Limited workouts and what qualifies as "changing" to keep your body from adapting

J

jrx

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Limited workouts and what qualifies as "changing" to keep your body from adapting

Ok, so here's my issue:

I'm currently undergoing treatment for a back problem (Bulging disc with pinched nerves/nerve damage in my lumbar and a possible issue with my neck and shoulder that I'm going to be getting diagnosed soon) and my doc has told me that running is out of the question, and with the neck and shoulder problem looming I should probably stay away from ellipticals as well. So... I'm basically left with walking outdoors or walking on the treadmill for my cardio as well as weight lifting (as long as it doesn't put pressure on my lower back... so, seated dumbbell workouts and various bench presses)

After being bed ridden for a while and being put on steroids for my back, my weight shot up to 249 lbs this fall. The steroid injection has worn off and I've taken myself off the Daypro NSAID and have been doing long sessions on the treadmill and, weather permitting, 6 mile walks. After my workout this morning I tipped the scales at 231... not a bad progression, I'm on track to hit my year-end goal of 230 and it bodes well with my mid-year goal for 2012 of being back to 185.

Here's my issue:

With such a limited range of exercises, is simply dialing up the slope gradient and speed on the treadmill a good way to keep my body from becoming accustomed to my workouts? I try to fill 1000 calories in an hour on the treadmill, and as my weight has dropped I've had to increase speed and gradient to keep up with what the machine figures I'm burning (For all intents and purposes, I'm sure the calorie counter on the treadmill isn't exact, and I'm figuring it to be 25% too high). I've been keeping my heart rate in the 135-140 range for pretty much the duration of the exercise.

I'm dropping weight now, but I'm worried that with only being able to do so much without the potential for further injury that my body will simply stop responding. I'm just not sure what constitutes "changing your routine" to keep my body from becoming too efficient at the task.

Any clarification, advice, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
hmmmm, i think any kind of change every few weeks is going to get you restults. but i wouldn't continue increasing the speed to make change. you'll end up sprinting eventually ha. are you only walking?? any other exercises? swimming? cycling? yoga? i'm not sure what and how much you can do in your condition, so i'm just throwing some stuff out there... incorporate more than just walking. do whatever kind of lifting you can. and, like i said, switch it up every few weeks.
 
The whole "change your workout so that you don't adapt" BS is, well, BS. The adaptation you get from training is to become fitter. Unless your goal is to never be any fitter than you are today, you want adaptation. Your body will still repond to exercise.

Plateaus in performance don't happen because your body has adapted to an exercise, they happen because you either aren't providing a great enough stimulus to promote further adaptation, or your not recovering from the stimulus enough to make new adaptations, or there's a weakness somewhere that needs to be corrected before the main movement can continue adapting.

Plateaus in weight loss occur because, for one reason or another, you're no longer burning enough calories to be in a deficit. This can be because your weight's gone down so much that what was a deficit is now maintenance. It could be because you decreased calories so greatly that your body responded by decreasing calorie output. It could be because you've gotten lazy with your diet and have started letting more calories in. It could be because your fitness has improved and what was once hard enough to burn, say, 300kcal now only burns 200kcal, simply because it's that much easier. The resolve would just be to increase the work load of your training - more speed, more incline, more weight, more volume, etc.

And that last little bit is exactly what needs to happen exercise-wise to keep results coming. Keep working with whoever you need to see to rehab your injury/ies, and as that happens your work capacity will open up more, allowing you to increase your work load while training. Progressively increasing the speed and the incline of the treadmill is a great way to keep on increasing the work load, so you're on the right track with that plan :)
 
As far as diet goes, I'm keeping up with a 2000 - 2200 calorie diet. Some days are better than others, and when you have 3 kids you can't exactly eat well every day. I try to snack on veggies, fruits, or plain Cheerios. Despite having a off/on diet, my estimates have put me at a 1200 calorie deficit. I need to eat better, this is recognized, but baby steps.

Am I far off from using heart rate as a measure of workload? This morning I managed to keep my heartrate at 73% MAX for 55 out of 60 minutes. Would it be wrong to assume that as long as my heartbeat keeps itself peaked over the "fat burn" level that I am doing some good?

For MaLadyness:

Remaining seated, especially on a bike, is often a bad thing. My leg will start going numb or tingling, which means nerve compression and possible damage being done. Swimming feels good until I get out of the water and gravity takes over... then it's pretty nasty pain for a while and I have to sit down. Yoga is completely, utterly out of the question.
 
Well, if your heart rate is staying constant from workout to workout, then you'll be burning about the same amount of calories from workout to workout, that's for sure.

As far as the "fat burn" level goes, that's just based on your heart rate, and HR is what's more important to be looking at. The "fat burning zone" in and of itself is insignificant, other than for the fact that it's a reasonable intensity of work and it doesn't quickly burn you out. In reality, the "fat burning zone" itself is irrelevant for fat-burning, ironically. It's just a matter of calories in vs calories out at the end of the day. If you can work at 73% of max for 55min, then that's great. If you can work at 80% of max for 55min, that's even better.

In any case, anything is better than nothing. If all you do is show up and go through the motions at a low intensity, that's still better than nothing, so you're still doing some good. If you can maintain 135-140BPM every time you train, even better. If you can increase BPM beyond that point without burning out or hurting yourself, better still.
 
I was under the impression that as long as your body has a constant supply of oxygen then you would continue to use energy from fat as opposed to other sources (for the most part).

I try to keep a conversational workout, though I rarely talk to anyone, usually just watch ESPN Sportscenter on the treadmill tv. I know it's not going to up my endurance as much as a harder session of running, but at this point I'm more worried about taking weight off my spinal cord to reduce further injury than how fast I can walk 10 miles.
 
Most people are under that impression. And there is an element of truth to it, but at the end of the day it's calories in vs calories out. When you exercise, you burn calories. They could come from fat, or they could come from carbohydrates. Doesn't matter, because the body is constantly breaking down and building up its tissues, including body fat. If the energy burnt in your workout comes from fat, then that's fat taken directly out of the fat cells. If it doesn't, then that's energy that will never make it into the fat cells. Either way, if you burn 500kcal, that's 500kcal that, at the end of the day, isn't in your fat cells.

Put another way, you can either speed up the removal of fatty acids from fat cells in the body, or you can slow/reduce the flow of traffic of fatty acids into the fat cells. The fat cells act like a funnel: stuff comes in one end and out the other. If you increase the outgoing volume of fatty acids, then the content of the funnel will reduce. Likewise if you decrease the incoming volume of fatty acids, then what's already in the funnel will be able to pour out faster than it can be replaced. Two methods (burning fat vs burning carbs) but the net result is the same.

I definitely don't want to recommend that you increase the intensity to the point that you unneccessarily increase the risk of reinjury or slow down rehab. Stick within your limits, for sure. But if you can safely train at a higher heart rate, don't rule it out, either.
 
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