SBD Supercharged! Rethinking of our exercise thread!
 

I mentioned in another thread that over the weekend I picked up the Low GI Diet revolution book from the local library. What I didn't mention is that I also picked up the South Beach Diet Supercharged! book. I was curious as to what he had to say. I thought it would be much of the same that was in his first book. It's NOT! Do yourself a favor, go to your local library and check it out!

Each month we have an exercise challenge and the person with the most exercise minutes is crowned as are the few next higher ones.

Dr. Agston discusses the traditional work outs verses interval training. In the book he discuses several cases and proven techniques, one of which I'll briefly share. "Diane" was on the treadmill for 60 minutes a day, only had ten more pounds to lose but was in a plateau. She asked the Dr. if she could go back to P1, he told her NO! Instead, he had her go from 60 minutes of treadmill to 20 minutes interval training on the treadmill. In a month she came back and not only had lost that unwanted ten pounds but was also feeling much better. The book goes into detail of the benefits of interval training... and for most of us exercising to it's maximum, in LESS time is crucial!

I'm still browsing the book, but wanted to share this. As I mentioned, I wasn't going to pick up this book, and I'm not quite sure what possessed me, but I'm glad I did! This book isn't a replacement to his original, in my opinion, but a companion book to it! I just may be purchasing it soon!

HIIT is pretty popular on 3FC and around the internet and the little research there is does point to it being useful. There is also a place for longer cardio workouts and, of course, things like yoga, pilates, and weight training.

I consider the Maintainers Forum here to be the ultimate authority on keeping weight off (yes, more than Dr. A, I know that's sacrilege ;) I've yet to meet any doctor who really understands weight loss and maintainance better than someone who has done it successfully. No matter how I slice it there's no way around the need for maintainers to hit that higher number of minutes too. I sooooo wish that wasn't true and there was a way to cut back on the time I set aside each day for exercise, but it just isn't so for many people including me.

But when it comes to losing and getting in shape I think anything that gets you exercising regularly for any amount of time is a GOOD thing! That's what I love about the exercise thread and why I still need it. That extra motivation to push myself just a little bit further each month, to workout when I really want to be a slug, is so helpful for me. I would like to see us recognize people who hit their goals, much like the weight loss forum. For someone just getting into the exercise habit 500 minutes is a huge accomplishment and worthy of recognition. From the FWIW department ;)

Cyndi, I agree, anything that gets someone moving even ten minutes a day more than what they used to says something! I'm a firm believer in what works for someone, getting them to eat healthier and moving more will work for them, if they can continue that lifestyle in the longterm!

I was merely pointing out the studies proving that interval is more successful in turning on the "fat burning" machines. :)

Lori, I don't have the Supercharged book. What, exactly, does he mean by interval training? I've been taking Jazzercise since 1996. I've been teaching it for almost 2 years -- a 1 hour class, 3 times per week. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jazzercise. But, my body says, "Yep, seen that before" after a class. I think I'd benefit from mixing it up. Walking bores me. I'm NOT jogging or running. What else is there?

I do intervals in pretty much all of my workouts. Not only are they a fairly-well studied calorie-burning-booster, they really help with cardiovascular endurance. I don't think I'll ever slip below 40 minutes a workout of cardio and I definitely won't stop doing intervals!!

Chelby: Interval training is pretty simple. It just means throwing high intensity segments into your regular workout.

I.e., say you walk at 3 mph for 30 minutes straight. To throw in intervals, you might speed up to 4 mph or start jogging every 3 minutes for a minute.

Minutes 1-3: 3 mph
Minute 4: 4 mph
Minutes 5-8: 3 mph
Minute 9: 4 mph
and so forth...

The benefit is that you boost your heart rate for those 4 mph minutes, and therefore, increase calorie burn. It is a really great way to push your body without having to increase intensity for a whole workout without recovery. This way, you get the increased intensity in spurts with a 3-minute recovery period. I swear by it.

It also helps if you want to make the transition from walking to jogging. Instead of jogging your whole workout, you start with one-minute, then you may increase it to 2-minutes of jogging and 2-minutes of walking. All you have to do is keep switching the ratio until you're jogging all 30 minutes!

Wow I didn't know much about interval workouts so I'm glad it was explained here. I think maybe it's something I need to look into. I'm getting down to those last few lbs I'd like to lose for my current goal (sidenote: think I'm going to shoot for under 185 but I want to hit that goal FIRST)and I know those last few lbs are always the hardest to lose. Recently I did increase the resistance on my elliptical and boy did I feel the difference! I have to exert much more energy to keep it going. I noticed there are interval settings already on the elliptical that switches up the tension as you are exercising. I'm going to grab my manual, read up on it more, and see if it helps. Thanks for starting this thread! I also want to pick up a copy of South Beach Diet Supercharged at my library sounds very interesting!

In Jazzercise, you work a 'curve', starting at the bottom and working fairly lightly, moving to somewhat hard and then hard, then back down the curve. The aerobic set is about 35 minutes. There is also a strength/stretch set after the aerobic set that lasts about 25 minutes. I burn about 750 calories in that hour because not only am I working my butt off, I'm talking the whole time. As a student, I burn about 500. Running my mouth burns a lot of calories! :D

I may try to add 30 minute interval training twice a week to see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the information, Kim.

I've been doing the Couch-to-5k workout, which seems to be popular on other forums, which is mostly based on interval training until you work your way up to jogging a 5K. I am taking it slow (I am in terrible shape), but I see major improvement from week one! You can google "couch to 5k" for the plan.

I've been attempting the C25K program too but am having a bit of a slow time with it. I've been hoping to add a little treadmill running to increase calorie burn.

Lori- It's great info. Thanks for starting the discussion!

Kim - You are a serious exercising woman these days! I was amazed to discover after a couple of months that I had more energy and was generally less umm temperamental ;) Apparently it's good for lots of things ;) Have you reached the point of wanting to exercise yet? That was startling for me.

I got the supercharged book from the library and I have been incorporating the interval walking and I am seeing a difference in my body if not lbs. But as Cyndi said for me- I need to do longer sets inorder for the weightloss to occur- I am trying to build back up to that level.

I am also doing the C25K and LOVE interval training, when I feel like I can't walk any longer I bump it up to a run and when my interval is up walking seems like a little rest. Hope that makes since.

With my last successful weight loss a few years back I was an exercising fool. I built up to 7 days a week, about an hour a day. I ended up getting totally burned out. It was either quit or cut it down. I cut it down to 30 min./day, about 3 times a week (or every other day) & I kept my weight loss for a very long time (until I got sick or hurt my back or something & was off for months).

Anyway, what has worked best for me in the recent years was doing the 5-factor Fitness workout which incorporates some aerobics (which was what I was mostly doing in the past) and weights. What it teaches is starting out with higher reps & lower weights and building up to less reps with heavier weights. The aerobics portion is about 10 minutes long with the weights around 15-20 minutes and you're supposed to do it 5 days a week.

During Phase I I didn't exercise until the other day. I'm taking it very slow, just doing a little aerobics and adding time each day I do it. Once I build back up to 30 minutes of aerobics, I'll start doing the 5-factor Fitness routine again. In fact, I had gotten a new set of weights for it and never used them for whatever reason.

There's just no way I'd ever go back to any kind of 60 minute workout and I have bad feet, so just doing aerobics or even just walking isn't good for me. When I was doing the 5-factor Fitness workout not only did I lose easy and my clothes really started fitting better (& I had to get smaller sizes), but I swear I repaired my bad knees, that have been bothering me for years!

I'm not trying to push that work-out program, but just throwing another routine out there because we are all different. I have some old aerobics tapes that incorporated interval work-outs so it's been around for a long time. I do believe in it vs. just doing the same steps all of the time.

Happy to see so many people doing C25K. I should be starting week four this week, but I think I will repeat week 3, just to be on the safe side...

I actually did my first interval workout today! It was pretty informal, but I just hopped on the treadmill and warmed up, and then jogged for as long as I could (like 30 sec), then walked quickly for a few minutes...repeat...and did that for 20 mins. I hope to be able to build up how long I can be at a high-intensity, but I like the idea and am curious to see how it works for me. :)

Interval training or any cardio was always an issue for me, I quite enjoy resistance training, but not cardio.
I'll never be a gym bunny and I envy those who do like to exercise. So I needed to find a way to make my cardio sessions go a little quicker. I tried the usual things, like reading during my workout, making up great music mixes for my i-Pod etc etc. Nothing really helped

Then I found Cardio Coach. You can download a workout (I recommend workout #1 for beginners ) to your mp3 player and the workouts are FAB! They use interval training and are suitable if you use a treadmill, stationary bike, or an elliptical. You just alter your speed and resistance as you listen to the workout. It's like having your own coach right with you as you exercise. He tells you how to warm up, how and when to increase your speed, motivates you to work out to your optimum level, and the music's good too.
The Volume 1 workout is 30 minutes. Honestly, when I do this workout , the time flies and I enjoy it.
The workout won't motivate you to get onto the treadmill/bike or whatever,(my biggest problem!) but once you're there you WILL stay there for 30 minutes and enjoy it.

Oooh, Artemis, I'll have to check that out! I take it that it's available on iTunes? :crossed: I listed to my iPod on the treadmill anyway, so that should be nice!

For those of you doing C25K, do you think it's possible to do all the workouts on the elliptical? I can't jog, even on a treadmill, because it kills my knees. :( I'm doing PT for them, but I don't see jogging or running anywhere in my future.

My nutritionist suggested that the best way to get my metabolism working better was to do 30 mins of cardio (not including warm up/cool down), at a decent intensity (where you're still able to talk...your heart rate is up, but it's not insane), then do a burst of really tough activity for 8 minutes in the middle. So that means 11 mins of exercise, followed by 8 of really intense exercise, followed by 11 mins of regular exercise. I did it on the elliptical. I raised the incline and the resistance, then went really fast and hard for the 8 mins. It was tough, but it really seemed to work.

However, after a year of doing that 3+ times a week, my body was too used to it, I feared. I talked to a lot of the mods at our last meetup and we discussed the benefits and downsides of interval, endurance, and other kinds of training. I'd done interval training back when I first started SBD, so I decided to do that instead for a while. I use the interval setting on the elliptical. When the incline goes up, I go much faster. When it goes back down, I slow down. I'm always at a cardio heart rate (sorry I don't know what that is...I just use the monitor on the elliptical and how I feel as a guide) but when I do the intense interval, I end up at the very top of my range. It's exhilerating and fun for a change.

That said, some of the chicks at the mod meetup extolled the virtues of picking a heartrate level and staying right there for 30 mins (or more). They said this is helpful too.

Overall, I think a variety of exercise is really important. If you love Jazzercise (which is SUCH a great workout!), Chelby, you could try doing cardio in between strength training (or circuit training) on the days when you don't do Jazzercise. :D I know it's a really major organization, but is there any way you could talk with the people above you to see if there's any chance of developing an interval training workout for Jazzercise? :?:

Artemis - Ooohhhh thanks! I'll check that out.

Laurie - I don't see why you couldn't do it on the elliptical. Now that I think about it you could do it on anything, it just builds up your interval capacity. I love the podcast, makes it very simple and the music is not bad.
I'm pushing the envelope on the treadmill but don't honestly know if I will get very far. I just got it in my head that I want to be able to run at least on the treadmill. I have to admit though that I am very carefully not mentioning it to my doctor.

Jazzercise has a class called Circuit, that's kind of like interval training. I've never taught it. It's something like 2 aerobic routines followed by 2 strength training routines, for a total of 16 routines. It still follows the aerobic curve in that you start with an easy heartrate to a really intense heartrate and back down.

I hope no one misunderstood me. JAZZERCISE IS THE BEST WORKOUT EVER! If you want a fun, whole-body workout, it is for you! What's better than dancing and sweating with your friends? :) My problem is it's been my only source of exercise for 13 years and my body is used to it. I teach 3 classes a week. I need to do something else at least two other days.

I hear you, Chelby! I was doing Jazzercise once a week when I was losing the most, and I'm sure it was a factor! But anything can stop doing much for you if you build up a tolerance. Changing it up a bit can definitely help. :) What are you thinking of doing on the other days?

Thanks, Cyndi! I'm definitely going to look into the C25K program. Did you find podcasts on iTunes or elsewhere?

I looked for Cardio Coach on iTunes this weekend and only found a video podcast. Artemis PM'd me with the website: www.cardiocoach.com. Looks great!

Thanks for the wonderful ideas, Beachies! It's good to have ways to make the workout more fun. :workout:

I get them on iTunes. I use Robert Ulney (or something like that)'s podcasts.

Beachgal -- On two other days, I'm trying to walk for 30 minutes. I really hate it, but I know it's important.