A woman recently told me that she was too old to start working out that it would not do any good at her age of 66 years.

I want to relate a true life story, a woman saw me conducting my bootcamp class and searched me out as she had just moved here from Virginia, wanted to lose weight and improve her fitness level.

She finally found me and was concerned that at her age 61, she would not be able to do much as she put it. I asked her is she willing to commit 45 minutes twice a week for 6 weeks and that in that time we will see what she can do. She agreed and we started working out with her being diligent about her appointments and keeping a food diary of everything she eat and drank along with the time of day this occurred.

This woman of 61 years of age could not sit down on a bench and stand up (bench squats) without the help of something to hold onto or lean up against. She could not walk on the treadmill for more than 5 minutes without becoming winded. She could not perform one modified push up (where you are on your knees with your torso on a 45 degree slant and perform the push up).

Now 6 weeks later she can perform those bench squats without any assistance 15 times for 2 sets. She walks on the treadmill now for 20 minutes at a time. She does modified push-ups for 10 times for 2 sets. She now consumes 3 liters of water per day instead of 6 bottles of Diet Coke. This Grandmother of 61 years has made remarkable strides in her journey and has increased her workout to 3 times per week. So this is living proof you can make great strides in your personal health and fitness quest, you just have to commit to be fit.

I am always entertained when I hear people say things concerning muscle gain and body fat. I will often hear sportscasters talk about football players having 6, 7, and 8% body fat. I will hear people say after working out for a period of weeks they have gained 4, 5, pounds of muscle or even higher. OK. Let me say this happily and diplomatically, it just aint’ so.

I want all of you to understand these concepts so that you are not misinformed and have a solid understanding of both muscle gain and body fat. Let’s start with muscle gain shall we? When you start working out you awaken your dormant muscle content and now are asking your muscles to perform against resistance and in doing so the muscle responds and by your consistency the muscle changes its composition.

This will lead to weight gain but the weight gain is not an increase in lean muscle mass it is only an increase of water inside your muscle which is now being kept active on a regular basis.

An highly trained athlete given the task of trying to improve their lean muscle mass training rigorously and eating correctly might and I stress might gain 10lbs of muscle mass in ONE YEAR.

Now the average American Women has a body fat reading of 35%, the fattest in the known Universe, a recommended reading for women is 21-25%; female athletes like sprinters or basketball players come in around 17-21%, while the gymnast, ballet dancers and female fitness/bodybuilding competitors come in under 17%. By the way one big myth is that female fashion models are very low in body fat which is untrue. The models are skinny but their muscle tone is typically underdeveloped and their body fat is usually 25-30%.

The Average American Male is 26% again the fattest from here to “E.T”. A recommended reading for the guys is 14-18%, the sprinters, football and basketball players average 10-14%, the gymnast, bodybuilders, and Cirque du Soleil performers come in under 10%. To put this in perspective Professional Bodybuilders will typically compete between 5-7% body fat will only stay that low for about ONE WEEK.

So now you know and when you hear someone say they gained 7 pounds of muscle or speak of body fat that is abnormally low you can say “it just aint’ so”.

As promised I will continue where we left off from last month. I had just thrown the physiological curve ball that people cannot seem to fathom. Here is the refresher statement:

Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) increases when you perform aerobic exercise and upon completion it goes back down within 10-30 minutes, this may be longer depending on the duration and intensity of exercise, but for this purpose that range is good. When you perform resistance training a.k.a. weight training your BMR goes up and upon completion stays up from 4-18 hours, again depending on duration and intensity it may be longer.

So let me give you an example of what this means, you perform an aerobic class for 60 minutes at medium intensity, your BMR goes up for 60 minutes, plus an additional 15 minutes after you finish. You do that three days a week, which gives you a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes of elevated BMR.

Now, you jog on the treadmill for 15 minutes and weight train for 45 minutes at medium intensity, your BMR goes up for 60 minutes, plus an additional 6 hours after you finish. You do this 3 times per week, which gives you a total of 21 hours of elevated BMR.

Remember, a higher BMR gives you more energy and is essential for body fat loss.
However, people believe that aerobic exercise is King to lose excess body fat when in fact it is resistance/ weight training.

The facts are clear but if there is one thing I have learned the hard way is to try to explain the facts where an emotional attachment has taken place, think taking away a blankie from a child that rationale says it is time but the child is intent on keeping it forever and they mean it.
I now just present the facts to people when asked the questions concerning this subject and sit back and wait for the response like Zig Ziglar has taught me and then comes the “Oh, ok.” “Well, thanks Ali, I’m going to my aerobic class now.”

Q. “Ali is the fastest way for me to lose weight, walking, running, or jogging?”
A. Very popular question, I have had this one thousands of times over the years. OK, I am going to do my best not to get to technical here in explaining this admittedly confusing answer.
Everyone has a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) the rate at which your individual body burns calories, converts energy, assimilates food, etc. When you do an aerobic exercise like power walking, jogging, or running your BMR increases and how much it increases depends on your individual rate of exertion, after you finish the activity, your BMR goes back down within 10-30 minutes. Your BMR being high is a good thing that is the key to losing excess body fat.

Performing aerobic exercise or when you walk, jog, or run, your body has two energy sources to choose from, one is muscle and the other is fat. I have to mention here I am using these terms to make it very easy to understand.

If you are power walking or slow jogging the muscle is not activated enough so the fat takes over as the energy source. So you are burning fat but less calories because of the lower intensity.

If you run the muscle takes over and the fat is not activated enough, so you burn more calories because of the higher intensity, but you are not burning fat.

That being said, the answer as you can see is not an answer to be given as fact but rather as the choice of the person asking the question.

If you want to lose weight through running, sprinting, bike riding fast, swimming sprints, you will burn more calories, but if you will power walk or slow jog, swim slow, bike ride slow for longer durations you will burn more fat.

Now just to make it more interesting here is a physiological fact: Your BMR increases when you perform aerobic exercise and after you finish it goes back down within 10-30 minutes. When you perform resistance training a.k.a. weight training your BMR goes up and after you finish it stays up from 4-18 hours! I’ll continue next month.

Congratulations to you or your accomplishing the fitness goals you have set for yourself! What’s that, you have not accomplished them yet, you’re trying but you have not gotten there yet?

Well, let’s explore this “trying” thing you are talking about. There is no such thing as “trying”, you do a thing, or you don’t do a thing. In the words of the Immortal “Yoda” from the “Star Wars Series”;
“Do or not do, there is no try.” Truth he speaks.

Once you make the mental commitment to reach your goal, bench press 300lbs., lose 50 lbs., run a 5k, half  marathon or compete in the IronMan I suggest daily you reinforce your mental commitment to your training and your goal.

Recently I had a group of 14 people run in the A1A Marathon and out of the group that ran last year I told them they were going to finish 10 minutes better than last year. This is a big reduction in time for anyone that does not know about cutting time of in a race like that.

However, all during our training I constantly reinforced they were going to finish faster, I even tricked them in training with false times during training. I had trained their belief system in their mind and once the mind accepts a thing the body must follow.

Yes I am happy to report that everyone beat their time from the previous year, not only by ten but twelve minutes. 

So as I was saying great job for accomplishing your fitness goals!
Yes, you’re welcomed.