You know that you need to exercise but you think you don’t have the time. You think that exercise is too hard or requires you to purchase a gym membership and workout in front of other people. What if you could get all the cardiovascular exercise you need in just 12 minutes a day without leaving the comfort of your own home? What if this quick exercise helped you boost your metabolism, reduce inflammation and actually reverse diabetes and heart disease? Would you be more motivated?
Metabolic Syndrome
Many patients I take care of are struggling with metabolic syndrome. This is not quite a disease but a collection of symptoms and risk factors that result from altered metabolism. Metabolic syndrome is also called Syndrome X and it is characterized by insulin resistance. The process starts very subtly with weight gain and inflammation. As these progress, it then affects your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar metabolism, and hormone balance.
Metabolic syndrome is present if you have three or more of the following signs(1):
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Blood pressure equal to or higher than 130/85 mmHg
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Fasting blood sugar (glucose) equal to or higher than 100 mg/dL
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Large waist circumference (length around the waist):
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Men – 40 inches or more
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Women – 35 inches or more
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Low HDL cholesterol:
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Men – under 40 mg/dL
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Women – under 50 mg/dL
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Triglycerides equal to or higher than 150 mg/dL
Unfortunately, these symptoms are often not recognized for the danger that they represent. These sneaky symptoms eventually progress into obesity, thyroid conditions, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Heart disease and stroke alone account for 40% of the deaths in the U.S. every year.
These diseases all take years to develop. If you have noticed your weight and waistline slowly increasing or your blood pressure and cholesterol creeping up – don’t wait until you are diagnosed with life-altering disease. Be proactive and change now!
If you already have one of these diseases, the good news is that you don’t have to simply manage them with medication. These conditions can all be reversed naturally. Metabolic syndrome and the diseases that result from it develop from years of altered, unhealthy metabolism. Your metabolism – fast or slow, healthy or not – is a direct result of the type of food you eat and the type of exercise you do. You have the ultimate power to change these and reverse these diseases.
Metabolic syndrome is reversed by reconditioning your metabolism. This is accomplished through:
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Adopting an Anti-inflammatory Diet to condition your metabolism through nutrition. See 8 Tips to Beat Inflammation with your Diet for the necessary details.
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Incorporating Metabolic Conditioning Exercise/High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to condition your metabolism through exercise.
Metabolic Conditioning Exercise Explained
Metabolic conditioning exercise is a type of conditioning exercise that elicits a specific hormonal and energy production response in your body. It is also called High-intensity interval training (HIIT). It is characterized by alternating periods of short, high intensity, anaerobic exercise with lower intensity, recovery periods.
These high intensity periods, or bursts of exercise are designed to elevate your heart rate to near your maximum heart rate. (You can use this tool on digifit to calculate your maximum heart rate). The recovery periods are usually shorter and designed to allow your heart rate to decrease slightly before starting another high-intensity round.
A workout usually includes 6-8 different exercises with each one performed at your maximum effort. The exercises can be designed to provide a whole body workout or focus on a specific area like upper body, lower body, or core.
How to Perform A HIIT Workout
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Choose six different exercises to perform. For example, a lower body workout might consist of running in place, squats, lunges, toe raisers, mountain climbers and high knees. An upper body workout might consist of banded pull ups, push ups, shoulder presses, diamond push ups, banded chin ups, lateral and anterior arm raises. A core workout might consist of crunches, stability ball passes, lateral crunches, bicycles, shin slaps, and leg swings.
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Set your timer to 18 rounds of 30 second work periods and 10 second rest periods. There are several free and paid apps with timers to use on android. The best iPhone app is 12 Minute Athlete HIIT Workouts. Here is an interval timer that you can use on your computer as well.
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Perform each exercise for 3 rounds at your maximum effort. Then move on to the next exercise when the next round starts.
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After performing each of the six exercises 3 times each – you are done! This workout will be completed in just 12 minutes. It will not be easy but it will be fast!
You can find some great resources for implementing HIIT workouts, like example workouts and exercise explanations and videos at 12 Minute Athlete.
Benefits of Metabolic Conditioning/HIIT vs. Traditional Exercise
There are many reasons why I prefer high intensity interval training, not the least of which is the short amount of invested time! However, most of the amazing and superior benefits of this type of exercise stem from the way in which it affects your metabolism; your hormonal system. Here are some more comparisons of the two.
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All types of exercise – when performed regularly – produce decreases in blood pressure, resting heart rate, stimulate your lymphatic system and aid your body in detoxification.
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Workout Time: While a traditional cardio workout may take 45 – 90 minutes to complete, an HIIT workout takes only 9-20 minutes.
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Effects on Cortisol (the stress hormone): Traditional cardio exercise raises cortisol(2) which stimulates appetite, is catabolic (breaks down muscle), increases fat storing, and slows down or inhibits exercise recovery. Whereas, HIIT workouts decrease cortisol, reducing inflammation and allowing body to burn fat more efficiently
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Effects on Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone: Traditional cardio exercise decreases testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH), both necessary to build muscle and burn fat. HIIT results in increased growth hormone and testosterone which supercharges your body’s fat burning and muscle building/toning.
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Effects on Inflammation: Over the long term, traditional cardio exercise increases joint inflammation and possibly systemic inflammation as well. Metabolic conditioning exercise reduces inflammation and the resulting pain.
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Effects on Fat loss: Another amazing benefit of metabolic conditioning exercise is its superior fat loss benefits. Research(3,4,5) regularly demonstrates that HIIT exercise consistently outperforms “classic” cardio for fat loss. One study showed that there was a significant loss in body fat in a group that exercised at a high intensity of 80-90% of maximal heart rate. There was no significant change in body fat found in the lower intensity group which exercised at 60-70% of maximal heart rate, with workloads being equal. Another study looked at a group who exercised using metabolic conditioning over 12 weeks. This study found that subjects lost an average of .31 pounds of pure fat from their waistlines and 3.1 pounds of pure fat from their trunks in that time span!(4) This is not overall weight loss (which was even more) but pure fat loss.
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Overall Impact on Metabolism: With classic aerobic exercise, you only burn fat for the time that you are actively exercising AND you are burning fat at a slower pace. However, with metabolic conditioning exercise, you get an afterburn effect. You burn energy very rapidly and you continue to burn fat for up to 36 hours after completion of your exercise!
The bottom line is that metabolic conditioning exercise is more efficient and more effective at burning fat, boosting your metabolism, reducing inflammation and balancing hormones. As a result, it is the perfect exercise for reversing metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
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References for this article:
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004546/#adam_007290.disease.causes
(3) Bryner, R. W., R.C. Tome, I.H. Ullrish, and R.A. Yeater. The effects of exercise intensity on body composition, weight loss, and dietary composition in women. J. Am. Col.
(4) The Effect of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise on Body Composition of Overweight Young Males. Journal of Obesity. Volume 2012 (2012). http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobes/2012/480467/
(5) “Forget the jog slog and fit in a sprint for maximum weight loss results”
Additionally, I am a husband and father of a Deaf son. I am passionate about the Word of God, building strong families, Chiropractic Health Care, Optimal Nutrition and Exercise, Deaf Culture and American Sign Language.
