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This seminar is the perfect timing for the YB Fitness 5-Week Fitness Challenge that begins on September 19th. For more information: YBFitness.com
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Say “Goodbye” To Your 1 Hour Workout
This past weekend we put our bodies through the intense, exhilarating challenge of becoming certified as Tabata Bootcamp™ instructors. The experience was remarkable. Our instructor, Mindy Mylrea – the creator of the program, had enough energy to fuel a jet plane. She has been involved with many of the most successful fitness trends in the industry. She is the creator and lead talent for Gliding discs and a master trainer and part of the pro-development team for Schwinn Cycling, Body Bar, Flirty Girl Fitness and Bosu. You can read all about her here: http://www.tabatabootcamp.com/about-mindy.php
“Tabata”, a form of HITT – high intensity interval training, is based on a 1996 study by Professor Izumi Tabata, initially involving Olympic speed skaters. According to his research, study participants who exercised a mere four minutes at extreme intensity, four times a week, improved anaerobic capacity by 28%, and VO2 max and maximal aerobic power by 15%, in as little as six weeks. This was compared to participants who performed an hour of steady cardiovascular exercise five times a week for six weeks, and only improved their V02 max by 10% with no improvement in anaerobic capacity.
Mindy took the concept of Tabata and created Tabata Bootcamp™, a full 8-week program that transforms bodies dramatically by involving fitness, nutrition and behavioral change. The Tabata workout is built around 4 minutes of high intensity exercises, and this means the hardest kick-your-ass four minutes possible. The structure includes working out at your max for 20 seconds, rest for 10 and repeat for 8 rounds. A typical workout, with warm-up and cool-down, is only 30 minutes….30 minutes! And it’s a lot of fun. The EPOC, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, effects are immense – which means you continue to burn a crazy amount of calories hours after your workout.
We are working on developing our own local 8-week Tabata Bootcamp starting in April, which will offer a personalized website page that tracks your progress, achievements, nutrition and results. The classes will be limited to no more than 10 participants. More information to follow… If this is something you think you might be interested in, please let us know via email: info@heelstolaces.com.
The Power of Your Heart
There are many well-known health benefits associated with regular participation in physical activity including:
- Lower risk of heart disease
- Weight gain prevention
- Lower risk of type 2 diabetes
- Lower risk of cancer
- Reduced level of depression
- Weight loss
- Lower risk of high blood pressure
- Lower risk of stroke
What you might not know is the remarkable capacity of the body to adapt to exercise. Exercise creates physiological adaptations to the heart, helping it pump blood more efficiently therefore; allowing it to accomplish more, with less exertion. The more you exercise, the more efficient your heart becomes. This is called “adaptation”.
Facts about the heart:
- At an average resting heart rate of 70 beats per minute, the heart can comfortably (average fitness level and no heart disease) perform at twice its resting value. The average adult can train between 122-181 beats per minute.
- The amount of blood pumped by the heart can increase as much as 50-60% above resting values to meet the demands of exercise.
- The average adult pumps about 5 liters of blood per minute. When exercising, the amount of blood your heart pumps can increase to almost eight times its resting value. A sedentary person will give a cardiac output of 20-22 liters per minute while an elite athlete will exhibit an output of 35-40 liters per minute.
Stroke Volume
Increased stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped through the heart) is a training effect of aerobic exercise and allows a fit individual to pump more blood per beat, resulting in a lower heart rate during a workout.
You may have experienced this when starting a training program. In the beginning, you might have been gasping for breath and not able to keep up with the intensity. As your program progresses, your breathing and stroke volume becomes more efficient, allowing you to breathe easier, hence maximize your performance.
This is why less fit individuals may have a harder time making it up a flight of stairs or walking across a parking lot while for a fit person – it’s just a way of life. For inactive people, their lungs and heart cannot handle the oxygen demands required for performing the exercise. They can’t get it to their organs fast enough.
CO2 Output
When you increase maximum blood flow to pump blood more efficiently it saturates your blood with oxygen and removes CO2 efficiently. Removing CO2 at a higher rate increases your performance and gives you greater aerobic power. As your body becomes more efficient with exercise, it is able to extract oxygen from the blood more quickly.
As much as 88% of your blood flow during exercise is directed to the muscles (active tissues)! The more you exercise, the higher the number of capillaries you build in your muscle fiber, which means more oxygen in your muscles (faster!) and increased fuel storage.
So what does this mean?
As your fitness level improves and your rate of breathing becomes more efficient, you are able to deliver more oxygen throughout your body more quickly. You can accomplish more, with less exertion, at a higher level of performance.
Be good to your heart and it will show you the love in return.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
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