CoachGShort Weekly Newsletter October 22th
Metabolic Efficiency: Working Hard or Working Smart?
By Dr. Mark Cheng, L.Ac., Ph.D., FMS
If you’re involved in fitness, health, or the pursuit of a lean, toned body, you’ve undoubtedly heard the word “metabolism.” You’ve probably also heard that the more highly your metabolism functions, the better your results as far as fat loss and maintaining a slim, trim body. But “metabolism” is actually defined by Wikipedia® as “the set of chemical reactions that happen in living organisms to sustain life.” Simply sustaining life isn’t that challenging a goal to aim for. If you’re engaged in doing a Beachbody® home fitness rogram, mere survival shouldn’t be your standard. Thriving, growing, exceeding, and surpassing should be what you’re working toward!
So let’s take a closer look at your metabolism to see how to optimize it.
The human metabolic process is broken down into two parts: catabolism and nabolism. Catabolism is the “burning” or digesting of food or fuel sources to provide cells with energy. This is the part of metabolism that provides muscles with the energy to maintain posture and create movement. Anabolism, in turn, uses energy to link chemical compounds together to produce larger molecules, like muscle mass.
For catabolism to be efficient, you need to give your muscles the maximum number of opportunities to burn fuel like fat, carbohydrates, and sugars. So it stands to reason that if you’re training your body for the purpose of burning off excess weight, you want to engage the maximum number of muscles in the most efficient and safest manner possible.
One way to think of your body’s muscles is as their having two main functions: stability and mobility. Most of the big muscles people develop for cosmetic reasons, with prime examples being the quadriceps muscles of the thighs, the pectoral muscles in the chest, and the deltoid muscles of the shoulders, are centered around dynamic mobility. In other words, they’re muscles that allow you to go through a full range of motion. The stabilizing muscles, however, are generally those muscles that are deeper and closer to the joints. These are smaller muscles that include the spinal multifidi, the rotator cuff of the shoulder, and the core musculature of the midsection, and if they’re doing their job properly to stabilize your body while you’re in motion, they also play a major role in energy consumption.
Don’t be fooled, though. While some fitness coaches argue that it’s better to focus on the bigger mobility-oriented muscles because they burn more calories, any weakness or poor functionality in the smaller stabilizers can force the prime movers to pull double duty, making them attempt to both stabilize and move at the same time. This kind of inefficiency can overload one muscle group (prime movers) while robbing another group (stabilizers) of training. This scenario can lead to joint dysfunction and pain, which your body reads as a stressor. When it’s under stress, your body dumps the stress hormone cortisol into your bloodstream. And cortisol keeps packing the flab on around your midsection.
The bottom line is pretty simple. If you want to look good, you’ve got to move well. In order to move well, you have to feel good. In order to feel good, your body has to function well. So to get the most out of your metabolism, both in catabolic, fat-burning reactions and anabolic, muscle-building processes, your training has to involve both dynamic, explosive, gross movements and slow, controlled, precise movements—without pain. Pain is a silent enemy that constantly undermines the effectiveness of our workouts and hampers our metabolic efficiency. So to improve the functionality of your training, make sure you incorporate stability and postural training in addition to your dynamic, high-intensity workouts.
The correct mix of stability and dynamic motor control exercises along with explosive, high-output routines can give your body an incredible boost. By training muscles to perform their correct functions, you work more muscle groups with your exercises, perform those exercises more safely, and dramatically drop your risk of injury. Coordinated functioning of both your stabilizers and your prime movers is the essence of metabolic efficiency. As the stabilizers kick in and increase your caloric burn, not only do they consume more calories through their own action, but they also help the prime movers operate more efficiently with more powerful contractions, creating stronger movement and burning even more calories than ever.
If you want to get past the hump of “those last few pounds,” “the bulge that won’t go away,” or “the little spot I’d love to just tone up a little,” giving your stabilizers a chance to play in concert with your prime movers will set the stage for great movement. And when you move well, you’ll be happy to move more often. As you move more often with metabolically efficient movement patterns, you’ll be able to handle higher-intensity fat-sizzling workouts like P90X® without the cortisol setting you two steps back for every step forward you take. You’ll love how your athletic movements improve, how your quality of life blossoms, and how your lean, healthy, toned body evolves!
- Improved digestion and regularity
- Reduced cravings
By the end of WEEK FOUR
- Increased energy and stamina
- Lost weight
- Improved mental clarity
By the end of WEEK TWELVE
- Lost 10 pounds and 2 inches off waist on average
- Reduced risk for heart disease and other degenerative diseases
- Lowered cholesterol on average by 30% and even up to 70%
- Healthier skin, hair and nails
I truly believe in this product! I recommend giving this product a try and with the Beach Body Bottom-of-the-Bag guarantee if you are not totally satisfied in the first 30 day you can return it for a full refund (less s&h). If you are interested in trying a sample please either message me on teambeachbody.com or send me an email at gshort@shortfam.com
Beach Body Coaching Team!!!
Someone asked me why did you become a BechBody Coach? I didn’t hesitate to tell them the reasons why. It is the feel that you get when helping others. The best way I can explain it is when you do a service project for the needy you get that great feeling. But after the service project you may ask about the people that you helped but in most cases that is the only time you have contact with them, where as when you become a BeachBody you help people though their program for 30, 60, 90 and beyond.
Have you ever thought about the people around you that you could help by sharing a BeachBody product?
Who else is looking to spread the word of health and ready to “END THE TREND”?
Success Story Of the week!!
Please contact with any questions.
Gregory Short – Independent BeachBody Coach
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- Email: gshort@shortfam.com
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