The Fastest Way to a Healthy Heart and other stuff too

[Guest guest]

Most guys who are serious

about fitness these days know that interval training is good for them. Cranking

up the intensity for brief bursts makes you a better athlete and certainly

makes for a more lively gym session than riding an exercise bike for an hour.

But did you know that it's also one of the best things you can do to protect

yourself from a deadly heart attack?

http://www.mensjournal.com/healthFitness/0604/workout_cardio.html  Original article

That's the

implication of a recent study that's part of an important shift in the way the

medical community thinks about cardio. Any of you still zoning out at the gym

in front of CNN really need to get with the program. Athletes swear by

intervals because they train the body to withstand the intense exertion of game

conditions. Now cardiologists are swearing by them too, because they get the

heart used to efficiently speeding up and slowing down like a finely tuned

Porsche, a Porsche that will help you steer clear of a heart attack -- or

survive a collision with one. In the study, published in the New England

Journal of Medicine last year, French researchers measured the heart rates

of 5,713 healthy men on exercise bikes, then followed them for 23 years to see

which ones died of heart attacks. Of all the factors -- whether the guys were

regular exercisers, how long and hard they could cycle -- the most telling was

the ability of a guy's heart to rocket up through the rpms and then quickly

return to a purring idle. In fact, those with the biggest ranges between their

heart rates during intense exercise and at rest were four times less likely to

drop dead of a heart attack than those with the smallest.

With this

plan, from California performance coach Alwyn Cosgrove, you don't even need an

exercise bike. Once your doctor has cleared you for intense exercise, test your

heart responsiveness below, then start integrating the workout into your

regular routine twice a week. Do Round 1 at a brisk clip without stopping. (It

should take about a minute; if it takes much less, add a few reps per

exercise.) Walk around for three or four minutes to catch your breath. Do Round

2, recover the same way, and repeat, pushing yourself even harder. Add a round

a week, so you're doing five in the second week (three of Round 1 and two of

Round 2), six in the third, seven in the fourth. After a month test yourself

again and see how much you've reduced your risk of a heart attack.

FIRST ROUND

Standard Push-Up

12 reps

You know the drill: Assume the position, lower your chest to the floor, and

push back up.

Body-Weight

Squat

12 reps

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms straight out in front

of you or folded across your chest. Push your hips back, as if you are sitting

down in a chair, and lower yourself until the tops of your thighs are parallel

to the floor. Stand up and repeat.

Body-Weight

Lunge

6 reps with each leg

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, step forward with your left foot, and

lower your body until the top of your left thigh is parallel to the floor, then

push back up to the starting position. Immediately repeat with your right leg,

and alternate until you finish all your reps.

Bench Dip

12 reps

Stand with your back to a bench. Place your palms on the lip of the bench and

extend your legs in front of you. (Only your heels should touch the floor.)

Start with your arms straight and your butt just slightly in front of the

bench. Lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, or until

your butt and legs are about to touch the floor. Push back up and repeat.

SECOND ROUND

T Push-Up

3 reps on each side

Do a standard push-up. At the top of the motion raise your right arm until it's

straight up in the air and perpendicular to the floor. Return to the starting

position and do another push-up, this time raising your left arm.

Diagonal

Lunge

6 reps with each leg

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your arms at your sides. Lunge 45

degrees to your left, push back to the starting position, then lunge to your

right. Push back and repeat, alternating legs.

Step-Up

6 reps with each leg

Stand in front of a bench or step. Step onto the bench with your left foot,

rising until your right foot is even with your left. Immediately lower your

right foot to the floor, then your left. Repeat, stepping up with your right

foot. Alternate feet.

Decline

Push-Up

12 reps

Same as number one, but place your toes on a bench or step and end with your

head lower than your hips.

Measure Your Progress with

This Test

STEP 1: TEST YOURSELF It's a simple matter of

taking your pulse at several key times.

Check your resting heart rate Do this on a nonstressful morning, before

you've had any coffee. Sit quietly for five minutes, breathing deeply, and then

take your pulse. Count the beats for a minute.

Check your max heart rate Do the exercises on this page until failure.

Immediately check your heart rate. It's easiest to do this with a heart-rate

monitor. However, if you take your pulse manually, count for just 15 seconds

this time and multiply by four.

Check your recovery rate Now sit, rest for a minute, and check your

heart rate again. Subtract this number from your max rate. This is your

recovery rate.

Get the difference between your max and resting rates Simply subtract

your resting rate from your max heart rate.

STEP 2: SCORE YOURSELF Award yourself points

based on the following:

Resting heart rate More than 75: 3.5 points; 75Ð70: 2.5 points; 69Ð65: 2

points; 64Ð60: 1.5 points; less than 60: 1

Recovery heart rate Less than 25: 2 points; 25Ð35: 1.5 points; more than

35: 1 point

Difference between high and resting rates Less than 89: 4 points;

89Ð113: 2.5 points; more than 113: 1 point

One of your parents suffered a heart attack and died within an hour Yes: 1

point; no: 0 points

STEP 3: LOOK INTO YOUR FUTURE Approximate

your risk of a fatal heart attack.

Add up your heart rate scores, divide by three, and add in the parental

history Each point represents your estimated added risk of a fatal heart

attack, extrapolated from the numbers in the NEJM study. Any number above 1 is

the percentage increase of your risk (i.e., a 1.5 means you're about 50 percent

more likely to die from a heart attack than a guy with a 1). Not happy with

your score? Give yourself a month on this plan and recompute.

By: Lou Schuler

Photographs by: Monte Isom

(April 2006) <

Copyright ©2006 by

Men's Journal LLC

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