Chief Science Officer, American Council on Exercise
As Chief Science Officer, Dr. Bryant guides the American Council on Exercise in understanding how the body responds to exercise. An accomplished author and lecturer, Dr. Bryant serves as a health and fitness expert for numerous media outlets, including CNN Headline News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and other publications.
Q: What are some of the factors that inhibit adults from getting enough exercise?
A: We're somewhat victims of our own success on multiple fronts. On one front, we've been so successful from a technological standpoint that we've pretty successfully engineered physical activity out of our lifestyles. We don't have to climb stairs, we don't have to walk at the airport—we can just get on the rolling escalators and so forth. Another thing is that the technology that was supposed to help us save time and be able to accomplish more has really, I think, robbed us of any margin that we might have had. We're so overscheduled and pressed. The number one reason we offer for not exercising on a consistent basis is a perceived lack of time. But I would take the counter argument that we find time for those things we truly deem as valuable. So for whatever reasons, we haven't done a particularly good job helping people to value exercise enough to make it a priority.
Q: Can you control your weight by simply burning up enough calories?
A: You really can't defy the laws of thermodynamics. It's a balance of energy in and energy out, in its crudest, simplest form. If you consume more energy than you expend, you are going to be on what we refer to as a positive energy balance: You're going to gain weight gradually and progressively over time. And the reverse is true: If you expend more than you consume, you will gradually and progressively lose body weight over time because you'll be on a negative energy balance. Now where individual differences come into play, some of us are more or less likely to be on a positive and negative balance due to certain genetic and individual differences. But at the end of the day, what's responsible for the ultimate outcome is that energy balance.
Q: What should an ideal fitness program include for a relatively healthy person?
A: Aerobic activity, preferably on most days of the week for about a half an hour at a relatively comfortable intensity. You want to supplement that with at least two strength training sessions per week on non-consecutive days—about eight to 10 exercises, focusing on major muscle groups. I'd also recommend that people incorporate some flexibility work into the cooldown of their workouts, particularly for the hamstrings and the low back area. Those tend to be common areas where people show deficiencies, particularly as they age.
Q: Does it matter what type of strength training you do?
A: One of the neat things about human muscle is that it's what we call a motor fiber vs. a sensory fiber. It doesn't have a little brain, it doesn't have eyes. So it has no clue as to what's being used to train it. So whether you're using a $3,000 resistance training machine or dumbbells, the muscle just responds to the manner
in which you train it.
Q: What's the key to finding the right program and then achieving results?
A: First, I encourage people to find something they enjoy. You really want to identify a program and activity that you can commit to over the long haul. Think of exercise much like a medicine for high blood pressure. You've got to take your medication as prescribed and on that regularly scheduled basis. You can't take it one day, take off a week, and then take it again and expect to get optimal results. With physical activity, you need to adhere to that consistent prescription of exercise on that regularly consistent basis. Another thing we find is that you're more likely to stick with your program if you do it early in the day.
Q: Can you think of anything else you'd like to share?
A: I would just encourage your readers to move. Sometimes we complicate matters, but just look for every opportunity to move.
