| Q. Can I really get results training 20 minutes once a week?
A. Yes! The intensity level of exercise is high enough that your body can’t ignore the stimulus. You will discover that your muscles do even more metabolic work per unit of time moving slowly than they do moving fast. Faster movement uses momentum to move the weight, not just muscular strength, thereby unloading the muscles during parts of the repetition cycle, allowing the muscles to rest, while overloading them during other parts.
Q. How safe is this high intensity exercise program?
A. The risk of injury does not come from the intensity of an exercise, but from the inertial forces associated with rapid acceleration, fast movement and abrupt changes in speed or direction. Our Slow Exercise training method is the SAFEST way of strength training….period! By going slow, you virtually eliminate all risk of pulling muscles. It is also better for joints because the force that is normally put on the joint(s) (as in high impact exercises like running, jumping, etc.) is taken away and placed on the muscles surrounding the joint(s); therefore, you build muscle around the joint, which creates more stability for the joint(s) in question.
Q. How often should I workout?
A. There is no magic number, but we have the seen that clients who get the most desirable and most dramatic results are training with us once a week. Realize the more thorough and deeper the inroad of muscle tissue, the more time is required to recover. Recovery time is the time between exercises-(this does not mean that you won’t be able to function for an entire week-that’s silly! You still have to go to work, run errands, etc.) The adaptation that your body makes is demanding and usually takes about a week to occur.
Q. What is the duration of a typical workout session?
A. About 18-20 minutes. We schedule half hour sessions, which allows us extra time to discuss your previous workout, to discuss your nutrition program, to make or change an appointment, or just to chat in the waiting room.
Q. What about my cardiovascular exercise?
A. It’s not necessary to engage in aerobic activities between workouts, unless this is something you like to do. No longer do you have to push yourself to do the extra mile; we’ll push you during your workout! Enjoy your aerobic activities, and understand that they are now for recreation, not exercise. You will get cardiovascular and metabolic stimulation during your strength training sessions. Most of the conditioning effect of exercise is the result of metabolic adaptations by doing mechanical work with muscle, which enhances the ability of muscle tissue to absorb and utilize oxygen.
Q. Will I burn a lot of calories?
A. Exercise by itself (especially “cardio”) does very little to burn calories. However, you can become a 24 hour-a- day fat burning machine simply by adding some muscle! One of the great benefits of strength training is the calories burned as a result of the workout, not the calories burned during the workout. By training to failure, you will add defined muscle to your body, which causes the body to need more calories at rest. A muscular body at rest is constantly burning fat.
Q. How will this type of exercise help me lose fat?
A. For every new pound of muscle you build your metabolism will increase by 50 calories per day. If you increase your lean muscle mass by five pounds, you will burn an extra 250 calories a day, even at rest, which is equivalent to a half a pound of fat per week!
Q. I just want to “tone up.” Will I get big, bulky muscles by working so hard?
A. No. We all have a gene called myostatin that limits how large our muscles can get. Only about one in five million are born without myostatin (those are the people you see in bodybuilding magazines.) The average person will never become bulky or overly muscular no matter how hard he or she tries. Muscle “tone” (tonus) is the residual tension that exists in a muscle that is not actively contracting. Improved muscle tone simply comes from building more muscle and decreasing body fat.
Q. What kind of diet will you recommend for me?
A. We do not put you on any special “diet.” Diets don’t work! We simply teach you how we as humans are supposed to eat. You will learn about the quality of foods we should eat, as well as how to read food labels and much more! As far as calorie manipulation, everyone has their own unique metabolism, and we customize your nutrition program to match you and your needs!
Q. How soon will get results?
A. You can expect to feel results by the third or fourth workout. By feel we mean that you will feel more energetic, you’ll feel firmer to the touch, or you may feel your clothes starting to fit differently. Visibly seeing results is going to vary among individuals and depend heavily on eating habits. But what we can promise you if you train hard and eat right is:
• Increased muscular strength and endurance
• Improved cardiovascular efficiency
• Increased bone mineral density
• Increased metabolic rate
• Discriminate weight loss
• Improved muscle tone and definition
• Contribution to body leanness
• Stress reduction
• Improved self image, self esteem, and self confidence
• Prevention and delay of muscle loss due to aging
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