Your Body – A Fat Burning Machine

By Don Otis –

I was having dinner with some friends when their 24-year-old daughter asked me if I would help her get in shape. That is a pretty innocuous question. I asked her what she wanted to accomplish, how much time she could devote to fitness, and what she’s done before. She held up her arm and said, “I want my arms to be more toned.” Then, she added, “I can’t ride or run more than a mile before I am too tired.” Poor stamina is always the smoking gun of poor fitness.

Just as God has made us for relationship, He has also made us physical beings for activity. Living a sedentary lifestyle is relatively new to humanity and is not part of our Creator’s original design. This means we have to be intentional about activity. There are many culprits that invite us to an inactive lifestyle–television, dishwashers, lawn mowers, or even our vehicles. The bottom line is that we are now forced to be intentional about fitness.

You have heard the old adage “Use it or lose it.” This applies to your physical body too. My advice to anyone, whether they are a 24-year-old female who wears a size 4, or a 60-year-old man who wears a size 44: Get active! God has made you to move. The term aerobic means “with oxygen.” When you hear the term, aerobic exercise, this refers to how your body processes and uses oxygen. Elite distance runners or cyclists can run or pedal efficiently because they train their bodies to use oxygen sparingly.

Aerobic exercise is simply any exercise that gets your heart rate up beyond its normal resting rate for an extended period of time. Cardiorespiratory fitness is what defines the status of your heart muscle, lungs, and circulatory system. The first advice I give anyone who wants to “get in shape” is to get started on a fat-burning routine–aerobic exercise. Here are some of the health benefits of aerobic fitness.

• Reduces blood pressure
• Increases good cholesterol (HDL)
• Decreases total cholesterol
• Decreases body fat stores
• Increases aerobic work capacity
• Decreases anxiety, tension, and depression
• Increases heart function
• Helps prevent type 2 diabetes

There are a host of physiologic benefits and responses as well, which range from decreased workload on the heart, increased blood volume, lung diffusion capacity and many others.

Our bodies adapt to workload. This means that if you start an aerobic exercise program, it will be more difficult in the beginning, but gradually it will become easier as the weeks progress. Be patient with yourself. Choose activities that increase your heart rate and keep it there for 20-30 minutes at a time. These exercises are diverse. They can include walking/running, cycling, court sports, hiking, swimming, or climbing stairs.

The Bible enjoins us to love the Lord with our heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). How can we love the Lord with our strength if we have none?

Determine this summer to increase your metabolism, increase your strength, and decrease your weight!

Who Encourages You?

By Don Otis –

One of the primary reasons people aren’t consistent with their fitness regimen is lack of encouragement. Of course encouragement and motivation go hand in hand. What do you need to stay focused and consistent?

As Christians, we have our heroes of the faith. These are men and women who stood tough in the face of impossible odds, grave risk, or uncertainty. The walk of faith is characterized by the unknown. When you think of people who are fit, who comes to mind? If you are like most, you admire people who look good, are active or in shape. Some of us are blessed with good genes or the ability to eat almost anything we want without putting on the pounds. But the rest of us have to work at it, remain diligent, disciplined, committed.

If you have read this column in the past you know I preach the importance of consistency, intensity, duration, and mode–choosing activities that you like that are going to help you improve. Most of us also benefit from having encouragement from a spouse, friend, or fitness coach. These people keep us accountable, give focus, and offer a pat on the back when we need it most. Who plays this role in your life?

Unfortunately, some spouses discourage their mates from spending too much time exercising. Others complain that their spouse is lazy or overweight. These disparaging or discouraging comments do not motivate us to improve our lives. People change their lives when they decide to do so, but the effort to stay changed is pivotal to reaching our goals.

There is a saying, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” The same is true for fitness; you need to know where you are going. When you know what you want to be and where you are heading, you eventually find ongoing success. Once you have determined your goals, find someone to hold you accountable for achieving these goals. While most of us have little trouble achieving short-term success, our real problem is sustainability.

Today, before you forget, write down your goals. Then write down how much time you are willing to commit to achieving these goals. Nothing worthwhile happens by accident; it takes intention. Next, be sure to tell someone about your plan and then paste it on your refrigerator or next to your nightstand. Be sure the person you tell is someone who will be supportive.

What I have discovered about encouragement is that it happens in the beginning and it happens once people see the results. It’s the in-between part that is tough!

Here are some things to do to encourage yourself and stay focused:

1. Write it down (what are your goals?).
2. Track your progress (keep a journal).
3. Tell someone and ask them to check in with you occasionally.
4. Keep a mental diary of how you feel about yourself.
5. Be patient with yourself and others.
6. Ask God to help you to successfully reach your goals.

Remind yourself of this: God wants you to be healthy and whole. And He wants you to encourage others to be healthy. It is His will for you. If being healthy is part of God’s plan for you, don’t you think He wants you to be a success? Of course He does! And He will give you strength to succeed… if you do your part.

Don S. Otis (don@veritasincorporated.com) is a certified personal trainer, runner, climber, and author of five books. He runs Veritas Communications, a publicity agency based in Canon City, Colorado.

Distractions Versus Intensity Workouts

By Don Otis –

The 30-something-year-old woman on the elliptical trainer next to me was reading a magazine. Just down the row, another woman was having a loud cell phone conversation with a friend.  Still another was signing loudly to the song on her iPod. Fortunately, she had a beautiful voice but she was oblivious. The use of technology to divert our attention from the rigors of exercise, or to at least make it more palatable, is now fully entrenched. My informal survey tells me that better than half the people in the gym are listening to something. For women, perhaps it is a good way to keep men from hitting on them.

If you use music or books on tape to get you through an indoor workout, enjoy the diversion. If you exercise outside, I encourage you to leave the distractions at home. I don’t even take my cell phone unless I am going on a long run or ride. My observation is that people with distractions put in less effort than those who have none. It is about focus. You cannot get the full benefit of an aerobic workout and read a magazine at the same time. We are geared to multi-task, to extract the most benefit out of our scarce time, but it doesn’t work. I have tried.

I am for finding any creative way to motivate people. Yet in our fast-paced culture, try to see your exercise time as an opportunity to let go of the distractions. Think of it as a time where the Holy Spirit can speak to you. Think of it as a time to focus on your physical needs. Think of it as a time when the oxygen rich blood reaching your brain can result in a new idea or a creative thought.

Pushing It
In this column, I push the concept of high-intensity exercise. I have always been a believer in shorter but more intense workouts. It was only while training for a marathon that I had to revise my short and intense philosophy and adopt a long and slow approach. But if you aren’t training for a long-distance event, take the short and intense approach because the benefits of a vigorous thirty minute workout will outweigh that of a slow and methodical sixty minute session. In other words, more isn’t necessarily better; it’s just more. As we’ll see in a moment, rest is also a factor to our success.

Increasingly, those who study the benefits of serious exercise are finding there is a better way. While these principles are geared toward serious competitors, they apply equally to you and me. First, recognize that with age we change. Our heart rate declines (which impacts our aerobic capacity), muscles shrink (leading to more injury and soreness), and flexibility decreases (which has a direct bearing on connective tissue and extension).

Second, a unique training program established by a couple of brothers is proving to work well. It is a minimalist training regimen which combines intensity with rest. Yes, our Creator had a reason for suggesting a day of rest! The Hanson brothers encourage us to let the body recover without the mind losing confidence. In other words, don’t feel guilty for resting your weary body. They also say that we cannot “bank time.” Simply put, it’s better to start slow and end strong. Human nature and solid training make us want to do too much too early and this is a recipe for disaster. In fitness, as in life, pacing yourself is an essential ingredient in your success.

Don S. Otis (don@veritasincorporated.com) is a certified personal trainer, runner, climber, and author of five books. He runs Veritas Communications, a publicity agency based in Canon City, Colorado.

Seven Keys to Living Longer

By Don Otis –

As a young boy I remember my mom watching this guy on television who wore an odd looking jumpsuit. He did jumping jacks and calisthenics. His upbeat demeanor and encouragement were part of his routine. While I didn’t pay much attention to him, he seemed to be having fun. By now you probably guessed that it was Jack LaLanne, a man who was indisputably way ahead of his time. He died recently at 96 but in the overall scheme of life expectancy, he lived twenty years longer than the average male in the United States.

The Bible gives us no guarantee of years or longevity. It gives us only the hope of eternal life through faith in Christ. Our physical prosperity comes from a number of factors; genetics, diet, attitude, and activity, spirituality, environment, and personal habits. Each of these ingredients has a proven track record of determining how long you will live.

Your genetics play a key factor in susceptibility to heart disease or certain kinds of cancers. If you have a history of breast or prostate cancer in your family, you already know that taking steps to eat healthy or have regular medical tests is vital.

Diet is another key and it is not just about how much you eat but what you put into your body that makes the difference. Would you put corn syrup into your new Toyota? Probably not. Yet many of us continually put harmful substances into our bodies and wonder why our “engine” begins to break down or is sluggish.

Attitude can be a factor for heart disease. A high stress type-A person is far more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke. We call these people “high strung” and wonder why they don’t chill out. There is a health benefit to not sweating the small stuff of life.

Our activity level, as LaLanne proved, plays a pivotal role in how blood flows throughout our system, how food is digested, how muscles and bones grow or support us. Exercise is crucial to healthy living and longevity.

For fitness fanatics everywhere, one of the missing links is spirituality. God has made us as with body, soul, and spirit and when we neglect any one of these we see the negative results. People with a vibrant faith are healthier, happier, and better adjusted than those without faith.

Our environment can be lethal. Ask anyone who lives near a toxic waste facility, has worked around asbestos, or suffered the effects of breathing contaminated air or drinking polluted water. We can mitigate the effects of environmental factors by being aware of these and protecting ourselves from pollutants.

Personal habits you choose such as smoking, heavy drinking, or engaging in risky behaviors will eventually catch up with you. The consequences may take years to surface but they will destroy your health some day.

We have far more control than we realize. The one area where we don’t have control is genetics. Yet even here there are choices we can make to lessen the negative effects or risks. God has given us the power of choice, the power of life, and the power of health. Choose life.

Don S. Otis (don@veritasincorporated.com) is a certified personal trainer, runner, climber, and author of five books. He runs Veritas Communications, a publicity agency based in Canon City, Colorado.

Back to Basics

By Don Otis –

What do you want to achieve in the New Year? In fitness language, setting goals and maintaining them is called adherence. As it is with anything in life, your goals determine your behavior. We don’t stumble into good health any more than we do ill-health. It takes intention. Or, in Christian terms, we set our heart (will) toward a goal.

In the past several articles, we have talked about how easy it is to fall off the wagon, so to speak, when it comes to adherence to our goals. We have discussed the importance of consistency, cross- training to break up the monotony, and having definable objectives. We have discussed fat-burning cardio exercises and what works best. This means intensity over duration. In other words, it is better to increasing your intensity on a treadmill than to walk slowly for 45 minutes. We call this quality or quantity. Some people think they have to spend a lot of time to get satisfactory results. Not true.

This weekend I had an hour of sunlight left and wanted to get a mountain bike ride in on the Santa Rosa Plateau in southern California. I met up with a Christian chiropractor and we took off at a breakneck speed (there is a reason they call it “breakneck”). We finished ten miles on single track trails just as the sun set. I had resolved to work out that day, even if it was challenging to do it before the sun set.

Here are some of the questions in the Exercise Confidence Survey asked by fitness trainers who want to access the resolve of new clients.

Do you get up early, even on weekends, to exercise?

Do you stick to your exercise program after a long, tiring day at work?

Do you exercise even though you are feeling depressed?

Do you stick with your program even when you have household chores or social obligations to attend to?

I would add many of my own questions to the survey, like “Are you willing to turn off the television or stay off Facebook long enough to exercise? The biggest distracters are our schedules, family obligations, vocational responsibility, or fatigue/depression.

For me, one of the ways I stay motivated is to document what I do. It is simply writing down what I have done for the day on a 4 X 6 card. I have hundreds of these from decades ago. I know, for example, how much slower I am today than twenty years ago. Although my miles are slower, I keep moving and setting goals. This year will end with 1700 miles logged! Whatever your goals are, write them down, check on your progress, and persevere.

The most critical period of adherence to exercise is the first three to six months. This is one of the reasons I encourage a slow, methodical approach that helps people maintain a lifestyle of God-honoring, healthful living. Another reason for the slower approach is to avoid burnout or injury. If you are older or heavier, start with low-impact activities.

If it is helpful, write a contract–even if it is between yourself and God, or yourself and your spouse. Include a series of goals (make these reasonable) and determine to adhere to them–to “show up” even when you don’t feel like it.

Don S. Otis is am ACE Certified personal trainer, the author of Keeping Fit after 40 and Whisker Rubs: Developing the Masculine Identity. He is the president of Veritas Communications, a Christian publicity agency based in Canon City, Colorado. You can contact him at don@veritasincorporated.com.

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