned 2lbs. of body fat only training twice per week for less than 45 minutes, without feeling exhausted and starved from all the worthless aerobic activity.
Check out Dr. Doug McGuff’s great article entitled “Hard Facts about Soft Tissue” at www.ultimate-exercise.com/fat
Also check out Kyle Newell’s article
“The Aerobic Fallacy” at www.elitefts.com/documents/
Myth #2
Yoga and Pilates are the best way to achieve that long, lean look or body type.
Fact:
Yoga is a great way to quiet the mind and improve flexibility. Yoga can also improve relative muscular strength which we know increases lean muscle mass and metabolism, however not to any significant degree. Pilates can improve flexibility, relative strength and lean muscle mass, but the latter two again only to a very small degree. Only high-intensity exercise can increase strength, lean muscle mass and flexibility to the outer limits of what’s possible. Effectively increasing your lean muscle mass will elevate your metabolism substantially and permanently, helping you to reduce body fat 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Couple a high-intensity training program, with a good dietary strategy such as the South Beach Diet, and you have the key to getting that long, lean look.
Myth #3:
Women who lift weights will get too muscular and bulky.
Fact:
Women simply do not have the genetic potential or natural testosterone to develop large muscles; in fact most men don’t. I think this myth came about from seeing female bodybuilders in print and electronic media who are at the extremes of genetic potential and who use anabolic steroids. This myth is probably the number one reason why most women do not engage in the one thing that can give them the results they want: A lean, attractive, strong body which is the result of high-intensity exercise.
Myth #4:
More exercise is better for weight loss.
Fact:
When the body is exposed to stress, it requires time to recover in order to repair and remodel itself. If the body is continuously threatened with strenuous work, with little time in between for rest, it never has the opportunity to fully adapt.
Studies repeatedly verify that the most effective approach is to train intensely, briefly and infrequently. An intense bout of strength training prompts the muscle fibers to recover to a new larger capacity, and ample time is needed for this to occur. This in turn creates more lean muscle in less time, efficiently creating a faster metabolism.
Myth #5:
Seniors and the elderly should not lift heavy weights.
Fact:
Older people have bodies that have undergone significant muscle loss. This loss in muscle mass leads to thin, weak bones, and a softer body structure. Increasing lean muscle mass brings about a literal fountain of youth. An increase in lean muscle mass will help prevent osteoporosis by reducing bone deterioration and increasing bone mass.
Myth #6:
The best way to get in shape with weights is by toning up with higher repetitions.
Fact:
Lifting lighter weights for higher
repetitions does not stimulate a need for increase strength and will
not increase lean muscle mass. It is essentially nothing more
then work, or labor that is already well within your existing capacity.
Light weights for high reps are a complete waste of time.
Myth #7:
I need to do aerobics to achieve cardiovascular health and fitness.
Fact:
While it can be said that aerobic training is cardiovascular in nature, it can also be said that not all cardiovascular exercise need be aerobic. High-intensity anaerobic exercise creates a big demand on all of the skeletal muscles, which in turn creates a big demand for centralized cardiovascular improvement. A strong body, especially later in life, means that your heart doesn’t have to work so hard. All of the experts now agree that intense bouts of interval training improves cardiac function and stroke volume to much greater levels, and in a fraction of the time it takes doing long bouts of steady-state aerobic training.
I could go on and on about this stuff. If you’re interested in finding out more, just track me down and I’ll talk your ear off.
Why does all this seem so contrary to everything I’ve learned?
…because not everyone is telling you the truth.
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