Podcast 11

Is 20 Minutes Really Long Enough?

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SHOW NOTES

Amy Hudson and Brian Cygan reveal the truth behind the fitness industry and why you don’t need to spend hours at the gym every week in order to stay fit and healthy. Learn the science behind the 20-minute workout and how you can achieve optimal health benefits by doing the right workout, for the right length of time, just twice a week.

• Is 20 minutes long enough to have a great workout? Simply put, absolutely.
• The training at the Exercise Coach is targeting the root cause of usual aging which is the age-related loss of muscle mass, also known as sarcopenia.
• Research shows that sarcopenia is a function of the loss of and weakening of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Loss of fast-twitch muscle fibers directly correlates to a weakening metabolism, weaker bones, less energy, and worse health as we age.
• In order to reverse the usual aging process and restore muscle mass you need to do exercises that are focused on building fast-twitch muscle fibers. This means the exercise needs to be intense enough to recruit those muscle fibers.
• The ideal exercise to target those muscle fibers is science-based strength training.
• When we work our muscles in exactly the right manner to actually use our fast-twitch muscle fibers, it’s intense and therefore needs to be brief. That’s why the workout at The Exercise Coach is only 20 minutes.
• The 20-minute workout is not the bare minimum you can get away with, it’s actually the specific length of time you need to optimally recruit, stimulate, and fatigue the right muscle fibers.
• One researcher looked at a number of studies on exercise programs and concluded that all that was necessary to get the majority of the benefits that people want from a health and fitness standpoint was to perform a strength training workout for about 20 mins no more than twice per week.
• The best workout with the most health benefits is the one that is necessarily brief. The higher the intensity of the workout, the less time you need to spend doing that workout.
• No amount of exercise, in volume or minutes, can bring about the most important results from a fitness endeavor that people are after. The key is to work at the right intensity level and engage the fast-twitch muscle fibers to reverse the aging process and restore optimal health and fitness.

It ends up taking only about 20 minutes to get through all the muscle groups in the body. And so this 20 minutes isn’t just something that we can get away with. It’s actually a format that’s necessary for the production of the best possible results.

Welcome to the strength changes everything podcast. I’m Amy Hudson, exercise coach franchisee here with my co host Brian Sagan, CEO and co founder of the exercise coach. We are tackling your common asked questions. And today we’re answering the question, is 20 minutes really long enough? This question comes up when new people are looking at an exercise program that is a brief, intense strength training program, and they hear that the program is only 20 minutes, twice a week. And sometimes we get asked, is 20 minutes really long enough for a workout considering all of the workout options out there?

So Brian, is 20 minutes really long enough for a great workout?

That is a question that we get often, Amy, and it is a valid question. It’s amazing to me that after being in the industry and innovating in the way that we have over the last 20 years, today, it still sounds revolutionary to people to hear that they can get the results that matter most to them with just two 20 minute workouts per week. So is 20 minutes long enough? Is a 20 minute workout long enough? Absolutely. It is.

And I’m going to walk through some points to get to where I actually answer the question. But we need some background. So first of all, what we’re focused on at the Strength Changes Everything podcast, and at the Exercise Coach is targeting the root cause of usual aging, where we help people feel better, look better and age healthier. And people primarily that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond. And we do this by targeting the age -related loss of muscle.

This is called sarcopenia. And what research shows us is that sarcopenia is exclusively a function of the loss of one kind of muscle fiber. You have two main types of muscle cells in the body, and they’re known as slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers. Muscle loss as we age, is a result of the weakening and atrophy of fast twitch muscle fibers. That’s what all the research correlates with a worsening metabolism, weaker bones, less energy, and worse health is the loss of fast twitch muscle fibers as we age. Now, in order to effectively reverse the usual aging process and restore muscle and help people get in the best shape of their lives, we have to do exercise that targets fast twitch muscle fibers.

And we know that the type of exercise that does this needs to be intense enough to actually recruit and stimulate these muscle fibers. If we just go for a walk in the park, our bodies don’t use fast twitch muscle fibers. These fibers are used when our body encounters a greater demand for the predominant force. greater effort levels are required of our body. This is the only time that our body uses these fast twitch muscle fibers to produce more force, more effort. And so the ideal form of exercise to target these muscle fibers is strength training, science based strength training.

And when we target these fibers, as I’ve said, we reverse the usual aging process, people experience, of course, firmer muscles, but a better metabolism, better blood pressure, better blood sugar, better bone health, and the like. To target these requires intense effort, as I’ve said, adequate muscular loading. And when we do this, when we work our muscles in exactly the right manner to actually use our fast twitch muscle fibers, it’s intense and therefore needs to be a more brief bout of exercise. The type of exercise that is going to work fast twitch muscle fibers in a given muscle group is the type of exercise that you can only really do for about 60 to 90 seconds. And that’s why the workout is so brief because when we perform safe science -based whole effort exercise for a muscle group, we’ve completed our task of recruiting and stimulating fast twitch fibers in about a minute and a half or so.

And then when we do this for all the muscle groups in the body, it ends up taking only about 20 minutes to get through all the muscle groups in the body. And so this 20 minutes isn’t just something that we can get away with. It’s actually a format that’s necessary for the production of the best possible results. Our workouts are necessarily brief so that people can exercise at the intensity level that is required to recruit, stimulate, fatigue, and improve their fast twitch muscle fibers. And if we don’t do this, we’re not going to reverse the aging process. Again, you can walk for as many miles as you want, or do easy workouts in the gym, and not actually effectively work your fast twitch muscle fibers.

It has to be, the work has to be of an adequate intensity level to recruit and stimulate them. And that’s exactly what we do at the exercise coach and research bears this out. Just one example, a researcher named Ralph Carpinelli did a review and he looked at more than 40 studies that looked at the effects of brief workouts like this and he concluded that all that was necessary to get the majority or all of the benefits that people want from a health and fitness standpoint was to perform a strength training type workout for about 20 minutes and no more than twice per week.

Brian, that is so awesome. And the thing that encourages me the most is that what I heard you just say is that the best ideal or optimum type of workout that’s going to stimulate the right type of muscle fibers in our body to regain lost strength, to improve our bone health, to get our stamina better, all of these other benefits is the right intensity type of exercise that has to be necessarily brief. I remember you mentioning in a previous episode that the higher the intensity, of the workout, the lower amount of time you can spend doing that workout. And I’m just encouraged because I think most people want the benefits that exercise has to offer and don’t want to spend hours and hours exercising to get those benefits. So what you’re saying is 20 minutes is a wonderful thing. And in fact, it’s the best way to get the best type of workout done at the right intensity.

Is that what you’re saying?

Yes. the ideal approach to helping people get the results that matter most to them really addresses intensity of effort. That’s the key. No amount of exercise, no volume of exercise, no number of minutes spent exercising, or number of steps taken can actually bring about the most important results from a fitness endeavor that people are after. The key is to work at the right intensity level, to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers, to stimulate the total body benefits that people want to reverse the aging process, to restore optimal health and fitness.

Awesome. Thanks, Brian. If you are a person who is interested in giving a right intensity workout designed exactly for your capabilities, skill levels, and current strength levels. We encourage you to visit an exercise coach studio near you. Visit the exercise coach website at exercisecoach . com and register for two free sessions.

One of our certified coaches will reach out to you and invite you into the studio to show you how we can design an exercise program ideal for you to get the type of workout you need to see the results that matter most to you. We’ll see you next time on the Strength Changes Everything podcast. And remember, strength changes everything.