Exercise has many variables and there are five constants you must know, they are:
- Frequency
- Intensity
- Duration
- Rest
- Your lifestyle
What commonly happens is everyone is put on the same routine or same fitness class, will this method work? Sure it will and it still is not optimal. If you take a person that never worked out before and then start moving them three the four times per week and tell them to cut all the junk food, of course they will lose weight and feel better - which is GREAT by the way.
This post is for the person who is past that point and wants to get a little more out of their workout.
For example, I just read a study about Heart Rate Variability, basically your heart must be able to adapt to many different situations (endurance run, rest, lifting weights, etc) and the the higher the score of HRV the better your heart can adapt. In other words, the more fit or healthier you are if you have great Heart Rate Variability.
Okay....
In the study they took a professional soccer player and accessed his heart rate variability, they found even though he had low body fat percentage and good strengthen his heart was working too hard or inefficient.
What was done?
Well, instead of more cardio, or more strength training they told this athlete the following:
- Rest more
- quite the caffeine
- massage (the relaxing kind)
- biofeedback to calm himself down
- sleep
After a month his HRV was scoring very high (which is good). He was performing better and healthier.
The point of this post?
If you want the best results you need someone or a gym that is smart enough to look at you as an indvidual, your goals, your lifestyle and tailor a program that has objective measures.
What I hear most from patients is that they have hit a wall and they can't get past this wall. I ask what they tried and I hear over training, poor nutritional guidance and basically working harder for less and less results.
Why is a structural chiropractor talking about exercise and heart rate variability?
I work with some very fit and intense individuals correcting the structure of their spine and I hear their routines and most of the time just a small tweak in their lifestyle makes all the difference. Plus, my undergraduate degree is in health and fitness studies, so this stuff is fun for me.
My take:
Ask a professional for help, if you don't know any we know a few excellent trainers and good gyms that will be able to help.
It's not always about doing another repetition or running another mile, sometimes its resting more, or steady state cardio over HIT, or even cutting out coffee. Getting independent evaluation will get you over the wall, most of the times it's a simple fix if you know what to look for.
Have a great day!
Dr. Chris
About Advanced Chiropractic...
Advanced Chiropractic is owned and operated by Dr. Chris Chase. Dr. Chris has a direct approach to patient care with a focus on structural correction of the spine, which is a little different than conventional chiropractic care. You can read more about Advanced Chiropractic at or on Twitter or Facebook.
