The other day, I read an interesting post on “slow burn” exercise over on Dr. Michael Eades’ (Protein Power) blog. He writes:

It appears from these statistics that you can’t have it all. You can’t stay in shape and keep your body from wearing out after you’ve put a few years on it, or so it seems. If you try to take it easy to spare your joints, you end up with a spare tire around your middle. What a choice to have to make.

But we really don’t have to make that choice. …

The single best way to increase strength and muscle mass is to strength train. The best way to strength train is to do resistance exercise, i.e., weight lifting. The optimal way to lift weight–that which gives you the best result per time spent–is Slow Burn.

It’s an interesting concept. The idea is that what we generally attribute as “cardiovascular” fitness is really an increased ability to get oxygen into your muscle cells…so it’s actually “muscle” fitness that you’re improving.

I’ve ordered the book, but I’m tempted to give this a look. Of course, it may be difficult to do, since it looks like it would be relatively important to do this with a trainer, since part of this is really working to the point of muscle failure, which would imply the necessity of a spotter. And it may well involve specific equipment that you’d be unlikely to have at home.

One thing I do agree with: the importance of strength training. If you are trying to lose weight, then strength training is a big help, since additional muscle increases your metabolism 24×7. It also helps those of us who have to worry about osteoporosis.

I actually liked aerobic exercise (I know, I’m nuts). And I still would like to add walking back in, per the YOU! The Owner’s Manual exercise plan. But I may well experiment with this as a strength training component.