It discussed the age old myth of  light weights and high reps for toning and good old fashioned heavy strength training for losing weight and losing body fat in women.

In a nutshell, as usual, research takes awhile to validate what most of us have been preaching all along.

HEAVY STRENGTH TRAINING DOES NOT GET WOMEN BULKY!!!

In fact in the studies discussed, women who strength train heavy with fewer reps have lost more weight and body fat than their low weight, high rep counterpart.

Click below to read the full article.

HEALTH   | April 06, 2010
Really?:  The Claim: For Better Muscle Tone, Go Lighter and Repeat
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Does lifting heavy weights make you big and bulky?

"More like a fitness flop"

For those of you who can’t read it, this is an advertisement for FitFlops. The tag line reads “IT’S THE SHOE WITH THE GYM BUILT ON.” And another line that reads “FITFLOP GET A WORKOUT WHILE YOU WALK.”

Come on people… Are you serious?!

The sad part is, people WILL buy these shoes in the hopes that they can get fit while wearing them. Just another fitness gimmick to add to the rest of them. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!!!!

But enough with my tirade. It is the season of giving so in keeping with the spirit of the holidays we are offering  COMPLIMENTARY FITNESS CONSULTATIONS.

We understand that things are a little hectic now and pretty soon the New Year will just be around the corner so why not give yourself the gift that keeps on giving. The gift of a fitter and healthier lifestyle. Just click on the link below and fill out your information.

COMPLIMENTARY FITNESS CONSULTATION HERE

“Our current generation of kids may be the first to not outlive their parents.”

The reason I was torn with this statement was because on one hand, I thought, what a way to capitalize on new fitness programs for children. On the other hand though, I thought, has it really become so bad we now have to send them to professionals to make sure they are moving and eating right? I mean, growing up, kids were playing football, stick ball, jump rope, etc. on my block every day. You name it, it was being done. On many occasions my parents would be furious if I were to stay outside too long playing with my other friends. Yet everyday, it was what I was looking forward to do as soon as I got home from school and finished my homework. And then the summers were even better because we were out all day! As far as food was concerned, if I did eat fast food, it was only on the weekends. During the week I would eat whatever my mom prepared for breakfast and dinner and whatever school had for lunch. A lot of times I was eating as fast as possible so that I can meet friends, go to recess, or play outside.

So I did some further research into that statement and here is what I found:

31.9% of children and adolescents are overweight

16.3% of children and adolescents are obese

Type 2 Diabetes has increased 10 fold in the past twenty years

Over 8 million children have asthma, up 232% in the last forty years

Cancer kills more kids than any other disease

Researchers believe that poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle are responsible for many of these issues. After finding all this out I am even more driven to fight the effects of poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle, not just in adults but in children too!

CONSISTENCY

That’s right! It’s consistency. Consistent resistance training, consistent cardio training, consistent eating habits, consistent rest, etc. will get the most results and keep those results. I can give you the best program in the world but if you aren’t consistent you will not see results. If I give you a decent program however, and you follow it with consistency, I guarantee you’ll get great results. I’ve seen it time and time again. The clients who have been the most consistent with their fitness programs have been the ones who have had the biggest and best results. But remember, this consistency is not a 30-day thing, a 6-week thing, a 6-month thing, or even a 1-year thing. Consistency is every day, every week, every month, and every year. It’s a lifestyle!

Yet, although the longer distance individual burns far more calories during their activity as opposed to the short distance individual they typically have a higher percentage of body fat when measured. Why is that you ask?

For starters, lower intensity, higher duration cardio makes it difficult for the body to maintain lean muscle because it tends to break muscle tissue in order to use the protein for energy. This is extremely important to know because it is lean muscle that uses fat for energy when we are at rest. The less muscle one has, the less potential to burn fat and therefore greater potential to store fat. Not only that, but once an individual stops the activity, it is relatively easy for the body to recover. Therefore it will not require many calories for the recovery and repair process while the individual is at rest. Finally, although a higher percentage of calories burned comes from fat with this type of activity, the body adapts in such a way that if you continue to do this activity, you will actually be burning less total calories for the same distance and therefore less fat calories although the percentage will remain relatively the same (50% of 300 which is 150 is less than 50% of 500 which is 250). This now means you will either have to go longer or go harder to increase that caloric expenditure.

Contrast that to higher intensity, lower duration cardio. This type of activity spares muscle break down. In fact, it promotes an increase in lean muscle in order to produce higher amounts of force. After all, the reason we all have muscle is to produce force. Not only does muscle get spared, but due to the nature of the activity, when an individual stops, there is a tremendous amount of recovery and repair that goes on. This recovery and repair requires higher amounts of calories at rest to fuel the process. And the predominant fuel source for calories when we are at rest is… You got it. It’s FAT! You also may be wondering, doesn’t the body adapt to this type of activity as well? Of course it does. It adapts by increasing lean muscle. This then allows you to apply more force. The more force you apply, the faster or harder you can go. The faster or harder you go, the more calories you will require to fuel these muscles during the activity but even as important, you will require more calories to repair and recover. It’s a win-win situation.

This explains why sprinters are more muscular, more toned, and more defined than a marathon runner.

This is not to say that long, slow distance activity is useless. It’s not. This type of activity is great for developing aerobic capacity. It also is great for training the heart and lungs. And because a higher percentage of the calories burned comes from fat, a great thing to do, if your goal is to lose fat, is after performing some high intensity, short duration cardio, you can follow it with lower intensity, moderate duration cardio, not only to assist with recovery and repair, but to take advantage of the increase fat burning that occurs during recovery and repair. You’re adding fuel to the fire so to speak.

Uncle Oubon was gracious enough to take us on a little hike through Lyons Arboretum and Botanical Garden. It is the only university botanical garden located in a tropical rainforest in the United States. It is also the only easily accessible tropical rainforest on the island of O’ahu.

For those of you who have never been, the hike is basically uphill over unpaved and sometimes rocky paths. What impressed me the most though, wasn’t the wonderful flora located all over, but the fact that Uncle Oubon was basically speeding up these paths without even catching his breath. What was even more impressive was when he whipped out his camera to start taking pictures of the flowers that were very low to the ground. There he was in a perfect, full squat, position shooting away. Amazing!!! I was so amazed that when we were done hiking and grabbing a bite to eat, I asked him if I can take a picture of him squatting and so he did (see pic below).

I then proceeded to ask him whether he works out and what his routines were. Because I forgot what he told me when I got back to the mainland, I decided to ask him if I can interview him via email so that I can post it on this blog and share it with all of you. He agreed.

Here is our interview:

Alex: How old are you?

Nobuo: 85 now; 86 in June.

Alex: How long have you been living in Hawaii?

Nobuo: I was born in Hawaii. Hawaii has always been my home. However I have lived and worked in Japan, Germany, and Bahrain (in the Persian gulf). The number of years I lived in these places are as follows:

Hawaii: 53 years
Japan 23 years (1945 – 1968)
Germany 8 years (1970 – 1979)
Bahrain 1 year (1987 – 1988)

TOTAL 85 years

Alex: What do you do or did do for a living?

Nobuo: After I was discharged from the US Army in 1946 in Japan, I began working for the U.S. government as a Federal employee. Between 1946 and 1986 (when I retired) I worked for the US Army and US Air Force — mostly with the US Air Force; My job was in personnel administration and personnel management. After I retired, I worked for the government of Bahrain in personnel administration.

Alex: How long have you been exercising for?

Nobuo: After I retired in 1986, my exercise consisted of walking-jogging-swimming for one hour at the beach area near my apartment. In May 2007, I joined the YMCA and since then have been exercising one hour at the YMCA gym every other day.

Alex: What are the main reasons that you exercise?

Nobuo: To keep healthy, I realize how important it is (1) to eat the right kind of food and (2) to exercise. If I keep my legs strong, (1) there’s less likelihood that I would fall and (2) there would be no need for using a cane.

Alex: What is your current exercise regimen?

Nobuo: Half of the time I spend in the weight machine room using 3 machines for exercising the chest, abdomen, and shoulder/back.  Then I go to the Cardio Center and walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 2.8 – 3.0 speed.

Nobuo Yoshioka posing in a Full Squat position

It goes to show you the importance of exercise, not just on an aesthetic basis, but also on our ability just to partake in activities of daily living (ADL), especially as we get older. Uncle Oubon understood this well before we started seeing the word “functional training” appear on the fitness scene. He is a testament to the fact that not only should you exercise just to look good, but you should also exercise to perform and live your life doing the things you want to do.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to share a video that my brother put together of my nephew Kristian’s exposure to kettlebells from when he was an infant to him at age 5. Not only did I find this video entertaining but I thought it was pretty amazing. So for those of you who dare to ask, “Aren’t kettlebells dangerous for you?” I will respond by saying, “If a 5 year old can do it, so can you!”

During the posterior reach I am basically letting the cables pull me back from a neutral position with arms overhead as if I were to attempt to do a back handspring. As I am doing this I bend my knees and shoot them forward to release any extra tension on my lower back and then I return to a neutral position while keeping my arms straight throughout the whole movement. Contrary to popular belief, the main function of the rectus abdominis is not to flex your spine (e.g. crunches) but to prevent hyperextension which is basically what a posterior reach is. Although crunches are great in developing your abs, the posterior reach has more functional value. During the trunk rotation I am basically rotating my upper torso while trying to keep my pelvis neutral. As you see it is a short range of motion but more than enough to get those internal and external obliques.

During the squat I am basically bending both my hips and knees at the same rate and lowering myself to a comfortable position while still trying to keep my back neutral. During the RDL, I start off with my knees slightly bent and basically hinge at my hips and displace my pelvis backward while keeping my back neutral. A common mistake many people do is to actually keep the pelvis where it is and just bend forward. Although they are still hinging at the hip, their center of gravity is being displaced forward which is why many people will probably complain about feeling it mostly in their lower back muscles when doing it this way. By shifting your center of gravity forward you turn it into more of a good morning exercise.

During the pulldown I am bent over with my back straight and my hips displaced back. During the shoulder press my stance is shoulder width, although this may vary depending on how much tension you desire, and I am taking a shoulder width grip for the actual press.