Exploring Intensity

We previously described all the ways exercise helps us to stay healthy, fight disease, live longer, have more energy, and sleep better. According to the CDC about 25% of Americans meet the minimum physical activity standards for aerobic and strength training exercise. Why don’t we all exercise more often? These are the top excuses.

Is exercise really as good for as "they" say? Yes. Exercise is really good for you. There are dozens of sources with various lists of all the things that exercise can do for you. If exercise were a drug, every doctor would prescribe it for their patients. 

At Cardio High we aim to give clients a great workout even when they are trying to work around an injury. I recently jumped off my surfboard in shallow water and sprained my MCL. These are key hip exercises for healthy knees to do every other day;

Our previous two posts went into some detail about why exercise is so healthy for us AND puts us in a good mood. Cardio High offers a form of high intensity training. But, we are not selling high intensity exercise as the ONLY option. Steady state exercise has value. So why do we focus on high intensity or HIIT?

There are oodles of articles that list out the benefits of high intensity exercise from various studies. We are going to give a quick summary. Imagine the infomercial we will run. The announcer will list:

Why did we pick the gear we use at Cardio High?

What is high intensity fitness? At Cardio High we choose to focus on high heart rate because there are hundreds of scientific studies that focus on heart rate to measure high intensity fitness. There are also quite a few good heart rate devices that allow users to see the results of their workout during and after the session.

Whether you love The Biggest Loser or think it’s a terrible television program, some of the contestants have been very helpful when it comes to certain kinds of research into how to lose weight and keep it off.

If you went to Cardio High between April and July this year, you probably saw me (Mark G.) limping around as I was suffering constant pain down my right side from an L4/L5 disc rupture...

Cold Spring Park has one of the best outdoor gyms in Newton. There is an excellent 1.4 mile running trail loop with exercise stations along the way. The trail has rocks and roots, so it’s best to run or jog landing on the front part of the foot with lighter steps, and shorter strides. This running style allows you to quickly recover if you hit a loose rock or stumble over a root. As you jog the loop, you will come across exercise stations. We don’t recommend doing the exercises listed on some of the signs. It’s best to stick to movements that you perform at Cardio High: push-ups, steps ups, step hops and supported pull-ups.

When it comes to exercising, we often tell ourselves that the sweat will pay off in the long run. We know that we are heading to the gym so that in a few weeks or months, we can feel that we’ve made progress. But a new study points to evidence that we may be getting a bigger short-term benefit than we expected.

Cardio High clients have recently seen me limping around the studio. A couple of months ago I herniated a disc between the L4/L5 vertebrae. I’d like to tell you I did it while trying to land a double backflip while skiing. But, I’m sorry to report that the injury happened while… coughing. I’ve been working my way through remedies – some suggested by astute clients who have had similar injuries. I am sitting out Ultimate Frisbee and tennis season, and I can tell you that injuries suck.

There are about 78 million dogs in the US right now with owners who, if they wanted, could probably head out for a run right now.

The weather in Newton is finally perfect for enjoying outdoor activities. You may already be going for a walk, bike or run, but we suggest trying an interval training workout at one of Newton’s beautiful parks. If you intersperse mini-exercise intervals into a jog, you will break up the repetitive motion of jogging/running and will work more muscles in your body.

There have probably been at least a few times where working out has led to you curse up a storm. Maybe you weren’t proud of it, but a new study shows that it may have helped you a lot more than you know.

We get asked the following question quite a bit at Cardio High: How hard should I workout? Should I be in the orange zone (80% of heart rate max) for 20 minutes? We answer the question in the following four semi-vague replies:

Above: A panel from one of our favorite comics, Hyperbole and a Half. It often deals with depression.Â

Boston is a great city for fitness. There are dozens of fitness experts in a wide variety of disciplines scattered around Boston. If you enjoy running, and you want to improve your technique to run faster or to prevent injury, pay a visit to The Boston Running Center located next to Charlestown High. Joe McConkey, who runs the BRC, is a top running coach in the New England area. We paid a visit to Joe to learn about his methods.

Have you seen the guys in the gym who say; “I lift things up and put them down…” with lots of grunting and moaning? If you want to build muscle, you don’t need to copy them.  A surprising new study has been released that may change how people do strength training. People can build muscle lifting lighter weight with less risk of injury than lifting the heavy weights.