Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption

There appears to be some misunderstanding about whether or not exercise actually continues to burn calories after you're through with your workout. The answer, as near as science can tell, is an unequivocal "Yes".

The scientific term for the phenomena is EPOC - Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. At the finish of your workout, your body attempts to return to it's previous resting state - as well as adapting it to the exercise performed by repairing muscles, building new muscles, increasing bone density (if you lifted weights!) and refueling those muscles by replenishing glycogen stores.

Glycogen is the form of sugar that's actually stored in your muscles. It's the "gas" for your "engine". It powers the brain, heart, other involuntary muscles - just about everything.

During exercise, when more energy is needed, your body converts fat into free fatty acids that get dumped into the blood stream where they can be used as fuel (along with the glycogen). At the end of the workout, they help energize the repair process, helping the body rebuild and recover. Any unused free fatty acids are reconverted back into fat for later use.

(Or storage. Sigh.)

Studies have shown that the EPOC effect is greatest immediately after exercise and slowly tapers away. This raised metabolism, in one study, was still observable as long as 38 hours after the workout, but in general the effect has diminished substantially by between 3 to 14 hours after your exercise.

Anaerobic exercise seems to cause EPOC to a greater extent than aerobic exercise does. That means that lifting causes it more than running. And, it appears that increasing either the length of time spent exercising or the intensity of the exercise (or both!) increases the EPOC effect.

Bottom line? Exercise not only burns calories NOW, but it continues to burn them at a better than resting rate for several hours after your workout. And... stored fat IS used for fuel during your exercise - but whatever isn't needed for muscle repair and rejuvenation is sent back into storage.

Our Kids Won't Outlive Us?

Wow. I heard that on the news this morning. With the rising obesity rates among children, their projected lifespans are MUCH shorter. Fat kids become fat adults that not only die younger, but have many more health problems along the way, dooming themselves to a lesser quality life than what our generation had.

Luckily, there's still time, but it's going to need a large shift in thinking among parents. Years ago, kids just got up and ran around the neighborhood for 6, 7 or even 8 hours a day. We climbed trees, crawled under bushes, played tag and even "ghost in the graveyard" if we could get the whole neighborhood to stay out after dark.

Has your kid ever climbed a tree?

The thinking shift that's needed by parents is to realize that THEY have to get their kids involved in as much physical activity as possible. It's simply NOT happening by itself - and school gym classes alone are NOT doing the job.

I almost hate to see Michelle Obama's new "Let's Move" initiative, not because it's not needed (it is!) but because it will probably politicize the whole thing and Republican kids (Are there such things? Really?) won't be allowed by their parents to participate.  Sigh.  What a world.

We started offering a Kid's Fitness program several months ago, allowing our Demo Team to test drive the exercises and activities. They are having a blast - and really challenging themselves with body weight exercises, throwing and lifting kid-size weights and balls - and plenty of running, stretching and jumping, too.

Designed by owner/instructor (and Registered Nurse!) Carolyn Schulenburg, Kid Fitness is 45 minutes of solid exercise. There is also some solid nutrition information - along with a few recipes for sharing Good Food with parents.  Our BootCamp Fitness program is based around a large nutrition component and we're presenting this same information in a Kid Friendly format with weekly handouts and Mat Chats.

We've started with a single class (Saturday mornings) and will expand as needed to help kids get more exercise and help with learning to eat better.

Please give Carolyn a call at 815-334-9662 to schedule your trial class. There is no charge for the introductory lesson, simply come prepared in workout clothes.