Stud or Spud - Part 2

In this segment of the blog I cover some exercise and diet questions that have come in over the past few weeks and give them a stud or spud rating.

It is sometimes true you can tell the kind of person you are dealing with from the kind of questions they ask.

See how well you do with the rankings by picking Stud or Spud when you've read the question.

We pick up with a continuation of the earlier blog

Q# 2: Doc, which is better, aerobic or anaerobic exercise?

A: That really depends on your goal. If your goal is to run marathons, then you should spend the bulk or your time doing just that which would focus you on aerobic activity.

If your goal is to be a power lifter, then any energy you expend on aerobic activity may tax your body and detract from your goal. You'll be immensely strong but tire out walking around the block.

For most people their goal is to get in shape in a general fashion or for a specific sport that requires both aerobic and anaerobic activity.

In terms of efficiency and overall benefit it seems best to start with an activity that is strongly aerobic like hill sprints or wind sprints. What we used to call interval training a few years back.

You can burn as many or more calories in less time and it seems to actually benefit your heart more than the long, slow distance training that is so familiar to the 10K and up runners.

Recent studies indicate that a person's ability to have their heart rate soar and then come back down quickly to a normal or slow rate is a better predictor of heart health than resting heart rate alone.

A lot of confusion comes from something called training effect as well.

There are 2 meanings to training effect as I know it but they both converge at the same spot, a stronger heart.

To some, training effect means that when you start to train aerobically (sprints etc) you will at first not be able to sustain anaerobic activity for long.

Let me use the Hindu Pushup as an example.

Some folks may only be able to do 10 or 20 at a crack before their muscles fatigue. They may work out for less than a minute.

This is purely anaerobic.

However, if they stick with it they will eventually be able to crank out 500 or 1000 of them and it may take 30 to 60 minutes. It has now become aerobic.

Now it is true that at some point you can't go any faster and if you could go so fast that this exercise would remain anaerobic and you'd tire out in a minute or less even though you could do 500 or thousand at a slower pace.

But the point is you don't get to 500 or 1000 if there is not a strong cardio (aerobic) effect.

Sprinting may be an even more obvious example.

When I first started a sprint program to train for a marathon a few years back the most I could get to was between 12 and 13 M.P.H. on the treadmill. After 30 seconds I was getting to the end of my rope.

By the end of the program I was hitting 16 M.P.H. for 30 seconds. But I could do 12 M.P.H. for over 2 minutes, meaning I was out of the pure anaerobic range.

This means: I had gotten some aerobic training effect out of my anaerobic activity.

Some people even claim that training effect refers to a metabolic boost of the body that happens after these bursts of interval training consisting mainly of anaerobic activity.

In other words working out this hard may crank your metabolism for 24 hours or more and help you burn more fat.

That seems to hold water as well.

Here is the bottom line:

To boost your metabolism and burn fat as fast as possible mix cardio with interval training and do them in the same session if you can. You'll be forced to workout less because your body will need more time to recover and you'll be tired after less time but you will have the most efficient workout you can have.

In Brick and Mortar Fitness I'll show you how to do just this; keep your eyes peeled for it.

Also, for you fools in a hurry to see great results, don't forget the combination of fish oil, Regenerizer and Hercules Factor.


Ok that's it for today so tune in tomorrow for more Stud or Spud and we'll see how you did on the quiz!

Dr Dave's Spud or Stud ranking:

Stud - any one who asks this kind of question is truly interested in exercise and bettering themselves.

You are a true stud, my friend, and if you want to be even more studly don't forget the combination of fish oil, Regenerizer and Hercules Factor.

More in Thursday's blog, Spud or Stud Part 3

Awash in potato peels,

Dr Dave