Is Your Cardiologist a Personal Trainer? How to Use a Treadmill
It’s cardiologist vs. personal trainer when it comes to how to properly use a treadmill and aerobic exercise in general.
Who wins?
I pointed out to a personal-training client that holding onto a treadmill was a bad habit that disrupted natural gait and did not simulate natural walking.
Her response? “Are you a cardiologist?” She then said her cardiologist told her to walk that way.
I’m not a cardiologist, but my knowledge of exercise science is sufficient for me to know that clutching the front bar of a treadmill also disrupts optimal breathing, can raise blood pressure and also lead to repetitive stress injuries in the hips, which are forced to over-rotate.
My mother years ago underwent multiple bypass surgery.
Her heart surgeon told her that the only exercise she ever needs is to just walk 40 minutes every day.
The patient pre-surgery was sedentary; did no exercise.
Post-surgery, she hears from her surgeon, “Walk 40 minutes a day. That’s all the heart needs.”
Because my mother frequently went shopping and lived in a big house at the time, and did all the housework, she convinced herself that this walking recommendation was automatically built into her day-to-day life!
Hence, she never committed to any 40 minute walking sessions.
The cardiothoracic surgeon’s exercise recommendation was too close to that of baseline living!
It’s one thing to suggest starting out with a 40 minute walk.
But to present this as the be-all, end-all, encourages patients to make no changes in their physical activity levels.
They may think, “I don’t have to go on 40 minute walks; I do plenty of walking every day on the job!”
At a minimum, not a maximum, you should get sustained aerobic exercise several times a week.
A treadmill is a good place to start.
How to Properly Use a Treadmill
Right! Shutterstock/gpointstudio
Unless you have a mobility impairment, there is no need to hold on — other than for momentary balance checks or steadiness while changing the settings, drinking a beverage, turning to greet someone and getting a heart rate.
A cardiologist may tell you to hold on to protect himself or herself from being blamed in case the patient falls off the treadmill and breaks an arm after being told by the cardioloist they should swing their arms.
But ask yourself this: How is the human body designed to walk?
Wrong!
How old were you when you began walking without clinging onto anything?
If you do not hold onto a treadmill, your body will be forced to balance all on its own, with no external help, and to assume correct posture.
Your balance will improve. You’ll burn more calories (the calorie display doesn’t change whether you’re holding on or not).
Holding onto a treadmill will train your body to use a walker. Do you want that?
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia
Sources:
sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110829070507.htm
sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604101529.htm
sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110405194101.htm
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The Advantages of Doing HIIT on a Treadmill vs. Other Machines
Ready for some HIIT? Okay, but which type of cardio equipment is best?
There are many things to consider like impact, comfort and boredom! I vote for the treadmill.
If you dread a particular piece of cardio equipment–and many don’t care for the treadmill, then it isn’t the best kind for high intensity interval training for you because you’ll never push yourself as hard on it as you will on the cardio machine that you like much better. (more…)
Why Intuitive Eating Promotes Overeating that Prevents Weight Loss
“Intuitive eating” is an approach pushed by the health-at-all-sizes movement, but this flawed approach can really make you gain unhealthy fat weight.
If you’ve taken any pledges or have simply visited a website that promotes the so-called intuitive eating approach, you may now be wondering if this is your calling.
Though some elements of this approach make sense, such as don’t eat past the point of satiation, and don’t eat for emotional reasons, it leaves the door open for overeating, because “Eat when you are hungry” (one of the tenets) could spell trouble for many people.
Today’s sedentary lifestyle and processed foods are making people hungrier than ever.
“We live in a ‘manufactured’ food environment,” says Richard Kelley, MD, a practicing physician in Texas for 20+ years, and author of “The Fitness Response,” “The Three-Hour Appetite” and the ebook, “The Fitness Response ‘Diet’ for Women.”
Dr. Kelley says nearly 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. “Many of these individuals are eating intuitively.
“Intuitive eating in the food environment, in which we live, just doesn’t help most people stay at a healthy weight.”
Freepik.com, wayhomestudio
The approach to weight loss should be integrated with fitness. “The most successful individuals among us, where losing weight is concerned, don’t just eat intuitively,” says Dr. Kelley.
“These individuals know and understand the macronutrients that comprise the components of food, and they eat in a very consistent and strategic manner, to maintain their weight and develop the physical bodies that most of us would associate with being ‘fit’ or in great shape.”
The main macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates and fats, such as chicken, pasta and peanut butter, respectively.
“I believe this is just one of the areas where people struggling with their weight, simply miss the mark,” continues Dr. Kelley.
“They have little understanding of how the food they eat really affects their bodies.
“Consequently, the idea that intuitive eating leads people to a healthy weight, is a nice philosophical stance; however, in my opinion it is a stance that is unsupported in reality.”
Eating is one part of the weight loss equation. The other part is exercise, and I don’t just mean “movement.”
The movement needs to include intense strength training and cardio if you want permanent weight loss while enjoying your favorite foods and not having to stick to unrealistic rules like avoiding eating at night.
Don’t let the catchy term “intuitive eating” throw you off course. Becoming a slave to this approach can result in polishing off a plate of donuts.
Freepik.com, sergeycauselove
Richard Kelley, MD, is an author, speaker, fitness expert and transformation coach.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Viktoriia Hnatiuk
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Why People Should NOT Come in All Sizes: Obesity Is Unhealthy
People should NOT come in all sizes. Though height variation doesn’t cause bad health, obesity does. Size variety is no excuse for accepting fat prevalence.
Science does not support the mantra that “people should come in all sizes.”
Height variation and natural proportions aside, the variation in body weight is where the problem lies.
Humans did NOT come in all sizes before the advent of machines that did all our work for us, and the proliferation of fast food places, Dairy Queens and the computer.
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors came in only one size: lean. The exception is when famine affected populations, reducing them to a thin, malnourished state.
“Because of the practice I’ve chosen (fitness-based weight management), I have certainly become more understanding of the plight of individuals struggling with excess weight,” says Richard Kelley, MD, a practicing physician in Texas for 20+ years, and author of “The Fitness Response,” “The Three-Hour Appetite” and the ebook, “The Fitness Response ‘Diet’ for Women.”
Dr. Kelley recognizes that weight loss is not easy, but he also says it’s not impossible long term.
“People do come in all sizes and always will,” he says, adding that some people have a greater genetic tendency to gain fat than others, and there are even those who (thanks to great genes) can have excess weight and still live a long and disease-free life (though this is the exception).
Dr. Kelley also explains, “I believe that for most of us, overweight and obesity carries with it an increase in medical risk.”
This includes knee pain and impaired stamina.
Dr. Kelley recalls a woman who came to the ER during his residency training.
“She died for no other reason than the fact that her excess weight made finding a vein impossible when she needed it most.
“A team of highly trained and experienced healthcare professionals working frantically on this patient, were never able to deliver the IV fluids and medications this woman required.”
This experience highlighted for Dr. Kelley the importance of maintaining a healthy weight.
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“I continue to work in the emergency department outside of my clinic practice and daily see the pathology that excess weight brings with it.
“Being grossly overweight or obese often leads healthcare workers on a fruitless ‘search and find’ mission when it comes to finding vascular access.”
Coming in All Sizes Doesn’t Mean “Should”
If you’ve been trying to lose weight and have been unsuccessful, do not give up and subscribe to the myth that people should come in all sizes.
They DO come in all sizes, but “do” does not mean “should.”
“I am a strong believer that each of us should have the freedom to choose how we will lead our lives,” says Dr. Kelley.
“Choices have consequences, however, and that’s what I try to teach my own patients.
“Complacency and acceptance sometimes backfire and result in an outcome we never predicted.
“When that happens, it is often with our regret, especially when deep down inside, we knew that there were alternatives.”
Richard Kelley, MD, is an author, speaker, fitness expert and transformation coach.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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