In today's dynamic world, balancing fitness with relationships poses a significant challenge for many. Yet, emerging studies indicate that couples embarking on a fitness journey together not only fortify their emotional connection but also have a higher success rate in meeting their fitness aspirations. This linkage between joint physical endeavors and enhanced relationship fulfillment is substantiated by numerous scientific inquiries, showcasing the integral relationship between consistent physical activity and increased relational happiness.
The Power of Partnered Workouts: Enhancing Relationship Satisfaction Through Joint Exercise
Celebrating each other's fitness milestones and providing mutual support during tough times in the fitness journey cultivates a shared experience that deepens the couple's bond. This mutual experience not only draws couples closer but also intensifies their love and contentment within the relationship.
Moreover, participating in mutual physical activities serves as an aphrodisiac, boosting sexual appeal and prowess. Research supports that physical exercise enhances neurogenesis, which is the brain's ability to generate new cells, and establishes new connections within neural networks, further emphasizing the benefits of exercising together.
BionicGym: Strengthening Bonds and Bodies Together
Integrating BionicGym into your daily routine enables couples to share the pursuit of their health objectives, celebrate each other's achievements, and experience the emotional and relational benefits stemming from joint exercise sessions. BionicGym, utilizing advanced electrical and muscle stimulation technology, offers a unique opportunity to connect, inspire, and support one another in novel and engaging ways, reinforcing the concept that couples who train together, indeed, stay together.
Imagine BionicGym as your new home fitness buddy with a vibe so engaging, it might just make the old washing machine blush. Who said workouts couldn't be electrifying in more ways than one?
Becoming a Part of the BionicGym Community
For those eager to delve even deeper into the world of fitness and shared achievements, we invite you to join our Facebook community. Here, you'll connect with other BionicGym users, share your own journey, and witness real results from real people. It's a vibrant space for encouragement, tips, and inspiring stories that highlight the transformative power of shared fitness goals.
And for a final twist, imagine BionicGym as your new home fitness buddy with a vibe so engaging, it might just make the old washing machine blush. Who said workouts couldn't be electrifying in more ways than one?
The gaming world is witnessing a paradigm shift in performance enhancement. A recent study has shown that intense cardiovascular exercise can boost gaming skills. BionicGym, a revolutionary fitness technology, takes this concept a step further by integrating cardio into the gaming session itself. Here's how it works. The Positive Effects of Intense Cardio on Gaming Research study conducted at The Memory Lab revealed that 15 minutes of intense cardiovascular exercise before playing a video game could significantly improve performance.
This discovery is ground-breaking, considering the sedentary lifestyle often associated with gaming. The positive effects of intense cardio on gaming include:
BionicGym offers a unique solution that builds upon the positive effects of intense cardio by allowing it to happen during the gaming session. Here's how:
BionicGym stands as a beacon of innovation in the gaming industry. By allowing the positive effects of cardio to be experienced during gaming, it bridges the gap between physical health and gaming. Intriguingly, used at certain levels it could enhance performance by The integration of BionicGym into gaming routines can lead to:
BionicGym is not just a product; it's a movement towards a healthier and more vibrant gaming culture.
By leveraging the positive effects of cardio and allowing it to take place during the gaming session, it offers a holistic approach to performance enhancement. The collaboration between exercise science and gaming technology has given birth to a new era in gaming. BionicGym stands at the forefront, promising a future where exercise and gaming coexist, not as separate activities but as complementary parts of a gamer's life.
Becoming a Part of the BionicGym Community
One of the best ways to stay motivated on your fitness journey is by joining a community of like-minded individuals who share similar goals. The BionicGym Facebook community is a fantastic platform for sharing your progress, learning from others' experiences, and drawing inspiration from their success stories. It provides a safe, supportive environment where you can ask questions, share tips, and celebrate milestones together.
In the ever-changing sphere of fitness, fresh, cutting-edge tools are ceaselessly emerging. Leading the pack is BionicGym, a groundbreaking invention poised to redefine home workouts. A wearable device that delivers exercise and its benefits on autopilot using Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS), BionicGym presents a novel pathway to accomplish your health and fitness ambitions. This detailed guide offers a blueprint for harnessing BionicGym's potential to supercharge your weight loss journey and promote a lifestyle brimming with health and vitality.
Establishing Realistic Fitness Goals with BionicGym
Every successful fitness journey starts with well-defined, realistic, and achievable goals. Without a concrete plan, a goal remains a mere wish. Thus, setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals is paramount.
For example, if your primary aim is, "I want to lose weight," a more specific goal would be to lose 10 pounds over the next 2 months. If your goal is to participate in "heart-healthy exercise" or to "improve athletic performance," you need to clarify what these goals look like in concrete terms.
By setting specific and measurable objectives, you can track your progress, maintain motivation, and make necessary adjustments to your BionicGym routine as you evolve.
The Critical Role of Diet and Healthy Eating
Fitness and weight loss are not just about exercise. A balanced, nutritious diet forms an essential part of the equation. By pairing your BionicGym workouts with a diet rich in essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, you provide your body with the fuel it needs for your BionicGym sessions and facilitate faster recovery post-workout.
Hydration is another critical facet of a healthy lifestyle. Adequate water intake compensates for the fluids lost during workouts, supports essential bodily functions, and even aids in weight loss by fostering a sense of fullness.
By pairing your BionicGym workouts with a diet rich in essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, you provide your body with the fuel it needs for your BionicGym sessions and facilitate faster recovery post-workout.
Customizing Your BionicGym Exercise Routine to Match Your Fitness Goals
For Weight Loss:
Use BionicGym for 60 minutes, five days a week. Start with beginner programs and gradually escalate the intensity as you acclimate to this brand new way of working out. An effective pro tip is to schedule a BionicGym session after your last evening meal, allowing your body to burn extra sugar before you sleep. For accelerated results, consider using BionicGym for extended periods (4-6 hours) at lower intensities while engaging in other tasks. Workouts such as Glucose Gobblers and Less Cardio, More Discreet are great options for this low intensity approach.
For Heart-Healthy Exercise:
Engage in 60-minute BionicGym sessions three times a week. The Twinkle Toes PRO program, when executed at high intensities while standing, delivers an excellent cardio workout. To enhance results and improve lactate tolerance, incorporate the PRO+HIIT workouts into your routine.
For Enhanced Athletic Performance:
Supplement your regular training with BionicGym sessions 3-5 times a week, each lasting for 1-2 hours. Athletes in team sports should concentrate on the PRO-HIIT workouts, which effectively simulate the demands of dynamic sports. Conversely, endurance athletes will reap the most benefits from longer sessions (2-4 hours) using the PRO Zones workouts.
Embracing a Healthier Lifestyle with BionicGym
It's essential to remember that fitness is not just about physical activity—it's a holistic lifestyle transformation. This change encompasses getting sufficient sleep, managing stress effectively, and maintaining a positive mental outlook. These factors significantly impact your fitness journey and help you realize your goals more successfully.
Monitoring Your Progress with BionicGym
Keeping a record of your progress is a fundamental aspect of your fitness journey. Regular monitoring allows you to stay motivated, witness your transformations, and make necessary adjustments to your regimen.
A fitness tracker app comes in handy here, providing you with accurate data about your heart rate, calories burned, and workout intensity. This data not only helps you track your physical improvements but also provides insights into how different workout programs affect your body, enabling you to fine-tune your sessions for maximum results.
Additional Tips for Maximizing Your BionicGym Experience
As you begin your journey with BionicGym, it's essential to remember that everyone's body responds differently to new exercise routines. You may notice some people start sweating during their first BionicGym workout, while for others, it might take a little longer to adapt. With consistent use and gradual increases in intensity, most people start to sweat and experience an increase in heart rate within 2-3 weeks.
Remember, patience and consistency are key. Your body is unique and will adapt to the new exercise regimen in its own time. Don't be discouraged if you don't see immediate results. Keep pushing, stay consistent, and you're sure to see progress.
Becoming a Part of the BionicGym Community
One of the best ways to stay motivated on your fitness journey is by joining a community of like-minded individuals who share similar goals. The BionicGym Facebook community is a fantastic platform for sharing your progress, learning from others' experiences, and drawing inspiration from their success stories. It provides a safe, supportive environment where you can ask questions, share tips, and celebrate milestones together.
Conclusion
The BionicGym Weight Loss Blueprint serves as a guide to help you navigate your fitness journey. By setting realistic goals, maintaining a healthy diet, customizing your workout routine, adopting a healthier lifestyle, and tracking your progress, you can leverage the full potential of BionicGym. Remember, the journey to fitness is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay patient, stay consistent, and you'll reap the rewards of a healthier, fitter you.
As the days grow longer and the weather warmer, summer stands as a delightful invitation to refresh and rejuvenate our dietary choices. Seasonal foods, rich in essential nutrients and boasting powerful health benefits, become bountiful.
The importance of dietary habits on overall health and well-being cannot be overstated. What we eat significantly impacts our energy levels, mood, physical health, and even our cognitive function. Here, we delve into five foods that, aside from being absolutely delicious, are nutrient powerhouses. These foods can aid in hydration, bolster your immune system, and enhance the gains you achieve from your BionicGym workouts.
Watermelon: The Hydration Hero
Watermelon, with its juicy sweetness and refreshing crunch, is the embodiment of summer. This fruit is composed of approximately 92% water, making it incredibly hydrating and ideal for replenishing lost fluids, particularly during hot weather or after an intense BionicGym session.
However, watermelon offers more than just hydration. It's an excellent source of vitamins A and C. Vitamin A is essential for good vision, a healthy immune system, and cell growth. Vitamin C, another powerful antioxidant, aids in maintaining the health of skin, blood vessels, bones, and cartilage, and it also plays a crucial role in wound healing.
Additionally, watermelon is packed with lycopene, a carotenoid antioxidant that gives the fruit its red color. Lycopene has been associated with heart health, sunburn protection, and a reduced risk of certain types of cancer.
Berries: The Antioxidant All-Stars
Summer berries, including strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, are not just nature's sweets; they're also nutrient-dense, antioxidant-rich foods. Antioxidants help mitigate oxidative stress by combating free radicals, unstable molecules that can damage cells in your body. By reducing oxidative stress, antioxidants are believed to slow down the aging process and decrease the risk of chronic diseases.
Berries are also rich in fiber, a crucial nutrient for maintaining a healthy digestive system. Fiber can help control blood sugar levels, maintain bowel health, and assist in achieving a healthy weight. Furthermore, the flavonoids in berries, such as anthocyanins, have been shown to boost brain function and delay brain aging.
Leafy Greens: The Vitamin Victor
Greens like spinach, kale, and arugula are loaded with essential nutrients. They are excellent sources of vitamins A, C, K, and several B vitamins. Vitamin K is necessary for blood clotting and healthy bones. The B vitamins present in these greens, including folate, are essential for energy metabolism and the formation of red blood cells.
In addition, leafy greens are high in dietary fiber, contributing to feelings of fullness, supporting digestion, and helping maintain steady blood sugar levels. These vegetables also contain substantial amounts of minerals, such as iron and calcium, which are essential for muscle function—a particularly relevant point when engaging in regular BionicGym workouts.
Tomatoes: The Lycopene Leaders
Moreover, tomatoes contain a substantial amount of potassium, a mineral that serves several crucial functions in the body. Potassium helps regulate fluid balance, nerve signals, and muscle contractions. A diet rich in potassium can help reduce blood pressure and water retention, enhance muscle strength, and decrease the risk of kidney stones.
Tomatoes, especially when ripe and red, are a potent source of the antioxidant lycopene. Numerous studies suggest that lycopene contributes to a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. Tomatoes are also rich in vitamin C, which, alongside lycopene, helps to combat free radical damage.
Avocados: The Healthy Fat Favorites
Avocados, with their rich, creamy texture and versatility, make a delicious addition to many summer dishes. While they're often recognized for their healthy fat content, they are also brimming with other essential nutrients.
Avocados are high in monounsaturated fats, which are heart-healthy and can help reduce bad cholesterol levels. They also contain a significant amount of dietary fiber, contributing to digestive health and feelings of fullness, which can aid weight management.
Moreover, avocados are rich in vitamins C, E, K, and B-6, along with riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, and potassium. They also provide lutein, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients collectively contribute to overall health, offering benefits ranging from improved immune function and eye health to enhanced mood and cognition.
But the advantages of avocados don't end there. The high fat content enhances our absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (like vitamins A, D, E, and K) from other foods when consumed together. Plus, the abundance of antioxidants in avocados supports cellular health and combats inflammation.
Infusing Fitness with Nutrition
While incorporating these nutrient-dense foods into your summer diet, remember that physical fitness is another pillar of health. Pairing a balanced, nutritious diet with regular workouts, such as using the BionicGym, can offer synergistic benefits. Physical exercise can help enhance your metabolic function, amplify energy expenditure, and improve muscle strength and cardiovascular health. When combined with the right nutrition, it can help optimize your wellness journey.
Whether you're aiming for improved fitness levels, better blood glucose control, or overall health enhancement, the foods you consume significantly contribute to your goals. Embrace the summer's bounty, and nourish your body with these nutritious, delicious seasonal foods.
Remember, eating is not merely about satisfying hunger—it's also about nurturing our bodies. This summer, let's celebrate the wealth of nourishment provided by nature, and appreciate how these gifts fuel our bodies, enhance our health, and augment the gains from our physical efforts with BionicGym.
As always, before making any significant dietary changes, it's recommended to consult with a healthcare provider or a certified nutritionist to ensure that these changes align with your individual health needs and goals.
Meet Armand, an inspiring BionicGym user whose transformational journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Over the course of a month and a half, Armand managed to lose an impressive 45 pounds, all while increasing his energy levels and enjoying activities he hadn't engaged in for a long time.
The Beginning of Armand's Journey:
Armand's story begins with a sedentary lifestyle, born out of necessity rather than choice. A car accident had left him reliant on crutches, severely limiting his physical activity. Despite maintaining a strict diet, the lack of sufficient exercise had him stuck in a frustrating weight plateau. No matter how mindful he was about his eating habits, the weight just refused to budge. But things were about to change when Armand discovered BionicGym.
What is BionicGym, you ask? BionicGym is a revolutionary fitness device designed to stimulate a cardiovascular workout equivalent to running or cycling. This is achieved by sending impulses to your large leg muscles of your legs and buttocks, mimicking shivering to achieve an intense exercise. The innovative technology behind BionicGym made it possible for Armand to workout for an hour or two each day, all from the comfort of his home.
Armand's Incredible Transformation:
Armand was kind enough to share a glimpse of his workout routine with BionicGym:
"I'm 45 minutes into my workout. I'm pouring down sweat. I am 597 calories in. My heart rate is slowing down now because I'm getting to the end of my workout at 115, 116. Usually it's up around 130, 140."
Imagine that - getting your heart rate up and burning up to 800 calories in a day without stepping foot in a gym or pounding the pavement. The ease and accessibility of the BionicGym workout made it the perfect solution for Armand, and it could be just what you need to kickstart your fitness journey.
The results speak for themselves. In just over a month, Armand saw remarkable changes in his life. His weight loss journey took a dramatic turn for the better, he let go of his crutches, and he started engaging in activities he hadn't done in a while. All this was possible due to the revolutionary concept of BionicGym.
"BionicGym literally changed my life," says Armand. And it's not just about the weight loss. The increased energy and the freedom to enjoy a range of activities has made a huge difference in Armand's quality of life. With BionicGym, he was able to flip the switch from weight plateauing to active weight loss. And he believes it can do the same for others, too.
Armand's story is a testament to the transformative power of BionicGym. It's not just a fitness device; it's a tool that can drastically change your lifestyle and health for the better. If you're stuck in a weight loss plateau, or you're looking for a convenient and effective way to boost your fitness, BionicGym could be the answer. As Armand's story proves, the results could be life-changing.
Armand's Incredible Transformation:
Armand's Incredible Transformation:
In our fast-paced lives, the significance of a stable routine is often underestimated, especially when it comes to our overall health and well-being. The idea of a routine might sound monotonous or limiting to some, but in reality, a well-planned routine serves as a solid foundation, giving our lives structure, order, and a sense of control. This foundation is incredibly beneficial not only for our physical health but also for our mental and emotional well-being.
A routine shouldn't be seen as a rigid set of rules. Instead, it should be viewed as a flexible blueprint that accommodates our personal needs and lifestyle, one that can evolve as we do. When we talk about routines in the context of health and well-being, we are referring to a comprehensive regimen that incorporates a balanced diet, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, and mindful practices such as meditation and deep breathing.
The Integral Role of Physical Activity
Physical activity is a crucial component of any health-centric routine. The rewards of regular exercise are plentiful, spanning from effective weight management and improved cardiovascular health to mood enhancement and boosted energy levels. Yet, many of us struggle to integrate physical activity into our daily routine due to time constraints, lack of motivation, or issues with personal comfort.
Here, innovative solutions like BionicGym can bridge the gap. This wearable device allows for effective workouts during your regular daily tasks, making it possible to maintain physical activity levels without causing disruption to your schedule. Moreover, it provides a private workout solution for those who may feel self-conscious exercising in public spaces, removing another potential barrier to regular physical activity.
The Importance of Balanced Nutrition and Hydration
Alongside regular physical activity, a balanced diet is another critical aspect of a health-promoting routine. Consuming a variety of nutrient-rich foods not only provides the energy needed for our day-to-day activities but also supports our long-term health by warding off chronic diseases and bolstering our immune system.
Hydration is another often overlooked but essential aspect of maintaining good health. Water plays numerous roles in our body, including aiding digestion, regulating body temperature, lubricating joints, and even supporting cognitive functions. Keeping well-hydrated also contributes to skin health, giving it a healthier and more youthful appearance.
Hydration is another often overlooked but essential aspect of maintaining good health. Water plays numerous roles in our body, including aiding digestion, regulating body temperature, lubricating joints, and even supporting cognitive functions.
Sleep and Rest: The Undervalued Pillars of Health
The importance of quality sleep and sufficient rest in our daily routines cannot be overstated. Sleep is the body's natural recovery phase, improving cognitive functions, boosting the immune system, and reducing stress levels. It is during sleep that our body performs many vital tasks like cell repair and memory consolidation.
Similarly, rest days are critical, especially in the context of a workout routine. These are the days when your body heals, your muscles rebuild, and your mind recharges. It's essential to listen to your body and give it the rest it needs to avoid burnout and overtraining, which can lead to injuries and hinder your progress towards your health goals.
The Power of Mindfulness Practices
Incorporating mindfulness practices into our routine can have profound impacts on our mental and emotional well-being. This might be in the form of meditation, yoga, deep-breathing exercises, or simply spending a few moments each day in quiet reflection. Regular mindfulness practice can reduce stress, enhance emotional resilience, and improve overall life satisfaction.
Harnessing the Power of Community
While our personal routine plays a crucial role in health and well-being, the power of community is an aspect that should not be underestimated. Being a part of a community of like-minded individuals offers immense support and motivation. It can be incredibly empowering to share experiences, challenges, and victories with others who are on a similar journey. BionicGym's Facebook community offers sucha platform where users can connect, share their fitness journeys, and find encouragement and motivation.
Conclusion: Crafting a Routine for Health and Well-being
In essence, creating a routine that promotes health and well-being is a multi-faceted process that involves the integration of physical activity, nutrition, adequate sleep, mindfulness practices, and a sense of community. Each of these elements plays a unique role in contributing to our overall wellness, and their synergy creates a balanced and holistic approach to health.
Regular physical activity, for instance, keeps our bodies strong and agile, while a balanced diet nourishes our bodies, giving them the nutrients they need to perform at their best. Adequate sleep and rest rejuvenate our bodies and minds, and mindfulness practices keep us grounded and emotionally resilient. The sense of community, then, serves as a supportive network that motivates and inspires us to stay on track.
Whether it's incorporating a convenient and private workout tool like BionicGym into your exercise regimen, dedicating ten minutes each day to mindfulness practice, ensuring you're consuming a balanced diet, or getting a good night's sleep, every little step you take contributes significantly to your journey towards better health.
Remember, the journey to wellness is not a sprint but a marathon. It requires consistency, patience, and self-compassion. Creating and maintaining a routine may be challenging initially, but the rewards are immense and life-altering. A well-structured routine not only brings order and predictability to our lives but also provides us with the framework necessary to achieve our health and well-being goals. So, embark on this journey, one step at a time, and celebrate each small victory along the way to a healthier, happier you.
Setting SMART-er Goals:
It’s very easy to see the value of setting goals. Giving yourself something to work towards rather than just doing a whole host of things you think might be good for you for the sake of it certainly leads to better results. But there’s a big difference between setting any old goal and setting a SMART goal.
SMART goals are goals that are structured in a very particular way. They are:
It’s very easy to see the value of setting goals. Giving yourself something to work towards rather than just doing a whole host of things you think might be good for you for the sake of it certainly leads to better results. But there’s a big difference between setting any old goal and setting a SMART goal.
SMART goals are goals that are structured in a very particular way. They are:
Specific:
Your goal must have a clear focus. Take into consideration what exactly you want to accomplish, why it is an important goal and who might be involved in helping you achieve it.
Measurable:
Ensure there is an easy way to measure your progress towards achieving your goal. This doesn’t necessarily have to be pounds lost, instead it could be calories burned per day, time spent exercising, pant size or a certain body measurement.
Achievable:
Arguably the most important aspect of setting great goals is ensuring it's actually possible to achieve them! Setting yourself an impossible goal only sets yourself up for failure!
Relevant:
Your goal must matter to you in some way big or small. If this isn’t the case you won’t get that sense of achievement as you make progress. Be sure to consider how making progress towards your goal will make life easy, better, more enjoyable or all three!
Timed:
Give yourself a deadline by which you aim to achieve your goal. This will give you an easy way to keep one eye on whether you’re behind schedule, ahead of schedule or perfectly on track! Just be sure to consider whether the timeframe you’ve set for yourself is in keeping with your goal being Achievable.
Here’s an example: I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months so I look good and feel great in time for my sister’s wedding.
This goal is specific and measurable because we have said exactly how many pounds we want to lose, it’s achievable as losing 20lbs within 3 months is a realistic amount of weight to lose, it’s relevant as it is important to me that Ifeel good in time for a big event, and it’s timed as I have given myself 3 months to do it. Simple!
Breaking Down the Process:
Having set ourselves a goal that is SMARTit’s now time to break that goal down into smaller steps. Let’s take the SMART goal we set from last time as an example:
I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months so I feel great in time for my sister’s wedding.
This is called the outcome goal; it is what we want to happen by the end of the time we set for ourselves. This outcome goal is our overall focus; it’s the masterpiece we paint over weeks and weeks of hard work. But sitting down to paint a masterpiece can seem very daunting. If we break it down though into individual brush strokes it all seems a lot more manageable.
This outcome goal is our overall focus; it’s the masterpiece we paint over weeks and weeks of hard work. But sitting down to paint a masterpiece can seem very daunting. If we break it down though into individual brush strokes it all seems a lot more manageable.
These individual brush strokes are called process goals, and they are quite literally the smaller goals we have to complete as part of the process to achieve our larger outcome goal.
So what would these process goals look like if our goal was to lose 20 pounds in 3 months in time for our sister’s wedding?
Well 20 pounds over three months works out at a little less than 7 pounds per month, and 1-2 pounds per week. Already our goal seems a lot more manageable.
Next we need to break this down further into how:
Well to lose weight we know we need to be in a calorie deficit, and a calorie deficit of 500-1000 calories per day works out at roughly 1-2 pounds per week. So now we need to figure out how we are going to achieve this daily calorie deficit.
In order to steadily and sustainably lose weight we need to incorporate more exercise and maintain a healthy diet. To do this we may set the process goals that we are going to do 4 hours of BionicGym per day while working at our desk. We are going to use Glucose Gobblers at a low intensity so we can maintain our focus while supercharging our calorie burn. We are going to use our smartwatch to track how many calories we burn. On top of this we are going to make the most of the great weather and try to go for a walk at least 3 times per week for 1 hour. We plan to increase the number of calories we burn each week by 3500-5000 which equates to 500 to (roughly) 700 extra calories per day. Awesome, that’s the exercise sorted!
For our diet we decide to make some healthy substitutions to our diet each day, swapping out our sodas for water, preparing a low carb lunch each day in place of the convenient fast food option and for our dinners we choose lean proteins like turkey and lean beef and reduce the amount of carbs like rice, pasta and potatoes on our plates for healthy vegetables. By eating more protein and fibre in each of our meals we also anticipate being more satiated meaning we are less likely to want to snack throughout the day. By doing all of this we hope to decrease our calorie intake by another 500-750 calories per day in order to maintain a calorie deficit and back this up by tracking our calories using a calorie tracking app.
So we’ve now gone from having the outcome goal of I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months so I look good and feel great in time for my sister’s wedding to having the following much smaller goals:
Do Glucose Gobblers every day for 4 hours while I work to burn an extra 500 calories per day.
Go for three 1hr walks per week to burn a few hundred more calories (and enjoy the great evening weather!).
Track daily calories using the tracker app of choice.
At the start of each week meal prep a low carb lunch to have in work and eat a lean protein for dinner each night and substitute out our usual side of pasta, rice or potatoes for healthy vegetables in order to decrease our caloric intake by roughly 500 calories per day.
By breaking our SMART outcome goal down we have turned it into a simple list of daily/weekly tasks that seem a lot more achievable with a little bit of planning and preparation each week.
The Key Takeaways:
In conclusion, setting SMART goals is a powerful tool for achieving success in any area of life, including weight loss and fitness. By making your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timed, you can create a roadmap for success that is clear, manageable, and motivating. Breaking down your outcome goals into smaller process goals can make the journey towards your goal more feasible and achievable. So, whether you're aiming to lose 20 pounds for a special event or pursuing any other goal, remember to set SMART goals and break them down into smaller, actionable steps to set yourself up for success. Get started today and watch yourself make progress towards your desired outcome!
If you’re anything like us and you’re trying to shed a few pounds, whether that be just to improve your overall health, get ready for summer or a bit of both, chances are you’ve heard a lot of talk about calories. And despite the amount of chat about them a lot of people don’t quite understand what they are and why they are important.
For this exact reason we have put together this complete guide all about calories and how to use them to empower your weight loss journey.
So, what is a calorie?
A calorie is defined as:
“A unit of energy equivalent to the heat energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius”
This is the very science-y definition and probably is a little confusing. But more simply a calorie is a unit of measurement that tells us how much energy is in our food and drinks. Think of calories like fuel for a car - our bodies need them to function properly and do things like walk, run, and even breathe!
Think of calories like fuel for a car - our bodies need them to function properly and do things like walk, run, and even breathe!
So what happens if we don’t eat enough calories? Does our body just stop working? Fortunately, no! Our bodies are very adaptable. On days where maybe you’ve woken up late and had to skip breakfast, rushed to the office, worked through lunch with only a little snack to tide you over and gone to the fridge when you finally get home only to discover you’re fresh out of groceries, the body switches things up a little and delves into its stored energy reserves of fat, carbohydrates and protein ensuring you barely miss a beat.
But what about those days you decide to lounge about, watch Netflix and get takeout?
Well, chances are on those days your body isn’t using up much energy so it’s got a lot left over from the food you’ve eaten. In this instance our bodies take these left over calories and store them, usually as fat, for later.
A single day here or there where we burn less calories than we eat is bound to happen, but day after day, week after week and our body will continuously store this extra energy as fat resulting in weight gain. This is called a calorie surplus.
Eventually the time comes when we decide enough is enough, it’s time to shed those extra pounds that have snuck on over the last few months. But how do we do this? Well the answer is quite simple; a calorie deficit.
But, what is a calorie deficit?
When you strip everything back a calorie deficit is ultimately the key that unlocks weight loss progress. In essence a calorie deficit is when we burn more calories per day than we consume through food. By doing this our bodies have to find energy elsewhere to use as fuel, which it typically gets from our stored fat.
By delving into these fat stores day after day, we start to deplete that fat store that has built up over weeks, months or even years. By depleting it we start
In order to be in a calorie deficit there are two key pieces of information you need to know:
The number of calories we burn in a day is often referred to as our Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or TDEE for short. This is the sum of all the calories our bodies burn while it carries out its usual daily functions (thinking, breathing, blinking, digesting food etc) add to the calories we burn while we work, exercise and generally go about our daily lifestyle.
There are plenty of online calculators that can calculate your TDEE by taking your sex, height, weight and rough activity level. Alternatively, if you own a fitness wearable or smartwatch you can use this too to get a rough estimate.
The amount of calories we eat per day is also known as our Caloric Intake and can be calculated by adding together all of the calories you eat and drink in a day. The number of calories in the foods we eat can often be found by checking the amount of calories in the food on the back of packaging or using calorie tracking apps that have become commonly available to download and use on most smartphones.
To be in a calorie deficit we have to burn more calories than we eat meaning our TDEE has to be greater than our caloric intake. For sustainable weight loss it is best to aim for a calorie deficit of 500-1000 calories per day in order to lose 1-2lbs per week.
How to achieve our calorie deficit?
There are 3 ways you can achieve a calorie deficit:
Reducing the amount of calories you eat without changing your activity level can lead to weight loss but this progress doesn’t tend to be sustainable. Our body fights back to try and maintain the status quo. Lots of diets can also just get quite boring! The first chance to deviate from it, a well deserved holiday or family occasion, releases the proverbial floodgates that result in us crawling straight back to those comfort foods we used indulge in after a stressful day.
So maybe burning more calories is the answer? It could be, but we’d have to do an awful lot of extra exercise! Burning an extra 500-1000 calories per day is no mean feat, and doing it every single day is even tougher. And while you can absolutely achieve these sorts of levels of calorie burn each day by exercising with BionicGym, taking a slightly different approach has been found to be the most effective.
Making slight improvements to your diet along with incorporating more exercise into your daily life is the most effective and most sustainable approach, and in fact has been proven to be by science! By tipping both sides of the scales in our favor we get the benefits of both diet and exercise without an insane amount of additional effort. A 250cal reduction in your calorie intake is about the equivalent of a mars bar while a 250 calorie increase in calorie burn is the equivalent of as little as 30 minutes of exercise with BionicGym! And just like that we’re already 500 calories better off.
Making slight improvements to your diet along with incorporating more exercise into your daily life is the most effective and most sustainable approach, and in fact has been proven to be by science! By tipping both sides of the scales in our favor we get the benefits of both diet and exercise without an insane amount of additional effort.
The Key Takeaways:
Very simply a calorie is just a way of measuring the energy in the food and drink we consume. Our body needs these calories to function, but if we get a little carried away and eat too much, we store these extra calories as fat for use later.
When enough is enough and we decide to lose that extra fat the key is a calorie deficit. And the best way to maintain a calorie deficit is through a combination of both diet AND exercise, a combination that has been shown to be both the most effective and most sustainable method. Making simple changes to our diet to reduce the number of calories we eat while also burning more calories through exercise each day using BionicGym, going to the gym, getting out for a walk (or a combination of all three!) makes the daunting task of losing weight far simpler and more attainable.
So what are we waiting for! Let’s get the show on the road with BionicGym!
With Summer fast approaching, I am sure we are not alone in feeling the pressure to look our best in our swimwear. Fortunately, we have picked up some useful tips over the last couple of years and are delighted to share them with you!
Tip 1: Set Realistic and Achievable Summer Fitness Goals.
To succeed in your fitness journey, setting realistic and achievable goals is essential. For help setting goals, refer to the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Whether you want to lose weight or increase your cardiovascular fitness, BionicGym's adjustable intensity levels and flexible training modes make it simple to create workouts that align with your specific goals.
Tip 2: Combine strength training and cardio exercises at BionicGym.
Combine BionicGym cardio workouts with regular strength training exercises for a well-rounded fitness routine. Large leg muscle groups are the focus of the EMS technology used by BionicGym, which also offers an efficient cardio workout. Complement these sessions with strength training exercises targeting other muscle groups, such as the upper body and core, to achieve a balanced and sculpted physique.
Tip 3: Prioritize Consistency and Gradual Progress
Prioritizing consistency and slow progress is one of the keys to achieving your summer body goals. First, stick to a regular workout schedule, aiming for 3-5 BionicGym sessions per week, allowing for rest days in between. Then, use BionicGym's adjustable intensity levels to progress at your own pace, gradually increasing as your fitness level improves. This approach will help you achieve more sustainable results that you can be proud of year round!
Tip 4: Monitor Your Diet and Hydration
Nutrition plays a crucial role in achieving a summer-ready body. Focus on consuming a balanced diet rich in lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. In addition, stay adequately hydrated by drinking water throughout the day, especially during your BionicGym workouts. Hydration is essential for maintaining muscle health and promoting recovery after exercise. BionicGym can help you burn calories and improve muscle tone, but it's vital to complement these efforts with mindful eating and hydration habits.
Tip 5: Track Your Progress and Stay Accountable
Keeping track of your progress is an excellent way to stay motivated and accountable throughout your fitness journey. Document your workouts, intensity levels, and achievements, whether in a workout journal, a fitness app or by sharing your progress on social media. Tracking your progress will help you stay committed, adjust your routine as needed, and celebrate your successes.
In conclusion, getting your body summer-ready with BionicGym is a rewarding and achievable endeavour by following these top 5 tips. You'll be able to get the most out of your BionicGym workouts and achieve long-lasting, transformative results by establishing reasonable fitness goals, incorporating cardio and strength training, putting consistency first, keeping an eye on your diet and hydration, and keeping track of your progress. We wish you luck as you begin this thrilling fitness journey and encourage you to rise to the challenges and cherish each victory along the way.
As renowned motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar once said. "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." Discover the strength and confidence that come from being the best version of yourself by embracing your fitness journey with BionicGym. Let's work together to build a brighter, happier, healthier future.
"Hey guys it’s Christiane here and I am a BionicGym user and I wanted to show you the results that I have been getting since I started using it. So I started in December 2020 and a couple of really really incredible results. First of all, leg strength has incredibly improved. So just getting in and out of cars and lower places, I am just up, I can get up from sitting and that’s not something I could do beforehand because I had an old knee injury since 2011 that hasn’t really recovered and since I started using BionicGym I have full flexibility back in my knee and also full strength so I don’t have any of those issues anymore that made a really big difference.
I am just finished a two hour Glucose Gobblers workout and I have started a new one, that’s why I am a bit out of breath and sweaty and red so I just wanted to show you here on the watch. This is the calories I have burned, so it's 549 (calories), so it’s all great.
I used the pad placement, I played around with it just followed the instructions and I must say it’s working really well for me and I’m all wobbly at the moment using it!
I find, I work standing up because I am working from home and I’ve got a business that I need to work from home for so for me this has helped me to keep my cardio up, burn calories, lose some weight; that’s happening and coming off slowly and just generally feeling good! The exercise makes me feel good and me feel I’ve worked out and I don’t feel so clogged up. And also, so with COVID and in and out of lockdowns and my gym being closed and then open again this gives me the opportunity to consistently exercise.
But frankly, the biggest change has been my strength, my flexibility and how good I feel now that I am working out whilst I’m actually doing work. My business is running workshops so I can play with the intensity. I use it for about 2 to 3 hours a day, 4 or 5 times a week and I find I really crave it as a health and well being thing. I use it mostly in the morning, I also fast in the morning. That works the best for me. Not so much at night sitting down, I really prefer using it standing up because I can amp up the intensity and really get sweating. I love that, I love that about it!
So, highly recommend it! I was skeptical in the beginning but a friend recommended it to me and I thought I’m gonna give it a go. I am very very happy with it, it’s been great!"
Jess Kelly: Welcome back to Tech Talk, this is Jess Kelly with you here on Newstalk. Now as we covered back in January, the annual Consumer Electronics Show takes place every year in Las Vegas. Back in 2019 when I was walking around the Las Vegas Convention Center, one company caught my eye because it was gaining real interest from a ton of people there. And it turns out it was an Irish company called BionicGym. And I'm delighted to say the man behind it joins me now all these years later. Dr. Louis Crowe, thank you so much for joining us here on Newstalk. Can you just introduce us to BionicGym?
Dr. Louis Crowe: Yeah, that CES show was really quite crazy. We were showing off BionicGym for the first time in public really. And what BionicGym is, it's an exercise device. People might be familiar with some of these kinds of ab type stimulators and toners. It's like that except extraordinarily effective. We've got an app that you control on your phone and there's a wrap that goes around your legs. And within this wrap, there are electrodes and we send electrical impulses to contract the legs. Now obviously, you know, if you're just contracting lightly, that doesn't do very much. But we've developed technology that has become really effective. You know, in CES that day, I think I did the equivalent of running the marathon. I was quite exhausted at the end of the day, just with this technology on my legs, causing my legs to contract in a rhythmic way. But the idea behind the kind of innovation is essentially shivering is nature's hack to burn calories. And so you shiver when you want to warm up and a calorie is just a term of heat. So nature's evolved to, kind of, burn to generate heat, you shiver. And so we kind of mimic that because this maximizes the energy consumption. And if you're burning enough calories, that's essentially exercise. You do it vigorously enough and we can do this with this tech now, you know, you'll be sweating, you'll be breathless, your heart is racing. So yeah, so CES was really the first time we kind of put it out there for people to look and see in the real world.
Jess Kelly: Yeah, I'm someone who, I suppose, loves the idea of working out, maybe loves the feeling of the aftermath and so on. But one of the biggest barriers is the motivation to put the gear on and get out the door. Some people might say that your solution is almost too good to be true. But you do have science and data to back it all up, right?
Dr. Louis Crowe: Yes. And not only that, but this product has been in gestation for 20 years. So we started with BMR in the West of Ireland in Galway and then we did a big project with UCD and there in the Department of Physiotherapy and Sport, Institute of Sport. And we did lots of proper clinical controlled studies. And so we find people's heart rate would obviously go up, their calorie consumption would go up, but they'd also train. And this training had a typical training effect for aerobic exercise, aerobic fitness improved dramatically as well. They were using maybe five times a week for six weeks. We studied particular populations as well. And this all went from people with spinal cord injury. So it's some people who couldn't exercise at all with their legs, say, they hadn't moved in 15 years. And we were able to activate and train this muscle up and then train with this muscle such that their aerobic fitness improved, their burning calories. And then we did test it on people who were overweight and tested on people with diabetes. The diabetes (research) is something I'm kind of really interested and proud of, I have to confess, we think we've got a huge application there. And then we tested them, kind of, normal people. We even tested with the European Space Agency. They were interested because we can't really go to Mars and come back again without a body disintegrating. So we need to find a good way to exercise in space that doesn't really involve gravity. And, you know, there are these centrifugal treadmills that are costly and they weigh a lot and take up a lot of space. But you could also use BionicGym. And we found this in the parabolic flights where we're in zero gravity, shaking away and burning calories. So, yeah, the science is all there. We've published papers and peer reviewed journals with professors and lots of different universities. So it's pretty good.
Jess Kelly: In terms of overall fitness and well-being, you mentioned there about aerobic fitness, but what about strength and conditioning? Like is bionic gym something that should be used alongside other fitness things or does it stand alone as a product?
Dr. Louis Crowe: And so the product is kind of for everybody. And what we find the niche is is a lot of people are particularly interested in weight loss applications. And we can come back to that later. But in relation to, kind of, strength as such, one of our studies, we measure people's strength and it improved. But we don't really, I think, in terms of like cycling, if you want to build muscle bulk, you'd probably just do weights. And that's great. And we recommend that. But cycling obviously increases people's strength and professional cyclists or people who cycle an awful lot obviously have good, strong, toned, fit legs and are, kind of, products in a kind of similar category with particular advantages and disadvantages. But that's the way we, kind of, do the comparison. If you just want pure bulk with the technology we've released to date, we, you know, just go and do some weights. But if you want to get the benefits of, say, similar to cycling, say, or vigorous aerobic exercise, use BionicGym.
Jess Kelly: Is the equipment you wear heavy? And, you know, in terms of the sensation, the pulsing sensation, is that something you need to get used to?
Dr. Louis Crowe: That's a key thing, the first few sessions for people. Now, some people put on and immediately get their heart rate racing. And that's brilliant. But the experience for most people is they need to take you gradually and easily in the same way, you need to learn to walk before you can run. But what we find in terms of having it on, I have it on now at the moment and you probably didn't notice. I'm just using it at low levels. And this is how we recommend a certain group of people to use it, especially if you're not fit initially, use it at levels where you're comfortable at. In the same way as you could get on a stationary bicycle and cycle very slowly or cycle very fast. And we say, you know, start at what you're comfortable at, gradually increase intensity during a session, from one session to the next. And then as you get fitter, of course, you'll be able to increase it again.
Jess Kelly: Give me a bit of a rundown of the hardware itself.
Dr. Louis Crowe: So we've got a control unit and this is an electronic device and we attach it. It's controlled from your phone so you always control the intensity of your exercise. We've got wraps that go around your legs, just your thighs. And we've got electrodes within that, that's essentially a contact with your skin. And we send tiny impulses and they are, kind of, minuscule impulses that trigger the nerves. And then the nerves, we target particular types of nerves in a particular pattern, in a particular way. And this enables us to trigger the nerves that contract a particular muscle and muscle fibers. And these fibers contract and then they naturally relax afterwards. And you contract them again and then you relax muscles. Because we are targeting in a particular way, we can even bring in the calf muscles, even though the wraps are just on your thighs, because the nerve to your calf muscle runs through your upper leg, obviously. So we can target it there. And likewise, we can target your bum or glute muscles as well. And so we can get a kind of full lower body workout by just sending, essentially we hijack some of these nerves and tell them what to do. And the muscles themselves, they don't realize that the signal didn't come from the brain or the spinal column. It came from our control unit because the nerve just sends a signal contract and the muscle then contracts.
Jess Kelly: Is it cumbersome in terms of storage?
Dr. Louis Crowe: No, it's tiny. I was off in Italy there the other day and I just threw it into the case. I think it's, kind of, I don't know, it's maybe a kilogram or so. It's really light. It's part of the reason why they're interested in it for space exploration, because it's so light and compact. I often wear it underneath my clothing. What we're finding in the feedback we're getting from people is they quite often use it during the day in order to, kind of, build up a large calorie burn as they're doing other things, like the way I have it on now as I'm talking to you. At not very high levels, but maybe the equivalent of walking. So for me, walking, it's not much exercise, but I can do four or five hours of this as I'm at work or walking about the place. And it really builds up the calorie burn and, kind of, keeps me fresh during the day. I need a bit of exercise. Otherwise, I feel a little bit lethargic.
Jess Kelly: This could be a silly question, but if I wear an Apple Watch or a fitness tracker, what are the metrics that are recorded as a result of wearing and going through a session with Bionic Gym?
Dr. Louis Crowe: Well, so I kind of track four or five different things at different stages, but the device itself just exercises you in the same ways you know that you're exercising. You can measure your heart rate by palpation, by feeling it, or you can put on one of these straps. A lot of people have Apple Watches or whatever, and that will tell them the heart rate. So as you increase intensity, your heart rate will go up. There's a short lag compared to voluntary exercise, some kind of physiological reasons. The other things that happen is the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen changes as well. So you breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. And with this form of exercise, you breathe out proportionately more carbon dioxide. And we can measure that, too. We can measure people's resting heart rate or anybody can measure their own resting heart rate. This is an indication of fitness. And because it's how many times your heart needs to pump as you're just sitting there doing nothing for 15 minutes or whatever. So you rest for 15 minutes, you measure your heart rate, you train with BionicGym, and then you measure your heart rate again and you'll find that your resting heart rate, it's probably gone down and seems to go down quicker than with voluntary exercises. It has been our information we're getting today, but we don't have controlled studies on that. So all these different matrices, I was covering my blood glucose levels there for two weeks until last week, a continuous blood glucose monitor. So this measures the amount of sugar in your bloodstream. And we all need some sugar in the bloodstream, but it needs to be really tightly controlled. And when it's not, you get prediabetes and then diabetes. And it's the major, kind of, condition of the modern society, a kind of major illness as such. And so I was looking at the effects on blood sugar levels of our exercise. And it's a really sugar hungry type of exercise, even at low levels because the way we target a particular type of muscle fibers. And so we can see the kind of blood sugar level kind of go down. And so if I was I drank, say, two cans of Coke at a quarter to nine, I think three, two Thursdays ago, and I sort of spiked my blood sugar level. And then I did the exact same, except I had BionicGym on at intensity 30. So again, maybe the equivalent of a slit of jogging, but not running or anything. And I saw the spike in blood sugar again, but the spike was much lower. So the sugar in the can of Coke couldn't quite course through my system in the same destructive way that it often would.
Jess Kelly: Yeah, it's really interesting. And I know I've mentioned him a few times already today, but Pat Fieland's company, Limbo, is looking at blood glucose levels and informing users what impact food, drink, exercise, sleep and so on has on their bodies. It's just fascinating. And tell me, what way does the pricing work for Bionic Gym?
Dr. Louis Crowe: So it's available now at BionicGym.com. And the basic cost is 649 US dollars. So that's kind of about 600 euros. And then we have a pro version as well, which would be about 100 euros more. So it's on sale now. So check it out.
Jess Kelly: Brilliant stuff. Well, I am delighted to finally have you on the show and I am very excited to see what you do next. Dr. Louis Crowe, thank you so much for joining us here on Newstalk.
Dr. Louis Crowe: Thank you.
Here are some good things.
Today, I rode my mountain bike for almost 2.5 hours and felt a deep sense of wellbeing and happiness. It dawned on me that there is a state of ease, one in which we can, in the words of former Olympic running coach Arthur Lydiard, “train, not strain.”
To be able to push your body to the point of effort while keeping something in reserve feels as though it creates energy. While that might sound like a silly statement violating the laws of thermodynamics, it’s just another way of saying that some exercise leaves you feeling better off after you finish than before you started. And the next day, you feel ready for more.
The opposite approach would be to adopt a “no pain, no gain” philosophy. I’ve done that multiple times, and the inevitable consequence has always been deep, accumulating fatigue, mental fog, trouble sleeping, and a sense of unease.
Proponents of hard, “crash training” point to the improvements that it can bring if you follow it with periods of deep rest. While that might work for some people, in practice I found that my immune system usually suffered, and crash training would lead to my having to take more time off the bike than I wanted, and my overall fitness level would not increase in the way that I wanted.
For me, training is about finding flow. That’s a potentially nebulous term, so I’ll tell you how I experience it. Flow is being able to read the contours of a mountain bike trail, with its roots and dirt and rocks, and then rise off the saddle and make coordinated efforts with my entire body to move up, over, and across the trail with a sense of ease. Flow is being able to process your environment, adapt to it, and move as required without undue struggle. Flow is always keeping something in reserve.
(On the other hand, flow is not chasing a stopwatch, and it’s not chasing a number on a heart rate or power meter.)
It’s interesting to think of flow because it’s one of those things that can seem both effortless and elusive. When I used to train for bike races, I had some of the most painful and worst physical experiences when I’d prepared “by the book.” Back in the 90’s, that meant lots of interval training, sprints, and group rides, to the point that, after 10-15 hours of riding per week, my legs were fried.
Granted, many folks reading this, perhaps yourself included, may not have the “problem” of doing too much lactate threshold training over the course of a week. But as I grew hungry to get faster, I realized that I wasn’t going to get there by doing what the bike magazines said I should do. I needed to look at the methods of the old school bike coaches and riders. I needed to find my own flow.
Some say that a broken heart can be one of the best diet plans. I’ll agree with that, and also add that a broken heart can be a powerful catalyst for fitness if you harness it wisely. I recall the first broken heart I had, over a girl.
I was 19.
I took to riding my bicycle to get through the pain, and one hour rides stretched to two hours, and eventually up to five hours. I wasn’t trying to go fast. The motion of my legs and the feeling of my breathing was enough to make me feel better. I was taking classes at Bowdoin that Fall, as a sophomore, and I was able to fit the long rides around school. I didn’t go to parties. I just rode my bike.
Even though I didn’t do any structured interval training, the time in the saddle began to do something that felt like magic. I could pedal with such low levels of lactate and at such high speeds that it felt like I’d discovered another level of fitness. I did a 100 mile group ride in the New Hampshire mountains and arrived more than 30 minutes ahead of the second finisher. For me, the effort had been predominantly fat fueled, although I remembered to eat a sugary snack every 90 minutes to keep my glycogen stores from dropping too low.
Later that Fall, I entered a cyclocross race, rode off the front, and lapped most of the field on the way to victory. While that was a harder effort, it still felt like I was keeping something in reserve.
It was an incredible feeling to have such a high level of fitness. Exercise was how I found flow. Once you experience that level of fitness, the memory of it doesn’t leave. You know that your body is indeed capable of extraordinary things.
What brought a premature end to it that season was a knee injury that flared up, and a college health service that told me to stay off the bike and take ibuprofen. It didn’t work. And then, I experienced a rapid decline in both fitness and happiness as I turned to food for comfort and allowed myself to get wrapped up in the stress of trying to perform academically in an environment I didn’t particularly enjoy. Really, I wasn’t cut from the type of cloth that would do well at a place like Bowdoin. I went there and stayed mostly to please my folks. What I really wanted to do was try to go pro on my bike and then become a pilot.
We all have our setbacks, and they help us grow. What I can reflect on now is what a useful tool BionicGym would have been had it been around then. I could have used it to preserve my fitness when I had my knee acting up from pedaling.
My fitness was my source of sanity and strength. To be so fit that you feel deep reserves of endurance is to cultivate a sense of confidence and self reliance that puts you at ease with the world. You become less swayed by matters that might have vexed you before, like papers to write, jobs to do, meetings to attend, responsibilities to uphold.
Speaking of endurance and strength, I had a chance to interview Kokhuyana Dahl, aka “Bru”. She is one of the most kick ass ladies with whom I’ve had the pleasure to speak, and she’s also a near fanatical believer in the power of BionicGym.
As an ultra-athlete, she used BionicGym exclusively for aerobic training over a period of several months. She was taking a break from running because she was suffering from terrible shin splints. (The shin splints were an artifact of getting surgery to be put back together again after the vehicle she was riding in hit an IED in Congo.)
Bru used her BionicGym for up to eight hours per day and had a lab-confirmed increase of VO2Max of 27%. For an untrained person, that would be a fantastic result. For a trained endurance athlete, such as Bru, that kind of improvement is usually only attainable through pharmacological means such as blood doping through transfusions or EPO. For Bru, the improvement was “all natural” and brought about solely through the use of BionicGym.
Hey, thanks for reading. I know this more personal approach to the blog is a bit of a change. I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts around flow, endurance training, and Bionicgym. I was a BionicGym skeptic at the very beginning, right up until I had a chance to speak with Dr. Louis for an hour. After that, I knew he’d created something extraordinary, and the question became, “How do we help the most people possible with BionicGym?”
If you have BionicGym and you’re already happily training with it and seeing results, great. If you’re on the fence about it, or haven’t really committed to using it, keep in mind that it’s not a black and white world when it comes to exercise. BionicGym is particularly effective at burning extra sugar, and it’s the only form of aerobic exercise that targets your fast twitch muscle fibers first, making it a powerful training option if you want to consider it. I wish I’d had it when I had to take a break from cycling. Come to think of it, it would have also been perfect for when I was a stay-at-home dad and had to dramatically drop my training hours.
Either way, I wish you the best and hope to write and share more with you.
Take care,
Jesse
"I guess I’ve got a thing about strong women and empowering women. I always tell them, You can do anything. Anything you want to do in the world, you can do it; don’t let anyone ever tell you different. It doesn’t matter what it is."
-Kokohuyana Dahl
Kokohuyana Dahl opens up about standing up to bullies, what happened when she started believing in herself, and how she uses BionicGym above the Arctic Circle.
When you see Kokohuyana Dahl, it’s hard to believe she’s almost 60.
She has the sinewy legs and graceful posture of a lifelong athlete. Her skin is smooth. And she can outhike men half her age as they scramble up ice-encrusted and jagged Norwegian mountains. She’s 5’5” and 43kg soaking wet.
After working for 25 years as a forensic psychologist in conflict zones (which included getting blown up by an IED and stitched back together), she tried her hand at retirement but couldn’t sit still; her family nearly threw her out of the house.
Kokohuyana (who goes by the nickname Bru) then retrained as a welder and merchant mariner. Now she works on an expedition ship named Togo based in Tromsö, Norway above the Arctic Circle.
In this interview, she talks about how her new life has blossomed out of the old, the moment she discovered she could believe in herself, and how BionicGym has given her near-bionic endurance.
[Disclaimer: BionicGym is a healthy form of vigorous physical exercise. It is not intended to prevent or treat any medical condition. If you have a medical condition, please consult a medical doctor. BionicGym is not intended for use during safety critical activities. Please exercise common sense.]
I’m talking to someone who does her own thing.
I very much do my own thing. I think my family, if they were going to put something on my gravestone, it would be this: She did what she wanted to do.
I was born in Malaysia. I grew up there. I was sent to boarding schools and got expelled from nearly every school. After that, we gradually got further away from Malaysia.
How did you get expelled from every school?
I have autistic spectrum disorder. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 25. But looking back, I was quite noticeably on the spectrum. They didn’t look for it then, especially in girls. Girls are really good at masking.
I’m nearly 60 years old now.
Someone telling me to do something that made no sense to me, I just wouldn’t. My attitude was, Why would I do that? You’re clearly nuts.
It started off with a lot of answering back teachers and people in authority. My step-mother was Catholic-French, so I was sent to convent type schools. And nuns don’t take too kindly to being told that they’re idiots. I suppose nobody does.
I was horribly bullied as a child. I was a small, skinny, ugly child (in my mind). I was weird. I still am. I was an easy target.
Eventually, I discovered that I could fight back. And so I went from being bullied to being the savior of anyone who was getting picked on. And I would just start fights if I saw someone being bullied or being made fun of - the fat kids, or the kids with glasses.
I’d take the bullies on.
My father was very keen for my brothers to learn martial arts, and I just tagged along at the dojo. I learned to use them, too.
I got expelled for a variety of things: knocking the games teacher’s teeth out with a shinty stick; setting fire to the science labs; fighting; smuggling illicit alcohol into school. I was a bit of a rebel without a cause.
But exam-wise, I did fine. I was moved two years ahead of my peer group; I did a final year and a half at a boarding school in Yorkshire, England. And that was a revelation for me, because I had a lot more freedom than I’d had in the Far East. At one boarding school in India, they were quite repressive and not very feminist-oriented.
I became very interested in forensic psychology. That’s what I did. I did my undergraduate, Master’s, and a PhD. I became a Doctor of Forensic Psychology, which involved working with women and young girls who were either subject to female genital mutilation or who had been raped and mutilated as an act of war.
I spent about 25 years working largely in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, some parts of Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, the Middle East; I got into hanging around in war zones and natural disaster zones. It just appealed to my nature.
You can see that arc where you’d been the one who stood up to the bullies, and you kept standing up to them.
Yeah, and I haven’t really changed. It’s just taken on different guises as I’ve gotten older.
I’ve done a lot of NGO work and set up my own projects. I worked closely with a project called FORWARD, which is campaigning for change in female genital mutilation. They got Angelina Jolie onboard, and things have moved a lot since she became involved.
I suppose it’s sad in a way that, after 20 years of work, all you really needed was a celebrity, but it’s cool; I don’t really care how the job gets done as long as it gets done.
Four years ago I decided I was going to retire.
After three weeks, I’d driven the whole family mad because I’d pretty much redone the whole house... from floors to ripping up bathrooms, ripping out the kitchen... I ran out of things to do and they were saying, “Please, mother, just go and find something to do because you are doing our heads in.”
And I thought, Ok, I’ll find something to do then.
And I went out and retrained as a professional welding engineer and fabricator. That’s how I ended up in the Arctic. And I got my British Seaman’s Documents (I think we have to use the word Seafarer now, because it’s politically correct, but I say Seaman because it makes me laugh more.)
I am the Mate to the Chief Engineer on an expedition vessel called Togo. We sail out of Tromsö, Norway. We go up to Svalbard, and for the summer season we’re based there. And then we come back to Tromsö and do close sailing around the fjords.
What kind of work are you doing with the expedition vessel?
We have a mixed client group. The bookings vary from the Norwegian Arctic weather service, sailing to Greenland and the Northwest Passage, Universal Pictures, marine biologists, and an Australian group that does underwater photography.
The year before, we took Jasmine Carey, who won an award for her underwater photographs of orca and humpback whales.
We sailed and followed the whales. I’m the ship’s dogsbody, or potat. In Norwegian, potat means potato. There’s nothing you can’t do with a potato. If you’re the potat, you do everything for everybody.
I do the deck-handing; I do everything from flaking out the anchor chain to welding. I help out the Chief Engineer in the engine room. I do the washing. I do the stewarding. I help the chef. I catch fish. That’s me in a nutshell.
That’s an enormous nutshell.You mentioned your family; you drove them mad when you retired for three weeks. What’s your family look like?
I have two daughters. Taz is 24 and Saskia is 26. Taz got the nickname because you know the cartoon with the Tasmanian Devil? He just whirls around; that’s just what she was like as a child.
They’re both on the spectrum. Taz is like me; a bit of the Asperger’s weirdy kind. Saskia is on the other end; she’s got quite profound dyslexia and dyspraxia and dyscalculia, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming a Zoologist and getting a Master’s, and now she’s about to embark on her PhD.
I guess I’ve got a thing about strong women and empowering women. I always tell them, You can do anything. Anything you want to do in the world, you can do it; don’t let anyone ever tell you different. It doesn’t matter what it is.
Taz has more social issues, which I had when I was younger. To some degree, you can work on it, you can improve.
For Saskia, academic stuff was difficult. But she got a handle on it and she’s done incredibly well. She got a distinction in her Master’s. She got a First in her undergraduate degree. And she likes to mentor other young people who have the same issues; the same neuro-diverse learners.
She says, Look, there’s a whole world of things to help you, and you have to help yourself; you just think in a different way.
That’s my little family.
I’ve been married three times; I’m not really very good at that. It’s not my best thing. I’m just not great in relationships.
A friend asked me the other day how I would describe myself. I don’t really like labels and pigeonholes. But Jay and I have been friends for 25 years or so; he and his boyfriend were friends with my brother.
I’ve had girlfriends. I had a transsexual partner. I like people because I like people, and if they can put up with me (because I’m really weird; I’m hard work), then that’s good enough.
Are you into music, and if so, do you have any song that really speaks to you right now?
I’m mad crazy about music. Short of German brass band Oompah music, there’s really nothing that I don’t like.
Back in the day, I came in second in a Salsa dance competition in Havana. I used to be into Latin and Brazilian music (my girlfriend then was Brazilian). Because it was very macho then, you weren’t allowed to dance with a woman, so I had a dance partner. A lot of that music used to speak to me; the Buena Vista Social Club kind of stuff.
I listen to a lot of alternative music: Soundgarden, Arctic Monkeys, Snow Patrol... .
More recently, I’ve been listening to sea shanties. (You see what I mean about being a bit eclectic.) I go around singing them a lot. I have little bluetooth headphones under my ear defenders, so I can’t hear myself singing, which is brilliant, because I’m really rubbish. It doesn’t stop me from torturing everybody else, though.
I’m really into a group called The Longest Johns. They sing sea shanties. They sing a song called The Weller Man.
A friend of mine, a young Scottish lad who until very recently was a postman in Scotland, I suggested to him ages ago on TikTok that he should sing Weller Man because his voice would be really good for it.
He did.
He got to number 1 on the British Charts with his version of The Weller Man. So that is the song that speaks to me at the moment. I’m singing it all the time. And I like the history of the song, which is about when they used to go whaling back in the day.
The song is about the Captain; he’s an old school whaler, and they catch this whale and the whale goes under and it keeps on towing the boat. And the Weller Man comes from the name of the company that used to bring rations of sugar, tea, and rum to the sailors.
I’m up in Norway where whaling is still a thing. That’s the song at the moment. You could ask me in a week’s time and I’ll have another song stuck in my head. Like a lot of Asperger’s people, we like repetitive things until we move on to the next thing.
Let’s talk about BionicGym.
I supported it from way in the beginning.
Were you an early backer?
Yeah - December of 2016. I waited a long time and I totally believed in it. To the people who were naysaying it, I said, Look, this is amazing.
I’ve always been surrounded by doctors and medical people. I just knew BionicGym was such an awesome idea.
I was an early backer and at that point in time I didn’t know I was going to end up on a ship in the Arctic. I have always been into sport. I do marathon running, and ultramarathons were quite a big thing for me. I also surf and kitesurf and snowboard. I still skateboard.
I’m always the oldest person in the skatepark but that’s fine because I can pull some pretty sick tricks.
Get Free Shipping On BionicGym
What are your go-to skateboard tricks?
I quite like doing a 540 on the halfpipe. I have to be a little bit careful now because I’m a bit more brittle than I used to be. I try not to break anything.
I’ve skated since back in the day. It started when my father took me on a trip. It was one of the periods when I was expelled from school and didn’t have another school to go to, so we were still looking. So he took me with him.
We visited Santa Cruz, California and it was like Dogtown and Z Boys. I was a little kid. The skaters were much older than I was. I pleaded with my father to buy me a skateboard. And I used to hang around with these kids who became famous. I’m sure I annoyed the hell out of them. But I never lost that love.
I still have my original skateboard.I look at it now and I think, How on Earth did I do anything on that? It has rigid trucks and it was so small, so narrow.
BionicGym for me was nothing about losing weight because I weigh about 43 kilos on a good day if I’ve eaten a lot. (I’m 165 cm tall, 5’5”.) It was about keeping the cardiovascular fitness when I was having to do boring stuff like stand at the computer and study and do coursework for my welding.
I can’t really weld with it on, unless it’s on really low, because it makes my welds really rubbish.
[NOTE: BionicGym does not recommend using BionicGym during safety critical activities. Doing so could cause serious injury or death. Please use common sense and your own judgement.]
Apart from that (and health and safety), I just wear it all the time. I go through the gel pads quite a lot because I’ll have it on for 12 hours a day.
BionicGym just makes a huge difference.
We haven’t sailed yet because we’re waiting for Norway to make a statement on the first of May. We were supposed to sail at the beginning of March. Now I’m looking to see how good it’s going to be.
Togo is not a big ship. It’s not like a cruise liner; I can’t go jogging around the deck because it’s icy and slippery. We work really long days. When we’re on the ship, if we’re steaming (under way with the engine), there’s a lot of stuff to be done. It’s a physical job. But in terms of cardiovascular fitness, you can lose that quite quickly. As you get older, you lose it really quickly. It’s not like when you’re 25.
I have an extra BionicGym which the Chief Engineer is really keen to try.
When I have downtime in my bunk, I can have my BionicGym on. When I’m pottering about inside, if I’m doing the laundry or helping Chef, I can have my BionicGym on. But maybe not so much outside in the cold.
Although I did wear it at level 30-32 and then do a 28km hike up Tromsdalen.
I just started to use it and I think about how awkward I am when I walk through my living room.
All I can tell you is that at the beginning, if I had it at level 30, I looked like I had Parkinson’s.
How did you adjust to that?
Over time, you seem to build a tolerance.
Now I’ve got one of those sit-stand desks and use the BionicGym.
I used to have a treadmill, so I’d be at my computer typing as I was using the treadmill. Not running, but walking fast. But it was quite difficult to type. I just started to dictate since it was easier than trying to type.
And when I got the BionicGym, I thought, This is so much easier than being on the treadmill.
So I would stand there and I could do work up to level 75. I have cranked it up more than that; I can get it up to the low 80’s. Above 83 I find it too uncomfortable.
I’ve got quite thin legs. I have to cut the gel pads down, otherwise they would touch. I’ve got the small size of the wraps, but even then it’s an issue. My legs are quite long; I don’t have a problem with the length. I know some of the other ladies have said they bunch up. I’m a strange shape. I’ve got long legs and a short body.
That’s impressive that you can focus up to a level 70 to work.
Oh yeah. I can.
What kind of cardio workout are you getting when you do that? You said you’re an ultramarathoner, so you know aerobic fitness.
It improved my VO2Max by 27%.
I went to see a colleague at Queen Mary’s University College, which has a medical school, because they have a sports science department. They can put you on the machine and measure you with a breathing apparatus. And I said, “Would you do me a favor? I want to see what progress I’m making.”
The first time we did it, I was reasonably fit. And when we re-measured it 8 months and one week from when I started with BionicGym, I’d improved my VO2Max by 27%. When you’re already good, that’s quite a lot.
What other training had you been doing as well as BionicGym?
Nothing. Just BionicGym.
What happened was, when I was in Congo, I was having a bit of an off day and I rather carelessly drove over an IED. The vehicle that I was in wasn’t fully armor plated on the bottom and I was badly injured.
In total, I had 17 surgeries to repair my leg. So I’ve got scars around the tops of both my legs because I dislocated both my hips. I have plates in both the lower halves of my legs. I had the IIzarov cages on because there were so many breaks in the bone; they had to try to make (particularly in the left leg) the bone grow back between the spaces. Otherwise I would have had one leg that would have been noticeably shorter.
I had those on for about six months. I had spinal fractures. I lost the bottoms of two ribs on my right hand side. I’ve got a plate in the right-hand side of my skull. They had to do reparative work on my right eye socket. And I had other minor fractures - fingers and stuff.
My right leg occasionally flares up where I had the pins and plates. I’m prone to getting shin splints.
I’d had quite a bad flareup, so I was resting it. That was why I was just using the BionicGym, because I couldn’t run. Which is a good test for the BionicGym. I did not lose any fitness in that time period, which I would definitely have done otherwise.
The only other exercise I was doing was upper body weight stuff, seated. I wasn’t doing any other cardio. It was just wearing the BionicGym.
I thought I would just keep my level of fitness until I got back to the running, but it improved.
I can’t speak highly enough of BionicGym. I think (like a lot of things) that you have to be dedicated. If you’ve got huge health problems, it’s not going to be a quick fix. But it is certainly a tool that you want to have in your toolbox. I would say that to anybody.
I wouldn’t be without my BionicGym. I just wouldn’t. I really love it. Louis is my hero.
What are some of the drawbacks of BionicGym?
You’re kind of limited in what you can wear it under. For me, it’s bulky.
The first gel pads made you end up with bits of gel all over your leg every single time. You had to wash them off.
At the start, I didn’t really sweat. Unless I do a 10km run, I don’t really sweat. However, the longer you wear it, the more you adapt. Now, I really sweat. I get soaked. For me, that means having to change clothes, particularly in a cold environment. You can’t be wearing a wet t-shirt.
The sweating started by month 5. Then I started to really, really sweat. I can soak a t-shirt now, which I had never been able to do in my life. You have to stay hydrated. At the beginning, I found I was getting headaches, not realizing how much I was sweating. I had to remember to keep drinking.
I wear it for 10-12 hours a day. I have two heart rate monitors. I’ve got a Polar H10, the chest strap one, and also the optical one that goes on your arm. I prefer the chest strap one when I’m working because it’s a bit easier. I use that with Polar Flow, the app. I’m burning about 5,500 calories a day more than I would without BionicGym on. But obviously that means I have to eat more.
The cook makes jokes. He says, “God, I feed you like I’d feed a 6’7” Norwegian. Where do you even put all this food?”
I’m just always hungry.
But I wouldn’t necessarily say that that’s a downside. If you’re someone who wants to lose weight, I think losing weight is 80% about your diet and 20% about the exercise. If your diet is not good, you’re gonna struggle. But in terms of weight loss, if you can wear it for 10-12 hours a day, you will see a difference.
I had gotten my weight up to about 48,5 kg, which is a better weight for my height, but using BionicGym I’m back down to 43 kg and I struggle to put weight on. I’m not bothered.
When you get sweaty, I find that the pads start to slip. But nobody suggested that maybe you shouldn’t be doing a 28km hike with the BionicGym on; I just wanted to see what it would be like. I had to keep stopping as the gel pads got wetter with sweat and redo the straps.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, the bluetooth just throws up an error. Just sometimes. It happens more if you’re walking about.
The new cables seem really good. I haven’t had any more cable issues. With the old plastic cables, after a few months I replaced mine 3-4 times.
To keep mine clean, I use the hangers with clips at the top (the kind you use with skirts). I hang mine up. I think I posted it on the Facebook group way back when. The pads last longer if you let them dry a bit. Don’t put the plastic covers back on if you’ve just taken it off.
The wraps do start to smell a bit. I mixed up a small amount of HiBiSCRUB, just 1 part HiBiSCRUB to 10 parts water, and I spray the outside, not the gel pad side. Then I wipe it and dry it off with a towel. And that stops it from smelling.
I’m probably in a minority, but I could do with a smaller size wrap (for us little skinny kids). My daughter Taz, because I got her one as well, she has the same problem. She’s super skinny like me. We have to pull the wrap all the way around and trim the inside edge and the gel pads.
That’s just a personal thing. It’s not a huge deal.
It’s not a miracle, but it can do a lot.
Nothing is a magic wand at the end of the day. But if you want to put the time in and if you’re active….
I didn’t own a television until my kids were in their teens just because they banged on about how disadvantaged they were. I was all for, Go out and find something to do; go out and climb a tree; or go out and annoy someone. Do what kids are supposed to do.
I didn’t grow up with television. We didn’t have electricity until I was 12. I remember because the first thing we got was a fridge. And my great grandmother and I spent the first week opening the door to see the light come on. That was entertainment for us. That was exciting stuff. TV’s not a thing for me. But I do sometimes sit with the crew; we have a pull down screen and a projector and we can connect a laptop and watch Netflix.
What I have noticed is that there is a comfortable level at which you can sit; I can sit with it at about 40-45. I tend to use the Glucose gobblers. I use that one with the two hour program. I run it until the battery runs flat, and then I put my other unit in while the other one’s charging.
If I have it on at the same level and I’m walking around and I’m doing stuff, I burn way more calories. Then I burn 231 calories an hour more at the same level using the Glucose gobblers than I do if I’m just sitting.
It’s going to depend on your body weight and your metabolism. There are variations. But it’s worth people knowing that if you’re going to sit there and watch Netflix and eat two pints of ice cream, it’s probably not going to do you any favors.
You said you burn an extra 231 calories per hour than you would sitting alone, but you burn an extra 5500 calories over a ten hour workday. Is that because you’re wearing it when you’re walking around?
Yeah. Walking around and doing other stuff. Quite often I’m lifting heavy stuff (windlass chains weigh around 40 kilos, and I’m hauling them up, moving them from one place to another, I’m lifting heavy hatches.)
Togo is an old ship. Togo and I were built in the same year. She’s very old school. She’s got very heavy watertight steel doors.
I’m burning - by my calculation using the Polar Flow app with my chest strap on - 231 calories more using Glucose gobblers while moving around than if I’m just sitting and doing the same workout.
How has using BionicGym impacted your fitness when it comes to your other physical activities?
I go cold water swimming here. So I will swim in the sea even if there’s pancake ice on the water. I’m quite into that. I find that I can stay in the water longer than I used to be able to. I can’t say if it’s specifically due to the BionicGym, but it’s certainly since I started using BionicGym.
I think I’m about 13.2% body fat. So I don’t have a lot of body fat and my ability to stay in cold water is kind of limited by that. Since I started using BionicGym, and since I started to sweat, I can stay in cold water a good ten minutes longer.
Now, it doesn’t seem like very much; in really, really cold water when the outside ambient temperature is minus 20C, it’s quite a lot.
Are you wearing a wetsuit?
No. I don’t wear a wetsuit. I wear a wetsuit if I’m kitesurfing, because you’re up above the surface of the water and then you’re getting the windchill factor. But no, if I’m just cold water swimming, I don’t wear a wetsuit.
I’ll cold water swim in the little lakes up in the mountains, but once they’re frozen, I’m limited to the sea.
How long is a cold water swim for you?
I aim to do 25 minutes. But before, I could barely do 15. I really struggled to get to 15. I wouldn’t say I can comfortably do 25. Sometimes I only manage to do 20. It varies like a lot of things; it depends how you are on the day and how cold it is outside. I’m pretty sure BionicGym has made a difference for that.
Where it’s definitively made a difference is in my ability to hike, because I know the amount of time it takes me to hike in my favorite places. (I do Nordic hiking with two poles, very Scandinavian.)
The place that’s nearest me is the Transdalen, which is behind where the ship is docked. I hike and fjäll ski there, because there are groomed tracks and it’s lit, so I can even go there at one o’clock in the morning. I’m not the best fjäll skier; I came to fjäll skiing quite late, like 55. Since I’ve been using BionicGym, I’ve got a lot more stamina.
My thighs used to burn, really burn. And people were saying, It’s your technique, you’ll get better. But it never really happened. They just burned. And when I was hiking, I’d get exhausted; I’d have to stop because I’d get out of breath. It’s not because I wasn’t fit, because you’re going from sea level to some considerable altitude in a fairly short space of time. But since I started hiking with the BionicGym on (because I’m a complete nut job), if I go hiking now and do the same distance and the same routes in the same amounts of snow wearing my same boots with my same crampons on them using the same poles and wearing the same clothes, my time is so much better.
There’s one route, it’s very slightly under 17km, and I have cut off more than half an hour from my time to hike that. And my legs just don’t get tired now.
The crew and I all go out hiking. That’s what people do, especially on a Sunday. The Norges are crazy about it. We all go out together. And they say, Oh my God - cause I’m the oldest, by quite a long way - they say, Oh my God, you’re like some crazy mountain goat.
One time, I was marching off ahead and I looked back and thought, My God, are they still down there? Well, I’d better stop and wait for them; it seems a bit rude.
When we first started hiking a couple of years ago, they were having to wait for me. Because I just wasn’t used to it.
For me, it has to be the BionicGym. It’s the only different factor.
I come from a scientific, medical type background. So I get the idea of outliers, and research, and if you’re going to do an experiment, you have to think about all the variables. But the BionicGym is the only thing I changed. There is no other variable (other than the weather). That for me has been the best thing.
When it comes to snowboarding, I was quite old when I took it up because I didn’t think I’d like the cold. I was born in the tropics and worked in the tropics. I used to find the weather in the UK difficult to deal with. Now when I tell people I go cold water swimming, they say, What happened to you Bru?
I did a lot of work out in Watamu in Kilifi County in Kenya, and I’ve got some really good friends out there. And my friend Ben, during the July monsoon season he’d say, Look at you, you’re like the Masai people. You’re wandering around with a puffer jacket on.
I said, I know, but it’s cold. And to me it was. If it was in the 20’s(C), it was cold. If it wasn’t 35C or more, you wouldn’t catch me wearing a t-shirt or shorts. And now, I’m just always too hot.
One time, I went out with the crew and they were skiing and I was snowboarding. We went to Uula in Finland, and the lifts weren’t running. I said, “Let’s just hike. We’ll put our snowshoes on. Then we’ll strap our snowshoes onto our rucksacks and we’ll go down.“
It was minus 34C. We couldn’t see anything and it was steep. We somehow went the wrong way and it got even steeper through the trees. I knew that normally, by the time I’d got to the bottom, the fronts of my thighs would have been absolutely on fire.
It was a good two hour descent. And it was too cold to stop and hang around. At the bottom, my legs were absolutely fine.
I can’t say my legs look more muscular, because my legs are muscular and always have been. But the stamina in my muscles is different. It is much improved.
Get Free Shipping On BionicGym
That sounds like some sort of improvement in mitochondrial respiration. Or density. Or both.
Yeah. I would say so. But that is just my personal experience. I can’t say that for sure.
Sometimes I run up the mountain, once the snow’s gone. I like to go run uphill (because I can.) Now, I just have so much more stamina.
I’m coming up on 60. There’s normally aging and muscle loss, particularly for a woman of a certain age. (My ovaries dried up and died a long time ago.) I don’t use hormone replacement.
People say to me, How old are you? I tell them, and they ask to see my Seaman’s documents or my driver’s license, because they don’t believe me.
And I say, “I am. Look, I can prove it.”
And they say, You look like you’re just in your early forties. Or if they need to get their sight checked, they say, I thought you were just in your late 30’s.
And I say, “Nope. I’m an old lady.” I love my BionicGym. I wouldn’t give it up. Someone would have to fight me to the death for it. That is how attached to it I am.
How long have you been using it consistently?
I got it in February, 2019. In total I’ve used it for over a year, but with a gap in the middle.
This year, I’ve used it every single day.
Do you primarily use Glucose gobblers?
It depends on what I’m doing. I have preferences.
If I’m helping Chef, I tend to use Twinkle toes. I also use that one if I have to stand and fold laundry. If it’s something where I have to be standing in one place and I can’t really move much, I quite like it. But I find that that one is not so easy to walk around or run with.
When I’m walking around, I use the Glucose gobblers. Mostly the first one, which is a bit more intense. And if I’m doing something that’s a little more physically demanding, then I’ll use the second one. I do go through the other programs, but those happen to be my favorites. I just seem to burn the most calories on them. I get to the point where I’m out of breath using those quicker. For me, that’s kind of the point.
To get that cardiovascular workout.
Exactly. I started at Beginner’s start here, and I went through it progressively until I got to the Pro+HIIT stage.
I think the progression should be emphasized to people. You will do much better.
My daughter (you know young people, you can’t tell them anything) she said, “I’m getting straight in and I’m not really getting sweaty.”
And I said, “Go back, start at the beginning, and work your way up. And then come back.”
Later she said, “Yeah, you were right momma.” I said, “That’s because I’m always right. Haven’t you worked this out by now?”
As much as you might want to jump in there, you will get more out of it more quickly if you follow the program; it makes more sense. That’s presumably why Louis did it that way. He didn’t just pull it out of a hat.
I totally love it.
The crew of Togo were quite skeptical. They’re just guys, they’re skeptical of everything online. And I thought, Be the change you want to see. I had it on all the time.
They just made fun of me: Ha ha, look at you, you look really silly.
And I went, Yeah, I look really silly but I’m getting fit.
Probably the most skeptical was the Chief Engineer. Talk about a glass half empty kind of person. I think it’s a thing about engineers. I think it’s because they have to fix the broken shit that everybody else breaks. But he’s gone from being the biggest skeptic to a complete convert.
What has done that? Has it been seeing you wear it and then kick everyone’s ass on the hikes?
That to start with.
It’s a very macho environment. You just have to be one of the boys. And I’m totally fine with that.
My friend has just done an Empowering Women thing on Instagram, and he said, “Bru, you are such an inspiration.”
I do not feel like that, by the way. I’m also incredibly camera shy. But he made me find some pictures. I went through a boy phase, and he said, “Send me one of those.”
I said, “Really?”
He’s just put them up on Instagram.
I can be around the boys if I need to be. They compete about who can hike faster, who can get to the summit the quickest, who can pick the best route. Everything is a competition. Always. The Chief Engineer was adamant that I would never beat him.
There’s this one particular top near a place called Skullsfjörd, and it’s super steep. Almost vertical. And he’d said, You’ll never beat me.
I thought, Yes I will. And the day that I beat him to the cairn at the top, he was absolutely shocked, because I took the steepest, longest route. They’d gone the other way; they were going to head me off at the pass. But no. That was the moment that he asked about BionicGym and that he was interested. His first question was, “Do I have to shave my legs?”
“No. No you don’t.”
He’s got traditional Polynesian tattoos on both his legs from the groin to the knee. And he said, “Will it affect my tattoos?”
“No. Why would it?”
Then he sort of sidled up one day when he was out of earshot of the rest of the crew, and he said, “You’ve got two sets, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I’ve got two.”
“Would you mind if I tried it?”
And I thought, Okay, uh huh, I see how it is. He wants one for himself, because every time they’re away you’re just on the ship the whole time. You can’t go hiking. You can’t go fjäll ski or ice climbing. He loses his fitness. He’s 54. So he’s beginning to feel it. He’s beginning to get that middle aged man belly kind of thing. So he’s become a convert.
And now the deckhand, Raphael, he’s saying, “Ah, I wonder if I should get one?”
It’s spreading throughout Togo.
Absolutely. I aspire to have every crewmember wearing their BionicGym and standing out on the deck, shaking in the snow with our shorts on. Or to have all of us out on one of the bits of the ice floe.
I just think it’d be a really fun thing to do.
Wherever we are in the world, we can take our fitness with us.
Who else could this help?
I think there are a lot of people - obviously the people I hang with; sailors, people who work out on the platforms. Most of the bigger platforms, they have a gym, but the gyms aren’t very big. If you’ve got a lot of crew, the big complaint is, I can never get on the machine I want to be on. Because they probably only have one or two running machines.
Or they say, I don’t really want to go to the gym, because I’ve been stuck with these people all day on shift. Well, you can be in your cabin and you can have your BionicGym on. I think there’s a whole market there for it.
BionicGym for people who work in confined spaces and work really long hours.
Yeah, absolutely. Because most people who work on ships or platforms, they’re doing a twelve hour shift, if not longer.
And sometimes you also have to stand a watch. If you’re standing a watch, you have to be really focused and concentrated. But when you’re standing a watch at night, it’s hard, because your hormones are at their lowest…
Window of Circadian Low...
Yeah, you’re just trying to be really, really focused and stay awake and make sure you’re not going to hit ice or another vessel, and you’re watching the sonar. You’ve got screens and you’ve got the dark. It’s hard.
I tell you what - with BionicGym, it’s ten times easier. It just keeps you awake. You can’t go to sleep with BionicGym on (well, I haven’t managed to yet).
Do you think there would be any applicability to the armed forces, to the navies out there?
Absolutely 100%.
I was chatting with a friend of mine, he’s in Kandahar in the Royal Engineers, and he was saying they try and set up a makeshift gym if they can, but they can’t always do that. And if you’re not out on exercises, trying to keep your physical fitness is really hard. He’s desperate to keep his fitness because he’s hoping to try out for SAS, that’s his goal.
Part of the SAS selection is something called the Fan Dance. It’s in Wales. It’s a 15 mile run with a full backpack. That’s 50 kilos including your weapon. And it’s predominantly uphill. You have to complete it within a certain time. He’s really worried that he’s going to lose that fitness and that he’s going to miss that intake for SAS. So I’d say yes, BionicGym could definitely help him.
Who else do you think could really benefit from this?
It occurred to me the other day that the other people it might offer benefit to are veterans who are in rehab.
It could be done as a test program. Especially for the guys with amputations below the knee, when they’re trying to get back to using artificial limbs. I’m wondering if it would be a really good way of improving the stamina in their quads and hamstrings. And also helping with their general level of physical fitness. Because when they start off, they’re still predominantly using a wheelchair because it takes time to build up the skin on the end of the amputation.
Anyone who’s in any of the forces - they are your family. It’s the same on ships. If you think something’s really good or you love something… or you hate something… news travels fast.
There are plenty of soldiers. I’ve got a friend and he’s stuck with this sort of office job in Salzburg doing stores; he’s just bored out of his mind.
I was talking to him about BionicGym and I said, “Seriously, get yourself a BionicGym. While you’re sitting there, you could have the BionicGym on.”
And he went, “Wow, really?”
I said, “Yeah, check it out with your Senior. It’s not like you’re running around with it on with a gun.”
What would you tell women who feel trapped in their bodies?
I would say BionicGym is your friend as long as you commit to using it.
You can do whatever boring daily chores you’re doing with your BionicGym on. You get it on and you do it at a reasonable level. And get yourself a heart rate chest strap. A chest strap with a smartphone is the easiest way; you don’t need a fancy watch.
You will burn so many more calories. So whatever your starting point, it doesn’t really matter.
Yes, you will have to look at your diet. I eat healthy. I’m not a sweet tooth person. Never have been. If you’re trying to lose weight, you will have to attend to your diet. There is no miracle out there. But attend to your diet and BionicGym will speed up your progress so much.
I have a friend and she’s always been a big girl. She hates it. But she also hates sports. She doesn’t want to do anything. I said to her, “Why don’t you get a BionicGym?”
She’s been on every diet known to man. She will lose a bit of weight initially, and then she puts it back on again. Her problem is that she doesn’t want to be seen because of how she looks. So yes, she feels trapped in her body. But that’s why BionicGym is 100% your friend. Because - I’m not saying it’s healthy, I’m not advocating it - you don’t have to set foot outside your house.
You can wear it all day every day and burn calories. As long as you are attending to your diet, you will shift that weight. It will come off everywhere. You don’t have to be hammering out two hours on a treadmill at a gym.
A lot of women don’t have time. They lead busy lives. They’ve got a job. They’ve got kids. They’ve got all the stuff they have to do at home. And if you don’t like the way you look and you’re very self conscious, you don’t want to be going to a gym in Lycra; you don’t have to do that with BionicGym.
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. But you’re going to have to do it for a few months. I think 4 months is realistic. 4 months of dedicated daily wearing. And don’t weigh yourself every day; I think women go mad on that kind of stuff.
Take before and after photos. Facing forward. From the back. Both sides. And after four months of using BionicGym, take more photos. Personally, I will guarantee that there will be a difference. And it will be a considerable difference.
For the money that you’re going to spend on BionicGym, how much money do you waste on stupid diets, or a gym membership that you never use? Or people will buy something like a Peloton bike, but they won’t really use that either, because you have to be doing other stuff.
With BionicGym on, even if it’s at a low level, you’re still burning more calories than if you didn’t have it on.
If you had one chance to have a do-over in life, what would it be?
I would have joined the military. That’s the one thing I regret. I did apply and get accepted and then I backed out. It was at a point where I was going to do a medical degree through the Army.
I think that, like a lot of women, I didn’t think I was good enough.
It’s taken me a lifetime to know that I was born good enough.
To all those ladies out there - just know that you were born good enough. The day you came into the world. You just have to believe that. And it’s taken me a long time to believe that. I would never have done the things I’ve done subsequently if I hadn’t gotten my head around that. But that’s the one thing I would have done differently.
When would you say that lesson really sank in, that you really felt you were good enough?
Four years ago when I retired. My family was on my case, Stop trying to rebuild the house.
I’ve got two wolves hybrids. They’re quite big; they need a lot of walking and running. I took them out for a walk and I had one of those lightbulb moments: I’m trying to reconstruct everything in the house. And that has become like a transference for me. Because what I really want is to rebuild myself. I want to be the best version of me that I can be.
And as I was walking I thought, What do I really want to do? What do I love?
I love welding. I’ve always loved welding. I love metal and fabricating.
I welded some nuts and bolts and rivets together and made a spider for my daughter when she was a kid. I don’t know why. We used to do art projects. And I thought, Yeah, I really love that.
But then I thought, You’re far too old. You’re a woman. There are very few female welders, especially outside of the States. You can’t do that now. It’s way too late.
I was having this argument with myself as I was walking and I thought, No. I’m going to do it. I am good enough. If I wanna do it, I’m gonna do it. What’s to stop me?
I’ve always had this in the back of my head: What if I fail?
I think a lot of people feel the same. But our heads just revolve around it. If we can’t be good at something, we don’t want to do it.
And I just thought, I’ve got to stop with ‘What if I fail?’ I need to think ‘What if I succeed?’
I was the oldest person in the welding course; I had to pretty much beg and plead to get in. The guy had to come and interview me twice. And I’m sure he thought I was completely mental. He kept asking me, “You’re sure you want to do this? Why do you want to do this?”
I made my case: “My understanding (I’ve done a lot of research into the industry) is that this industry wants people who are stable and reliable. Who aren’t going to not show up first thing on a Monday because they’re hung over from the weekend.”
I knew I wanted to do marine stuff. I looked at all the different kinds of welding; either marine stuff or the nuclear industry. I was pretty set on that; oil platforms, ships, nuclear industry.
I said, “I don’t have any ties. I can work long shifts. I can go away for long periods of time. I am the ideal person. I have a perfect work record. I have had 10 days off sick in the whole of my working life. And that was because I had malaria. I am the perfect employee.”
And the guy phoned me up the next morning and said, “Yep, you’ve got a place.” So it was me surrounded by 20-somethings. And it was great. That in itself was actually quite inspiring, being with young people. I was so proud when I got my British Seaman’s card and Seaman’s Discharge Book.
If you want to check out the empowering women thing on Instagram, I’m @kokohuyana.
I live in the back of my truck if I’m not on the ship. It’s a Volvo TGB 306, so it’s a 6-wheel drive army truck. I’ll send you a picture of it. It’s Swedish, although she’s Finnish registered. They’re awesome, they just go anywhere. It’s not huge. In the back, it’s pretty compact. It was used as an ambulance. It has a bunk that folds off the wall. It’s got a kitchen and a wood burning stove for the wintertime. I camp in that and I’ve got a traditional Sami lavvu, a tent that looks like a tipi. I camp out in the snow in the winter. It’s fun. It’s not what I thought I’d be doing as I headed toward my 60th birthday.
Life’s just to be lived. It’s one big adventure. I’ve lain in the tent in the snow and I think it was about -29C outside and I had my BionicGym on. A wood burning stove and a BionicGym. What more do you need?
Want more inspiration? See BionicGym reviews and testimonials here.
]]>If you want to get into great shape and break through your training and weight loss plateaus - but don’t have enough time to work out - then this post might make a world of difference for you.
* About one powerful fitness hack that helped a student athlete break an “impossible” world record
* How to use BionicGym to jump start your fitness even if you’re crunched for time
* [NEW EXERCISE RESEARCH] What you must AVOID when training this way if you want to see results
I’m going to tell you how one person broke an “impossible” world record with so little training that it left some people amazed.
You’ll find out who this was and what he did for hisbread and butterworkout.
Even though this happened in 1954, the lessons are timeless.
>>>What’s in it for you is learning how to make your BionicGym workouts even more effective for reaching your goals…
whether you’re looking for improved performance or just want your jeans to fit better.
Recently, I heard Sigourney Weaver say something in an interview along the lines of,
‘When someone tells me something can’t be done, I automatically want to do it.’
If you’re the kind of person who likes a good challenge, then keep reading.
>>>THE MILE CHALLENGE In the early 1950’s, people said no human being could possibly run a mile in under 4 minutes.
They said the human body wasn’t built to go that fast for that long.
People had gotten close, but the number was like a brick wall.
At the end of the event, runners would collapse as they crossed the finish line, with lungs gasping and legs burning.
>>> And then, one medical student from England decided he’d go for the record anyway.
The thing was, he didn’t want to drop out of school just to train.
He’d do it as anamateur student athlete, instead.
Because how else was he supposed to get his homework done?
Who was this med student who thought he could break the 4 minute barrier in the mile?
His name was Roger Bannister.
He looked at his training from a practical point of view.
He decided that he’d need to find just the rightdose of exercise to get the performance he wanted.
(Tim Ferriss calls this the Minimum Effective Dose of exercise.)
Since Roger didn’t have long hours to train, that meant doing his workouts when he could fit them into his busy schedule.
Does that sound at all like something familiar?
Since Roger knew he’d have to run fast to break the world record, he settled on thisbread and butterworkout:
>>> 10 x 440 yard running repeats with 2 minutes rest in between.
This was HIIT training, and it made him pretty darn fast even though he only ran on his lunch breaks.
But then he hit a plateau that threatened to stop him from breaking the record.
He couldn’t run any faster than 61 seconds for the 440.
Find out what went wrong for him below.
Roger fell into a “hole” calledover-reaching.
That’s what happens when you do too much high intensity training in too short of a time.
>>> HIIT is a potent way to improve your performance, but it’s easy to do too much of it.
More is betterthinking almost cost Roger Bannister his world record.
The problem with too much HIIT is that it tires out the energy producing “factories” in your cells called mitochondria…
And can actually WORSEN your body’s control of blood glucose.
(New scientific research that just came out of Sweden confirms this.)
When you train hard with HIIT, you need to treat it like you’re working with a blowtorch. A little heat goes a long way.
If you do just the right amount, it can forge incredibly strong, powerful, and fatigue resistant muscles.
If you do a little too much, you hit a plateau.
And if you do a little too much for a little too long…
then your body can have a full-fledged “overtraining meltdown” and you can feel tired, cranky, and weak for days, weeks
...or even months.
Roger recognized that something was wrong, and his intuition about the human body led him to make a decision that would deliver him a world record.
I’ll tell you what he did in just a moment.
If you’ve ever hit a training plateau and wondered why you weren’t making more progress, then what you learn here might make a big difference for you.
Imagine that training is like an open water swimming race. You’re working hard, and your goal is to cover a distance in the shortest time.
When you do too much hard training, it can be like your body downshifts from swimming freestyle to treading water.
They’re both hard, but only one of them gets you places.
With too much hard training, your body isn’t recovering and rebuilding enough after your workouts.
It’s just barely keeping up.
>>> If you want to break through a workout plateau like a champ,then the most effective thing to do might be to rest.
Roger Bannister did just that.
After getting stuck on 61 second 440 repeats without any progress, he took three complete days off from running.
When he got back to the track, he found that his time had dropped by two seconds, down to 59 seconds per repeat.
After that, he realized that HIIT was potent training “medicine.”
He cut his interval workouts down to only three per week so that his body could recover and grow stronger.
And get faster and stronger he did.
Roger Bannister became the first known human to run a mile in under 4 minutes, running a time of 3:59.4 at the track in Oxford, England on May 6th, 1954.
It’s no secret that BionicGym can exercise you and make you reach incredibly high heart rate and lactate levels.
I’ve proven it time and time again in university supported research studies, on myself, and with adventurous volunteers.
Folks in the community are saying the same thing - when you use BionicGym consistently, you can get incredible results.
>>> With that kind of training “firepower” at your disposal, the following strategy seems like a great way to avoid a training and weight loss plateau and keep your results rolling:
When you use BionicGym the right way - combining it with proper nutrition and rest - the results can surprise and delight you.
Plus, if you’re time crunched and don’t have access to a track, treadmill, exercise bike, safe road, or pool…
What other form of exercise is so potent and so portable?
I highly encourage you to give it an honest try. It could change your fitness and your life.
With Gratitude,
Dr. Louis
p.s. The incredible Roger Bannister becameSiRoger Bannister in 1975 for his service as Chairman of the Sports Council.
And he always downplayed his achievement as a runner, preferring to focus attention on his work as a neurologist. A class act, if you ask me!
]]>
"I say, 'I know it seems too good to be true. But, it’s working. And it’s working because I can see the physical repercussions of it. I’m sweating. My breathing is escalating.
Those things, I think, are the real tell-tales of adoption."
- Kory Best
About Kory
I’m in O’Fallon, Illinois, so I’m about 20 minutes outside St. Louis, Missouri, on the Illinois side.
I was one of the original backers [of BionicGym], way back in the day with Indiegogo when it first came out. So I’ve been kind of a proponent - especially when your CEO [Dr. Louis] started really showing a lot of the case studies and actual use.
And then it got FDA Approved [sic: FDA Cleared].
So it should be getting a lot more real to people.
There’s so much additional validation of its authenticity.
So I think that’s been good.
Ready to buy BionicGym?
I’m a remote worker. I’ve been that for probably 8 years now.
I’m in private security. So I do a lot of managing of clients. National and global clients.
I used to travel all over creation all the time, and then about four years ago, we started getting better with our technology and video conferencing.
So we’ve really been able to chime that down quite a bit.
But - as nice as that was - it created issues for me.
Because now, instead of being out and running around all day, now I’m sitting here stagnant all day.
And I was more productive but I was putting on weight,
I wasn’t feeling energetic And I couldn’t change that on my own because I couldn’t just decide to up and leave for an hour or two to go cycling for the morning.
Yeah, I used to do [cycling] a lot more.
But once you come remote, it’s tough to get back into that routine on the same level.
I’m not saying that it’s not possible, it’s just, I think, as a remote worker, I personally tend to wind up working more, because I’m here, and it’s in front of me.
It was a never-ending balancing act that I had not perfected and I’m not saying I have yet.
But, BionicGym really helped fill that gap of what I was missing
So, though it didn’t necessarily replace cycling as a whole - I still love cycling - it did replace (or augment) the ability to
be a little more active without having to leave my office.
I’m a tech guy - the latest and greatest, I’m always “what have we got this week? What’s tomorrow?”
I think my salary goes to the gadgets half the time.
Ready to buy BionicGym?
Kory is an active dad and cyclist
I’m a road biker.
And I used to do a lot more stationary biking in the off-season.
But, again, circumstances change, and now, you’re not even doing that as much as you’d like to be doing.
Cycling I love. My son and I go cycling a lot. He’s ten years old.
So that’s always something fun for us.
I got into a lot of the group rides with the bike shop in town once a week.
And then that led to doing some of the “older guy” races.
I did a couple crits back in the day and enjoyed that.
And then you have kids and that winds up diminishing a little bit.
But I tend to latch onto everything that a hobby has to offer.
And if you can take a little bit further, then I love to push the boundary.
After 40, you can’t eat that whole box of Ding Dongs
I’m a big guy to begin with.
I’m 6’5”, 270lbs, and there was a time when you could eat a box of Ding Dongs in an afternoon and nothing happens.
Those days are long gone - I’m 46 now.
So it’s that ability to keep your body active [that’s so important]. To keep it moving.
When you’re remote, if you’re not up walking around a lot, you get a lot of lactic acid that builds up in your joints. And again, I’m 46, so I feel that more often.
You gotta walk.
You gotta do something.
You gotta get up and be active.
Ready to buy BionicGym?
And I think the BionicGym has really helped me become more active when I can’t necessarily be more active. I’m very conscious of my blood pressure and things like that.
I can tell, when I haven’t exercised for a while, you know, I get that labored breathing and whatnot.
So that was something I really wanted - I was hoping - BionicGym would address, to keep my aerobic functions higher.
It’s so easy to let it go.
Cause it’s like you work to get it up, and it doesn’t go up overnight, but boy, it goes back down [snaps fingers] pretty quick!
What he says to people on the fence about BionicGym
A lot of people that I’ve communicated with think of it as the same type of product as you put the little electrical patches on your muscles that are aching, and you turn the frequency up.
And those gadgets have been around forever.
But I said, the difference in this - and I’ll show you - is,
I’m hot, I’m sweaty, and I’m sitting right here, working on my computer. And that was the defining moment for me, to say “aha, this is something different.”
And I can remember seeing your CEO doing a video on that as he was showing it, and his heart rate going up. And I went, “Oh.”
That’s what connected me to it.
And I thought, “Oh, this might be legit, you know.” And so that’s kind of the special sauce that I convey to everyone else.
I say, “I know it seems too good to be true. But, it’s working. And it’s working because I can see the physical repercussions of it. I’m sweating. My breathing is escalating.”
Those things, I think, are the real tell-tales of adoption.
When I go in to have my quarterly visits to my doctor, everything’s in line.
[Always follow your doctor’s advice and never stop medications without your doctor’s approval.]
I’m at the age now where if I didn’t have something in my life that was like this - that was working - I would be riding the rollercoaster a little bit more.
And when I’m going in, my blood pressure’s even keel.
He’s not putting me on blood pressure meds and whatever else you can put somebody on.
It’s keeping me where I need to be.
Is that saying I couldn’t do it on my own?
No, it’s not.
But it’s helping me do it on my own more.
It’s a tool.
About his family’s reaction to BionicGym
They think it’s hilarious.
I’ll be sitting there on the couch or the chair in the living room, and I have my legs out, and they’re just [makes shaking noise], they’re going all over the place.
And my wife just shakes her head at me.
She’s like, “You and your gadgets.”
And I’m like, “Look at my face. I’m red.”
She goes, “I know. It’s just funny watching your legs just jump all over the place.”
And I say, “I’m only on a level 40 right now.”
And she asks, “How high does that go up?”
And I say, “Considerably higher.” [Laughs].
What would he say to other folks who are on the fence?
Proof is in the pudding.
If you’re on the fence, and you haven’t used it, and you haven’t allowed it to prove you wrong, then you’re still doing yourself a disservice at this point.
You know, I had a problem with my original unit that came out, and I couldn’t get it working.
And there was something - it wasn’t doing it right.
Ready to buy BionicGym?
And from start to finish, BionicGym made sure it got fixed.
And I was frustrated at the beginning, thinking, “Oh, I waited so long to get this. And the darn thing isn’t working”
But when you get emails back in a day or two days, and at least someone says, “Hey, I’m hammered right now. I’ll call you when I get a second.”
That’s what kept me on the hook.
I go, “Okay, alright.
They’re backing this up, they want to help me, they want to fix this.
Those things were a big deal to me, from a customer service standpoint, just phenomenal.
Phenomenal.
Ready to buy BionicGym?
BionicGym in the press:
UK - Channel 4 - How to Lose Weight Well:
https://vimeo.com/252399410 Ireland - TV3 - Six O'Clock Show:
https://vimeo.com/254142873 >BionicGym is FDA Cleared
You drop $1,000 on a new set of wheels… or a power meter… or a gadget to make yourself ride 0.1% faster...
You pay $100’s in gym membership and coaching fees…
You train for months and months because of one event where you want to set a personal best… because you’re a naturally competitive person…
And sometimes you eat weird “recovery” food…
Waking up at o-dark-thirty to train…
And push yourself so hard in training that a normal person would probably lose their lunch.
And not everyone knows how important even a small edge can be.
I mean, just look at a sprint in the Tour de France, where people finish inches from each other after five hours of flat-out racing!
What’s not so great is the amount of doping that happens in professional sport…
But what’s encouraging is that people are looking for legal and ethical ways to get the same benefits.
From what I’ve seen so far - and experienced personally - BionicGym is like “legal doping.”
Because of how we designed it to target fast-twitch muscle fibers, it trains you in a way nothing else can…
And you can repeat it, day after day.
That’s a huge benefit if you’re looking for every improvement you can find.
Whether you’re chasing your local bunch sprint or competing for a national team spot,
The BionicGym technology is here now, and I believe it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a de facto standard training “supplement.”
If you’re a competitive person but you don’t have unlimited time to train…
Or if you’ve ever struggled with overtraining…
Or if you want a low impact way to supplement your training…
Then BionicGym+HIIT was made for you.
I urge you to at least check it out:
]]>
It hasn’t been banned (yet.)
There aren’t any pills, powders, or injections to take.
You can do it at home.
You can pack it in a suitcase. (For when we get back to traveling again.)
And if you’re a cyclist, triathlete, or runner, there’s a chance it could raise your lactate threshold (LT).
Can you imagine the new PR’s that might be possible?
From the scientific data we have so far, this biohack preferentially trains fast-twitch muscle fibers.
So here’s the scoop.
If you’re an athlete (especially an endurance athlete)...
BionicGym (BG) might be the performance enhancing biohack you’ve been waiting for.
It could also be the “edge” that you bring into your next competitive season.
Compared to regular exercise, at an equivalent calorie burn with BionicGym, you can produce a hell of a lot of lactate.
For a given level of effort, BionicGym can be a highly effective way to train and supplement your regular training.
One winter, when I was injured, I wasn’t able to cycle or run.
>>> I used BionicGym as my only form of exercise.
That spring, I participated in a 120km cycling group ride through the hilly Irish countryside.
If you’ve ever been to Ireland, you know how the hills can be real leg and lung “burners.”
The strange thing was that I felt great on the bike. I hung in with a fast group at a good tempo.
And I didn’t bonk.
Or maybe that wasn’t so strange.
With BionicGym, I’d been able to train those muscle fibers that would have taken me hours to target on the bike.
And I’d done it all winter.
Can you see the athletic potential for yourself here?
Okay, next question.
The short answer is no.
If you want to improve your running and you’re an elite athlete, you still need to run.
Same for cycling.
That you can squeeze in even if your life is busy.
And it seems to have a beneficial impact on your ability to tolerate lactate.
When so many people are looking for an edge…
BionicGym can be a CLEAN way to boost your performance.
Want more inspiration? See BionicGym reviews and testimonials here.
Hope that helped pique your curiosity.
With Gratitude,
Dr. Louis
]]>
Hi, I’m Dr. Louis Crowe.
BionicGym is unlike any other Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation device on the market… ever. When you train with it, you can raise your heart rate, sweat, and become breathless…
And here’s how...
But first, consider this.
Nature’s way of creating heat or burning calories is to shiver.
As you get colder, you shiver more intensely but at the same rate (7-8Hz).
This is because the energy consumption is not related to the force or tension generated, but rather the shortening and lengthening of the muscle fibers.
What happens is that more muscle fibers contract and relax at this “biologically special” rate.
And that’s where the BionicGym “magic” comes in.
Impulses through the BionicGym wraps stimulate the motor-neurons [nerves-to-muscles] in the legs and gluteal muscles [bum], telling them to contract repeatedly.
(The muscles relax or lengthen by themselves).
This underlying technology, Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) - also known as EMS and TENS - has been around for 60-70 years.
It was thought that this technology could not provide aerobic exercise.
(Even the FDA thought it wasn’t possible.)
BionicGym has changed all that.
By inducing enough muscles to actively contract at optimal rates, they shout out for blood to supply oxygen and energy.
When that happens, your heart pumps harder and faster to deliver this blood.
The result is that BionicGym trains both your cardio system and your muscles.
You become more breathless and in time heat up – even sweat. After all, shivering is nature’s way of warming you up.
I’ve done thousands of mini-experiments to optimize the technology… and then followed up with peer-reviewed scientific studies.
These studies show that the technology stimulates your muscles in a way that uses sugar as the main energy source - like intense exercise, as opposed to walking or easy exercise.
I’ve done these studies in universities and hospitals in three countries.
We’ve even worked with the European Space Agency and tested it in zero gravity.
I’ve suffered for and been elated with the science.
Please feel free to read more on our website and also read the peer-reviewed scientific publications.
I hope that you find BionicGym useful for yourself, as well.
With Gratitude,
Dr. Louis
BionicGym on live TV:
UK - Channel 4 - How to Lose Weight Well: https://vimeo.com/252399410
Ireland - TV3 - Six O'Clock Show: https://vimeo.com/254142873
BionicGym is FDA Cleared:
BionicGym technology in the scientific literature:
* NMES stands for neuromuscular electrical nerve stimulation.
* EMS stands for electrical muscle stimulation.
* TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.
]]>We’re going to take a little turn away from talking about Bionic Gym here.
You know we make it, you know we believe in it, and you might know that others are also seeing success with it.
Instead, let’s talk about exercise for a few minutes. Let’s talk about what might be the biggest reason for why it’s hard to go to the gym.
We know that it’s good for us, we know that we’re supposed to do it, and for some reason it just feels too damn hard to get started.
The easy way out is to say something along the lines of, “I’m too weak, I’ve never stuck to exercise, and I never will.”
The problem with that is that it reinforces a negative belief about ourselves, and it paints us into a corner from which behavior change is impossible.
There’s something hopeless about that, and that’s no way to live a good life.
If exercise feels like a hard habit with which to get started, then one place to start is to understand what we’re up against.
A lot of us think that we know what kinds of obstacles we face, but then it turns out that we haven’t thought that deeply about them.
You might think that naming your obstacles amounts to nothing more than making excuses. And that would be true if you did nothing about them.
What I propose instead is naming your obstacles to clarify your thinking.
When you have clear thinking, it’s then possible to make some kind of reasonable progress in changing your habits.
Let’s look at going to the gym.
We’ll break it down into its component parts, and this might feel silly.
First, you need to sign up for a gym membership. That usually means signing some kind of subscription contract that locks you into a commitment that lasts months at a minimum.
Making that kind of commitment when you’re not sure if you’ll even use the gym is already a point of friction.
Then, the next thing you need is to get some suitable clothes for going to the gym. The gym has an unspoken dress code set by social norms, and you’ll probably want to fit in so you don’t stick out too much. That means planning to go to the store to get gym clothes and maybe shoes too, while you’re at it.
Now you’ve got the uniform and the shoes. You show up for your first session and you realize you need to change.
The problem is, you have to change in a public locker room, and maybe that brings back very unpleasant memories from middle school. You’re already not feeling all that hot about your body, and taking off your clothes in the proximity of other strangers raises your heart rate and makes you feel stressed.
You get through changing into your gym clothes as fast as possible, and then you go out to the gym floor. You now realize that you don’t really know how to use half the machines. Plus, you’re surrounded by mirrors and you see impossibly beautiful and fit people flexing their muscles, posing for selfies, and working out in front of those mirrors.
Now you’re comparing yourself to them. Even though their attention isn’t anywhere near you, you feel even more inadequate than you did before. Your stress level rises again, your body releases more cortisol, and you hope to get through this session and leave as soon as you’ve burned a few calories.
You aim for a treadmill, because that feels like the easiest place to get started. You take one next to a 65 year old man covered in sweat and wearing a headband and seemingly jogging up Mount Everest, and you start walking.
Now you realize that your brisk walk at 3.5 mph isn’t anything when you compare yourself to the old man running at 6.3 mph next to you. You regret your choice of treadmill. That comparison knocks your emotions down yet one more notch. Now you’re feeling thoroughly defeated - like the biggest loser in gym land - and you’re just trying to do something good for yourself.
Let’s pause here.
Is it any wonder why it’s so damn hard to start an exercise routine at the gym?
The psychological pain of comparison to others can overshadow the physical pain of exercise by a long shot.
At the gym, you’re jumping into an environment that has been designed in such a way that many people will feel bad about themselves.
That’s not encouraging. And it’s also not your fault. You’re human, and you’re wired to notice those things.
If you detest exercise, it’s very likely there are good reasons for it.
It’s highly likely that you’ve had so many negative experiences with it that you are not a fan.
If you feel a deep sense of not being enough - or even shame - when you exercise in front of others, repeating that same experience of failure is not going to help you.
The next question one might ask is, “What can I do about it?”
It turns out that the key to changing any behavior, or adopting a new one, is to make incremental changes.
You take small steps in the direction you want to go.
So that then leads to another important question: In what direction do you want to go?
Is your goal to go to the gym? Or is it to lose some weight and be healthier with more energy?
Let’s say that you want some weight loss, and let’s also say that the reason you want some weight loss is because you feel some shame around having let yourself go and you know your self-confidence would rise if you took better care of your body.
Let’s also say that you don’t care so much for the gym, and after putting some thought into it, you don’t think that it’s the best environment for you to start your exercise routine because every time you come home, you feel terrible about yourself.
Then you start to evaluate your options in a practical way.
You could take up running. But the problem with that is that it’s painful on your knees and you can only go 50 yards before running out of breath.
You could do walking. Now that sounds better, but maybe it’s winter and you live in New England and you don’t want to dodge snowplows and fear for your life when you’re trying to walk a mile from your house.
You could get some kind of home exercise machine like a treadmill or a stationary bike. The issue with that is that maybe you just don’t have the room and the last time you bought something like that was a Nordic Track and you used it three times before putting it up for sale on Uncle Henry’s.
This is where you might expect me to start talking about how wonderful Bionic Gym is, but I told you I wouldn’t do that here, and disingenuous arm twisting is not a good way to change hearts and minds anyhow.
So let’s say you go through your options one by one, and then you find one thing you can do, and you can do it every single day.
So you put it in your calendar, and then you start with 15 minutes of exercise a day. And you keep that going for two weeks, and it starts to become a habit.
That’s still work on your part, because you’re committing to changing your behavior. But you’re doing it in small steps.
One of the most common mistakes people make when they start to exercise - likely because they’re driven by such a deep sense of disgust with themselves - is that they try to punish themselves into changing with inappropriately intense and difficult workouts.
What happens in most of those cases is that the mind and body say, “Hey pal, not so fast. We don’t work that way.” Then you lose your motivation, you skip a few days of your routine, and before you know it, it’s Super Bowl Sunday and you’re lost in an endless bowl of nachos with your pants unbuttoned and wondering how you got there.
The truth is that it doesn’t have to be that way.
That might be one of the most frustrating things about making a lasting change. It takes commitment on your part, and it takes consistency.
Let’s recap things a bit.
In another post, I can comment on how Bionic Gym could be one answer to starting the exercise habit when you feel like your options are limited.
In the meantime, I wish you all the best on your journey to fitness and personal transformation.
Best Regards,
Louis
Want more inspiration? See BionicGym reviews and testimonials here.
]]>
The Standard programs are designed to exercise you at low to moderate levels of exercise. The equivalent of fast walking or slow jogging. These are ideal for people who are using BionicGym to feel fresh and burn calories.
For intense training you need the PRO or PRO-Intense programs, explanation below.
The HIIT programs mimic High Intensity Interval Training, explanation below.
Since we are all different and use BionicGym in different positions we have Zone – these help maximize the comfort and training of the area you like. Try them all out and see which suits your body-type.
These are in all BionicGym apps. They are in the folder labelled “Hello! Start here!”
The Program is designed as a gentle introduction to BionicGym exercise sessions. Using the tech for the first time some people can rapidly and easily increase the intensity. Most need a more gentle introduction so it is best to start with a ‘gentle’ program and then increase the intensity slowly and gradually – but steadily during the session and from one session to the next. It is designed to be comfortable on the skin and easy to get used to. There is a slight increase in the tempo of the contractions after five minutes. Many people stay at this level because they enjoy it, it suits them and they find it equally effective as the more ‘aggressive’ exercise programs.
These set of programs shift the focus of the stimulation around. Why? 1) we are all different and need a different balance. Some people need/want more quad (front of leg) contraction and others need more glute / bum /ass or hamstring or calf involvement. 2) Different Zones may work best for you in different positions. All of these programs are designed to stimulate all areas but give the strongest stimulation in one area.
Note: those looking for maximal cardio effect should try Twinkle-Toes Calf+++ standing at high intensities. There are two reasons to stand. When you are standing the heart has to work harder (against gravity) to suck the blood back to the heart before squeezing it around the body again. Secondly, the calf muscles are quite slow to lengthen again and are aided by gravity when you stand. We also recommend that people use it standing the first time or two that they try BionicGym.
Note: some people may find that one zone suits them in a particular body position but not another, e.g. sitting versus lying. So find what is best for you.
These unleash much greater intensities. They are similar to the standard suite of programs, see above, but go to a much higher intensity. So intensity 100 on a standard program may be equivalent to, say, intensity 60 on the PRO.
These are intended for people who wish to push themselves and train hard to ‘feel the burn’. At higher intensities they are the equivalent of running. Note some people need to train up their muscles first and get very habituated to the stimulation before they can really push themselves. These are intended for healthy people who want to train hard.
As with the Standard programs it is important to find which works best for you. As a general rule the higher the intensity you can go on a program the better it will be for you. If you have a lot of fast twitch muscle fibers (you can sprint or do a middle distance run with a spurt at the end) then the ‘faster’ ‘faster again’ programs will be ideal for you.
These programs add in extra covert pulses. Masochists will like these programs!. The overall architecture of the exercise pattern remains similar to the PRO programs but we get the muscle fibers to work a little bit harder. While this was intended as a very intense workout some users have found they like it at lower intensities too. The program “Fire it up [DB]” is named in honor of Denise Bailey, a fire fighter in San Francisco, who was an early backer and believer in the power of BionicGym. She has run our female community group and inspired myself (Louis) and many others. “Even More Heat” ups the tempo once more…
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Like regular HIIT classes the exercise level is easy and then ramps up rapidly to become tougher. You set the intensity at the max level you will be comfortable with. And the intensity will ramp up to that on a periodic basic. Typically, the HIIT programs have different phases… each more difficult than the last. Usually there are three step changes – so if you find the first phase too easy… don’t worry! Note: these are automatic increases at the quarter, half and three-quarter marks. So be prepared.
There are two basic variations: Waves and Sharp Peaks. In the Waves the intensity never drops too low and it increases more gradually to the maximum. In the Sharp Peaks programs the intensity starts very low and then there is a rapid increase in intensity before it falls off to the low level again. With each automatic step increase the maximum of each wave/peak gets higher and then higher and lasts longer.
We recommend that you start with the Waves the first time you try a HIIT program.
From time to time we release Beta programs. If they prove to be very popular and effective we will keep them. Some of them are marked “for experienced users only”. The reason is that these may feel slightly coarse if you are new to BionicGym. Your body needs to habituate to standard programs and sensations first. Once comfortable with stimulation then you should try these out.
Glucose Gobblers : the control of glucose (sugar) is hugely important to our health and weight-control. The big muscle fibers, which are generally held in reserve and not used much in everyday life, have a tremendous capacity to consume glucose. This program is designed to target these sugar-hungry fibers and maximize the sugar consumption.
They are two-hour programs and have automatic step changes in intensity. These happen about every half hour or so. As they are a long program most people’s muscles will fatigue and to continue ‘gobbling glucose’ we increase the intensity.
The intensity also undulates a little, this is intended to gently bring in new muscle fibers.
At the time of writing we have two Glucose Gobbler programs. “x3 step increases; 2 hours” and “Looser Contractions; 2 hours”. Both of these have step increases, i.e. the intensity goes up by itself. The legs feel freer in the Looser Contractions. This simply suits a lot of people. It was instantly popular especially with women who wished to lose weight.
Many people use these programs to diet and lose weight, they are especially effective with low-carb or keto diet. (They will get you back into keto quickly, if you lapse).
Using a standing desk improves things a little (typically an extra 6-20 calories an hour2). The muscles still aren’t very active… but at least you have to fight gravity a bit more… using your postural muscles and returning blood to the heart. But it is obviously not enough and has down-sides; ‘walking desks’ are better but impractical for most.
Doubling your metabolic rate while working… now that would soon add up! Once you’re used to it you can easily use BionicGym at a low level that will cause a slow burn of calories. For instance, just an extra one or two hundred calories per hour… not enough to make you sweat or be breathless (only equivalent to walking or less) … but cumulatively enough to make a big impact. Calorie counting tends to be counter-productive but, in simple terms, an extra 3-4 hours of low-level exercise per day may be just what you need to tip the balance.
Sped Up video of using BionicGym working. Second half is at high intensities ... not for most! At lower levels you can do this for hours with no sweat.
[To continue watching the full video ...using it at high intensity click here ]
Much more important than the calories is the glucose (sugar) consumption. We mostly control our blood sugar levels by either sinking it in muscles or turning it into fat. Let’s encourage the muscles to soak up the sugar. If you are sitting, standing or doing low intensity exercise you tend not to use up much sugar. Due to a quirk in the physiology and how we target particular muscle fibers, the stimulation – even at low levels – happily soaks up more sugar than equivalent ‘normal’ exercise3.
MEDICAL Note: Type 1 diabetics may need to adjust their insulin levels. You should discuss this with your doctor. Pre-diabetics / Type 2 diabetics should also be aware that this may affect your glucose levels. Before undertaking vigorous exercise of any sort, including BionicGym, you should check with your doctor that this is safe and appropriate for you.
Forget calories… think of your health!
“Sitting is the new smoking”… while possibly not quite that bad… hours sitting everyday has very serious health effects. For instance, a big Dutch study showed “an extra hour of sedentary time was associated with a 22% increased odds for type 2 diabetes and a 39% increased odds for the metabolic syndrome.”4
We appear to need to contract our muscles and keep moving them during the day. It seems that even going to the gym a few times a week can’t counteract the deterioration that occurs in between. “Even when adults meet physical activity guidelines, sitting for prolonged periods can compromise metabolic health. TV time and objective-measurement studies show deleterious associations, and breaking up sedentary time is beneficial.”5
Tips for exercising at work:
Get used to it: when you first put on your shirt in the morning you feel it. Then after a while you don’t… your nervous system begins to shut it out. Same with BionicGym.
Use it at levels you will use it!: If you find it too intrusive at intensity 20 try 15. People usually find they can increase the intensity with time.
Try the zones: different people like different BionicGym-Zones depending on the position, and even intensity.
Some people find the workout “Less Cardio more Discreet” more suitable for the workplace.
Stand too! Most people can happily work at higher levels standing. Note the laptop and in particular the screen should be high – you don’t want to be hunched over.
NOTE: If you only intend using BionicGym at work / low intensities you only need the STANDARD product (Click here to ORDER)
If you want to push yourself and train hard too Get the PRO-HIIT (Click here)
Myself, I sometimes use BionicGym at work just to perk myself up. Sitting all day I often feel groggy… so a bit of BionicGym helps me there too.
]]>
No need to skip your favorite show to make a date with the gym… now you can exercise at home watching a movie.
The time commuting to the gym is time wasted. Enjoy your screen-time while exercising with BionicGym, no commute… you want to watch that movie anyway... In fact, we recommend it! At low levels you can work, at medium levels even play games but at high intensity it is best to have something really good to watch. Hard exercise is HARD, obviously, so you’ll need a distraction. Besides at high-intensity you’ll sweat too much to do the crossword!
If you find cardio boring this is the way to do it… watch something and happen to be exercising – intensely we hope, because that is how you’ll train and get fitter. But you can also just tip away at low intensity to burn calories as you gorge on the shows.
Want more inspiration? See BionicGym reviews and testimonials here.
]]>
We mimic shivering! A calorie is a unit of heat. When the body wants to warm up / burn calories it shivers. There is this resonant frequency of around 7-8Hz where the muscle fibers contract and relax optimizing energy consumption. The muscles cry out for oxygen and fuel creating a demand for blood – hence the heart rate increases and the lungs work harder. Special electrodes allow us to target concentrated impulses. Of course there is a little bit of magic in the formula. Even though the electrodes are only on the thigh we manage to bring in the calf muscles and the gluteals (bum) muscles.
All the graphs below are from peer-reviewed scientific literature. (BionicGym technology has been subject to a dozen scientific studies). The studies have been supported by European Space Agency, Enterprise Ireland, Bio-Medical Research Ltd, Hull University (UK), and University College Dublin (Ireland).
Calories burnt versus Intensity
Sitting at rest, you burn 1-2 calories per minute. At each mark (black triangle) there was an increase in the stimulation intensity. Caloric expenditure increased to 15Kcal/min – very vigorous exercise! (the American Heart Association defines ‘vigorous exercise’ as >6 METS or metabolic equivalents. This subject is exercizing not just vigorously but 50% above this threshold).
HR and oxygen consumption (VO2)
At rest the subjects heart rate is <60 as the stimulation intensity increases his heart rate increases – reaching his maximal rate of >185 bpm. (Also greater than his age-predicted maximal heart rate and equal to his maximal heart rate with voluntary /’normal’ exercise).
O2 uptake and Calories over 4 hours
At self-selected intensities this subject watched a couple of DVDs on a reclining physio-table. Oxygen consumption and cumulative calories are plotted.
Lactate Response -2 mins supra-max
Comparison of blood lactate levels post 2 minutes supra-maximal exercise (voluntary exercise and stimulation). Note for comfort the stimulation intensity should be gradually increased. This could not be done in this 2 minute experiment. The limiting factor is probably due to the subjects’ tolerance of the stimulation intensity within the 2 minute window rather than the physiological limit as maximal stimulation intensity was not reached.
Exercise to fatigue at 125+bpm
This experiment compares exercise-to-fatigue of stationary cycling and stimulation at a given heart rate (125-130bpm). Pedaling at 80 revolutions/min the resistance was adjusted to keep the HR at 125-130. For stimulation the intensity was adjusted. The subject was fasting overnight each time. The energy expenditure per min was higher for cycling. Near 4 hours, with resistance at zero, the subject was unable to continue pedaling. After 6 hours of stimulation the subject could have continued.
Increases in aerobic fitness -VO2max
Controlled Study over six weeks on healthy subjects showed statistically significant increases in maximum aerobic capacity / VO2max (VO2max is the ‘gold standard’ measurement of aerobic fitness).
Selected peer-reviewed publications in the scientific literature on this exercise technique (authored/ co-authored by Dr Louis Crowe):
The use of electrical muscle stimulation to elicit a cardiovascular exercise response without loading the joints. Caulfield B, Crowe L, Minogue C, Banerjee P, Clark A. Journal of Exercise PhysiologyOnline 2004;7(3):84-88.
In 1 line: “Increased heart-rate response and calorie burn possible and repeatable”.
Clinical application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation induced cardiovascular exercise. Caulfield B, Crowe L, Coughlan G, Minogue C. Conf Proc IEEE Engineering inMedicine and Biology Society. 2011;2011:3266-9. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6090887.
In 1 Line: “Potential to work in micro-gravity /space”.
Neuro-muscular electrical stimulation training enhances maximal aerobic capacity in healthy physically active adults. Crognale D, Crowe L, Devito G, Minogue C, Caulfield B. Conf Proc IEEE Engineeringin Medicine and Biology Society. 2009;2009:2137-40. doi:10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5333972.
In 1 line: “…a viable alternative to cardiovascular exercise”.
Neuromuscular electrical stimulation can elicit aerobic exercise response without undue discomfort in healthy physically active adults. Crognale D, Vito GD, Grosset JF, Crowe L, Minogue C, Caulfield B. Journalof Strength & Conditioning Research. 2013 Jan;27(1):208-15. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e318252f5e5.
In 1 line: “It is acceptably comfortable at training intensities”.
Pushing out the limits of electrical stimulation. A case study in the aggressive use of an alternative to voluntary exercise. Crowe L, Caulfield B. British MedicalJournal Case Reports. 2011 Oct 11;2011. doi:pii: bcr0620114343.10.1136/bcr.06.2011.4343. [Note: only some of the techniques described are being made available at this moment].
In 1 line: “Shows-off the incredible potential of this technology”.
Electrical stimulation of unloaded muscles causes cardiovascular exercise by increasing oxygen demand. BanerjeeP, Clark A, Witte K, Crowe L, Caulfield B. European Journalof Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. 2005 Oct;12(5):503-8.
In 1 line: “It’s really exercise! – Department of Academic Cardiology, University of Hull, UK”.
Prolonged electrical muscle stimulation exercise improves strength and aerobic capacity in healthy sedentary adults. Banerjee P, Caulfield B, Crowe L, Clark A. Journalof Applied Physiology. 2005 Dec;99(6):2307-11. Epub 2005 Aug 4.
In 1 line: “Even works for those who do not train much”.
Comparative effect of a 1 h session of electrical muscle stimulation and walking activity on energy expenditure and substrate oxidation in obese subjects. Grosset JF, Crowe L, De Vito G, O’Shea D, Caulfield B. AppliedPhysiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2013 Jan;38(1):57-65. doi:10.1139/apnm-2011-0367. Epub 2012 Nov 12.
In 1 line: “Stimulation uses glucose/sugar as an energy source – even at low levels”.
Twenty years ago, Dr Louis Crowe, an Irish Medical Doctor, went for a swim in the cold Irish sea. Getting out, he shivered like he always would, only this time, he noticed something: His teeth chattered at the same speed his legs shook.
He’d never noticed this before... so he began to pay attention. He realised his shivering was synchronised and had a kind of rhythm.
He reasoned, as his brain sends electrical signals to his muscles when he shivers, it must be possible to induce shivering by copying those signals. At that moment, he had an epiphany that would change the course of his life.
Shivering is nature’s hack to warm you up (ie burn calories)
Dr Louis knew that shivering burned a lot of calories. When you’re cold, it’s the body’s natural way to heat up. So, he studied shivering, using himself as a guinea pig. He went back to the sea time after time, getting himself colder and colder to really feel what happened when he shivered.
He noticed as he got colder that he'd shiver more intensely, but his muscles contracted at the same rate.
The shivering started in his quads and spread throughout his body until even his teeth were chattering, all at the same magic rate (7-8Hz) no matter how cold he got.
He realised we could mimic shivering in an intense way, recruiting more muscle, and even train people aerobically using this shivering hack.
Dr. Louis found a way to induce intense shivering without the cold, and in so doing, invented a new form of exercise.
Harnessing your body’s biggest muscle group – your legs.
To train your heart and get you breathless, Dr. Louis knew he needed to bring in big muscle groups. Those included the thighs, calves, and glutes.
(These muscles are all recruited without needing electrodes on the calves and glutes because of how we target the nerves that go to those muscles.)
Dr. Louis was able to achieve real, vigorous exercise – sweating, rapid breathing, and elevated heart-rates. This was in addition to real, scientific measurements.
What Dr. Louis noticed while testing BionicGym
He did endless testing with himself as the test subject and found he was getting really fit. He got injured playing soccer and couldn’t do regular exercise but found that his VO2 Max and aerobic fitness improved!
His resting heart rate got down to the mid-40’s.
He was able to run the equivalent of a marathon on his couch while bucketing sweat (poor couch). Then he trained for an actual marathon on his couch and went out and ran one with his legs.
Peer Reviewed Science.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Louis Crowe has become an expert in the science of neuromuscular stimulation. He has completed numerous peer-reviewed studies, received patents, and created new medical treatments cleared by the FDA.
He has worked with leading European universities, led innovation teams, and even worked in a think tank on future medical devices.
One of his fun experiments on BionicGym was with the European Space Agency on a zero gravity flight.
He proved that he could do some of the “impossible” with BionicGym:
Ultra-Convenient exercise
Dr. Louis’ vision is to bring exercise to the world. Exercise is a key to our health and happiness. It’s important to find ways that help people train and exercise more.
Exercise needs to be something for real people in their real lives, something that they’ll actually do.
BionicGym isn’t just a hack for athletes. It’s also for busy people who want to get back into shape but might not have the time.
If you’re ready, click the button below.
ORDER NOW]]>
So, is BionicGym really too good to be true?
BionicGym is indeed wonderful and delivers real results which are proven and quantifiable. In addition to the hard science and scientific studies (published in peer-reviewed journals) we now have dozens of people training with the technology, loving it and posting their results. (See our backers community page to see real people getting real results.)
Once in use nobody asks “Is this exercise?” … it self-evidently is. People know what true exercise feels like. You begin to warm up, your breathing increases, your heart rate goes up… you feel all this (and, of course, this is very easy to measure and quantify). As you increase the intensity you’ll become more breathless and even sweat. A calorie is a term of heat. So when you are burning calories you are warming up… exercise enough and you will sweat. Indeed, some backers put it on at low levels when they are cold… just to warm up!
Our backers are a very tech-savvy lot and like to quantify and track their exercise – especially their BionicGym workouts. Many use heart rate monitors– these will also give an indication of the calories burnt – and have posted the results. Others post videos of their workout, you can see the sweat, hear the breathing and read their heart rate monitor. [Thank you backers for being so generous with your support and showing others how you too can exercise].
An increase in heart rate is the definition of cardio exercise. Here is the read-out of an extremely intense BionicGym session I did:
Note: this was an extremely tough session! I was shattered after it. Many people when they say “BionicGym must be a scam because it is too good to be true” say so thinking that you just press a button and don’t feel anything. Because it is exercise you get all the sensations and challenges of exercise – they mistake it being super-convenient and ‘passive’ with it being easy.
Obviously, this graph is not typical – not everyone has a similar cardiac reserve/exercise capability as I had back then – but our backers are posting their results (including some getting through tougher workouts than I can do!).
The above are the Heart Rate readouts from beta-testers that would be more typical of results in the first few sessions (it takes a little while to get used to it). There are dozens more posted in the forums. [Note: the heart rate monitoring is not done by BionicGym, these were people who had third-party products to monitor their exercise].
But many people like to use it at lower intensities… they can double their metabolic rate (calorie burn) for hours while at work or watching TV.
So BionicGym can really do something that we can be proud of, something many think is impossible. But now dozens of backers are showing they can replicate the hard science and do the wonderful everyday.
We are still crowdfunding BionicGym, visit our Indiegogo page to learn more about our product or to pre-order.
]]>