FAQ

A: Yes. SlowBurn exercise is so potent; it stimulates positive adaptations to every aspect of your body, including the cardiovascular system in this short period of time. Once your body is properly stimulated to produce more lean tissue, your body needs time (48-96 hours) to produce the benefits. In other words, you don't get the benefits of exercise when you're exercising. You get the benefits when you are resting. You no longer have to feel guilty if you're not exercising every day! Again, exercise doesn't make you fit or healthy. The body becomes more fit and healthy if the exercise stimulus is adequate and if you allow time for adequate rest and recovery. Quality, not quantity, is the key. The graph below depicts the process.

All of our SlowBurn instructors keep extremely accurate records of your workouts, so we know if you're resting adequately or not. We can show you the specific progress you are making in terms of strength gained, muscle built, and fat lost. There's no guess work at SlowBurn's personal training studios.

A: It is important to understand the difference between aerobic exercise and cardiovascular exercise. Strength training, performed properly, challenges the cardiovascular system more than adequately enough to keep your cardiovascular system healthy – genetics aside (even champion runners can have heart disease and die of heart attacks at an early age). Strength training alone will not make you into a champion runner or swimmer. But you do not need to be an aerobic champion to have a healthy, strong cardiovascular system. If you already enjoy recreational “aerobic” activities, adding SlowBurn to your aerobic activities will allow you to perform these activities better, safer, and for many years to come. Conversely, if you do not enjoy physical activity, don’t worry! SlowBurn is all you need. Along with a healthy diet your doctor will be pleased (and I’ll bet you amazed) with your overall health at checkup time using SlowBurn alone.

A: . The ability to lose body fat is entirely a matter of eating the kinds of foods that help your body maintain normal insulin levels. This is best achieved by reducing the amount of refined carbohydrates and sugars in your daily meals. The reason?

All carbohydrates (e.g., rice, cereals, and fruits) specifically, refined versions (e.g., bread, pasta, cakes, and cookies), increase the production of a hormone called insulin. The two jobs insulin performs are to normalize blood sugar and to put fat in your fat cells while locking it in tightly. Unless you run from NYC to Baltimore after your breakfast of a bowl of oatmeal with skim milk and a banana (i.e., just a big lump of blood sugar), or starve yourself for the rest of the day thereafter, rest assured you're storing excess body fat. So when your insulin levels are chronically elevated, (most individuals' are) you will slowly but surely become overweight or even obese. Calories do matter. But it isn't the total calories per se but the type of calories that matter most. Fat loss is not a numbers game; it's a hormonal game. It is a game easily won by most if you play by the rules of biology..

Exercise has almost no effect on fat loss because most of the energy (calories burned) when exercising comes from the sugars stored within your muscle cells. That's right - most of the energy you used while sweating your tail off yesterday did not come from the fat in your fat cells. We all have been led to believe that the hour we spent on the "dreadmill" yesterday melted some significant amount of fat off our thighs, butts, and guts--but it didn't.

Where exercise, specifically strength training aids a low sugar, insulin normalizing diet is in the preservation and production of lean tissue (i.e., bone and muscle). This allows you to make pleasing improvements to your physique and figure, rather than just turn you into a smaller apple or pear. You desire transformation, not deflation.

A: No. Becoming very muscular like a body builder (or even close to that) is almost impossible for 99% of all people (especially women). You need to have very rare genetics to become overly muscled. Even with such genetics the large muscles you see on most body builders are due to steroid (illegal body enhancing drugs) usage. So don’t worry, you won’t get a neck like a lineman or biceps like Arnold. And men, well, for most of us (me included) your muscles will grow larger but not very much. Your body will change the most if you follow a proper diet to lose fat and follow the SlowBurn exercise regimen.

A: Yes and you should! Of course, always check with your doctor as there are several medical reasons why some women should not exercise at all during their pregnancy. But if your doctor gives you the thumbs up to exercise there is no safer or more effective exercise regimen to stay strong, powerful and back pain free right up to your due date. Pregnant and powerful is the way to be! (Ask your doctor about the few concerns regarding pregnancy and exercise.)

A: Yes and no. SlowBurn exercise will challenge your cardiovascular system to a great degree. Some folks with existing heart disease should not work harder than a certain level. Medical supervision is sometimes necessary even if working at a moderate level of intensity for certain people in case of a cardiac event. Talk to your doctor first to find out how advanced or severe your level of cardiovascular disease is. Follow your doctor’s recommendations on this one closely.

A: It’s possible that some people can do SlowBurn 3-4 times a week especially in the beginning of a program (first 6 months) and get “better” results. This is usually a false perception. Training more often in the beginning can be beneficial for learning purposes but after a time you’ll need to remember a very important concept: exercise is the stimulus for benefits – recovery from the stimulus creates the benefits. Most working, family oriented people are already running on half battery life as it is. Most people like this require more rest from the exercises than those who have little stress in their lives and those who get 8 hours of sound sleep every day (is there anyone out there who actually lives like this?) So stick to your 2 sessions per week. You’ll get adequate exercise and adequate rest keeping to a twice weekly program.

A: Absolutely. Speed is simply another way of saying power or force and power is generated through the muscles. To some degree, speed or the ability to perform athletic activities with great “quickness,” or “speed” is genetically inherited. However, the stronger your muscles become the more force you will be able to generate and thus the faster you will be able to move – in any sport or activity. The idea that a person needs to train fast to be fast is a myth. While it is true that, to some degree, training fast with weights or other supposed speed enhancing devices will make the muscles stronger (and so give the illusion that it was the fast speeds that did the trick), training fast to be fast is about the most dangerous way to go about it! Parents of young athletes should be especially wary of coaches and trainers who require their children to perform such dangerous activities!

A: Yes if the safety rules are applied. Holding your breath increases blood pressure. As long as a person breathes freely at all times the SlowBurn method will improve hypertension. Many studies have shown strength training to have positive effects on blood pressure. And the SlowBurn method is the safest and most effective method of strength training currently known.

A: It is not that stretching is unnecessary. When exercising using the SlowBurn method, you are stretching your muscles to the degree necessary for a healthy range of motion in the joints. Excessive ranges of joint motion seen in gymnasts, dancers, etc. are undesirable for the typical person. Such extreme flexibility can cause joint laxity leading to problems in joint stability. Stretching to achieve such extreme flexibility can also cause injury in the process of stretching. In fact, muscular flexibility is a bit of a misnomer. Joints flex – muscles contract. Full range joint flexibility is desirable. But certain joints like the ball and socket joints (hip and shoulder) have the ability to be stretched past what would be considered normal.

When a muscle contracts, the opposite or antagonist muscle stretches. This will be more than adequate to keep your joints flexible enough for normal everyday tasks. Ever see a dog or cat stretch in the morning? They don’t actually sit there and passively stretch. They actively and strongly contract their muscles which causes a stretch in the opposite ones.

On the other hand, if one was to engage in a sudden, very quick activity like a sprint or a jump, it might first be wise to prepare the muscles for such a sudden burst of activity. SlowBurn has no such sudden movements! SlowBurn will maintain a person’s normal range of joint motion and in some instances enhance it.

A: Absolutely. SlowBurn will improve your results using any exercise device imaginable. Follow the instructions in the book as closely as you can. You’ll be amazed how much better your home device will feel!

A: In a very real sense it is. Think about what you commonly hear and read about exercise. The typical recommendations are as follows: Be active everyday for at least 30-60 minutes, do aerobics, stretching and weights at least three times a week. The question is, where do these come from? Is there any scientific data to back these recommendations up?

The answer is no. And when you look at the data on exercise, as we have at SlowBurn, you find that resistance training, done twice a week for 15-20 minutes a session is all the exercise one needs in order to improve all aspects of your health. See our benefits page for links to the citations that support this statement.