Tag Archives: weight training

What the Heck Is a Turkish Get-Up?

Posted on January 28, 2016 | Comments Off on What the Heck Is a Turkish Get-Up?

I’m going to start doing Turkish get-ups again. I fell out of the habit a couple years ago. Turkish get-ups promote flexibility, balance, joint range of motion, and strength. If you’re just doing the Big Five exercises, TGUs will strengthen some of the smaller muscles (and portions of major muscles) you may be neglecting.

Below are a couple YouTube examples. They are not complete tutorials. You can use a dumbbell or kettlebell. Start with either no weight in your hand, or just a small one. Then work up to higher weights as you get stronger.

These videos may only show how to work one side of the body; you work both sides, of course, and call it a pair. I used to do only five pairs with a 25-lb dumbbell. In weightlifting lingo, you’d call that 1 set of five reps (repetitions). It was exhausting.

Do enough reps and it will be both strength and aerobic training.

Steve Parker, M.D.


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For Seniors on a Weight-Loss Diet, Resistance Training Beats Aerobics for Bone Preservation

Posted on October 11, 2015 | Comments Off on For Seniors on a Weight-Loss Diet, Resistance Training Beats Aerobics for Bone Preservation

…according to an article at MedPageToday.

"One more rep then I'm outa here!"

“One more rep then I’m outa here!”

The two experimental groups had about 60 participants each, so it was a relatively small study. (In general, the larger the study, the more reliable the findings.) Most participants were white women; mean age was 69. The experimental intervention ran for five months. An excerpt:

In one trial, the participants were randomized to a structured resistance training program in which three sets of 10 repetitions of eight upper and lower body exercises were done 3 days each week at 70% of one repetition maximum for 5 weeks, with or without calorie restriction of 600 calories per day.
In the second study, participants were randomized to an aerobic program which was conducted for 30 minutes at 65% to 70% heart rate reserve 4 days per week, with or without calorie restriction of 600 calories per day.

The beneficial bone effect was seen at the hip but not the lumbar spine.

Thin old bones—i.e., osteoporotic ones—are prone to fractures. Maintaining or improving bone mineral density probably prevents age-related fractures. In a five-month small study like this, I wouldn’t expect the researchers to find any fracture rate reduction; that takes years. 

Most elders starting a weight-training program should work with a personal trainer.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Posted in Exercise, Osteoporosis, Overweight & Obesity

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QOTD: Weight Training Versus Gravity

Posted on May 15, 2015 | Comments Off on QOTD: Weight Training Versus Gravity
Average age of study subjects was 71

A good resistance training program will strengthen her bones, improve her balance, and prevent that hip fracture 60 years from now

Adult life is a battle against gravity. Weight training postpones your inevitable defeat.

—Steve Parker, M.D.

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Lou Schuler’s Advice to Weight Training Newbies

Posted on August 24, 2013 | Comments Off on Lou Schuler’s Advice to Weight Training Newbies
Steve Parker MD, Advanced Mediterranean Diet, Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet

Not me or Mr. Schuler

I was glad to see that four of my basic exercises were listed by Schuler as foundational: squat, deadlift, pushup, and row. A little more from him:

Every good training program is based on bedrock principles like progressive overload. You give your body a stimulus. You repeat the stimulus an optimal number of times. And then you give your body the opportunity to recover from it. Every good lifter eventually learns how to apply the principles in a way that works for him or her, but it always starts with the basics: learn the movements, apply the movements, build on the movements.

Every bad training program ignores these fundamentals, but it ignores them in a unique way. Too much stimulus with too little recovery. Too little stimulus with too much recovery. Poor exercise selection for the individual’s abilities and goals.

Read the whole thing.

h/t Yoni Freedhoff, M.D.

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Exercise Does and Doesn’t Help With Weight Loss

Posted on December 1, 2012 | Comments Off on Exercise Does and Doesn’t Help With Weight Loss

With regards to TV’s “The Biggest Loser” show:

The show’s 24-week regimen consists of approximately 4 hours of daily exercise, including 1 hour of intense resistance, 1 hour of intense aerobic activity, and 2 hours of moderate aerobic activity (for example, walking), along with a caloric  intake of at least 70% of estimated resting daily energy expenditure, explained Dr. [Robert] Huizenga, who is a former team physician to the L.A. Raiders football team.

exercise for weight loss and management, dumbbells

If you’re not familiar with resistance training, a personal trainer is an great idea

This is an excerpt from “The Biggest Loser Pushes Envelope on Diabetes,” in Internal Medicine News, vol. 45, No.11, page 17.

In a previous post about The Biggest Loser, I’d written that I didn’t know how much they exercised.

For purposes of discussion, let’s assume the documented major weight losses of Biggest Loser contestants is not simply due to caloric restriction.

Dr. Huizenga shared some of his experience at the recent annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.  In a study of 35 Biggest Loser participants, about half had prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.  Hemoglobin A1c, a measure of blood sugar control, fell significantly in this subset.  Three of the six with diabetes were able to stop metformin early on.  By week 29 of the study, average body mass index for the entire group had fallen from 46 to 29.

Yes, exercise helps with weight loss.  But most folks aren’t willing or able to exercise vigorously for four hours a day.  Physical activity is more important for maintenance of weight loss, when it demands much less time.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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