Exercise Intensity & Weight Management

The Importance of Exercise

Exercise is an important factor in sustained health & weight management. There are many physiological & psychological benefits to proper exercise. In this article, I will focus on aerobic vs anaerobic training. Some of the benefits overlap, but they both have some unique differences. For example, strength training is better for muscle strength & size while cardio is better for your cardiovascular system & lung capacity.

The Different Styles of Exercise

Let’s begin by listing some styles of exercise:

1. Yoga
2. Aerobic
3. HIIT
4. Strength Training
5. Cross Fit
6. Circuit Training
7. Plyometrics
8. Pilates

Each style has unique benefits that I will explain in future articles.

How To Calculate Your Max Heart Rate

There are different ways to define exercise intensity, but a universal acceptable way is based on a percentage of your max heart rate. Step 1 is figuring out your max heart rate. There are few ways to do so . The easiest method, but least accurate is 220-your age. These methods are more accurate 207-(.7*age) which is adjusted for people over 40 or 211 -(.64*age) which is adjusted for generally active people or 206-(.88*age) which is adjusted for women.

Here is an example based on a 40 year old for 211-(.64*40) leads to 211-25.6=185.4 Most fitness watches track your maximum heart rate so you do not have to concern yourself with the calculation.

If these formulas do not work for you or you are an athlete, this is a more precise method from NTNU, https://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/hrmax#Test%20yourself

1. Warm up thoroughly so you start sweating.
2. Do two intervals, each four minutes long. During the intervals you should be too short of breath to talk. Intersperse each interval with three minutes of active rest.
3. Start the third interval, but two minutes in, increase your speed even further an run until you’re too exhausted to continue. Your HRmax will be the highest heart rate you reach. The heart will reach a plateau at which it cannot beat any faster, regardless of how much you increase the workload.

How To Define Exercise Intensity

Once, you know your max heart rate, the next step is understanding exercise intensity based on training within a certain percentage of your max heart rate. Low intensity workouts are generally done below 80% of your max heart rate. These are usually exercises that allow constant movement like walking, jogging, swimming & strength training. High Intensity workouts are done above 80% of your max heart rate. Some of these exercises are sprinting & high intensity training (HIIT).

The Benefits of Low vs High Intensity Training

As long as you don’t get out of breath, your body is using a large percentage of fat to power its movement. Since fat is denser than carbohydrates, it requires more oxygen to be broken down and burned for energy. This is called aerobic exercise.

During high intensity training, your heart rate will rise, you will need more energy and you won’t be able to take in enough oxygen to get this energy from fat anymore. This is when the body will start burning more carbs than fat to sustain the higher pace because they are easier and faster to break down. This is called anaerobic exercise.

The Drawbacks of Too Much Exercise

According to this PubMed article titled, The Goldilocks Zone for Exercise: Not Too Little, Not Too Much, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6139866/ “Many long-term endurance athletes have personal experience with orthopedic overuse injuries—stress fractures, patellar chondromalacia, Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, etc.” It goes on to say that “endurance athletes can also develop cardiac overuse injuries such as atrial fibrillation (AF), ventricular ectopy, severe bradycardia, coronary atherosclerosis, premature aging of the heart, fibrosis of the atrial and ventricular walls, and rarely even sudden cardiac death.” The article is explaining that even done in lower zones, excessive cardio an cause wear and tear on your body in many ways. Pay attention to the fact that this article mentions endurance athletes.

According to another PubMed article titled, How Much Exercise Is Too Much, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5153114/ “physical activity sometimes is accompanied by certain arrhythmias – premature beats or atrial fibrillation (AF). Less often such activity may result in life-threatening arrhythmias – specifically ventricular fibrillation.” This article also explains that there are times when too much exercise is just too much.

Another PubMed article, titled Exercise, Protein Metabolism, and Muscle Growth, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11255140/ , states that “Exercise has a profound effect on muscle growth, which can occur only if muscle protein synthesis exceeds muscle protein breakdown; there must be a positive muscle protein balance.” Meaning that the amount & quality of the protein you eat is vital. If you eat & supplement with adequate protein then you can produce positive muscle protein balance, leading to lean muscle growth.

The Winning Formula

As described above there are benefits to both styles of training, however, many people focus on only 1 style of training. This leads to deficiencies in their training program. We need a healthy dose of both styles of training. The advice below will not apply to most athletes or anyone who trains for a particular competition.

The first thing to consider is how much do you train. I recommend strength training at the base of your program, especially for weight loss & building lean muscle. I generally recommend strength training, done in lower zones, at least 4 to 5 times per week.

I recommend high intensity about 2 times per week, 3 max. This will give you the benefits of anaerobic exercise. You can do high intensity as a separate session, i.e in the mornings or after a strength training session. In addition, your sessions can be short, i.e 10 minutes of intense rowing or a combination of jogging and sprinting.

The last item to consider is maintaining a positive net protein balance. This means eating adequate protein and supplementing as needed. This depends on factors such as style of training & activity level. Most healthy & active individuals can eat up to .75 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body-weight.

Two Things To Consider:

1. Add digestive enzymes to your protocol to give your body more protease to better break down protein along with other enzymes to improve digestion. Once per day with your largest meal of the day should be sufficient. Below a Amazon link to one of the best brands on the market. https://amzn.to/3oolngf
2. Supplement with Essential Amino Acids ( the building blocks of proteins, are compounds that play many critical roles in your body. ) & Creatine (a compound formed in protein metabolism and present in much living tissue. It is involved in the supply of energy for muscular contraction.) Adding these supplements during & post workout can boost muscle performance, strength, recovery & size while contributing to a positive net protein balance. Below is the link to one of the best on the market along with the discount code to save you 30%. https://aminoco.com/zecohealth

I use Perform to improve muscle endurance & performance & I use Heal for muscle recovery. Both products are formulated to improve muscle protein synthesis.

https://aminoco.com/zecohealth