Magic Pill and Fountain of Youth

by Quantify Fitness | Last Updated:  June 24, 2020

Become a Time Billionaire

There are 31,536,000​ seconds in a year. Being able to spend significantly less time on something like evidence-based exercise—that can reverse aging and extend lifespan—is how you get more time to do the things you love and become a time billionaire​.

Rich people have money. Wealthy people have time.

The closest thing to a magic pill or fountain of youth is high-intensity resistance training. When done safely, it is hands down the best form of exercise due to the number of benefits it provides. Everyone should be doing it!

High-intensity resistance training is brief, intense, requires ample recovery, and has more positive effects on the body than prolonged or low-intensity exercise.

There's nothing inherently wrong with jogging, walking, playing tennis, etc., but we consider those recreation, movement, or sport. Exercise should make you stronger and do more than just improve your cardio. Ultimately, low-intensity activities don't stimulate the body to grow, therefore making them less effective.

No Running Required, But What About Cardio?

There's a misconception that you need to run to improve your cardio. The reality is, high-intensity resistance training causes your body to create new mitochondria—the power plants in your cells—allowing your aerobic metabolism to become much more efficient at using oxygen and resulting in improved cardiovascular health. These new mitochondria also help you become more efficient at burning fat, slow down the aging process, and increase your energy.

Some people are born to run. They can pound the pavement their entire life without any running-related injuries or health problems. But many others only run because they believe it's what they should do to achieve their health and fitness goals.

The most common reason for running is, “I want to run because I want to lose weight.”

Running is an ineffective way to sustainably lose weight. Let's say you burn 600 calories while running because you think that's what you need to do to shed some pounds. It's ineffective because it's still relatively little compared to what you're taking in every day, and you're only burning calories while you run, not after.

Your body is smart and over time it will adjust your metabolism to slow down so it can fuel up and account for this calorie-burning activity. If you ever stop running you're now stuck with a slower metabolism that makes it easier to put body fat back on.

This is why you'll never see a Biggest Loser reunion show. A 2016 study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) followed 14 former Biggest Losers and found that 13 regained a significant portion of the weight they lost on the show and four of the former contestants were even heavier.

Another potential drawback is running expenses calories, expenses your energy stores, and makes you hungry—so now you've eradicated your run by getting donuts, or whatever your body craves because your energy stores are being used in an inefficient manner when you run.

It's not about the calories burned DURING exercise—it's about the calories burned AS A RESULT OF exercise.

Instead of looking at calories burned during exercise, look at the amount of strength and muscle gained. High-intensity resistance training will help you gain muscle, and that muscle is metabolic currency.

By simply adding another pound of muscle, your calories required to maintain bodily functions are higher than before, meaning you burn more calories all day long!

Muscle works for you all the time—not just during exercise.

Activities like running where you're not building muscle, or even dieting with the absence of resistance training, can lead to indiscriminate weight loss: fat, muscle, bone, water…it all goes.

We don't want to say never run but just understand what the benefits are and why you're doing it.

And If you run for sport but don't do resistance training, you'd be shocked at the improvements you can make in your run times by adding one 10-minute high-intensity resistance training workout per week, especially in Nashville where that extra power can help you crush those hills!

Benefits of High-Intensity Resistance Training

More strength and better cardio are only a couple benefits. Science has proven many others:

• Better endurance
• Reversed aging and a longer lifespan
• Better mental health and resiliency
• Stronger bones – we all start to lose bone and muscle as we age, but resistance training can slow down and reverse osteopenia and sarcopenia
• Lower blood pressure
• Improved fat loss and increased metabolism (additional calorie-burning) – your body burns over twice as many calories to support muscle than it does for fat
• Blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity – this one is huge for reducing body fat and managing diabetes
• Better joint flexibility
• Improved cholesterol – higher HDL
• Reduced risk of injury
• Better balance
• Hormone optimization
• Improved immune system
• Better brain health and cognitive performance
• Reduced pain like back pain and arthritis
• Elevated body image

Why Doesn't Everyone Do Resistance Training?

The most common objections are:

• Not enough time
• Not knowing what to do to get results
• Not enjoying going to the gym to lift weights
• Fear of injury

We solve all of those problems at Quantify Fitness with ARX, Vasper, and CAR.O.L—without sacrificing safety or effectiveness—and it only takes minutes a week! Each one in different ways allows your body to get all the benefits of high-intensity resistance training in the shortest amount of time.

It's not about how much exercise your body can withstand—it's about how little it actually requires—this is called the minimum effective dose.

Similar to medicine, if there's an effective dose of 50 milligrams, taking 200 milligrams isn't necessarily better. It's the same with exercise. It needs to be the right dose, and there can be too much.

Too much activity, too much recreation, or too much of any movement can impact your body and its performance. You want to strive to give your body that minimum effective dose.

Exercising smarter means quality over quantity.

That's what Quantify Fitness is all about!

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