September 2024

Everything Happens For a Reason

There are many variables in life, but when it comes to exercise we want to leave as little to chance as possible. No aspect of the Total Results exercise protocol is random; we have a philosophy that is predicated on principles of biology, chemistry, physics, and concepts of motor learning. There is a method to everything that we do, whether it is the equipment that we use, the mannerisms with which we instruct, or our studio environment. In short, everything happens for a reason.

Let us first discuss our studio environment. You will notice that we don't have anything on the walls, and that the office is painted in a light gray color. Ours is a clinically controlled environment, which means we want to eliminate any distractions that might interfere with your workout (as bright colors can do). There is only one client and one instructor present during your workout, so you should be able to fully concentrate on the task at hand. You will also notice that we keep our exercise room cool, dry, and well-ventilated. This is because becoming overheated can adversely affect your workout performance and cause premature fatigue. When Ken Hutchins supervised the Nautilus Osteoporosis Project, there was a mishap with the air conditioning that caused the workout facility to become unusually chilly. In a serendipitous occurrence, he found that the exercise subjects actually performed better as a result of the colder conditions. Intense exercise produces a large amount of heat, and the colder temperatures prevent early fatigue. This is why we keep the thermostat near 68 degrees, with humidity around 50 percent and have fans blowing to keep things properly ventilated.

Everyone knows how to breathe, but many times we revert back to our instincts when things get tough. Holding your breath, or performing a Valsalva maneuver, is a natural thing, but is also dangerous. It can spike your blood pressure, prevent venous return (return of blood back to the right side of the heart), and in a small number of cases it can lead to a stroke. In order to avoid this, we teach clients to breathe freely and continuously through the mouth during exercise. Many of you may have read James Nestor's book "Breath" that came out a few years ago, which espouses the importance of nasal breathing over mouth breathing. I read that book also, and fundamentally I agree with most of the points made. I tried breathing through my nose during my Total Results workouts, and it just didn't work. Once you cross a certain intensity threshold, nasal breathing becomes nearly impossible. We must breathe freely and continuously through the mouth during exercise so that we can get oxygen to the working muscles and blow off carbon dioxide. Releasing carbon dioxide will help to keep the pH levels in the muscles from becoming too acidic, which results in premature fatigue.

We select the exercises that clients perform in the workouts based on muscle and joint function, but also based on the beginning client's ability to learn and master them. Most exercises are compound movements, which involve multiple joints and muscle groups and allow us to cover more ground in less time. In the vast majority of cases we perform the lower body exercises first before moving on to the upper body, spinal, and smaller auxiliary exercises. We do this because the lower body exercises encompass more muscle and are more demanding, so we want to do this in the beginning when the client is fresh. There are exceptions, particularly when a client deals with recurring exercise-induced headache. In cases like this, we often perform a neck exercise in the beginning of the workout to lessen neck and shoulder tension and save the exercises that are most likely to trigger a headache for the end of the workout. In all cases, trial and error help us to find the right formula for success.

During each exercise we strive to complete each positive and negative excursion in ten seconds, but will accept a range of eight to twelve seconds. The purpose of this is to ensure proper loading of the muscles, while minimizing the potentially dangerous forces that can lead to injury. Anything faster than eight seconds introduces too much momentum, while anything slower than twelve seconds leads to a choppy, segmented movement. Many years ago Dr. Doug McGuff, an emergency room physician and owner of the Ultimate Exercise studio in Seneca, South Carolina, conducted an experiment after injuring his foot in a BMX race. He tried performing the Leg Press exercise with varying speeds of movement to see what pain level his foot could tolerate. What he found was that if he went faster than six seconds or as slow as fifteen seconds, he encountered severe foot pain. When he utilized a speed within those parameters he encountered no pain at all. This is only one man's experience, of course, but it lends significant credence to our repetition cadence.

Achieving muscular failure on each exercise is very necessary. We must ensure that we have done everything possible to stimulate maximum muscular and metabolic benefit, and the only way to do that is to push or pull against the movement arm until forward movement is no longer possible in good form. We are not masochists (contrary to popular opinion), and we do realize that this results in significant exertional discomfort. However, this discomfort is temporary, and your tolerance for it will increase with time and experience. We still do not know what the ideal percentage of effort is that will trigger the body's growth mechanism; it could be 87 percent, or something less. There are only two true measurements of effort; zero and 100 percent. Zero effort will produce zero benefit, but if we go to muscular failure we have given every single ounce of effort that we are capable of giving. Please keep that in mind near the end of the exercise when movement becomes a struggle and the urge to quit increases.

Proper entry of the machinery may seem trivial, but it takes far less to produce injury than many people realize. There is a certain way that we would like it to be executed, particularly on exercises like the Lumbar Extension and Leg Press. On these two exercises we insist that you sit down first and swing your legs around, rather than step across and straddle the apparatus. The reason for this is that we want to avoid unilateral loading of the pelvis and spine, but also to guard against tripping and injuring yourself in other ways. This also allows us to commence the next exercise more efficiently and with less wasted motion. Every second counts.

The squeeze technique is something that we utilize on exercises like the Leg Curl and Lumbar Extension that helps to enhance exercise intensity. The first two repetitions of each exercise are the most dangerous repetitions, as your muscles are fresh enough to produce the necessary force to cause injury. Therefore, the first two repetitions serve as a warm-up, and the squeeze will not be applied until the third repetition. One should gradually apply the squeeze, and then gradually ease out of it after five seconds of intense effort. Other instructors are a little more cavalier about this, but I am not. Our first responsibility to the client is to keep them safe, and we have never had anyone get injured by taking this approach. We take this very seriously.

Everything happens for a reason. Exercise should be logical rather than instinctive, and we have a methodology in place that has served us and the needs of our clients well for over twenty years. You can achieve results that you did not think were possible in less than one hour per week. Experience the difference today.