Our Thinking Has Come A Long Way, or Has It?

In part 1 of this 3-part blog I touched on how important resistance training is, especially keeping it up as we age. This concept, unlike what I covered in part 2, the great “AB Machine fallacy”, is more of an under promoted topic rather than a gross misconception.

Slow The Rate of Muscle and Bone Loss With Resistance Training

Osteopenia, which is the loss of bone mass (when the loss is severe it’s know as osteoporosis) and Sarcopenia the loss of muscle tissue, are both part of the natural aging process. As humans, typically we are at our peak around 25 to 30 years of age, then it’s down hill from there! It’s easier to gain fat, harder to put on muscle and gravity becomes force to be reckoned with. The rate that we degrade, particularly losing the bone and muscle mass, can double at some stage after 50.

 However, you can take steps to keep this part of the aging process at bay longer, or slow the rate of your muscle & bone loss…. AND the number 1 prescription for this is [insert drum roll] …Resistance Training!

Retain Muscle as You Age 

This really is a ‘use it or lose it’ scenario. The good news is, to quote WebMD; research has shown that a program of progressive resistance training exercises can increase protein synthesis rates (this is a good thing for muscle retention), for older adults, in as little as two weeks. And in addition to this, to look after your bones; along with good nutrition, do regular resistance training, as bone forms in response to the stress it endures as you perform resistance exercises.

As it just so happens…the ARC-NRG PushUp delivers a resistance training workout, that can be progressively increased – and it’s low impact to boot!

Get a DEXA Scan for an Accurate Body Composition Analysis

Image from Body Comp

 As a side note, if you’re interested in learning more about your own body-composition to understand your true body fat % and your current bone and muscle health, I recommend you get a DEXA scan. It’s a quick, non-invasive, not expensive low-energy X-ray -  the gold standard in Body-Comp analysis. You’ll get the most accurate evaluation on your fat, muscle & bone.

Our Thinking Has Come Along Way, or Has It?

AB Machines and Sit-Ups

 In this part I wanted to specifically address our nemeses – the common ‘AB Machine’ (“absolutist completest crapious”). Needless to say, as we put the ARC-NRG PushUp against this product category, as ‘a better mouse trap’, we are anti-AB Machine. Well to be more accurate, we are against how AB Machines have typically been marketed, and the misconceptions motivating people’s purchasing decisions.  

 This is certainly a story to highlight an area where our thinking has not evolved, as for the facts on this topic, a vast majority of us are still in the dark ages – and that’s how the body uses, or burns fat for fuel during exercise. Many still think that you train your problem area for fat loss; the worst example being; got a fat stomach – train the abs! Wrong, wrong, wrong! You work muscle in resistance exercise, you don’t work fat. Burning fat is a positive side-effect of working the muscle, AND you don’t get to decide where that fat is burnt from  - it’s NOT localized to the muscles you’re working, the body will take fat from all over and dump it into your blood stream to be burnt or used as fuel.

 While there’s a big misconception over this, it’s not all our fault. For years, in order to sell products, specifically AB Machines, some companies have been keeping this myth alive, and with their sexy before and after shots of 6-packed beauties, we lapped it up. 

Training Only Your Abs  Could Actually Make you Look a Little Fatter

Truth is, if you’re carrying a layer of fat around your stomach, training only your Abs is actually going to make you look a little fatter! That’s because Ab exercises, while providing muscle contractions and resistance, are isolated exercises, meaning you’re only working one muscle group, and the Abs is a small muscle group at that! So you are barely burning any calories (or fat) doing these exercises. Result; if you do manage to build these muscles up, which lie underneath that layer of belly fat, you’re still likely to have that layer of fat, only now it’s been pushed out further due to the pumped ab muscles underneath!

 It’s not that I’m saying don’t train your Abs, a strong core is important, but the only people who should be training their Abs in this way are ones wanting to go from (already) trim and taut, to cut & ripped.

Switch on Your Core When Resistance Training 

To focus purely on working your Abs as a strategy for burning fat and weight loss, is a waste of time.

 If you’re doing resistance training, no matter what the exercise, you should be focusing on correct form and that means switching on your core whether you’re doing bicep curls or squats.

 By the way, you know what’s promoted as one of the best exercises for you’re your Abs? Safer and more effective that the sit up? It’s the Plank! Basically the position you’re holding as you engage your core and work out on the ARC-NRG PushUp! The ARC-NRG PushUp – best Push Up machine ever? Or best AB machine ever, as it works your Arms, Shoulders, Chest & Back at the same time!

Our Thinking Has Come Along Way, or Has It?

Modern Migration from the Cardio Room to the Weight Room

I really think this internet meme should be in past tense, as in ‘what women used to think happened’ as I feel this old-fashioned belief around Health, Fitness & How the body works is not so prevalent today. It’s no longer common place for women to think that doing Resistance training will result in them ‘bulking up’. After all, most women would rather see themselves on the cover of Shape magazine than Flex!

 We’ve seen a mass migration of women out of the cardio room and into the weights room as we now better understand the importance of resistance training to support healthy muscle for an optimum metabolism, burning fat and to give our physique the right kind of curves, in the right places. And as far as ‘bulking up’ goes? Well we also now understand that it takes serious dedication – whether you’re male or female, and specific training to ‘bulk up’ – it ain’t going to happen by accident!

The ARC-NRG Pushup Brings Resistance Training to the Classic Exercise. 

We’re huge advocates for resistance training, so much so we invented a machine around the concept! The ARC-NRG PushUp, that brings scalable resistance to this classic exercise, is all about the virtues of Resistance Training whether your goal is to burn fat, increase strength or build muscle as we all work towards the best version of ourselves.

This pushing, pulling, grunting and groaning shouldn’t just be for the young, fit & fab – the health benefits of Resistance Training can be even more important as we age. It’s probably not talked about nearly enough, but the number one prescription for fighting muscle loss and weakening bones as we age is Resistance Training. So get off that treadmill and drop and give me 20! Oh, can’t push out 20? We can help with that!