Is getting up early to go for a walk, run or cycle going to make that much difference?

Is the discomfort of pushups or weight training actually making my life any different and will it make a difference in years to come?

New research on war veterans has given us yet another reason to ‘tolerate’ the short term discomfort that goes with exercise.

A new study in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society, shows that acute exercise can exacerbate pain but long-term exercise has the opposite outcome and reduces it.

Researchers from Middleton Memorial Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin tested levels of experimental pain sensitivity in Gulf War veterans following acute exercise sessions.

They hypothesized that veterans with Chronic Muscular Pain (CMP) would report lower pain thresholds and higher pain intensity from experimental pain stimuli than healthy Gulf War veterans. Vets with CMP also were predicted to rate naturally occurring pain from exercise as more intense.

The researchers reported that, consistent with their hypothesis, vets with CMP claimed that heat induced pain stimuli was more intense and unpleasant than evidenced in healthy subjects. They also had greater leg pain intensity during exercise and were more sensitive to the pain stimuli following acute exercise compared to pre-exercise ratings.

Pain thresholds, however, did not show significant differences between healthy subjects and those with CMP, contrary to what the researchers hypothesized.

The authors noted that exercise research in chronic muscle pain patients shows a paradox in that acute exercise appears to exacerbate pain while chronic exercise can reduce pain.

The researchers concluded that the challenge for health professionals is to encourage regular exercise for CMP patients to avoid disability, even though initial exercise regimens may increase pain in the short run.

This study highlights what you probably already know. That the short term discomfort of exercise makes the rest of your day easier even though some days you just don’t feel like.

I’m guessing that if you get this newsletter you are doing some form of regular exercise (or at least you are thinking about it). But I bet you know someone who struggles to make exercise a part of their routine and they complain that it hurts. If so, why not forward this newsletter to them as and give them extra encouragement to become a regular exerciser.

Let’s face it if they can’t put up with the short term discomfort of exercise now, how are they going to cope with the aches and pains that occur as a result of seventy years of a sedentary lifestyle.

The best time of the day to exercise is the time that is most convenient for you and you are most likely to do. There is no point trying to exercise at a time that just doesn’t suit your routine.

When I was competing in triathlons I used to exercise after work, however once my second son arrived getting out in the afternoon became too hard. (With just one I could take him with me in a running stroller but two didn’t fit.)

I tend to exercise mostly in the morning and I often recommend people give early morning exercise a try.

Here are some reasons morning is the best time to exercise.

1. Many people believe that early morning exercise before breakfast burns more body fat than after eating later in the day.  Although there is still some debate, the evidence is growing that doing aerobic or cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is good for fat loss. The argument is that after an overnight 8-12 hour fast, your body’s stores of glycogen are reduced and you burn more fat when glycogen levels are low.
Eating breakfast causes a release of insulin which interferes with the mobilization of body fat. Less insulin is present in the morning; so more body fat is burned when exercise is done in the morning.
There is less carbohydrate (glucose) in the bloodstream when you wake up after an overnight fast. With less glucose available, you are likely to burn more fat.

2. If you eat breakfast immediately before exercising, you have to burn off what you have just eaten first before tapping into stored body fat (and insulin is elevated after a meal.)

3. When you exercise in the morning, it raises your metabolism from it’s lowest and it stays elevated for a period of time after the workout is over. If you exercise in the evening, you burn calories during the session, but you don’t get the same advantage of the “afterburn” effect because your metabolic rate drops dramatically as soon as you go to sleep.

4. Morning exercise gives you a feeling of accomplishment and makes you more productive the rest of the day.
Morning exercise “energizes” you and “wakes you up” by turning off melatonin (the sleep hormone) and turning on serotonin (the feel good hormone).

5. There is some evidence that morning exercise may help regulate your appetite for the rest of the day. You’re also more likely to make better eating choices if you have already done your exercise for the day.

6. Your body’s circadian rhythm adjusts to morning routine, making it easier to wake up at the same time every day.
You’re less likely to skip your workout when it’s out of the way early. After work there are more demands likely to get in the way, like working back late or you just feel too tired or someone invites you for a drink!

7. You can always “make time” for exercise by setting your alarm a bit earlier in the morning.

Getting into the habit of morning exercise takes a while, and even then some mornings can be a bit of a struggle to get out of bed (especially when it is cold).  For all the reasons above, however, I recommend you give it a try.

For fat loss, fitness, lifestyle and mental health, early morning exercise is a good habit to develop.

I have a friend who has achieved some great fitness results and she credits that quote with keeping her on track when it all seems too hard.

Knowing how much better you will feel after you finish your exercise is motivating. But knowing how much good it is doing you after you stop is even more motivation to push yourself that bit harder. It means you get the benefits long after the discomfort has gone.

For a long time, long duration aerobic exercise was the recommended activity for both fat loss and improving fitness. However, more and more research is showing that short duration, high intensity exercise is the way to go. Especially if you are looking for quick improvement in fitness level and fast fat loss.

It seems the higher you can increase your metabolism during the exercise, the longer it stays elevated after you stop. Some fitness enthusiasts call this after burn.

It’s a bit like the interest income you receive on an investment. The higher the initial deposit, the higher the ongoing interest income you get.

Interval training is simply a form of high intensity aerobic exercise in which you alternate periods of high effort and periods of active recovery or rest.

For example, you might walk or run fast (for you) for a period of one minute and then follow it up with walking for one minute, repeating 5-10 times for a less-than-20-minute workout.

One study looked at the effect of exercise intensity on body fat and metabolism. They compared 20 weeks of endurance training with 15 weeks of interval training. They found that although the endurance group actually used more calories while exercising, the interval training group lost nine times more body fat. They attribute this to the increased metabolism after this group finished exercising.

(Tremblay A, Simoneau JA, Bouchard C. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism. 1994 Jul;43(7):814-8)

Many activities incorporate interval training just by the nature of activity itself. Surfers paddle hard, catch a wave, paddle back out to the break and then sit a wait for the next set. Cyclists, who ride in a group, take turns at the front, pushing into the wind, then go to the back of the group where it is easier. Many other sports involve short bursts of effort with periods of recovery.

If you haven’t yet attempted interval training, try this. Walk for 5 minutes to warm up. Walk or run faster for a minute, then walk for a minute. Repeat this five times, then walk for 5 minutes to cool down. That will take you 20 minutes.

I’ve suggested walking but you can use the same formula for other activities, like cycling, running, rowing or even skipping.

If you find it hard to push yourself, focus on two things:

1. how much better you will feel when you slow down, and
2. how you’ll be getting benefits long after you have finished.

Our normal cycling group was much smaller than usual and, not surprisingly, we didn’t see many others out riding. Admittedly it was VERY wet and I don’t blame anyone who turned off their alarm, pulled the blanket up and stayed in bed.

While that’s probably the smart thing to do when the weather is really bad, staying in bed all winter isn’t a good idea.

So I thought I would share some ideas to help you stay committed to your exercise program through the cold dark mornings (and afternoons) of winter. If you live in the northern hemisphere, print this off and read it in November!!

Tip 1 – Get your gear ready before hand

I recommend this even when the weather is good, but it is even more important when it’s cold, dark and wet. It doesn’t take much of a barrier to keep you in bed, so having all your gear, including your wet weather gear, ready makes it easier to get out the door.

Tip 2 – You only get wet once

You may need to change your expectations about exercising in the wet. I agree that the experience of getting wet while riding, running or walking is not that pleasant.

The experience of cold water runs down your back or into your shoes is disconcerting, to say the least. It’s a bit like the first few minutes of exercise, it feels uncomfortable until your body adjusts.

The same applies to getting wet. Once you’re wet however, your body adjusts and it doesn’t feel much different to exercising dry.

Tip 3 – Dress to keep the wind out

This probably applies more to cycling than running and walking, but if it is cold and wet, the key to maintaining your temperature is to keep the cold air off your wet skin. Wearing something that stops the cold air getting in is usually all that is required as the body still generates sufficient heat.

Be careful not to overdress as it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because it is wet it is cold. Dressing in a way that doesn’t let your body heat escape will affect your performance more than being a bit cold.

Tip 4 – How to dry wet shoes

One of the worst things about exercising in winter is having to put on wet shoes. Therefore it is important to dry your shoes as quickly as possible. Don’t put your shoes near a fire or heater as it can damage them if they get too hot.

Instead, screw up sheets of newspaper and stuff them inside your shoes to absorb the moisture. this helps to dry them from the inside and speeds up the drying process. Remember to change the newspaper a few times, especially in the first 30 minutes.

Tip 5 – Find a reliable training partner

I’ve got a friend and riding partner who just loves to ride in the rain. I know that regardless of the weather conditions, he will turn up. This motivates me to be at our designated meeting spot as I know there will always be some else there.

If you struggle to get out in winter, find a committed training partner and don’t let them down.

It’s the “more is better” approach to fitness.

For example, if they want to be able to do 100 push-ups in a row, they try to do as many push-ups as possible every day.

If you did this, rather than get stronger, you’re more likely to injure yourself and end up unable to do any push-ups at all.

Training to get stronger requires an understanding of the stress-and-recover rule and the interval-sets rule.

The best way to improve your strength is to stress your body on one day, then allow enough time for your body to recover, before you stress it again. You might do a hard chest workout one day (e.g. push-ups) and have slightly sore muscles the next day or two. If so, you should rest those muscles until the soreness disappears before you do a hard workout again.

This is the stress and recover rule. If your muscles are sore or fatigued, wait until they recover before stressing them again. The best way to achieve this is to plan different exercises for consecutive days. Even if you do strength training two days in a row, work different muscles so they get time to recover between workouts.

For your hard workouts, you can do far more work by exercising in sets, rather than continuously. If you can do ten push-ups, you can probably do ten sets of three with twenty seconds rest between each set.

This way you can do more exercise than trying to do them all together. As a result, you get stronger faster. Not only that, it is easier mentally to do sets of a small number than a lot of one exercise all together.

Should I be worried if my muscles are sore?

No. Don’t worry if your muscles feel sore the day or two after a strength workout. This part of the process of the muscles adapting to exercise and getting stronger. Small tears in the muscle fibres are believed to stimulate them to adapt and get stronger. The key is to let the muscles recover fully before stressing them again.

Try to do sessions that are hard enough to make your muscles feel a little bit sore for no more than 48 hours. If you are sore for longer than this, you are doing too much.

Can’t find time to do strength training?

Next time you are watching TV, do some push-ups, dips and plank each time the ads come on. You’ll be amazed how much you can do in just the ads, and how much stronger you will get in a few weeks.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly your strength improves.

The research involved  3,200 men who had their bones examined and their exercise habits mapped. Of these, just over 2,300 18-year-olds were selected at random to have their heel bone examined by the researchers. The heel bone is particularly useful to study as it is directly impacted by exercise, being loaded with the full weight of the body.

“In this group, we found that those who actively did sports, and also those who used to do sports, had greater bone density than those who had never done sports,” explains Martin Nilsson, physiotherapist and doctoral student at the Institute of Medicine.

The study also looked at bone density and structure in the lower leg in around 360 19-year-old men who had previously done sports but had now stopped training. They found that men who had stopped training more than six years ago still had larger and thicker bones in the lower leg than those who had never done sports.

“This result is particularly important, because we know that a bone with a large circumference is more durable and resistant to fractures than a narrower bone,” says Nilsson.

The researchers also studied bone density throughout the body in around 500 randomly selected 75-year-old men. Those who had done competitive sports three or more times a week at some point between the ages of 10 and 30 had higher bone density in several parts of the body than those who had not.

The researchers concluded that there is a positive link between exercise while young and bone density and size.

What does it mean for you if you are not young (over 40)?  When you are 85 or 90, your age now will seem young, and since we know bone density losses can be minimised and even increased with activity at any age, the sooner you get moving the better.  Osteoporosis is major risk for falls and injury so it is important to do everything possible to maintain your bone density.

Exercise is without doubt the best defense against loss of bone density.

But what if you find it difficult to get up and get going in the mornings?

Here are some ideas to help you become an early riser.

Wake Up At The Same Time Every Day

We are naturally creatures of habit. It’s how we cope with so much going on in our life. By having the same waking time each day your body’s normal rhythm stabilizes and it becomes easier. Even when you have the opportunity to sleep in, like on the weekend, get up at the same time so you don’t disrupt your natural rhythm. (Sleeping in on the weekends is one of the reasons many people struggle to get up on Monday mornings!) You are better off getting up early on the weekend and having a short afternoon nap.

Give yourself plenty of time in the morning

Allow enough time in the morning to do your exercise and still get ready for the day ahead at a relaxed pace. If you leave just enough time that you are rushing it will be stressful and not something you look forward to. You’ll also start your day under pressure and feel like you are playing catch up all day.

By allowing enough time to relax after your exercise you’ll also give your body the best chance of adapting to the exercise you’ve just done, so your fitness improves.

Get out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off

If you lie in bed after you wae up, you run the risk of talking yourself out of getting up. Once you are up and you’ve got your exercise gear on, the hard part has been done.

The longer it takes you to get up, the more likely you’ll try to sleep in. Hitting the snooze button to stay in bed longer only makes it harder, so get up the first time your alarm goes off. You may need to put your alarm out of reach so you can’t hit the snooze button.

Let Light In

Light in the morning turns off melatonin, which helps us sleep, and turns on serotonin and dopamine production, increasing energy, motivation & productivity. By allowing light into your bedroom your body will wake up naturally.

This might not be possible year-round; in winter you may have to get up while it is still dark, but whenever possible let natural light into your bedroom in the mornings.

Go to bed when you get tired

How much sleep you need may vary depending on how much exercise you do, how busy you are at work or just how you are feeling. If you build your routine around getting up at the same time, it will probably mean that the time you go to bed varies. Some nights you’ll get tired earlier than others. Let your body tell you when it is time for bed and go when you get tired.

To help your body get ready for sleep, develop am evening routine. Dim the lights if possible and avoid eating late and stimulants like coffee or strenuous exercise just before exercise.

Make a commitment to get up 7 days (and do this 4 times)

It supposedly takes about 30 days to build a new habit. Commit yourself to wake up at the exact same time for at least 28 days, even on the week-ends. Consistency is the way to build a habit.

Once your body is used to getting up earlier, you just have to avoid getting out of the habit and letting yourself sleep in. When you have built a regular routine of waking up early, you’ll find it difficult to sleep in.

Start tomorrow. Stick at it and you’ll be an early riser within 4 weeks. Just in time for winter! (in the southern hemisphere)

If you’ve been reading my Blog for some time, you’ll know that I recommend short bursts of higher intensity exercise to give the most benefit from your time and effort.

A new study I have just read about shows that short but intensive bursts of exercise lasting ten minutes are as effective as hours of training in fighting flab and getting fitter.

Researchers who have been studying interval training have found that it not only takes less time than what is typically recommended, but the regimen does not have to be ‘flat out’ to be effective in helping reduce the risk of such conditions at Type 2 diabetes.

The study is reported in a recent edition of The Journal of Physiology.

“What the research has been able to show is that interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective and time-efficient,” says Martin Gibala, Professor at the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University.

Professor Gibala’s first study on interval training was published five years ago. Since then a growing body of research has focused on this particular method of exercising in which you train hard but for less time.

Previous research from McMaster University involved 30 seconds of maximal pedaling on an exercise bike followed by four minutes of recovery, and repeated 4-6 times.

This latest research involved eight to 12 one-minute bouts of exercise on a stationary bicycle at a relatively lower intensity with rest intervals of 75 seconds, for a total of 20-25 minutes per session.

The workload was still above most people’s comfort zone, but only about half of what can be achieved when people sprint at an all-out pace.

According to the researchers the trade-off for the lower intensity was that the duration had to increase to get the same training effect. In the words of Professor Gibala, “There is no free lunch; duration must increase as intensity decreases.”

While the total amount of exercise performed was higher than in Gibala’s previous interval training studies, the overall time commitment was still lower than what is typically recommended by public health agencies and most weight loss programs.

What does it mean for you?

The beauty of exercising this way (doing intervals) is that if you don’t have much time or struggle to fit exercise into your busy day, you can get the same fitness benefits in less time by doing bursts of higher intensity exercise.

Most people find it a challenge to push themselves very hard, so this study shows that provided you exercise for a bit longer you don’t have to push as hard.

My recommendation is to vary both the intensity and the time. On the days when you are short on time, do shorter, faster intervals.

On days when you have more time, exercise at a lower intensity but for a bit longer. Hopefully these days will feel like you are cruising well within your limits so make sure you enjoy these days.

The alphas’ parents will predominantly come from generations X and Y and according to a leading social researcher, this could be the biggest generation to date.

The alphas are expected to have many career opportunities due to the skills shortage and starting their careers  at a time when the ageing population hits its peak and older people are leaving the workforce.

However, the alphas are also going to face the challenge of working out how best to care for the elderly in the long term.  Paying for it may fall on the alphas.

At the same time, new technology increases the risk that the alphas will lead a sedentary lifestyle with the accompanying health issues.  So not only will the health system be struggling with a older demographic, but this younger generation will put additional strain on it due to a sedentary lifestyle.

What can current generations do to give the alphas’ a chance at better health?

The greatest contribution baby boomers, gen X and Gen Y can do is to be positive role models in relation to their own health and fitness.  Each generation learns from the ones ahead of it.  If they see their parents leading healthy lifestyles, they are more likely to do the same.

If they see their parents and grandparents exercising and maintaining their fitness, they are more likely to do the same.  The choices they make are influenced by what they see generations ahead of them doing.

The biggest influence current generations can do, is to be an example of the lifestyle that will lead to better health and fitness; balancing work and family life, eating healthy foods and exercising regularly.

Do you bit and be a role model.

Your children and grandchildren are going to need all the help they can get.

It’s amazing that a country like Australia is facing such a health disaster when, for most people, diabetes is preventable. A healthy diet and regular exercise are all most people need to do to avoid suffering the debilitating effects of diabetes.

Exercise is a critical element to fight diabetes.

How exercise protects against diabetes

Human muscles get their energy by extracting sugar and fat from their blood supply. When muscles are at rest, they need insulin for sugar to pass into their cells. However, when muscles contract (during exercise), sugar passes into their cells without requiring insulin.

Contracting muscles remove sugar rapidly from the bloodstream, without needing insulin, during and for up to one hour after exercise. The effect tapers off to zero at about 17 hours (American Journal of Clinical Nurtrition, July 2008). You are protected maximally from high rises in blood sugar and fat during and immediately after exercise.

Therefore, the more times you spend contracting muscles (exercising), the longer you will be protected from the cell damage that leads to cancers, heart attacks, strokes, and other consequences that shorten your life or impair its quality.

This is why I recommend you exercise every day. So you get the benefit of this easy passage of sugar into the muscle cells each day. It doesn’t have to be the same muscles, and in fact it is probably better if it isn’t, so do a variety of different exercise during a week and not the same thing on consecutive days.

Why extra fat increases your risk of diabetes

High levels of body fat can also interfere with insulin getting glucose into the cells.

Extra fat blocks insulin receptors so insulin can’t do its job of driving sugar into cells and blood sugar rises to high levels. This causes sugar to stick to the surface of cell membranes. Once stuck to cell membranes, sugar can never get off and is eventually converted to sorbitol which destroys the cell to cause all the side effects of diabetes.

The extra sugar outside cells is converted to fat, which blocks insulin receptors even more and prevents insulin from doing its job, leading to more weight gain and eventually to diabetes. Thirty-five percent of North Americans, and similar numbers of Australians, are expected become diabetic because they exercise too little and eat too much.

Don’t be one of them. Get out there, do some exercise every day (and don’t overeat).