Area Under the Curve

Why is it conventional exercise becomes less and less effective as we age. The answer is simple; it does not provide sufficient stimulus to your muscles. It only burns calories while you are working out and then...its done. So, to make it effective, one must do more and more of it. This leads to a few things that occur. The first is you start to metabolize the lean muscle to provide the energy needs of the body, and the other is that you will experience more joint wear and tear. This in turn leads to premature joint problems and replacements. If you don’t think it’s a problem now, just bear in mind the joint replacement estimates are projected to increase between 2- 10x, depending on joint, in the next 10 years. Lastly, burnout and overuse injuries trying to maintain it simply do not last. A better way to look at exercise, and why resistance training is very effective, is called the Area Under the Curve. This area under the curve is the amount of
expenditure from the body. The greater the area under the curve, the more efficient and effective the workout is. When you reach momentary muscular failure, you achieve what’s called the EPOC effect, where the body will continue to metabolize and release endorphins for 24– and up to 72 hours (and beyond). And more, importantly, it will generate healthy new muscle tissue. More is not always better, and lifting every day is not better. Your body needs ample time to recover, roughly between 3 -5 days to fully repair depending on intensity. The goal is simple: Break the muscle tissue down. When repeated over an extended period, that the body regenerates itself in a matter of weeks and months. By doing so, you are creating a younger version of you! Your body, however, cannot continuously progress to be higher and higher intensities, as it will burn out. And if you push too hard, what ends up happening is that dominate muscles take over that can lead to further problems. So a periodization schedule that includes a balanced program design including functional resistance training and varying stimulus is essential. The result is a sustainable routine that turns back the clock to get the most out of life for decades to come.