Healthy High Achiever Blog

Read Part Iand Part II.

This past month delivered quite a unique discovery. In this, the third part in the series called Train, Not Drain, the revelation, was about High Intensity Training, when it makes sense and when it doesn’t.

Simply put, high intensity training does not make sense when your body is under excessive stress, experiencing overwhelm, exhaustion or fatigue. If you implement high intensity training during times like this, you risk destructive catabolic effects, not the constructive anabolic effects you are seeking.

High Intensity Training as a concept is amazing and has such compelling benefits.

Here’s what Arthur Jones founder of Nautilus, one of the first lines of training equipment ever created for gyms.

Everything of any value related to exercise can be stated in less than a thousand words, can, in fact, be fairly well covered in only a few words, as follows: Train hard, Train briefly, Train infrequently, and always remember that your final results will primarily be a consequence of genetics" -Arthur Jones

…Train Hard, Train Briefly and Train Infrequently.

Now this of course is not the average person’s philosophy. The average person is taught to train 5-6 days per week and this is fine, especially when animals in nature would be relatively active 7 days a week with recuperation periods when needed. 

But here’s the point.

High Intensity Training as a fitness protocol is different than short bursts of high intensity in the natural world.

For example, just this past month, I found myself doing a Tabata Protocol - 4 minutes of high intensity training, with a 10 second rest interval in between each 20 second repetition of a particular exercise.

On top of that, I was doing multiple rounds of this protocol, across many different exercises, sometimes as high at 4-6 rounds totaling nearly 30 minutes!

This was feeling great for the first week, only 3-4 times per week, then I noticed my ability to recover was declining and my attitude was changing and my ability to perform was sinking. True to form, I briefly pushed myself through only to see even worse results. As classic high achiever mistake.

What? Yes, I was experience a catabolic effect, not an anabolic effect from all my hard work.

What else was going on at the same time? I was finishing a book and that was an emotional draining process, and launching www.MyTrainer.com, on top of the rest of life. There were even more factors and the net result is, I was getting worn down fast!

I was in "the downward trend" as we call it in the Performance Lifestyle community.

I had too much going on and my body could not recover fast enough. Too much HIT - High Intensity Training, was over stressing my body and that’s the bottom line.

Read again what Dr Chad Oler had to say about this -Part I

I was reminded of a big lesson from all this… reinforcing what I learned from Joe Friel years ago… get the result doing as little as possible - more is not better.

You also have to factor in what’s going on in your life, and your lifestyle, before you commit to a training protocol and to determine the level, frequency, intensity and duration you are going to commit to.

I would have done just fine with High Intensity Training during this stressful period, but not at the level I was doing. Less frequency and duration would have changed things.

So, I have had to take a few weeks off and now, I’m back at it only with a much different approach.

John Allen Mollenhauer is the Founder of Performance Lifestyle Solutions, the better healthier ways to achieve your goals in life, business and sport. As a former worn down workaholic turned healthy, high achiever John Allen (aka “JAM”) will teach you how to Live Like a Pro, optimizing your lifestyle the way athletes do. He is the creator of the Healthy High Achiever - Unleash the Full Potential of Your Lifestyle to Look, Feel and Perform Better!

In Train not Drain part 1, you learned what happens when you subject a body under major stress to the stress of high intensity training.

I want to emphasize the point that I love high intensity training and espouse all of it’s benefits; that’s why I used terms like "warranted hype".

There are so many benefits to high intensity training there are too many to list; not the least of which is this - 4 minutes of high intensity interval training is equal to about 1 hour of regular low intensity aerobic training. And it is great for conditioning and fat loss, because of a principle called EPOC. More on that later, but for now just know that it’s the workout that keeps on working for you.

For busy people that’s a big deal.

Here are some examples: I was at a local gym when I did these, but the truth is, you can do a high intensity workout anywhere, at home or outside.

  The principle of the 4 minute workout was discovered by a Japanese researcher named Tabata. Doing more than 4 minutes can have additional benefits, but not if your body is in a depleted state, overstressed.

We don’t need a research study to figure out what happens when you subject a depleted body to high intensity training. It can have a destructive "catabolic" effect. In other words your body will break down, not build up.

If you ever wonder why your body is not responding to your training its usually because your body is in a depleted state, overwhelmed and exhausted, for some, fatigued.

The Performance Lifestyle formula solves this dilemma in a successful way. When it comes to training, here are some key tips to keep in mind…

1) If you are not seeing an anabolic "building" effect, from your training, it doesn’t mean you can’t engage in high intensity training.

Just remember you only need 4-8 minutes of high intensity training. Then it is all about "recovery". Subject yourself to too much training and you are working against yourself.

2) If you are feeling strong, for sure, engage in high intensity training, just remember more is not always better. What matters is what you can recover from successfully. That’s how you gauge a successful plan.

3) Reduce uncomplimentary stress, if you want to begin training more.

4) If dealing with a great deal of stress, switch gears to a less intense form of exercise to get your energy back in balance or greatly reduce the duration of your training.

The thing to keep in mind, especially today, is recovery. It’s the key to success.

More to come on this fascinating subject to come.

JAM

John Allen Mollenhauer is the Founder of Performance Lifestyle Solutions, the better healthier ways to achieve your goals. As a a former worn down workaholic turned Healthy High Achiever John Allen (aka “JAM”) will teach you how to Live Like a Pro; how to look, feel and perform better optimizing your lifestyle the way athletes do. Achieve your goals in life, business and sport and take your life to the next level!

Learn more at www.PerformanceLifestyleSolutions.com

What does all this mean to you?

What’s the difference between Lifestyle Training, Lifestyle Coaching, Lifestyle Fitness Coaching and traditional weight loss programs, diet programs and fitness training? 

I’ve been in and around the health and fitness industry, for over 20 years and I can tell you this… there’s a big difference. Moreover, that difference represents a fundamental mindset shift for both an industry and countless millions of people.

Finally, the subject of lifestyle is center stage. It’s no longer just about losing weight, it’s about what’s going to help you get truly well, healthy and able, to perform at the level you want and need to succeed. It’s about quality of life. It’s also, about what you want to accomplish in your life and business without having to sacrifice your health and fitness in the process.

Expansive to say the least, the reason why is simple. Like an amateur or professional athlete where health and fitness is a big part of their ability to perform well in their competitive sport which is a central part of their life and business, being well, staying healthy (energetic and fit) and being able to perform at a high level is the same for you. You may not be a competitive athlete, or even a fitness enthusiast, but still it’s all about what you’re up to in life and your quality of life. It’s the same for you as it is for athletes. We all need to take care of ourselves at high levels if we’re going to thrive today.

Health and fitness is not the goal! Neither is weight loss which is neither normal nor natural, but the effect of a lifestyle gone awry, off-course and downhill.

Today, we are realizing that we need lifestyle training, lifestyle fitness training and lifestyle coaching to help us live better at every age. If we don’t, the pace of modern day society and all the confusing, overwhelming, and exhausting influences we face, can easily wear us down. It’s about setting your lifestyle up for success, so you can thrive despite the relentless demand on your time and energy.

When you have wellness, which requires that you address your life situation, along with all of the core essential elements of taking care of your body, now we’re talking "solution". When you have the right perspective on taking care of yourself and it’s no longer "about" weight loss and lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk for disease, it becomes "about" your health AND success. When it’s about your health AND success, you’ll find you’ll want to to improve your lifestyle to look, feel and perform better and succeed at a much higher level.

Now that’s exciting. That’s Performance Lifestyle. 

Weight loss, while important for many people for a variety of reasons, is not exciting. I mean, do you wake up excited to lose weight? Do you wake up excited to exercise to lose weight? Probably no on both accounts. The reason why is simple, this is not what it’s about!! The diet, weight and fitness industries have turned it into this, but this is not what it’s about.

I doesn’t matter how overweight you are right now… weight loss is not your goal. It’s not even a real goal it’s an objective you have in your life so that you can accomplish something else, and it’s not going to happen healthfully and successfully or dissipate as something you even have to focus your attention on in your life until you get lifestyle training and coaching to deal with the real causes of your problem.

We all need lifestyle training and coaching today because we’re no longer living with natural influences in our lives. We’re required to thrive today in modern day environment that that is overwhelming and exhausting and promotes the overweight condition predictably.  The shift to lifestyle Fitness Training and Lifestyle Coaching is essential because it helps you avoid the causes and deal with the real situation not merely the symptoms and enjoy your life.

$60 billion dollars spend on diet and exercise programs is only making a small dent in the problem. Check out www.PerformanceLifestyle.com/obesitytrends. Statistics don’t like. This shift is long over due. It’s time for a real solution. It’s why I created Performance Lifestyle Solutions. To finally deal with the real situation of our modern day lives. It’s no longer about body transformation on it’s own. Body transformation is the result of a succesful lifestyle.

What you may not know though is that few traditional fitness trainers truly understand lifestyle, how to train and coach around it. There’s allot of old methodology today, wrapped up in new terminology. In other words, the same ole’ eat less and exercise more diet and workout routines are passing off as lifestyle coaching and this is far from lifestyle coaching.

Lifestyle is about how you live (work etc). At the core it’s about how you manage, spend and recuperate your energy, the quality of the food you eat and your activity levels to look, feel and perform better and achieve your goals in life and business. If you want to focus on the real deal, keep reading the blog at www.PerformanceLifestyle.com.

It will change your life and body forever.  

_____Original Message_____
From: Bethany
Date: 2007-05-21 13:26:25
Subject:

Hi, John Allen,

I have been following ETL for a while, am 25 yo, female, sedentary lifestyle, 5′ 1 1/2", 13-15% body fat (per scales at night) and 95 -98 lbs.  I have a rather busy lifestyle with a full time job and daily commute of 1.5 hours as well as studying and taking the CPA exam.  My goals are toning and strength.

I have tried various exercise programs and have not found one yet that has fitted me perfectly.  I have just visited your site and really like the articles I have seen and the fact that you are an ETLer (that’s someone who has read and likes the guidelines of teh book "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman M.D) Do you have any articles or books in which you recommend specific exercises?  One of these days I plan to have the money saved for your program.

Thanks in advance!

Bethany

Hi Bethany,

Bethany the only exercise or workout program that’s going to fit you perfectly, all the time, is the one YOU design. Workout porgrams and exercise programs are just "routines" that are created, given a name and sold. They have no magic power other than the power of the principles "in effect" behind the scene and the scope of movement that’s included. That’s where you want to focus.

That said, having some experience with commercial exercise programs is great because there are some pretty well designed routines out there, by some really experience people, and you can learn alot from them whether they fit you perfectly or not. They  help you break ground into new forms of movement. Once you get grounded in experience, you’ll be able to make up routines that incorporate these forms of movement into a Personal Fitness system, perfectly suited to you and your cirumstances.  

Essentially, once you are physically active on a regular basis, the result of a well managed lifestyle, you’ll want to include stability, strength and power training (muscular endurance or "cardio" training). This way you can move powerfully, free of risk of injury with well rounded fitness. Training and conditioning, though not mandatory for a long and healthy life, helps you look, feel and perform extraordinarily.  

Certainly as an ETL’er you have the food component of the Performance Lifestyle Formula really going for you. 

Personal Energy Management is where you need to focus (since you’ve been sedentary) and as you asked, getting good at adapting or creating exercise routines to fit you, your energy level and your readiness (the recovery factor) etc, anytime and all the time, is the skill you want to build.  

You will rarely find a book on exercise that will create a routine that will meet all those criteria. That’s why one of the concepts I teach at PerformanceLifestyle.com is "The Ultimate Trainer". The ultimate trainer is YOU, as you are the only person who really knows what’s best for you at any given time, when it comes to activity and exercise. You know you’re circumstances and you need to know them if you are going to have consistency working for you.

A couple good books, Core Performance, Outside Fitness, Functional Fitness, Body of Power… an of course The Healthy High Achiever - Unleash the Full Potential of Your Lifestyle, to Look, Feel and Perform Better (my book due out in another 2.5 months) where you’ll discover the Performance Lifestyle Formula.

You can also learn some at www.FitforPower.com for stability strength and more. There you’ll have links to great resources for creating a personalized fitness system that works for you anytime, anywhere, inluding links to "Workout Pass"… it’s fantastic!

I look forward to your participation in the Performance Lifestyle Training and Group Coaching Course to get the lifestyle formula working for you!

All my best

JAM