Podcast 39

Running Isn’t the Only Way To Train Your Heart and Lungs

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SHOW NOTES

Just starting to build strength and work on those type two muscle fibers will start to improve blood sugar, will lead to a better ability for your body to actually lose weight and get healthy, even if at first you’re just not quite ready to overhaul your nutrition.

Welcome to the Strength Changes Everything podcast. I’m Amy Hudson, along with my co -host, Brian Sagan, CEO and co -founder of The Exercise Coach. The Strength Changes Everything podcast is designed to bring you information on living a strong and healthy lifestyle.

Hey, Brian, how are you?

Doing well, Amy.

Good.

And we were actually just chatting before we hopped on to record here about a recent conversation that you had with somebody who you were introducing to the exercise coach for the first time. And you had a couple of takeaways from this conversation, a couple of questions this individual asked you the first time he was at a studio about what we do at the exercise coach. And you had a few takeaways from that conversation that you thought might help our listeners and help other people who may have the same kinds of questions. And so we’d love to hear about that conversation for our listeners. Let’s hear what you had to say about that.

Yeah, sure. So I had the opportunity to introduce a friend the other day to what we do at The Exercise Coach. His name’s John and John’s a pretty avid runner. and has a background in biochemistry. And it’s just a pretty thoughtful guy. He’s a thinker.

And so going into the introduction, I thought this could be a pretty interesting one and thought he might have some good questions.

And he did.

He asked a couple questions that I was able to respond to. And just while I was Responding to him and hearing myself talk, I thought, goodness, I wish I was recording this because this actually makes sense. It doesn’t always make sense, but in this case, it felt like just some dots were connected in response to the questions that he was asking. And so, you know, it started. with just, as it often does, a set on the leg press. I took John through some setup, established just the right range of motion for him, did some strength testing.

And based on that testing, we jumped into an exercise set that just was perfectly personalized for him. And he got to work in a really challenging and unique manner that surprised him. you know, as an avid runner to find himself working really hard and his muscles burning and to be huffing and puffing, you know, within a minute and 10 or a minute and 20 seconds was just, you could just see it in his face. This was just really interesting to him and he didn’t quite understand it. And so one of the first questions he asked me when he got done was simply, why am I breathing so hard? I mean, first of all, why would he ask that question?

Why am I why am I breathing so hard? It obviously means he didn’t expect to be breathing hard. He didn’t expect to feel his heart pumping in his chest doing this strength training exercise. Right. He’s coming to do some some strength training, but he’s a runner. He’s used to doing things that get his heart rate up.

And now a minute into this workout, his heart’s beating at a high rate and he’s breathing hard. And so, yeah, I responded and I said, well, John, The most straightforward answer I have is that your heart and your lungs pumps that respond really to the demands being placed on your muscles at any given moment. And we just placed a very high demand on your muscles and therefore your heart and lungs had to increase their output to serve those working muscles. And I know it’s likely that you really connect increased heart rate and respiratory rate with something you might call aerobic type exercise. But what’s interesting, John, and I can explain this, I think it’ll make sense to you given your background, is that in relative terms, the most aerobic thing you can do is actually sit there and do nothing.

And what I mean by that is this, there’s these three energy producing systems in the body, and one is called the aerobic, oxidative system. It’s called that because it uses aerobic metabolism, meaning with oxygen, to produce energy. And then there’s these two others. One is called the anaerobic glycolytic system, and the other is called the ATP or phosphagen system. And all three of these systems are always producing the energy that we need to do different tasks at all times. But when we sit and we’re not doing much, nearly 100 % of the energy that’s produced To accomplish that is produced by our aerobic metabolism.

And then when we get up and we start to do something that’s a little bit more demanding, that’s when our heart rate increases. But that increase in heart rate actually happened when energy production, relatively speaking, shifted from being predominantly aerobic to a little bit more anaerobic, meaning that we’re actually burning a different kind of energy source. And that energy source is actually the storage form of sugar or glucose, which is known as glycogen. And that’s actually stored in our muscles. And we burn that when our muscles encounter a demand that’s just a little bit greater than sitting around. And so to me, it just makes sense and is logical that when we do strength training,

we’re going to drive that cardiovascular response significantly because we’re placing the type of demand on the muscles that requires a lot of effort and in particular, the engagement of a certain kind of muscle fiber type, which is the fiber type that we use when our muscles have to burn glycogen to produce more force, more energy, more quickly. And when we are encountering a demand like that, we’re also using more muscle tissue. And so altogether, this just drives up our cardiovascular response. But it’s a little bit counterintuitive for someone who’s used to needing to go out for a long time to get that heart rate up eventually through lower intensity, longer duration exercise.

Yeah, that’s really awesome. And we actually describe this phenomena when we’re talking with clients for the first time experiencing this, the stimulus that they receive in a very brief amount of time using our amazing exercise technology within our studios is unlike what most people have ever experienced before. And we actually coined a term, the light bulb moment. There is an awesome video of a franchise owner who is describing the light bulb moment that he had. and that other people have as he introduces people to this type of workout, that it’s this realization that, oh my goodness, I can actually receive and achieve more in far less time for my body, giving my muscles the stimulus that really will trigger a lot of different changes and adaptations in a very brief amount of time. And it is really surprising and exciting the first time you realize that.

So that is what that reminds me of when you talk about story.

Yeah, definitely. I saw the light bulbs going off that day. And then John asked another question and he said, well, will this help diabetes? And I think he was starting to make a connection in his mind because I was talking about burning glycogen, burning the storage form of sugar. So it was a really good connection. And of course, my response was yes, absolutely.

This is the best type of exercise that you can possibly do for diabetes, which is so important because out -of -control blood sugar is what actually leads to out -of -control inflammation throughout your entire body, which is at the root of all the diseases of aging, from Alzheimer’s to stroke to heart disease, you know, etc. And so what we do at The Exercise Coach is a great solution for out -of -control blood sugar because out -of -control blood sugar is really the result of what’s known as insulin resistance. As we age and as we lose muscle, our body becomes resistant to the effects of the hormone insulin. Insulin is a storage hormone. It signals to actually remove glucose from the bloodstream and store it. And glucose is stored, as I said before, in the muscles, in the liver.

I mean, it’s stored as glycogen. And When our muscles over time, as we age, especially after the age of 40, as we age and our muscles become weaker and we lose strength, they also lose their sensitivity to insulin. And that means that our bodies have to produce more insulin to demand that our muscles respond and sort of allow in the glucose that we have to get out of our bloodstream because that’s very toxic. You know, we eat food and our blood sugar increases and elevated blood sugar can become very, very toxic. It becomes deadly, but it doesn’t because our bodies secrete insulin from our pancreas and that signals to get that sugar out of the bloodstream and stored in the tissues that it’s stored in.

But when our muscles don’t work well because they’ve weakened and atrophied with age, our bodies have to produce so much more insulin to make our muscles work to let that sugar in and be stored. But those elevated insulin levels are actually really unhealthy. Elevated insulin interacts with some other chemicals in the body to just fan the flames of systemic inflammation. and to cause weight gain and to make it really hard to lose weight. So what we do at The Exercise Coach actually targets the type of muscle tissue that store sugar as glycogen. And so we reverse that insulin resistance.

We renovate our muscles and their ability to actually store glucose in the form of glycogen, and that lowers insulin levels. And so very quickly, it puts our body in a much better metabolic state. and makes it much easier to lose weight and leads to really transformed health very quickly. Stronger muscles equals stronger health. And the particular kind of muscle tissue that is the muscle tissue that stores sugar, again, is the type 2 muscle fibers. And so this is where the connection comes in.

Those type 2 muscle fibers are only used when we encounter demands that are higher, when we have to create significant amounts of force with our muscles. So going for a walk in the park doesn’t do it. Even going jogging isn’t really going to work our type two muscle fibers in the best way possible to cause them to grow stronger. and to renovate them such that they actually store sugar better, thereby reducing our insulin levels, by improving our insulin sensitivity. And these type 2 muscle fibers are the very muscles that we’re targeting with strength training and what we do at the exercise coach.

So now again, here’s the connection, right? The reason that this happens, that our muscles get better at storing sugar, is because that’s what they’re burning, the stored form of sugar, to perform the intense type of activity that we’re performing at the exercise coach. They’re using the anaerobic glycolytic energy producing system. So it’s the same fibers that were the reason that John was asking, why am I breathing so hard? You know, when I’m doing the leg press, you’re breathing so hard because we’re performing quality of work, meaning work of a demanding enough nature to require a lot of energy production in a short amount of time. Your aerobic energy producing system can’t keep up.

When you’re just sitting there reading the book, your aerobic energy producing system can produce the energy needed for you to hold the book and think and do all the things you need to do. But when we start to work our muscles harder, it can’t keep up. It can’t produce energy fast enough by just burning oxygen. And so it shifts over to burning glycogen to fuel those big strong type two Muscle fibers instead of just the type one muscle fibers, those type two muscle fibers to produce that force and get the job done. But when we do that, we’re using a lot more muscle tissue.

We’re using a ton of muscle tissue in an intense fashion. And so that type of work needs the heart and lungs to actually increase their output to support everything that’s happening metabolically. So when that happens, when in a short period of time, Through intense exertion, you feel like you’re breathing hard and your heart rate’s increased. It’s a great sign that we’re doing the kind of work needed to actually renovate those type two muscle fibers, which are what you’ve been losing over time, and improve insulin sensitivity and improve your metabolic health and your ability to lose weight.

That is a great description. We actually have a whole episode about this where you describe this in great detail. We do have how strength training helps to prevent reverse type 2 diabetes episode. I highly recommend you go back and listen to that one. And then you actually described insulin in great detail too. How it works in our muscle quality matters more than movement quantity episode.

So if you are a type 2 diabetic or if you’re looking at that as something that you’re possibly at risk for, As Brian just described, I mean, Brian, you spelled it right out clearly is that strength training exercise and obviously a whole food approach to nutrition, a sensible approach to healthy nutrition, which is something we also preach at The Exercise Coach, are the really best two things you could possibly do to help ward that off and honestly, even possibly reverse it.

Yeah. And those two things produce results independent of each other. And when put together, it’s just a synergistic effect. 1 plus 1 equals more than 2 when you put together a formula. strength training with healthy whole food nutrition. But they do produce the types of results we want just even independent of each other.

And I think that’s really good news because I know there’s a lot of people that when they hear about changing their exercise habits and changing their eating habits at the same time, that can feel overwhelming. But we see people get incredible results. We just got a testimonial here yesterday from someone at the exercise coach, who just radically changed his A1C in a matter of just a couple months. And for our listeners, that’s just the best measure of how your body is metabolizing sugar. And there’s certain levels at which your A1C really makes you either pre -diabetic or diabetic. And then of course, under a certain level, you’re neither one of those.

And this client went from being categorized as diabetic, type 2 diabetic, to not being diabetic within just a couple months through this combination. It’s really the combination that can bring about such a powerful result like that of effective strength training with whole food nutrition. But My point really is just starting the exercise, just starting to build strength and work on those type two muscle fibers will start to improve blood sugar, will lead to a better ability for your body to actually lose weight and get healthy. Even if at first you’re, you’re just not quite ready to overhaul your nutrition.

That sometimes comes a few weeks down the road or even a few months down the road for some people.

And that’s okay.

Sure. Well, I’ll bet this person was pretty jazzed after that conversation with you, huh? Yeah, he was, he’s pretty excited and he’s been back now for several workouts and he just kind of kind of holds his head and just says, I can’t believe it again for someone who’s spent. a lot of time running, ends up still not being in an optimal condition, right? For all that time spent running, there’s just missing muscle mass, you know?

And I think sometimes a runner really can feel that when they get into the exercise coach and start to do some strength training, they start to feel right away, they get in touch with there’s There’s some more that my body should be able to do, you know, than, than it is able to do right now, you know, but they love exerting and they love exercise. So they, they do really well and yeah, he’s doing great and making progress. That’s awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that story. It really is inspiring. The best thing about this and something we always say is that at The Exercise Coach, we can work with anyone from the person who hasn’t been to the gym in years to a very avid exerciser and take them to the next level.

And this is exactly what this individual will experience because everything is tailored to specifically your body, exactly what you can do every second of every exercise. You are just able to get the most out of every single second you’re in there with your coach. And so this is what we love to see. And we love to hear these amazing stories from people who are just getting started and people who have been with us a little while or even 10 years.

Some of our clients have been there.

Appreciate you sharing that with us, Brian. My pleasure. All right. Well, join us next time on the Strength Changes Everything podcast. If you are interested in checking out an Exercise Coach Studio new you, visit exercisecoach . com and register for two free sessions.

We will see you next time. And remember, strength changes everything.