Week 3

It's now week three and I'm feeling pretty good. I've lost about 5 pounds and dropped 1% body fat. This past weekend, I attended a party and learned that a good friend has been doing LV-HIIT for many years and enjoys the once a week workout. And, I don't think I'd want to get on her bad side. So let me share with you how I've adopted the workout to meet my needs and some of the physiology behind this approach.

Like most of you, I thought that in order to "protect" my heart I needed to buy spandex workout clothing and jump up and down on an elliptical for a few hours per week. Guess I was not alone in that assumption. In fact, rows of machines are filled with people mindlessly bouncing back and forth. I even noticed one woman who stood there and read her book, not moving at all. So you're asking why am I down on "cardio"?

• LOSS OF MUSCLE MASS - Although "cardio" can increase endurance, most practitioners will, over time, lose muscle mass. So while you might burn 350 calories working out for an hour, if you ultimately lose 5 pounds of muscle mass, your body will basal metabolic rate will drop and you will need 350 calories less each day. The net effect, you won't lose weight.
• CARDIO PROTECTIVE BENEFITS - This is little evidence to suggest that raising your heart rate does anything to protect the heart!
• INJURY - When you get as old as I am, you've got to do everything possible to avoid injury. Hips, knees, feet and just about everything else does not benefit from impact. Our body parts wear out and building muscle can help reduce the stress on our joints, running, jogging and such simply increase the risk of injury. 
• TIME - My week is generally quite full. If I have to find time three or four times per week to stay healthy, I'm just more likely to put other things first.

The alternative is low volume high intensity interval training. LV-HIIT. The advantages of this approach are listed below:

• TIME - You can get better results and improve overall metabolic function with a single 20 minute work out once a week. 
• ENHANCED METABOLISM - By reducing glycogen stores in both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers, LV-HIIT reduces insulin resistance. Lower insulin levels can affect a dramatic drop in LDL cholersterol and triglycerides and an improvement in cardioprotective HDL cholesterol. In women, high insulin levels result in polycystic ovary syndrome, [PCOS] which can interfere with menses and fertility. So LV-HIIT can reduce ovarian androgen production and restore normal menses.
• REDUCED INJURY RISK
• REDUCED CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS
• LOOK AND FEEL BETTER - This is the promised. I hope eventually to post before and after pictures, but I've been advised to hold off until results are demonstrable. 

You can learn more about LV-HIIT from the experts at Body by Science or by watching the videos on this site. But in a nutshell, it involves using Nautilus or HammerStrength for large muscle groups. The first step is to identify your maximum weight, then setting the weight to 60% [seniors] to 70% of that weight for others. At that level, I can do 10-12 reps before muscle failure. After the muscle starts burning and twitching, I hold the muscle under load for an additional 10-20 seconds before releasing. Following a two minute break, I return and exercise again to muscle failure. This approach utilizes the glycogen that is stored in the muscle cells for all types of muscle fibers. The additional time under load switches the muscle to anerobic metabolism where fat becomes the major energy source. This is repeated for up to five different muscle groups. Then the workout is complete and you take a break for an entire week. Consider rowing, overhead press, pull down, biceps, leg press, leg flexion and extension machines. I prefer the machines over free weights, as the machines are set to vary the load depending on the degree of muscle flexion or extension, while the weight on the muscle is constant using free weights. The machines are thus less likely to overstress the muscle. I've added 15 minutes of aerobic type exercise at the start to warm up, improve blood supply to the muscle and improve stamina.

So while this sounds easy, be aware that 48-72 hours later, you will suffer the consequence. Soreness can be expected, but know that this leads to muscle growth and the improvements noted above.