Physical Activity/Exercise

Lifestyle Component #2

The words Physical Activity and Exercise - just like the words diet and nutrition have been abused. All the misinformation we are bombarded with totally confuses the real biomarkers and methods of proper- physical activity and exercise to achieve our M360 objective of:

Metabolic Fitness for Life

While people may be getting better at rolling a tire around a room, they are certainly not getting anymore metabolically fit and healthy.

Is your Fitness Program FAILING to improve your Health?

The words “Fit” and “Healthy” are often used synonymously in everyday language; however the terms have entirely separate meanings.

Fitness describes the ability to perform a specific exercise task
Health explains a person’s measurable state of well-being, where physiological systems work in harmony (CRP, HDL, BP, Triglycerides, Insulin Sensitivity).

Although we typically view athletes as fit and healthy, they often ARE NOT!

The global term we place on unhealthy athletes is Overly Oxidized and Inflamed- Over-training Syndrome. M360 suggests a few primary drivers contributing to the development of unhealthy fitness programs and people who take part in them are:

Too Much High Intensity Interval Training (Metabolic Acidosis)
Highly processed, high glycemic diet (Simple Carbohydrates)
Poor Fat adaption (FAT Oxidation Capacity)
Poor Aerobic Capacity- (Sub Maximum Utilization of Oxygen)

These factors elicit a sympathetic nervous system response driving systemic reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, inflammation, and a metabolic substrate imbalance:

Activities and Exercises that drive our Energy Metabolism TOWARD Carbohydrate Utilization and AWAY from Fat Oxidation actually enhance chronic conditions- that lead to chronic disease.
These activities and exercise regimes need to be identified and removed from your list of lifestyle components within your 16 hour day.

Ultimately, these symptoms produce unhealthy people. We promote that healthcare practitioners, scientists, and athletes work toward health and alleviate over-training syndrome by:

Lowering training intensity and educating clients to proper clinical exercise to achieve evidence based clinic fitness that is driven by the stimulation of our Fat Metabolism.
Removing processed and/or high glycemic foods from the diet, which together reduce fat oxidation rates.

Our Clinical Baseline Objective is to Become Better Fat Adapted!

M360: Athletes & Fitness Enthusiast should be FIT and HEALTHY.

How does M360 Clinical Fitness lead to improved health outcomes?

Multiple biological mechanisms are responsible for a reduced risk of chronic conditions that lead to chronic disease and premature death.

Quality physical activities and exercise routines have been shown to improve:

Body composition (e.g., through reduced abdominal adiposity and improved weight control)
Reduced triglyceride levels,
Increased high-density lipoprotein [HDL]
Improve glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity
Reduce blood pressure
Improve autonomic tone
Reduce systemic inflammation
Improve coronary blood flow
Enhance endothelial function
Reduce Chronic inflammation, as indicated by elevated circulating levels of inflammatory mediators such as C-reactive protein, has been shown to be strongly associated with most of the chronic diseases whose prevention has benefited from proper moderate exercise.

Recent Studies have shown that exercise training may cause marked reductions in C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Each of these factors may explain directly or indirectly the reduced incidence of chronic disease and premature death among people who engage in proper evidence based exercise routines and physical activities that target- the improvement of specific- measurable human biomarkers noted above, and throughout this book.

We Must Change our Definitions to Better Affect Known Biomarkers

Here is our definition of Exercise and Physical Activity for the purpose of our M360 program:

Definition of Physical Exercise is any bodily activity or routine that enhances or maintains measurable- metabolic health, wellness and human performance.

Exercise and Physical Activities are performed for various reasons including:

Power, Vitality, Function
Endurance stamina
Metabolic Fat Utilization
Aerobic Capacity
Composition alteration Fat Mass/Lean Mass
Just plain enjoyment.

NIH on Physical Activity and Exercise:

Physical activity is any body movement that works your muscles and requires more energy than resting. Walking, running, paddling, cycling, swimming, yoga, and gardening are a few examples of physical activity.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Activity refers to movement that enhances health.

Does your program enhance your health, if so what aspects, which biomarkers are you affecting and to what degree? Do you know?

Optimize Blood Pressure
Optimize Resting HRV
Lower CRP
Increase HDL
Lower Triglyceride Levels
Lower Excess Body Fat Mass
Increase/Maintain Lean Mass
Improve Strength to Weight Ratio
Lower Insulin Resistance
Lower Resting Heart Rate
Improve Fat Metabolism (Fat Adapted)
Lower Oxidative Stress
Lower Inflammation
Improve 1 and 2 minute active Post Max/Sub Max Recovery Rates
Lower overall Stress and Improve Sleep depth/pattern
Improve Respiration Resting and Threshold Breathing
Improve Flexibility/Mobility/Suppleness
Improve Mental Outlook and Motivation to Thrive

Although “physical activity” and “physical exercise” are two terms with some differences in meaning, compared to sedentary lifestyle, active people have:

Lower inflammatory markers
Lower Cardiovascular risk

Our KEY TARGET at M360 is the fact that studies have shown beneficial effects of properly done physical activity and exercise on reducing inflammation and oxidation markers.

Exercise is a type of physical activity that's planned and structured. Specific resistance training, specific aerobic or anaerobic training sessions, such as circuit training, cycling classes are examples of exercise.

Physical activity is good for many parts of your body. Physical activity is one part of a heart-healthy lifestyle. A heart-healthy lifestyle also involves following a heart-healthy eating, aiming for a healthy weight, managing stress, and quitting smoking along with other bad habits and making better Lifestyle Component Choices.

M360 Physical Activities Target “Feel Good” Exercise

We live in a world of extremes. In a nutshell we humans do two things very well:

Nothing
Too Much

The major impetus for starting M360 is a gaping NEED in our society to:

Utilize science and technology to
Better target health and human performance

A lot of what is going on in terms of commercial exercise programs is far too stressful on the human mind and body. The key successful program over the years is the ability to:

LOAD and RECOVER
STIMULATE and IMPROVE

I learned this at the Olympic Training Center from Leslie Shooter. She got me thinking about this very simple statement:

“Tim- it is all about loading and recovering. The trick is How Much to Load,

How often, and getting the proper amount of recovery before you load again”.

Dr. Vigil refers to it as the Super Compensation Model.

Exercise breaks us down from our activity (Load) or metabolic state of Catabolism
Recovery (Rest) builds us back up, in a metabolic state of Anabolism to a point slightly above where we started before previous training.

Done correctly proper training is a stair like progress into improved human performance at all levels. Done incorrectly as most programs and you destroy rather than stimulate the very metabolic process we seek to improve for long term health and sustainable performance.

Technology allows us to pinpoint the cornerstones of any physical activity:

Intensity
Duration
Frequency

Physical Activities should be as vigilant about:

Releasing, relaxing and recovering (Parasympathetic Activation), as they are about activating and recruiting muscle contraction (Sympathetic Activation).

Tim Barnes and Staff

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