3 Health Benefits of the PACE: 12-Minute Fitness Revolution Program

Dr Al Sears, PACE®: 12-Minute Fitness Revolution is a program that shuns conventional aerobic and cardio duration programs in favor of short intense exercise.

The medical profession has been concerned for a number of years with the long-term impacts on our bodies of prolonged workout sessions. There is science and studies suggesting that any activity lasting longer than 20-minutes can be detrimental to you depending on the results you’re expecting.

Now this doesn’t mean if you’re training for a marathon that only short workouts will prepare you adequately. For anybody that trains for a marathon you know jogging for an hour each day and the occasional 15-20 mile run is on the preparation schedule. Preparing for a long-distance race by running sprints is about as effective as studying for the SAT exam by playing the Xbox.

But most of us are just looking to keep fit and/or lose weight and Dr Sears PACE® program focuses on progressive intensity workouts in short intense durations of a few minutes.

P.A.C.E. stands for Progressive Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion.

The whole premise of the system is to exert bursts of intense exercise on the body of one or two minutes, and then rest to recover and do it again at an increasing level. Sort of like a "Wash – rinse- and repeat cycle!" But the workout should be no longer than 20-minutes.

Let’s be clear there is nothing inherently wrong with cardio training – exercising gets you fit and helps you to lose fat. But the key is the type of cardio exercising and this is where PACE® parts company with the traditional long duration – 30 minutes or longer – workouts.

Long durational aerobics and cardio doesn't burn fat the way you want and can weaken your heart and lungs rather than strengthen them.

With this introduction as a backdrop let’s take a look at the PACE®: 12-Minute Fitness Revolution program and how it can help you strengthen lungs and heart and achieve weight loss.

Long-term smokers who quit usually have a long recuperation period for their lungs that can take many months or years. In extreme cases lungs are damaged and scarred permanently.

However, for many smokers a steady program of progressive exercise focused on increasing lung capacity can help restore these organs to a better shape. The body is an amazing organ providing you give it some help and feed it the right nutrients.

There is a strong link between lungpower and longevity, as by the time we reach our 70’s over half of our lung capacity has gone. And with smoker’s the loss of capacity is even greater assuming they get to live to that age.

The PACE®: 12-Minute Fitness system exercises lungs with the short intense burst of 1 or 2-minute workout exertion followed by short rest and then repeated burst exertions with increased intensity. Sessions last no longer than 20-minutes.

This has the effect of increasing your lung capacity as it forces you to pant involuntary after each exertion to increase oxygen to, and thereby expand, your lungs. Repeating and increasing the exertion with each workout will expand your lung capacity.

Exercising for weight loss is mostly about burning fat. Talk to any trainer at a gym and their advice is most likely to exercise into your fat burning zone – which is typically after 20-minutes - and then stay in the zone for as long as you can.

The premise seems logical. The longer you can stay exercising in the “fat burning” zone the more fat you’ll burn off. And to somebody that wants to lose weight, its music to their ears.

However, the science behind the PACE®: 12-Minute Fitness Revolution says this is flawed logic as it effectively encourages your body to manufacture more fat to replace what it thinks is a depletion of fat.

Because PACE® program doesn’t burn fat during your exercise but instead burns fat AFTER your workout ends then your body doesn’t feel the need to create fat because there is no depletion.

Fat burning takes place at rest as your body uses your fat to replace the energy sources and carbs from muscle it used during your workout. Fat is only burned AFTER 20-minutes of exercising but not before.

Strange as it sounds exercising for weight loss is best achieved by burning fat while resting. Now who doesn’t like that as a side effect?

A major benefit of the PACE® system is it’s adaptability for many different outcomes you desire.

Heart disease remains one of the top killers in the western world and many folks look for an exercise program to prevent or recover from heart issues. Most heart attacks are caused by sudden demands placed on the heart. Having a heart with reserve capacity can help guard against weakening disease.

Unfortunately long duration cardio and excessive aerobic workouts tend to shrink our heart rather than build capacity and thereby reduce its effectiveness in coping with sudden demands.

The specific exercises in Dr Sears PACE®: The Fitness Revolution program for increasing heart capacity have your recovery period lasting as long as it takes to bring you to your normal resting pulse.

The PACE Exercise for Weight Loss program has put the aerobic and cardio world on its head by proving there is no need for long duration aerobic and cardio workout sessions. Not only do not help rid our bodies of fat but in fact can work against our bodies and weaken lungs and heart rather than strengthen them.