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This is a test of the emergency test blog system to see if my feeble mind can figure this out.
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I've been involved in exercise ever since I became a member of The Charles Atlas Club when I was 10 years old. In 1998, I founded and established Serious Strength on the Upper West Side of NYC. My clients include kids, seniors (and everyone in between), top CEOs, celebrities, bestselling authors, journalists and TV personalities.
Strong Kids Healthy Kids
Euphoria Olive Oil
Gary Taubes: Good Calories Bad Calories
Michael & MaryDan Eades M.D.: Protein Power Lifeplan
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Fred,
Please can you write a blog urgently on osteoporosis and the benefits of the Slow Burn way of doing weight lifting for it….I mean for people with established osteoporosis, I do not mean for prevention of it. I am frequently recommending your book ‘The Slow Burn’ to other people on the osteoporosis forum I am on and it would be nice if I could post a link to a good explanation as to why Slow Burn is beneficial for osteoporosis with some of the reasons why superslow was originally invented expressly for osteoporotic women.
with many thanks,
Anne
Hi Anne –
I’ll try and get a post up about the benefits of resistance training and BMD. Truth be told, diet is very important too – perhaps moreso.
Hi Fred,
Yes I know diet is very important too and we talk a lot about that on the osteoporosis forum I’m on, but weight bearing exercise/resistance training is something that many people want to do in addition. It was Dr Mike Eades who suggested to me that I obtain your book Slow Burn just over two and a half years ago and I have not looked back since obtaining it. I started with the home exercises in the book and then moved on to a gym where I use the machine exercises. I always recommend this type of weight lifting and always recommend your book as it is a good place to start. But I would like to have a post on your blog that I could copy the link to whenever I recommend this type of weight lifting so it would be easier for others to understand why Slow Burn or SuperSlow is better for osteoporosis than the usual fast gym weight lifting exercises.
Thanks,
Anne
PS – I live in the UK and am writing on a UK osteoporosis forum – there are no Superslow or Slow Burn gyms here, it is entirely up to individuals – I do my weight lifting at a regular gym full of body building guys doing their stuff fast, and there I am, a middle aged woman, the only woman doing any weight lifting, and doing things in slow motion – must look very weird
Fred,
Both Jimmy Moore and Gary Taubes mentioned your program to me. It is intriguing. What interests me the most about your program is the idea of injury prevention especially as you age. I have a couple of questions/thoughts if you don’t mind.
Have you ever compared blood pressure responses between your workout regimen and a standard resistance routine?
I’m a believer in functional training (i.e. deadlifts, squats, pushups, cleans, and presses as opposed to such standard weightlifting exercises like biceps curls and bench press). I think these types of exercises most assist us as we age. An elderly person rarely has problems curling their shopping bag up onto the counter, but they most likely do have some difficulty in perhaps walking, standing from a chair, and/or getting up off the ground. These functional movements can be readily seen if you watch a show on an indigenous tribe somewhere such as the island of Vanuatu, South America, or Africa where the elderly are remarkably ambulatory.
Having said this, I don’t see any of those indigenous people doing anything slowly and deliberately such as you see in Slow Burn. Wouldn’t God/nature have placed within us the ability to heal and therefore not get injured too easliy if we stay within the functional realm (i.e. functional movements performed at normal speed)?
Thanks,
John
Hi John –
I have not compared BP’s but I have measured BP during a SB session and it has never entered a dangerous zone because we do not allow anyone to hold their breath or grip unnecessarily. I’ve even see BP go down during an exercise.
As for functional training, muscles have functions and lose their functionality as they weaken. There really is no such thing as a functional exercise as opposed to a non-functional exercise. All exercises that strengthen muscles are ‘functional exercises. ‘
Slow Burn is a strength training protocol designed to increase mitochondria and myofibrils. There is no ‘normal’ speed. You can of course train in many different ways but one must understand why you are training. What is the purpose? Once you understand the goal, you then have to decide what the safest and most efficient method is to reach that goal.
People often try to mimic sports or activities in the weight room. This is a grave mistake. F=ma. Respect it or don’t. You can’t play football slowly. You can’t hit a baseball or a drive a golf ball slowly. But to do these things with the most power, you need great strength (and technique of course).
Weight lifting is for developing more muscle so that you can generate more power (if you wish). Mixing the two concepts – strength training and physical activity – as of they are one and the same is a common misunderstanding. They are separate and distinct.