Strength Changes Everything Why Muscle Quality Matters More Than Movement Quantity
We are replaying one of our most popular episodes for you this week!
Learn about why systemic inflammation is known as the silent killer, why inflammation creates a vicious cycle that very few people escape as they get older, and how you can be one of the few who do. Brian Cygan and Amy Hudson reveal why muscle quality matters more than movement quantity and how strength training for 20 minutes at a time will transform your life, no matter how old you are.
- Muscle quality matters more than movement quantity. Standard workouts and guidelines in fitness are responsible for more than 85% of people getting frustrated and staying on the sidelines.
- The Exercise Coach is maniacal about getting people off the sidelines and getting them results in a fraction of the time.
- Science shows that the ideal form of exercise is strength training, which is safe, efficient, and focused on whole body results.
- James Timmins, a researcher from the UK, has made the point that no long-term study demonstrates that an inactive individual will become healthier simply by becoming more active. On the contrary, brief, whole effort exercise has been shown to improve outcomes.
- Whole effort exercise is work that completely fatigues a muscle group in anywhere from 40 to 120 seconds of work instead of hours. Research supports the finding that time and distance are irrelevant exercise metrics.
- Enhanced muscle tissue and the process that brings about this adaptation is really the key to driving positive fitness and wellness outcomes, not the time you devote to activity.
- It’s not about spending more time exercising, it’s about applying the guide of work that generates the adaptation, which can be done in a very short period of time. It takes about 20 minutes to get a total body effect.
- For people who want to lose weight, strength training is still the best bet. A study showed that a simple high intensity protocol amounting to 15 minutes of work each week substantially improved insulin sensitivity. This sensitivity is central to controlling weight.
- Insulin is a hormone that primarily tells cells in the body to store energy as body fat. The higher the levels of insulin in your body the stronger the signal is to store body fat.
- Starting at the age of 30 as we begin to experience age-related muscle loss, our muscles become more resistant to insulin. As this cycle worsens with age, the problem only becomes exacerbated and measuring insulin sensitivity is a key indicator for health.
- Making your muscles more sensitive to insulin is the most important thing you can do to put your body in the hormonal state necessary to lose body fat. Exercise that develops your muscle tissue is the most effective way to do that.
- Focus on muscle strength and muscle health for hormonal results, instead of the traditional cardio regime.
- The other issue the majority of people deal with is inflammation, also known as the secret killer. Inflammation is seen as the root of a number of other ailments. Muscle quality has also been shown to positively impact systemic inflammation.
- Systemic inflammation is more than what happens when you sprain your ankle. Local inflammation is what happens when you get hurt, systemic inflammation is something that you can’t see and exists in every cell in your body.
Links:
Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males - https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6823-9-3
Strength training improves muscle quality and insulin sensitivity in Hispanic older adults with type 2 diabetes - https://www.medsci.org/v04p0019.htm
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