>> Lori: Coming up next on this week's edition of Being Well, we'll talk about exercise myths and roadblocks to success.

My guest this week is Dr. Jeff Willardson from EIU's Department of Kinesiology and Sports Studies.

He'll have a lot of great information to share with you, so don't go away.

Jeff, thanks for coming on this show today and talking about a topic that you know, you are also a professor but also a personal trainer.

We are going to talk about a lot of the things that you hear in your field in regards to exercise myths and some of the things that keep us from getting to our fitness goals.

Let's talk about, what's the number one myth that you hear from people?

>> Jeff: A lot of people when I talk to them initially about what their fitness goals are they say they want to tone up.

So, usually what they are referring to, is doing very light weight and a lot of repetitions.

But what they really want is muscle definition, that involves a comprehensive approach of weight training and usually heavy weight training, because they want to build muscle, but we also want to remove the overlying fat.

And so that takes a lot of aerobic activity, also, restricting you calories, so you have that caloric deficit in there, so you are burning the calories so you can see the underlying muscle.

>> Lori: So that leads us into the next question, and you see I want to reduce this around my middle, or I want to get rid of this flab under my arm, so let's talk about spot reduction.

>> Jeff: Sure.

>> Lori: Can you do that?

>> Jeff: Well, you know, if you really want to get into the science there is a limited number of scientific investigations, mostly from the 60's and 70's, that actually showed or tended to show, that spot reduction might be possible, under some circumstances.

But we know for the most part, that spot reduction is not possible, your body pulls fat calories from all different locations, so for example, just because you are doing you know, a hundred crunches a day, doesn't necessarily mean that fat will be preferentially lost from that area.

But over time, with caloric restriction and aerobic activity, certainly fat would be lost from there, as well as from other parts of the body.

>> Lori: So when you body is burning fat, it has not idea, that Oh, I think I'll take a little and burn this off, and a little from over here, it does the whole body.

>> Jeff: Right.

It's more of an overall process from everywhere in the body, but again, you know, because the area that you are working would have an elevated temperature, more so than inactive areas of the body, to a limited extent, spot reduction might be possible, under certain circumstances.

>> Lori: So, when you don one of those sauna suits from the 80's you know that were basically like a garbage bag, sweating and you will be smaller maybe around the waist, but it's just water, correct?

>> Jeff: Sure.

Yes, the fat is not lost through the sweat.

You know, sweat is composed of water and electrolytes, so there's no, you know, fat droplets that are coming through the skin, but >> Lori: It would be nice if it worked that way, but it doesn't.

>> Jeff: Yeah, it'd be nice, you know, and the compression effect may last for a few hours, but then, your body would go back to its regular dimensions.

>> Lori: Well, let's talk a little bit about how really scientifically medically, does our body lose fat?

I mean, how does it burn it and what's the best way that we can burn fat?

>> Jeff: Well, there are a lot of factors that go into this.

During the workout, the body will tend rely a lot on glucose, initially.

Glucose or carbohydrates, initially.

Over time, though, as your glucose becomes depleted, your body goes into more of a fat burning mode.

Now, in terms of fat loss over all, really the best approach would be in interval training.

Because you are alternating high intensity segments burning a lot of calories, alternating with low intensity recovery intervals, plus interval training has a significant after burn, or what we call excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.

That's the time when your body is recovering after the workout, and that's the time when you are really burning calories, oftentimes many more times that what you are actually burning during the workout.

>> Lori: Really?

How long does that after burn last?

>> Jeff: It can last any, it really depends on how hard you are working out, and you always have to stay within your individual limits, but it can last anywhere from 16 to 24 hours after the workout is over with.

>> Lori: That's kind of a nice thing, and you'll be demonstrating that a little later in the show, so stay tuned.

>> Jeff: Yeah.

Just as your body temperature comes down and the hormonal levels come down, the certain substances are converted back to glucose in the body, just a basically reestablishing a resting state after the workout.

>> Lori: A few years ago, it came out in the media, or actually on exercise machines, these different heart rate zones.

They were coming up with aerobics, which we were used to, but then they came out with a fat burning zone.

You know, a lower heart rate for a longer period of time is a way to burn more fat.

Can you, that is kind of complicated, can you kind of explain that for us?

>> Jeff: Sure.

With exercise, the biggest factor that effects fat burning is exercise intensity.

Now you have to consider this from two perspectives.

At rest, you are actually burning a very high percentage of calories from fat.

However, you are not burning very many calories overall.

However, as you increase your exercise intensity, the percentage of calories you burn from fat goes down, but the total number goes up.

So, as you exercise harder, you are burning more fat calories, but the overall percentage is going down.

So taking it from relative and absolute perspectives, it's really all about that interval training.

Pushing yourself for a few minutes, backing off for a few minutes, and overall that's going to give you the total package, and then after the workout, you get that after burn.

>> Lori: Ok. Well, this brings me to my next question.

Not enough time to exercise.

And I know this is hard for everybody, depending on your fitness level, but if, can you see some benefits if you have 15 minutes a day to exercise, or do you need this whole 90 minutes a day to take care of weight training, and that cardio activities and all this kind of stuff.

>> Jeff: No, not at all, in fact, in 1996, the Surgeon General's report on physical activity put out a global recommendation for 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a day.

Now that can be intermittent, such as 3 bouts of 10 minute or it can be all at once.

Also, you have to consider the intensity.

You know, simply doing a few sets of jumps, just simple jumps, as long as your body can handle, as long as you don't have any joint issues, you know, can elevate your heart rate significantly.

You know jump rope for 30 seconds, intermittently throughout the day, or doing a few sets of push-ups, or body weight squats from a chair, all those things just spread intermittently through out the day, can raise your caloric expenditure, you can get benefits from doing those.

>> Lori: Ok.

So, it is not, you don't have to necessarily have this big block of time everyday.

You've got to thing a little more creatively about how you can get that all in.

I know you probably see with some of your personal training clients; people often get to a plateau.

They probably get to plateaus on their weight loss and on their fitness training.

What kind of causes that plateau for people?

>> Jeff: Well, sometimes it a lack of what we call variation.

Or periodization.

Sometimes we get stuck in doing the same routine over and over again.

We may vary our repetitions just a little bit, but over all, if you look at the big picture, you are still doing the same thing, week after week, month after month, it turns into years, pretty soon, you are not making progress.

So, my suggestion would be try new things, try new exercises, do something your body is not used to doing, do something maybe you are not comfortable doing, get outside your comfort zone, as many variables as you can vary over time will tend to get you out of that, and set goals for yourself.

Write things down, keep a training journal, so you know exactly what you did the previous workout, so you maybe have something to improve on the next workout.

>> Lori: Well, and I think you have to think about way back when you started exercising you started a weight loss program, that change in your body made everything sort of happen right away.

Well, you body is pretty smart, and it get used to it, so I think when you can throw something new at it after a while, it will kind of, it wakes the muscles up, correct?

>> Jeff: That's right, and you know, it's exercise economics.

When you first start an exercise program, you put in just a little bit of effort, and you get a huge return.

Then we wish our investments were like that.

Just a little bit of money, and you get this great big return.

Well, exercise works like this.

You start out, you put in just a little bit of effort, and you get this big benefit.

Well, over time, you put in more, and more, and more effort, and more and more time, and you get just a little bit better.

And that's why athletes spend hours and hours, because they want that little bit of improvement.

Well, if we are just training for health and fitness, we just need to continue trying to push ourselves just a little bit more.

We don't necessarily have to reach the elite level, but our body responds well to variation over time.

>> Lori: All right, so we've talked about cardiovascular work and burning calories, and burning fat.

Let's transition it to muscle.

I'm sure maybe more men out there are like Oh, I want to shape, can you shape muscles, and you know work on specific areas to get a certain desired shape.

Is that possible?

>> Jeff: Well, again there's a certain amount of research evidence out there that shows different portions of a single muscle can be emphasized with different exercises, so that why we say vary the angle, and vary your posture, and vary your grip width and the type of grips, such as an underhand grip and overhand grip, etc., overall the shape of muscles is really genetically determined.

It is very difficult to increase the actual physiological length of muscles, or the way a muscle looks in terms of how it is proportioned, however, to a limited extent, yes we can, and it makes a great difference in terms of strength gains, to vary different ways the exercise is done, from grip to posture and things like that.

>> Lori: So let me ask you real quick, I'm sure, explain the difference between lifting heavy weights, fewer sets, and lighter weight and a lot of repetition.

They both do different things, correct?

>> Jeff: Right.

Yes.

The heavier weights is for maximal strength, and muscle hypertrophy, hypertrophy is just a fancy way of saying size, doing lightweight with a lot of reps builds what we call localized muscle endurance.

You have to look at this on a continuum, because if you are lifting heavy weights, you also tend to build a little bit of endurance, and especially in the beginning stages, if you are lifting lighter weights, you are probably also going to get a little bit stronger, and your muscles will grow just a little bit.

We have to also consider that having muscle is a very good thing, because muscle is very compact, very dense, you are clothes fit much better when you replace a portion of muscle, or a portion of fat with a portion of muscle.

And so, overall, I just as a general recommendation, I would suggest doing moderate weights, moderate repetitions, meaning in the range of about 8 to 15 so a resistance that allows right in that zone, 8 to 15 with one or two minutes rest between sets.

>> Lori: OK, and explain, too, real quick, I know a lot of women, because you have a lot of personal training clients, who I think sometimes worry about getting bulky, if they lift heavy weights.

Is that true or not?

>> Jeff: Well most of the time, it's not true.

You know, every characteristic the population vary, but most of the time, women have about 30 times less testosterone, than men, they do produce some testosterone, some produce more than others, but overall, about 30 times less, which limits the ability to add muscle tissue.

But again, if a woman is afraid of getting too bulky, you have to consider again, that muscle is very dense and compact, so that the body will be much more tight and streamlined versus carrying around more body weight.

So what we are doing is we are altering the composition of the body, creating more lean tissue, versus more fat tissue, while the body weight may not change much.

>> Lori: Ok, well that makes sense when people walk around and say, well muscle weighs more than fat, I mean a pound of muscle weighs the same amount as a pound of fat, can you talk about that density, that's kind of the key, and then that leads to muscle burns more calories than fat.

>> Jeff: Yes, density is a measure of what we call specific weight.

The weight of a substance divided by the volume, or how much space, so, we take a pound of muscle, a pound of fat, a pound of muscle takes up much less space, than a pound of fat.

And a pound of muscles has a much higher density than a pound of fat, which means that it is much tighter, it is much more compact, versus fat which is more spread out, takes up more space.

>> Lori: Ok, and so, it's true that if you have more muscle mass, you can eat more calories, because that takes more calories to keep muscle going.

>> Jeff: Yes, the thing about fat tissue, is that it is not metabolically active.

It just kind of sits there, on your body, doing nothing.

Whereas muscle, on the other hand, is constantly recycling itself, especially if we exercise it has to repair itself, and we go through this recovery process, whereas the fat doesn't do that, it's a very low metabolically active tissue, and so, more muscles means that you can eat a few more calories.

>> Lori: Ok, well, that's good to know.

Well, as long as we are talking about muscles, we often hear, this goes back several years, of no pain, no gain.

Is there any truth to that, or do you have to feel a little pain to move forward?

>> Jeff: Well, you know, your purpose, it depends on your goal.

You kind of have to look at this from two perspectives.

Health and function versus performance.

Sometimes you get a cross over between the two because you have people that are a little older, but they still have that competitive drive to really push themselves.

But you know, looking at it from two perspectives, if you are an athlete, and you want the high level of performance, you want to reach your, just your absolute possible best, then you have to push yourself.

Sometimes that's going to be uncomfortable.

However, if it's for health, you really don't have to put in that much effort.

It's just a process you know, you could stay with the same program, and not necessarily improve your fitness so much, it's more about burning calories, because there is an association between the expenditure of calories and mortality.

So you live longer if you are expending a certain number of calories on a weekly basis.

Whereas, you don't necessarily have to improve your fitness level, to get the health benefits from exercise.

>> Lori: But a little bit of muscle fatigue or a little soreness the next day after a good workout is fine?

>> Jeff: Of course, yes, you know, the principle of progression would apply here too.

And it helps give some validation psychologically that you are doing something good if you feel just a little bit of soreness the next day.

>> Lori: Ok, but not so much that you can't get out of bed in the morning.

>> Jeff: Sure.

You know you are going too far then.

>> Lori: That's right.

Let's talk about one last thing.

Let's talk about when is it time, you know, once you finish your workout, how much should you eat and drink and I know it depends on what kind of workout you've done.

What sort of recommendations do you have?

Should you be eating some sugar, some carbohydrates, some protein after say you've done a typically interval circuit kind of workout?

>> Jeff: Timing is really the key, and timing is really an important factor.

There have been studies done where people were lifting weights, and they took a certain amount of protein in the morning, and in the evening, versus taking the protein right before and right after the workout.

The muscle building effect was greater when they took the protein right before and right after.

So, the timing is critical.

If you can give your body some building blocks, like protein and carbohydrates just before and just after the workout, that is going to be assimilated much more readily.

>> Lori: Ok, rather than waiting, you know, two hours, >> Jeff: Yeah, don't wait.

Right after a workout, your body is going to be primed, your insulin levels are going to go up and allow that to be taken into the muscles for rebuilding and recovery.

>> Lori: Ok, so good to know.

Don't forget you can watch more being well online anytime.

Just visit our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/weiutv.

You can watch full episodes plus demonstration segments from season one and season two.

>> Jeff: Exercise really doesn't take a lot of time if you do it correctly.

So, today we are going to go through a few exercise moves that will help you make the most of your time with limited equipment with also minimal space.

And so today, I have with me, Nancy Chrome, and she is a hard worker, and she is going to be demonstrating some of these exercises that you can do right in your own home.

Let's start off with today with just a squat with a medicine ball, there are several different variations of squats you can do, the basic queuing or technique factors are the same.

You want to vary the level of difficulty according to your fitness goals, as well as your orthopedic limitations.

So if you have knee, hip, or low back problems, you really want to make sure you are very careful with this exercise.

So Nancy, I'll have you take this ball, go ahead and stand up here, now notice, Nancy is standing maybe slide your feet forward just a little bit, ok, so Nancy is standing about a foot in front of the ball here, notice we have the stability ball wedged up against a bench here for stability, and the ball is going to provide more or less a depth monitor for Nancy.

And so, Nancy has worked her way up to a little bit more of a difficult progression here, with this exercise.

So I am going to ask Nancy to hold the ball right above her head, you really want to make sure you are very tight in the abdominal and hip region, you want to sit back, so push your hips back, and then stand up.

We'll have Nancy slide back just a little bit there, ok, so she's now about eight inches in front of the ball, ok, and just sit right back there, good, and stand back up.

Good.

Notice how Nancy is pushing through the heels, she's coming down briefly unloading, and then pushing back up through her heels to the top.

Ok.

So again, for general fitness, and muscular benefits, we want to keep our repetition range in the 10-15 zone, moving from one exercise to the next to maximize that caloric expenditure.

The next exercise we are going to do, is a prone hip abduction exercise.

This exercise is important for pelvic stability, which is very important for preventing low back pain.

SO what I'll have Nancy do is flex her knee 90 degrees.

Notice, she is supported on the toe, on the opposite leg, push the heel towards the ceiling, just a little bit, leading with the knee, coming out and back in.

Let's do five repetitions like that, two, and three, four, one more, and five.

Very good.

Now notice two things.

First of all, we have a ball here, which provides excellent support in this supine position, or prone position, and then I also have the ball wedged up against this bench for stability.

So, you want to make sure you do an equal number on both sides, so we'll have Nancy do five more on this side.

Ok, now we are going to focus on another combination exercise.

This is going to be a dumbbell chest press, combined with an abdominal press.

So, again, making the most of our time with this exercise program.

SO I am going to hand Nancy these weights, you want to make sure that you are comfortable with the weights you are working with; something that is moderately, ok, so now Nancy is positioned where the low back is in contact with the ball, her torso is on a bit of an incline here, feet are nice and wide for stability, she is going to make a nice arc down toward the upper arms are parallel with the floor, coming back up, and then into the abdominal crunch, good.

Let's do this five times, two, that's the way, little bit more bend in the elbows, there you go.

Ok, now we are going to do a rowing exercise.

And so it is very important that you compliment your pushing movements with some pulling type movements.

This is a dumbbell row exercise, and so the first thing I am going to have Nancy do, is position her body correctly.

One hand on the ball here, notice how the back is flat, the knees are slightly bent, she is going to grab the weight with her left hand here, keeping the back flat, and rowing the weight up into the torso.

Just like that, repeat five repetitions.

Two, three, four, and five.

Now we are going to be working on another calf exercise.

So this one is done in the seated position on a stability ball.

And because you are sitting on the unbalanced unstable surface, that is going to force the abdominal muscles to be more active, so we are getting multiple muscles at a time.

So notice she is sitting here with excellent posture, she has got the weight positioned on their ends, over just a little bit proximal to the knee joints, and what she is going to be focusing on here is raising up on her toes.

Just like this, repeat, two, three more.

Three, good.

Four, that's the way, and five, good.

Now we are going to work on some trunk rotation.

And this is a very important movement.

And oftentimes a neglected movement, but certainly important.

You have to make sure that you don't have any lower back pain, before doing this exercise, but it is so important to work trunk rotation because we do it so often in our daily activities.

So I am going to have Nancy position her feet with the toes angled out, wide stance, and we are going to do one side at a time, so bringing the ball down to one knee, again keeping the knees bent and loose, hips pushed back, and we are going to cross the body, looking off in the opposite direction diagonally.

Here, to here, just like that, good.

Here to here, let's try that two more times.

And Nancy's focusing on keeping her abdominals and hips muscles tight as she is doing this.

And then you'd want to switch sides and do the opposite pattern, ok, so come to the other side, and push up there just like that.

Good.

Knees are slightly bent, that's the way.

Ok, the last exercise in this series, is the opposite arm/leg raise.

This is a very good exercise; a more advanced version would be lying over the top of a Swiss ball here.

Now this Swiss ball sometimes called a stability ball, reduces the amount of stability, so you have your whole body balance challenged.

What that translates into, is greater muscle involvement, greater muscle activation.

So, what I'll have Nancy do, is first of all, raise the right hand, thumb up, and also the left hip, you want to get really long through the torso, so you create the greatest possible length in your leg, and also in your arm, reaching with the arm, reaching with the foot, parallel with the floor, one straight line, and then let's do the other side.

That's the way, just like that, you'll notice Nancy's muscles are working really hard to keep her balanced on the ball, try one more with each side, long through the torso, reaching up nice and high there, that's the way, awesome, ok one more with the other side, very, very good, and back down.

Exercise does not require a lot of time, it also doesn't require a lot of equipment, and it doesn't require a lot of space.

The key is to keep moving, make the most of your time, use your body weight, and challenge yourself to keep progressing, to reach that next level of fitness.

I encourage you to do some type or some form of exercises on a daily basis.

Again, trying for moderate repetitions, 10-15 repetitions per set, moving from one exercise to the next.