Though with each passing month the newsstands are filled with new magazines, books, and articles promoting the latest weight loss or exercise “secret”, the truth is an unsung hero created a method of exercise a few decades ago that would help most folks gain the physical prowess and ability to burn fat they crave. His name was Leonard Schwartz and he, himself, was walked the path most of us face. Fat, out of shape, and a chronic smoker… he was no candidate to live as long as he did. Nobody would have ever guessed the slight psychiatrist would go down in history as an exercise visionary!
Convinced in his 50’s of the need to change or die, he took up the recommended exercise protocol of his time: “aerobics”, i.e. “jogging”. That started to work. Jogging 1500 to 2000 miles per year, his racing heart rate slowly dropped from 80 beats per minute to 60. That was slow progress to him, but it was better than nothing. The reduction in resting heart rates indicated his growing fitness, yet he did not find it satisfactory by any stretch.
About that time, a hamstring injury sidelined him. He was left needing to exercise aerobically, but unable to follow the medical advice of the day. He was forced to start searching for an alternative. He found his answer in the exercise research. Cross country skiers who used their arms AND their legs to exercise processed more oxygen and had greater aerobic capacity than any runner. So why did the “experts” only focus on using the lower extremities to exercise? He started to search for a way around his hamstring injury that made running impossible.
First he tried swinging a baseball bat while doing deep knee bends. Ultimately he chose a different path, but the quest for a “full body” aerobic (hence the name “panaerobic”) workout never left him. Every exercise method he developed thereafter emphasized the principles he discovered after that hamstring injury:
