I am talking about exercising here. Are you somebody who wants to work out but never really makes the time to schedule at least an hour of regular exercises? You know that you have to move your body to stay fit and healthy! Your occasional long walk with friends doesn’t cut it; it is nice and healthy to be sociable and out in the fresh air, but what do you want to achieve?

If you think about weight loss, the gym comes to mind, and you feel that a commitment there may be even more difficult to keep. Let’s face it; most of us find it difficult to schedule 4 1/2 hours of disciplined workouts per week. This time does not even include your walks in fresh air, but only a regular one-hour gym workout, three times a week. I added another half hour for each visit for showering and getting back into your regular attire.

After my children were away in school, I had extra time for myself and truly enjoyed all the classes and equipment in the gym I visited almost daily. My enthusiasm lasted almost a year before I started to think if all that time was really well spent, or even necessary. After I decided to go back into the business world and created Radiant Health Center, I definitely did not have that kind of time for myself anymore. I needed to find a better way to stay physically fit, and I did.

In 2006, I discovered an amazing device that cuts gym workouts from one hour to 15 minutes with even better results, the PowerPlate. After I looked into the scientific research, I was impressed, but when I stepped on the platform of the PowerPlate and received a test ride of only 30 seconds, I loved the effects of this intense vibration that seemed to be generated within every cell of my body. It felt like champagne bubbles. So you can imagine my smile when I stepped off. What an experience this was!

One year later, my PowerPlate arrived in Freeport, and has brought great results to many of my clients. The most benefits for health and weight loss are achieved on a regular schedule of three times a week for 10 to 15 minutes. Yep, that’s all it takes: an intense but short (and sweet) workout that is fun and can become progressively more challenging by just increasing the intensity.

The PowerPlate was developed in Europe almost a decade ago. The principle of this machine, which vibrates in three dimensions, was created in Russia in the 1970’ s and designed for their Cosmonauts. I learned that it creates artificial gravity, while stimulating bone and muscle tissue, increasing circulation and hormonal output, including Serotonin and Endorphins (I guess that’s what makes people smile after a workout on the PowerPlate) it also dampens pain. Many people with knee and back problems, who find it painful or difficult to work out in a gym, including people who are confined to a wheelchair, can profit greatly from this three- dimensional vibration device called The PowerPlate.

After I found that many people don’t have the discipline to actually go somewhere to work out, even if it is for such a short time, I thought about a program that everybody can do at any time without equipment, anywhere. Yes, that exists too. If you give yourself twenty minutes every other day of intense and short interval exercises, you can reshape your body and lose all the weight that you must lose in order to live a long and healthy life. I researched the benefits of short, intense interval workouts, which up to that point I associated with my training for road races and later marathons when I was a young athlete. I thought that this kind of workout might not be appropriate for all ages, health conditions, or obese people. I was so wrong! Anybody can do this.

After researching the effects of short intense exercises compared to aerobics, or long moderate or slow pace exercises, I was astonished to learn that the only way you can increase the health and strength of your heart and lungs is through progressively increasing short intense exertion. It is the total opposite of what we usually do, which is to start short and easy and increase effort only moderately, but lengthen the time of our workout… until we get used to a routine and soon be bored with long ineffective activities.

In the short, intense workouts, you reach your maximum heart rate as fast as you can, re-cover, and repeat for 20 minutes. In the beginning the time to reach your target in both directions may take more than a minute; but as your strength and capacity increases, your target time shortens, and you may only do a 10-minute workout with maximum effect and benefit.

Many studies from very prestigious names in the medical and fitness field have proven that with long moderate exercises you weaken you heart and over time even shrink your lung capacity. Only during an intense and short workout where you create an anaerobic state of oxygen deficit (panting) for a short duration, will your heart and lungs strengthen. This will protect you from death should you experience a sudden heart attack or shock; your heart can take the intense stress much better. It also protects us from the dreaded shortness of breath due to decreased lung capacity, which is so common when we get older.

A strong heart and strong lungs are trump cards for a healthy and active life far into our golden age. Your love life needs them too! A much greater stimulation of your metabolism and consequently a faster loss of body fat is just an added gift. Call me for instruction on how to do this safely on your own.