The Slow Burn Workout
I just received the book The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution: The Slow Motion Exercise That Will Change Your Body in 30 Minutes a Week from the authors, Michael Eades, M.D. and Mary Eades, MD. They wrote it along with Fredrick Hahn who is a professional trainer. The idea behind slow burn is that it is slow-motion exercise with weights or your own body weight that you do for only 30 minutes a week to be fit and change your body. That’s hard to believe.
I spend a lot of time walking and trying to jog every once in a while though without much success as I am just doing a thirteen minute mile or so. Apparently, I’m wasting my time. The authors say that running is inefficient and risky. “The impact transmitted through the ankles, legs, knees and hips to the rest of the body from each running step is about three times your body weight. If your feet pound the ground eight hundred to a thousand times per mile, which is about average for the typical stride, and you are a 150-pound runner, you will jolt your body to the tune of a about 120 tons of collective force per mile you run.” That doesn’t sound good.
Apparently, the goal of exercise (according to the authors) is to build yourself up, not beat yourself up. They do not seem to think that exercise will do away with heart disease, or cure some diseases itself, but rather, it is a way to strengthen your muscles and bones and improve circulation and control blood sugar and help with back pain. They suggest just a half hour workout as little as once a week and spending the rest of the extra hours on the beach or doing something else you enjoy.
I tried the at-home routine with a door-knob, some free weights, a couple of towels and a chair and I have to say, it was pretty good. It seems to work flexibility in with the strength training which I desperately need from all the hours at the computer typing. The routine involved slowly doing pushups, squats using a door-knob, free weights for bicep curls and shoulder shrugs and abdominal crunches using a towel. I have to say, doing the exercises slowly was better for my joints and back. I guess I’ll try it for a while and see how I do, but I have to say that exercising once in a week doesn’t seem like enough to me. Though, I suppose if one combines it with the Eades’s program called Protein Power it would certainly be a start towards fitness.
*****
More fitness and health at PJ Lifestyle:
I dunno, my experience seems to be that with age, it seems that nothing much works. I certainly doubt that once a week exercise will do much. One big workout with smaller ones at least three more times per week, maybe something.
Slow exercise *can* work, pilates and yoga apparently can do the job for many, but you have to put in some serious hours. In my younger days I went for more active, aerobic stuff, or fast-burn types. Back then everything worked. If you know what I mean.
Well, the advantage with Pilates and yoga classes is the view is incredible.
I actually love doing both yoga and Pilates even not counting the fact that the classes tend to be populated by fit young women — Pilates did more for my back in a month than six months of physical therapy.
If you’re finding it harder to make progress with exercise, it’d be worth having your thyroid and testosterone checked.
Humans were designed for walking and distance running. Of course past humans didn’t run on concrete and asphalt, and did much more walking than running. That many of them could run prodigious distances on occasion was due as much to all the walking they did in addition to periodic bursts of running when that was necessary. All this was spplemented by other physical activities, mostly in the form of strength endurance (climbing, chopping, scraping anial skins, digging, fetching water, etc.)
The point? Frequent low-intensity physical activity punctuated by some more vigorous activity may be the most natural way to exercise.
“anial?” YIKES! That should be “animal.”
Can you please add an editing function for us goobers?
Depending on how far back you go, you’ll find that life expectancies back then were very short by modern standards. When I visited the beautiful Mesa Verdi park a few years ago to see the cliff dwellings, they told us that most men didn’t live to 30 years old and the women died even younger. They lived what might be considered a stone age existance and life was hard work. I think that in addition to the lack of good medicine, they just wore themselves out with the daily task of survival.
The authors say that running is inefficient and risky. “The impact transmitted through the ankles, legs, knees and hips to the rest of the body from each running step is about three times your body weight. If your feet pound the ground eight hundred to a thousand times per mile, which is about average for the typical stride, and you are a 150-pound runner, you will jolt your body to the tune of a about 120 tons of collective force per mile you run.”
This just reinforces my belief that running causes brain damage. I did enough of that when I was in the military. Not gonna do it again unless something big is chasing me. Not going to risk it, wouldn’t be prudent.
Yeah but modern running shoes mitigate the strain quite a bit.
And you can always swim or bike, no impact unless you are bit by a shark or hit by a truck. Even circuit training on nautilus-style weight machines is zero impact and relatively low strain on joints.
Here’s a blast from the past for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Total-Fitness-30-Minutes-Week/dp/0671729934
This book was written about 25 years ago by a pioneering exercise physiologist that was tasked with coming up with an exercise program for astronauts on long missions. I dont know, but my guess is that astronauts still use his program.
30 minutes a week, even of hard core cross-fit weight training is NOT enough to do anything.
Another fad looking to monetise the lazy.