Oxygen Debt

In 180 Degree Metabolism I recently added some new content about the importance of stressing exercise intensity more than duration for achieving metabolic adaptations that help with achieving a better ratio of body fat to lean body mass. Strictly from a body composition point of view that’s neato and all, but there’s strong evidence that doing short bursts of hard exercise has very unique, and potentially unmatched health benefits.
The first time I ever paid attention to the term “oxygen debt” was during my review of some of Scott Abel’s stuff. I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure in his 5-Day MET DVD series he says “oxygen debt” while gasping for air in between sets at least 372 times. It seems kind of important to the guy, who I consider to be perhaps the world’s leading expert on exercise physiology due to his blend of personal experience, training experience, and extensive academic pursuits of the subject.

Another thing that jumped out at me was hearing some of the verbiage used by Vince DelMonte, including the term “oxygen debt.” DelMonte claims to have had minimal success with building muscle on various programs in the past, mentioning that he was referred to in his youth as “Skinny Vinny,” but that he finally found what works. And lo and behold DelMonte does a blend of functional training and weightlifting at maximum intensity to create an “oxygen debt.”

The theme is there again in Jon Gabriel’s work – the idea of doing very high bursts of exercise as if something is chasing you – and its striking ability to change the body’s metabolism to become less “thrifty,” making your body “want to be thin,” and lowering the weight set point for automatic, hunger and craving-free weight loss.

Clarence Bass, Rachel and Alwyn Cosgrove, Dr. Richard Bernstein, Sisson, DeVany, Big Chief – the list goes on and on. And now I’m talking about it too, as I have had substantial improvements in body composition since adopting Abel’s concept of doing what could only be called, confusingly, “functional, high-intensity, interval strength training.”

But my interest in the potential health benefits far exceeds my interest in using it as a tool to look like a man-beast when speaking on Metabolism at the 2011 Weston A. Price Foundation Wise Traditions Conference in Dallas this coming November (yes, you read that correctly). Perusing through the general concept of oxygen indebtedness is pretty exciting as it pertains to improving cardiovascular health, increasing functionality in old age, improving the stress response and adrenal health, lowering inflammation, improving asthma, and raising the metabolism overall.

I used to look at exercise like researcher Ray Peat looks at exercise – through a narrow and short-sighted mirror. Exercise = Stress = Bad, therefore, enjoy some nice walks and a little stretching and eat the food (ETF). While it’s true that in today’s day and age most exercise pursuits end in tragic failure due to poor information, poor accompanying nutrition, and extreme efforts in pursuit of unrealistic and more importantly, unnatural goals – that doesn’t mean that the right kind of exercise, done intelligently as part of a much broader set of healthy practices, attitudes, and nutrition, can’t be a powerful tool. It very well may be, and the oxygen debt, although it’s just one narrow element of the overall picture, could be the most important tool there is.

To begin with, let’s talk about ol’ Ray Peat since I brought him up. One of Peat’s primary platforms is the belief that maintaining the proper level of cellular respiration and oxygenation is one of the most important and vital elements of aging well and avoiding degenerative disease. This is done, according to Ray Peat’s research, by keeping thyroid activity up (this, in turn, makes sure there is adequate production of hormones like testosterone and progesterone which oppose estrogen, the ultimate anti-respiratory hormone in his view). To this I would agree.

But an interesting connection is that thyroid activity and oxygen consumption exist in tandem. As we age, thyroid activity usually falls and oxygen consumption falls with it. Interestingly, one reason this may take place is due to falling lung capacity. As we age, our lung capacity diminishes, and oxygen uptake falls substantially. The end result is reduced mitochondrial activity/cellular energy production and a much higher chance of getting cancer, stroke, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and all our disease faves.

This general process can be reversed, and while a whole foods overfeeding attempt like RRARF may very well force the body to adapt by increasing cellular energy production and oxygenation via thyroid encouragement, there’s no doubt that the right kind of exercise can do it too.

As Al Sears writes in his 2010 book P.A.C.E.:

“Manfred von Ardenne discovered that your cells produce more energy when you practice short bursts of intense exertion – a capacity you build with my PACE program. This improves the way your organs use oxygen, keeping them younger longer. By keeping your routine focused on short, intense bursts… you send waves of life-giving oxygen through every cell in your body.”

Interestingly, Sears hints at what many of us have experienced firsthand, that endurance exercise has the opposite effect – giving up lung capacity and fast-twitch musculature for doing maximal effort work, and instead slowing down the metabolism as much as possible so that less oxygen is used performing the endurance task. These are horrible and highly unwanted adaptations akin to starving yourself. More from Weird Al Sears:

“Aerobics, jogging and marathon running are low-intensity, long-duration exercises. The Harvard study clearly shows that this kind of exercise increases your risk of heart disease and death.


And here’s why: When you exercise for long periods at a low to medium intensity, you train your heart and lungs to get smaller in order to conserve energy and increase efficiency at low intensity.”

So it’s kind of ironic that one could improve the oxygenation of their cells by striving to do exercise that’s hard enough to incur an oxygen debt (using more than you’re taking in and having to compensate for it later by panting hard or as Scott Abel says, “sucking in the room”), and lower overall stress hormone exposure by subjecting oneself to something that mimics a life-threatening emergency event and spikes stress hormones to the stratosphere.

But hey, just like forcing the body to adapt to burn more calories and expend less energy by stuffing your cakehole, short bursts of hard exercise (lasting 15 seconds to 4 minutes followed by recovery before you repeat) enough to make you really winded appears to induce some highly beneficial metabolic adaptations as well – with a huge cardiopulmonary bonus. It requires no equipment unless you want it to, workouts contain 7-20 minutes of total expenditure (not including rest time) in Sears’s program for example (done 3 times per week), and it’s much easier on your joints, tendons, and cardiovascular system than endurance exercise or weight training (although I do believe that weight training with lighter loads like that used by Scott Abel can easily be incorporated into the oxygen debt theme without too much collateral damage).

“Oxygen is the basic fuel your cells need to keep moving. When you’re jogging, your body can inhale enough oxygen to keep that activity going for quite a while. But when you’re sprinting fast, the demand for oxygen is so intense you can’t go for even a minute. As you approach maximal exertion, the amount of oxygen required to keep you going will exceed the amount you’re taking in – that’s the point when you begin accumulating an oxygen debt.


You may wonder why an oxygen debt is important. You might even think that pushing your body to that point is counter-intuitive. After all, why would you want to starve your body of oxygen?


The answer lies in your body’s ‘adaptive response.’


Think about what those words mean for a moment… an adaptive response is a change your body makes after confronting a challenge. If you don’t give your body new challenges, it won’t make these changes. In other words, you won’t grow or progress.


That’s one of the reasons why aerobics, cardio and long-distance running are not the best options for your long-term health. No progress will be made to build back lung capacity because you are not challenging your current lung capacity. In fact, because you are ‘preprogrammed’ to lose capacity with age, if you don’t train your body to make changes in response to challenges, you’ll actually start sliding backwards.


But when you give up these long, boring workouts, you can change your body’s experience with exertion.


When you achieve oxygen debt, your body responds. Plateaus are broken. Changes are made. First and foremost, your body reacts by increasing your lung volume and boosting your heart’s output.


By doing those kind of activities you actually ‘ask’ your body to make those changes. And in response, it does. You can train your body to make any kind of change you want. If you want small, tight lungs and decreased cardiac output, then keep jogging.”

To find out more about Sears and PACE, go the 180 Metabolism Blog and see a post and video on an experiment he did with two female identical twins. In the experiment one twin ran 50-yard sprints for 16 weeks and the other ran 10 miles for 16 weeks. Neither were asked to alter their diets. His experiment, as well as all the extensive data he’s compiled with his patients, thoroughly disproves all of the following myths:

1) You can’t build muscle and burn fat at the same time
2) You must lift weights to gain substantial amounts of muscle
3) Women can’t gain muscle easily
4) Women can’t achieve 10% body fat levels without counting calories
5) You must overeat to gain substantial amounts of muscle
6) You must restrict calories to lose substantial amounts of body fat
7) You must exercise more than 30 minutes per week to burn substantial amounts of body fat

Metabolic Damage

Metabolic damage, or ruining your metabolism to the point where your body temperature is low, you can't lose weight and certainly can't keep it off no matter how hard you try, and so forth - is one of the primary areas of focus of 180D.  In fact, I've gone so far as to write a free 64-page eBook that is basically a road map for restoring metabolic health FOUND HERE.

Scott Abel and many people who train fitness competitors have seen this phenomenon repeatedly as well, as figure competitors get very lean with hardcore dieting, immediately balloon up after the competition, and are never able to return to that level of leanness ever again despite monumental efforts.  If they do, it gets harder and harder and harder each time they do it.  My sister was telling me just last night of a friend of hers that used to be a figure model, and is now a big hunk of burnin' burnin' love.  Typical. 

And keep in mind, THESE ARE FIGURE COMPETITORS, some of the most physically capable specimens on earth for achieving cosmetic fitness. 

Other, mortal humans as we have seen run into metabolic damage even more readily, and are sometimes even born metabolically damaged with a subnormal body temperature and propensity to store fat.  They experience major diet-induced metabolic damage without ever coming close to seeing their abs... or even their toes.

I've always liked Diana Schwarzbein's simple litmus test the best...
"If eating well makes you gain weight, then you have a damaged metabolism." 

Anyway, here are some of Scott Abel's videos on the topic, warning of the dangers of very low-calorie diets (what he calls an "absolute calorie deficit"), low-carb diets, doing lots of steady-state cardio, and other major errors that are being made in the name of health and physical attractiveness that result in serious health consequences, and a complete backfiring of body image goals long-term.  Enjoy.  I think this might sound very familiar to those who've been with 180 for the last several years...






You can read a great article by Abel on the topic of metabolic damage HERE

Oh, and AaronF, who has Cosgrove's book in his Amazon cue... you'd probably best be served by watching all of Abel's videos on youtube for great metabolic exercises.  Nobody's better than Abel in that department that I've come across, and videos beat pictures any day...  

http://youtube.com/scottabelcoaching


    

The Female Body Breakthrough

You know, I love doing book reviews and I hardly ever do ‘em. This is perfect seeing that my summer exploration into some of the popular bodybuilder and fitness enthusiast ideas regarding weight loss is coming to a close with a ceremonious “Eat the Food.” This is kind of like asking for a Woot Woot or an Amen. Here, I asketh upon the clergy, “Can I get an EAT THE FOOD-ah?!”

Actually, if we are going to go into full-blown cult status, we should call ourselves “Fuddhists” and worship Fuddha. Pronounced “Foodists” and “Foodha” of course.  Read the Fuddhist Bible HERE. 

So anyway, yeah, if I can stop thinking about food for a minute - like this GRILLED CHEESE maybe I could get going on this book review. Here goes.

The Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove is a book review that I issue to you ladies out there. A jam for the ladies and the superstars. My typical conversations about fitness can get a little Bro-ey, so hopefully this will even the score.

And when it comes to bro-ness, Cosgrove’s book is like the antithesis to all things male. Reading it felt like payback for all the times I made women in my life watch Predator, or Cabin Boy, or early-era Adam Sandler films – something that my willingness to watch that dance movie with Julia Stiles, that lame pairs figure skating movie, multiple viewings of A Walk to Remember, and even an at-the-movie viewing of Crossroads evidently didn’t make up for.

Although it would be an easy target for ridicule – I often found myself laughing while I was reading it due to her way over-the-top femaleness (B.I.T.C.H. – Be Inspiring Totally Confident and HOT!), we’re going to break this beauty down purely on substance and substance alone – because Cosgrove possesses some genius, and her message could very well be eclipsed by her She-Ra geekiness if it wasn’t for someone to translate what it is about her information that is a “Breakthrough.”

Cosgrove is the wife of Alwyn, and together they own a gym out in California where they “build butts.” Together, along with guys like Scott Abel, they are on the true cutting edge of exercise physiology. That cutting-edge understanding, although not elaborated upon much in the book itself, really comes through in the well-photographed and documented exercises as part of Cosgrove’s program.

Before we go any further, let me give you the basic premise of the book…

1) Cardio and aerobics and all that stuff stinks
2) If you want to look hotter, it requires having less body fat AND more muscle mass
3) The way to achieve that is to do a combination of metabolic exercise and strength training (which we’ll discuss), while eating a nutritious whole foods diet without obsessing over macronutrients, calories, etc.

Sounds reasonable. It is. In fact, although she didn’t quite go into such detail, you can basically categorize exercise into 2 categories…

1) Exercise that forces your body to do things more efficiently (burn less calories to do the same thing)
2) Exercise that forces your body to adapt by increasing its power capability, which, by definition, means becoming LESS efficient in a sense.

In other words, a performance athlete can generate huge amounts of power in a short period of time because their bodies are optimized for that type of activity. For endurance activity, muscle, particularly explosive fast twitch muscle is a huge burden – it burns way too many calories and will make you really tired if you tried to run 10 miles on legs constructed of fast twitch muscle fibers. Likewise, marathon runners are typically super weak, and cannot generate power.

Both adaptations are smart and appropriate adaptations to various forms of exercise. In fact, the body’s ability to make such adaptations is something to be marveled at really. But in a conversation strictly about cosmetic exercise, there is absolutely no doubt that fast twitch muscle-building and power-generating exercise is what yields superior results. But I guess it all depends on who you wanna impress. Once again we return to discussing Weird Al, who likes small butts and he cannot lie vs. Sir-Mix-A-Lot, who likes ‘em real thick and juicy.

But just to say “go lift weights” is incomplete. Cosgrove is a master of exercise physiology, and her workouts are designed to achieve something far beyond traveling around each exercise machine and making a few check marks on your clipboard.

Her workouts are a fine blend of asymmetrical movements, balance movements that activate what is called “proprioception” that Abel loves talking about, power moves that cause rapid muscle firing (like what you get from plyometrics), and some otherwise pretty badass stuff with an emphasis on overload (which is atypical for women-centered weightlifting which can be pretty light and fluffy). Overload means doing enough to force the muscle to adapt and increase its strength, size, and hardness. And it’s all done emphasizing full ranges of motion as well for full muscular development.

With Cosgrove, you’re not doing the typical bicep curls with 5 pounds dumbbells so fast and effortlessly that you are practically fanning yourself while you’re doing them. She’s more into classical strength training with heavier weights that you struggle to maybe, if you’re lucky, do 8 repetitions of. The result is that she and her clients are like superheroes, busting out chin-ups a half dozen at a time or more.



So you’re doing, not sissy stuff, but friggin’ one legged dumbbell deadlifts, super deep squats, front squats, and all that. Hence her claim that all of her clients have excellent butts that you can bounce a quarter off of.

These 3 times per week workouts are later punctuated by at least one “metabolic” workout per week. This is basically hardcore bodyweight exercises, plyometrics, rope-jumping, pushups, ab work, and all that blended into a high-intensity round patterned after high-intensity interval training (But I think Abel proves that this is unnecessary, and can very easily be worked into a strength training workout by doing the workout with very little rest in between sets. This is of course, the premise of his Metabolic Enhancement Training – combining what Cosgrove has made separate).

Anyway, her infatuation with postworkout protein shakes aside, Cosgrove’s book is a good primer into a result-generating fitness routine that many women could adopt into their own workouts. The name of her gym, “Results Fitness” is very appropriate. If I needed to pick up chicks I would definitely go there before going to a bar for that purpose, although protein-shake-swilling babes are not much sexier than the alcohol-swilling variety. Of course, 180 is not a fitness or exercise physiology palace by any means, but the book and the principles behind the exercises she highlights are worthy of mention – or worthy of recognition I should say.

I’m actually hoping to build my butt a little. I pretty much turned mine into a deflated balloon with years of hiking – an exercise done with very small ranges of motion that worked my quads and hamstrings like a champ, but left my ass hangin’.

So yeah, I’m looking to have a female body breakthrough in my butt. Shut up. I kill you.

The meat of the book is great. Illustrations are great. It’s not overly complex – even though I might have made it sound that way. All in all, for a woman who is really burning to build a “fit and fabulous” body, Cosgrove has created a pretty damn good roadmap. Treadmills, exercise bikes, Elliptical machines, and Stairmasters are forbidden. You gotta like that.  

Training Lessons from Scott Abel

For those who don’t know, Scott Abel (http://www.scottabel.com/) is a physique training legend. More than perhaps any other, Scott has immersed himself into the complex science of physique enhancement, physical conditioning, personal training, and more. And his results are impressive. Even approaching his mid-40’s Scott looks like he could arm-wrestle Arnold during his prime, and he has trained over 300 fitness competitors to varying degrees of success as a coach - including many National champions.

His resume aside, which establishes his ability to help others build commanding, muscular physiques and outstanding well-rounded fitness, what lessons does Abel have, if any, for those in pursuit of a fun, relaxing, enjoyable, sustainable lifestyle accompanied by graceful aging and freedom from chronic illness? (I’m not convinced that hardcore exercise and dieting such as that used to enter fitness competitions is the ticket)

As you know, the focus at 180DegreeHealth is raising the metabolism as you can read about in THIS FREE EBOOK, so it is perfectly fitting that Scott Abel pioneered a form of training called “Metabolic Enhancement Training.” With this name going for it, it was impossible for me not to explore his work to see what he was getting at, and to see if very specific and scientifically-generated exercise really could be a part of an overall strategy for great health.

While Metabolic Enhancement Training (MET) is no doubt outstanding for creating a freakish physique, its overall application to the average Joe is extremely limited. The training itself requires excruciating suffering from the participant, huge allotments of time (75-90 minutes 5 times per week), and involves very complex movements and a great deal of equipment to follow it with precision.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t “lessons” to be learned from the training itself, and the how’s and why’s it was developed. There are.

The 3 basic Fundamental rules of MET are:

1) Speed
2) Range of Motion
3) Stable to Unstable positions

And it goes without saying that intensity is a big part of the program as well which can be measured by the degree of “oxygen debt,” which could be fundamental #4 of the training.

Abel, while gasping for air in his MET videos, is quoted as saying, “MET is a culmination of everything – strength training, resistance training, interval cardio training, interval strength training – all under 1 umbrella.”

Abel also happens to be fiercely opposed to slow, steady-state cardio training on your typical cardio machine. He feels it ruins physiques and metabolism – and I would agree that is true IF it is taken to extremes of duration and intensity such as that seen in marathon running that we discussed in the LAST POST.

He also has plenty of negative things to say about traditional resistance exercise without complementary athletic movements and conditioning:

“Furthermore, the bodybuilding paradigm myth of program design also delineates certain amount of rest between training protocols based on muscles used. Simply put, what I have noticed is that over time following the bodybuilding training model does not enhance metabolism but somehow slows it down. While muscle burns more calories at rest, these type of workouts do less to enhance the training affect on metabolism than do more movements based protocols.”

MET is really a form of exercise that is designed to mimic those “metabolically ideal” types of exercise in a gym setting, designed specifically for generating power, conditioning, activating all the muscles in complex movements, balance, and a metabolism that supports high-level athletic performance – one with a high level of muscle to fat by definition, which is a telltale sign of high levels of anabolic hormones (such as testosterone – good whether you are a man or a woman for looking good and aging well) and low levels of catabolic hormones that break down muscle tissue and enhance fat storage (cortisol being the king).

Metabolically ideal forms of exercise would be the ones that utilize all of the above-mentioned principles of MET – speed, range of motion, stable to unstable positions, and intensity.

In other words, ballet, sprinting, gymnastics, martial arts, wrestling, plyometrics, etc. – the sports that are defined by the extreme athleticism required to perform them. Sprinting of course lacks some of the elements, and you see speed and power amongst sprinters but not much well-rounded athleticism. Ballet, for females, also lacks the full culmination of all training in that it lacks resistance for the upper body, whereas the males, who are constantly lifting ballerinas, have a level of full body development that is strikingly superior.

U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team

But in general, you can clearly see, in each of these sports, the themes of having to balance in unstable positions, perform within many different ranges of motion, and do so with great speed, quickness, agility, and power is the repeated theme.

Abel is simply trying to get the best metabolic enhancing effect of those sports, but by adding extra weight load, is able to build more muscle mass. He also goes for extra conditioning by making it hard as hell, and not allowing himself full recovery in between sets/circuits. This puts the body in a greater anaerobic state (oxygen-deprived) which fosters greater adaptive response and development. That’s it in a nutshell.

So if you are wondering what the most efficient form of exercising is for looking better and getting your body to undergo hormonal changes that will potentially foster better health (like decreased cortisol), it boils down to training at high-intensity levels (this converts slow-twitch muscles to fast-twitch muscles, increases body temperature, increases glucose burning over fat burning which is more efficient and fosters better insulin sensitivity, and more, including potentially lowering baseline cortisol levels despite acute rises during the high-intensity period), training all muscle groups with full range of motion, performing movements with great explosive power and speed (like jumps as in plyometrics), and, for greater muscle development – adding strength/resistance training into the mix somehow.

You can see that many popular forms of exercise contain SOME of the elements of MET, but none of them contain all of the elements.

If you have any interest in fitness, these principles are all certainly worthy of your full consideration. If you are purely interested in health, the bigger picture view suggests that just moving your body around and not being on your butt on all day long in front of a computer like me is the route to deliver that. Researchers such as Konstantin Buteyko (as Lisa pointed out in the Tabata video I posted on Monday) or Ray Peat can certainly whip up some strong arguments AGAINST doing high-intensity exercise (due to hyperventilation/oxygen debt and resultant lactic acid production), regardless of what it may deliver in terms of physique enhancement and fitness level. So the jury is definitely still out on high-intensity exercise from a health standpoint. 

But just NOT running marathons or doing dumb 140-mile bike rides like I used to do is already a big step in the right direction. 

Here are some of Scott Abel's videos demonstrating some of the MET themes (range of motion, instability/balance, speed, intensity) to better put this into perspective.  Some are very advanced, but they give you an idea of what MET is getting at...


 

 

 

 

Carbohydrate Propaganda

Still busy working on a side project, but didn't want anyone to miss out on some more quality carbohydrate propaganda.

First up is Scott Abel, totally abusing his power as the world's most successful fitness trainer in marketing some bogus supplement.  He claims this supplement boosts leptin, strengthens your immune system, keeps sex hormones at peak function for muscle building, increases athletic performance and more.  Yeah right Scott, like any supplement could to that! 

 

And then Riles, a total starch-pusher that thinks carbohydrate is good just because it helps him to be really muscular and lean and feel really good, sent me a video of some kid talking about a study in which 11 out of 20 type 2 diabetics were able to come off of their insulin by eating a high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diet for 16 days.  The kid's name is Robby Barbaro.  Something sound fishy about that name?  You bet it does!  Barbaro sounds eerily similar to "Carbaro."  But hey, I can't be trusted.  I live in a town called CARBondale - a town mysteriously lacking in obese people, gyms, and fast food joints.  In fact, THIS is the only fast food burger joint in town.  Sounds like a Commie conspiracy against America if you ask me! 

Oh yeah, here's CARBaro (who is a 22-year old type 1 diabetic):

      

Note, after reviewing several of JW Anderson's studies, one thing is clear.  It's not the carbohydrate per se that causes the positive insulin-sensitizing impact and enhanced glycemic control.  It's not necessarily the severe fat restriction either.  It appears that the big drops in triglycerides and increase in insulin sensitivity that commonly occur on the type of diet used by Anderson, as well as in real life in clinical practice by guys like Joel Fuhrman (who prescribes a "beans and greens" approach to reversing type 2 diabetes), result from a heavy intake of fiber - including resistant starch discussed last week, and a high ratio of starch or "complex" carbohydrate to simple sugars. 

This increases the production of short-chain fatty acids in the gut such as acetate, butyrate, and propionate - discussed in part in this FREE EBOOK , which increases metabolism, decreases appetite, causes spontaneous weight loss, increases physical activity, drops triglycerides, lowers cholesterol, improves both insulin and leptin sensitivity, and improves HDL to LDL ratio all in one shot.  This also patterns an improvement in gut flora to favor the type of gut flora seen in lean people such as rural Africans as opposed to that seen in the obese, which also provides better resistance to infection and decreased chance of developing bowel cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and more. 

You can hear more about resistant starch and fiber in my latest videos at:

http://youtube.com/180degreehealth