Lean and Hard

Telegraph - 7.5.13 by Richard Gray

After analysing 480,000 sites in each persons DNA, they found 17,975 locations were altered on 7,663 genes. The human genome contains around 20,000 genes.

Photo: ALAMY

Scientists found that six months of regular exercise, such as cycling or aerobics classes, changed the action of genes involved in the storage of fat and the development of obesity.

The exercise added and removed chemical groups to the DNA in a process known as epigenetic imprinting, or methylation, causing the genes to be switched on or off.

The researchers found more than 7,000 genes were affected in this way as a result of exercise in overweight volunteers.

They also found that key genes involved in storing sugar from blood stream inside fat cells have their activity reduced by the exercise.

Read more>>

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We can debate the reasons for this all day long, but studies have repeatedly confirmed that, when it comes to fitness, example matters.


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The Fight Against Cancer Includes Exercise - by Melanie Bowen

At the moment of receiving the initial diagnosis, cancer begins taking its toll on the body and the mind. The stress alone involved with hearing the news can be devastating. In addition, enduring subsequent treatments and medications all cause an emotional, physical and psychological strain. Numerous studies indicate that when cancer patients engage in some type of physical activity from the beginning they gain numerous benefits, aid in a quicker recovery, and improve the overall quality of life.

Light Exercise

When undergoing aggressive treatments for mesothelioma or other lung related cancers, even light exercise often makes a world of difference. Light exercise involves any repetitive physical movement that does not alter an individual’s breathing pattern. The activity does not cause shortness of breath and one may carry on a conversation while performing the exercise. The regimen is also not so strenuous that it causes perspiration.

Walking is a great example of a simple light exercise. The activity improves overall muscle strength, inhibits bone loss and helps combat the fatigue that patients commonly endure secondary to chemotherapy. Walking also offers emotional and psychosocial benefits, as individuals feel a sense of accomplishment. How often and how far patients walk depends on individual tolerance. Start by simply walking to and from the end of the block, and gradually increase the distance. Walk with a friend or a family member. This type of exercise proves especially beneficial for patients with cancers affecting the lungs.

Moderate Exercise

Patients finished with cancer treatment often begin some type of moderate activity, which helps regain strength faster. These activities typically produce perspiration after repetitive movement for 10 minutes. Respirations may become faster, but the exercise does not render the individual breathless. During the activity, one should have the ability to carry on a conversation without difficulty.

If patients are physically ready to take on a moderate level of exercise then water aerobics should be a consideration. Community swimming pools often offer this type of exercise class. The movements performed while in the buoyancy of an aquatic environment improve overall cardiovascular fitness, circulation and flexibility while increasing bone and muscle strength. Since water aerobics is considered as a low-impact exercise because being 90% lighter in the water, there is less stress placed on the joints. As a result, this exercise may be ideal for those with joint complications.

Advanced Exercise

After having regained strength and endurance from moderate activities, individuals typically progress to a more advanced level of exercise. These activities help tone the body and may aid in weight loss if needed. Aggressive exercise causes deep and rapid respirations. Perspiring begins after a few minutes.

Implementing a weight-training regimen further improves muscle and skeletal strength and enhances cardiovascular fitness when performed correctly. Although you may feel as if your body is ready to do more, when beginning a weight-training program it is important to not forget to start slowly and that healing is a gradual process. Get guidance from a physical therapist or seek advice from a trainer at a local gym. The type of training cancer survivors may attempt largely depends on the type of cancer and treatment individual patients endure. Coaches or therapists have the knowledge and expertise to create a program that targets specific areas of the body depending on a person’s strength and weaknesses.


Other positive aspects of continuing some type of physical routine throughout the treatment process include increased energy, a better appetite and a more restful sleep. Researchers also find that exercise often helps combat the discomfort and unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Before beginning any activity, always consult with your personal health care provider. Exercise and physical activity may not be a cure for cancer, however it should be considered as a crucial component in the road toward recovery.

Editor's Note: Melanie is currently a Master's student with a passion that stems from her grandmother's cancer diagnosis. She often highlights the great benefits of alternative nutritional, emotional, and physical treatments on those diagnosed with cancer or other serious illness.  To read more from Melanie, visit her blog for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. In her spare time, you can find Melanie trying new vegan recipes, on her yoga mat, or spending time with her family.

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I kinda think we knew this, but...

ScienceDaily - Dec. 15, 2012

Aerobic training is the best mode of exercise for burning fat, according to Duke researchers who compared aerobic training, resistance training, and a combination of the two.

The study, which appears Dec. 15, 2012, in the Journal of Applied Physiology, is the largest randomized trial to analyze changes in body composition from the three modes of exercise in overweight or obese adults without diabetes. Aerobic exercise -- including walking, running, and swimming -- has been proven to be an effective way to lose weight. However, recent guidelines have suggested that resistance training, which includes weight lifting to build and maintain muscle mass, may also help with weight loss by increasing a person's resting metabolic rate. Research has demonstrated health benefits for resistance training, such as improving glucose control, but studies on the effects of resistance training on fat mass have been inconclusive.


"Given that approximately two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight due to excess body fat, we want to offer clear, evidence-based exercise recommendations that will truly help people lose weight and body fat," said Leslie H. Willis, MS, an exercise physiologist at Duke Medicine and the study's lead author.

Researchers enrolled 234 overweight or obese adults in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three exercise training groups: resistance training (three days per week of weight lifting, three sets per day, 8-12 repetitions per set), aerobic training (approximately 12 miles per week), or aerobic plus resistance training (three days a week, three set per day, 8-12 repetitions per set for resistance training, plus approximately 12 miles per week of aerobic exercise).






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Almost nothing will knock your exercise routine out of commission like an injury. If you hate going to the gym, that can seem like a blessing: Finally, a good excuse not to go! But if you like your exercise or count it as important to your quality of life, hurting yourself in the gym is not a happy event. Here are 5 major causes of gym injury. Avoid them and be well!

1. No Warm-up

Warm, limber muscles and joints are conducive to great workouts. Cold, locked-up muscles and joints lead to injuries. Pulled muscles and tendons, strained joints and the like can easily result from no or inadequate warm-up, so take some time to stretch and get the blood flowing before hitting the big weights.

2. Over-Repetition

It's important to switch things up every so often, not only to avoid boredom and fitness plateaus, but also to avoid injuries. Repetitive movements can, over time, cause muscle imbalances and damage, so just like a balanced diet, make sure your workouts are balanced and hit all major muscle groups; and think about changing routines once in a while.

3. Distractions

The gym can be a distracting place, and it can be dangerous to lose focus in the middle of a heavy lift. The stronger you get, the heavier weights you'll be lifting, and heavy weights can quickly get out of your control. Avoid this by keeping your mind on what you're doing. Once the weight is down and the set it over, then you can drift for a bit before the next set.

4. Bad Form

Remember what you're trying to accomplish at the gym. The goal of lifting weights is not to lift the weight by any means possible. It's to increase muscle mass and strength. To that end, proper form is everything. Swinging the weight and putting your entire body into getting it up can not only minimize the benefit of the movement, it can also break something vital. So concentrate on the muscle you're trying to work, use it to lift the weight by sticking to good form, and avoid the mistake of trying to lift...

5. Too Much Weight

Strength and mass are increased by putting tension on the muscle, so you have to lift enough weight to shock the muscle into getting bigger and stronger. But pushing the pounds up too quickly can lead to bad form and serious injury. If you can't lift it using good form, back down the weight a bit.



Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment!

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No one likes to be wrong. That's why it's so difficult even to consider the possibility of it. There's the old joke about the guy who says, "I made a mistake once. I thought I made a mistake, but I was wrong." For some of us it's not only difficult to admit error, it's downright torture. There are a few people I know who, as far as anyone can remember, have never, ever admitted to a mistake.

Where's this leading? We are continually assailed with advice about fitness. One of my earliest memories is of my mom telling me that the men at the service station used Coke (the soft drink, not the controlled substance) to de-grease nuts and bolts, so think about what it would do to my teeth. Yikes. She was wrong about the nuts and bolts, right about the sugar being bad for my teeth. What other fitness "truths" have we picked up along the way that are really and truly flat out wrong?



There isn't any harm in being wrong about a lot of things, but health and fitness mistakes can be costly and frustrating. For example, the idea that you can get toned through exercise alone is one that leads to failure and disillusionment every day. Good strength training and cardiovascular exercise  can build muscle and burn calories, but this is not enough. Diet is a far more powerful way to trim excess fat and, in conjunction with the right exercise, give you a lean and hard body.

Another old but oh-so-wrong bit of classic fitness dreck is the one that says you get lean and toned by doing light weights and lots of reps, and a bulky, ape-like look using heavy weights and few reps. Doesn't work that way. Building strength and muscle mass is difficult to accomplish and requires working muscles to the point of almost-failure and eating a good, healthy diet.

So, rather than cling to those old, tried-and-proven-false fitness myths, do some research and get the facts. It's the age of information, so let's take advantage of that and update our database of knowledge.

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It isn't always fun to learn that something you've heard over and over and accepted as true is actually false. On the other hand, it can be liberating. True information is usually helpful, and so we shouldn't be afraid to have our cherished health and fitness beliefs challenged. Here is a commonly held idea that turns out to be untrue:

Thin people are thin because they have a faster metabolism.

You know how it goes. I know how it goes, because I believed it too. I'd look at someone who was thin and wish I had their amazing, bird-like metabolism. They can eat whatever they want and stay thin as a spike. Along the same lines is the idea that you have a fast metabolism when you're young, but it slows down as you age.

The truth is, people who are thinner will have slower metabolisms than people who are heavier. Not faster. Slower. Why is that? Because it takes more energy, more work, hence more calories to move a heavy body around than a lighter body. Try it yourself with any object. That's why heavier vehicles, other things being equal, get worse gas mileage than lighter vehicles do.So how do thin people stay thin? Only three possible explanations exist: They burn more, consume less, or both. Thinner people find physical activity to be more comfortable. Moving around is easier, so they tend to do it more. The opposite happens when we get older and eat more. We gain weight, move around less, gain even more weight, and on and on it goes.

And why do young people get to eat more without gaining weight? Some of the energy they take in, in the form of calories, will go into growth, yes, but they are usually far more active than older folks and pay more attention to their appearance, and so probably eat less, not more, than older people do. When the older ones get married, there's less reason to care about diet and exercise, since they've already satisfied the evolutionary imperative to find a mate and pass on their genes. When we were young there were also probably some restraints put on our eating. When we get to be adults, the only people who can stop us from having that pie are the ones staring back at us in the mirror. The physical demands of our jobs also tend to become less energy-intensive as we age.

But all these reasons have to do with the same factors: Calories in, and calories out.

Is that discouraging? It shouldn't be! Because it means that you are not subject to the immutable dictates of a mysterious entity called your metabolism. You have the power to change, to transform your body using two tools. Diet, and exercise. And that's great news.

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(Photo: Healthy Choices Daily) When I was about 15, I started running. I mean I ran as a child, playing sports and that sort of thing, but I took up running as a form of exercise. Sadly though, I took up smoking just a year or so later, to look cool and all that, and so the running got booted out the door like an unwelcome guest. Then, when I was around 18, I gave up the cigarettes (which I had indulged in for all of about 6 months) and got to running again. That lasted for quite a godly number of years. But then, blah blah blah, you've heard the story in previous posts, I got sick from simple carbs and just got too heavy for running to be possible. Now here I am again, having gained significant ground back toward my goal of lean and hard, and I'm faced with this question: To run or to walk? Which is best?

Walking has been part of my fitness routine on the days I didn't do the gym. It's been gym, gym, walk, gym, walk, gym, rest, (that's 7 days, if you're counting) for months. But a few weeks ago I began transforming the walking into running. For example, I had been walking 4 times around my apartment complex. Then I substituted a few hundred feet of running to the walk, then I was walking three, running one, then walking two, running two, then I added a lap and last week I walked one and ran four. I'd like to be running six pretty soon. Then, who knows?

But is this the right approach? Which is best for getting lean and hard? Which is best for my overall health? These burning questions will be answered very soon. Actually, right now.

First, the fat burning question. According to experts, the idea that you burn more fat when you exercise at a lower intensity is a myth. While it's somewhat correct to say that you burn more fat proportionally in comparison to carbohydrates, this small difference is offset by the fact that you are burning far more calories at higher intensities. Take a look at this quote:

Myth: Exercise done at a low intensity, such as walking, is better at fat burning than other high-intensity activities, like running or cardio activities where you push yourself very hard.

The Truth: In a strict scientific sense, these claims are true because working at a lower intensity requires less quick energy and a higher percentage of fat is burned. But you'll also burn fewer calories than you would if, for the same amount of time, you work out at a harder intensity (running versus walking). If you're trying to lose weight, even though a higher percentage of fat is being used, a lower total amount of fat is lost (Busting the Great Myths of Fat Burning).

On the other hand, walking is far and above better than not doing either. And for many people (me included for a long time), running is not an option.

Another consideration is injury. Low-impact exercise is certainly prone to fewer injuries than the high-impact varieties, and running can result in injury to various parts of the body.

So, running burns more calories and increases my cardiovascular fitness better than walking, but is not always possible and can be more prone to injuries.

Here's what I'll do. I'll run, but I'll build up slowly and be careful not to over-train. Cool? Awesome.

(If you're wondering where power-walking fits in, it doesn't. You run the serious risk of getting beat up for looking so dorky.)

Lean and hard movie star of the month: Jon Hamm



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Is it ever advisable to take a break from my regular workout routine? Will I lose all my gains if I miss a day? How do I know if I need a break? And how long should a break be?

These are all great questions. I've actually taken short breaks by necessity rather than by choice, and I've found that they can actually be advantageous. But what do the experts say?

While exercising consistently is important for building endurance, conditioning your body and losing weight, you may reach a point where you're tired, bored and desperately need a break. Taking a break may be just what you need to rest, recover and rejuvenate, but how long before you start losing your fitness?

You may be surprised to learn that taking a few days or a full week off from training won't necessarily hurt the gains you've made. In fact, many serious exercisers and athletes regularly schedule a week off every 8-12.

So if you're serious about fitness you can be certain that breaks are not only not a bad thing, they're actually important for your long-term fitness goals.

Today's awesome workout song...



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What do you call someone who won't accept a statement just because "that's what everybody says"? That's me. Why don't I believe things "everybody says"? Because everybody is often dead wrong. People tend to be lazy about demanding proof, and instead like to repeat what they hear or read with little or no skepticism. That's the word, skeptic!

If only there was a way to check these things out, to find out the facts, to research things ourselves. Hey, there is! The Internet! It's a simple matter to find out the truth, or as close to it as current research allows.

How about this one: Caffeine is bad for you. Well that's wrong. And another: Work out with high reps and light weights to tone muscle, heavy weights and low reps for getting huge. That's also wrong. Here's what research has shown...

What grows muscle is forcing it to adapt to greater stresses than it is used to. This means putting it under greater tension and working it to the point of fatigue. It turns out that you have to lift nearly the heaviest weight that you can. This from Lou Schuler, an award-winning journalist and certified strength and conditioning specialist, quoted from this article:

"The good news is that the muscle-building process creates a stronger, leaner, healthier, and better-conditioned body even when the actual increase in muscle tissue is minimal. But it only works if you try to build muscle by using weights that are pretty close to the heaviest you can lift. If the workout tells you to do 10 repetitions, for example, you need to pick a weight that you could lift, at most, 11 or 12 times. Studies show that adults typically choose weights that are much lighter than the workout calls for."

As for the fear many women have that lifting heavy will make them huge and masculine-looking, the same article has this to say:

"Heavy weights won't make you huge, but they can make you lean. Males don't have the market cornered on unrealistic expectations. The woman doing presses and rows with dumbbells smaller than her forearms is trying to do the impossible: "tone" muscles she hasn't yet built. She's worried about getting "too big," which is equally absurd. Muscle is hard to build at any age, for either gender, and it never happens by accident."

Another result of this fallacy affects men who are overweight and try to get a toned look by lifting light weights. You can't tone what isn't there, and you can't look toned anyway as long as you are covered with a thick layer of fat. That takes a combination of resistance training, diet and rest.

You know those ads for the Bowflex: You can look like this if you shell out whatever it is we're asking for! Baloney. Same for the hundreds of silly devices that promise to "tone" your abs, thighs, arms, whatever. Don't waste your money. It's better spent on a gym membership and healthy foods. 

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In keeping with the lean and hard theme, which is really my goal and the condition I intend to keep, my workouts are focused on losing fat and building muscle. One without the other is like trying to stand on just one leg. Not ideal at all.This means my workouts include both cardio and weight training components. The balance of the two components can be adjusted as my body changes.

I exercise six days every week. That's four gym days and 2 walking days. At the gym I divide an hour between the elliptical and weights. Once in a while, if I need to lighten up, I'll substitute the stationary bike for the elliptical.

I alternate upper and lower body (including abs), so each body part gets worked twice every week. The reason for this is to keep pushing my muscles to grow while also giving them enough time to recover.

My upper body exercises include chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps. Lower body and abs includes quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and of course abs.

The larger muscles (chest, back, quads and hams) get two exercises each, while the smaller ones (calves, shoulders, glutes, biceps and triceps) get one each.

Right now I'm doing two sets per exercise, and keep my reps within ranges, like 5-8 or 8-12, depending on the amount of weight I'm lifting.

The goal for every set is to work the muscle to the point of almost failing. This means I push myself to the point where I can just barely complete the last rep.

When I can do both sets all the way to the top end of my range of reps, I'll bump up the weight by 5 to 15 pounds the next time I work that muscle.

So my typical week looks like this: Monday, lower body and abs; Tuesday, walking; Wednesday, upper body; Thursday, walking; Friday, lower body and abs; Saturday, no exercise; Sunday, upper body.

I'm pleased with my results so far. Comments?

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Actually, it's more likely to rank in the single digits, wouldn't you agree? According to this article, being physically fit makes for a dramatically improved sex life, for several intuitively obvious reasons, such as:

Physically fit people look and feel more attractive.

No question about this one, right? Man or woman, old or young, reducing body fat and adding muscle makes for a more attractive appearance. I read something interesting along these lines many years ago in a body-building magazine. It said that people who were (excuse the shameless plug for this blog) lean and hard looked better without clothes than with. Don''t misunderstand, they look good clothed too, it's just that they look even better when the clothes come off.

Conversely, people who are not physically fit take full advantage of the ability of clothes to disguise what they really look like underneath. I remember well, when I lived in the Northeastern U.S., someone pointing out that when winter turned to spring and the sweaters and bulky jackets came off, all the extra padding wouldn't have anywhere to hide anymore. So true. Sex, if you'll forgive me for pointing out the obvious, often requires the clothes to come off. Then it's either Yikes! or Wow!

It stands to reason that people who appear more attractive, to themselves and to others, are more likely to enjoy better sex lives, whatever their marital status or sexual orientation.

A big part of sex is feeling sexy. People who exercise have an improved body image over people who do not exercise. Being more comfortable with your body leads to better and more relaxed sex.

Physically fit people enjoy better sexual performance

The best sex takes flexibility, endurance, energy, and sometimes physical strength. Everyone knows that as we get heavier and develop more and more cushioning, our sexual options become more and more limited. Simple engineering and physics, right?

Sex itself is an intense physical activity requiring strength and endurance. As you exercise, both your strength and endurance will increase, opening the possibility for more varied sexual positions that require greater physical control.

It is known to be true that erectile dysfunction is often associated with obesity-related health problems.

Researchers looked at men over the age of 50 and found that those who were physically active reported better erections and a 30% lower risk of impotence than men who were inactive.

Physically fit people enjoy the regular release of endorphins.

What do endorphins have to do with sex? It turns out that the hormones released during and after strenuous exercise, the ones that create a so-called runner's high, also increase the frequency and pleasure of sexual arousal.

In fact, studies have shown that women who frequently exercise become aroused more quickly and are able to reach an orgasm faster and more intensely.

So if you need some additional motivation to get on the elliptical or say no to that slice of pizza, give this some thought. Achieving and maintaining physical fitness is a warrior's endeavor, and warriors need all the motivation they can get.

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In a way, this is like asking which wing of the airplane is better to keep it flying rather than plummeting to the ground, the right or the left? Stupid question, right? Similarly, both exercise and diet play an important, in fact essential, role in promoting long term weight loss. But unlike the airplane analogy, they don't necessarily have an equal effect.

Consider the math: If you spend 30 minutes on the elliptical at a moderate pace, and if you weigh 150 lbs, you will burn approximately 393 calories. If you eat a double whopper with cheese and medium fries, you will consume about 1400 calories. And they both take about the same amount of time to accomplish.

What does this mean? You have to work out like a demon to make up for eating badly, and you won't even come close.The way I look at it, exercise is crucial for building muscle and improving overall health, but it can't win the battle for fitness by itself. Controlling what enters your mouth is even more crucial when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.

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Everyone who's lost weight at some point in their lives, hold up your hand. Now everyone who's gone to the gym to work out, your turn. Now, everyone who does both as a way of life, raise them up.

Among the people I know and see on a regular basis, there are always some who are trying to lose weight at any given time, usually by trying some gimmicky new diet or diet supplement. What's ironic and sad to me is that people actually pay other people so they can eat less. They pay more money for fewer calories. Doesn't seem right. Most fail to lose weight, and those few who succeed just become thin and flabby.

At the gym I see people who are built like bears. Massive, barrel chested, arms bigger than my thighs, they lumber around the gym moving enormous stacks of weights. They are impressive. But their muscle is buried under slabs of jelly-like fat. They are unhealthy, don't look good and - I'll bet anything - are uncomfortable all the time.

Then there are those who are trying desperately to do something that has been proven to be impossible: Spot reduce. They want to get six-pack abs so they do hundreds of crunches. They pine for slim thighs and hips, so they open and shut their legs on adduction machines. Their legs get stronger, but they will never get thinner unless they lose fat. And where fat comes off is up to genetics, not the type of exercises you do.

Instead of hit and miss (mostly miss) attempts to lose weight or build muscle, why not undertake a systematic approach to accomplishing both? This is the path to being lean and hard. There is no mystery to doing these two things.

First, losing weight can only be accomplished successfully by taking in fewer calories than you expend. It's basic arithmetic. Figure out how many calories a person of your age, gender, weight and level of activity needs on a daily basis in order to maintain. Then, assuming that you have to burn 3500 calories more than what you take in (or take in 3500 calories fewer than what you burn), you can figure out how many calories you can eat every day in order to lose X pounds over Y weeks.

Here're my numbers when I started at 303 lbs. According to several online calculators, A man who weighs 303 lbs., is 5 feet 10 inches tall, is 52 years old, and does light exercise 3 times per week is burning just over 3000 calories per day.

Keeping in mind that most medical professionals who know about calorie restriction say that you should not go below 1200, let's say I want to lose a safe 2 pounds per week. That would require shorting myself 3500X2=7000 calories per week, or 1000 per day. Subtract 1000 from 3000 and I get to a calorie intake goal of 2000 per day.

As I lose weight, however, my calorie needs will decrease, so I will have to add activity and/or lower my intake in order to keep losing at that pace.(I actually leveraged my success at losing weight by increasing my exercise, since I could exercise more without too much difficulty as I lost weight.)

So I've been growing muscle and trimming fat. At some point I expect the muscle to be close enough to the surface that its contours give me a nice, sculpted look, and I get to see that elusive bicep vein!