The right way to exercise

I get asked all time what kind of exercise is best. And no I’m sorry, but “chasing your kids around” does not constitute as exercise. And neither does “I have a tough job.”
If you heart rate isn’t elevated to a certain point for a specific amount of time then it doesn’t count! So does that mean you have to spend hours in the gym? What’s the best kind of exercise?

Lets face it: nobody enjoys running on the treadmill for 45 minutes. The Elliptical is no different. And if you ride a bike for 45 minutes you may other problems.

According to research, the high intensity short duration “Burst” training is the BEST type of exercise for just about everyone. Whatever your fitness goals are; lose weight, build muscle, train for an upcoming poker tournament, the high intensity route is the way to go!

But wait, this maybe the best news yet: you can all the benefits of other types of exercise, even more, in just 12 minutes per day! WHHHAAAATTTT?!?!?!?!

By maximizing your intensity and efforts, you can burn fat for up to 36 hours POST workout. This is called the “after-burn effect” and this is great news for those trying to lose weight. By getting your heart rate up to an optimal rate during exercise, your bodies metabolism is kicked into high gear and stays elevated for an extended period of time. This increases lean muscle strength and healthy hormone response. It also has positive effects on cardiovascular health, memory, mitochondrial production and efficiency, and brain function!

Unfortunately, with the classic slow-paced cardio, your heart never makes it to this point and therefor once you turn that machine off, your metabolism slows down quickly. Not only that, but depending on how long your cardio session was, you can also put your body into a catabolic state. This state is also referred to as muscle wasting. By stressing your body during the 45 minute run, cortisol levels increase and growth hormone levels decrease. What does that mean? Lets take a look at the damaging affects of prolonged increased cortisol levels:

Cortisol increases: blood sugar, stress, abdominal fat, cholesterol, acidity in the blood, fat storing, and appetite.
Cortisol suppresses: fat burning, exercise recovery, cognitive function, thyroid function, bone density, and lowered immunity

There are many programs and studios doing this high intensity training: most notably cross fit and orange theory fitness. There are also the DVD versions you can do at home including Insanity, MaxT3, and 10 minue trainer. You can choose which one you like the best. They all have some pros and cons. I’m a big fan of MaxT3 and insanity. MaxT3 is very short (only 12 minutes/day) and the results are amazing! Insanity takes about 45 minutes and is no slouch either! You can also add in some treadmill, elliptical, or bike work but it needs to be in that high intense intervals.

Whatever workout program you do committing to it is the most important thing. Get on a schedule/routine and do it at least 3 times/week. Dedicate time to exercise and ONLY exercise. Leave you smartphone in the car, minimize chatting to others, and stay focused!

God Bless!
Dr. Matthew J. McNabb

Gone Are the Days…

Gone are the days when men take their hats off in a public building. Gone are the days when you have to go to the public library and rent out a book just to learn about history. Gone are the days where a single Chiropractic adjustment can clear out interference in a persons body and that person can be well… Wait…WHAT? Where did that come from? Let me elaborate. This is a health blog. And before you click away, take your finger off the mouse and read on!

So much new information, new habits, new technology, new everything; Has led to a society of Subluxated, fragmented, disease-ridden, sad people. For those that don’t know, the word Subluxation refers to “interference” in the nervous system that disrupts the ability of the your brain to effectively communicate with the rest of the body, or that part of the body that is subluxated.

Yesterdays Chiropractors (I mean early 1900’s) simply adjusted the spine. Many of them in fact only adjusted one bone! Yet person after person was getting well, being “cured” of sickness and ailments, news was spreading like wild-fire, and Chiropractic was growing faster than medicine! But the birth of technology and new innovative ways of growing and manufacturing consumer goods (food, water, etc…) has led to a society of fast-paced lifestyle. The “grab-and-go” mentality has taken over our culture. We live in an age where having everything you could possibly ever need on your PHONE isn’t even enough. If there’s something faster, we want it. We want our information now and we’re not going to wait for it. This on-the-go lifestyle has lead us to neglect some of the basic principles of health. We don’t have time to cook, we don’t have time to exercise, we don’t have time to meditate or sleep more or pray…

Unfortunately, this lifestyle has lead us to more sickness, more suffering, more disease, more surgeries, more hospitalizations, more bankruptcies, and more deaths.

Take a step back and think about how much time you actively put into promoting health. How many hours per week do you spend exercising? How often do you cook at home? How many hours do you sleep each night? How many hours do you spend growing your relationship with God? When was the last time you detoxed, fasted, or cleansed?

The best part of all this…YOU DON’T HAVE TO SPEND MULTIPLE HOURS PER WEEK ON YOUR HEALTH!

You can exercise in MINUTES per week and get better results than those that spend hours on the treadmill. You can grow your relationships in MINUTES per week. You can cook healthy meals in MINUTES per week. The can detox or cleanse in MINUTES per week. The trick is learning how. How can we MAXIMIZE our time and efforts and get on the right path to health? Because the truth is: either you’re moving towards health or sprinting towards disease.

Maximized Living has figured it out! Following the 5 Essentials of Health are quite simple once you learn and master them. I’ll admit it may not be easy to master them but now that I have I’m healthier, fitter, happier, stronger, more energized, and better than ever!

Those who don’t find time for their health must soon find time for disease.

Everyone know eating well and exercising are important essentials to your health. But if you’re only doing those 2, even if you’re 100% with those 2 essentials, you’re still missing 3 vital essential components to your health.

Get on the right path. Find a Maximized Living Doctor near you and take control of your life and your health!

God Bless!

Dr. McNabb

Take this twice a day for…how long?

In America, when we have a symptom arise, we generally go to the doctor. Lets say you’re having chest pain. You go to your doctor, he does some testing and says “you have high blood pressure.” Don’t worry though because there’s a pill for that. He writes on his prescription pad and gives you a copy and says “fill this, take twice a day and that should get your blood pressure down.” Great! A cure! Or is it? I think we missed the part where he said how long we’ll have to be taking this high blood pressure medication for. He didn’t say. So what do we do? Take it for a couple weeks then stop? Oh no no no…you’ll be on that medication for much longer than that. In fact, the majority of patients placed on high blood pressure medications never come off!

Studying these medications can be quite hairy. I’d rather not go into great detail about all the flaws of clinical trials. I would however like to point out that the duration most medications are studied is very short term. Lisinopril (HBP medication) for example, was studies only 12 weeks before it was cleared by the FDA. 12 weeks? That’s only 3 months! Who do you know that has ever gone on a medication and stopped just 3 months after taking it? I know people on Lisinopril for the past 13 years. This drug wasn’t studied for 13 years, yet the time frame we’re told to take it doesn’t exist. This, unfortunately holds true for many pharmaceuticals. Remember Vioxx? If not, read up on it:
Vioxx info

Don’t get me wrong; There is a time and place for medicine. If your blood pressure spikes to 196/140…that’s an emergency situation and needs to be lowered. But over the next few months, lets find out WHY your blood pressure spiked. Lets find the CAUSE! Maybe you’re overweight. Maybe you eat fast food 5 or more times per week. Maybe you haven’t lifted anything besides a spoon in a while. Whatever the reason(s) lets find the cause and eliminate it.

Where to start: I’m sure we all know by now that there isn’t a lack of information out there. I’m not the first person to create a blog about health. There are more diet and exercise books available to fill the New York Public Library. So people often ask, “Where do I start?”

Well, for starters, put down the potato chips and grab some spinach. You must train your brain to think like a healthy person first. Begin surrounding yourself with healthy options. When you eat a salad think about how much better it is for you than fast food burgers. Just start exercising! If you’re one of the thousands of people who sign up for a gym and haven’t been there since January, get to the gym! Just start moving…

Once you start to re-program yourself to think like a healthy person, you’ll make healthier options. Maximized Living encompasses the 5 Essentials to health. I strive to be a perfect 10 in all 5 essentials:

1. Maximized Mind: Time management, stress management, adequate sleep, spiritual relation with God, positive thinking.
2. Maximized Nerve Supply: Correcting the spine and removing any interference in the nervous system to allow your body to function at its peak level
3. Maximized Nutrition: Giving the body the proper nutrients at the proper time allows for optimal cell growth and repair
4. Maximized Oxygen and Lean Muscle: Exercise allows your body to take in higher levels of oxygen and creates lean muscle that keeps both your body and mind healthy.
5. Minimized Toxicity: Toxins and chemicals surround us in our everyday lives and are included in items such as medications, refined foods, household cleaners and the items we cook with

If you work and focus on these 5 areas of your life you will begin a journey towards health and freedom and stray away from the path of sickness and imprisonment.

Still confused? Start Here: http://www.maximizedliving.com/HealthEssentials.aspx

If you need help, don’t just Google exercise or diets. Learn the correct information and proper way of doing things so you can MAXIMIZE your results! Click above to find a health center near you.

In health,

Dr. McNabb

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
~ Philippians 4:13

Using rubber mallets

“There is a wonderful story of a group of American car executives who went to Japan to see a Japanese assembly line. At the end of the line, the doors were put on the hinges, the same as in America. But something was missing. In the United States, a line worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the edges of the door to ensure that it fit perfectly. In Japan, that job didn’t seem to exist. Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they made sure the door fit perfectly. Their Japanese guide looked at them and smiled sheepishly. “We make sure it fits when we design it.” In the Japanese auto plant, they didn’t examine the problem and accumulate data to figure out the best solution—they engineered the outcome they wanted from the BEGINNING. If they didn’t achieve their desired outcome, they understood it was because of a DECISION they made at the start of the process.

Every instruction we give, every course of action we set, every result we desire, starts with the same thing: a DECISION. There are those who decide to manipulate the door to fit to achieve the desired result and there are those who start from somewhere very different.”

We make a lot of decisions on a day-to-day basis. The decisions we make today will have consequences later down the road. Most of us choose to live carelessly by eating what’s readily available, not exercising and ignoring the warning signs. When it comes to our health, this is a poor choice. Everyone WANTS to be healthy but either you’re making choices that take you TOWARD health or your choices are taking you AWAY from health.

The choices I make may seem foreign and dramatic to some people. But because of those choices I continue to move toward health now so that I do not end up trying to scramble and fix a problem with medication or surgery later. And like the American auto executives in the story, you may look at me confused and ask, “well what do you do when you get a headache?” I would look at you and smile sheepishly, “I don’t get headaches.”

Now I won’t sit here and tell you I’m 100% perfect in every decision I make (only One in our lifetime was perfect). But I know what I put in my body will eventually become a part of me. I’m a high performance machine. And just like you would never put a Twinkie in a Ferrari, I wouldn’t put a Twinkie in my mouth. You are what you…eat, digest, absorb, and assimilate.

I don’t enjoy every minute of exercise, working out until it hurts, putting kale in my smoothie, waiting an hour for my chicken to cook, cutting up 7 different veggies, or spending an hour in the grocery store reading the labels. But it’s what I do to keep myself healthy. I do those things now so I don’t need a rubber mallet later.

If 5/6 Americans are dying from heart and cancer I’m doing whatever it takes to be that 1/6. And don’t be an idiot and say “it’s not going to be me.” Because the truth is, if you’re living the same way most Americans live; eating the same foods, not exercising daily, making poor decisions, etc… then you are headed in the wrong direction and it will be you.

God designed us all to live to 120 years old. He didn’t design our hearts to fail at 51, kidneys to shut down at 36, arteries to clog at 48, etc…

Our lifestyle has to be congruent with health. We must PLAN to have good health. Otherwise, we’re planning on failing and losing our health. Don’t wait until there’s a problem. Start living healthy now. And please don’t say something like, “well we only live once and I wanna have fun.” It’s that childish and selfish attitude that gets most of us in a crisis situation with our health and end up needing major surgery or loving in a nursing home. If that is your attitude, I’d also like you to call up the people you love most and inform them, “I don’t plan on taking care of myself now, but I fully expect you to take care of me later in my life.”

You can find more information online or at your closest Maximized Living Doctor. But honestly, the last thing we all need is more information. Either you just wasted 5 minutes of your life, or you’ll take action and do something to bring yourself closer to health. The choice is yours!

Action steps:
1. Quit using rubber mallets
2. Put high octane fuel in your Ferrari, not twinkies
3. Get to a Maximized Living Doc: find a doc here

In health,
Dr. McNabb

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
~ Philippians 4:13

*Excerpt from “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek