In the August/September issue of Healthy Times, my article focused on overcoming obstacles and learning to stay centered on one’s goals despite problematic situations. This follow-up will now focus on specifics of training to achieve those goals.

There are many misconceptions about how and why muscles grow and body fat is lost. Secondary to this, I will discuss three areas of fitness and then reflect on how all three areas (aerobic, cardiovascular, and muscular training) should work in conjunction to promote your desired body composition change.

Aerobic training literally means training where the cells have adequate oxygen. Whether exercise is “aerobic” or not may vary from one individual to another. Someone in good physical shape will generally be able to do more strenuous activity and remain aerobic, whereas someone in poor shape may have a hard time staying aerobic doing relatively little exercise. This being the case, “aerobics” class is generally “anaerobic” for most of the participants!

Why this is important — from a metabolic standpoint, fat can only be burned in an aerobic environment. So, if your goal is to burn fat, you must not cross into the “anaerobic” area where glucose is the fuel burned. So what is an aerobic exercise? Walking (not out-of-breath) is one of the best! Also, as you become fit, your “aerobic threshold” will shift allowing you to stay aerobic with more strenuous exercise.

One of the best gauges to assess if you are aerobic is you should be able to easily have a conversation with someone while exercising. If you get out-of-breath, your body goes into “oxygen debt” and will begin using available glucose as the fuel source. The lesson here is as follows: to lose fat, go aerobic. Future articles will discuss dietary strategies to maximize aerobic fat-burning potential.

Cardiovascular (CV) training literally means training to the extent that one’s goal is to improve or promote an increase in the cardiovascular (heart and vascular system) systems adaptability to stress as well as improve pulmonary function. To effectively accomplish this, one must go beyond aerobic training and extend their activity into the anaerobic area. This is usually done via fast-walking, jogging, running, cross-training or other desired activity that increases the heart rate above the aerobic threshold.

This is important as good CV function reduces one’s risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, heart attack, aneurysms and other diseases that are linked to lifestyle choices. One should be “out-of-breath” for this area of fitness. From a body-composition standpoint, good cardiovascular function promotes increased blood flow to the muscles, allows for maximal fat-oxidation when in aerobic situations (such as when at work at a desk) and has been linked to decreased states of depression allowing for an improved self-image!

Finally, muscular training involves utilizing certain skeletal muscles through contraction and extension to promote a desired muscle tone or increase in size of the given muscle. This area can get very complex and detailed. So as not to get too bogged down, I will try to stay basic for this article.

Muscular training is anaerobic in nature, as is cardiovascular training, and therefore should be done only after eating adequate carbohydrate amounts to fill glycogen stores (reserve of energy). To try to accomplish cardiovascular training or muscular training without adequate carbohydrate reserves is to force the body to make glucose, which it will do from protein in your muscles causing decreased muscle mass. This is why I stated not to cross into the anaerobic arena while doing aerobic exercise.

Muscular training, as stated, is anaerobic while training; however—and this is key—increasing one’s muscle mass or simply toning existing muscles increases fat oxidation (burning) while you are aerobic!! What this means is that having a larger muscle mass is equivalent to adding more engine to a race car!! It increases your metabolic rate, allows you to liberalize your diet and increase your total calories as well as burn a higher percentage of fat while doing nothing (this includes sleeping!).

Have you ever wondered why more muscular people can eat all-day-long and not get fat? The answer is muscle. Therefore; tying some of these concepts together, it follows that losing fat is not all about calorie restriction. It involves increasing ones ability to burn fat (muscle mass) which increases one’s metabolic rate which, in many cases, can allow you to increase your calories and still lose weight!! Personally, I eat 5000-6000 calories per day and my body fat percent stays at 7-8%!

Now, to tie all these concepts together; fitness is a complex web of ideas and strategies, but can be simplified as follows:
• Do aerobic training at least 2-3 times per week preferably in the morning prior to eating or directly after your muscular workout (the rationale will be explained in my next article)
• Do cardiovascular training 2-3 times per week after adequate carbohydrate consumption and after allowance for food digestion (adequate carbohydrate is generally 50-60 grams for most women and around 100 grams for most men) (this will be explained in my next article)
• Do muscular workouts of each body part [chest, back, shoulders (deltoids), biceps, triceps, trapezius (traps), abdominals, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves] once a week by dividing up muscles into groups and training 3-5 times per week (This can be very complex and will be dealt with in my next article)
• Training can be done at home—the gym is not necessary, though desirable
• Follow previously spoken on dietary strategies
• ALWAYS GET YOUR PHYSICIAN’S APPROVAL PRIOR TO STARTING ANY FITNESS REGIMEN!!!
Remember, fitness is desirable from an aesthetic and health standpoint and does not occur in a vacuum. Effort is required, but the end result will always be worth the effort. Best wishes in your endeavors!

Kevin Andrews is a Registered Dietitian and amateur bodybuilder. He can be reached on the web at Dietitianandfitness.com, or by phone: (951) 326-0959.