Efficient exercise

Exercise: up to 75 minutes of HIIT per week (Vigorous exercise that reaches 75% to
80% of maximum heart rate improves VO2 max, cardiorespiratory fitness, mitochondrial
biogenesis, and reduces cancer risks through mechanical blood flow forces) + unlimited
moderate-intensity activities (the more the better, like walking, gardening, swimming...)
+ 40 minutes of strength training / week (e.g. 20 min x 2) will maximize your health
benefits without backfiring.

1) Move around!

If you could only do one exercise, make it "moving around"!

Sitting or standing for a long time is terrible for health. If you sit from 8-12 and 1-5, and
exercise from 5-7, you will be much better off if you move your whole body every 15 min
throughout the day!
Set up a timer. Build a stand-up desk, or a desk on a treadmill.

If you’re sedentary and begin to exercise, the more you exercise the less likely you will
die from all cause mortality.
Every 1,000 steps you get on average per day reduces your mortality by 10% to 15%.
Benefits plateau around 12,000 steps (6 miles) a day. So you can aim for 10,000 steps.
Stand up & stretch every 10 min of sitting. "standing desk". Get active.

If you moderately exercise (you're slightly winded but can still carry on a conversation),
the more you exercise the healthier you get. And you never have to worry about
exercising too much. e.g. You can moderately exercise 8 hours / day!
Moderate exercise improves all-cause survival better than vigorous exercise — about
two times better.
e.g. gardening, housework, walking, recreational bike riding, dance, yoga, nonintense
swimming, pickleball, jump rope, pingpong, basketball, tennis, soccer, bicycle, climb
stairs fast. (running on streets put lots of stress on knees/legs. Try softer ground.)

Choose "social exercise" over solo exercise: e.g. playing a game of pickleball with
friends. Data showed that playing tennis conferred 9.5 years of extra life expectancy
while weightlifting and running on a treadmill on your own only conferred 1.5 years of
additional life expectancy compared to sedentary life. Social interaction + exercise!

Include Strength training as it reduces all-cause mortality. 20 min strength training x 3

times per week, or 30 minutes of strength training x 2 times per week.
Too much Strength training Is Worse Than Doing Nothing at All.
e.g. use weights that I can do 10 reps with.
This may not apply to KAATSU cycling BFR.
Vigorous exercise (e.g. HIIT or very long or strenuous exercise): 5 to 75 minutes per
week reduced the risk of all-cause mortality and other diseases in a dose-dependent
manner, but no further benefits beyond 75 minutes.
If you go from sedentary to exercise moderately, you have less atrial fibrillation. But if
you're doing full distance triathlons when you're over age 40 or 45, your risk of atrial
fibrillation increases by 500% to 800%.

Once you get into your mid-40s and 50s, exercise should be fun and stress-reducing,
not competitive.

2) Include 6 different types of exercise on different days of the week.

A: strength/resistance training
e.g. with your own body weight (e.g. push up), resistance bands, free weights or
machines.

Depending on the speed,

high-intensity super-slow weight training: 10 seconds up + 10 seconds
down
super super slow: 1.5 rep exercise done with the same weight. 30
seconds down 30 seconds up and 30 seconds down for a total of 90 seconds for the
exercise. ~10 exercises per week.
traditional speed is 4 seconds up + 4 seconds down.
e.g. print out a worksheet to list all muscles with 2 different sets of exercises for
each muscle. first round do 1 set for all muscles; 2nd round perform the 2nd set.

An effective method for building muscles and making vasculature elastic is

"blood flow restriction training" using KAATSU cycling (not the conventional BFR, which
uses static pressure from elastic or inflatatable bands, and offers far fewer benefits
compared to KAATSU). It tricks your body into believing that it is moving far heavier
weights than you’re actually using, and as a result, generates many powerful
compensatory metabolic responses. Low weight, high reps, for safety <15 min on arms,
<20 min on legs. Dr. Mercola said don't waste time or money on inexpensive bands at
Amazon and just spend thousands of $ on the "official" brand. the bands should not be
too loose or too tight as you definitely must avoid cutting off the arterial supply to your
muscles (skin color can be pink/red, but not white/bluish.) have the bands tight enough
that you cannot fit two fingers under the band, but loose enough that you CAN squeeze
one finger under the band. I will not try this first.

B: nitric oxide dump, or high intensity interval training (HIIT) (peak fitness
exercise (Anaerobic))
You can even combine this with "power plate".
Sauna may provide additional benefits to cardiovascular system.
Improve breathing. Inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) can lower blood
pressure, improve cardiovascular health and boost cognitive and physical performance
without taking more than five minutes each day. You breathe through a handheld
device-- an inspiratory muscle trainer--which restricts airflow so you have to breathe
harder; this strengthens your respiratory muscles.
"Controlled, slow breathing appears to be an effective means of maximizing HRV [heart
rate variability] and preserving autonomic function, both of which have been associated
with decreased mortality in pathological states and longevity in the general population.”
e.g. 6 breaths/minute.

C: stretching, balance
Improve balance: e.g. stand on one leg for 10 seconds. Change to the other leg. Start
by doing this with a friend nearby or in a corner so you can catch yourself if you fall. As
you get better, you can do this while performing certain daily activities, like standing in
line, checking your cellphone. (There are many other ways of practicing balance, just
see what gymnasts do.)
active isolated stretching (AIS)
http://www.stretchingusa.com/
warm up muscles first by low intensity aerobic movement and then stretch all major
joints! Stretch itself held for 10-30 sec.

D: core exercises
Pilates
yoga (doing yoga outdoors on grass or sand for added "grounding" benefits)
SLOW, CONTROLLED movements

Exercise all muscles, and move in all directions

3) When you start exercising:

Know you're capable.
Find support from other people.
Schedule for exercise.
Set up a "hot trigger" like an alarm clock.

Variety! (prevents injury, bordom, plateau)

Have fun! Play!

4) Listen to your body! Do what you can, do not force it, to prevent injury. Stop when
you feel any pain.

5) Start at your CURRENT level, and gradually increase intensity, duration and
frequency, until you exercise for 45-60 min/day * 7 days/week. (Note: each workout
session should not exceed 45-60 min. Perform different exercises on different days.)
 For someone who's not exercised for a long time, resume slowly & gradually.
Start by walking for 1 minute. Progress to longer walking. Then fast walking. Next mix in
short intervals of jogging. Extend it to longer jogging mixed with short walking breaks.
Eventually run. And gradually run for longer (e.g. able to run for 40 min- 1 hr) and faster.
Run on hills to increase stability.

e.g.
each workout starts with warm up and ends in cool down.
Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun
stretch HIIT strength aerobic core HIIT
strength
walk walk walk walk walk walk walk
sit less sit less sit less sit less sit less sit less sit
less
core stretch

6) Once your body has become adapted to the current exercise routine, it will stop
giving you enormous benefits. Therefore, challenge your muscles by varying the
exercise / movement, increasing the speed or intensity or duration, progressing from
basic to advanced levels...
Exercise is a stimulus (stress/threat) applied to your body to produce a
physiological adaptation. Your body is dynamic and keeps changing; it tends to quickly
adapting to a stimulus.

7) Proper exercise strength will raise your heart rate, and make you unable to talk
comfortably with other people. (e.g. If you have no difficulty walking, walking alone will
not give you max benefits. Try fast walking or fast running.)

8) Try to exercise outdoors! People tend to feel much better after working out outdoors
than indoors, as long as you keep safe.

9) Work out while fasting if you can, for max benefits.

7pm-11am (some people suggest skipping dinner instead of breakfast for 16 hr
fasting) intermittent fasting calls for you to exercise in late morning, and fasting (or
eating only light raw foods, vegetable juice, and/or whey protein, or eggs) until 30
minutes after your workout.
Rationale: deplete your glycogen stores and signal your body that it's under
energy deficit. To grant maximum depletion of energy, you have to apply both nutritional
and physical stress.
Avoid any high glycemic pre-workout meals loaded with simple carbs.
(Note: exercising during fasting is not for everyone. Take into account multiple factors
like age, when you last ate, pregnancy, taking medications, medical history, level of
fitness, and the type of workout.)
 If you have trouble exercising on an empty stomach, you can include 20 grams of
a fast-assimilating protein like a high-quality whey protein concentrate 30 minutes
before your workout.

10) Be sure to EAT after exercise

If you've already eaten within 2 hrs before exercise you don't really need to eat again
after your workout.
However, you can refuel yourself within 20-40 minutes following exercise if you:
A) Have not eaten anything before your workout and you have depleted energy (such
as an early morning hard session before breakfast) and/or
B) You will work out again within the next 8 hours.
C) You need to pack on muscle as fast as possible.

A) Following strength/resistance training, eat a fast assimilating protein 15-30

minutes after an intense session.
(so you repair muscles & grow them. e.g. a smoothie/shake containing whey
protein which is easy to digest, when most blood is at your muscles.)

B) After a cardiovascular workout, wait for 30-45 minutes, and then consume a
high-quality source of protein (whole food) and vegetable-type carbohydrate. e.g.
spinach salad and chicken. No sugar/fructose/sports drinks!

There is only a 2-hour window after exercise that allows your body to fully use
the proteins you ingest for optimizing muscle repair and growth.

If you sweat a lot then replenish water and electrolytes.

11) Breathe through your nose only (major health benefits), not your mouth (harms
health).
Buteyko Breathing method
When to breathe in: more difficult movements

12) Proper form is key to safety and max benefits. Quality is more important than
quantity.

13) "Warm up"->exercise->"cool down"

Start every workout with stretching and warming up! (just enough to sweat/increase
body temperature by 1-2 degrees; takes ~4 min. End each workout with a cool down.

Recommended stretching routine:

in order of
Squat
Split Squat
Toe Touches
Waiter's Bow
 Side Bends
Trunk Twists
Arms Vertical
Arms Vertical Alternating
Arms Horizontal
PNF Pattern
Arm Circles
Wrist Flexion/Extension
Wrist Circles
Shoulder Shrugs
Head Tilt
Head Rotation

Start slow and shallow and gradually increase speed and range with each repetition.
All you need is 5-10 reps per movement.

(common mistake: do aerobics prior to weight training.)

Simply perform the exercise that you wish to train �C pyramid the load upwards until
you reach your working weight and keep the reps below 6 (between 1-5 repetitions
works best.)

It is better to do more sets at low repetitions than low sets at high reps during a warm-
up!

14) Allow FULL recovery following high intensity exercises.

The time it takes each person to recover varies.
As intensity increases, you're exerting more stress on your body, hence you need more
time to recover. Therefore, the frequency of such high intensity exercise has to be
diminished.
Older, or less fit people may also need longer recovery times.

When you fully recover, you will become more fit (e.g. able to lift a little more weight
than last workout). Listen to your body!

As a general guideline, beginners may need 2 days to recover from a HIIT "peak
fitness" training.
Many people need 4-5 days to recover from a high intensity super slow strength training
(some need 10 days).

15) how to perform "Peak Fitness" exercise

step 1: warm up & stretch for 3 min.

step 2: For cardio, exercise as hard and fast as you can, in order to raise your heart rate
up to your anaerobic threshold (training zone) for 30 seconds. Then recover by moving
slowly & at a lower resistance for 90 seconds. (As a general guideline, you can
calculate your anaerobic threshold by subtracting your age from 220. Don't worry too
much about heart rate. Your feelings are more important & accurate.)
Step 3: Repeat step 2 for 7 more times (for a total of 8 repetitions).
Step 4: Cool down for 2 min (cut down intensity by 50-80%).
Total duration: ~20 min.

You can turn virtually any exercise into a high intensity exercise, even weight training.

The intensity varies with each person. For beginners who've never exercised, it
may be fast walking alternating with slow walking and do just 1 rep. Gradually build it up
to 8 reps.
You can use any equipment, e.g. recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine.
You can also use no equipment at all, e.g. sprinting on a wet sandy beach
barefoot with minimal clothing (for Vitamin D). Note: you have to stretch properly before
sprinting.
(see videos on peak fitness with a recumbent bicycle and sand sprinting.)

Whatever activity you choose, by the end of your 30 second period you need to reach
these markers:
It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt
You will start to sweat profusely. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition
unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
Your body temperature will rise
Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn"
You can't go on for even a few seconds

Usually, you need >=2 days of recovery time following HIIT. So HIIT should not be
performed more than 3 times/week for beginners. As intensity increases, you should
decrease to twice/once per week.
(e.g. as a weak beginner, you can exercise 3 times a week and not put much stress on
your system. But once your strength and endurance improves, each exercise session is
placing an increasingly greater amount of stress on your body. So you should reduce it
to once/twice a week.)

16) How to perform high intensity Super-Slow Strength Training

By aggressively working your muscle to fatigue, you can stimulate the muscular
adaptation that will improve the metabolic capability of the muscle and cause it to grow.
(Usually only the fast-twitch muscle fibers are recruited for normal weight training, but
as you do high intensity super slow strength training, you will rapidly and deeply fatigue
all muscles by recruiting intermediate and slow twitch fibers as well so they grow
stronger.)
These exercises can be done using your own body weight (e.g. push up),
resistance bands, free weights or machines. When you use a quality machine, you can
focus more on the effort, as opposed on the movement; if you use free weights, you
need to be more experienced.
 high-intensity super-slow training works for a wide range of movements like:
basic compound movements:
Pull-down (or alternatively chin-up)
Chest press
Compound row (A pulling motion in the horizontal plane)
Overhead press
Leg press

common movements like:

squat, push-up, plank, crunch, pull-up
If it's too hard to spend 10 seconds for each direction of movement, spend 4 seconds.

How to perform super-slow, controlled movements:

using weight lifting as an example.
(For traditional speed of 4 seconds up + 4 seconds down, pick a weight so that
you can finish 8-12 reps before getting totally exhausted.)
For 10 seconds up + 10 seconds down, pick a weight so that you can finish 4-8
reps before getting totally exhausted.
Begin by lifting the weight as slowly and gradually as you can. The first inch should
take ~3 seconds; continue to finish the full movement (reach desired height) in another
7 seconds (totalling 10 seconds. (When pushing, stop about 10-15 degrees before your
limb is fully straightened; smoothly reverse direction)
Slowly lower the weight back down, again spending 10 seconds.
Immediately start the next rep without any pause (no time for your muscles to
rest). (Beginners may spend 10-15 seconds to rest between reps.)
Repeat until exhaustion. (Once you reach exhaustion, instead of really moving
the weight, keep trying to produce the movement for another 5-7 seconds. If you're
using the appropriate amount of weight or resistance, you'll be able to perform 4-8
repetitions.)

Without any rest, immediately switch to the next exercise for the next target
muscle group, and repeat the above steps.
Duration of each workout session: 12-15 min
Wait for 2 days before exercising the same muscle groups again (They need >=2
days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.)

Make sure you fully recover between workouts.

17) Squat

Squats, when done right, are highly beneficial.

Basic squat:
Warm up
 stretch
Stand with your feet just over shoulder width apart
Keep your back in a neutral position, and keep your knees centered over your feet
Slowly bend your knees, hips and ankles, lowering until you reach a 90-degree
angle
Return to starting position -- repeat 15-20 times, for 2-3 sets for beginners (do this
two or three times a week)
Breathe in as you lower, breathe out as you return to starting position

Apply high-intensity super-slow technique to squats.

Variations of squat
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/12/20/6-squat-exercises.aspx

To grow your legs while giving them a more toned look, specifically, Voxxi shared four
squat variations from physiologist Brad Schoenfeld, who created the Love Your Legs
workout. Each exercise is designed for two to three sets of 15-20 repetitions.

Split squat: Place your left foot on a chair positioned behind you, hands on hips.
Squat until your right knee reaches 90 degrees. Switch legs. Add dumbbells for more
challenge.
Sissy squat: Using a chair for stability, stand with feet hip-width apart and rise onto
your toes. Simultaneously bend your knees and lean your torso back until your knees
reach 90 degrees. Maintain a straight line between knees and shoulders.
Pistol squat: With feet hip-width apart, lift your right foot a few inches off the ground,
toes pointed up. Squat until your left knee reaches 90 degrees, keeping your right heel
off the ground.
Goblet squat: Stand with feet farther than shoulder-width apart, turning your toes out.
With your hands, hold a dumbbell near your chest (like a goblet), keeping elbows out to
the sides. Squat until your knees reach 90 degrees. Jump slightly as you rise.

Over time, consider performing your squats (one or two-leg) on an unstable surface
such as a BOSU ball, to further increase the difficulty and complexity of the exercise.
For example, try triple squats using a BOSU. With the platform side down, stand to the
side of the BOSU with your right foot on top. Squat down, then step onto the dome with
your left foot and lower into another squat. Next, step to the opposite side of the BOSU
and squat. Repeat the sequence for about a minute. Or, try adding hand weights.

18) Basic equipment for exercise:

the weights, bands, pull-up bar and mat