How many hours did you sit down for today?

We carry on with our theme of the month, which GETTING FIT.

A side effect of getting fit will be WEIGHT LOSS.

The statistics say that in the Western world we are exercising more and eating less, so why the obesity epidemic?

It's about the amount of time that we are sedentary throughout the day.

Inactivity is the World's 4th leading course of preventable disease.

With our Chair-centric society, the seated place has become dominant:

From Bed to Breakfast table.

From Car to Work.

From Work to the Lunch table and back to Work

From Work back to Car.

From Car to Sitting down for evening meal.

From Dinner table to Sofa

From Sofa back to Bed

But what if you workout?

Surely an hours exercise will negate all the effects of sitting?

There is also evidence that sitting can cancel out the effect of your workout!

WHAT?

That's right. According to author of the phrase, "Sitting is the new smoking," Dr James Levine, who is an Endocrinologist and lead researcher into the effects of prolonged sitting and sedentary behaviour.

It is about the amount of daily time that you accumulate in the sitting position.

Sitting is an independent risk factor!

The cure for too much sitting is not more exercise

Your metabolism slows down by a staggering 90% after only 30 minutes of sitting.

On average you would burn 50 calories more per hour by standing than sitting.

To reduce the amount of time that you sit, the most practical place to change would be your work station.

Bulletproofbodies recommend a standing desk.

However, you could be more daring and go for a Treadmill desk!

Check out which desk is best for you by visiting Sit to Stand .com:

https://sit-stand.com/

Let's all stand up to sitting down.

James Levine & Kelly Starrett we salute you.

Bulletproofbodies Team.

Is High Intensity Interval Training evidence-based?

This month we stick with the theme of INTENSITY.

If you have been living in a cave for the last 10 years and have just come back to exercise, first of all welcome back and second, let’s talk about HIIT.

There is no evidence that spending hours in the gym doing low level Cardio is valuable time spent when we all lead busy lives.

Forget the fat burning zone in the gym and replace it with light activity throughout the day.

The Gym is a place to train. But you don’t need a Gym to workout.

All you need is the motivation and a small investment of your time.

HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training delivers the same if not better biological markers of fitness in an incredibly short amount of time.

Protect your workout time and guard it with your life.

You can get all the exercise benefits in just minutes.

This Medical Doctor in the above BBC 2 Video, is being educated about Exercise.

Check out the full video from Horizon: The Truth about exercise

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17177251

From a recent study of HIIT (Gilllen et al, 2016 - see previous blog) medical markers of fitness like muscle, blood sugar, maximal oxygen uptake and body fat can all be changed in accumulated minutes over a 12 week training programme.

It is about intensity rather than duration.

However, intensity comes at a price.

Welcome to the pain cave!

I would also like to correct his posture, but that’s another Blog!

Take home message:

VALUE INTENSITY

Bulletproofbodies Team

Can you get Fit with only ONE MINUTE of exercise?

Do you have a minute?

Because the latest studies show that only 60 seconds could be all you need!

These days it is all about time-effective workouts.

If you are trying to get fit quick you might want to read this study that shows that only ONE minute of Intense exercise can be beneficial and that only 3 minutes of high intensity, weekly exercise can equal 150 minutes of moderate exercise.

Sounds interesting doesn't it?

The study is by Gillen, Martin, MacInnis, Skelly, Tarnopolsky & Gibala (2016) from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The study divided the 27 participants (Sedentary Males) into 3 groups:

1. Control group

2. Moderate Intensity Continuous Training (MICT)

3. Sprint Interval Training (SIT)

The SIT group followed the following exercise protocol on an exercise bike:

2 minute warm up 

20 second sprint

2 minute active recovery

Repeated 3 times

3 minute Cool down

3 x 20 seconds of intensity = 1 minute of pure intensity accumulated.

The study lasted 12 weeks and the participants trained 3 x Week.

The High Intensity group (SIT) had cycled for only 6 hours (36 minutes of intensity) whilst the MICT group had cycled for 27 hours.

The results were surprising!

After 12 weeks (3 Months) of training both the MICT and SIT groups had improved insulin sensitivity, Cardio-respiratory fitness, and skeletal muscle mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell).

There was no significant difference in fitness between the two groups.

The only difference was the training volume and time committment.

50 minutes or 10 minutes, which would you prefer?

The high intensity (SIT) protocol involving 10 minutes total time per session and 1 minute of intensity per session, totals 3 minutes of intense intermittent exercise per week, within a total time commitment of 30 minutes.

The study by Gillen et al (2016) concluded that 30 minutes plus 3 minutes of intesnity is as effective as 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity continuous training.

This is exciting stuff and backs up the ideology of the CrossFit founder Coach Greg Glassman, "value intensity."

So now, how much intense exercise have you done this week?

Bulletproofbodies team

Check out Dr Phoenix's channel below:

https://www.youtube.com/user/DrPhoenyx

Read the full study on the link below:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0154075

Citation: Gillen JB, Martin BJ, MacInnis MJ, Skelly LE, Tarnopolsky MA, Gibala MJ (2016) Twelve Weeks of Sprint Interval Training Improves Indices of Cardiometabolic Health Similar to Traditional Endurance Training despite a Five-Fold Lower Exercise Volume and Time Commitment. PLoS ONE 11(4): e0154075. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154075

Weight loss? Or Get Fit? What's the right question?

So here we are again.

It's New Year and you have decided that you want to, or need to exercise.

However, stop for a second and ask yourself the question:

Do you want to lose weight?

Or

Do you want to get fit?

This question is important as it will explain your physical activity behaviour over the coming year.

In the UK 40-65 year olds are now considered obese (BBC News)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38402655

So losing weight must be the right question?

WRONG.

Getting Fit is the right answer and here's why.

Getting Fit is about achievement, so this is positive.

Losing weight is about restriction and limitation, so this becomes negative.

It is worth thinking about one of the side effects of getting Fit - Weight loss.

That's right, it can be positive!

So start slowly and build slowly.

Set yourself "easy to achieve" goals.

Little but often is a nice way to re-introduce yourself to the exercise habit.

Your daily target for physical activity is only 22 minutes.

Yes that's it.

You don't even have to do it in one go!

Accumulate 22 minutes throughout your day.

That could be 11 sets of 2 minutes.

Or two sets of 11 minutes.

The best way to keep going is to join an exercise community or commit to physical activity with a friend.

Why not do something you have always wanted to do?

How about discovering CrossFit?

https://www.crossfit.com/

So whatever activity you decide on, stick with it and commit.

Remember, you can't get fit in one workout, just like you can't live your life in one day.

The Ice cream van should not be the only reason you still run!

Thanks to GYM GOALS for this amazing Video.

Check out their You Tube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/KeiserKostov

Do you understand Anatomy Trains?

In case you have just joined the Functional Revolution, you need to know about Thomas Myers and "Anatomy Trains."

In a previous job I used to teach anatomy in a dissection room.

We use to discard the fascia in order to get to the muscles.

We taught individual muscle actions by way of origin and insertion.

We failed to teach integration or that muscles attach to muscles via the fascia.

Rather than discard the fascia, Myers took the scalpel sideways and discovered that everything is attached to everything.

Rather than the bones and the muscles holding the body upright, the bones and muscles are floating within the fascial structures of the body.

This revolutionary idea gets away from the reductionist, isolated body part theory, commonly used in anatomy teaching.

Isolated muscle teaching is contextual, whereas anatomy trains is functional.

If we are training in functional movement, then we need to understand fascia and how no muscle works in isolation.

If you want to know more I recommend Myers book, Anatomy Trains, which is now in its third edition.

Thomas Myers, the Bulletproofbodies team salute you.

Bulletproofbodies and Bikram Yoga

As an Extreme Athlete how do you handle the heat?

When was the last time you challenged your Thermo-regulatory system?

Bikram Yoga is a great way to maximise your Yoga session.

The heat helps aid muscles to relax, reducing micro-tearing and optimising your flexibility.

The focus on breathing is paramount, with Pranayama breathing to begin, breathing only through the nose during the session and the workout closes with a return to breath.

The 26 postures take 90 minutes to complete and work on your motor control, balance and proprioception.

There is also an element of Mindfulness as Yoga means Union of both body and mind.

How does your body respond to heat stress?

The American Council on Exercise conducted a study involving 20 participants aged between 28 to 67 who were experienced Bikram Yoga participants.

Each person in the study swallowed a censor to measure their core temperature at 10 minute intervals.

In addition, they also measured heart rate every minute.

What they found was that core body temperature went up to near critical levels where normally heat illness mat occur.

Heart rate was measured as a percentage of their maximum.

Interestingly, Men struggled more with the cardiovascular component of the class when compared to the Women during the study.

Hydration strategies were of significant importance before, during and after the Bikram Yoga session.

Thanks to ACE (American Council on Exercise) Fitness.

References

Hewett, Z.L. et al. (2011). An examination of the effectiveness of an 8-week bikram yoga program on mindfulness, perceived stress, & physical fitness. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, 9, 2, 87–92.

Hunter, S.D. et al. (2013). Improvements in glucose intolerance with bikram yoga in older obese adults: a pilot study. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 17, 4, 404–407.

Tracy, B.L. and Hart, C.E.F. (2013). Bikram yoga training & physical fitness in healthy young adults. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 27, 3, 822–830. 

Check out their website below:

https://www.acefitness.org/acefit/expert-insight-article/47/5384/ace-study-examines-effects-of-bikram-yoga-on-core

CrossFit Box of the Month - Maida CrossFit

Today I met Alex Chapman who is both owner and head Coach at Maida CrossFit.

Maida CrossFit is based in Aldershot, Hampshire.

This is no ordinary Box as it has three components within the Maida building.

Fight Science is a Martial Arts centre.

There is a Heavy Training Area for serious Power Lifting.

Then there is Maida CrossFit.

Alex's enthusiasm for CrossFit is infectious and he is keen to tell me the story of the Box.

His customer service focus is impressive.

There is a friendly feel to the Box as I meet the people I will be working out with as we begin the warm up.

The EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) is a surprisingly tough front squat, back squat combination which is perfect to pre-fatigue the quads before the WOD.

Alex states that he programmes in pre-fatigue workouts to maximise the gains of the WOD.

The AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) is a simple but effective Triplet of Push Press, Pull Ups and Box Jumps.

Interestingly, it's the Box Jumps that go first as my Quads are burning.

I miss a landing and no rep myself as punishment.

I manage to just get into the next round before Alex calls TIME.

Great Box, great community and an even better workout.

We wish you well for the future.

The Bulletproof Team salute you.