Telling people to exercise isn't working. So why does the fitness community just do it louder and more often?

According to a terrific article in today's New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope, "Only 3.5 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 59 do the minimum amount of physical activity recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services: 150 minutes a week of moderate activity."

Wow.

She also says that when it comes to self-reporting, about 40 percent of Americans say they never exercise, a stat that has remained steady for decades.

Double wow.

I found Pope's entire article, "Updating the message to Get Americans Moving," a great read, and would encourage you to check it out.

We talk more about fitness, do it less

My first takeaway from reading it is that over the past 10 years, there seem to be 100 times more blogs and magazines and fitness gurus and tv shows that all talk about how easy it is to exercise.  And yet, it changes nothing. The same percentage of people are still inactive.

So the gurus, tv doctors, gyms, fitness instructors say it louder, in even more brain-numbing terms, and in more places.  

There are people who "do" fitness, and people who "don't do" fitness

The other thing it brought home to me is how stratified our country has become in terms of health and fitness. I'd venture to guess that among my friends, fewer than 20% would report they never exercise.

Some of that probably reflects that I live in Silicon Valley with a high percentage of active adults. More likely it also reflects that people who are active hang out with others who are active. 

I'm a slug compared to most of my friends who are busy running marathons, biking for fun, and hiking for weekend pleasure.  I'm more about yoga and stairs and my PowerPlate machine. In any case, it's not about how or what, and I digress.  

Read her article.  I like that she actually says out loud what fitness people seem to ignore: telling people to work out, telling them exercise is good for them, giving them easy tips is "clearly not working."

Drinking cold water for better workout performance

An article published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition presents interesting information about a study conducted by Athletes’ Performance in Phoenix, Arizona. The upshot is that there are significant benefits to drinking cold water during an intense workout compared to room-temperature water.

One example of superior workout results in the study: nearly 50% of participants who drank cold water  improved in the broad jump test and 51% in the bicycle time-to-exhaustion test. 

If you're not familiar with Athletes' Performance, it's a go-to facility for elite professional athletes from the NBA, NFL, MLB, Olympians etc. 

Using hydration bottles from Thermos with vacuum insulation technology,  the results of the study showed that drinking cold water (40° F) significantly mediates and delays the increase in core body temperature during exercise.

If I understand the abstract correctly, as we work out, and the body temperature rises, we are more likely to get dehydrated, which affects performance.  Drinking cold water delays that rise in body temperature.  Hence, performance is not hampered by heat-related stress that leads to fatigue and other negative effects.

Some other highlights from the study:

• A rise in body temperature was delayed 45 minutes while drinking cold water as opposed to just 15 minutes for those drinking room temperature water (75° F)
• The longer you work out, the more important drinking cold water becomes. The study results strongly demonstrate that the benefits of cold water hydration for core temperature increase as the length of the workout session increases (reaching its highest difference at 60 minutes).
  

To keep water at the recommended 40°F during workouts, start with cold water from the refrigerator (or tap water with ice) and keep it cold in a hydration bottle with Thermos brand vacuum insulation technology, which will keep drinks cold for up to 12 hours.  

Katie Boyd's top tips to get in shape this spring

Katie Boyd,  certified trainer and nutritionist, specializes in getting beauty pageant hopefuls in shape. She also works with cheerleaders.  These are two categories of women whose bodies are on display every minute do training them is no small task. Boyd is also host of Style Network's Wicked Fit, a popular show set in her Wellesley, MA gym, The Miss Fit Club.

With all this under her belt, she's got great perspective on how to get the rest of us ready for spring. So here are Katie Boyd's four tips to get in shape this spring (Also Read: Katie Boyd shares a meal plan to rev up your weight loss.)
Rule one: shock your body

The biggest lesson I have ever learned in my life: Your best bet to shock your body into change is to do an 8 week stint of High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT training consists of upper and lower body movements at the same time with Isometric or holding contractions in static electricity in the muscle fiber and Plyometric exercises which are explosive movements in between every two exercise combos. 

For example: Bicep Hammer Curl with Plie Squats then Alternating Side to Side Lunges with Upright Rows then a Plyometric Jump Squat. A workout like this should be done 4-6 days a week depending on how much body fat you are looking/needing to lose. 45 minutes tops! Workouts that are hyperexplosive get the job done.

Rule two: never say diet
Eat six small meals a day! Never say the word DIET. Food is nourishment and fuel for an active lifestyle and if you follow the 80/20 rule meaning 80% of the time eat what I am going to show you and then 20 % eat some nachos or have a cocktail...do not  beat yourself up over it. Eating every three hours makes sure your body is always working to metabolize. Thus burning calories. I like to use the analogy of making a fire. If you are making a fire you feed the fire kindling and some news paper or brush and that usually ensures a bright burning fire that you can add larger items to like the occasional log.  It is the same with your body. 

Most people starve themselves until dinner time and drink coffee to keep themselves going until the eat a dinner the size of Manhattan, then go to bed with all that junk just waiting to be stored as body fat. How is that ever going to work for you? Exactly...it never will! Adapting the twigs and newspaper idea for your body as you would starting a fire is the way to go. Always have some kind of a protein at every meal. It doesn't always have to be food you chew...it can be a shake. You can also get protein from legumes like hummus or nut protein like raw almonds or all natural peanut butter as well. Tapering your starchy carbs off as the day comes to an end is also going to really help you shed that body fat because your body does not need carbs at night for energy. Just protein for repairing muscles and fibrous carbs like green veggies. 

Rule three: HIIT the treadmill
That's High Intensity Interval Training for your cardio, so head to the gym for this one.

Warm up for 5 minutes on the treadmill at 3.0 MPH at a 0 Incline. Then 3.5 MPH at a 15 Incline...hold on for dear life it's going to get really real right now! Do this for 2 minutes. Recover at 3.0 MPH at a 0 Incline for 1 minute 

Then walk side to side first starting on your less dominant side step together step together at 1.8 MPH at a 5 Incline. 1 minute on each side. Then recover at 3.0 MPH at a 0 Incline. Sprint at 6.0 MPH at a 5 Incline for 2 minutes then recover at 3.0MPH at 0 Incline...that is always going to be your recovery zone. Then to finish the round you will walk backwards at 2.0 MPH at a 7 Incline for 2 minutes. 

You will repeat this for either a half an hour 45 minutes or an entire hour depending on what your goals are for body fat burn. You are getting a full blown all around leg workout without the boredom of just blankly staring into space.

Whew!  Take a break and pat yourself on the back.  You've done a great workout.

Orsoni's Le Personal Coach is lightweight but fun

I just posted a review of Valerie Orsoni's book, Le Personal Coach on San Jose Fitness Examiner and rated it 5 stars - the stars came mostly on the strength of my thoughts that this is a good gift book. 

The book is a collection of quick tips...the kind of stuff people love when they see it on the cover of a magazine in a supermarket check out line: the 30 second butt builder, the simple way to get perky breasts, how to have sexy ankles....that kind of thing.

If the book sold for $30 I wouldn't like it so much, but it sells on Amazon for  about $11 and that's a good price for a book you can add to fill out a gift basket or give to a friend on Mother's Day or Christmas or whatever.

If you're looking for some ideas for fitness gifts, check out the review.