Get Your Body Right Before You Raise The Intensity

Even if you haven’t seen the billion Marvel superhero movies that have been made in the past few years, chances are you still know the Incredible Hulk. Some of you might even remember Lou Ferrigno (the real Hulk, in my opinion) painted green and smashing bad guys in the late 1970s. Dr. David Bruce Banner didn’t always want to turn into the Hulk and there were definitely circumstances where unleashing the raging green monster might have done more harm than good.

All too often these days, when someone enters an exercise routine to lose fat, to gain muscle, or simply for general fitness, they think that the more intense the workouts, the better. The more calories they cut, the better the fat-loss results will be. The sooner they release the Hulk, the better the outcome. This is, however, not always the case.

At my facility, we like to approach things a little differently. We prioritize health. Before getting into higher intensity, you have to put your body into a position to succeed from a physiological standpoint. Getting healthy first will make fat loss more attainable and more sustainable. Getting healthy first will make it easier to put on muscle and increase performance. There are many benefits to higher-intensity exercise, but only if you are ready for it. You should make sure your body is prepared before you release the monster.

So, how do you know when you are prepared for intensity? There are certain easy metrics that can be taken to let you know when your body can go from least mode to beast mode – and yes, that might or might not be trademark pending.

When you exercise, your body breaks down glucose in a process called glycolysis. The end product of glycolysis is pyruvate (don’t worry, there won’t be a test). In the presence of oxygen, this pyruvate is able to move on to another cycle to produce energy for the body. In the absence of oxygen, this pyruvate is turned into lactate which, along with other metabolites, contributes to fatigue in muscle tissue. This is why your aerobic fitness is so important.

OMRON Evolv Upper Arm BP Cuff

As you sit here and read this article, you are utilizing your aerobic energy system. The more efficient it is, the more energy you have for general life. If you go into a high-intensity workout and your body is not supplying your cells with enough oxygen to support glycolysis, you will fatigue quickly and cause overall stress to the system, thus inhibiting progress.

So how do you know if your aerobic system is up to snuff? Heart rate and blood pressure are good indicators. A lower resting heart rate is usually associated with a higher degree of physical fitness as well as reduced rates of cardiac events. The larger the left ventricle of the heart (the one that does the pumping to the rest of the body), the fewer times it has to pump per minute.

Dr. Jason Wasfy, director of quality and analytics at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center says: “A high resting heart rate could be a sign of an increased cardiac risk in some situations, as the more beats your heart has to take eventually takes a toll on its overall function.” So, if your heart is able to supply all necessary blood (oxygen) in fewer pumps, the better off you are from a fitness standpoint and a health standpoint. Increasing aerobic capacity is the first thing that should be done in fitness programming in order to provide a base for health and support higher-intensity work.

A stronger heart can pump more blood with less effort. If your heart can work less to pump, the force on your arteries decreases, lowering your blood pressure. There are lots of things that can affect blood pressure beyond aerobic capacity and the strength of your heart. Stress is a huge factor in high blood pressure. Healthy lifestyle choices including diet and stress-reduction techniques like meditation and getting out into nature are positive factors in stress reduction.

One of the most underrated elements in health and fitness is quality sleep. Over time, a lack of sleep could hurt your body’s ability to regulate stress hormones, leading to high blood pressure. Sleep also plays an integral role in immune function (recovery), metabolism, mood, and memory. To track blood pressure, I use the OMRON Evolv Upper Arm BP Cuff.

Another great (and often overlooked) indicator of your body’s ability to handle stress or higher intensity work is Heart Rate Variability. HRV is the variance in the time interval between the individual beats of your heart. A healthy heart does not beat with a consistent time interval. Your body’s nervous system is constantly responding to a million different factors that want to slow or speed up your heart rate.

So, an inconsistent beat means that your heart has the ability and flexibility to be very responsive to this stimuli. This gives you a high HRV. High HRV indicates a higher resilience to stress. Low HRV indicates the body is under stress and doesn’t have the ability to adapt to stimuli. A low HRV is not a bad thing when you are exercising, but when you are at rest, you want the resiliency of a high HRV.

To track heart rate and HRV, I use one of two options. To test my HRV in the morning and track my recovery, I use a Morpheus band that wraps around my forearm. I use it during my workout sometimes as well, but if I feel it is going to get in the way I also have a Polar H10 chest strap. Both wirelessly connect to an app on my phone so I can easily record my readings over time.

There are many things you can do to increase HRV, lower blood pressure, lower resting heart rate, and prepare your body for higher-intensity exercise. Increasing aerobic capacity is one of the first things that should be done. When you perform proper aerobic training, you will increase both left ventricular volume and capillary density, which improves blood flow and oxygen delivery to more tissue.

You will also increase mitochondrial proliferation. Mitochondria are the little power houses in your cells. More mitochondria equals potential for more energy production. More oxygen distribution and more efficient energy production equals less stress and a higher HRV.

So, when all of these metrics are in order, you will know you are prepared to move to beast mode and let out the Hulk. When your metrics start to decline, it’s not a bad thing. It means your body is adapting to the stimulus, and you should listen. The Hulk is tired and you should turn back into Bruce Banner. It’s time to back off and enter into least mode for a while until you’re ready again – to unleash the beast.