Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Scary notes on Consistency

As you know, I’ve been doing this a long time.  I’ve been exercising myself since the mid to late 80’s and I’ve been observing people exercise more or less since the mid 90’s.  So I’ve always known that training inconsistently would bring inconsistent results, but recently I read a few eye openers.

Dr. Robert Lustig, generally considered a leader in the fight against body fat (to those of us who pay attention - sorry to disappoint you if you thought Jillian Michaels was a leader…J) listed some of these scientific tidbits in his most recent book:

The benefits of exercise, which are numerous obviously, are short lived and have to be frequent and sustained:
  • Studies demonstrate that levels of PPAR-gamma coactivator 1-alpha (the protein in muscle cells that turns on all the metabolic raising effects of exercise) decline within 24-48 hours of cessation of exercise. 
  • Insulin sensitivity returns to baseline within 15 days.  And as the TR has mentioned ad nauseum, if you can control your insulin, you can control your waistline.

I think that's WAY more drastic than most people who train inconsitetnly realize.  If you want to use exercise as a tool to fight against a large waistline and chronic disease, you’ll need to be consistent about it.  If you take the “weekend warrior” approach to fitness, you’re probably wasting your time.

Set a schedule and stick to it.  Put your workouts on your planner and get them done.

As we say at the TR, half assing your workouts will only get you half an ass J


Jon

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