BodyLogicMD
Fitness Philosophy
“By
returning your hormonal balance
to the healthy level you had when
you were 30, you get the optimum
benefits from a work out.”
- reflects Alicia Stanton, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD
Diet and exercise
go hand and hand. In order to truly
transform your body, you must commit
to setting up a personalized fitness
routine and sticking to it. It’s
a lifestyle change. Making exercise
a daily part of your routine will
transform your physical and emotional
body. Studies show that people who
lead a life filled with exercise
live the longest and have the lowest
incidence of cancer, heart disease,
diabetes, osteoporosis, and mental
deterioration! Good nutrition and
exercise are “the fountain
of youth”.
FREQUENCY
You should be exercising for one
hour everyday. Recently, the recommendation
for exercise frequency was increased
from 30 minutes three times a week
to one hour of cardiovascular exercise
7 days a week. This does not imply
that the intensity should be difficult
everyday, but that the greatest
amounts of health benefits are seen
in those people who make exercise
a part of their daily lives. Exercise
can include any activity that makes
you break a sweat, including all
sports.
HOW
TO EXERCISE
There are three stages of intensity
when working out: Stage 1: not sweating
and breathing normal, Stage 2: sweating
but breathing normal, and Stage
3: sweating and panting. To get
the most out of your exercise regiment,
you should be at Stage 2 when doing
cardio aerobic activities. This
is where you are sweating (feel
sweat on the back of your neck,
not just your forehead) but breathing
normally (you should be able to
talk in complete short sentences).
It is helpful
to know how exercise burns calories.
There are enzymes found on your
arteries (called Lipoprotein Lipases)
which when activated by heat and
exercise feed your muscle fat to
burn instead of sugar. This is what
is known as the “fat burning
stage”. The wonderful benefit
of activating these enzymes is that
they continue to feed your muscles
fat to burn for up to 15 hours AFTER
you stop exercising. So, GET THOSE
ENZYMES WORKING! To optimize this
effect you simply need to exercise
(while sweating) for over 30 minutes,
and up to an hour is even better.
Over an hour really doesn’t
increase their activity anymore
than that. You should not feel like
you want to “drop dead”
after a workout, you should feel
reenergized and invigorated. If
you do feel “wiped out”,
you are exercising too intensely!
Cardio aerobics
are of the greatest benefit when
you do your exercising in the morning.
This leads to a full day of that
“fat-burning” activity.
If you do cardio aerobics at night
(or after work), when you lay down
to sleep, the cooling off of your
body deactivates these enzymes quicker.
So, be an early riser, and go sweat!
WALK
BEFORE YOU RUN
If you’re new to exercise-start
walking 30 minutes, three times
a week and gradually increase to
one hour daily of cardio exercise.
Exercise is different for everyone.
Some patients can start walking
one hour a day and build from there.
MIX
IT UP
Varying your workout is key. Change
your workout every four weeks. Always
doing the same workout will create
“muscle memory” so it’s
important to never let your body
get accustomed to the same workout.
If you are doing cardio aerobic
exercise, try changing your intensity,
or try changing to a different exercise
or sport. You can return to the
same activity after four weeks,
because by this time the “muscle
memory” has gotten accustomed
to your new activity, and your old
activity becomes new once more.
If lifting weights, vary your routine
by trying different exercises or
different machines every four weeks.
Moving from free weights, to cables,
back to free weights is a simple
solution to keep the body guessing.
FIND
A BUDDY
Studies show that people who workout
with a partner, work out twice as
often, twice as well, and stay at
it twice as long. Treat your workout
like a business appointment that
you can’t reschedule. Carve
it into your day. Joining a gym
close to your home or workplace
is best. People who sign up at a
location more than one mile from
their house have been shown to give
up going sooner. Joining a gym is
better than having “a home
gym” for most people, because
then you are not distracted by the
constant activities (and distractions)
that you have at home. Society puts
everything else first and us last.
Making exercise a priority will
improve your physical, emotional
and mental well being.
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