How Much Cardio Do We Really Need?

This is a question we get asked a lot, and a topic that's very commonly misunderstood.  Our answer to this question:

"As much as you need."  

This may sound like a snarky or rude answer, but the reality of it is true- you need to train your cardiovascular system as much and as hard as you need to in order to allow you to do the things you want to do. 

This discussion can go a few directions, so we'll hit on a few of the reasons why we answer this question the way we do.  The first reason is this:  there needs to be a purpose to your training and a reason behind taxing/stressing your body- especially your heart!  There are a lot of articles and recommendations out based on "studies" telling us we need to have so many minutes per day of activity at an elevated heart rate, or even actually telling us what target heart rate we should be working at to make us healthier.   Those are all useful information, but are not person-specific!  Those are general guidelines based on what we call correlation studies.  In other words, people who typically get ___ amount of activity at an elevated heart rate have fewer heart problems, or working at ____ beats per minute for ____ amount of time will "strengthen your heart"and make it healthier.  After all, the heart is a muscle, right?

This is true, and not true.  The fact of the matter is, we are all individuals with different health histories, metabolisms, fitness levels, and fitness goals.  A blanket recommendation may be beneficial, and has been for a lot of people, but also may not be the best approach- and hasn't been for a lot of people! 

Our idea of cardiovascular "training" is that it should be that- "training."  Meaning you train your body to perform a certain activity or type of activity while at the elevated heart rate your sport (or life) requires, with the end goal being you are able to do whatever activity or sport you're training for easier with less heart rate elevation over time- ie. you're more efficient!  Your heart is a muscle, but it's the one muscle in the body that is always working.  Making it work harder just to make it work harder doesn't seem like the healthiest approach.  

Heart rate varies quite a bit throughout the day.  It's controlled by hormones released (indirectly) by the brain in response to stress.  Often times people are functioning at an elevated heart rate without even knowing it- as a response to stress.  The fight or flight response is going on at some level all of the time, all day long.  It doesn't always take a life or death situation.  We're starting to find that stress is what actually affects heart function the most, as well as what leads to all of our "lifestyle diseases" that are beginning to run rampant in our society.  Those stress hormones will raise your heart rate in response to exercise, obviously, but also in response to hunger, poor food choices, a big presentation, a meeting with the boss, running the kids across town for soccer practice, poor air quality, etc.  Not moving for hours at a time, or not moving well is a stress to the brain.  Pain from current or past injuries is a stress to the brain.  

This is the uphill battle we're fighting in educating the public.  We're even working with the Berkeley Police Department to create a new program to address this issue...We are always under some sort of stress and creating a "fight or flight" reaction to it at some level all day every day.  We live in a society that is now fueled by stress hormones to survive on a day to day basis- And that's really what's killing us.

The real key to "Evolved Training and Living":  Make your body as stress-proof as possible!  You can't control all of the stress that comes your way.  You can, however, control how you respond to it. (This has implications for both fitness training and life!)

Your training should work towards giving you more and more strength and movement options so activities are less stressful to you. Learning how to function well at elevated heart rates eventually make those levels less stressful and more "endurable," making you healthier and more athletic.  Your diet should give you the vitamins and nutrients you need to build the healthy, anti-stress hormones that support energy production and metabolism so you have the resources available to think more clearly and combat the stressful situations (more on this to come soon!). 

This is not to say that we shouldn't workout hard or get out of breath, or anything of the sort.  There should just be apurpose behind it and an appropriate balance. Your training should be a short-term stress that enhances your ability to do the things you love and bring you joy better, more often, and longer!  Your heart works hard enough- don't make it work harder without good reason.

Putting the "Evolve" in Fitness Evolve(d)

  

When we created Fitness Evolved in 2010, we were looking for a name that, for one, stood out and set us apart.  But, we were also looking for a name that would, in just a few words, explain what we do- not just sound cool (it does that too! :)  We chose "Fitness Evolved" because it describes our approach to health and fitness in its relation to the current model and standard.  We created a more well-rounded, broader, "evolved" way of looking at health and fitness.  Our approach attempts to take into account the entire body and as many factors as possible to give our members the most complete approach to health and fitness we can.

Most of the approaches we see on TV, in magazines, and in the mainstream are narrowly focused on not only instantresults, but results mainly being the ideal body composition image we see in Hollywood and in the media.  They are "shortcuts" with only a few aspects of true health and fitness taken into consideration.  We've been convinced that as long as one appears healthy and fit, then they must be that, and should try to be like them.  Appearance is onlyone aspect of health and fitness, and appearance is not always reality.  Many of our shortcut approaches are too intense and uncomfortable to be long-term sustainable.  While our approach, in our opinion, is more evolved than most, the word "evolve" also describes the process which is in opposition to the above.

As many of you who have joined Fitness Evolved are experiencing, finding true health and fitness is a journey... an evolution.  There are no shortcuts, unfortunately, though we have found many new and cutting-edge ways to speed up the process!  

Our approach follows a saying that is well known, and is actually one of the foundational principles of how our body and brain adapt (neural plasticity!):  "Form Follows Function."  You've heard this before, I'm sure.  But it's probably never been impressed upon you exactly how true and important this is.  It's been physiologically proven that our body is continually adapting it's structure to support the functions that we carry out the most- for better or worse.  It's why athletes' bodies look the way they do, and also why the "office athletes'" bodies look the way that they do, and everywhere in-between.  There are healthy and non-healthy adaptations going on constantly every day.  I'd venture to say the lean, muscular bodies we see as a result of the 800 calorie/day crash diets and/or the intense ab and weight routines make a body look good, but are not really a healthy adaptation (more like a survival adaptation!) that is sustainable long-term and is actually detrimental to health and metabolism.  Quality and healthy adaptation doesn't happen overnight.  It's a process that can seem tedious, but much more enjoyable and sustainable.

 

The basis behind our training is this:  "Creating short term functional gains to promote long-term structural change."

We are only able to spend a few hours, at best, in the gym each week.  Those hours should be spent working on the attributes above so that the hours outside the gym are full of better, more fluid movement that allows and encourages the body to evolve. It's why we never let our members leave the gym without moving better than when they came in.  Those hours outside of the gym are what your brain and body will adapt to the most.  And, over time, will allow you to healthily and safely evolve into the body you want.  

Our very first tag line was "Evolving Fitness One Body at a Time."  We chose that for a reason!  We're giving your body and brain the tools it needs through a new approach to fitness that creates a long-term structural change that's happy, healthy, and looks great!

For more info and exclusive access to an exclusive "Form Follows Function Special Report",  join our mailing list by clicking here.

The Biggest Myth of Them All: "It Only Takes 21 Days!"

This is the final video in our series on habits.  We've shared this series because we think it's so vitally important to reaching your goals.  Knowing how and why habits actually form and easy to implement strategies to change or create them goes a long way in creating the life you want for yourself.  Last week's video did a little "myth-busting" in showing us that just a 1x/day reminder usually isn't enough to actually stimulate a change.  Because habits are so hard-wired, we require much more frequent reminders and novelty to get our brain to pay attention enough to begin to make the change.  This has been a great series with loads of information.  Each video is only 4-6 minutes in length.  If you missed any of the previous videos, see below. 

 

 This week's video busts another of the myths that seem to sabotage our progress, and one of the biggest ones out there:  "It takes 21 days to make a habit change."  Dr. Cobb makes a really good point:  If it really only takes 3 weeks to make habits, all of us would eat well, all of us would exercise well, etc.  That's obviously not the case!  He gives us some background on where this myth came from and where this really applies:  very simple habits, not complex lifestyle changes like diet, exercise, and so on.  Cut yourself some slack!  The final 3 minutes are especially important as he talks about the brain's wiring and if you "have a day off", all is not lost!  

Here's this week's video.  Enjoy!

 

The Myth of the 21-Day Habit Change

Here are the links to the books he mentions in the video.:

 Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success 

 The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It 

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard 

 These are incredible tools to help empower us to take control and create the life and body we want and deserve!

Habit Myth-Busting: The Myth of the Alarm

We're continuing our series on habits because we think it's so vitally important to reaching your goals.  Knowing how and why habits actually form and easy to implement strategies to change or create them goes a long way in creating the life you want for yourself.  Last week's video was about "Shrinking Your Challenge Windows."  Most of us tend to look at bad habits or behaviors as a 24 hour/day problem when in fact it's typically a short window in your day each day.  This is incredibly empowering in any behavior and habit change endeavor.  This has been a great series with loads of information.  Each video is only 4-6 minutes in length. 

 

 This week's video busts one of the myths that seem to sabotage our progress, and gives us some insightful information on what to do about it.  Many of us have seen, and even tried setting an alarm on our computer, iphone, ipad, etc. to remind us to do or not do whatever it is that we're trying to do or change.  As we've been learning over the last few weeks, habits are hard-wired in our brains and we our brain actually physically resists changing those habits.  Often times that reminder only one time a day is not enough stimulus for us to actually make that change.  It's not that you're not disciplined or lazy as much as you just haven't given your brain enough stimulation and incentive to change!  Our brain also craves and needs novelty.  Even if you've done the multiple times/day alarm, after a while we get really good at ignoring it.  It's time to create another reminder or "trigger."  Here's this week's video.  Enjoy!

 

Shrinking Your Challenge Windows...

We're continuing our series on habits because we think it's so vitally important to reaching your goals.  Knowing how and why habits actually form and easy to implement strategies to change or create them goes a long way in creating the life you want for yourself.  Last week's video was about "Why Your Brain Wants to Sabotage Your Health".

 This week, Dr. Cobb gives us an enlightening view of habits and the "lie" our brain tells us surrounding them.  He talks about what we call "danger windows"or "challenge windows".  We tend to look at changing a habit like it's a complete lifestyle change when in fact it's usually just a very short amount of time in your day.  For example, we want to try to eliminate our late night snacking and see that as a huge problem when in fact it's just a 2 hour window or less that's really the problem.  2 hours is much easier to deal with than 24!  Once we've identified the true "danger window" we can create strategies around dealing with it.  Here's this week's video.  Enjoy!

Shrinking Your Challenge Windows

The Truth About Habits....

If you missed it last week, we started an important series on Habits- Why we create them, and what we can do about it.  Dr. Eric Cobb, of Z Health, has put together an excellent video series talking about this subject.  If you missed last week's video, click on the link below: 

The Truth About Habits: Why We Start Them and How We Can Change Them

This week, Dr. Cobb goes back into the why to help us understand the reasoning behind our habits.  We create habits as a means of survival- both healthy and unhealthy.  This video contains great, easy to understand information on the why, and some great tips to help us get started onsuccessfully starting or changing whatever habits we want to work on. 

Click here to watch this video:

The Huge Reason Your Brain Wants to Sabotage Your Health

Creating Stories that Change Lives...

 

Many of our members, graciously, allowed us to film them during their workouts and also were kind enough to go on camera and give some pretty powerful testimonials.  There were 3 videos made in total.  Some of you may have seen some of them.   In case you missed them, we're going to show them to you this week.  Thank you for your time and generosity! 

P.S.  Some of you have expressed difficulty explaining our gym and what we do here to your friends and family.  These videos are great tools that will allow them to see what Fitness Evolved has to offer, and what you've been up to!

Video 1.

Fitness Evolved Intro Video

Video 2.

Fitness Evolved Testimonials

Video 3.

Success Stories - Heather

Thank you, again, to all who participated.  An especially huge thank you to Raymond Daigle of Daigle Digital for your incredible work in helping us tell our story.  If you need any sort of video work, we highly recommend Raymond!