Exercise Equipment and Out of Pocket Expenses
Quite simply, there's not much money in the manufacture and sales of dumbbells, weight plates and Olympic bars, but there are HUGE amounts of money to be made if you can convince the masses that aerobic exercise is necessary for disease prevention.
After all, have you priced a treadmill, step mill, spin bike, rowing machine, elliptical machine or any such equipment lately? If you have, you will find they cost anywhere from several hundred, to several thousand dollars per unit. They often have hundreds of moving parts, which wear out, break and need to be replaced. How many Olympic bars or dumbbells have you replaced lately?
It is not at all unusual for a gym or rehab clinic to spend $75-100,000 on cardio equipment alone, and they will need to be replaced every few years. The same facilities usually don't spend more than $15-20,000 on free weight training equipment, which can last the life of the gym.
Yes, I know they spend large sums of money on fixed axis resistance training machines, but that is but another sign of industry influence and their ability to maintain misinformation and professional passivity.
When you get several large equipment manufacturers with multi-million dollar investments in the production of aerobic exercise equipment, you can be rest assured there will be a comparatively large commitment to creating an aerobic exercise consciousness.
The proof is all around us, in our exercise and bodybuilding magazines, trade journals, on TV infomercials, in our training manuals and from most educational institutions.
Who do you think sponsors the educational institutions and pays for the supportive research?
So, Who Needs It?
The issue is not one of prevention of cardiovascular disease by aerobic exercise. It is an issue of getting the right kind of exercise to benefit both your physiology and meet the demands of your work and sports environment.
For example, aerobic conditioning is not general. If it were, any world-class marathon runner could jump on a bike and win the Tour De France, or even the Hawaii Iron Man competition. Strength training is also not general. There is a very finite amount of carryover from one lift or movement pattern to the other. Otherwise, the best squatter would be the best dead lifter too.
Figure 2. Lou Barry |
Everyone needs to build fitness, yet for fitness (aerobic or anaerobic) to last, it must be built upon a foundation of health principles. Proof of this premise can be seen when a noted running expert like Jim Fixx and champion bodybuilders like Lou Barry (See Fig. 2), previously Mr. Australia, died of a heart attack at an early age.
As I show clearly in my book "How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!" , when we eat correctly for our nutritional type, eat high quality organic foods, eat regularly to maintain our blood sugar levels in an optimal range, get to bed at a reasonable hour and learn to manage our stressors, the addition of an exercise program of any type becomes truly therapeutic and offers disease prevention.
Aerobic fitness atop the standard American diet of carbohydrates, refined sugar, additives and preservatives will NOT offer resistance to disease. In fact, it may well bring it on.
Why?
The answer is simple: Both cardiovascular exercise and eating incorrectly are catabolic stressors that elevate glucocorticoid (stress hormones) production. If you add more tension to an already stressed system, it will crash.
You may think this is simple, logical, straightforward stuff, but it isn't, because again, there is BIG money involved here. I could list a thousand examples, but here's one that cuts to the chase: Scripps Hospital in San Diego recently partnered with McDonald's. So now McDonald's feeds all those sick and dying people in the hospital their unhealthy foods, while they pedal away on bikes, pump pedals on stair masters, and about every other expensive aerobic machine you can imagine.
If You Want Functional Aerobic Fitness
I suggest you study the principles presented in my new book "How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!" and listen to the informative audio CDs in my program entitled "You Are What You Eat!" While you are in the process of vitalizing your body from the inside out, I recommend that you choose movement patterns that offer injury prevention and improved performance in the environment where you work and play.
As I show in my book "Movement That Matters," the most important movement patterns for general motor skills development are (aside from walking) squatting, lunging, bending, pushing, pulling and twisting. These patterns are most functional when performed standing and unsupported by a balance aid of any type.
To start off safely, you must not only restore internal health through the application of foundation principles, but you must also activate and strengthen your core stabilizing muscles.
While this can be a very technical topic, I show the necessary tests in "How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!" For those of you wanting a straightforward program of sequential development, I suggest working yourself into optimal functioning by committing four weeks (or more if needed) to the following programs in sequence:
Once you have spent a week or two mastering each of the exercises in these programs, and want more functional cardiovascular conditioning, follow these steps:
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Wear a heart rate monitor and determine your target heart rate zone. You can also take your pulse manually at the carotid artery if you don't own a heart rate monitor.
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To increase the aerobic stimulus of the exercise program you've chosen, simply shorten your rest periods in 15-second increments. As your rest periods shorten between exercises or exercise circuits, your heart rate will begin elevating. If it goes too high, wait till it drops to 60 percent of your target heart rate before beginning your next exercise or circuit. In short order, you will progressively get a greater aerobic response via the activity you have chosen.
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To find balance between cardiovascular stress and strength development, I suggest alternating workouts on a 2:1 ratio; two workouts of cardio for each strength workout if you want cardio development and vice versa if you want strength development as your primary focus. Just remember that whenever you mix the two types of training, you will always get partial adaptation to each, but never the full effect of either done in isolation. This should only concern you if you are an advanced level athlete who needs highly specific conditioning.
If you follow these simple guidelines, you will learn to "eat, move and be healthy" and, you will have the greatest form of prevention from heart disease you could every have -- Health.
Paul Chek, Corrective, Holistic Exercise Kinesiologist and certified Neuromuscular Therapist, is the founder of the C.H.E.K Institute in Vista, Calif. A sought-after consultant to sporting organizations, his services have benefited numerous professional sports teams and athletes.
Paul has produced over 60 videos, 17 correspondence courses and is the author of several books, audio programs and articles. For more information on Paul's recent book "How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!" or his popular "Equal But Not The Same" correspondence course, or for any of Paul Chek's other courses, videos and books call 1-800-552-8789 or 760-477-2620 or visit on-line at www.chekinstitute.com. Feel free to request a catalog of CHEK Institute products.
References and Resources:
- Fallon and Enig. "The Skinny on Fats". Online: http//www.westonaprice.org.
- Photo from www.sunfieldfarm.org
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