A Home Exercise Program that only takes 12 Minutes!

Let’s face it, exercise is essential. A lack of energy expenditure coupled with a poor quality, highly processed diet lends to really big people…At any age. Not only does a sedentary lifestyle lead to obesity issues, it also leads to physiological dysfunction, sickness, and dis-ease!!!

Most people believe that if they are going to get fit then they have to engage in an old school cardio program and it’s just simply not true. Unless your training for a marathon or just love to run then aerobic exercise may not be your best choice if your goal of exercise is true fitness. The biggest problem with classic cardio is that it doesn’t impact metabolic pathways nearly as effective as other forms of exercise. Your hormones directly impact your metabolism and your metabolism most directly impacts how well your body burns fat and muscle. When you do aerobic exercise, stress hormones are released causing a breakdown in muscle tissue resulting in a decrease in metabolism. The loss of muscle mass from aerobic training results in a decrease in metabolism. A slower metabolism means less fat burned and more exercise needed to lose weight. This results in a serious plateau effect and explains why people often get “stuck” at a certain point when using aerobic exercise as a primary source for weight loss.

Instead of spending hours doing aerobic exercise, how does exercising just 12 minutes a day sound? This is done by high intensity, interval training. In order to optimize burning fat, building muscle and most importantly, create energy, you have to exercise at 90-100% of your maximum heart rate for short bursts of time. You actually can even continue to burn fat up to 30+ hours after you have finished your work out. If you are interested in learning more about a 12 minute conditioning program, come into the office and talk to Dr. Stephanie Louie about how you can optimize your work out regime.