Muscle strength
A study from the University of Pittsburgh followed nearly 2,300 people for five years. It found that low quadriceps muscle strength made you 51 percent more likely to die.
Two other studies found that leg strength offsets the risk of death for people with certain illnesses.
In the first study, the only two things that predicted death were age and quadriceps muscle strength.
The second found that for people who had congestive heart problems, the ones with the weakest quadriceps muscles were 13 times more likely to die within two years.
Your muscles are made up of different kinds of fibers that you use for different purposes.
Traditional cardio or aerobic exercise uses the smaller muscle fibers because they are more oxygen efficient, and don’t tire as easily as large muscle fibers.
If you continue to do moderate aerobic workouts, your body will ignore the larger fibers, leaving them weak.
One study even found that long-duration running makes your leg muscles deteriorate.
Take a look at this new study that followed endurance runners during the Trans-Europe Foot Race in 2009.
They had a mobile MRI machine scan these endurance athletes every day. When the race was over, instead of the runners’ muscles getting stronger, their leg muscles had degenerated.
They had lost 7 percent of their muscle mass.4
This is why doing aerobics and running for hours on end is not a good idea.
The solution to building stronger muscles that will keep you going for years to come is PACE program (PACE stands for Progressively Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion ). With PACE, you challenge your cardiopulmonary peak a little bit at a time. Your body will then respond with added lung, heart and especially muscle strength while you rest.
It draws on those larger muscle fibers, which generate more power. By exercising the larger fibers, you get stronger muscles that can handle heavy-duty demands.
Strengthening your muscles this way is the most important thing you can do to keep your mobility and independence as you get older.
The first is a warm-up set that lasts from 4-6 minutes. The second is a ramp-up set that should last for 4 minutes. You exert yourself to the point where you could still talk, but you’re out of breath.
The third is for peak exertion. It should only last from 2-4 minutes, and you should be pumping hard enough by the end that you could only grunt a word or two if you had to.
Challenging your peak this way – a little bit each time, followed by periods of rest – is what causes your body to adapt by adding muscle mass and cardiopulmonary capacity.
In between sets, you want to recover so that your heart rate is about 30 beats per minute above your resting rate. It will take only 30 seconds for some, and longer for others. But don’t worry how long it takes at first. Your body will progress as you get more fit.
This is one of the things that makes PACE different. You don’t time your recovery in strict intervals. You recover fully, and then challenge yourself again during the next exertion period.
Two other studies found that leg strength offsets the risk of death for people with certain illnesses.
In the first study, the only two things that predicted death were age and quadriceps muscle strength.
The second found that for people who had congestive heart problems, the ones with the weakest quadriceps muscles were 13 times more likely to die within two years.
Your muscles are made up of different kinds of fibers that you use for different purposes.
Traditional cardio or aerobic exercise uses the smaller muscle fibers because they are more oxygen efficient, and don’t tire as easily as large muscle fibers.
If you continue to do moderate aerobic workouts, your body will ignore the larger fibers, leaving them weak.
One study even found that long-duration running makes your leg muscles deteriorate.
Take a look at this new study that followed endurance runners during the Trans-Europe Foot Race in 2009.
They had a mobile MRI machine scan these endurance athletes every day. When the race was over, instead of the runners’ muscles getting stronger, their leg muscles had degenerated.
They had lost 7 percent of their muscle mass.4
This is why doing aerobics and running for hours on end is not a good idea.
The solution to building stronger muscles that will keep you going for years to come is PACE program (PACE stands for Progressively Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion ). With PACE, you challenge your cardiopulmonary peak a little bit at a time. Your body will then respond with added lung, heart and especially muscle strength while you rest.
It draws on those larger muscle fibers, which generate more power. By exercising the larger fibers, you get stronger muscles that can handle heavy-duty demands.
Strengthening your muscles this way is the most important thing you can do to keep your mobility and independence as you get older.
The first is a warm-up set that lasts from 4-6 minutes. The second is a ramp-up set that should last for 4 minutes. You exert yourself to the point where you could still talk, but you’re out of breath.
The third is for peak exertion. It should only last from 2-4 minutes, and you should be pumping hard enough by the end that you could only grunt a word or two if you had to.
Challenging your peak this way – a little bit each time, followed by periods of rest – is what causes your body to adapt by adding muscle mass and cardiopulmonary capacity.
In between sets, you want to recover so that your heart rate is about 30 beats per minute above your resting rate. It will take only 30 seconds for some, and longer for others. But don’t worry how long it takes at first. Your body will progress as you get more fit.
This is one of the things that makes PACE different. You don’t time your recovery in strict intervals. You recover fully, and then challenge yourself again during the next exertion period.
Comments
Post a Comment