Most people assume that getting into shape, or staying in shape, requires a combination of hours and hours of exercise and strict meal plans.  Not true.

In fact too much training and a restriction of your food intake can be more damaging and counterproductive in the long run.  Also, apart from anything else, this kind of approach is just not sustainable for the majority of people.

For many, the best advice that I would give them would be to exercise less and eat more! Yes, really!

How my training has changed

In the ‘About me’ section of this website, there is a little bit of information about my sports background and how an injury led me in a different direction with my training.  But that was then and this is now.

Things change.  My lifestyle is different, I’m older, my priorities have shifted.  The only thing that hasn’t changed is my interest in body science, how to biohack my systems and my obsession with health/fitness/nutrition related self experimentation.

So, what’s it to be this time?

After about 8 weeks of absolutely no strength training at all, in fact no training whatsoever, I thought it would be a good idea to hatch a new fitness plan. My family and I moved to Hong Kong from Switzerland just over two weeks ago and it’s obviously going to take some time to get established into our new routines.

We also want to spend as much time as we can exploring our new city and socialising with a new network of friends.  With that said, that’s not going to leave much time for training.

So, what’s the answer?

My aim is to find the minimal effective dose of exercise and an optimal nutrition strategy to regain and improve on the strength that I have lost over the last few months.  Bearing in mind I am in my 40’s which makes things slightly more difficult from a hormonal standpoint, it’s going to be an interesting experiment.

Technically, I could work out for an hour a day, if I wanted to.  But….I don’t want to.  Been there, done that, and although I loved it at the time, I was training purely for performance and was hugely motivated by my improvements in my athletic events.

Like I said earlier, things change.  I also want it to be an encouraging experiment for those of you that think you do; have to join a gym; work out endlessly or excessively restrict what you are allowed to eat.

So what does the program look like?

That’s my next task after finishing this blog…to design my minimal effective dose training plan.

My super simple nutrition program

I say it so many times but without a good nutrition strategy, exercise doesn’t really work that well, especially when it comes to changing your body composition or increasing your strength.

But, as with my training plan, I’m keeping it simple.  I won’t be following a specific nutritional plan as such, just sticking to the basic rules that have worked for me over years of self experimentation.

Rules in nutrition are more flexible than plans, which is what you need if something is going to become a way of life for you.  For sustainable results and to be successful you can’t look at any training or nutrition project as a short term fix.  It doesn’t work like that. Once you have learnt the rules that work for you in any given situation, you are well on your way to finding a solution that you can sustain in the long term.

  

One of my favourite books, that I read from cover to cover on a flight from London to New York, and numerous times since then, is The 4 hour Body by Tim Ferris.  The whole concept of the book is about an obsessive quest to ‘hack’ the human body using the tiniest of changes to produce the biggest results.

“The minimum effective dose (MED) is defined simply: the smallest dose that will produce a desired outcome…. Anything beyond the MED is wasteful. To boil water, the MED is 212°F (100°C) at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it ‘more boiled’. Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive.

If you need 15 minutes in the sun to trigger a melanin response, 15 minutes is your MED for tanning. More than 15 minutes is redundant and will just result in burning and a forced break from the beach…”

Measuring results with a DEXA Scan

How will I know if my experiment has worked and to what extent?  Obviously I need a ‘before’ and ‘after’ set of data.

My strength endurance and muscular strength can be measured by performing a series of specific exercises related to both of these fitness components at the beginning of the program and at the end so that’s fairly simple to track.

But, I wanted to be a bit more specific and so have therefore arranged to have a DEXA (Duel energy x-ray absorptiometry) scan which will give me a detailed analysis of my body composition.

It is a simple and easy 10 minute test that will measure the exact breakdown of bone mass, fat tissue and muscle mass and pinpoint these in specific parts of my body.  It is the preferred method trusted by medicine research, and sports labs around the world.

I will repeat the DEXA Scan at the end of my experiment to compare results.

Let’s get started

I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen and the difference I can make with the minimal amount of effort.  Watch this space for the initial DEXA Scan results and the training plan/nutrition rules I will be following.

Let me know if you’re interested in a similar plan designed just for you and your lifestyle commitments.

bex@my360lifestyle.com