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CASE STUDY: LEAH, 35 YEARS OLD POST PARTUM

Leah is a 35-year-old new Mom who wants to lose about 15 more pounds of fat. She’s started eating fresh foods and she just started at the gym. She really enjoys attending Zumba 3x per week. Unfortunately she hasn’t seen much change for doing this. She’s even added in running but seen minimal change.

Before we address training, we need to make sure that Leah is getting as much sleep as she can with a newborn. Leah also needs to make improving her nutrition a priority if she wants to lose fat.. She must have enough fuel for her workouts and her life. Her past history of dieting has never been sustainable and she is ready to commit to lifestyle change. She will be utilizing the 5 Nutrition Principles and she will not be starving herself. Nutrition Principles seen below.

Nutrition Principles

  1. Fresh is Best: Eat Fresh Foods. Minimize the Processed Foods
  2. Stay Hydrated: Drink Water
  3. Eat Breakfast: Make sure fats and proteins are always included in breakfast and other meals
  4. Regulate Alcohol Intake
  5. Minimize sugar intake (10 g or less on the label)

What should her Cardio Program Look Like?

We will be utilizing traditional Aerobic exercise such as Bike, Treadmill, and Stepmill but we will also be utilizing bodyweight and strength training circuits to increase her heart rate and help build lean tissue to increase metabolism.

  1. Find her Maximum Heart Rate. You can look for easy formulas on line to plug in and play.
    Encourage her to buy a HR monitor for objective measurements
  2. Set up her Cardio Training Program
    • Since Leah is new to HIIT training, I want her to build a base first. This most likely
      will be very challenging and also uncomfortable. It takes time to get the rhythm
      together
    • This program will last for about 6 weeks and then I would make changes such as
      using strength training complexes, interval workouts, and other modalities to
      switch things up.

casestudy-chart

Bottom Line: Programming is CRUCIAL in order to see results. The issue I see with most gym Goers is that there is no Programming. There’s just throw things together, work up a sweat, and go home.

HIIT TRAINING

I am a big fan of High Intensity Interval Training. It’s a short and to the point workout and it gets you
GOING. Make no mistake about it though: It is tough! I do a 10-minute HIIT workout as part of my own fat loss program and it is the LONGEST 10 minutes ever. I wanted to highlight some FAQ’s about HIIT training.

Benefits of HIIT

  1. Works from the cellular level – HIIT increases the mitochondria, which are the energy center of a
    cell. The increase in mitochondrial density increases the amount of energy available to the
    working muscle meaning you can run longer…faster.
  2. Leads to more effective fat burning and carbohydrate breakdown: In the February 2012 IDEA
    Fitness Journal it was reported that with HIIT training: Fat Burning was significantly higher after
    6 weeks of interval training (Perry 2008)
  3. In as little as 2 weeks, there was a significant shift in fat burning after 2 weeks (Talanian 2007)
  4. Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption or “Afterburn”: After an exercise session, oxygen
    consumption is elevated as your body tries to recover from your session. What’s also elevated?
    Your caloric expenditure. This means that even after your workout is finished you are still
    burning calories at an elevated rate.

Isn’t that awesome! Less time and also a great Return on Investment.

Some Caution about HIIT

It’s not supposed to be done every day.
More is not better. High Intensity Interval Training is awesome but it is also strenuous. You should not be able to perform 5 HIIT sessions in a week. If you are, then I doubt you are doing true HIIT. It takes a toll on your body as it should. It’s high intensity exercise.

Save your joints and other tissues and only perform HIIT workouts at a maximum of twice per week. I have noticed some gyms and these boot camps offering HIIT workouts 5x per week. Think of this as the Law of Diminishing Returns. More = Diminishing Recovery and performance. Remember: You should be working on other components of fitness in addition to HIIT and as I said to avoid injury and improve performance.

Don’t start off with HIIT if you’re brand new to exercise
I have watched clueless trainers start a new client off with intense exercising. This is after the client told them they sit all day and haven’t exercised in 3 years, but they want to show off so they preach “HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING” during the session. One Word: No. First you need to improve form, technique, range of motion, movement patterns, and conditioning before launching into HIIT. Give yourself about 8-12 weeks before incorporating a HIIT workout into your routine.

Start slowly and add from there
10 minutes is plenty to start off with and then you can add gradually. I really don’t believe in anything longer than 20 minutes. After you are finished, then you can finish up with some lower intensity steady state cardio to give the joints a break and to allow yourself to recover. Your heart rate will remain high and you will still be burning calories at a higher level.

Cardio is a TOOL in your fat loss but not the be all end all for fat loss. The purpose of Cardio is not fat loss. It’s purpose is to strengthen your heart and improve blood flow. It’s to improve your cardiovascular health.