Posts Tagged ‘HeavyHands’

HIIT or LISS – Latest Research on Fat Burning With A Panaerobic (Leonard Schwartz Inspired) Twist

Posted: December 8, 2014 in General
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Image Courtesy Suppeversity Blog

Suppversity is a brilliant blog to read… Here’s one of their latest articles on fatburning you should read for yourself:

HIIT or LISS – A Question of Efficacy? High Intensity Interval Training Kickstarts Fatty Acid Oxidation & Metabolism to Make Up for the Higher Energy Exp. During LISS in 24h

It’s not only worth reading, but thinking through in light of Dr. Leonard Schwartz’ philosophy of Panaerobics because – as you know – Dr. Schwartz approved of and encouraged the use of intervals and brief workouts, but NOT in the ways they are conceived in light of the modern discussions about “High Intensity Interval Training” and total exercise time.

(Just so we’re all on the same page “HIIT”, again, stands for High Intensity Interval Training. “END” stands for “endurance training” which for this study’s purposes are the same as “LISS” = “Low Intensity Steady State” exercise.)

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Leonard Schwartz HeavyHands Video

Posted: November 20, 2014 in General
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Click here to be redirected to the Leonard Schwartz HeavyHands Video

Click here to be redirected to the Leonard Schwartz HeavyHands Video

One of the most popular search terms used to find this blog is “Leonard Schwartz HeavyHands Video”.or “HeavyHands Workout Video”.

Most of Dr. Schwartz’ videos like this were on VHS. There is one known version of it streaming online. If you’d like to see it, please visit this link: Leonard Schwartz HeavyHands Video

This presentation is approximately 59 minutes. It is titled “HeavyHands Panaerobics” because HeavyHands was, indeed, the first version of “Panaerobics” pioneered by Dr. Schwartz and subsequently followed by “Longstrength Calisthenics” and “ISO”.

Unlike Dr. Schwart’z HeavyHands books like “HeavyHands Walking” or “HeavyHands: The Ultimate Exercise” which emphasize the use of weighted hands while walking, jogging, or even running, this HeavyHands video portrays a workout system designed to be done indoors with only a few steps (usually no more than 4) in any direction.

While walking or jogging with HeavyHands cannot be said to display a “Dancelike” motion (some pictures of groups walking with HeavyHands doing back exercises look anything but dance like – and, in fact, make the walkers look more like a flock of DoDo birds!), Leonard Schwartz’ HeavyHands video offers a dance like exercise with plenty of “flow” emphasizing what Dr. Schwartz called “grace”. He enjoyed performing his exercise indoors and to music… it’s easy to see how HeavyHand performed this way could be benefited by music.

Leonard Schwartz’ HeavyHands Panaeorbics – as displayed in the linked video – is still going strong for a group of devoted users. Hopefully this blog will help encourage a RESURGENCE of Dr. Schwartz’ exercise insights! If you’re interested in the video just as a refresher because you’ve been doing HeavyHand Panaerobics for years, please take us up on our invitation below! We’ve found that many folks communicated with Dr. Schwartz directly and consider themselves “his students”. If you learned something from Dr. Schwartz that you don’t think is properly being passed on to folks today, take this opportunity to “set the record straight” and help more folks learn about panaerobics!

Invitation to experienced users of Leonard Schwartz’ HeavyHands Panaerobics: Have something to share from your own conversations/correspondence with Dr. Leonard Schwartz on HeavyHands, Panaerobics, IsoTonoMetrics, etc? We’d love to hear from you and document your experience here for others to find! Please leave a comment on any page and the blog curator will get in touch with you! Thanks!

Exercise intensity increased by addition of handheld weights to rebounding exercise

Posted: November 3, 2014 in General
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rebounder1“Exercise intensity increased by addition of handheld weights to rebounding exercise” This older study (1995)  looked into the effect of using hand held weights to increase the intensity of rebounding exercise. They concluded “The addition of [Hand Held Weight or HHW] exercise to rebounding substantially increases exercise intensity. Because rebounding without weights results in a relatively low intensity, the addition of HHW should be considered in the use of rebounding for cardiovascular training.”

What’s a rebounder?  It’s essentially a mini-trampoline. There are many incredibly cheap ones that could injure you and then there are the rebounders warrantied for users up to 400 pounds with a premium price, and rebounders priced at the mid-range with a good reputation like the Urban Rebounder “as seen on TV”!

Advantages to the rebounder vary by who you ask. Zealous promoters of these products list numerous benefits which to some degree are likely true. Less dramatic promoters highlight the ability to use these devices to work at home, promote circulation and healing, and as a platform for exercise that can be as challenging as you wish to make it! Before outrageously expensive “treadmills” rebounders or mini-trampolines were the standard device for people training indoors. Many trainees considered them excellent tool for developing leg strength thanks to the jumping and the high “G” force landings that could be created for experienced users. (Inexperienced users can potentially injure themselves even on premium rebounders!) Unlike any other training device, the rebounder allows for the development of balance and agility while working out… attributes appreciated more as folks age and the tendency is to become unstable.

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More on Leonard Schwartz, Isotonometrics, Charles Atlas and Dynamic Tension

Posted: October 30, 2014 in General
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 Charles Atlas performing a “Dynamic Tension Exercise” Image Courtesy © Charles Atlas, LTD

In a recent post the way in which Leonard Schwartz’ “IsoTonoMetrics” related to Charles Atlas and Dynamic Tension was mentioned.

Since then, some new information has come to light from Dr. Schwartz’ “Fitness Method” patent that is worth sharing on this topic, especially if people want to understand the inner dynamics of Schwartz’ “IsoTonoMetrics” and practice it for themselves.

Remember that in Schwartz’ IsoTonoMetrics, the hands are clasped or otherwise pushing together or pulling apart in various ranges of motion to activate different upper body muscles.

Bends, knee dips, torso twists, steps, head and neck rotations, various dance like moves, lunges, posture changes, body positions and toe raises are used to create a “whole body” aerobic exercise.

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Leonard Schwartz Takes A Dragan Radovic Challenge

Posted: October 27, 2014 in General
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Fitness4x4-+The+Way+of+Dragan

In the video below you can see people participating in the “Dragan Challenge”.  Dragan Radovic is well known for a particular strength endurance feat … the alternating one arm curl and press which he calls the “vertical lift”. He’s famous for challenging not only individuals but whole teams to do more of these lifts than he can. To date, he has never been beaten even by 10 people!

So how will a 70 year old man hold up to the challenge?

As he describes in his book (left), he came to two conclusions over time. First was the importance of the free squat as a lower body exercise. He may do 1000 or more per day as a foundation for any other exercise. Much later he came to a conclusion very similar to Dr. Leonard Schwartz. “Why can’t the arms be used to drive endurance exercise like the legs?” The title “Fitness 4×4” comes from his desire to harness both arms and legs for total fitness like a four wheel drive vehicle. Fans of Leonard Schwartz will have heard that before. The main difference is that Schwartz wanted the arms and legs moving together at the same time. That factor is not part of the “Challenge” though it can be seen in the “Hour of Power” workout Radovic also developed.

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The Testimony of a 30 Year “HeavyHander”

Posted: October 23, 2014 in General
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David Nyman is a 30 Year HeavyHander with a wealth of practical experience in HeavyHands!

He left an excellent comment on the post “Was Dr. Schwartz Against High Intensity Interval Training?”

Just so you don’t miss this information, the comment is being given it’s own “post”:

Great blog! I’m also a long-term Heavyhander (30 years) and mix outdoor HH sessions (3-10 pounds) with running and bodyweight exercise. I also do some indoor work with heavier (22 pound) dumbbells, like goblet squats, bench stepping and snatch/swing moves, usually in intervals. Today’s session was 50 or so minutes of outdoor walking medleys with 7 pounders, much of it using a 30 second work/10 second rest format similar to what Dr S describes above. The “rests” simply involve continuing to walk, but without the arm work. This allowed me to keep my effort level at or around 90% (i.e. of my actual, measured maximum heart rate) for a good chunk of the session, after warm-up.

One thing I’ve notice about HH, as well as the ability to do more total work at any given perceived effort level, as compared with, say, steady running or sprinting, is a quicker return to pre-workout heart rate. Today, for example, although my heart rate was typically around 160 for much of the session, it dropped to around 100 after about a minute of quiet walking, and to 60 within a few minutes of sitting down. Although my recovery is also pretty good after a run, it’s never as quick as after a HH session at an equivalent level of effort. There’s probably something interesting there about sympathetic/parasympathetic balance and the heart-rate variability thing that is gaining popularity now. Over the years I’ve also experienced the Heavyhander’s typical drop in resting heart rate, to about 46-48 during the day, and about 40 by bed-time. This stuff certainly seems good for the old ticker!

Hopefully he’ll share some more about his routines in the future!

Dr. Schwartz’ HeavyHands – A Unique Contribution to the field of Exercise and Weight Loss

Posted: October 1, 2014 in General
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sschwartzheavyhandsThough 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:

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