Herald article #5 , Exercise

In the last few articles I detailed what a Health Promoting Diet looks like and what a Chronic Disease Promoting Diet looks like. Now I will do the same for Exercise. If you are given correct information and you are compliant, it will have a huge impact on your health, as far as stopping and reversing chronic disease. Depending on where you are on your unique health curve, determines how long it will take to create this impact. There is as much mis-information out there about exercise as there is about diet. So what does a truly healthy exercise program entail? It must makes you sweat: promoting the release of toxins, stimulating the firing of neuron pathways/better brain function), resetting receptors in cell walls to reduce insulin resistance and restore your energy metabolism processes. It must have a strengthening component: minimally it focuses specifically on extensor muscles, those that keep us upright in gravity. These are the muscles on the back of the body from the waist up and the muscles on the front of the body from the waist down. This is an absolutely crucial part of your exercise equation, and without it you will have decreased brain function, decreased metabolism, and decreased joint mobility. It should have an interval training component: this is actually how we live our lives, short spurts of energy not marathons. This is very versatile and can be applied to a number of different exercises, 30 seconds as hard as you can, followed by 90 seconds of easing back, for around 8 sets. This form of exercise promotes the greatest production of DHEA (growth hormone) and reversal of insulin resistance. Exercise done on a machine such as the ROM fall into this category. It should have an aerobic component. Don’t get stuck in the old myth that a good exercise program is running a 10K or marathon. For most walking is a mode of transportation not exercise. Aerobics by itself leads to reduced lean body mass (reduction in healthy muscle). Aerobics increases free radical cell damage. It also reduces muscle cell fuel (glucagon) and to replace this your appetite is increased, leading to excess calorie consumption. It should have a meditative and breath control component such as Yoga and Tai Chi. It should promote integrated movements; your body’s muscle and fascial systems were designed to work best as a whole not individually. One way in which we damage our bodies is by repetitive movements that rely on singled out muscles. There is a fantastic program(Foundation Training.com) that came out last year that restores healthy movement patterns teaching these systems to move as one. What you eat and when you eat has a huge affect on your exercise routine results. Sugar, especially fructose, ingested 30 minutes before your workout and up to 2 hours after will have a defeating effect. A small amount of protein ingested 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after will maximize gain. Wow that is quite a list, so if you are only performing aerobic training, you are missing the boat. There is no one exercise and there is no precise equation that can tell you how much of each of these you should perform. Start with a balance of variety, pay attention and adjust to how your body responds. Just like diet, where we all need proteins, fats and phytonutrients from veggies, the amount of each is unique to the individual. Exercise is the same, your workouts need to cover certain essential elements, of which the amounts are unique to the individual. Also, like diet it is important that exercise is part of your lifestyle, not just a short term attempt to lose a few pounds.