First, on behalf of NET Team we would like to wish you and your family a happy and relaxing Canada Day! 

It is been about 45 years since Arthur Jones, the pioneer of High Intensity Training principles, and the founder Nautilus Inc. and MedX Inc, exercise and medical equipment manufacturers that revolutionised the world of exercise and rehabilitation, stated that the intensity of the exercise is one of two most important keys, the other one being the form in which the exercise is performed, for achieving optimal results. Since then, more and more scientific data have been emerging validating what Jones was stating all those years ago. The other day we came across another scientifically validated piece of the puzzle of Arthur's statements. Credits to our member Judi M. who has forwarded to us this great article from The New York Times.

Now you can see that we push you to your limits each time not only because we enjoy "torturing" you, but also because we want you to achieve your optimal results. 

A group of scientists from the Scripps Research Institute in Florida with expertise in biochemistry of the Sympathetic Nervous System (which essentially is responsible for the fight or flight response found in animals and humans), have been studying a specific stress protein that our body genetically activates in these "fight or flight" situations, it is called the CRTC2 protein. In these situations, a biochemical reaction occurs in our bodies releasing hormones such as adrenaline and norepinephrine which sets our heart racing, increases alertness and primes our muscles for either running away or staying to fight. The CRTC2 protein affects body's use of blood sugar and fatty acids during moments of stress and it also affects our insulin sensitivity.

The general idea is that after we tap into our fight or flight energy reserve our body will try to make us stronger, so the next time when we run from a saber tooth tiger we don't have to tap into that emergency only reserve of energy. Image courtesy of http://lifestylescience.eu/

In order to test the effects of high intensity exercise on a molecular level, these scientists genetically modified mice to produce higher amounts of the CRTC2 protein, which would simulate body's response to a high intensity exercise bout when our fight or flight biochemical system is activated. They then put those mice and a control group (normal mice) through 2 weeks of treadmill exercise and what they found is that the genetically programmed mice improved their endurance by 103% compared to an 8.5% increase in normal mice. Those mice also developed tighter, large muscles, and their bodies were burning intramuscular fat more efficiently as a fuel compared to normal mice.

E2, Lateral Raise

Below are two graphs from one of our members who has been training with us since the end of November 2013. Up until May he was working out independently, just like most of our clients. In the second half of May he signed up for our 6-Week Build Muscles to Lose Fat program were we utilize the Negative Accentuated training. Overall, after about 7 months of training, he has an impressive increase in strength on a specific exercise (lat pulldown) of around 54% (Fig. 2). What's really interesting is that it took him about four months (22 workouts) of independent HIT training to increase his strength by ~22% and only ~1.5 months (9 workouts, total time in gym of about 4.5hrs, and around 18 minutes total of the pulldown exercise time) to increase his strength on this exercise by an additional ~29%! That's almost 30% increase on an exercise that he was already pushing himself as hard as he could for about 5.5 months prior to the start of that program!  Note, we did not include data for months 5 to 6 as he was doing a different technique of training which affected his performance on this exercise. 

Figure 1. Strength progress on the pulldown (C3) machine

Figure 2. Percentage of strength increase on the C3 machine

We specifically chose to show an example of an experienced trainee who has already passed his initial fast increase in strength in that specific exercise a few months prior to his one-on-one Negative Accentuated training. 

We see very similar trends with all of our clients who let us train them to their 100% effort. The results of our own observations, well recorded data from numerous other HIT training facilities around the World, and now scientific evidence strongly support the notion that our body would respond much better on a molecular level if the intensity of the exercise is high compared to milder physical activities.