Photo: Alora Griffiths, Unsplash
Exercise Is A Powerful “Drug”. That Keeps Getting Truer With Time:
So even though the show “Aerobicise” was a masterpiece, not all thinking in the 1980s was genius.
For example: Exercise is just simple movements that do simple things.
But it seems the Ancient Greeks were cleverer than Ron Harris.
It was their idea that The Ideal Man, should be both yoked and shredded.
And since it was Aristotle who solved nearly-everything when it comes to personal psych, anxiety, friends, etc.
We shouldn’t be surprised that their keen intuitive sense caught-on to another implicit truth.
-That modern researchers are just catching up to, with surprising work on just how good weightlifting can be for you…
The Short Answer:
- Sometimes intuitive answers are the right ones.
- Exercise is not just the simple act of burning calories or building muscle.
- The VT team conducted an 8 week trial on mice fed a Western-style high-fat diet.
- Three groups were either sedentary, weightlifters, or runners.
- The runners lost body-fat and won all the cardio awards.
- The weightlifters had better blood-sugar & insulin-resistance control in 3 significant ways.
- Insulin-resistance is a big problem for T2 diabetics and anyone with too much fat or weight.
- Weightlifters also lost fat, including a very dangerous type that collects around the organs.
- They also managed that feat somehow miraculously without gaining any real muscle mass!
- The whole effect happened at the cellular-level via some biochemistry magic.
- The researchers also mentioned this doesn’t mean you should stop cardio.
- Doing both is even better for lifespan.
Read on to find out the details…
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The Real Gains Come From Magic, Not Sweat:
-And that isn’t just the old, “Pick things up and put them down.”
It isn’t Do Exercise: Burn Cals.
It isn’t even about getting yoked.
The real gains come from Biochemistry Magic that’s right up there with the best weight-loss diets we currently have.
Runs And Squats For Lab Mice Means Fat Loss And More!:
So, in an 8 week trial, VT researchers fed lab mice a Western-like high-fat diet and had them exercise or stay sedentary.
The exercise groups were split into cardio and weights.
And while the group of runners logged an impressive 10.5km/day,
The weight-lifting mice eventually squatted 240% of their body-weight after a gradual ramp-up.
As we’ve hinted so far, the mice didn’t just burn calories.
They also lost body-fat and changed their blood-chemistry in unexpected ways.
Somehow, Some Way, Weightlifting Was Better For Body-Fat And…:
The running mice did reduce fat and win all the cardio tests.
But somehow bizarrely, the weightlifter mice had better blood-sugar in almost every possible way.
They cleared-out new introductions of blood-sugar faster and healthier than the two other populations.
Their bodies also handled insulin in much better ways than the other groups,
And wildly-better than anyone expected.
It Also Solves A Really Insidious Problem – Insulin Resistance!:
Here’s why that’s amazing.
1) People with [type 2] diabetes have problems with insulin-resistance
2) Obese and overweight people have problems with insulin-resistance
3) Anyone with excess body-fat is also probably experiencing insulin-resistance
X) So fixing insulin-resistance? SEVEN MINUTE ABS!!!
And if you wanted more amazing? I’ll give you one guess what other biochemistry magic reduces insulin-resistance.
And if you put two and two together, you wouldn’t be surprised that by that same magic, weightlifting also resulted in something super-healthy.
It significantly-reduced a type of dangerous body-fat that collects around the organs and causes them to overheat. [nerds: Visceral]
The Results Even Happened Without More Muscle! -Wait, WHAT?:
Even though the weightlifters are winning this battle,
Cardio has been considered the gold-standard exercise forever, and the running mice did get their own little magic.
They ended-up creating more of a special type of calorie-burning tissue called Brown Fat or BAT.
But what’s even wilder about the weightlifting mice is they didn’t really gain muscle mass.
And the chemical magic all happened at the cellular-level for them.
-Which was another surprise-complication shocker.
Because everyone, researchers included, would probably just assume: More Muscles=More Burn.
-Nope!
Keep Up The Cardio, Anyway. -Because You’ll Live Longer:
But regardless of the amazing results, the team still did not discourage cardio.
They echoed the recent evidence that it’s actually better to do both weights & cardio,
And that the two will actually make you live longer than either one separately.
They also cautioned that even though they might discover better medications for things like diabetes from this work,
People who are taking GLP-1 medications for weight-loss should not give-up on cardio and weights, either.
Add that to weightlifting’s anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and zombie-cell cleanup properties and you’ve got yourself one powerful combination!
And let’s not forget Dr. Mike Evans’ list of all the problems regular exercise of any kind helps you avoid!
What a great time to go hit the weights!
References & Links:
• Source: VT
• Source Study: J.SportHealthSci – Weightlifting outperforms voluntary wheel running for improving adiposity and insulin sensitivity in obese mice
