The Pritikin Exercise Plan

Cardiovascular Conditioning, Strength Training, and Flexibility | Comprehensive, Yet Very Doable

"There's nothing I could ever own - like a nice home or luxury car - that could make me feel as good as I feel following the Pritikin Program. It's a revelation, really, to know that you can feel this great," smiles Pete, 62, of Asheville, North Carolina.

Pritikin Exercise Plan for Losing Weight and Getting Fit

Fitness Director Jamie Costello, MSC, MBA, leads a team of university-degreed exercise physiologists at the Pritikin Center. They help guests put into practice the physician-directed exercise plan that includes the three most important types of exercise: Cardiovascular (Aerobic), Strength Training, and Flexibility. It is a simple and practical plan, easy to weave into daily life.

An immense contributor to this "feel good" spirit of so many Pritikin devotees is the Pritikin Exercise Plan. Certainly, exercise is good for us for numerous medical reasons, such as burning calories, boosting weight loss, and protecting against heart disease. But regular exercise also does wonders for our emotional health, staving off depression and anxiety, reducing stress, and helping us feel our best each and every day.

For optimal health and well-being, the Pritikin Exercise Plan teaches a comprehensive approach involving three key parts:

  1. Cardiovascular Conditioning,
  2. Strength Training, and
  3. Flexibility (Stretching)

Though all encompassing, each element of the program is designed to be simple, practical, and easy to follow when you return home. The program also accommodates all levels of fitness - from those who have never been in a formal exercise program to professional athletes.

Below is a synopsis of each of the three parts of the Pritikin Exercise Plan:

Part #1 - Pritikin Exercise Plan
Cardiovascular (Aerobic) Conditioning

No question about it, cardiovascular conditioning (ideally, every day) keeps not only our hearts but also our bodies fit.

Guests at the Pritikin Center start their day with cardiovascular exercise plan.

Guests at the Pritikin Center start their day with cardiovascular exercise. University-degreed exercise physiologists lead small-group classes designed to help each guest meet his or her goals.

The most comprehensive study of long-term weight loss ever conducted, the National Weight Control Registry, found that the vast majority of its 4,500 successful losers averaged about 60 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise, like brisk walking, every day. (Brisk, as President Harry Truman so deftly defined it, is "walking as if you have somewhere to go.")

The Registry participants lost, on average, 66 pounds and kept them off during the entire six-year study.

Types of aerobic exercise include walking, rowing, aerobic dancing, cross-country skiing, jogging, stair climbing, swimming, and bicycling - anything, in short, that revs ups your heart rate, moving your large muscles in a continuous rhythmic manner.

The Pritikin Exercise Plan recommends 30 to 90 minutes of cardiovascular conditioning 6 days a week (7 days if you have diabetes), at 70 to 80% of your maximum predicted heart rate, also known as your Target Heart Rate Zone. At the Pritikin Longevity Center, the doctors and exercise physiologists use the results of each guest's cardiometabolic stress test to determine highly individualized Target Heart Rate Zones.

Part #2 - Pritikin Exercise Plan
Strength Training

"The benefits of strength training are priceless," says Scott Danberg, MS, Director of Exercise at the Pritikin Longevity Center, and include a leaner body, an easier time losing weight, stronger bones, more power, and better coordination.

The Strength Training Program at Pritikin

The strength training program at Pritikin accommodates all levels of fitness - from those who haven't exercised in years to professional athletes.

What's most amazing is that you start to feel - and see - the benefits very quickly, often within just one to two months. One GREAT benefit of strength training is that it burns fat. As we get older, muscle tends to be replaced by fat. "But flab is not inevitable," stresses Scott Danberg. "Strength training can help you retain lean body mass - and build more."

In 2007, the American Heart Association enthusiastically endorsed strength training. Its guidelines for strength training mirror the guidelines taught at the Pritikin Longevity Center since 1990.

Pritikin Program guidelines for strength training are simple and practical. With just two to three 20-minute sessions per week, you achieve a full body workout using 10 exercises.

You can use any type of resistance (such as free weights, elastic bands, or weight machines), as long as you're comfortable with it. Try to pick a weight that gives you a "somewhat-hard to hard routine, or what I call a 'meaningful weight,'" says Scott.

Pumping out 1 set (for example, doing just 12 bicep curls) is a great start, and yields most of the benefits of doing 2 or 3 sets. But certainly, 2 or 3 sets (24 or 36 bicep curls in total) brings even more gains.

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To give your muscles enough time to rest and recover between strength training workouts, do not exercise on consecutive days, for example, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Allow at least 48 hours between sessions.

Also, do not forget to stretch either after strength training or between exercises, or both.

Part #3 - Pritikin Exercise Plan
Flexibility (Stretching)

Guests at the Pritikin Center are encouraged to "go outside and play" at the 800-acre resort. Golf, tennis and a tropical walking path are just a few of the outdoor fitness options they'll discover.

In our 20s and 30s, it's easy to forgo a regular stretching routine because, well, nothing creaks. But then, out of nowhere, you bend down to pick up a fallen fork - and can't get up! Knees ache. Back muscles twinge. The whole body sighs. As the old saying goes, "I felt 21. Then I felt age."

Regular stretching, or flexibility, exercises can help take the 'age' out of aging - the pain related to muscle tightness. Regular stretching can also improve your mobility and range of motion, enhancing life in all sorts of ways, from a better golf swing to just being able to turn your head better while driving. A more flexible body also greatly decreases your chance of injury from both daily and weekend activities.

The Pritikin Exercise Plan recommends that you:
  • Stretch at least 10 minutes per day, and
  • Hold each stretch 10 to 30 seconds.

Coaching at the Pritikin Longevity Center

The exercise physiologists at Pritikin coach guests daily in all three facets of the Pritikin Exercise Plan and focus on showing guests how to weave their new fitness routines into their busy lives at home.

A typical day at the Pritikin Longevity Center starts early morning with 45 to 60 minutes of cardiovascular conditioning in Pritikin's 4,100 square-foot exercise facility, which contains more than 50 aerobic machines, including treadmills, stationary bicycles (both recumbent and sit-up), rowing machines, cross-trainers, and elliptical walkers.

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After cardiovascular conditioning, guests move to strength training classes with free weights, or, on alternating days, classes in abdominal crunches and stretching, called "Core and Stretch." The "Core & Stretch" and "Yoga" classes are very popular, notes Exercise Director Scott Danberg, "because for the first time many guests experience how relaxing and rejuvenating stretching can be."

Elective exercise classes, held daily at Pritikin in the late morning and afternoon, include aqua-aerobics in the pool, yoga/meditation, Zumba dancing, stretch and relax, physioball, shaping and toning the abs and buttocks, functional fitness, machine weights, and resistabands.

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