The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week (27 page)

Another way to consider the importance of regular movement is by understanding a simple equation from physics.

WORK = FORCE X DISTANCE

This is the single most important tool I use when talking about how your body can burn more calories and thus fat. Here, work represents how many calories your body burns. Force is the amount of weight moved, and distance is, well, the distance covered.

Based on this equation, you end up doing more work if you either:

•
Move more weight (that’s why we lift heavier in our workouts) or

•
Move a given weight over a greater distance (that’s why we use full-body movements)

It’s really that simple. Knowing this, you can see why a 400-pound person will likely lose more weight than a 150-pound person following the same exercise plan. The former simply has much more weight (force) to carry over the same distance. Let’s compare three simple scenarios of basic physical activity. Again, these are completely separate from your focused, intense workouts.

Scenario #1:
You weigh 200 pounds and spend all day sitting.

Scenario #2:
You weigh 200 pounds and walk 10,000 steps (5 miles, or 8,000 meters) per day.

Scenario #3:
You weigh 200 pounds and walk 10,000 steps per day wearing a 10-pound knapsack.

Intuitively, you probably know which scenario will yield the most work and thus burn the most calories, right? Scenario #3, because the amount of force generated is greater over the same distance as Scenario #2. In order to help you move more consistently, I’ve included a little challenge below for you to follow.

The Micromovement Challenge

•
Do 25 bodyweight squats first thing in the morning when you get up.

•
Plank for the duration of one commercial break when you’re watching TV.

•
Run to the mailbox or to the nearest stop sign.

•
Run up and down the stairs three times each day.

•
Do 10 pushups before breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

•
Stand up and do 5 lunges after every 20 minutes of sitting.

Will you take me up on the challenge?

Most people gain weight over several years or decades because of small, unconscious habits (eating one or two chocolates a day, grabbing a Starbucks milkshake—er, I mean Frappuccino—every morning, etc.). You can reverse that trend and lose that weight by incorporating
some
of these micromovements into your day. Keep in mind that these movements are not a replacement for your workouts. They are simply tools to keep your body active throughout the day.

As a baseline during this program, you should be walking at least 30 minutes every day. However, walking should not be considered your workout; it’s basic physical activity. When it comes down to it, it’s a foundational requirement just like breathing is for bringing oxygen into your body. There should be no negotiation. No matter what, find a way to walk every single day. Get a dog if you have to.

But there’s even more you can do.

MOBILITY EXERCISES AND DEEP-TISSUE WORK

Have you spent a few minutes before a workout or sporting event stretching because you thought you were loosening up your muscles? I’m sure you’ve seen professional athletes doing the same. Sad to say, it’s an archaic method of preparation and really doesn’t do much good at all. What does work, however, are mobility exercises and deep-tissue work, as they improve your range of motion and work out built-up tension throughout your body, respectively. You can think of them as being a part of the same “movement family” as your daily micromovements. Better yet, think of these two strategies as having a personal physiotherapist and massage therapist on call 24/7.

It boggles my mind when I see elite athletes and seasoned gym goers stretching for 20 minutes before their workouts. It’s not that stretching is terrible, but it’s been well proven at this point that if you’re going to stretch, you should do it when your body is warm, not before your workouts. Instead, this is the time to be getting your body mobile, loose, and limber. Other than doing static stretching during your yoga class or on its own when your body is warm, stretching is pretty much dead. It really doesn’t help much with mobility, and worse yet, it can significantly hinder your workout performance and even increase your risk of injury.

A 2013 study in the
Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
examined
two groups performing either a dynamic warmup or static stretching before a maximal lift workout. The study found that the latter suffered a significant decrease in strength and stability during the subsequent workout.
³
In another recent (and massive) study, researchers pooled data from 104 studies on this topic and conclusively found that static stretching before activity should be avoided because it decreases strength and power.
⁴

So why do we continue to stretch before physical exertion? I guess it’s because we feel it’s going to prevent an injury, but that’s really just another myth that needs to be busted. A review in the
Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine
of a number of other studies revealed that there is no injury-preventing benefit to doing any form of static stretching before a workout. And in the studies that do show any benefit, it’s usually because a proper warmup was done as well.
⁵

Why does stretching hamper performance and not make you bulletproof to injury, even though we’ve been told otherwise for decades? Well, we don’t fully understand, but part of the problem is that stretching actually does loosen muscles and their accompanying tendons. However, in the process, it also makes them less able to store energy and spring into action. Plus, having lax muscles and joints is not what you want before activity. You want stability and support.

When you’re doing
dynamic stretching,
you’re not just lengthening a specific muscle like you do with static stretching. Instead, dynamic stretching incorporates exercises that take you through ranges of motion to improve posture control, stability, and balance and get your muscles warm for the upcoming workout. If you want to feel more supple, then mobility work is imperative, especially when you’ve spent a lot of time sitting on your butt, which, if you think about it, is actually a form of static stretching. Hold one position for any length of time and certain muscles will stretch while their opposing muscle groups will shorten.

The good news about dynamic stretching is that it doesn’t have to be done only when you work out. Heck, I start every single morning with some form of dynamic-stretching routine. Here are a few of my favorites.

LEG SWINGS

This is a great movement for opening up your hips and hamstrings.

Hold on to a wall or fixed surface (or do this move without support for an added stability challenge). Swing one leg back and forth as if you’re kicking a soccer ball. Do about 10 swings on each side.

LUNGE WALKS

Since this movement exaggerates the walking, running, or walking up stairs motion, it has a lot of everyday applications and increases mobility throughout your entire hip area.

Step forward using a long stride, keeping the front knee over or just behind your toes. Lower your body so that your back knee hovers just above the floor. Then push forward, take a giant step, and repeat with the opposite leg.

INCHWORMS

These might actually be my favorite dynamic exercise of all time, as they target the entire backside of your body and open up a lot of muscles that get stiff with prolonged sitting. It’s actually a dynamic version of vinyasa flow yoga.

Starting in a Downward Dog position on your hands and feet, walk your feet as far forward as possible while keeping your legs straight. Then, walk your hands out, extending your body into a pushup position, and lower toward the floor, arching your back so that your head and shoulders reach to the sky. Then, flow back into Downward Dog. Walk your feet in again and repeat 5 times.

So what does any of this have to do with burning fat? Everything. After all, taking care of your body is essential for feeling good and being in optimal condition on a day-to-day basis. It creates a scenario in which you feel like working out on a consistent basis. See, when I tweaked my low-back muscles after that deadlift workout I mentioned earlier, I was sidelined for about a week. All I did was ice, heat the area (with a hot water bottle), do daily mobility exercises, foam roll, massage the muscles, and anything else that could speed the recovery process and help me stay limber.

But I certainly couldn’t work out. And if you’re sidelined due to injury or just feeling sore all the time, then you certainly won’t want to work out either. That becomes a problem because it tips the scale in favor of you storing more calories, instead of burning them. You have to take care of your body.

Considering all that I’ve said about stretching and even the Downward Dog pose, you might be wondering: Is yoga worthwhile or a waste of time?

You
might be surprised, but I’m actually a huge fan of yoga, especially hot yoga. I’ve done yoga for more than a decade now, and although I don’t spend 3 hours a day going to yoga class like I used to, I still do my own version on most days. And really, just a few minutes is all you need. But again, do this separately from your workouts. I prefer to do my yoga routine first thing in the morning. It limbers up my body, focuses my mind, and helps me kick off the day just right. Actually, you’ll never guess where I’ve made the most use of yoga: It was during my time working with the men’s soccer team at the University of Toronto.

I’ll never forget the first session I took the team through. In front of me, I had 22 guys who were as stiff as boards and looking at me like my name was Charles Manson. We gathered in a big circle around the middle of the field, me in the center, leading the way. At first, many of the guys tried to smother their laughs as I took them through Downward Dog and various flows. Then, after we finished our 20-minute session, they were shocked at how good they felt. Their legs felt lighter, many aches and pains had diminished, and their minds were more focused.

I sold our coaching staff on the need to do yoga with our team three times per week. We started preseason, and by the time our season had begun, not a single one of our starting players was sidelined. It was a much different picture than in the past, when nearly half our team, at some point of the season, was sidelined with a preventable injury. By doing regular yoga just three times per week, we reduced injury rates by 82 percent! Combined with a smart conditioning program I had the guys follow during the off-season, we were stronger and more resilient than ever. It just so happened that we won the provincial (state) championship that year and finished fourth at nationals. Not bad, if you ask me.

Yoga is terrific, and it can actually be a form of dynamic stretching if you move through the poses in a fluid manner. So by all means, enjoy it to the fullest. Plus, the stress-relieving powers of yoga cannot be overlooked. Anything that lowers stress in your body will help turn it into a fat burner instead of a fat storer.