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Vitamin C is one of the best-known vitamins for everyday health. If you’re like most people, you probably drink a glass of orange juice regularly or take a chewable vitamin supplement to make sure you get that daily quota. But did you know these common habits may not be the best way to top up your […]
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
Gyms across America are slowly starting to open back up.
Is this safe?
Should you go?
We’ve been flooded with questions on gym safety from our Online Coaching Clients, so we decided to dive into the topic today with this guide.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Important Notice: I am not a medical doctor! This should not be taken as personal advice on whether you as an individual should go back into the gym. I’m merely creating a discussion on the questions all of us should be asking.
In addition, with friends who are both scientists and doctors, and then others who are small business gym owners, this is a challenging thread to navigate. So we’re just going to stick with the facts.
Talk to your physician and blah blah blah, you’re an adult and you can make your own decisions.
Okay, let’s get right to it.
Even before our recent pandemic, many gyms weren’t exactly the cleanest.
One study went out and tested common surface areas in four different gyms, and found that 25% contained ant-resistant bacteria, flu viruses, and other pathogens.[1]
Yikes.
Dr. James Voos, the senior author of the study, told the New York Times why:[2]
“When you have a relatively high density of people exercising and sweating in a contained space, you have conditions where communicable diseases can spread easily.”
Dr. Voos points out the equipment itself can be hard to clean. Metal barbels, dumbbells, and kettlebells often have textured surfaces, to make them easier to grip.
This also allows plenty of tiny nooks and crannies for germs to hide.
That’s why Dr. Jose Jimenez, a University of Colorado professor who studies the coronavirus, calls gyms a “high-risk environment.”[3]
I don’t point this out to make you paranoid of ever stepping foot in a gym again. It’d be kind of like saying “driving a car puts you at significantly higher risk for car accidents, so you should never drive your car again.”
But this context is important for weighing the safety of the gym in a time of a pandemic:
If you do make the decision to return to a reopened gym, you’ll probably notice that things have changed.
It would be good to find out exactly how your gym has reacted to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Call them before your first trip, and ask them about the bullets above. Also, make sure you specifically ask about what sanitation procedures they have created.
However, even if the staff of the gym is wiping down all the equipment between each use, it would still be best practice to clean everything you touch before and after use.
Your gym’s response to the coronavirus is not the only thing you’re going to want to research.
Before entering the gym, think about:
For your first time back, DON’T keep it business as usual. Have a plan for getting to the gym, working out at the gym, and making it home.
Next, let’s talk about wearing a mask.
Don’t be surprised if you’re required to wear a mask when your gym reopens.
While every gym’s procedures will be different, some like the national chain Equinox will require all visitors to wear a mask.
Why face masks?
Although research is ongoing, as of June 2020 the coronavirus is believed to be spread through respiratory droplets, passing from one person to the next through exhalations of breath. Which is exactly what happens during a strenuous workout, especially in an enclosed environment.
A face covering like a mask will help contain some of these droplets.[5]
Dr. David Thomas, director of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Medicine, supports the idea of masks within gyms.
“I would want the person working out next to me to be wearing a mask,” states Dr. Thomas.[6]
Thomas continues: “We now understand that the degree of expiration, which is how hard you’re forcing air out of your mouth—to sing or shout or exhale—is a major factor in the amount of particles that get forced out of your lungs.”
In other words: people breathe heavily in the gym. If someone has the virus, they’re flinging it even further when they’re running on the treadmill.
So, having all gym patrons utilizing a face covering can help reduce the spread of respiratory droplets.
Requiring people to wear a mask is one thing. Actually training with one strapped to your face is quite another.
Compared to normal breathing, any mask you wear will constrict your airflow.
How much it does will really depend on the type of mask.
If you wear an N95 mask, like the kind hospital workers use, it might restrict airflow to the point of affecting performance.[7]
You need oxygen to create energy, so it makes sense a properly worn N95 mask might lower your ability to generate power.[8]
On one hand, they provide the most protection. On the other hand, you have to know what you’re doing to wear it correctly.
Hospital staff regularly perform tests to make sure their N95 mask is properly attached.
The wearer is presented with a strong-smelling solution, and if they can’t smell it, the mask fits.
If you wear a cloth or more DIY type mask, your breathing will be less impacted but it will still help contain the reach of your exhalation. Just know that it’s probably not going to stop you from breathing in any germs.
Additionally, I find that wearing a mask makes me hyper-aware of each instance in which I reach for my face, and helps remind me that I should be doing things differently and NOT touching my face, eyes, ears, or mouth.
At the end of the day, the decision to wear a mask will come down to you and the rules of your gym.
It’s still probably a good idea, especially if you’ll be training right next to people.
The next good idea on our list would be to sanitize your own equipment.
The cleaning staff at your gym are probably great.
I bet most of the people at your gym are courteous too, and wipe down all equipment after use.
However, I prefer the “better safe than sick” approach.
Although experts believe the coronavirus isn’t transmitted through sweat, if somebody coughs into their hand and then touches some equipment, it could result in the transmission of the virus.[9]
That’s why we are going to take a quick lesson on how to clean gym equipment, which you should know even in non-apocalypse times!
Technically, we are going to “disinfect” it.[10]
While soap and water will remove germs from the surface, to really kill the little buggers, we’re gonna need some chemicals.
The Environmental Protection Agency provides a list of disinfectants to use against the coronavirus.
To clean gym equipment:
If you use a lot of equipment at the gym, it’s easy to see how much of a pain this can become.
You might spend as much time cleaning as you are lifting.
In our next two sections, we’ll talk about getting the most bang for your buck at the gym.
Even before the outbreak of the coronavirus, I’ve always been a fan of getting it and out of the gym quickly.
There are video games to be played, after all.
With gyms a “high-risk environment” for exposure to viruses, today this is even more important.
IF you decide to take the chance, here’s how to make the most of your time at the gym:
#1) Prioritize compound exercises and movements.
At Nerd Fitness, we’re big fans of “compound exercises,” which require more than one muscle group working together to complete the movement.
Think of exercises like squats and pull-ups.
With a pull-up, you’re training all of your back muscles, biceps, lats, traps, and abs.
Compare this to bicep curls, which will more or less just train your biceps.
In our guide to functional fitness, we recommend doing compound exercises because they will more closely resemble how your body moves in day to day life.
The other benefit: since you’re training multiple muscle groups at once, you get more done in less time.
#2) Focus on exercises that minimize your body’s contact with communal equipment.
This is part of my personal philosophy with regards to training anyways, but even more so during a global pandemic. In other words, avoid machines you sit on/in, and focus on movements that don’t require you to lie down or sit down:
#3) Consider doing your warm-ups and stretches outside or before getting to the gym (if your commute is short).
An enclosed space allows for easier transmission of a virus since everyone’s breath is trapped together.
You can solve some of this by going outside for part of your workout.
Maybe your warm-up is doing jumping jacks outside:
For your post-workout stretch, maybe you find a nearby grassy area, as I do in this video:
#4) Know what you’re going to do before you step inside.
In our guide to the gym, we always recommend having a plan of attack for what you’re doing in the gym. Doubly so now.
Here are some questions to think about:
Not only do you want to create a plan for entering the gym, but review it when you get home.
Any hiccups? Did you do everything you set out to do? Would you do anything differently next time?
This will help you better prepare for your return visit.
Next, let’s talk about some ways to utilize your time away from the gym, so you need to visit a little less frequently.
One of the things we are recommending to our coaching clients, if they are debating going back to the gym, is to create a home/gym workout hybrid.
Meaning some days they train at the gym, and on other days they train at home.
There are all sorts of things you can do to create a home gym, but I’ll give you two recommendations that will go a long way:
With bodyweight training, you can actually get a full-body workout with no equipment at all.
The only thing is, working your “pull” muscles can be a bit tricky.
Granted, you can use a doorway to pull from:
Or even a table can help with inverted bodyweight rows:
But with a pull-up bar, you’ll have all you need to round out your bodyweight training and work towards getting your first pull-up.
The next thing to buy for your home gym would be a kettlebell.
A kettlebell will offer you a lot of versatility.
For one, you can do kettlebell swings. This will help work your “hinge” muscles, just like you would in a deadlift:
If you do pick one up, make sure you check out our 20-minute beginner kettlebell workout, which can be done with one single bell in your living room.
Your new Gym/Home Workout Hybrid can look like this:
On your home workout days, do pull-ups with your new bar and some push-up variations:
On your gym day, you do barbell squats and deadlifts, since a power rack and all the related equipment might be harder to squeeze into your house:
For more ideas on creating a home/gym hybrid schedule, check out How to Build Your Own Workout Routine.
OR, you can look into having one of our coaches build a program for you and adjust it each month based on outside circumstances:
The choice of when to return to the gym will ultimately be a personal one, and heavily dependent on where you live and the status of your state or country.
Yeah, gyms are absolutely “high-risk environments,” and if you can thrive in a home workout environment, your decision will certainly be affected.
Personally, I have built my home gym over the past few months and do not plan on returning to a gym for the foreseeable future.
But exercising is really important for health, including a strong immune system.[11]
Even some experts have returned.
“I still go to the gym,” says infectious disease Dr. Saskia Popescu, who currently supports HonorHealth.[12]
Dr. Popscu argues you can too, as long as you’re smart about it and still understand the risks.
As an individual, performing the following can help keep you safe at the gym:
It’s not an easy decision, so perhaps you want to create a pro/con list.
When evaluating when to return to the gym, consider:
Just be safe in whatever you end up doing.
If you want some more specific help, I got you too.
Here are three ways to continue your journey with Nerd Fitness.
Option #1) If you want a professional coach in your pocket, who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on the equipment you have available, check out our Online Coaching Program!
For example, let’s say you want to go to the gym once a week, and the rest of the time you want to train at home. Your Coach can build that workout for you!
Personally, I’ve been working with the same online coach since 2015 and it’s changed my life. You can learn more by clicking on the box below:
2) Exercising at home and need a plan to follow? Have questions you need answered? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!
Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains at-home exercise routines, live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, a supportive online community, group challenges, and much more!
Option #3) Become part of the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out from home” guides.
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
Alright, now I want to hear from you:
Is your gym open again?
Are you going back anytime soon?
Already been? How was it!?!
Let me know in the comments!
And please, we humans are GREAT at projecting our individual experiences onto everybody else’s experiences.
With this being a worldwide community at various stages of lockdown, let’s have a civil discussion based on what’s happening in your specific location.
Thank you!
-Steve
P.S. If you are still going to avoid the gym, that’s totally cool. Check out our guide, The Ultimate Guide for Getting Fit at Home.
###
Photo Source: How are YOU social distancing?, Dangerous Material, Hazmat Team, LEGO Ninjas, N95 Testing, Hotel Gym, Morning run with the FitBit, Scientist,
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Fancy fish dishes have their place, but we’d rather roll up our sleeves and dive into a salty, crunchy, no-fuss Fish and Chips platter any day. It’s the perfect rainy-day comfort food. Crispy pan-fried coating wrapped around tender white fish – it’s the perfect combination for dipping.
When you first go Primal, Keto, paleo, or other version of grain-free, it’s easy to assume fried food is off the table. We think that you can eat virtually anything you want, as long as you find the right way to make it with ingredients that won’t slow you down. Here’s a Primal spin on Fish and Chips with all the flavor and none of the fried food hangover.
Serves: 4-5
Time in the kitchen: 50 minutes, including 25-35 minutes bake time
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the potatoes into fries and spread them out on a large parchment covered sheet pan for 10 minutes. Toss the potatoes in 2 tablespoons of Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil, salt and pepper and lay them spread out in a single layer so they aren’t overlapping or touching one another. Roast for 10-15 minutes, then flip them over. Continue roasting for about 10 minutes or until they are golden on the outside and soft on the inside.
While the potatoes are roasting, prepare the fish. Combine the tapioca starch, almond flour, baking soda, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice.
Heat the butter and remaining avocado oil in a pan over medium-high heat. While the butter and oil are heating, dredge the fish portions in the batter. When the fat in the pan begins to bubble, dredge and add the fish portions to the pan one at a time. Wait 10 seconds or so after adding each portion to the pan.
Try to have the butter and oil mixture heating in the pan while you are dredging the fish portions in the batter, that way you can quickly move the fish from the batter to the hot pan to get that nice crispy and light fried coating.
The temperature of the pan and oil will decrease as you add each piece of fish to the pan, so wait 10 seconds or so before adding each additional portion so the oil stays hot enough. Cook the fish portions for about 3 minutes on each side. Check the internal temperature of the thickest portion of fish with a meat thermometer. You are aiming for an internal temperature of 145 degrees. If your fish is not up to temperature yet, you can continue to cook the fish for 1-2 minutes on either side, carefully flipping the fish in between. You can also transfer the pan to the oven to finish off the fish.
When the fish is cooked through, use a fish spatula to transfer the fish to a plate or sheet pan with a couple of pieces of paper towel over it to absorb any extra oil.
Serve the fish and chips hot with a few wedges of lemon, fresh parsley, and tartar sauce.
Calories: 475
Total Carbs: 35 grams
Net Carbs: 33 grams
Fat: 27 grams
Protein: 25 grams
The post Grain-free Fish and Chips Recipe appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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The alarm goes off. You roll out of bed, head to the bathroom, look in the mirror, and…Yikes! Look at those puffy eyes! You touch your face in dismay and wonder how it got this bad. Waking up with puffy eyes (or even dealing with puffiness throughout the day) is a common experience, and there are […]
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Your immune system works hard to kill bacteria and block viruses from invading your cells. As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country, having a strong immune system is more important than ever. But to have a fighting chance, you’ll need to up your game. That means checking yourself and not doing the things that […]
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Split brain, no split consciousness.
High circulating ketone levels reduce cardiac inflammation and inhibit the progression of heart failure.
Psychological distress and loneliness are way up.
Analyzing the genetic imprints of the animal skins used for the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Why weed makes you go, “Whoa.”
Episode 426: Mark Sisson: Host Elle Russ chats with yours truly.
Episode 427: Ron Sinha: Host Brad Kearns chats with Dr. Ron Sinha about the “Covesity Pandemic.”
Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 63: Laura and Erin talk with Amy Berger about the primacy of context.
Glad to have the Nutrition Coalition on the job.
It’s not so much the chlorinated chicken that disturbs me, but the reason why chlorinating chicken is necessary.
Why does sleep deprivation kill? Might be the gut.
Should saturated fat intakes be reduced?
76 acre farms are about the ideal size by some measures. Agile and productive and resilient.
While we wait for a long term study on carnivore health: Somatic health in the Indigenous Sami population.
Interesting paper: The one exploring the interactions between vitamin D and the coronavirus.
Video I liked: 3D reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba walking.
Some of you will enjoy this: Beer probably good for cardiovascular health.
More “paradoxes”: Butter beats margarine, again.
What has you excited?
One year ago (May 31 – Jun 6)
“Can’t wait till I’m 130 years old. Max aerobic heart rate will roughly equal resting heart rate so I can finally burn maximum fat in my Barcalounger.”
– Great idea, Neanderchow.
The post Weekly Link Love — Edition 84 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Let me be the first to tell you that there’s nothing wrong with you. You may have some patterns to unlearn, some self-love to embrace, and some new behaviors to embody, but seriously, there’s nothing wrong with you. If you want to change your negative self-talk, you’ve got to first understand where it comes from.
There’s a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi, that, in a nutshell says, “Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. And your words become your actions.”
So if your actions include binging on sourdough (again), rolling your eyes at your rolls and wrinkles, or subconsciously sabotaging your sleep cycle, you can go ahead and thank your belief system for that. You can also take comfort in knowing you’re not alone.
On any given week I’ll hear my clients say that making a protein rich breakfast takes too much effort. Or that they’re too busy to work out. Or they can’t stop eating desserts. These are all beliefs. And, as we’ll be breaking down here in a second, there’s a big difference between beliefs and truths.
Here’s the deal. Your brain’s job is to keep you safe.1 Because of this, it will always choose what’s familiar and comfortable over working toward a change that’s different. Even if that change is in the best interest of your health and happiness.
What’s familiar is safe and what’s unknown has the potential to hurt you. At least from your brain’s point of view. And so, it automatically creates negative thoughts (and negative self-talk) to keep you nicely tucked into your comfort zone.
Here’s a scenario to illustrate what I mean. Say you’re thinking about ordering take out. Will it be a large, extra pepperoni pizza or a thick steak and roasted veggies? Depending on your past experiences and your personal belief system, your brain will automatically assign a meaning to that choice.
If you choose the pizza, your self-talk might be, “well, I guess I’ll be heavy my whole life” or “I never make good choices” or “life’s too short not to eat pizza!!” Unfortunately, that reaffirms your negative beliefs, which you’ll continue to repeat unless you do something to change them.
Reframing is a psychological technique used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Also known as cognitive restructuring, 2 it allows you to reprogram your brain, changing your pattern of negative thinking — and the way you feel about certain situations, people, places, and things (including yourself).
This is important because, as noted above, your thoughts end up becoming your actions. And negative thoughts very often turn into self-destructive actions. “I’ll never be able to stick to the Primal Blueprint” quickly spirals into you speeding through a Krispy Kreme drive-thru for a dozen maple bars. Negative self-talk can cause a lot of damage. Not just to your waistline or your pancreas either. Having a critical inner dialogue has been linked to an increased risk of mental health issues, including depression.
The thing is, we’re so quick to criticize ourselves and classify our attempts as failures. But what they should really be, are learnings. Take for example, toddlers figuring out how to walk. If they bad mouthed themselves or gave up every time they fell down, we’d have a bunch of grownups crawling around on all fours.
Since they don’t have the stories we do — yet — they don’t thrash themselves with self-talk like “I always fall down” or “what the heck is wrong with me?” They just do it. And then they do it again, learning from their mistakes and building their confidence along the way.
While negative self-talk clearly has its consequences, research shows that positive self-talk is actually the best predictor of how successful you’ll be. In One study, athletes were placed into four groups and asked to use four different methods of self-talk, including instructional, motivational, positive, and negative. Researchers found that the group that practiced positive self-talk performed the best.3 What they learned is that the athletes didn’t need to be reminded of what to do to play better or even psych themselves up to do it. They were the most successful when they told themselves what a great job they were doing.
The language you use creates your reality. So, when you say you hate exercising, do you really hate it, or do you just dislike the workouts you’ve done in the past? If you say healthy food is disgusting, is it really gross or not as delicious as a cheeseburger and fries? If you indulged too much over the weekend are you a failure or are you learning what you need to do differently next time? See where I’m going with this?
It’s all in the way you talk to yourself.
But you don’t have to do a complete 180 right out of the gates. Turning “I want to eat healthier, but I don’t know where to start” into “I want to eat healthier and I don’t know where to start” is a great first step. Changing the but to and allows you to acknowledge your experience and create room for opportunity.
How to Turn Negative Self-talk Into Positive Self-talk
Our brains are often hardwired to see the negative side4 of things, but choosing whether or not to believe those thoughts is always up to you. It’s entirely under your control to reframe those negative, nagging thoughts into empowering ones. Here’s a snapshot of how to do it, followed by a deeper dive down below.
Ready? Here we go:
1. Catch yourself in the act. There’s a good chance you’re not even aware that you’re using negative self-talk, because you’re so used to doing it — it just feels normal! Building an awareness of your self-talk and acknowledging the fact that you’re sending yourself a negative message is the first step toward changing it. Track your negative thoughts for a week, writing down every time you say something mean to yourself.
2. Name your inner critic. This is designed to help separate yourself from your negative thoughts. And if you’re up for it, give it a silly voice too and say the mean thought out loud. Doing this interrupts the pattern, takes away your inner critic’s power, and creates space between you and the self-sabotaging message. When you give your inner critic a name, choose something lighthearted that reminds you not to take it seriously.
3. Challenge your inner critic. Look for evidence that this mean thought isn’t true. Do you always stress eat? Or feel defeated? Or skip workouts? The answer is probably no. I’m sure there’s been at least one time in your life that you made a choice that benefited your health. Think of the positive experiences you’ve had instead of dwelling on the not-so-positive ones.
4. Go from negative to neutral. As far as positivity goes, it doesn’t have to be all rainbows and puppies right away. However, starting to move from negative thoughts to neutral ones is a good start. Instead of “it’s disgusting how out of shape I am,” you could say “I get tired easily during my workouts right now.” It’s just a neutral awareness. No negativity. No mean inner critic.
5. Think like a friend. You’d never talk to a friend or family member the way you talk to yourself. Well, at least I hope you wouldn’t. Imagine someone close to you is in the situation that you’re currently in. What kind of words or emotions would you use to console them? Or motivate them? When you take yourself out of the situation, it’s easier to see things from a positive viewpoint.
6. Be willing to be imperfect. As a recovering perfectionist, I can tell you first-hand that this is key to changing your self-talk. We’re humans — and while we are miraculous creatures, we’re far from perfect. Having the ability to accept your imperfections allows you to look for what you can learn from your efforts. Plus, it helps you stay on track with your goals because you’re not fussing over whether or not every little detail is on point.
7. Break out a gratitude journal. Research that having a gratitude practice can help you see things from a glass-half-full perspective rather than half empty.5 I started incorporating a gratitude practice into my morning routine a few months ago and it’s a game changer. To help redirect your negative patterns and begin seeing things with a positive outlook, try writing down three to five things that you’re grateful for every day.
I don’t care how much proof you have that you always get it wrong, or that you couldn’t lose fat if your life depended on it. You’re a work in progress. It takes time and regular practice to unlearn years or maybe even decades of negative self-talk and start seeing (and believing) things from a positive point of view.
References
The post 7 Ways to Change Negative Self-Talk appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m going to be answering questions about Maximum Aerobic Function, or MAF. If this is your first time hearing the term, MAF refers to a method of endurance training that maximizes the function of your fat-burning aerobic system. I’ve come down hard on conventional or popular modes of endurance training in the past for being too stressful and reliant on sugar. MAF training is the opposite: low stress and reliance on body fat.
Let’s dive right in to the questions:
MAF trains your aerobic fat-burning system to be more efficient and produce greater output at the same “intensity.” It means slowing the hell down to go faster. It means the slower you go, the more fat you’re burning and the better your mitochondria are getting at utilizing fat for energy. It means training up to but not over your maximum aerobic heart rate.
MAF was coined by Phil Maffetone, who came up with an ingenious way to calculate your max aerobic heart rate: subtracting your age from 180. 180 minus your age gives you the heart rate at which you’re burning the maximum amount of fat and minimum amount of sugar.
Say you’re 30 years old. 180 minus 30 is 150. To burn the most fat possible, you maintain a heart rate equal to or lower than 150 BPM. Now, and here’s the trick: It doesn’t sound like much. It doesn’t feel like much. It probably feels way too easy. But bear with me. It works. This is where the magic happens, where you accumulate easy volume, where the “base” is built, where you begin building more fat-burning mitochondria.
The hard truth is that if jogging spikes your heart rate past your aerobic max, you’re not very good at burning fat during exercise. Even if you don’t “mind” pushing that heart rate up. Even if you “feel fine” jogging at 153 bpm. 180 minus age is where you have to be to improve fat burning. That might look like jogging, or walking, or walking uphill, or running pretty briskly, depending on where you’re starting. It’s all relative to your aerobic fitness.
It takes patience to stay at the aerobic zone, but over time, if you’re consistent, you’ll notice that you can handle a higher and higher workload at that same “easy” MAF heart rate. You’ll be going faster while still burning mostly fat—and it’ll still feel easy.
In some parts, I’m known as the anti-cardio guy. I coined the phrase “chronic cardio,” and the entire reason I got into this Primal business is that decades of elite endurance training—marathons and triathlons—wrecked my body and drove me to develop and pursue a different, more sustainable path to health and fitness.
But I’m not anti-cardio. In fact, moving frequently at a slow pace in all its incarnations forms the foundation of my Primal Blueprint Fitness philosophy. And MAF is just about the best way to do it.
When you build your aerobic base, you don’t just get better at running (or cycling, or rowing, or swimming, or whatever it is that you’re doing). There are more benefits that aren’t as overtly noticeable:
This seems to confer benefits to longevity. Although we can’t establish causation, moderate exercise—jogging up to 20 miles a week at an 11 minute mile pace—offered the most protection against early mortality in one study. Running more than 20 miles a week, or running at a 7 minute mile pace, offered fewer mortality benefits.2
Plus, having that large aerobic base helps with any physical pursuit, and not just endurance sports. A large aerobic base helps in CrossFit. A large aerobic base helps in football or martial arts or rock climbing. Whenever you can burn more fat, save more glycogen, and still get the same amount of performance, you’re winning.
As long as you stay in the MAF zone, it’s very hard to overdo cardio. You’re deriving your energy primarily (90/95%) from fat, a virtually inexhaustible energy source, and very little from carbohydrate. You have thousands of calories at your disposal. Your relative intensity is lower than the person who’s out there burning sugar, so your joints aren’t falling apart and your muscles aren’t getting as fatigued. You’re accumulating less stress overall.
When you start hitting intensities that elevate your heart rate beyond the 180 minus age MAF zone, your tally begins. The stress and joint damage begins to accumulate. You become more reliant on sugar compared to fat. You can still train like this, but your margin for error is a lot smaller.
If I had to put a number to it, I’d say that you shouldn’t burn more than 4000 calories a week from cardio.
MAF is most effective when paired with carbohydrate restriction. It doesn’t have to be keto reset levels, although that’s a great option. Standard Primal low-carb, staying under 150 grams per day, is good enough.
When you combine MAF training with carb restriction, everything is enhanced. You build more mitochondria after a single carb-restricted MAF training session than after the same session without the carb restriction. 3
Going low-carb while MAF training also continues the work when you’re at rest. If you burn primarily fat when endurance training but go home to a high-carb diet, you’re squandering a lot of progress.
One of the most common questions I receive comes from people worried they’re too slow. “I feel like I am going too slow. I can run a 7:00 minute mile no problem at race pace and a higher heart rate, but if I stay at 180 minus age, I can’t get my speed past 10 minute miles.”
You can keep doing the higher HR runs, but you’re not building a base and you may be setting yourself up for damage down the line. That means you are good at burning glucose/glycogen and have a good tolerance for discomfort, but it also means that in this current configuration, you suck at burning fat. The whole point of MAF training is to train at the highest heart rate you can handle (and highest speed) while still getting 90-95% of your energy from fat. Over time, you’ll find that as you get better fat adapted, your mile pace will come down at that same MAF heart rate. That’s the indicator that you are becoming more efficient with your burning of fat over glucose.
Track things over months, not workouts. It may take a long time to improve, but improve you will. Pro tip: if you are a well-trained runner or cyclist, you could probably add 5 to that 180-age number and be OK.
It seems way too easy, and that’s the whole point. It’s also where people get tripped up.
You think you can handle a bit more, so you push the HR up. I mean, running at an easy pace couldn’t possibly make you faster.
Over time, you’ll find that as you get better fat adapted, your mile pace will come down at that same MAF heart rate. That’s the indicator that you are becoming more efficient with your burning of fat over glucose.
Just be sure you are always able to carry on a conversation and not get winded as the “guard-rail.”
Folks, that’s MAF training. If you want more details and a specific plan of attack, check out my book Primal Endurance.
If you have any more questions, ask down below! Thanks for reading, everyone.
The post Dear Mark: Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Training appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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