Nov 26 2008

Female Training Myths Exposed: 1

From the previous post about female training myths, what was your answer?

For many of the women I’ve worked with in the past, what went wrong?

These women followed some of the most out-dated exercise advice available or they fell for the marketing gimmicks and empty promises. They wanted the easy way out.

Many of these fallacies have been propagated from one person to the next until they take on the weight of truth.

In fact, some of these nuggets of gym lore have even been passed on by purported experts in exercise such as personal trainers or therapists, thus falsely adding to their credibility!

In this series of posts, I’ll take you through some of the biggest exercise myths that affect women and how to reach your fitness goal by going against what may seem intuitive.

Read on and overcome these common exercise myths that are stopping you from achieving the body of your dreams.

Myth: Losing weight and losing body fat is the same thing, so check the scale often.

Fact: The act of stepping on a scale and measuring the pull of gravity is a ritual that many women undertake on an almost daily basis. For most women, losing weight is considered the same as losing body fat. If the scale drops, then the exercise or diet program is considered a success.

In some cases, this may be an appropriate objective measure. In most cases, however, this is a step in the wrong direction.

A better method of obtaining objective body measures is to gauge how your clothing fits: Is your dress size down? Do you pants feel looser? Do your tops feel less restrictive?

This will take in to consideration any healthy and important increases in lean body mass that you may have made.

When using a scale, there is no differentiation between adding precious fat-burning muscle while losing non-functional body fat. This leads to “false” appearance of often disappointing numbers on the scale, which don’t reflect true progress.


Nov 25 2008

The death of cardio?

When it comes to the best way to lose weight and/or get fit using cardio, the debate rages on.

Which is better- high intensity interval training (HIIT) or steady state cardio (long duration, slow pace)? 

Outside of the all important nutrition side of things, the answer may surprise you.

For most people, HIIT, if done correctly, will lead to greater weight loss when compared to steady state cardio, even if the total time is significantly less.

How does that happen?

It goes back to basic exercise physiology: EPOC or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. 

HIIT training increases EPOC much more than steady state cardio does. That means your body has to work extra hard AFTER you are done your exercise to replace the oxygen debt created during the exercise. 

Your body now acts like a furnace for hours post-exercise and will use body fat as fuel.

The added bonus: HIIT can be done in a fraction of the time it takes to do steady state cardio!

Isn’t that what we’re all looking for-better results in less time?

Dev Chengkalath