Aerobic Exercise & Strength Training- Does It Help Or Hurt?

One of the greatest obstacles to the realization of our fullest potential in any field is the idea of convention. Convention can heartily sustain the life force of myths and concepts poorly understood by the public at large, even when confronted by volumes of well researched science that contradicts them. Nowhere is the hold of convention more pronounced than in the related fields of diet and exercise, where training protocols are often prescribed or implemented based on what is popular or what everyone has traditionally done. Not much thought is given to whether the programs are necessarily the best practices for the goals sought. The universal recommendation that aerobic exercise needs to be a part of everyone’s strength training regime is a case in point, as volumes of research highlight the negative impact of aerobic exercise on strength training, power development and muscle development. Not that there is anything wrong with aerobic and distance training, as it does indeed serve several purposes. Its health benefits are many and well documented. However, most employ aerobic exercise as a way of reducing body fat, building endurance or improving recovery time. All these benefits can be better achieved through other more anaerobic based and time efficient forms of conditioning such as high intensity training [1,2,3,4] and attention to dietary intake. More importantly numerous studies have shown that concurrent aerobic exercise can in many cases negatively impact strength and power gains as well as increase the likelihood of overtraining and bring about negative hormonal responses to exercise even when used in relatively small amounts. [1, 5,6,7,8] Such findings disqualify aerobics as a universal requirement for everyone, especially those interested in optimizing strength, power and or muscle mass to their fullest potential. A group that includes not only athletes whose disciplines require maximum strength and power output but also those seeking the toned, tight and sculpted body and those wishing to increase strength and skeletal muscle as a means of decreasing the motor related decline that comes with aging. [9]

The Impact of Aerobic Exercise on Adaptations For Power & Strength

The human body is a very specific machine, one that is individually adapted to the very stresses that it encounters throughout the course of everyday life. The process of increasing strength and muscle mass is in fact a stress response adaptation to a very specific form of overload. When lifting weights, for example, at a level of intensity or with a load sufficient enough to trigger a need for our body to adapt, a number of hormonal, neuromuscular and chemical events occur. Events that lead to an adaptive anabolic environment that can promote increases in muscle size and or increased ability to generate force. (See my Article on How Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger) By engaging in sustained steady state aerobic exercise such as distance running, our body is exposed to a very different form of stress-and the adaptations for this form of activity are far different than those required for increased power, strength and muscle mass. The physique of a sprinter is far different from that of a marathon runner as the two activities create different physical adaptations thus it should come as no surprise that many studies confirm that continued aerobic exercise can bring about decreases in muscle power. This may be due to neuromuscular and hormonal adaptations favorable for reducing the amount of energy expended while exercising- factors which would make an endurance athlete more efficient as opposed to maximizing mechanical power.[1] The sheer volume requirement of endurance type training as well may be a consideration as well as it appears to interfere with the recovery required for maximal results from strength and power training.[7]

The Impact Of Aerobic Training On Power and Rate Of Force Development

Explosive movements require great power or speed of execution

Repetitive activity associated with aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce the ability to generate force in the high velocity, low frequency region of the force velocity curve- in other words it makes our muscles less powerful.(30) Power and strength are closely related but not exactly the same thing. Strength is defined as the capacity for gross muscular effort. Power on the other hand refers to the speed at which effort can be performed. Its development is paramount for athletic performance since most movements in any sporting discipline are executed as forcefully and as quickly as possible.[1] Even in sports that one might consider primarily aerobic in nature such as basketball or soccer due their extended duration of play actually consist of repeated bouts of explosive movements that make up a very small proportion of playing time. [9,10] A good example of differences between power and strength would be a comparison between a powerlifter bench pressing 440lbs and an Olympic level 100m sprinter exploding out of the blocks. Both movements require the abilty to generate larger forces at high speeds, but the sprinter’s acceleration would be almost twice as powerful as the powerlifter. Contrast that with the amount of high speed force required by a baseball player to swing a bat from maximal backswing to contact with the ball where the baseball player generates just under ten times more force than the powerlifter bench pressing 440lbs. The baseball player would not likely be able to lift as much as the powerlifter, but he or she might be more powerful. That being said, you can be strong and not powerful but you can’t be powerful without a certain base of strength as the two are very directly related. (The most powerful athletes, Olympic lifters are indeed the strongest.) Now we have an understanding of the significance of strength and power, we can look at how it can be affected by distance type training.

While a heavy bench press requires great strength the movement does not require as much explosive power as a sprinter leaving the start line.

A study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology took an in-depth look at how power is affected when individuals do strength training concurrently with endurance training as opposed to strength training on its own. During the three week study, two groups of male participants were made to train twice a week doing the same program of resistance exercise with one group doing an additional two days of continuous aerobic exercise on a rowing machine with sessions lasting anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes in duration. At the end of the study there were similar increases in maximum one repetition lifts and isometric strength tests, but only the strength training group saw an increase in rate of force development (ROFD) and the associated rapid neural activation. No changes whatsoever were observed in the group doing both strength training and aerobic exercise.[12] Rate of force development refers to the speed at which force can be produced and a faster ROFD means you are able to do quicker and more explosive movements- qualities essential for strength increases as well as athletic performance. The study concluded that even small amounts of aerobic exercise can lead to interference in explosive strength development.[1]

How Aerobic Exercise Affects Muscle Development for Maximum Power & Muscle Mass

Other studies have demonstrate that sustained aerobic type exercise not only affects rate of force development, but also decreases peak power development through changes in the way muscles are recruited. There are basically two types of skeletal muscle fibers in our bodies Type I and Type II. (See the chart above for a detailed breakdown of the differences.) Type I fibers are what you would recruit primarily if you were running or doing any form of sustained aerobic activity for a considerable amount of time (usually longer than 30 minutes) and someone like a successful marathon runner would tend to have a fairly high distribution of them as an adaption to the sustained endurance training they undergo. Such fibers are highly resistant to fatigue, have a dense network amount of capillaries transporting oxygen rich blood to them and use triglycerides (fats) as their primary fuel source. (Thus the origin of the idea that aerobic activity is best for burning body fat- which it is not- See my article on Rethinking the Need for Aerobics) Not to get too technical but Type I fibers gain their resistance to fatigue from their ability to generate ATP (an important muscle fuel source) through the use of oxygen (aerobic metabolism) which is provided by the many blood vessels found in such muscle fibers.

Type II fibers are more efficient for short bursts of speed and power. These muscle fibers are not recruited to a significant extent during low intensity exercises such as endurance training.(13) Type II fibers have various sub divisions and use glycogen (and creatine phosphate) as their main fuel source and can use either anaerobic or aerobic oxidative metabolism to generate ATP. Type IIx and type IIb fibers are used primarily for explosive movement or any short term anaerobic activity. Generally, these muscle fibers are found in high distributions on more muscular athletes like bodybuilders, powerlifters and sprinters as an adaptation to the short high intensity training protocols that they regularly engage in. These fibers also produce more power than all the other fibers and rely on an anaerobic (without oxygen) metabolism to create ATP. Their development is an important part of any program where strength and power production is a primary goal, and is an important part of any regiment geared towards building lean muscle mass as other muscle fibers do not develop to the extent of these fibers. Type IIa fibers are a bit of a cross between Type II and Type I fibers as they have a fairly high resistance to fatigue and use both anaerobic and aerobic metabolism to operate. They act as a sort of a bridge between long term and short term activity and allow us to perform movements of moderate intensity for periods up to about 30 minutes.

How are muscle fibers affected by aerobic exercise? A decade long Canadian study found that subjects who regularly engaged in high intensity aerobic training verified the idea that our bodies do indeed adapt to the specific stresses it has to regularly undergo. The percentage of Type I fibers in those who regularly participated in distance training was 70.9% as opposed to 37.7 percent in the control group who did not exercise. Endurance training appeared to promote a transition from Type II to Type I fibers at the expense of the more powerful Type II fibers. Interestingly enough, Type IIa fibers in the endurance trained group members actually had a reduced aerobic capacity as a result of the years of training.[14] This decrease in percentage of fast twitch fibers significantly compromises strength and speed capabilities as high intensity conditioning requires an increase in the functional properties of fast twitch Type II fibers relative to slow twitch Type I fibers. Although in a large part individual proportions of muscle fiber types are genetically predetermined, what we do can make a large difference in how our body adapts. The more aerobic exercise you do, the greater promotion of Type I fiber -while the more explosive type anaerobic training you do can increase the proportions of Type II fibers.[15,16,17]

Effects Of Concurrent Aerobic Exercise & Strength Training On Cortisol & Testosterone Levels

Another area for concern is the impact of concurrent aerobic training with strength training on your hormone levels. Some studies have found that aerobics done in certain quantities can produce a net catabolic (breaking down) effect on muscle tissue.[1] This catabolic effect can be traced to either a decreased release of testosterone or an increase in the stress hormone cortisol from combining the two forms of training.[7] A study of US Army soldiers published in the Journal of Applied Physiology took 35 men and split them into four groups. The first group performed whole body high intensity strength training for four days a week focused on increasing muscle size and strength. The second group did upper body strength training only and the third group performed aerobic type endurance training only. A program consisting of two days of continuous aerobic exercise at 80-85% VO2max for 40 minutes and two days of interval training at 95-100% VO2max. The fourth group did a combination of both strength training and aerobic training protocols. Researchers found a significant increase in exercise induced and total cortisol response after in members of the strength & aerobics training group. Whereas those in the strength training only group saw a decrease in cortisol levels and an increase in testosterone levels. Changes that promote an anabolic environment favorable to increased muscle growth and strength increase. The study concluded that the catabolic effects noticed in the strength and aerobic trained group came as result of extreme stress placed on the adrenal glands which systematically lead to a form of overtraining.[7] Other studies of concurrent strength and aerobic type endurance training found similar increases in cortisol (a catabolic stress hormone) among those training in both modalities.[5,18]

The Role of Aerobics In Promoting Overtraining When Combined With Strength Training

Our muscles get stronger, bigger and more powerful as a direct response to the stress of exercise. However, it must be noted that these changes can only occur if the volume and or intensity of training is not so much that our bodies are unable to adapt to it. When we are unable to recover from exercise induced stress, we are said to be overtrained- and overtraining can bring about a long term decrease in performance and muscle related improvements. Recovery from overtraining can take several days to several weeks [19] and we know now that sustained aerobic exercise combined with strength training may result in less than optimal hormonal profiles and other factors associated with overtraining. (5,7,19)

The human body has a limited set of resources available to it to help recover from the stress of exercise. An insufficient recovery is the central causative factor of overtraining. That being said, given the large volume of exercise that accompanies conventional endurance based aerobic training, the amount of repetitive stress placed on joints during such forms of continuous exercise and the large amount of energy substrates consumed, it is not surprising that the stage is set for overtraining when it is combined with the rigors of high intensity anaerobic training.[1] The increase in oxidative stress during continued aerobic type training may also have a negative impact on net protein turnover. This impact can result in muscle fiber atrophy [20]. All of the aforementioned factors create an environment that prevents optimal adaptation to strength and power training.(1)

Inadequate recovery can also lead to a lasting fatigue that diminishes the ability to develop tension during power and strength movements. Reduction in power generation from overly high training volume then reduces your ability to learn and master power related skills [21,22,23] while also increasing your risk for injury. The common scenario for people starting an exercise program that includes both weight training and aerobics is that they tend to quit several weeks into the program after an enthusiastic start. Considering the amount of stress inflicted on the body by combining both modes of training it is no surprise that an otherwise untrained individual would experience fatigue and a psychological aversion to training over time. It wouldn’t be because of a lack of willpower or consistency but simply because they are overtrained.

Alternatives to Aerobic Exercise for Endurance Development

Aerobic fitness is indeed an important component for both health and athletic performance. However, prolonged aerobic exercise isn’t the only way to increase endurance and cardiovascular capacity nor is it the most efficient. High intensity training and high intensity interval training has been shown to produce metabolic endurance adaptations similar to and in some cases superior to aerobic exercise.[24, 25, 26] (Read my article here on high intensity training and endurance) Other studies found that similar increases in maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max) and improvements in 1 mile run times can occur not just as a result of high volume continuous endurance training but also from high intensity interval training as well. Interval training however takes less time to complete. It has the added benefits of improving anaerobic capacity and power output whereas conventional endurance training only positively affects the aerobic energy system. [25]

The Main Source Of Contention- Inclusion Of Aerobics For Body Fat Reduction

Perhaps the most common reason for employing aerobic exercise with strength training is for purposes of reducing body fat. Conventional thinking has long been that aerobics burn significant amounts of calories- enough to create a negative energy deficit that would bring about a reduction in body fat. For this reason, most employ aerobics into their training regime as a way to keep their body weight under control. Considering that aerobic exercise does indeed use fats as an energy source it is easy to see some logic to that approach. However, when compared to high intensity anaerobic training modalities, the idea of aerobics as the best way to lose body fat comes into question. Studies confirm that high intensity training methods create greater post exercise energy expenditure and fat utilization [62,63 64] and favor negative energy and lipid balance to a greater extent than low to moderate intensity aerobic type exercise.[1] That being said you don’t need aerobics to burn fat if the intensity of your anaerobic training is sufficient and if you maintain a sensible diet. (See my article on High Intensity Training & Weight Loss Here)

Are there benefits to aerobics? Absolutely. By no means should this article be construed as a negative hit against such forms of exercise. For many aerobics exercise offers not only numerous health and performance benefits but psychological ones as well. It can be an excellent tool for relieving symptoms of depression and elevating mood. Many people run or do aerobics not so much for a physical effect but for the high that comes with exercise. High intensity training has been shown to elicit similar psychological advantages as well in elevating mood and combating depression [27] but it would be unrealistic to expect everyone to gravitate towards that form of training. Thus, if your goals revolve around maximizing strength and power for athletic performance, the science of the matter would suggest that adding aerobics to a program of weight training could be counterproductive. Those seeking the toned and taut look that comes from building quality lean muscle mass while minimizing body fat levels should also note that aerobics isn’t the only way to shed body fat and that they might be better served avoiding it altogether and instead focus on high intensity training protocols and proper diet to reduce body fat and increase aerobic fitness levels. On the other hand, runners and endurance athletes as a whole would benefit greatly by adding strength training to their exercise programs as it may help maintain normal levels of testosterone. [5]

While some studies have found seemingly contradictory findings regarding concurrent strength and aerobics training, these differences appear mainly to be due to differences in protocols, exercises used, length of the studies and the age and fitness levels of the participants selected. Studies using high intensity strength training as a control however seem to confirm the effects of overtraining as a result of performing both training modalities concurrently as well as a decrease in power generation and strength friendly muscle fiber development. Also of importance is the increased cortisol production observed in those studies of concurrent aerobic and strength training protocols. In two decades of experience as a trainer, I have consistently seen significant increases in muscle mass, strength and power generation in endurance athletes I have worked with when they cease endurance training altogether in the offseason or as a result of injury. However, these increases occurred without any subsequent loss of aerobic fitness capacity when they eventually resumed distance based training. In the end, it is up to you to determine what your goals are and ensure that the program you use helps you attain those goals as opposed to being locked into the idea that aerobic exercise is a universal requirement for everyone.

Celebrity NYC personal trainer Kevin Richardson is an award wining health and fitness writer and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City. Get a copy of his free weight loss e-book here.

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References

1. Marcus EC, Wagner PP, Chiu L. Power Athletes and Distance Training- Physiological and Biomechanical Rationale for Change. Sports Med 2007

2 Chen ZP, Stephens TJ, Murphy S et al. Effect of Exercise on skeletal muscle AMPK signaling in humans. Diabetes 2003

3 Tremblay A, Simoncau JA, Bouchard C. Impact of exercise intensity on energy expenditure, lipid oxidation and body fatness. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2001

4. Chilibeck PD, Bell GJ, Farrar RP, et al. Higher mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation following intermittent verseus continuous endurance exercise training. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 1998

5 Bell GJ, Syrtuik D, Martin TP et al. Effect of concurrent strength and endurance training on skeletal muscle properties and hormone concentrations in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol 2000

6. Hennessy LC, Watson AWS. The interference effects of training for strength and endurance simultaneously. J Strength Cond Res 1994

7. Kraemer WJ, Patton JF, Gordon SE, et al. Compatibility of high intensity training and endurance training on hormonal and skeletal muscle adaptations. J Appl Physiol 1995

8. Dudley GA, Djamil R. Incompatibility of endurance and strength training modes of exercise. J Appl Physiol 1985

9. Taylor J. Basketball: applying time motion data to conditioning. Strength Cond J 2003

10. Wisloff U, Helgerud J, Hoff J. Strength and endurance of elite soccer players. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1998

11. Beham DG, Sale DG. Intended rather than actual movement velocity determines velocity specific training response. J Appl Physiol

12. Hakkinen K, Alen M, Kramer WJ , et al. Neuromuscular adaptations during concurrent strength and endurance training versus strength training. Eur J Appl Physiol 2003

13. Casey A, Constantin-Teodousiu D, Howell Se, et al. Metabolic response of type I and II muscle fibers during repeated bouts of maximal exercise in humans. Am J Physiol 1996

14. Thayer R, Collins J, Noble EG, et al. A decade of aerobic endurance training: histological evidence for fiber type transformation. J Sports Med Phys Fitness 1994

15. Dawson B, Fitzsimons M, Green S, et al, Changes in performance, muscle metabolites, enzymes and fiber types after short sprint training. Euro J Appl Physiol 1998

16. Jacobs I, Esbjornsson M, Sylven C, et al. Sprint training effects on muscle myoglobin, enzymes, fiber types, and blood lactate. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1987

17. Jansson E, Esbjornsson M, Holm I, et al. Increase in the proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers by sprint training in males. Acta Physiol Scand 1990

18. Bell GJ, Syrotuik D, Socha T, Maclean I, et al. Effect of strength training and concurrent strength and endurance training on strength, testosterone, and cortisol. J Strength Cond Res 1997

19. Kuipers H, Keizer HA. Overtraining in elite athletes: review and directions for the future. Sports Med 1988

20. Smith LL. Tissue trauma: the underlying cause of overtraining syndrome?  J Strength Cond Res 2004

21. Anshel MH, Novak J. Effects of different intensities of fatigue in performing a sport skill requiring explosive muscular effort: a test of the specificity of practice principle. Percept Mot Skills 1989

22. Arnett MG, DeLuccia D, Gilmartin K. Male and female differences and the specificity of fatigue on skill acquisition and transfer performance. Res Q Exerc Sport 2000

23. Williams LR, Daniel-Smith JH, Gunson LK. Specificity of training for motor skill under physical fatigue. Med Sci Sports 1976

24. Dolgener FA,Brooks WB. The effects of interval and continuous training on VO2max and performance in the mile run. J sports Med Phys Fitness 1978

25. Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki,  M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996

26. 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 App Physiol  586: 151-160, 2008

27. 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

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.

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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Do You Really Need Aerobics? Rethinking The Need For Cardio

Walk into any major gym in America and the first thing you will see is the cardio equipment. Mention the word  ‘exercise’ and for most people the first images to come to mind are aerobic in nature- running, treadmills, Zumba classes, elliptical machines, Stairmasters and the like. Say ‘weight loss’ and the images get sharper, as it is a commonly held position that you need to do cardio if you want to lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. Gyms are filled with people eager to shed a few extra pounds, and yet in spite of the innumerable  number of hours spent sweating, few ever attain the lean and sculpted look that has become the Holy Grail of our time. Most of us double our efforts after seeing so little in terms of improvement after slaving away doing hours of aerobics in the hope that maybe just a little more of the same will bring us that all-so elusive look. We persist for months, sometimes for years, trying to eat better and train harder until finally, over-trained, frustrated and very often injured, we quit. Relegating ourselves to the ranks of those-who-can’t-lose-weight-because-of-bad-genes. It can be an incredibly disheartening and depressing experience to do so much work and get so little back in terms of tangible changes in your body, but it most of the time has nothing to do with our inability to lose weight. In most cases the blame lies squarely on the fact that cardio is not an efficient method for weight loss and that it simply cannot give you the toned and trim body of your dreams. Perhaps millions can attest by their lack of results, that using aerobics as a tool for getting in shape is driven primarily by advertising and misinformation, not results. And yet many experts in the field cling to the idea that cardio is an irreplaceable part of any fitness regime. The science of how our bodies work don’t support this notion, nor do the countless number of frustrated gym goers still waiting to see their six packs. The reality is that you don’t need cardio and anaerobic resistance exercise alone can provide superior results in  terms of weight loss, increasing endurance and improving overall health parameters.

Cardio and Weight Loss- The Case For Anaerobic Exercise Over Aerobics

It goes without saying that if everyone who ever ventured out regularly for a run or frequented a cardio machine was able to lose weight and keep it off that we would have had a simplesolution to our growing obesity problems several decades ago, (as well as an influx of six pack sporting magazine cover models.) We all know this not to be the case and many recent studies affirm what so many have learned the hard way, namely that cardio is a poor method of weight management. One study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine tracked the results of 58 sedentary overweight/obese men and women who participated in a 12 week course of supervised aerobic exercise. The results were positive in terms of increased endurance and decreased systolic and diastolic pressure but not at all glowing in terms of weight loss. The mean weight loss was only a bit over seven pounds in three months, with most of the group losing barely half of that amount. [1]

In terms of fat burning, new research has continued to show that short high intensity, anaerobic type exercise do far more to reduce body fat than conventional aerobic exercise. A study done at Laval University investigated the impact of aerobics versus high intensity anaerobic exercises on body fat using young adults and the findings were quite eye opening. Participants took part in either a 20 week endurance training regime of sustained aerobics or a 15 week high intensity intermittent training protocol. Despite the fact that participants doing the aerobic exercises expended over twice as much energy as the anaerobic group- (120.4 MJ as opposed to 57.9 MJ), those in the anaerobic group lost significantly more body fat than the cardio exercise group.[2] When corrected for the energy cost of training, the decrease in the sum of six skinfold tests induced by the anaerobic exercise was impressively nine times greater than that of the aerobic group.[2]

Many other studies show similar outcomes. A study done at the University of New South Wales inadvertently found that women taking part in anaerobic high intensity interval training burned fat at a rate three times higher than those doing aerobic exercises.[3] This result came from a total of only 20 minutes of anaerobic exercise on a stationery bike, while the second group exercised at a consistent pace in standard target heart rate zones for twice as long. After 15 weeks, researchers found that the women in the high intensity group lost three times more weight than those who rode the bicycles for twice as much time.[3] A testament to the inefficiency of cardio over more intense anaerobic forms of training.  Other studies have found similar patterns with even shorter durations of high intensity anaerobic exercise.

Dispelling The Myth Of Cardio’s Afterburner Effect

For years the party lines for using cardio to promote fat loss have that that increased activity burns more calories- which is true and not at all in dispute and that aerobic exercise elevates the metabolism for prolonged periods after the training session. As standard an idea as this has been for many, it has not stood up to the test of scientific scrutiny, nor has it helped produced a new generation of trim and slim waistlines. The afterburning effect sought by cardio enthusiasts is really what scientists call excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC. Exercise brings about a change in the equilibrium of our body (See our article on responses to exercise stress here). Our body will always do its best to revert to a resting state of homeostasis and this requires an increase in the amount of oxygen (EPOC) which is needed for our bodies to return to its normal state and adapt to the exercise performed. As a result, there is a measurable increase in metabolism and fat burning after exercise. [3,4,5] This increase was originally thought to occur only with aerobic exercise, but studies have shown that it actually is far more prevalent in anaerobic exercise of sufficient intensities.[2]

Cardio And  Heart Health- Do You Really Need It?

Weight loss aside, you must need some form of cardio to increase your endurance and to keep your heart healthy, right? Again, the science disagrees with what has become practiced convention. Aerobic exercise can indeed increase lung capacity and strengthen the heart muscle which is related to a decrease in cardiovascular disease[6] but it isn’t the only way to do it nor the most efficient.  With regards to your heart and lungs it should be noted that

THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM WORKS TO SUPPORT THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

It is physically impossible to train your muscles without working your heart as well. The two are not disconnected, yet this basic fact of physiology is often overlooked in discussions regarding aerobic exercise requirements. Any improvement in muscle mass and strength brought on by anaerobic exercise of adequate intensity will correspond with an improvement in cardiovascular health parameters as well. The impact of a high intensity workout to your cardiovascular system should not be underestimated, and those who argue that it doesn’t stimulate your heart and lungs have simply never executed a compound resistance movement to a point of momentary muscular failure or beyond. Needless to say, a high intensity set of squats to even close to the threshold of muscular failure leaves even the most conditioned of athletes gasping for air. You can’t work muscles at high intensities without significantly elevating your heart rate.

Cardio Is Not The Only Way To Increase Endurance

The idea of a need for repetitive steady state aerobic exercise to improve endurance has been a constant theme in modern sports medicine, however this theory also fails to hold up to the rigors of scientific testing. A study done by Martin Gilba of McMaster University in Ontario found that short, anaerobic high intensity bouts of exercise produced far greater improvements in endurance as compared to conventional aerobics and not only in terms of performance but also with regards to molecular changes in mitochondria related to increased endurance.[7] In one group participants were made to cycle as hard as they could for 20 to 30 seconds for a total of two to three minutes per session while the other group rode a stationary bike at a sustainable pace for 90 to 120 minutes. Each group trained three times a week, and at the end of the two week study both groups showed almost the same increases in overall endurance, with the high intensity anaerobic exercise group having slightly better aerobic performance over their aerobic exercise counterparts, even though they only trained for six to nine minutes a week in while the other group had trained for an weekly average of five hours.[7] Similar findings have been reported in studies by the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Japan and many experts in the field of sports medicine have begun to question the validity behind the theory of sports specificity for increases in endurance and performance given the new findings on anaerobic high intensity training.[8]

Anaerobic Exercise Conveys The Same Benefits As Aerobics If Not More

So what about the other benefits of aerobic exercise? Pretty much all of them can be replicated or improved upon with resistance exercise of adequate intensity. High intensity anaerobic training has been shown to:

• Improve depression as well as aerobics.[9,10,11,12]
• Reduce insulin sensitivity and the risk of diabetes.[13,14,18]
• Increase bone mass and decrease the risk of osteoporosis.[15]
• Reduce visceral abdominal fat and decrease the risk of metabolic syndrome.[16, 17, 18
• Improve circulation, blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease.[18]
• Strengthening and safely enlarge the heart muscle, to improve its pumping efficiency and reduce the resting heart rate [20, 21, 22, 23]

Cardio Won’t Give You ‘The Look’

It should be said that the toned and defined look sought by most gym-goers is unattainable from simply doing aerobic exercise. As with all steady state type movements, the body quickly adapts and learns to burn less and less calories the more the exercise is continued and there are no profound changes in body fat or muscle mass as there is no stimulation intense enough to bring about an adaptation response in skeletal muscle. No matter how hard you may think that aerobics class may be or that session on the bike was- it can’t make profound changes in the way you look the way weight training can as there is no continued overload. Doing aerobics in conjunction with weight training doesn’t always give the best of both worlds either as the extra work can have a counterproductive effect on your weight loss efforts, since the added workload can lead to overtraining and consequently less results than you would get from resistance exercise alone.

Now it would be inaccurate to say that aerobic exercise is without merit- as such a statements fly in the face of countless studies that show very real benefits to doing it, but it may not be the only path to optimum health and fitness. I personally have not done any aerobic type exercise over the past 23 years and during that time I have been able to distinguish myself as a successful drug free bodybuilder, maintain year round body fat percentage of 6% all while  sustaining an extremely high degree of cardiovascular conditioning. I have personally trained endurance athletes such as triathletes, marathon runners and distance cyclists and helped them increase their performance times using only three ten minute high intensity weight training a week and no cardio exercise whatsoever. Add to that twenty years of helping dozens of fitness models and bodybuilders get into contest winning shape using only high intensity training and proper dietary practices and the  hundreds I have helped lose anywhere from 30 to as much as a 100 pounds- all without the use of aerobics or steady state exercises.

The appeal of cardio is easy to understand, as it requires little in terms of instruction and women for one tend to find it less intimidating than weight training. Cardio exercise are also easy for researchers to study, as creating controlled exercise protocols for groups is far less involved and costs far less to supervise and execute as compared to anaerobic type resistance training. Logically there are more aerobic exercise studies than anaerobic ones, which explains the initial bias towards cardio over resistance exercise in terms of weight loss and health benefits, but as more studies emerge using resistance training, we are learning that it can be equally beneficial and far less time consuming. There are also entire industries based on aerobic exercise- gyms, home exercise equipment, exercise classes and even the sneaker industry all invest heavily in promoting it, while there is very little in the way of promotion of weight training as dumbbells don’t sell gym memberships- cardio machines do. Nevertheless if you are serious about getting into great shape or looking for a more efficient way to improve your health and fitness, high intensity training might be a better fit for you over cardio. So get off the treadmill and pick up the weights if you really want ‘the look’ and don’t forget to watch what you eat as neither aerobic nor anaerobic exercise can negate the ill effects of an unhealthy diet.

Related Articles: Aerobics & Strength Training- Does It Help Or Does It Hurt?

Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the 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. Check out Kevin’s personal training services here.

References

1. Beneficial effects of exercise: shifting the focus from body weight to other markers of health, N. King, M. Hopkins, P Caudwell, J. Stubbs, J. Blundell. The British Journal of Sports Medicine 2009

2. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Tremblay, A. et al., Physical Activities Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Quebec, Canada Metabolism.1994;

3. Bahr R (1992). “Excess postexercise oxygen consumption–magnitude, mechanisms and practical implications”. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica. Supplementum

4. 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

5. Bielinski R, Schutz Y, Jéquier E (July 1985). “Energy metabolism during the postexercise recovery in man”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

7. High-intensity Interval Training: A Time-efficient Strategy for Health Promotion. Martin J. Gibala, PhD, Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada Current Sports Medicine Reports 2007

8. Specificity of training adaptation: time for a rethink? John A. Hawley-J. Physiol. 2008

9. Singh NA, Clements KM, Fiatarone MA. A randomized controlled trial of progressive resistance training in depressed elders. Journal of Gerontology Medical Sciences

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. High-intensity resistance training and postmenopausal bone loss: a meta-analysis.Martyn-St James M, Carroll S. Osteoporos Int. 2006

16. Influence of exercise intensity on abdominal fat and adiponectin in elderly adults. Coker RH, Williams RH, Kortebein PM, Sullivan DH, Evans WJ.Metab Syndr Relat Disord. 2009

17. Effect of exercise training intensity on abdominal visceral fat and body composition. Irving BA, Davis CK, Brock DW, Weltman JY, Swift D, Barrett EJ, Gaesser GA, Weltman A.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Nov;40(11):1863-72.

18. Resistance training in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of resistance training on metabolic clustering in patients with abnormal glucose metabolism. Strasser B, Siebert U, Schobersberger W.Sports Med. 2010

19. Resistance training in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of resistance training on metabolic clustering in patients with abnormal glucose metabolism. Strasser B, Siebert U, Schobersberger W.Sports Med. 2010

20.  Graf Ch., e.a.: Fachlexikon Sportmedizin: Bewegung, Fitness und Ernährung von A-Z, Deutscher Ärzteverlag, 2008, p. 209, ISBN 3769112237, here online

21. Reuter P.: Der grosse Reuter: Springer Universalwörterbuch Medizin, Pharmakologie und Zahnmedizin, Birkhäuser Verlang, 2005, p. 1300, ISBN 3540251049, here online

22 Woolston, Chris. “Ills & Conditions – Athletic Heart Syndrome”. CVS Caremark Health Information. 17 January 2007

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Author and lifetime drug free bodybuilder, Kevin Richardson

How Do Muscles Get Bigger And Stronger? A Guide

When I started out as a scrawny 125 lb teenager, the idea of building an impressively muscled physique initially seemed to be as unlikely as my reaching the summit of Mount Everest. Surrounded by a cacophony of often contradictory information on the subject of muscle building, I took it upon myself to stop reading the books and magazines (the Internet wasn’t around then, thank goodness!) and focused instead on the science of how the human body actually works. It wasn’t easy, but with the help of some great mentors and my thirst for marketing free knowledge, I was able lead a successful career as a drug free bodybuilding champion and develop my own method of high intensity training. Going from 125 lbs to 225 lbs with a body fat percentage always under 6% without the using steroids or any other kind of hormones required an intricate understanding of how muscles get bigger and stronger. Helping other men and women build world class bodies has gone a long way in helping me come to an even deeper understanding of how muscle growth really occurs and in the following lines I hope to pass on what I have learned to you as well.

How Do Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger- The Role Of Stress

The first and key element required for our muscles to get bigger or stronger is stress. Physiologist Walter Cannon came up with the term ‘homeostasis’ to explain the way in which our body does its best to always stay within a comfortable operating range where our cells can function optimally. The concept is that while external forces can sometimes bring about drastic changes in our body, it always reverts to a default position. Your heart rate is a good example of homeostasis as it beats constantly within a set range under ordinary conditions, but that rate can either go up or down depending on what type of activity you are doing. In spite of these fluctuations, as long as you are healthy,  your heart rate will always return to its regular resting rate. Stress is a key reason for your body to change, and having observed soldiers returning from World War One he coined the oft used phrase ‘fight or flight’ to describe the hormonal reactions in our body in response stress. In addition to life threatening situations, more mundane activities such as exercise also evoke a homeostatic response.

A Polish endocrinologist named Hans Seyle furthered these concepts when he discovered in his experiments that rats who were exposed to certain chemicals all suffered the same

failure of several major organ systems in a way that could be reproduced no matter what chemical was used. He called it, the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) and it encompasses the state of an organism in relation to how it adapts to its environment. The systematic organ failure he saw in the rats was a failure to adapt to stress. He found that there were three clearly defined stages within this particular syndrome, the first being the ‘alarm reaction’, very similar to the ‘fight or flight’ response described by Walter Cannon.  The second stage being an adaptive response- where the organism tries to adapt to the stress as a form of resistance. Finally if the stress is too large for the organism to handle, the exhaustion phase where cell death occurs.

Diagram of the General Adaptation Syndrome model. Author=David McQuillan

As negative a connotation that the word ‘stress’ carries for us today, the reality is that it is an extremely important stimulus in our daily lives as it allows us to adapt to our surrounding

environment. Without stress, we wouldn’t exist and in many ways it can be a very positive thing as it is how the body acts to remove or minimize the effect of a stressful stimulus. A common example of stress at work is a callus. If you wear shoes that are a bit too tight and it rubs repeatedly against a part of your foot, if the action isn’t so strong as to form a blister (the exhaustion phase) As long as the action is not strong enough to create a blister (exhaustion stage) over time the layers of skin that rub against the inside of your shoe will begin to harden. The skin will continue to get thicker and harder until a callus is formed. The callus then, serves as a way your body protects the deeper layers of skin tissue from being destroyed by the action of rubbing against your shoe. In essence adaptation works to minimize the effect of stress on the body.

How Do Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger- Adaptation

The way in which our muscles get bigger and stronger is a prime example of the General Adaptation Syndrome. Understanding how it works can help you make the most out of your workouts. Let’s look at the most ubiquitous of muscles: the biceps. Your biceps are responsible for any movement involving elbow flexion such as a biceps curl. Now your body, over the years is already adapted to the weight of your arm and the regular activities that you do on a daily basis, so you could do lots of biceps curls with no weight and your arms would not get bigger or stronger. You’d get tired, the way you would by performing any kind of calisthenics, but your muscles wouldn’t increase in strength. In order for your muscles to get bigger and stronger, you would have to apply overload. To overload means that the muscle experiences a load above and beyond what it previously adapted to in order to trigger the sequence of a new adaptation.

So in a way, it sounds pretty straightforward- put some weights on a barbell, more than you have ever done, but not so much as to bring about injury and do some curls to increase the strength and size of your biceps. But there are some more principles involved, if not everyone that picked up a barbell and did some curls would have arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger! Our muscles, and our body in general tries its best to remain in homeostasis (remember that word?). So, in a way our body is reluctant to adapt and when it does adapt to a particular stimulus, it will stay where it is until there is a greater degree of stimulation. It is very similar to the way most people do their jobs, if you think about it. We tend to do just what is required of us to get the job done and if the minimum amount of effort works the first time around, then everything is fine. Only if it doesn’t do we increase our efforts incrementally, not in leaps and bounds until the job is done. Our body works exactly the same way, and you might even say it is a bit on the lazy side.

So, back to our biceps curl. When you subject your biceps to the overload of lifting weights they undergo a cascade of cellular events that lead to an increased production of contractile proteins. This process, called anabolism, also increases the size of the muscle. As the muscle gets larger the mechanical stress from the adaptation is spread out over a larger surface area and consequently places a smaller stress on the muscle. To sum it up, increased size equals increased strength. Physiologists will say that increase in contractile proteins is an expression of the muscles’ capacity to generate force. The strength of a muscle, therefore is often relative to its cross sectional area. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you keep lifting weights your muscles would continually get bigger and stronger until you could lift a Honda with one arm, as there are limits determined by our gender and hormones. Men have more testosterone than women, and so will have bigger and stronger muscles, and women not using anabolic steroids or hormones have little chance of naturally developing male sized muscles, no matter how hard they train.

Now after doing the bicep curl with an overload high enough to trigger an adaptation, a number of hormonal and chemical events occur. Among them are factors that bring about adaptive anabolic muscle building. These chemical actions, along with the mechanical stress to the point of overload leads to increase in muscle size, which we call hypertrophy. But, and this is important- the adaptation does not happen while you are training, but while you are at rest! What does that mean? It means that if you really want to maximize your results in terms of strength and muscle size you need to do three things:

1.      Always train to a point where your muscles are seriously taxed- as if you do not, there will not be adequate stimulation for the adaptation response to be triggered.

2.      Always keep changing the exercises you do and the way you do them so your muscles do not adapt too quickly to the work you are doing.

3.      Make sure that you spend more time resting that you do training. Physiologically, training is about breaking down your muscles, while resting is about building them up, so if you are serious about increasing your results, you should train harder but less frequently. My rule has always been, train three days- rest and grow for four days.

What Can Stop Muscles From Getting Bigger & Stronger- Overtraining

Say the words ‘Train less’ to most serious exercise enthusiasts and they will look at you as if you have two heads, but it makes perfect sense. Remember the General Adaptation response model? If the action is too great and the organism is unable to adapt to the stress, it results in the exhaustion phase, where on a cellular level instead of a building (or anabolic) action, there is a destructive action (catabolic). This, in terms of exercise stress, is what is called overtraining and is defined as a physical, behavioral, and sometimes emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of your exercise exceeds your body’s capacity to recover. You stop making progress and in many cases find yourself getting weaker more fatigued and generally less motivated as time goes on.  Overtraining can also lower your immune system and increase the incidence of injury. (See figure 1)

In my experience, the number one reason why most people don’t make the progress they expect in the gym is overtraining. Having put on over 100 lbs of muscle using short high intensity workouts lasting from ten to thirty minutes in duration three days a week, I can say with authority that less is indeed more. Unfortunately, many look to the examples set by those using anabolic steroids as an example of how they should train. In doing so, they fail to take into account that one of the primary advantages of steroid use are faster recovery times and that overtraining is no longer an issue. It is an issue, however for those of us who train without the benefit of such potentially dangerous drugs and while it may be hard for many to consider training less frequently and for shorter times, it is hard to argue with the results it can bring.

Kevin Richardson is a drug free bodybuilding champion, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts™. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here! If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight, building muscle 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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