Is Your Exercise ‘Working’ For you? Fitness Series, Cardiovascular Part B

What a bummer it would be if all of the sweat, time and muscle soreness were for naught! On the heels of the Cross Fit article submitted by Rebecca Katz on Lady Docs Corner Café last month, a very important question is raised… “Is my exercise routine providing me with a benefit and making me healthier?”

This is not a simple question to answer… it really just depends! First, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish – weight loss, heart health, diabetes management, stress reduction, muscle toning or bone health to name a few examples. Once you know what you’re working towards, an effective exercise prescription becomes more definable.

Next, we have to get past “human nature”. Though some people truly love to exercise, most of us naturally tend towards the path of least resistance when it comes to exertion. Its uncomfortable, its WORK! Often we are going through the motions with our exercise routine but not reaching an optimal effort. Anyone able to read a book while on an exercise machine is most likely not working hard enough!

Other considerations include baseline fitness, injury and orthopedic status, time, access to equipment, cost, and personal preference. All of these factors play into exercise outcomes.

Here’s my advice:
Most importantly, do SOMETHING — ANYTHING. If you haven’t been exercising at all, wear a pedometer and start walking. Any exercise is better than no exercise!

Visiting the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans is another helpful way to determine where you stand and where you should direct your focus and time. The guidelines can be found on the American College of Sports Medicine website at www.acsm.org/physicalactivity.

If you are exercising regularly but don’t seem to be making strides, consider changing up your routine. For bone growth, muscle development, and cardiovascular improvements, the principle of progressive loading or overloading* must be taken into account. This means that your exercise program must be constantly changing and evolving in intensity and other training variables in order for a benefit to continue to occur.

Specifically regarding cardiovascular benefits, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is growing in popularity and has research-based outcomes to support it. Unlike Continuous Cardio Training (CCT) where exercise is performed at a steady pace and a moderate heart rate for a set period of time generally between 20 and 60 minutes, with HIIT, intentional intervals of varying intensities and time are incorporated into the workout. HIIT workouts tend to be shorter in duration, and the intensity is generally vigorous, applying the “overload” principle described above.

While most aerobic exercise will provide desirable training adaptations (increased heart contractility**, increased stroke volume***, increased thickening of cardiac muscle, etc…), HIIT surpasses CCT in increasing aerobic capacity, increasing fat-burning efficiency (greater ability to burn calories and fats), recruiting more muscle fibers (more tissue getting in on the action), and increasing excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). EPOC represents the increased energy expenditure and continued calorie burning even after exercise, mainly due to your increased heart rate and body temperature from the bursts of more intense exercise.

Any high intensity workouts whether HIIT or CCT, only need to be done 1-2 times per week. A great sample HIIT workout if you are ready for the challenge:

• use equipment of your choice – treadmill, bike, swimming, etc…
• repeat these 3 minute intervals for a total of 30 minutes:
• first minute build up your pace
• second minute “push” your pace or sprint
• third minute recover
• repeat for 10 cycles

No matter what your goals, here are some common sense suggestions when it comes to “upping the ante”:

• Begin slowly and progress slowly when starting a new activity or exercise. Only try a new exercise or an increase in intensity one exercise session at a time so that you can assess the effects and allow your body to adjust.
• Listen to your body. When something doesn’t feel right, it isn’t.
• Don’t push through pain.
• Do your homework about trendy classes and programs. Observe before you jump into anything new.
• When in doubt, ask for help. A Clinical Fitness Assessment will help determine where your attention should focus, and provides a detailed Exercise Prescription to get the best outcome possible and minimize injury.

Glossary of terms:

*Overload principle – the exercise stimulus or load must be greater than the current status of that tissue (bone, muscle or heart) and must continue to increase incrementally for training adaptations to take place
**Heart contractility – the intrinsic ability of the heart muscle or myocardium to produce a force that allows it to contract and pump blood
***Stroke volume – the volume of blood pumped from one ventricle of the heart with each beat

The next blog submission of this Fitness series will outline methods for monitoring cardiovascular intensity. Stay tuned!

For individual questions you may contact Jody Miller at [email protected], or (301) 299-6586.