My mother and father told me the other day that they bought new toning shoes made by Sketchers. I've heard about these shoes and of course, was very skeptical about these type of shoes. There are always companies that come out with the lastest and greatest exercise gimmick that make claims to magically get you in shape and lose weight. Of course these are marketing tools to get the consumer, you, to purchase their products. Since both my parents bought in to this gimmick, I decided to look around and find out some facts on these latest and greatest shoes. The following is an article based off a study by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) I got from PR Newswire. So fyi, here is the article... --- ACE Research Study Finds Toning Shoes Fail to Deliver on Fitness Claims... Independent Study by Fitness Industry Leader, in Conjunction with University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Concludes Few Fitness Benefits from Toning Shoes SAN DIEGO, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Council on Exercise (ACE), America's leading authority on fitness and the largest non-profit fitness certification, education and training organization in the world, today released the findings from an independent research study on the effectiveness of popular toning shoes including Skechers Shape-Ups, MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) and Reebok EasyTone. The study, one of the first from an independent organization, enlisted a team of researchers from the Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, and found no evidence to suggest that the shoes help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or improve muscle strength and tone. "Toning shoes appear to promise a quick-and-easy fitness solution, which we realize people are always looking for," says ACE's Chief Science Officer Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D. "Unfortunately, these shoes do not deliver the fitness or muscle toning benefits they claim. Our findings demonstrate that toning shoes are not the magic solution consumers were hoping they would be, and simply do not offer any benefits that people cannot reap through walking, running or exercising in traditional athletic shoes." To test the toning shoes' effectiveness and evaluate their claims, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, led by John Porcari, Ph.D., John Greany, Ph.D., Stephanie Tepper, M.S., Brian Edmonson, B.S. and Carl Foster, Ph.D., designed a pair of studies to evaluate the exercise responses and muscle activation that take place while walking with toning shoes versus traditional athletic shoes. Researchers enlisted 12 physically active female volunteers, ages 19 to 24 years, for the exercise response study, during which they completed a dozen five-minute exercise trials of walking on a treadmill while wearing each type of shoe, including the toning sneakers Skechers Shape-Ups, MBT and Reebok's EasyTone, and traditional New Balance running shoes. To evaluate muscle activation, researchers recruited a second group of 12 physically active female volunteers, ages 21 to 27 years, who performed similar five-minute treadmill trials and were measured for muscle activity in six muscle areas: calves, quads, hamstrings, buttocks, back and abs. All three toning shoes tested showed no statistically significant increases in either exercise response or muscle activation during the treadmill trials, when compared to the normal athletic shoes tested. There was simply no evidence to indicate that the toning shoes offer any enhanced fitness benefits over traditional sneakers, despite studies cited by manufacturers seemingly "proving" the toning shoes' effectiveness. Bryant warns consumers to be wary of such studies sponsored by manufacturers, many of which are not peer-reviewed and may be of questionable design. ACE's study also addresses anecdotal evidence consumers have shared indicating that they feel the shoes are working their muscles due to localized muscle soreness. Study researchers explain that this feeling is due to the shoe's unstable sole design, which cause wearers to use slightly different muscles to maintain balance than they would while wearing normal shoes, resulting in temporary soreness that will subside as the body adjusts to the shoe. "There may be one positive effect these shoes offer," continues Bryant. "The motivation factor. If these shoes are serving as a motivator for individuals to walk or get moving more often, that is a good thing, even if they don't produce the dramatic toning and calorie-burning results people think they are getting." Bryant goes on to add that "it is important to note that, based on the results of this study, it appears that consumers can more economically achieve the same results wearing normal running shoes." ACE's study also raised a couple of questions, one positive the other negative: will wearing toning shoes improve balance over time? Or do they alter an individual's walking gait mechanics, potentially causing problems for those who are already at risk for lower-extremity issues? Evaluating both of these issues would require additional in-depth research. A full summary of the study's findings can be found on ACE's "Get Fit" website, designed to inform, inspire, educate and motivate people to become fit and lead a healthier, more active lifestyle, located at www.acefitness.org/getfit. About ACE The American Council on Exercise (ACE), America's premier certification, education and training organization, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the benefits of physical activity and protecting consumers against unsafe and ineffective fitness products and instruction. ACE sponsors university-based exercise science research and is the world's largest nonprofit fitness certifying organization. For more information on ACE and its programs, call (800) 825-3636 or log onto the ACE website at www.acefitness.org. SOURCE American Council on Exercise http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/toningshoes072010.pdf 1 Comment Hi everyone! Found another great article on many easy things you can do to help you burn more calories everyday. These are simple and easy things you can do to change or alter your diet and exercise program on a daily basis. As far as what the title claims, that you can burn 3650 calories every day, I won’t go so far as to say that this is the case since it’s only theoretical, although many things you do out of this article can and will make a difference in raising your metabolism and help in weight loss. Enjoy! Jimmy Pember, NASM-CPT, Certified Fitness Specialist ---------------------------------- Author Steve Stiefel Posted by FullyFlexed.com Life, they say, is full of contradictions, so why shouldn’t that also apply to working out? You train regularly with both weights and cardio and carefully watch what you eat, which together are supposed to produce a ripped, muscular physique. There’s the catch: supposed to. But what if you do practically everything you can–truly giving 110% to your training and nutrition efforts–and you’re still a little soft around the middle? Are you forever doomed to wearing tank tops on warm summer days so friends can see your big guns without knowing there’s an inch to pinch? This being FullyFlexed, we’re not going to recommend an expensive liposuction operation. (Unless, of course, your beloved and rich Uncle Fred left you with several hundred thousand dollars, in which case you can skip this article and call your plastic surgeon.) Rather, we’ve complied a series of tips, tweaks and techniques for you to add to what you’re already doing during the course of a day. Instead of asking you to drop your workouts and follow some one-size-fits-all program, we’ve come up with a list of ways you can increase your caloric deficit each day. All of the tips presented here use one or more of three bodyfat-fighting strategies: reducing the amount of food you eat (the calories you take in), increasing the amount of exercise you perform (the calories you burn) and boosting your metabolic rate (the number of calories your body requires for body weight maintenance). Added together, these tips and strategies could theoretically help you synergistically burn up to 3,650 calories a day, but most individuals will want to pick and choose items that allow them to burn up to 1,500 calories (Number of calories burned is based on a 200-pound man who exercises four times a week and currently consumes enough calories for bodyweight maintenance. The total number of calories you burn will likely vary.) a day without requiring a significant change to diet or training regimen. You can still perform the same weight-training exercises and routines–just add our training and nutrition tips to the mix. 1 - Add intervals to your cardio work – The Caloric Effect: 150 The Technique: “Interval training burns more calories than steady-state training because you can do more work in the same amount of time,” says Tom Seabourne, who has a PhD in exercise science and is author of Athletic Abs with Scott Cole (Human Kinetics, 2002). To use this calorie-burning technique, Seabourne suggests that you include sprints with your jogging, add jogging to your fast-paced walking or increase the difficulty level or pace when using cardio equipment. “Add 60 seconds of interval training every other minute or so. The harder you work, the more calories you’ll burn,” Seabourne advises.
The Technique: “This technique shakes up your workout,” says Steve Zim, fitness expert for NBC’s Weekend Today. “A lot of people get stuck using the same weights and reps over and over. Their bodies acclimate to the workload, and they don’t burn as many calories as they would if they provided their body with unexpected stimulation.” Increasing your training weights 5%-10% is a great way to do this.
The Technique: Got a favorite cardio machine in the gym? Ditch it. You may be surprised by how much more beneficial cross-training is vs. performing the same exercise during every cardio session. “When you include a variety of cardio machines in your routines–treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, cross-country ski machine, stair-stepper–you stimulate the same muscles in new ways or even work different muscle groups. The more groups you use that are unaccustomed to training, the harder you must work at an exercise, thus you burn more calories,” says Seabourne.
The Technique: “Try to avoid taking more than one rest day at a time,” Zim says. “You need a rest day after every 3-4 days of training in a row, but subsequent rest days can begin to lower your metabolic rate.”
The Technique: “Instead of doing an hour-and-a-half workout in the morning, try doing 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes after work,” says Zim. This revs up your metabolic rate twice a day instead of once. During the last half of a long training session, you may work out with less intensity because of fatigue; by splitting your training, you recover enough to burn more calories in your second 45-minute installment.
The Technique: “Spices such as red pepper and cayenne can significantly crank up your metabolic rate and decrease your overall food intake,” explains Zim.
The Technique: Keeping a food journal can have a surprising effect on your discipline, because it makes you think about everything you put into your mouth. Just by committing to write down all the food you eat, you’re less likely to include unhealthy foods in your diet.
The Technique: Eat your calories instead of drinking them. Ingesting more liquid calories is a good weight-gaining strategy because they’re easier to consume when you don’t have an appetite. On the flip side, liquid calories don’t satisfy you as much as solid foods. Sodas, milk, juice, sugar added to drinks such as coffee or tea and other caloric beverages are a significant source of calories for many people. Try drinking only water, plain tea, black coffee or diet (no-calorie) beverages for a couple of weeks and see if you notice a difference in your bodyfat stores.
The Technique: When you drink green tea and coffee, you may notice the energizing effect they have on your body. “Green tea and black coffee also boost your metabolism without adding significant calories to your diet,” says Zim. In addition, these caffeinated beverages tend to reduce appetite, helping you further cut calorie consumption.
The Technique: Cutting back on carbs during the later part of the day is smart for two reasons: One, you decrease the number of calories you consume each day, and two, you reduce the amount of insulin your body must produce, which decreases the amount of fat your body stores. You don’t need to eliminate pasta or potatoes, but cut back on them late in the day, eating one-third to one-half of your normal servings.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group Hi all, Here are two of many articles I've found regarding static stretching and why I don't incorporate this type of stretching before we begin our boot camp workouts. There have been numerous studies and articles written about the negative impacts on stretching before exercising. The last thing I want is for someone to injure themselves during boot camp class. As most of you notice, my workouts usually begin with a warm up run and/or some calisthenic exercises. The warm up run and calisthenic exercises warms up the body and gets the blood pumping to those muscles you will be using during the workout, as well as taking those muscles through a full range of motion before going full blast on them. So just some food for thought for you old school people out there who have always stretched before exercising... Jimmy Pember, NASM-CPT, Certified Fitness Specialist ----------------------------------------------- Stretch Only If You Want Less Strength? Study indicates static stretching negatively affects muscular force Colorado Springs, Colo.Although we know more about the human body than ever before, it still holds some amazing secrets. Take stretching for example. Static stretching (stretching the muscle to the farthest point and holding for 20-30 seconds) was long thought to be the best way to prepare muscles for physical activity. As scientists learn more about how muscles work, they are finding that stretching before competition may decrease strength. Therefore, negatively affecting performance. According to a recent study published in the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) journal, The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (Vol. 18, No. 2, page 236-241), stretching before a workout or physical activity can actually reduce the power available in the stretched muscle. Even more surprising is that power was also reduced in the non-stretched muscle. Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied the effects of static stretching on peak torque in fourteen women. The subjects underwent four static stretching exercises on their dominant leg only. Each stretch was performed four times and held for 30 seconds. Peak torque was measured in both the dominant and non-dominant leg. Results showed that peak torque decreased in both limbs after static stretching. While the reason for this decrease in force is not known, the current study suggests that it may be related to changes in the mechanical properties of the muscle, or a central nervous system precautionary mechanism. Additional research is needed to fully understand the cause. As more studies continue to suggest that static stretching may decrease maximal force production, the effects that this decrease will have on performance must now be considered. Strength and conditioning professionals may want to re-evaluate static stretching before high performance activities. Indeed, the human body has a lot of secrets to reveal. About the NSCA The National Strength and Conditioning Association is the leading authority on strength and conditioning. For 27 years, the NSCA has bridged science and application to provide reliable, research-based, strength and conditioning information to its members and the general public. With nearly 30,000 members worldwide, the NSCA is the largest health and fitness association in the world. For more information on NSCA professional journals, cutting edge conferences, educational text and videos, or other services, visit www.nsca-lift.org. NOTE: The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research is the official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and is available from Alliance Communication Group at 800-627-0932. For a complete copy of this study (May 2004, page 236-241) or to speak with a leading strength and conditioning expert on the topic, you may contact the NSCA Public Relations Department at 800-815-6826. --------------------------------------------- Don't Stretch Before Sports, Experts SayStatic Stretching Can Tighten Muscles MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer LONDON -- Want a better workout? Then don't stretch beforehand, some experts say. Many people take it for granted that they should start their exercise routines with some stretching on the spot, perhaps hoping it will loosen them up for their work-out. Most fitness experts now agree this kind of static stretching before exercise is not just counter-productive, but potentially harmful. Traditional stretches, like when people bend over to touch their toes or stretch their legs on a fence, often cause the muscles to tighten rather than relax -- exactly the opposite of what is needed for physical activity. Experts say it is like extending a rubber band to its limit. When people stretch to the maximum, they are more likely to pull a muscle. "We have developed this idea of static stretching at exactly the wrong time," said Kieran O'Sullivan, an exercise expert at the University of Limerick in Ireland, who has studied various types of stretching and their impact on athletes. When you stretch before exercising, your body may think it's at risk of being overstretched. It compensates by contracting and becoming more tense. That means you aren't able to move as fast or as freely, making you more likely to get hurt. O'Sullivan said stretching helps with flexibility, but people should only do it when they aren't about to exercise, like after a workout, or at the end of the day. "It's like weight training to become stronger," he said. "You wouldn't do a weight session right before you exercise, and you shouldn't stretch right before either." In the last few years, several studies have found static stretching before playing a sport makes you slower and weaker. And when experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combed through more than 100 papers looking at stretching studies, they found people who stretched before exercise were no less likely to suffer injuries such as a pulled muscle, which the increased flexibility from stretching is supposed to prevent. Instead of stretching, many experts recommend warming up with a light jog or sport-specific exercise, like kicking for football or a few serves for tennis. That type of light movement increases the heart rate and blood flow to the muscles, warming up the body temperature. "This allows you to approach your full range of motion, but in a very controlled way," said Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery and spine surgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center and former physician for the U.S. Tennis Open. Cohen said elite athletes in all sports are increasingly ditching static stretching and using other warm-up techniques instead. But the message has yet to trickle down to legions of joggers and recreational athletes. "This is classic, old-school stretching that has been done for generations," Cohen said. "It's going to be very hard to convince people to start doing something different." There's more news for the traditionalists: research shows static stretching doesn't work as well as more active kinds of stretching that incorporate movement, such as lunges. In a study published earlier this year in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, Roberto Meroni of the University of Milan and colleagues found people who stretched using conventional techniques, like bending over to touch their toes, were less flexible than those who did a more active type of stretching that used more muscle groups. Meroni said static stretching simply forces the muscle being stretched to endure the pain of that stretch. With active stretches that work more muscles, the stretched muscles learn to extend while another group is working. Those types of stretches are commonly used in yoga, which emphasizes how the body is aligned during stretches, not just flexibility. Many yoga poses involve the whole body and focus not only on stretching a particular muscle, but the ligaments, tendons and joints around it. Still, experts don't discount static stretching entirely. Lynn Millar, a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, said they recommend people stretch several times a week and that most types of stretching work. Maximizing the benefits of stretching may simply boil down to a matter of when you do it and how, according to Jonny Booth, a health and fitness manager at a north London branch of gym chain Fitness First. "If you are going to stretch your muscles and then do some intense training, you're not going to get fantastic results," he said. Instead, Booth recommends active stretches that mimic the movement of your intended activity, like some deep knee lunges while walking for runners. "Stretching is vital to become more flexible," Booth said. "But it has to be done at the right time and for the right reasons." ARTICLE site - http://www.10news.com/irresistible/23158050/detail.html ACE Study on the Benefits of Boot Camp 04/14/2010
Exclusive ACE study investigates the fitness benefits of popular boot camp–style workouts By John Porcari, Ph.D., Kirsten Hendrickson, B.S., and Carl Foster, Ph.D., with Mark Anders Fitness fads come and go, but boot-camp workouts are still among the most popular. Back in the spring of 1998, the American Council on Exercise first spotted the rapid growth of instructor-led workouts based loosely on the calisthenics used (like push-ups, squat thrusts, punches, kicks, etc.) to whip new recruits into shape in the U.S. Army’s basic-training program. Ten years later, take a look at the class schedules of gyms and fitness centers across the country and you’ll still find boot camp. According to recent stats from the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a trade organization for health clubs, 955 of its 3,306 member clubs offer boot camp–style fitness classes. And it’s not just hot in the gyms. A quick scan of the exercise videos offered on Amazon.com yields more than 30 different boot-camp videos. "There’s a certain element of getting back to the basics and a more functional-training approach," says ACE’s chief science officer Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D. "People are looking for different experiences. With boot camps, you’re giving them something outside the traditional club environment." Maybe the boot-camp trend is still going strong because it’s not really trendy at all. The workout is simple and not tied to a single piece of equipment. Or maybe it’s the motivating team-oriented atmosphere that’s created as fellow exercisers ‘survive’ the workouts together. Whatever the reason, boot camp remains wildly popular, yet surprisingly its efficacy has never been formally studied. "Boot camp is becoming more and more popular in the health club setting so obviously people want to know if they’re really going to get something out of it, and if it’s going to be worth their time," says Kirsten Hendrickson, a graduate student in exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin. "So we decided to take a look at it." The Study To analyze the health and fitness benefits of boot camp–style workouts, a team of exercise scientists from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Exercise and Health Program, led by John Porcari, Ph.D., and Hendrickson, recruited six men and six women ages 19 to 29. All volunteers were given an exercise test on a motorized treadmill to determine each subject’s maximal heart rate(HR max) and maximal oxygen consumption (V• O2 max) to establish a baseline of fitness. Ratings of perceived exertion using the 6–20 Borg Scale, a measure of how hard subjects feel they’re exercising, were also recorded throughout the exercise testing. Once that baseline was established, the subjects were invited back into the lab to view a 40-minute recorded boot-camp exercise video. Naturally there are many boot camp–style exercise videos on the market, so researchers reviewed a wide range of titles, eventually settling on The Method: Cardio Boot Camp with Tracey Mallett. "We chose that DVD because it has a good blend of aerobic movements and strength moves that you’d picture military guys doing at boot camp," notes Porcari. "Plus we wanted to pick one where people were taxed pretty hard because that’s what you picture when you think of boot camp." The study volunteers were given a copy of the DVD to take home and practice until they felt familiar enough with the choreography to be able to follow along easily with the workout. At that point, they were asked to return to the lab for testing. Each subject was then outfitted with the Cosmed portable analyzer, a backpack and facemask apparatus that measures oxygen consumption and caloric burn. Heart rate and perceived exertion were also tracked every three minutes throughout the 40-minute workout. The Results After analyzing the data, researchers found that the average exerciser burns approximately 9.8 calories per minute during a typical boot-camp workout, which equals nearly 400 calories during the entire 40-minute boot-camp video studied (Table 1) "The biggest benefit is you’re burning an average of 600 calories per hour," says Porcari. "That’s obviously going to help with weight loss, but you’re also getting the muscle-building benefit from pushups, arm curls and squat thrusts that you wouldn’t get just from going out for a fast walk or jog." According to recommendations set by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), to enhance cardiorespiratory endurance individuals need to exercise at 70 percent to 94 percent of HR max and 50 percent to 85 percent of V• O2 max. Based upon the data collected in this study, subjects were exercising well within those recommended intensity levels. "On average, people were working at 77 percent of heart-rate max, which is considered moderate intensity, but it also gets as high as 91 percent, meaning, all these boot-camp workouts have peaks and valleys," Porcari explains. Figures 1 and 2 offer a visual representation of how heart rate and oxygen consumption varied by the minute as the test subjects followed the video from high-intensity moves like kicking and punching, down to low-intensity moves with the dumbbells, and back up again to high-intensity moves. "These workouts are designed to be cyclical like that," he explains. "Boot camp is a good form of interval training because you get periods of high intensity interspersed with moves that tend to be lower in aerobic intensity but they serve a whole different purpose—to build muscle strength." The Bottom Line Boot camp is an excellent way to enhance aerobic capacity and help control body weight. "I think it’s a great workout with great variety," says Porcari. "It’s a good combination of aerobic exercise and muscle conditioning and it’s much more of a total-body workout than just going out for a run or bicycle ride." But remember, not all boot-camp workouts are created equal, he warns. Some are heavy on cardio, while others emphasize martial arts–inspired movements or basic strength-training exercises. For best results, our researchers recommend picking a well-balanced program with equal helpings of aerobic movements and calisthenics. However, if you’re looking to improve in a particular area, you might consider looking for a boot-camp class or video that caters to your particular fitness weaknesses. For example, if you’d prefer build more upper-body strength and endurance, consider picking one with more push-ups, squat thrusts and similar moves. "If people are looking for something that’s fun and variable that will increase their adherence to an exercise program, and, most importantly, burn a lot of calories," says Hendrickson, "boot camp would be a really great option." |  AuthorJimmy Pember ArchivesJuly 2010 CategoriesAll       |
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