I really loved the article and it answered so many of my questions like how can your body get used to being "active" if you only use it for 30 minutes every 3 days. I would think your body would feel stressed. I found myself more fit to walk to work every day than go to the gym for three days. I find myself getting outside more on the weekends to.

I feel awesome when volume/frequency of exercise is up. Like.. when we go on hiking trips for example. We're hiking hard and heavy up steep mountains for like 6 hours a day, every day... your body adapts to the amount of stress you give it, within reason. I could not, for example, lift heavy weights to failure every day. But I can do exercises, or weights NOT to failure every day. As intensity increases.. frequency and volume have to decrease. I feel much fitter and better doing sprints (as hard and heavy as I possibly can) onlu once a week, decreasing the intensity slightly for 2-4x a week for my other sprints, walking other days, and doing upper body exercises every day....perhaps hitting the uper body really hard once every week or two, then giving it enough time to recover before doing more.
Just chiming in with my own experience.

Hi m~nien!

It's great that you are building up a lot more stamina. Have you tried water exercise? It's wonderful to move without pressure on my joints. I'm not a very good swimmer, I like to walk - or bounce! in the water. Lots of fun!

I have a concern for you ... do you actually have gout? It's one of the few disorders that eating low carb can make worse. Here's a link to Dr. Atkins' website for more information ... Click Here

Gout is caused by a build up of uric acid. Here are some of the things that cause it to develop:

* Higher than normal levels of uric acid can be part of the inherited make-up of some families
* Obesity
* High alcohol intake
* Some of the drugs used to treat high blood pressure.
* Less commonly, longstanding kidney disease may result in high blood levels of uric acid.
* High intake of food containing purines (Offal foods such as liver, kidneys, tripe, sweetbreads and tongue; red meat; Shellfish, fish roe and scallops; Peas. lentils and beans.)

Good luck!

****Edited to add ... I just read your profile and see you're doing CAD. I'm doing a different diet, so I don't know if the same applies for you. Maybe it's just something to bring up to your doctor, just in case.

Thanks for the post AntiM.
Yes I do have gout, but just on the big toe of the left foot. I don't think the diet hurts any. In fact I've been noticing some improvement. That could be because that big toe supports a lot less weight now.
On a new note. I have had to skip my exercise the past 2 days and will probably skip them again today. Tuesday morning I started working to fix a weak spot in the floor of our home. I spent 7 hours taking up linoleum and moulding etc, and at the end of the day when I quit work I was in pain. I started again to work on the floor yesterday and worked 4 hours and had to quit because I was hurting. I guess it's the arthritis or something. It feels like it's in my hip joints. I'm still sore this morning. Made a trip to Wal-Mart and did some walking there to losen up the joints and it helped some. the walk from the parking lot to the store and the shopping around is about all the walking I want.
The water sounds good. My wife tried that for awhile. but she is too short and the water too deep. She was in a senior water aerobics class. The big old girls made such big waves my wife would get a mouth full of water every time she tried to breath.

What a wonderfully honest article.

I really needed to hear that. Just this week I made a goal to get up every morning and to 15 min of exercise. I'm doing the walk away the pounds, one mile. This is a big step for me. I hate mornings. But after reading that article it really makes sense. I had been thinking how is it that 15 minutes can really make a difference. I kept going back and forth thinking some is better than nothing. But now I know that is not true. I'm going to change my goal, get up earlier and do that 30 minutes of exercise. I will start doing the 2 mile walk. That some is really better than nothing. I needed to hear this.

Thank you
Deana

Well I hate to rain on everyones' parade but I thought the article was not only long but it stunk!!! It totally reminds me of the negative, ignorant and dishonest articles I've been constantly reading about the low-carb diets for the past 5+ years. You know...the ones that said they don't work and they're unhealthy!

I've been an avid exerciser for over 20 years. I've recently found out that "you can achieve greater results in less amount of time by working out more intensely. I've been doing the Power of 10/SlowBurn workouts for the past 10 weeks and got better results than doing 5 one hour workouts a week for the past 9 years. They're two books that describe the same method (like Atkins and Protein Power describes the same diet). The Power of 10 book by Adam Zickerman advises a BFL type diet while the SlowBurn by Fred Hahn endorses the Eades and Protein Power (and vice versa).

I am interested in hearing more about what you have to say. When you say "better results" what do you mean? And do you believe that for overall health purposes (not bodybuilding necessarily as it is not 100% functional, but more aesthetic) it is better for humans to be inactive most of the time, save for a few hours a week where they exercise with maximal effort?

I don't believe you read the article thoroughly, or at least understood what it was saying.

Better results = I'm much stronger and even have a better aerobic capacity and I only do 2 40 minute strength workouts a week. As for your comments about weight training not being 100% functional but more aesthetic, that's absolutely and totally untrue. Just ask trainer Dan on this site about that. I have two jobs that require a lot of physical strength and stamina and weight training has been a Godsend.

I'm pretty sure I understood the article even though I did not read it entirely. These parts are clearly meant to be about and totally misrepresent the method I do. I do P10 and SlowBurn 40 minutes twice a week but you can eventually do them for 30 minutes once a week with practice. I'm still in the learning stage. SlowBurn is done by some members on this site. Just do a search for the threads.

I said that aesthetics was involved in bodyuilding, not weight training. There is a difference. I don't need to run to Trainer Dan to know that weight training is functional in life. But different training produces different results, and there is not only one kind of strength training. (40 mins, 2x weeks) If you would like to get into a discussion about the different types of strength training versus bodybuilding perhaps you can start a new thread. Maybe, bodybuilding versus powerlifting versus strength training for martial artists or rock climbing or gymnastics or even someone who likes to play soccer on the weekend and be in top shape.
They're not one in the same, and 2 40 minute workouts would not be adequate for a gymnast or martial artist - though done properly it can produce a muscular physique with increasing weights in specific lifts which will transfer to day to day activities.

If you have a job that requires a lot of physical strength and stamina you're obviously doing a lot more work than your 80 mins a week of strength training. I don't doubt that your workouts are 100% effective for you and your goals, but for someone who leads a sedentary lifestyle (many of us) besides the effort that they make to go to a gym or work out, 80 minutes is not always going to cut it for aesthetics, and certainly not for over all health.

In order to build muscle, you must weight train...body builder, athlete or not. I'm aware of many types of weight training (I've done them myself). That's not the point of this thread. I'm not talking about professional athletes here I'm talking about the regular people that you mentioned. The article you posted criticized the programs where you can get into optimal physical shape in less amount of time and I'm refuting that. Sedentary people "can" get into optimum shape "and" health in 80 minutes (and less) a week. I follow one of these programs myself and it works. As for my jobs, yes I'm doing some extra exercise since I'm on my feet all day and occaisionally lift heavy objects but I am not weight training and building muscle. In fact, other people who do my type of work must be in somewhat decent physical shape in order to prevent many long time injuries of the back, feet, shoulders, wrists, etc The job itself does not build muscle.