Aerobic, Strength or Power Training – What is the difference and which one is for me?

                                                                             ~ Part 1 ~

 

Dr.Madan M Vasandani

I am sure many of you have heard the cliché – one out of every three individuals is overweight. If you fall under the “one” category, well we are in the same boat (I am working on it). As a doctor I am always driven to device new more efficient management plans for my patients. These include the most efficient plans for managing conditions like Diabetes, Hypertension and even the simple cough and cold. Whatever it is, having a disease is no fun and it always causes a lot of psychological impact on a person. Being overweight or obese is also a condition which engraves a psychological impact the individuals who are suffering from it. We always blame the food industry or the job industry for this. People are eating way too much junk food or the long hours of work has resulted in a sedantery lifestyle. To be honest with you I always thought this to be the sole reason. Well, these are only part of the causes. More and more individuals above the age of 30 are becoming more and more obese. Well besides the food and sedanterism, the scientific reason behind this is that one’s muscle mass decreases as a person ages. People lose almost 30% of their muscle mass when they reach the age of 70 and another 25% by the time they reach the age of 90. This depletion of muscle mass starts at the age of 30. Besides this being a physiological process, it is enhanced by the lack of utility of these muscles. 

Age together with lack of use of muscles just depletes our muscle mass at a shocking rate and this results in a very slow inefficient metabolism. Due to the slowed and inefficient metabolism, obesity becomes a common occurrence in those people who does not pay any attention to their muscles. Now, the question arises – am I actually gaining any muscle mass by doing aerobic exercise? The answer to this is a definite NO. Muscle strengthening exercise are exercises that build muscle by harnessing resistance – that is, an opposing force that muscles must train against. Hence, by doing strength training exercise we are actually slowing down the process of muscle mass depletion. Aerobic exercise is no doubt good for Cardiovascular health, but what it doesn’t do is maintain muscle mass. Aerobic exercise is not a good investment when it comes to obesity. How much ever aerobic exercise you do (or you CAN do) is not going to make a difference in terms of maintaining your weight in the long run.

     

      Here are a few benefits of muscle STRENGTHENING exercise: 

    1.  It changes the way people look, hence affecting his/her confidence

        2.  Strong muscles pluck oxygen and nutrients from the blood much more efficiently than weak ones.That means any activity requires less effort from the heart and therefore puts less strain on it.

        3.   Strong muscles are also better at sopping up sugar in the blood and helping the body stay sensitive to insulin.

          4.   Strong muscles enhance weight control too. 

   5. Muscle strengthening exercise + Speed = Power. 

Gain in Power has numerous benefits Power, not just strength, can get you from one side to the other safely. Likewise, by helping you react swiftly if your start to trip or lose your balance, power can actually prevent falls. That’s why investigators in the field of physical medicine are now combining the swift or high velocity propulsive moves of power training with more deliberate and slow strength training exercises to reap the benefits of both activities. To know more about the benefits of power training, watch out for my next post............

(Do not) Listen to your body 

By:

Dr. Madan M Vasandani

 

I am sure all of you reading this article are wondering what’s with the title. When it comes to illness and limitations, all of us know when our body is not in prime condition. When we are jogging, and our calvesstarts to hurt, we all know that we need to stop. The only time when we should NOT listen to our body is at times of hunger. Many individuals age 30 and above have reached a stage when they are constantly hungry. It’s a funny feeling because it is present most of the time. I had my lunch at 12 30 pm and now it is 1 30 and my tummy is grumbling and I am asking myself “Didn’t I just have a heavy lunch?” The question “why do we feel hungry?” seems to be very obvious to answer. It is because we need to get nutrients to survive. Hunger is the motivation for us to be able to know what we need to get the nutrients in our body. But how do we really know that we are hungry? The answer can be analyzed by three different components: biological, learned, and cognitive.

     1.    Biology – Some of the theories that are under this category includes gastric contraction – we feel hungry when our stomach contracts. Well how does this theory explain hunger in those individuals who have had a gastrectomy. Glucose theory states that hunger is due to low glucose levels in the blood. When glucose was infused into a hungry person’s blood, stomach contractions decreases but hunger persists.

      2.    Learned – As human beings, we cannot ignore our psychological part, the learned and cognitive components of hunger. We humans use an external clock in our daily routine, including when to sleep and when to eat. This external time triggers our hunger. You are your own judge of whether this theory works for you. In addition to external clock, smell, taste or texture of food also triggers hunger. Think of the last time you said “I am hungry for something sweet” People keep feeling hungry until the four tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, and salty – are satisfied.

    3.    Cognition - Colors also contribute to hunger. Looking at a yellow banana makes one to want to eat it, but a red banana does not. Similarly, red or green can trigger hunger for an apple, but not blue. It is hard to find natural food with blue color, because Mother Nature does not produce blue food. Blue is said to be an appetite suppressant. Color greatly affects our hunger.

Hunger is a primary motivation. Despite strong beliefs that hunger is caused biologically, this motivation is controlled not just by physiology, but also psychology as well. There are two kinds of hungers; one is caused physiologically, and the other is caused psychologically. What makes human beings different from animals is we eat not only to feed our bodies to satiate physiological hunger, but also to feed our minds to satiate psychological hunger as well. Although these two kinds of hunger interchangeably cause hunger by affecting one another, putting some food in our mouth is not necessarily the right way to feed our psychological hunger.

The reason why Obesity is rapidly becoming a pandemic is because it is in our nature to eat. We eat satisfy our biological needs and also our psychological need. This is the reason why the approach to management of Obesity is not only by diet or exercise but also psychological support.

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