Treat Your Muscles Right

They are, after all, the part of you that actually burns up fat. Help them.

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It's easy to think of muscles as your body's engine -- they're what make you move, they burn your body's fuel -- but we think that's a mistake. Engines turn on and off. Sometimes they guzzle gas, sometimes they just sit there. Well-exercised muscles, on the other hand, burn fuel constantly. They're more like furnaces or boilers. And exercise is a way of setting your body's thermostat.

Your goal should be to set the thermostat higher, so that your muscles are consistently burning fuel (that is, calories) at a good clip. Two advantages here: First, your body will be forced to dip into its fat reserves -- you'll lose weight. Second, exercise will make you less vulnerable to occasional lapses in judgment at the deli. You won't have to panic every time you indulge yourself with a pastrami sandwich or a sundae, because as long as you quickly get back to eating healthy, those treats will burn themselves off on their own. In fact, that brings up the key insight we want to get across here: You don't lose much weight while exercising. You lose weight while recovering from exercise. While resting. There's a simple reason why, but first you have to understand a little bit about how muscles work.

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Think of an extension ladder. It's got the main frames -- the parts that actually look like a ladder -- and then it's got the hooks that move up and down the rungs and hold them in place. Muscles are similar. There are muscle fibers, which are the red lines covering the body illustrated on the facing page. They're like the ladder frames. But on the outside of the fibers are little protein mechanisms that act like those ladder hooks, holding the fibers together. When you do a bicep curl, contracting the muscles, the hooks actually pull against each other. They mesh, almost like gears. That's what causes the contraction.

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Stamina training -- jogging, for example -- makes your body more efficient at sending energy to those hooks. You're always burning calories during exercise, but as you get into better shape, you burn fewer calories. (That's why Alfonso Soriano actually burns fewer calories running than you do.) Strength training, on the other hand, damages the ladders. Your body's response is to build them back up bigger than before. That takes a lot of calories. Once they've been built, those bigger ladders consume more calories, period, even when you're just sitting there.

We've designed an exercise program that gives you the best of both. There's a sample on this page, developed by our trainer, Joel Harper. The entire video is free at and Joel's site, If you already have a routine you're happy with, here's how to make it better:

1. Walk for thirty minutes a day.
This rids your system of the three hundred calories of sugars it carries, forcing your body to start burning fat reserves. And that means walk, not stroll: no dawdling and no stopping.

2. Stretch. Most men skimp here.
You should be able to dangle your hands with your waist bent and easily touch your toes. In fact, your palms should be able to touch the floor. This might sound really hard, and it is, but our workout will get you there.

3. Work out an hour after eating.
Your body shunts extra blood to your gut after you eat, and it will divert to your muscles if needed. Take advantage of that blood.

If your gym-going has lapsed, or if you want to make your workouts more effective, start by adding these habits. Or use our workout when you can't make it to the gym. All you need is a pair of sneakers. Cavemen did this stuff barefoot.

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