Exercise Your Mind to Change Your Body

I have been motivating and educating people on exercise and fitness for almost twenty years. I enjoy teaching people the truth concerning how their body works -- either for or against them -- depending on how they exercise.

I believe it's best to first exercise your mind before you exercise your body. Comedian Emo Phillips once said, "I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this." But seriously, it is your brain that tells you what to do. So if you expect your brain to instruct you accurately, it must receive accurate information.

Let's begin this session of mind-exercise with the following statement of fact: As it relates to cardiovascular fitness -- especially building a strong heart and lungs -- aerobics is bad science!

Yes, you read that correctly. If your goal with exercise is cardiovascular conditioning to prevent heart disease, a heart attack and to build a strong heart and lungs -- here is a much more effective method of exercise than aerobics.

Most people don't think about the fact that their heart is a muscle. Here's a fact missed by just about everyone. To keep your heart beating longer and stronger, long duration endurance training is the last thing that it needs. You will do much more for your heart by exercising in brief spurts.
Less is more
Conventional wisdom says that your heart needs endurance training to remain healthy. But heart attacks aren't caused by a lack of endurance. Heart attacks typically occur at rest or at periods of very high cardiac output. Often there is a sudden increase in demand. A person lifts a heavy object, receives an unexpected emotional blow, etc. The sudden demand for cardiac output exceeds that heart's capacity to adapt.