Longevity Centred Fitness Classes
We have been providing science based programs for Montrealers for over 16 years. We have helped athletes improve performance, women optimize health during pregnancy, people overcome injury and thrive with physical disabilities and have helped hundreds of others go through their health and fitness goals.
Don’t believe the hype – How much muscle do you need for longevity.
You may have noticed the pendulum swinging with the new craze of huge protein consumption rates and big push to gain muscle mass. I came across one woman’s channel trying to convince every woman to bulk up – to go hard against the fear of it. Indeed I have had many women approach me over the past 2 decades for training and say that they don’t want to bulk up. And then you have loads of trainers, including myself that have for years tried to explain how hard it is to truly get bulky. But being aware that it’s difficult doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t do it. It is not, though it would appear many would disagree with me, all good to get huge. There are consequences, amenorrhea being just one of them. But to get attention now, you have to sell the other end of the spectrum, now, instead of simply reassuring that bulkiness is not necessary and also very unlikely without massive changes and effort, we try and sell the bulk, be the bulk, Bulk Smash. Extremes sell but guess what, as always, the answer to most questions lies in the middle, close to our instincts and often less fun to talk about at a party.
Obesity and Pregnancy – the risks to the baby
You can be overweight and still be healthy. You can eat a diet where 80% of your nutrition comes from nutrient dense whole foods and the rest may be processed or ultra processed foods and you will probably still be in pretty good health. Especially if you are adding regular intense exercise and moderating stress and have good sleep hygiene. You can also live this way and have small tweaks in one of these factors and begin to develop health issues. But what often happens is that the slightly overweight person tips over into obesity range and inevitably, the health risks begin to accumulate with no real warning signs. At some point, the accumulation of fat stores throws things out of balance and creates a state of inflammation. This is not an overnight process and so it often goes overlooked for way too long. I am all for being comfortable with how you look but I am more interested in all of us as a society moving towards preventative medicine and using signals like obesity to look for red flags elsewhere is important.
-PROMOTION- Partnered Training Discount
For new clients that start any time in June or July 2024 each person in your pair or trio will have a discounted rate for 6 months of training!
As a precision training studio we shy away from large group classes. There are benefits to working out in groups, some people need the camaraderie in order to maintain commitment, it can be very motivating to workout with others.
We do detailed physical evaluations for every client and 100% of the time the client needs foundational programming and tailored exercises for imbalances and/or goals specific to the individual. This is relatively impossible to achieve in a group setting.
Partnered training seems to allow for the best of both worlds. We get the motivation and healthy competition from training with a partner as well as enough attention from the trainer to prepare and assist with individualized programs. Most of the time we ask clients to come with their own partner. A friend or family member to increases the chances of maintaining accountability- plus it is difficult for us to find other trainees who have the same availability as you may have. Different fitness level between the pair is usually fine. If one of you has a significant injury or a very specific goal that requires a lot of attention then we suggest training individually.
DISCOUNT RATE –
- 35$ per person (3 people) – minimum one session per week
- 40$ per person (2 people) – minimum one session per week
Discount is running through July. New clients only and the rate will remain stable for 6 months.
Increasing VO2max – your best tool to live longer
“Cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no observed upper limit of benefit.” This conclusion comes from a 2018 study published in the journal Cardiology (1) measuring all cause mortality in 122,000 participants under a treadmill based cardiovascular test.
Segmented into groups of cardiovascular health as such – Low, below average, above average, high and elite we can see how shifting from one group to another changes your risk of all cause mortality. For example, if you improve your fitness from low to below average you decrease your risk of mortality by 50%. If you can manage to move from low to above average it will decrease by 60-70%. When comparing this improvement vs the benefits of quitting smoking or reversing diabetes, increasing your cardiovascular fitness actually has a greater impact on mortality risk. These are incredible results. No single action moves the needle more for increasing longevity than improving cardiovascular health.
Exercise protocols to reverse cardiovascular disease
As a follow up to the last article I wanted to provide some information on how to combat heart disease with exercise. There are a couple myths worth dispelling and some very good science on what methods work best for people who are at high risk for an event or who are coming out of hospital, post event
Cumulative Training
I am normally not super interested in what works for the average person. My career started with a succession of failures trying to apply the science of averages to individuals. If there is one thing you learn (hopefully early) as a health coach is that the most important research is the N of 1 kind. In other words, what works for the person in front of you. This still involves looking at all the prevailing research, it’s not just throwing ideas out all willy nilly but it inevitably requires trial and error. So you have to be humble in the process and clear in setting reasonable expectations.