Like it or not, as we get older the thought of getting cancer begins to loom in the background of our minds.  Are you doing all that you can to prevent this "killer disease" from happening to you?  Here's the latest on how a certain type of exercise may cut your risk in half.

When it comes down to it, there are two ways you can exercise:  Long, steady-state type activity or more intensive start-and-stop type activity.  Long, steady-state activity is one in which you perform the same monotonous, unvarying activity without change.  Examples of this would be walking outdoors or on a treadmill for a half-hour at the same speed without much variation, or doing one of those aerobic DVD routines with a light dumbbell.

Higher intensive, "start-and-stop" type exercise activity is one in which you do a particular phase of an exercise hard for a short period of time followed immediately a short period of less intense activity or rest.  Examples of this are strength training (particularly how we do it at Genesis Personal Fitness), as well as interval cardio exercise in which you must get your heart rate in one zone for a few minutes and then quickly switch it into a another zone and so on.

Now a new study shows that performing high intensity, start-and-stop exercise cuts your risk of getting cancer in half.1

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, followed Finnish men for 16 years. It tracked the type of exercise activity the men did each week. And it found that the higher the intensity (difficulty) created by interval-style activity during the exercise, the lower the risk of getting cancer.

This study backs up the myriad benefits of high intensity exercise, but it's the first study ever to look at the relationship between exercise intensity and cancer.

How They Think It Works

Researchers believe that higher intensity, interval-style exercise trains your body and your metabolism to utilize more oxygen - which may be the key to its cancer-fighting power.

Higher intensity start-and-stop exercise activities like those used in the Genesis Integrated Exercise System floods your cells with life-giving oxygen. Oxygen is the basic fuel for cell metabolism. If you don't have it, energy production drops and the cells lose their ability to repair DNA. Low oxygen levels in the cells - chronic hypoxia - is a cause of chronic disease, especially cancer.

Unfortunately, in our modern world, low oxygen levels in our cells are common. We are a nation of couch potatoes. When we do exercise, it's usually some steady-state cardio and aerobics activity. But these activities don't raise your oxygen levels enough. The key to raising your oxygen levels is doing higher intensity start-and-stop exertion when you exercise.

Brief, hard, start-and-stop strength training and interval cardio exercise pumps oxygen-rich blood to your vital organs by up to 18 times more than light exercise such as walking.2  It provides gives you:

    * 400% more oxygen to your lungs
    * 1733% more oxygen to your muscles
    * Nearly double the oxygen to your brain
    * 331% more oxygen from your heart

This doesn't happen when you jog or do even medium intensity exercise.  To get these benefits, you have to work hard but for only short periods.  This may be one of the reasons why our ancestors stayed disease-free. They had to do intense exertion to survive. Maybe your body needs the oxygen to thrive.

Tips To Activate Your Inner Cancer Prevention System

Since you're already a Genesis client, why not get the most from your exercise sessions at Genesis and cut your risk of cancer in half as well?  Here are some simple tips to insure this happens:

1) Go for the intensity.  If you want the most benefit from your Genesis Exercise Sessions, you have to work toward handling the highest intensity you can handle.  Sure it's hard.  Sure it's not necessarily fun.  But if you strive to reach the PIP (Peak Intensity Point) on each of your strength training exercises, you'll walk away from your Genesis Exercise Sessions knowing you did all you can do to be stronger and healthier.

2) Don't be afraid of the weight.  Hard work never hurt anyone.  Because of the type of specialized exercise machines we use at Genesis, the ultra-safe exercise protocols we work under when training you, and our medical-wise backgrounds to design effective programs for clients when they do have health issues, you have nothing to fear.  Always strive to work a little harder each time you come to Genesis.

3) Don't slouch by doing mind-numbing cardio exercise.  Part of why our program of exercise at Genesis is so effective at Genesis Personal Fitness is because each time you come, there's always a little challenge.  This is particularly important when you do the cardio-aerobic part of your Exercise Session.  If you've had your Exercise Metabolism tested as part of your program, you know you have some interval-style, start-and-stop cardio routines to do.  These are the most important ones.  When you do them, work for accuracy, timing, and the intensity.  These routines do you more good than you know.

4) Keep balance in your diet.  Yes, there is a way to eat to stack the deck in your favor so that you can cut your cancer risk even more.  While this is a topic that could take up to 3-4 additional articles to explain and educate on the how-to's, let's make it simple here.  To get started, eat more things that are in their natural form and less that are processed - come in a bag or box.  Drink 96 oz. of fresh water each day.  And finally, make sure you eliminate the wastes your body produces each and every day.

Final Thoughts

Having fought the cancer "battle" back in 1993 and won, I know from personal experience the courage and will you must to have to conquer this deadly adversary.  Believe me, it is a journey I hope you never have to face.

Now in remission for over 13 years from a rare form of almost always-fatal leukemia, I used all the resources I could find to take charge of my health and my recovery, and the very principles under which you exercise today at Genesis were part of the foundation I worked under to re-capture my life.

My hope for you is that you'll embrace the opportunity you truly have at Genesis... Live long by living strong!

References:
1 J A Laukkanen et al. "Intensity of leisure-time physical activity and cancer mortality in men," Br J Sports Med 2009;0:1-5. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2008.056713.
2 Adapted from: von Ardenne, M. Oxygen Multistep Therapy. Thieme. 1990. p. 144