Brief High Intensity Training As A Preventative Factor Against Pre-Diabetes

For the last two decades the diabetes rate here in the United States has increased significantly and it continues to rise with no signs whatsoever of those numbers going down anytime soon. According to a recent survey conducted by the Center For Diseases & Control nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, with 95% of those cases being type 2 diabetes, in which the body gradually loses its ability to use and produce insulin. A number that by no means small, but what is more disturbing is that estimates are that 79 million Americans are prediabetic.  That’s over one third of the entire US population. A number that reaches out and touches all of us- our friends, our families and us individually as well. Being prediabetic means having blood sugar levels that are higher than what ideal levels should be, but not high enough to be clinically diagnosed as being diabetic.[1,2]

Unfortunately, prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in addition to the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.  What experts term as the  ‘Western Style Diet’ has been implicated as the central cause of our increased rates of diabetes[3] in addition to sedentary lifestyles and obesity. Eating better is an important part of the fight against diabetes but equally important is the need to integrate a regular routine of exercise and physical activity.  However given the demands of modern living most cite lack of time as being the primary reason they don’t engage in regular exercise. [4]That being said, infrequent bouts of brief high intensity training routines of 10-15 minutes have been shown to have a positive effect in improving insulin action and thus could be the answer to those without adequate time to train with a predisposition towards diabetes and obesity.[5]

What Is Prediabetes?

As mentioned above, prediabetes usually precedes a full diabetic diagnosis and is characterized by impaired fasting glucose where fasting blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not elevated to the point of a diabetes mellitus classification. Long term, large scale studies have shown that being prediabetic can cause long term damage to the heart and circulatory system and increase your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease even though there isn’t a full diagnosis of diabetes.[6, 7] Unfortunately, for many there are no marked symptoms of prediabtes, unlike diabetes mellitus which while sometimes difficult to identify without clinical testing does at times have some signs such as fatigue, weight gain,  difficulty seeing, slow healing of cuts and wounds as well as tingling or loss of sensation in the extremities. That being said, given the widespread nature of prediabetes, fasting plasma glucose screening is important for everyone over the age of 30 and might be a good idea for younger individuals who are at risk due to lifestyle and or a high incidence of family history with diabetes.

High Intensity Training As A Preventative Factor Against Pre-Diabetes

The key however, aside from maintaining a healthy body weight through proper diet is to also be sure to incorporate exercise into your routine as a way of both preventing and reducing the risks associated with higher blood fasting levels. One of the easiest and most efficient ways to do this is though the implementation of a high intensity training program- which does not require much in the way of time (as little as three workouts of ten to fifteen minutes duration per week) and is a practical solution for todays’ personal time deprived lifestyles. 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 [8]. 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.

The Role Of Short High Intensity Training In Improving Insulin Action & Blood Sugar

You don't need to train for hours to improve your blood sugar response if you train at high intensity.

Brief high intensity training workouts 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. An important study published in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders however shows that such brief high intensity training may indeed have a pivotal role as a time saving exercise protocol for the prevention of diabetes. For the study 16 young men in their early twenties underwent a regime of 15 minute high intensity training for two weeks using stationary bicycles. Aerobic performance assessment as well as an oral glucose tolerance test to determine insulin response were administered both before and after the training periods. At the end of the two weeks of high intensity training researchers observed a significant increase in insulin action in addition to an increase in aerobic performance. Researchers 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.”[9]

It’s Not How Long You Train- It’s How Hard You Train

Studies conducted at Arizona State University and Texas University not only confirm the increase in insulin action as a result of high intensity resistance training, but highlight two very important conclusions-

1. Higher intensity multiple set training protocols yielded the greatest treatment effect in improving both fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity.[10]
2. High volume resistance training is not a requirement for improved insulin sensitivity as a result of exercise as individuals performing high intensity low volume exercise have similar improvements in insulin sensitivity as those engaged in higher volume training programs. [11]

Taking this into consideration, a high intensity training protocol is one that many pressed for time should seriously consider. Not only have short intense workouts been demonstrated to improve insulin action but it has also been shown to increase muscle mass, increase endurance and aerobic capacity and decrease body fat better than aerobic exercise and conventional high volume training programs.[12,13,14,15,16,17,18] All the while increasing bone density, improving cardiovascular health and significantly reducing both the incidence and severity of depression.[19,20,21,22]

References: 

 1. Power of Prevention, American College of Endocrinology. Vol. 1, issue 1, January 2009. http://www.powerofprevention.com/POP_magazine_Jan2009_final.pdf/
2.  Jellinger, Paul S. “What You Need to Know about Prediabetes.” Power of Prevention, American College of Endocrinology. Vol. 1, issue 2, May 2009
 3. Wild S, Roglic G, Green A, Sicree R, King H (May 2004). “Global prevalence of diabetes: estimates for 2000 and projections for 2030″. Diabetes Care
 4. Gilba MJ. High-intensity Interval Training: A Time-efficient Strategy for Health Promotion. Current Sports Medicine Reports 2007
5. Babraj JA, Vollaard BJ, Keast C, Guppy FM, Cottrell G, Timmons JA. Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males- BMC Endocr Disord. 2009
6. Fontbonne A, Charles MA, Thibult N, Richard JL, Claude JR, Warnet JM, Rosselin GE, Eschwège E. Hyperinsulinaemia as a predictor of coronary heart disease mortality in a healthy population: the Paris Prospective Study, 15-year follow-up. Diabetologia. 1991
7. Barr EL, Zimmet PZ, Welborn TA, et al. (2007). “Risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in individuals with diabetes mellitus, impaired fasting glucose, and impaired glucose tolerance: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle Study
8. C. A. Witczak1 and M. Sturek. Exercise prevents diabetes-induced impairment in superficial buffer barrier in porcine coronary smooth muscle. Journal of applied Physiology
 9. Pedersen BK, Saltin B: Evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in chronic disease. Scand J Med Sci Sports 2006
 10. Black LE, Swan PD, Alvar BA. Effects of intensity and volume on insulin sensitivity during acute bouts of resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Apr;24(4):1109-16.
 11. Reed ME, Ben-Ezra V, Biggerstaff KD, Nichols DL. The Effects of Two Bouts of High- and Low-Volume Resistance Exercise on Glucose Tolerance in Normoglycemic Women. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Dec 8.
12. Hawley JA,  Specificity of training adaptation: time for a rethink? Physiol. 2008
13. Tremblay, A. et al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Physical Activities Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Quebec, Canada Metabolism.1994; 43(7): 814-818.
14.  Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K.-Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996 Oct;28(10):1327-30.Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max.
15. Burgomaster KA, Howarth KR, Phillips SM, Rakobowchuk M, MacDonald MJ, McGee SL, Gibala M. Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans.  J Physiol 586: 151-160, 2008
16. Bahr R (1992). “Excess postexercise oxygen consumption–magnitude, mechanisms and practical implications”. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica. Supplementum 605
 17. Bahr R, Høstmark AT, Newsholme EA, Grønnerød O, Sejersted OM (September 1991). “Effect of exercise on recovery changes in plasma levels of FFA, glycerol, glucose and catecholamines”. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica 143
 18. Bielinski R, Schutz Y, Jéquier E (July 1985). “Energy metabolism during the postexercise recovery in man”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 42
 19. High-intensity resistance training and postmenopausal bone loss: a meta-analysis.Martyn-St James M, Carroll S. Osteoporos Int. 2006
 20. Doyne EJ, Ossip-Klein DJ, Bowman ED, Osborn KM, McDougall-Wilson IB, Neimeyer IB. Running Versus Weight Lifting in the Treatment of Depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
 21. Martinsen EW, Hoffart A, Solberg O. Comparing aerobic and non aerobic forms of exercise in the treatment of clinical depression: a randomized trial. Comprehensive Psychiatry
 22. Singh NA, Stavrinos TM, Scarbeck Y, Galambos G, Liber C, Singh MA. A randomized controlled trial of high versus low intensity weight training versus general practitioner care for clinical depression in older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences

Kevin Richardson is an award winning health and fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight or taking your body to the next level give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420 or click here to get started with 50% off your trial personal training session.

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Preface:

I grew up in Trinidad, an island in the West Indies were there was a significant number of homeless individuals living on the streets. So much so that they were a constant presence in the more urban areas of the island. As varied as they were in age and in circumstances which lead them to a life on the street, there was one striking physical aspect that they all shared- namely that almost every one of them had a remarkably defined six pack. They weren’t the only group of people who seemed somehow blessed with rippling midsections as those who chose to live off the land in the hills as a rule were similarly blessed with deeply etched abdominals. These people had never done a sit up, didn’t know what a crunch was, never used an Abdominizer or any other newfangled ab machine nor did they even know what a fat burner was. Perhaps, like the native people of everywhere from Papua, New Guinea to the Amazon Basin they didn’t realize that these things were a prerequisite to having a six pack. Or perhaps most of what you read about getting a six pack has little to do with actually achieving it.  In this updated article, I do my best to discount the myths surrounding getting a six pack- most of which revolve on making you buy a product or service of some sort or promote unhealthy eating practices that create temporary solutions at best. I will preface the article with a caveat that what it takes to get a six pack isn’t impossible nor does it have to cost you anything- but it does require commitment, dedication and time. Thanks as always for reading.

Six Pack Abs-Why What You Eat & How Much You Eat Is More Important Than The Exercises

Over the past two decades of my career as both a personal trainer and a natural bodybuilder the most common question that I have been asked is how do you go about getting a six pack. You can get many different answers from many different people but I have always found it interesting that many of the self appointed fitness gurus giving the advice don’t sport a six pack themselves. Some may have a picture or two of what they looked like when they did have a six pack, but the photos are usually pretty dated or document the way they looked for a very brief period of time when preparing for a bodybuilding contest or photo shoot. As great an accomplishment as this may be, it in no way reflects what they look like all year round and few members of the general public are interested in only having a six pack for two or three weeks out of the year. The popular ninety day extreme exercise and diet video series promise a six pack within a very short time period, but as those who have done such programs can attest- you’ll regain the weight and lose whatever semblance of a six pack you gained within an equally short period of time.

The widespread use of steroids, thyroid medications, insulin, human growth hormone and other such drugs also makes it hard to find credible role models. Non natural bodybuilders, fitness models, figure competitors, bikini competitors, celebrities and many personal trainers rely on drugs for their coveted washboard midsections and it is disturbing to note the number of recreational users who risk their health with these drugs simply to look good for the summer. It is a sad blow to the fitness industry as it creates a culture of trainers who have no experience getting into shape without using drugs and thus are unable to help anyone else do the same. Add to this the babel of infomercials hawking the latest ‘scientifically proven’ ab machines and exercises and you can easily find yourself lost, confused and someone lighter in the wallet in your quest to see your abdominal muscles. That being said, it is very possible to have a six pack and keep it all year round, regardless of body type but it does take work and it won’t happen overnight.

Six Pack Abs As An Effective Marketing Tool

The allure of six pack abs is a powerful tool for getting you to buy everything from supplements to exercise machinesstuff

You turn on the television and something in you wants to believe them. The well sculpted models using some new fangled invention that they swear will get you a six pack within a matter of weeks. Perhaps summer is coming or you are just tired of not seeing what you want in the mirror and so you buy the machine, using it faithfully just as they did on the infomercials- and yet nothing happens. Your belly remains just that- a belly. It doesn’t transform into a chiseled work of art and you can’t understand why. Undaunted, but a bit lighter in the purse, you go to the gym. You just want to get your abdominals looking sharp and all the gym advertisements are filled with beautifully built people with the midsections of a Greek gods. Given how great they look, it should only be a matter of time until that membership pays off and you’ll look just like them. You do everything you read about- thousands of crunches, sit ups and leg raises. You hit every ab machine in the gym every day you are there, take every ab class and put in your time doing cardio to burn off the fat. At first you fell that you are making progress, you feel the burn when you train and are confident that the six pack of your dreams are just around the bend. But nothing happens. All that has happened is that you have spent good money on machines you don’t use and a gym membership that is becoming more and more of a reminder of how hopeless your quest has become.

The weeks turn into months and the months turn into years, and still those blocks in your stomach remain elusive. So you decide to do more. You train longer and you do more exercises for your abdominal muscles, perhaps training them every day. Maybe even twice a day, yet your midsection still looks more like a spare tire rather than a carved piece of granite. What could be the problem? Why can’t you get the same abdominal definition as the people in the magazines? Why is there still a layer of fat where rippling muscles should be after all of your hard work? The answer has nothing to do with six packs and everything to do with economics.

Unless you were one of the fortunate few who had an accomplished mentor to steer you in the right direction from day one, you probably got most of your information on getting a six pack from television, books, magazines, or the Internet. However it is important to reflect on what these sources have to gain by your heeding their advice. From the eye catching before and after pictures to the authoritative pitches by celebrities and fitness gurus there is usually one common denominator behind it all and that is profit.

6 Pack Abs Are A Multi-Million Dollar Industry

The quest for six pack abs make people throw away significant sums of money on things that don't work or provide only fleeting results.

There is a very useful Latin phrase, ‘cui bono?’ which translates as ‘who stands to gain?’ – and this is precisely the question you should be asking when confronted by any information on how to get your abs to show. There are always new and improved machines and new and improved exercise programs, all sold by well muscled trainers, athletes and celebrities and there will always be new ones coming out of the woodwork. The math is pretty simple- these programs, routines, exercises, extreme diets and classes aren’t going to produce an army of six pack sporting citizens, but rather a slew of frustrated individuals. Individuals who are not going to lay the blame on the machine/diet/DVD or trainer for failing, but who instead will place the blame squarely on themselves. Disheartened and filled with a sense of failure, they thus become the perfect consumers for another round of products and services- in the hope that this one will finally help them break through and get them a six pack. It is a cyclic system that sells you hope but not much of anything else and it works as long as the general public remains confused and unsure about what they need to do to get into shape.

Today in our society people want results and they want it now- a microwave mentality that applies not only to how people approach matters of health and fitness, but also just about every facet of modern life. If people want something, they want it now and you are willing to pay for it, a weakness that the fitness industry and media use to their advantage. People will always buy that fitness magazine because they are certain that if you do the same ‘secret exercises’ that the celebrity/athlete/model/bodybuilder is doing, you will eventually look like them.

People will always tune in to that special report on the new way to lose inches off of your midsection. News programs have devolved mostly into thinly disguised forms of entertainment, where ratings take precedence over the reporting of credible information, ratings that help them sell advertisement time at higher prices, which thus net the networks higher profits. In the final analysis, most of the information you come across about getting a six pack comes with a vested interest in making a profit and not some altruistic and compassionate desire to help you realize your goal. Unfortunately you can’t make much in the way of profit with the principles that are really needed to get a six pack. There is no instant gratification and it doesn’t come with a need for fancy machines, DVDs, supplements, books or magazines. Most importantly, you can do it without spending the better part of your life doing abdominal exercises.

The Reality Of  Six Pack Abs- Proper Diet & Exercise

Everyone already has a six pack, it's simply a matter of reducing bodyfat to a point where it can be seen.

So how do you get abs? Well, for starters you already have them. Like the story of the fish that spends it’s life searching for water, most of us fail to realize that every human being already has a six pack- whether you can see them prominently or not. There are four main abdominal muscles, the transversus abdominus – which is the deepest muscle layer and it works to help stabilize the trunk and maintain internal abdominal pressure. The rectus abdominus – slung between the ribs and the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. This muscle has the characteristic bumps and bulges that are commonly referred to as ‘the six pack’ and everyone has them. There is also the external oblique muscles which flank the rectus abdominus and allow the trunk to twist and then there are the internal oblique muscles which also flank the rectus abdominus and operate in the opposite way to the external oblique muscles.

So if everyone has these abdominal muscles, one might ask why some have a six pack that you can see and others do not- the answer is simply a matter of body fat. Most men have a body fat percentage of around 15% to 18% and most women have an average body fat level of about 22% to 25%. Now even at these levels (which are  quite low for most of the general population) most people would have a layer of fat around their midsection that would hide their abdominal muscles. The muscles are always there, and all you really need to do is to reduce your body fat to levels where you can see them. Athletes typically have lower body fat percentages due to their increased activity levels.

Where your fat stores are and how high your body fat percentage is will determine how long it will take you to have a six pack. Some people with relatively high body fat percentages but with naturally low fat deposits in the stomach area can have a fairly visible six packs, while others need to reduce their body fat percentages to the single digits before they can see theirs. So how do you go about reducing your body fat in a way that doesn’t yield only fleeting results? The natural way to do it is simply a combination of:
PROPER DIET, HIGH INTENSITY WEIGHT TRAINING AND TIME.

This six pack wasn't built overnight and it took serious weight training to acheive it.

That’s one tried and true way of doing it and one that I have seen work without fail. No magic machines, no magic pills, no DVD’s and most certainly no special exercises or even cardio. I can say so with some authority since for the past 23 years I haven’t done that much in the way of  crunches, sit ups and the like after my tenth year and I never did any cardio- nor did any of my clients. When I did train my abs in the early years of my career it was never more than two exercises for a total of six sets, which took no more than three to five minutes to complete. As a natural bodybuilder I was told very early on that you rely on diet only to get into shape and not cardio- as too much in the way of muscle mass is always lost in the process and because it doesn’t really work. (Read more about cardio as an ineffective method for fat loss here.) In fact during the height of my bodybuilding career I didn’t do anything for my abs and still won shows and almost every photograph of me in circulation is what I look like having not done any direct ab work for over a decade. I’m not a genetic freak by any stretch, I never used drugs, nor am I possessed of a special body type that allows me to get away with doing so little as I have been able to replicate the same results with my clients who competed successfully in fitness, figure and bodybuilding competitions- regardless of their initial body type- and without doing any cardio or hours of ab exercises. It’s not what the fitness industry wants you to hear, but it’s the truth and isn’t thanks to anything but a consistently clean diet and intense weight training.

Everyone Has Six Pack Abs- Somewhere

In my workout DVD which was filmed to document my training philosophy and show what you could do without having to resort to drugs or supplements, there are no shots of me training my abdominals. I was asked on many occasions why I didn’t include a segment on abdominal training and the reason that I didn’t is because I did not in any way want to mislead the public.  Throughout my career I have strived to be as honest and upfront as possible (sometimes to my detriment one might add) and the last thing that I wanted was for people to think that if they trained their abs the way I did that they would get similar results as nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a combination of my years of careful attention to what and how much I eat, the fat burning effect of the brief high intensity training routine that I have followed religiously for the past 21 years and the metabolically active muscle mass that I have gained over my 23 years of training. That’s what keeps me in shape all year round and nothing else.

If It Won’t Give Me Six Pack Abs Do You Need To Do Ab Exercises?

Do you need abdominal exercises for a six pack? Not exactly, but you should do them anyway.

Now make no mistake- there is indeed a need to train your abdominal muscles- as it helps stabilize your entire body and such exercises are indeed recommended for everyone starting a training routine. However, your abdominal muscles get a serious workout during almost any weight training exercise and very much so if you train as hard and as heavy as I do at this point in my career using primarily compound movements. Thus I don’t need to do much in the way of direct ab exercises as they are hit pretty hard as a result of my high intensity training routine. That being said, your abdominals are muscles like anything else and training them every day with hundreds of repetitions won’t do much in terms of getting them to be as strong as possible and can result in overdevelopment. Take a look at the bodybuilders who have blocky abdominal muscles as a result of years of weighted abdominal exercises and or drug use. It might look impressive when they flex them, but otherwise those muscles protrude and give a rather pot bellied appearance. Big and thick abs don’t look too great in a T-shirt, and doesn’t present much in the way of a balanced and aesthetically pleasing physique.
The problem is that once you over develop your abdominal muscles by doing too much, it isn’t that easy- if at all possible to reverse it and you are stuck with a thick waist- which I doubt is the goal of those who train their abs day in and day out. Now the muscle tension created by training your abs several times a week makes you FEEL like your abs are tighter- but like any muscle the more you train them won’t necessarily make them any stronger or better developed. If anything it can actually hinder your overall progress (read more about how muscles get stronger here). As for ‘core strength’- time spent on an exercise ball will never give you the strength you can gain from a high intensity training program. High intensity weight training can make your core muscles strong enough to enable you to lift a car- which is a far cry from what you could do on your best day if you relied only on the modern incarnation of ‘core exercises.’ It won’t give you a six pack either.

Six Pack Abs Comes From Diet & Exercise

Now training your abdominal muscles can help make them bigger- but it can’t burn off the layer of fat that obscures them. That comes from a clean diet and ensuring that you don’t overeat. Any exercise claiming that it can spot reduce the fat around your stomach is as credible as killing chickens and painting yourself blue under a full moon to make it rain the next day. Muscle and fat are two completely different types of tissue thus an abdominal exercise will do nothing to reduce your waistline.

One or no more than two abdominal exercises done once a week at reasonable intensity is more than enough for 99% of the general population. Nevertheless, you can do ab  exercises until the cows come home but  it won’t do anything if your diet isn’t on point. I would honestly say that diet is 80% of the equation if your goal of a six pack. How you train creates the potential for your body to change but it’s what you eat that will determine how much you will change.

The Importance Of Diet For Six Pack Abs

What type of diet do you need to follow if a six pack is your ultimate goal? It’s a diet consisting exclusively of foods that have been part of the human diet for the past 150,000 years and one where you don’t overeat. That means no processed foods, (and that includes protein shakes- which you should avoid if you seriously want a six pack- read my article here) no added salt or sugars, no alcohol, juices or junk food of any kind. It isn’t as Spartan as one might think as it is absurd to believe that you need processed foods and alcohol to enjoy life. Humans have done it for millennia and back then most of them had that same six pack that today so many struggle to attain. Your great-great grandparents enjoyed their food, and most likely ate far less than you do today. It didn’t kill them, but on the contrary probably allowed them a better quality of life in terms of robust health.

In terms of exercise- you need to also incorporate weight training of a sufficient intensity to both increase your muscle mass which will also help you burn off the excess body fat in a manner that leads to sustainable and lasting results. So forget about doing high reps in the hopes of doing anything but wasting your time. For your body to change their must be some degree of overload and you can learn more about how this mechanism works in my article here.

Now paying attention to your diet over a long period of time in combination with a sensible exercise regiment isn’t going to give you any instant gratification. Attention to diet requires a lifetime of consideration, patience and discipline. Traits that don’t lend themselves to today’s microwave mentality but are nonetheless very much what it takes to get in shape and stay in shape. After all, it’s only logical that if it took you years to put on that layer of fat that obscures your stomach, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect it to go away in a couple of weeks. There are legitimate reasons to work your abdominal muscles directly, and that is to strengthen the muscles that support the trunk and allow for movement. These muscles also help support your lower back, so training them is not just a cosmetic undertaking. I hope this article help clear up some of the misconceptions around abdominal training, and I wish you all the best in your quest for six pack abs!

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here!

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Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. If you live in the New York City metropolitan area and need help losing weight or getting into cover model shape, give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420.

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Dealing With Injuries- A Personal Story

I remember it like it was yesterday and very often it doesn’t seem as far away as 8 years ago. I was doing cable curls in the dingy basement gym that I trained out for years in Brooklyn with the full stack of 250lbs. Every sinew of muscle in my arms was focused on getting that weight up as the burn in my biceps became more and more unbearable. I was on my eight repetition, watching the weight go up ever so slowly and struggling against gravity and steel which in the moment were my mortal enemies when it happened. The cable station I was working in had a chin up bar placed squarely in the center and there was a relatively experienced member of the gym doing pull ups right behind me as I was doing my curls. The gym wasn’t big by any stretch of the imagination and so I had been used to people working right next to me as I trained. He wasn’t a novice by any means and so I didn’t pay any mind to the fact that he was only a few inches away from me at the time.

Looking back I ask myself over and over if I should have sensed something but I can honestly say that I didn’t and what happened would have happened the same way if I could relive the experience all over again. While doing his pull ups behind me, the unthinkable happened. His hand slipped from the bar and he fell off to his left side, all two hundred and fifty pounds of him coming crashing down on my neck just as I was in mid lift of two hundred and fifty pounds on the cable curl machine. I heard a snap as his elbow stuck me right at the base of my neck and I felt a white pain stab me all the way down to my fingertips. Perhaps I didn’t fully grasp the enormity of what had happened or perhaps I was in shock, either way I gritted my teeth and did two more pain racked repetitions before putting the weight down and stopping to access the damage.

The pain of a cervical injury is indescribable but I never lost hope that I would learn to work around it.

I remember the gentleman who fell on me saying something in the way of an apology, but I couldn’t really hear him. I was too busy realizing that I couldn’t really move my arms and that I was locked in position. He took one look into my eyes and ran out of the gym, never to be seen back there again. I think he believed- quite I error- that I was going to inflict some damage on him, something that I didn’t and never have considered. It was an accident and accidents happen. The severity of the outcome doesn’t necessitate that someone always has be blamed. Everyone kept asking if I was alright and I mumbled that I would be fine, all the while feeling a growing sense of dread that this wasn’t in the category of a minor injury that I could shrug off. I was hurt and hurt pretty seriously.

I made my way out of the gym and took a car service home- with every bump in the road and sharp turn sending bolts of agony through my neck and down my arms. I remember getting immediately into bed and nothing else. The next morning I awoke with my arms locked in position and a searing pain that I would become intimately acquainted with for the next 8 years. I never had any reason to see him as I never really got injured as an adult while training, but I had a chiropractor in my phonebook who I sent all my clients and martial art students to whenever they were injured. He specialized in sports medicine- and had a strong background in acupuncture as well and I truly respected him as a practioner.  I called him up and he said that he would see me immediately and so I endured the short but excruciating cab ride to his office- with even the vibrations from the door slamming seeming to send shivers of pain into my neck.

He worked on me for a while- an agony that I can hardly recall, and then placed some needles strategically in my back and neck to help relax the muscles.  He said it didn’t look good and referred me to a orthopedist to see what was going on. From that night onwards and for many nights to come I couldn’t sleep very well. You don’t think of your neck very much but when it’s injured you suddenly become aware of how involved it is in almost every move you make. It hurt to keep my head up, it hurt to put my head down, it hurt to sit and it hurt to stand. Worse of all, lying down was agonizing, both with and without a pillow. Sleep consisted of periods where the pain lulled just enough for me to drift off before rearing it’s head again and waking me up with shafts of pain if I moved ever so slightly in any direction. Night and day became one long stretch of misery, punctuated only by light and darkness. My whole life became about finding a position where my neck didn’t hurt too much.

I saw the orthopedist only two or three days later and he ordered an MRI. I have no qualms about being enclosed, nor am I claustrophobic- but the act of laying flat on my back in the machine required every iota of willpower to not scream. The technicians were initially somewhat annoyed by my difficultly in being completely immobile but after they saw the results they became a bit more sympathetic. They wouldn’t disclose the results but one of them touched me on the shoulder and said that she understood why it was so hard for me to lay still. The results from the orthopedist weren’t encouraging. I had two discs in my cervical vertebrae that were bulging out. One was protruding to the left, the other to the right. He said that short of a car accident such neck trauma wasn’t common, and that it may very well have been that my well muscled shoulders were the reason I wasn’t paralyzed from the blow.

It got worse- he said that there really was little that could be done and that the pain in my neck and in my hands would probably never really go away. A spinal injury, he explained, was permanent and there weren’t any options on the table. His advice was that I stop weight training altogether and do some rehabilitation exercises to help me with the injury. I got a second opinion which was pretty much the same and I decided to very respectfully disregard their advice. I didn’t take any of the painkillers prescribed, as I am not a fan of them and in my work in social services have seen many a case of people addicted to those same drugs after months of relying on them to get through the day. I wasn’t going to be one of them- not at all out of any misguided machismo, but out of a very real awareness that if I started something that made the pain go away, I would never stop taking it.

The muscles relaxants they gave me made me feel worse for wear and so I stopped taking those, using only Neurotin- a drug that stopped the shooting pains in my fingers and hands. Two weeks after the injury and wracked with pain, I dragged myself back into the gym. If it was that I could never hold a weight in my arms ever again, I had to see this for myself and if there was a way for me to get back, I was going to find it, no matter how long it took or how much suffering it involved. My neck hurt, but I could do a leg workout as long as I didn’t turn my neck or place any weight on my shoulders, and for the next several weeks, that’s what I did. As time went on I added light, supported movements for my abs, arms and upper back- with each new exercise bringing a fresh layer of pain the next day- but I would not stop.

I filmed my workout DVD in the best shape of my life after my injury.

I had worked with dozens of clients with severe herniations, and my philosophy had always been that if we can’t fix the joint, we can build the muscles around it up to a point where they can compensate and allow for pain free range of movement. A good physician heals himself and that’s what I set out to do. I had been hurt in the summer of 2003, but by the end of winter I was back. Careful- still in constant pain- but able to do most of what I used to do before. I wouldn’t dare try to deadlift 600lbs or clean and jerk 315lbs the way I did in the past- but there was a range of movements I could do and lifting heavy was never a requirement for me- it was just what I was able to do. By the fall of 2004 I had competed in two bodybuilding contests, winning one and making the top three in the other. I did them just to see if I still had it and some said that it was the best I ever looked.

I never said anything about being in pain, nor did I ever give any outward show of it-to admit it was to be defeated by it and I had no intention of being the subject of anyone’s pity. I learned to sleep as best I could without moving and when the weather changed I learned to deal with the pain that came with an approaching rain. That year I filmed my bodybuilding documentary and in doing so, lifted more weight than I had ever thought off in my life. I never let my injuries limit me mentally or physically, and I found that since I was so attuned to how I had to train, that I become far stronger and better for it. My experience as a trainer has always been founded on my injuries and I have had many of them- torn rotator cuffs, herniated discs in my lumbar region and tendinitis in just about every joint in my body. Those injuries defined me- as they very often taught me what not to do- hard lessons that I learned at a younger age when lifting as heavy as I could took precedence over common sense.

As painful as they were they also taught me compassion and understanding. My injuries helped me understand on a very intimate level what those of my clients who come to me with a pre-existing injury are going through. I have learned not only what not to do and how to work around just about any joint or muscle condition- but also how to put myself in their shoes and help them along in the healing process. An expensive education- being injured, but one that I cannot say that I regret in terms of how it helps me do what I do to help others recover from their injuries.

My neck hurts. And probably always will. I have my good days and my bad days, but you would be hard pressed to tell by looking at me. I have learned that there are things in life that you cannot change- but what you can change is your perspective. Thanks to my training, I wasn’t paralyzed by the injury and thanks to my training I can do almost everything that I could do before and more. The few exercises that I lost are made up for in spades by the fact that I am stronger and even more advanced in my own personal physical and spiritual development as a result. Pain is a part of life- one that we can’t ever completely eliminate, no matter how hard we try. But we can learn from it and we can make ourselves more for experiencing it. Every moment can be an opportunity for learning and advancement, but only if we are open enough to embrace the inevitable and do our best to learn from it. Thanks for reading.

Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight or taking your body to the next level give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420 or click here to get started with 50% off your trial personal training session.

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How much do you know about health and fitness?

Take our quiz based on our blog articles, daily Twitter & Facebook health tips and see where you stand. Good luck!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com | SnapApp Quiz Apps

How Did You Do?
90 to 100%- You are a tried and true expert in all things related to health and fitness.
70 to 89%- You know your stuff, but could do with a little brushing up on your diet and exercise knowledge.
50% to 69%- You passed, but just barely. Lot’s of catching up to do.
49% or less- You didn’t pass, but don’t despair, keep reading our blogs and articles and be sure to follow Kevin on Twitter for daily fitness updates and you’ll be up to scratch in no time!

The answers:

1. Someone who is overweight has a slower metabolism than someone with a healthy body weight.

False- The heavier you are the faster your metabolism will be- read more here

2. An apple really has 70,000 calories.

True. Strictly speaking an apple has 70,000 calories- since the energy content of food is measured in kilocalories which is one thousand calories. Confused? Read my article on understanding calories here.

3. If you follow a proper diet you can lose 10 lbs of fat in 1 week.

False- it’s mathematically  impossible if you are eating any food at all to lose that much fat in a week given the fact that you need to expend 36000 kcals for every 1 pound of fat. Read more here.

4. As little as 40 kilocalories over your daily energy requirements can lead to a weight gain of over 40 lbs in ten years.

Sad but true. A small intake over what your body really needs creates the silent, cumulative weight gain that seems to sneak up on you over the years – read more here.

5. Regular Snapple juices have less sugar than Coca Cola

False. Regular Snapple drinks have more sugar than an equal amount of Coca Cola even though it is marketed as a healthier alternative to sodas. Check out Kevin’s Twitter and Facebook updates for daily health tips!

6. When eating at a restaurant anything labeled ‘Crispy’ is fine to eat as a healthier choice.

False. The word ‘crispy’ is code for fried. Read more in our guide to healthy restaurant eating here.

7. Oats contain gluten.

False, pure oats do not contain gluten proteins. Read more on oats and gluten here.

8. Cane sugar is healthier than corn syrup.

False, several notable health organizations have affirmed that there is no distinction that should be made between the two in terms of health risk when consumption is immoderate. Read more here.

9. Weight training can’t protect you from bone loss over time.

False. It does and you can read more about the mechanisms of increasing bone density through resistance exercise here.

10. Feeling guilty after eating junk food can help you not eat it again.

False. The more you think about a food you ate the more likely you are to continue eating it. Read more about how guilt can sabotage your diet here.

11. Multi-vitamins have been conclusively proven to make you healthier.

False. Every study on the matter has found no health benefit to those without significant vitamin deficiencies (which contrary to popular belief if almost non-existent in developed countries). Read more about it here.

12. Soil today has 50% less of the nutrients it had 50 years ago and so do the fruits and vegetables grown in them.

False. While there is some reduction in soil nutrients over time, the amounts found in produce isn’t significantly lower, nor does it justify the use of vitamin supplementation. Read more here.

13. When you buy fruits and vegetables the growers get get as much as 50-60% of the profits.

False. Farmers get as little as 4% of the profit at times for produce- a figure that is far higher for those who raise animal stocks. That’s one of the reasons fruits and vegetables aren’t promoted as much as meat and high profit junk foods- the profit margins are simply too low. Read more about the economics behind the food that you eat here.

14. It is the interest of the US economy for you to eat more of the foods that aren’t good for you.

True. The food industry not only generates over 8% of the U.S. GDP with a trillion dollars in annual sales, but it also employs 12% of working Americans. Given these figures it isn’t surprising that government programs are in place to support their marketing  strategies to get you to eat more. Read more here.

15. Eating foods with added Omega 3 fats can improve your health.

False. Studies have shown this to not all be the case. Read more on how adding omega 3 fats to products do little to help anything but profit margins here.

16. Fasting is a great way to detoxify your body.

False and the only way to give your body a break from foods you believe to be toxic is to not eat those foods in the first place. Read more here on fasting and what it can and cannot do.

17. Aerobic exercise is essential for building endurance, losing body fat and working your heart.

False. It’s not the only way as studies have shown that you can increase endurance, lose body fat and get a significant improvement in cardiovascular efficiency from high intensity resistance training alone. Read how you can get fit in less time here.

18. Early man did not eat bread during the Paleolithic era and thus it is not a natural part of our diet.

False. Recent archeological digs in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic have revealed the use of flat breads dating back as far as 30,000 years ago into what is commonly called the Paleolithic era. Read more about bread and its role in weight gain here.

19. Protein shakes are just as good as solid foods for your protein needs.

False. Contrary to marketing that masquerades as science, protein shakes are not only unnatural and highly processed products, but they can actually make you gain body fat. Read more here.

20. Tongol tuna is a better choice because it has lower mercury levels than regular tuna.

True. It’s a smaller fish and thus is lower in methyl-mercury. Read more about tongol tuna here.

21. The longer and more often you train the bigger and stronger your muscles will become.

False. Without continued overload to the point that stimulates an adaptive response, after becoming accustomed to the stimulus your muscles will have no reason to get bigger or stronger. It’s not always how much you do, it’s how you do it. Read more about how muscles get bigger and stronger here.

22. Eating for  your blood type is a proven way to ensure that you eat what is best for your body.

False. There is no science behind the idea that blood type has anything to do with food intake. Read more about the misinformation behind blood type diet theory here.

23. A drink or two a week won’t make a difference in your weight loss efforts.

False. Alcohol goes a long way in stopping your efforts to lose body fat. Read more about drinking and weight loss here.

24. Carbohydrates can make some people gain weight faster than anything else.

False. Any food, be it a protein, carbohydrate or fat consumed in quantities exceeding the caloric requirements of your body will make you gain weight. Fats, with a caloric value of 9 kcals per gram are actually more likely to make you gain weight as they have more calories than carbohydrates which have 7 calories per gram, but all things being equal eating anything more than you should will make you gain weight. Regardless of genetics. Read more about calories here and read more about the lack of evidence supporting a genetic link to modern obesity here.

25. The simplest way to eat well is to eat foods in as natural a form as possible with some degree of moderation.

True. The more unnatural a product is, the more likely it may not be the best decision for you to eat it. Read more by following updates on my Twitter account here.

Thanks for taking the test!

Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight or toning up and taking your body to the next level with a time saving and practical system of diet and exercise, give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420 or click here to get started with 50% off your trial personal training session.

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No Pain No Gain- Understanding Muscle Soreness

We all know the mantra when it comes to weight training or just about any type of intensive exercise- ‘No pain no gain’, and as anyone starting a training program can attest- the first few days after your initial workout can be painful indeed. We call it muscle soreness, or just plain pain, but the techincal term used is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). Call it what you like but it can Unlike the pain you feel as a result of an acute or overuse type injury, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness isn’t always a bad thing. On the contrary, in many ways it is a natural part of the adaptation response- the very process that our body uses to make our muscles bigger and stronger. That being said, there is some credibility to the ‘No Pain No Gain’ credo.

As much as pain may be a part of an intense exercise program you have to be aware of the differences between DOMS and an injury or chronic syndrome like as arthritis. The differences are usually quite marked, however after your first bout of exercise after a period of relative inactivity DOMS can feel quite crippling indeed! Given the high intensity protocols that are the hallmarks of my own training style, I can honestly say that there is almost never a day when I don’t have a muscle group that isn’t sore. So much so that some mornings I wake up hoping that someone got the license plate numbers of the truck that ran over me! You might think that twenty plus years of high intensity training would confer some immunity to muscle soreness, but I can tell you honestly that this isn’t the case (my legs hurt right now as I type this article!) Given my years of being so intimately acquainted with this type of pain, you might call me a wee bit of an expert, and in this article we will explore the mechanisms behind muscle soreness as well as dispel some of the myths.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness- The Mechanisms

You can think of your muscles performing three different types of contractions- concentric contractions, eccentric contractions and isometric contractions.  Concentric contractions occur when you do an exercise like a biceps curl and bring a weighted barbell up to your face. By flexing your elbow to raise the weight up towards your shoulder you contract your biceps muscles and make the muscle  fibers in your upper arm physically shorter- that’s a concentric (or shortening) contraction. However, when you lower the weight from your face back to the resting position you are performing an eccentric contraction. Eccentric contractions are characterized by a lengthening of your muscle fibers and play a significant role in muscle soreness as you will see as we go along. An isometric contraction is one where you simply hold an object in a fixed position- and so using our model of a biceps curl- holding the weight up halfway without moving it would be a classic example of an isometric contraction (isometric, by the way means no change in length.)

Now there are some points that must be kept in mind when our muscles perform a eccentric or lengthening contraction. Firstly, absolute tensions achieved are very high relative to the muscle’s titanic tension generating ability. In plain English this means that you can lower a weight that is much heavier than what you can lift. Anyone who has ever done weight training with a partner or trainer may have experienced this firsthand as there comes a point where you can no longer lift a weight, but if someone helps you get the weight up, you can still lower it under control. The second factor is that skeletal muscle tissue is resistant to lengthening by its very nature. So unaccustomed exercise of repeated or forced eccentric (lengthening) contractions will induce muscle damage. Damage that we experience as delayed onset muscle soreness. [1,2,3]

An example that most can relate to is the soreness you experience after a day of hiking in mountainous terrain. You may notice days afterwards that your leg muscles and calves are sore and this can happen regardless of whether or not you have strong legs and are in good shape. The soreness isn’t an indication that your leg muscles are weak, it’s just a result of the extensive lengthening actions these muscles have to perform while descending and at unaccustomed angles. Funny enough going up a mountain, or climbing flights of stairs won’t do much to make you sore the next day, it’s the descent that gets you. When I was younger and morbidly fascinated with the idea of sprinting up the staircases of tall buildings (we didn’t have much in the way of skyscrapers where I came from) I found that I didn’t feel sore the next day even running up 20 flights of stairs three or four times. I would always take the elevator down and catch my breath but one day it was out of service and I had to walk down the stairs each time. I was quite surprised to find that I was almost handicapped with pain for the next few days- the reason being the extensive amount of muscle lengthening movements involved in walking down the stairs.

The Myth of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness & Lactic Acid Buildup

Now running up those stairs, my legs muscles would feel a serious burn! The same burning sensation occurs during all of my high intensity workouts, but contrary to popular belief, this pain has very little to do with lactic acid. In fact lactic acid doesn’t really play a part in delayed onset muscle soreness. Researchers once believed that lactic acid buildup was indeed the cause of the burning sensation you feel in your muscles during any intense exercise and it was further thought that lactic acid was responsible for DOMS.  However this has been proven to not be the case at all. Lactic acid as it turns out is actually a metabolic by product of our muscular contractions and it breaks down very quickly into a useable fuel source for your muscles. Consequently, there is little accumulation in your muscle cells that could explain the burning sensation or the delayed onset soreness felt afterwards.

Before you get mad at researchers for not getting it right the first time, you have to understand that knowing precisely what goes on inside our bodies during an activity is a very difficult task. Much of what we know of the human body and how it works is akin to having an object inside of a box and trying to figure out what’s happening on inside without being able to open it. We can perform tests that allow us to make educated guesses as to what is going on, but we can’t open the box to be 100% sure. The same applies to our bodies, as short of surgically cutting into our muscles and observing what’s going on during exercise we have to rely on tests that give us indications of what happens after the activity is performed- not during. Modern ultrasound tests and magnetic resonance imaging can give us some clues as to what’s going on inside our bodies during exercise, but as advanced as it may be imaging technology it still doesn’t always conclusively answer all of our questions. That being said, research is always ongoing and every day it seems like we learn something new. The current theory for the burn you feel in your muscles while training is that it is caused by calcium or other substrates in our muscle cells but again, it is still an educated guess at this point.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness & Pain

Pain is a difficult thing to measure as our perception of pain is influenced by so many factors including age, gender as well as social and cultural norms about acceptable behavior while experiencing physical discomfort.[4] That being said, two different people can experience the same magnitude of tissue damage due to intensive exercise, but experience radically different magnitudes of perceived pain as pain is such a completely subjective phenomenon.[3] There is the aspect of adaptation as well as someone experienced in high intensity weight training won’t react to delayed onset muscle soreness the way someone experiencing DOMS for the first time after their first couple of workouts. You do tend to get used to it over time, and some people absolutely love the feeling of something aching all the time (I think of it as a dress rehearsal for when I am in my nineties!) while others learn to simply ignore it. My personal observations over the years having trained hundreds of clients is that men tend to be more debilitated by DOMS than women. The pain usually starts within 24 hours of the activity and can become worse the second day and at times it can linger for as long as a week depending on the degree of muscle damage and how accustomed you might be- (or not) to the exercise performed. Either way it isn’t ever permanent and unlike an acute or chronic injury, more exercise can actually make it feel better.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness  & The Adaptive Response

One great part of delayed onset muscle soreness is that it can in some cases be a step in the process of making your muscles bigger and subsequently stronger. In the event of an overload, the microtrauma experienced by your muscles will lead to an adaptive response by your body to make the muscle fibers of the area you worked bigger and stronger so they won’t suffer as much damage the next time you perform the same exercise. (See my article on how Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger for a detailed look at the adaptive response). That being said, we don’t know why the pain caused by delayed onset muscle soreness isn’t instant, nor do we know whether or not the muscle damage theory is the sole cause. Other theories suggest that the pain may be caused by changes in connective tissue as a result of activity and that there is a significant inflammatory response- which could explain why the pain isn’t instantaneous.[5,6] Given that the inflammation response may play a significant role in activating the adaptive response to make your muscles stronger, the practice of taking over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs as a way of relieving the pain may not be a great idea as it might make you get less out of your workouts. Instead the common treatment would be to ice or cool down the muscles exercised immediately after training, followed by warm baths or showers a day or more after your exercise session. Back home the practice was to train and then go take a bath in the sea right afterwards and it did indeed work wonders in reducing the amount of pain you would feel the next day. Massage therapy can also go a long way in helping you deal with the pain associated with delayed onset muscle soreness as well if you can get it.

How sore you are after a workout isn’t necessarily an indicator of how hard you trained and should not be used as such. Some people have naturally high pain thresholds and don’t seem to ever suffer much from delayed onset muscle soreness, and since it can vary so much from person to person it is a pretty weak barometer of how much work you did. Your level of soreness can also be affected by how well rested you are after the workout and your nutritional intake. Either way it’s a huge mistake to use soreness exclusively as a gauge of how effective your workout was since there are so many variables involved. Some days you’ll feel crippled after a relatively moderate workout, while other times a training hard session you won’t hurt that much at all afterwards. What’s important is to know when the pain isn’t just soreness and always consult your physician if you suspect the pain you are feeling might be injury related.

Related articles:

How Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger

References

1.Fridén et al. Segmental muscle fiber lesions after repetitive eccentric contractions Cell Tissue Res 1988

2 Evans et al. 1985; Fridén and Lieber, 1992

3 K. Noska. Muscle Soreness & Damage & The Repeated Bout Effect- Skeletal Muscle Damage & Repair

4. Strong J, Unruh AM, Wright A and Baxter. Pain A Textbook for Therapists

5. Cheung et al. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, Treatment Strategies and Performance Factors. Sports Med 2003;

6. Smith 1991

Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight or getting into spectacular shape, give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420.

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