One of the most common myths about weight training for women is that weight training reduces breast size and creates a flat manly looking chest. This misconception has prevented many women from incorporating weight training into their quests to lose weight and firm up their bodies- a path that inevitably leads to failure as weight training is without question the most effective way to really tone up and develop a tight body. But what about the prospect of becoming flat chested? To answer that I can honestly say that unless you plan on starving yourself  or using anabolic steroids, women have little to worry about in terms of their breasts getting smaller from weight training. In fact most tend to see a slight increase over time!

Weight training properly executed with sufficient intensity, adequate rest and nutrition will bring about an increase in muscle size of any part of the body that is being worked.  This holds true whether it be it the pectoralis muscles of the chest (or pecs as many call them) or the muscles of your arms and legs. The way that this process (hypertrophy) works is that individual muscle fibers will get bigger (slightly bigger, that is, you won’t see mountains of muscle sprout on a woman without the use of anabolic steroids as it takes men with ten times more testosterone, years upon years to develop a muscular physique) or they will split and then get slightly bigger. The fibers of your pectoral muscles are all constituents of skeletal muscle whereas breast tissue is made up of sex specific adipose tissue (fat), ligaments, connective tissue and mammary glands. There are no skeletal muscle fibers found in the breasts as they simply sit directly over the pectoralis muscles. Weight training therefore can have no direct effect on them whatsoever.

Weight Training Doesn’t Affect Breasts Only The Muscles Underneath

Breast schematic diagram (adult human female cross section) - Legend: 1. Chest wall 2. Pectoralis muscles 3. Lobules 4. Nipple 5. Areola 6. Duct 7. Fatty tissue 8. Skin. Image courtesy Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator

Breasts thus cannot hypertrophy or get larger due to weight training, but by increasing the size (slightly, ladies) of the pectoral muscles under the breasts there will be a natural increase in overall chest size. It may then appear that the breasts look a bit larger as they will stand up a bit more (which, is something most women would not mind) but the actual size and composition of the breasts themselves will not change. A study conducted in the University of Arizona back in 1985 confirmed this phenomenon in a 21 day study that used concentric and eccentric contractions with a specialized chest exercise machine. After the three week program researchers found no changes whatsoever in the size, shape or volume of the breasts of the women participating after extensive scientific measurement.

So what about those flat chested women in the magazines with thickly developed chest muscles and no breasts? First off all the female bodybuilders that we typically see use drugs to develop unnatural degrees of muscular development and body fat reduction and do not represent in any way what a regular woman would look like if they weight trained. The size and shape of breasts in a healthy woman is fairly resistant to change as long as there are normal conditions of hydration and food availability, but in cases of extreme under nutrition (for example the type of starvation diets that bodybuilders undergo to get that lean and vascular look or someone with an eating disorder like bulimia or anorexia) where there is a severe reduction of body-weight and overall body fat the breasts which have a high proportion of fat, will shrink. In the case of the female bodybuilders- you see the dense muscle tissue in their chest area and no breasts and the assumption is erroneously made that somehow the weight training made their breasts go away whereas the truth is that the shrinkage came from the reduction in body fat and nothing else.

Weight Training Can Help You Look Better All Round!

That being said, natural female bodybuilders who don’t aspire to have 3% body fat levels (and can’t without the use of potentially dangerous male hormones, growth hormones, insulin and thyroid drugs) don’t tend to have the same flat chested look as their drug using counterparts, nor the thickly muscled pecs that many find a bit off putting. There is some reduction as they diet down, but most of the size lost in their chest area comes back when they resume eating normally. The other factor that can cause breast size to change is obesity- in which case the breasts become larger as body fat increases past healthy levels. Some women who are overweight look positively on this increase in breast size and are reluctant to exercise or diet for fear of reducing their bust size. For someone who is overweight to trim down to a really toned body, there will be some loss of breast size- from the loss of body fat. But keep in mind that weight training can help lift what remains and make you look better all round!

Kevin Richardson is the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts™ and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here.

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Post tags: body fat, bodybuilding, exercise, fat loss, female bodybuilder, female bodybuilding, self image, training, weight loss

Being Skinny Doesn’t Mean Being Healthy

In today’s society, especially for women, being skinny is the ultimate goal of most people interested in weight loss.  The media not only bombards us with a constant barrage of ultra thin models to advertise everything from clothing to cars while medical experts continuously tout the reduction of risk of metabolic related disease by being thin. But the question remains, can you be on the larger side and still be in good health? The reality, outside of selling fat burning supplements diet pills, tummy tucks and liposuction is that getting fit is far more effective at reducing the markers for type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease than by just being thin. 

You Can Be Overweight And In Better Health Than Someone That Is In A Healthy Weight Range

According to a study conducted at the University of Exeter in the U.K., longevity and good health comes far more from your activity levels than by simply being thin. The study observed the health of four groups of adult males, those who were thin and in good physical condition, those who were thin and in poor physical condition, those who were overweight but in good physical condition and those who were overweight and in poor physical condition. What was important for the relevance of this study in the real world is that everyone in the fit groups were long term exercisers and not just a group of people put on an exercise program for the purpose of the study. Blood sampling revealed an interesting fact: that both groups that were in good physical condition had significantly higher hdl (good cholesterol) levels than the unfit groups. 

Visceral Abdominal Fat Levels Are Lower In Overweight People Who Exercise Regularly

What was also significant is that the visceral abdominal fat and liver fat, which have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (see my article on the dangers of visceral abdominal fat) was far lower in the overweight group of men in good shape than the overweight group of inactive men even though their body fat percentages were the about the same.  So although someone might be classified as being overweight because their Body Mass Index (BMI) is on the higher side and they have a higher body fat percentage as long as they consistently engage in intensive regular exercise it appears that they will not have a dangerous visceral fat distribution around their internal organs. At the end of the day a low fitness level is a far greater threat to your health even though you might be thin and svelte. 

The Biggest Predictor Of Mortality Is Fitness Levels Not BMI

Overweight but fit people are often healthier than their slimmer counterparts!

The study at Exeter University isn’t the only one that has come to these conclusions, a study here in the U.S. of 5,400 adults found that half of those classified as overweight and one third of those classified as obese according to BMI standards were found to be metabolically healthy. That means that they did not have any indicators that might suggest a predisposition to health problems. The study also found that a quarter of those that fell into the ‘healthy’ weight range had at least two risk factors for cardiovascular disease. A 12 year study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that looked at mortality rates among 2,600 adults aged 60 and over found that while death rates were highest among the very obese (those with a BMI of 35 or higher), fitness level was always the strongest predictor of mortality risk, not BMI. Those who scored the lowest on treadmill tests were four times more likely to die in the next 12 years than those who had high fitness levels. 

Regular Exercise Is Far More Important Than Simply Being Thin

The message is simple- looking good is great but the key to longevity and good health is regular exercise. Keep that in mind the next time you look in the mirror and don’t quite see the six pack you might want to see- by exercising regularly and watching what you eat you’ll live longer and be in better shape that someone who may be skinny but is inactive. Keep training! 

Kevin Richardson is the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts™ and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here.

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Post tags: body fat, body fat percentage, exercise, health tips, weight loss

Source: Solimena Lab and Review Suckale Solimena 2008 Frontiers in Bioscience

Short High Intensity Training Workouts (HIT) Can Help Regulate Blood Sugar

According to a recent study extremely short duration high intensity training significantly improves insulin action in young healthy males. Type 2 diabetes is a very health problem here in the United States and in developed countries- a veritable pandemic affecting millions of children and adults alike. While it has been conclusively established that the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes can be reduced by regular exercise [1]. It is also true that most people find it difficult to consistently follow a routine due to lack of time as conventional exercise guidelines call for at least an hour of aerobic type activity five times a week. The commitment required for such training protocols are beyond the means of most living within the constraints of the very hectic realities of modern life. As many experts in the field have noted, in order for an exercise protocol to as well as a health benefit for the individual, not only should the regime reliably modify key disease risk factors, it must also be plausible to implement.”[2]

Short high intensity training increases aerobic function and insulin action

Brief high intensity training workouts (HIT) have been demonstrated to produce improvements in aerobic function, but it was previously unknown whether high intensity training had the capacity to improve insulin action and hence glycemic control. The study, done published in BMC Endocrine Disorders proves that it does just that!

For the study 16 young men in their early twenties underwent a regime of 15 minute high intensity training type workouts for a period of two weeks. Aerobic performance testing as well as an oral glucose tolerance test were administered both before and after the training period. What researchers found after the two week period was that there was a significant increase in insulin action in addition to an increase in aerobic performance.

Notably the area under the plasma glucose, insulin and NEFA concentration-time curves were all reduced (12%, 37%, 26%), fasting plasma insulin and glucose concentrations were unchanged, but there was a tendency for reduced fasting plasma NEFA concentrations after training. Insulin sensitivity, as measured by the Cederholm index, was improved by an average of 23%, while aerobic cycling performance improved by 6%.

High intensity training is a realistic training paradigm to improve insulin action

The study concluded that: “the efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable…This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.”[2]

References: 

1. Pedersen BK, Saltin B: Evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in chronic disease. Scand J Med Sci Sports 2006

2. Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males- John A Babraj , Niels BJ Vollaard , Cameron Keast, Fergus M Guppy, Greg Cottrell and James A Timmons

Kevin Richardson is the creator of  Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts™  and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City.

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Post tags: 10 minute workouts, exercise, health tips, high intensity training, training tip

High intensity training can help reduce visceral abdominal fat.

High Intensity Training Reduces Visceral Abdominal Fat

There is an irony to our current health situation here in the United States and in developed countries. At a time in our history when more people than ever before are overweight the exercise and fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar giant that continues to grow even in times of economic contraction. We spend more money on exercise programs than ever before- most do little and some are so extreme that any weight loss derived cannot be realistically sustained so waistlines are not going down and staying down. The conventional approach to losing fat around the abdominal area has always been primarily aerobic exercises and most can attest that you don’t exactly get a six pack from running or being on the bike/treadmill/StairMaster/Elliptical Machine for hours and end. What has been proven time and time again by those in the trenches for reducing abdominal fat and creating the elusive toned and sculpted physique is weight training or more precisely high intensity training.

High Intensity Training As A Time Efficient Solution To Reducing Visceral Abdominal Fat & Improving Your Health

With an obesity rate of nearly 34% here in the United States and with most of those individuals suffering from the cluster of metabolic syndromes associated with a high body mass index and high visceral abdominal fat levels such as hypertension, Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, society as a whole need simple and long term solutions to being able to help people lower their body fat levels. The small time commitment of high intensity training is certainly a major part of the solution and more and more studies are pointing in that direction. High intensity training for a long time has been associated solely as a means toward increasing strength and muscle mass, but as more and more studies are conducted, researchers are discovering that high intensity training can not only help increase your endurance but also have a significant effect on the reduction of your body fat- specifically that layer dangerous layer right around your midsection. Read our article- The Dangers of Visceral Abdominal Fat.

Effects Of High Intensity Training On Body Composition & Visceral Abdominal Fat

A study published in Medicine & Science In Sports Exercise- the  journal of the American College of Sports Medicine found that high intensity training was far more effective than conventional prolonged low intensity training programs in reducing overall body fat and quite importantly- reducing abdominal visceral fat. It has been firmly established that high visceral abdominal fat levels not only present a cosmetic problem, but significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

The study examined the effects of exercise training intensity in middle aged obese women with metabolic syndrome. The women were split into three groups-

• Group One maintained their regular levels of daily activity with no exercise added and served as a control for the experiment.
• Group Two engaged in a conventional low intensity prolonged exercise program five days a week similar to recommended protocols.
• Group Three engaged in brief high intensity training sessions three days a week.

To accurately determine body composition changes, researchers used single slice computed tomography scans to observe abdominal fat and thigh muscle cross sectional areas. Body fat percentages were calculated using air displacement plethysmography.

Conclusions: High Intensity Training Is More Effective At Reducing Visceral Abdominal Fat

The findings from the study: The high intensity training group significantly reduced their total abdominal fat and subcutaneous abdominal fat whereas there were no statistically significant changes in any of these parameters in the control group or the low intensity exercise group.

Conclusions: Data from the study found conclusively that body composition changes are indeed affected by the exercise intensity and that high intensity training is far more effective at reducing visceral abdominal fat and subcutaneous abdominal fat.

So if you are serious about getting your midsection into shape and improving your overall health, you might want to give high intensity training another look!

Kevin Richardson is one of New York City’s most sought after personal trainers and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts. Get a copy of Kevin’s award winning free weight loss ebook here and visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net. 

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Post tags: body fat, exercise, flat stomach, high intensity training, training tip, weight loss

Osteoporosis is the loss of bone density over time and the most common type of bone disease. It is estimated that 1 out of 5 American women over 50 have osteoporosis. About half of all women over the age of 50 will have a fracture of the hip, wrist, or spine over the course of their lives and the leading causes of osteoporosis are a drop in estrogen in women at the time of menopause and a drop in testosterone in men. Most women shy away from the idea of weight training and high intensity training in general in favor of more aerobic type exercises and classes however more and more research is affirming that not only weight bearing exercise, but also high intensity training workouts can decrease bone loss- especially among postmenopausal women.

According to a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association, high intensity training using strength exercises have been shown to be an effective way to preserve bone density while also improving overall muscle mass, increasing strength and balance in postmenopausal women. The research was done at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts and the subjects ranged in age from 50 to 70 years old. Following a high intensity low volume protocol the 39 women involved exercised twice a week performing five different strength training exercises per session over the course of a year.

High Intensity Training Workouts For Women Increases Bone Density

The findings were quite significant- in the women doing high intensity training femoral neck bone mineral density and lumbar spine bone mineral density increased by approximately 1 to 4.5% while the inactive control group saw a similar DECREASE in bone density of the same regions.  Total body bone mineral content was preserved in the strength-trained women while it tended to decrease in the sedentary women who were used as a control. Also of note, muscle mass, muscle strength, and dynamic balance increased in the strength-trained women and decreased in the inactive women.

High Intensity Training: A Proven Method For Preserving Bone Density & Improving Strength & Muscle Mass

The study’s conclusion:  ’High-intensity training exercises for strength are an effective and feasible means to preserve bone density while improving muscle mass, strength, and balance in postmenopausal women.’

Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the founder of the Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts™, helping people get better results in less time for the past 19 years! Get a copy of his free weight loss e-book here!

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Post tags: exercise, high intensity training, osteoporosis, women's health

When is the best time to exercise- Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons

When Is The Best Time To Exercise?

Everyone has their preference, and ideas as to when is the best time to exercise. Some like training first thing in the morning, others squeeze in their workouts around lunchtime while others train in the late evening or at night. The question remains however when is the best time to train and does the time that you train really matter in the first place. Well, the answer isn’t as clear cut as one might expect. Your body works in accordance with what are called circadian rhythms which operate in a cycle of just about twenty four and a half hours. Fluctuations in our core body temperature occur in conjunction with the passage of the day- rising and falling between approximately 97.5 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. (That’s 36.5 to 37.5 degrees Celsius for us on the metric system).

When Is The Best Time To Exercise- A Look At How Our Body Works

Our body clock as you might call it, is designed in such a way that it resets itself every day using light as a major frame of reference. It synchronizes both our moods and energy levels in a cyclical pattern based on the time of day. Upon waking for example, you will realize that your mental performance isn’t quite as sharp as it is after you have been up for a couple of hours- and no amount of coffee is going to do it for- it has to happen over time. This increase in mental acuity continues up to the early evening, at which point our ability to concentrate begins to decline. This pattern exists not only for our mental ability as everything from peak muscular performance, anaerobic power output and our overall motivation to train in the first place.

So When Is The Best Time To Exercise?

That being said, from a strictly scientific perspective the human body under normal circumstances is at its physical best from 4 pm to 7 pm. Sounds like a very clear cut answer to the question of when to train, except it isn’t. While it is true that our hormone levels peak in late afternoon, making muscles peak in terms of flexibility and power output, the increase in performance in the real world is very slight, as being the ever adaptive beings that we are, you can train yourself to perform at your best at any time. Several studies have found that when individuals are made to train only in the morning or only in the early evening (our theoretical peak time)  those that trained in the morning did better as a whole on physical performance tests early in the day while the evening trainers did better on their tests in the evening.

When Is The Best Time To Exercise? Anytime!

Exercise, like light and change in environmental temperature seems to also have a powerful effect on synchronizing our internal clock. So how does this apply to your training? Well if you have an event that will require you to be at your best, it would make sense that you time your training to coincide with the time of the event several weeks beforehand. Other than that, even though research shows that the ideal time to exercise is in the late afternoon, the advantages are slight and at the end of the day you will adapt anyway to whatever time you train.

From personal experience, I have trained both on morning and in the evenings (I do my leg workouts on Sunday mornings and the rest of my body during the week at around 6:30 pm or so as I have for the past decade and a half). Do I see any noticeable difference? Not at all, and with the poundages that I lift and the degree of intensity with which I train, any drop in performance would be very easily detected. The same applies for the hundreds of people I have trained over the years as well- although well over 95% of them do prefer to train in the evening. Is there a difference in the amount of bodyfat lost from training in the morning versus training in the evening? Again, my experience with my clients doesn’t show any difference whatseover and there is no real science behind it either.Practicality has to be taken into consideration before anything else, as if you are only able to train on mornings, then that is when you should train. The key to success in any athletic endeavor or quest for self improvement is consistency- perhaps the most powerful factor of all. So find a time when you can train that fits with your life and that you can stick with! Excelsior!

Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts! You can get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here! Visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net

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Post tags: exercise, sports performance, training time, training tips

Happiness is not a matter of intensity- but of balance

I am sorry to say this but I don’t believe life revolving around training and working out. Which may come as a surprise to many that look at me and think that I spend hours and hours slaving away at the gym and then the rest of time counting calories and starving myself. No, Going to the gym should be a means to an end and not an end in itself.

You go there to get the tools you need to make your life outside the gym more meaningful, but if there is no life outside the gym there is no meaning to the endeavour. You must have a healthy balance of activities, including a social and family life.  That is the only way that you can truly attain balance. We often look at those that spend countless hours in the gym as somehow being healthy, but the truth is that they can’t be. Anything, in excess even exercise is detrimental.

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Lose weight, build real muscle and get Superfit training only 10 minutes 3 times a week! That’s the slogan and the 100% guarantee of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™ created by visionary NYC personal trainer, internationally renowned natural bodybuilder and fitness expert, Kevin Richardson. Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here!

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Post tags: exercise, high intensity training