Pulse Training Is For Everyone!

By: Dr. J Renae Norton

For those of you who want to lose weight, get into shape, and build muscle, but don’t have time to do it, or you are afraid you are too “out of shape” to work out, I have the solution! It is called “Pulse Training.”

The technique basically involves timing yourself for five minutes for each of four different exercises, two upper body and two lower body. This means that your entire commitment is only 20 minutes. And you don’t even have to start with 20 minutes. You can make the intervals smaller and still get amazing results. I recommend to people just starting out that they do four 2 1/2 minute intervals and work up to the 5 minute intervals.

Irrespective of what kind of shape you’re in when you start, I can guarantee that this will be the best workout you have ever gotten in the shortest amount of time.

For example, the first time I did pulse training, I was already able to do 25 push-ups. It had taken me years to get to the point of being able to do 25 push-ups. But I was there! Because it was tough, I rarely did more than two sets. When I started doing pulse training, I was actually committing to doing many more push-ups without even realizing it. In fact the first time I did pulse training I was able to do over 100 push-ups… I’m not kidding lol

Here’s how it worked, I got down on the floor and started doing my push-ups…. I was timing myself for the five minute intervals. I got to 25 and kept going and was able to do 29. (The technique works like this: push until you can’t rest until you can.) At 29 push-ups I had to rest. I rested for maybe 10 seconds at the most and then was totally ready to start again so I did the next set. I only got to 25 push-ups and I rested perhaps a little bit longer than 10 seconds. The next set I only got to 20 push-ups and rested a little bit longer.  By the end of the five minutes I was resting more than I was pushing, but I had done over 100 push-ups! Was I tired? Oh yes! Was I making muscle? You bet!

If anyone had ever told me that I would be able to do 100 push-ups at the age of 60 I would’ve told them they were nuts. I would’ve assumed it wouldn’t be worth the pain lol… but by using the pulse training I was inspired! 

To maximize this training technique, focus on these actionable steps:

1. Intensity Over Time: Exercise as hard as you safely can during the work phase. Push your reps to where you physically cannot complete another one.PUSH UNTIL YOU CAN’T

2. Listen to Your Body: Do not time your rest strictly. Instead, rest until your heart rate drops, your breathing stabilizes, and your muscles are ready to push hard again. REST UNTIL YOU CAN

3. Adaptability: Work hard on days you feel great. Back off when you are exhausted, sick, or highly stressed.

4. Prevent Burnout: Pushing until you are totally wrecked every day does not mean you are making progress. PULSE TRAINING SHOULD BE DONE NO MORE THAN FOUR TIMES A WEEK AND IDEALLY THREE TIMES A WEEK. True strength requires consistent recovery.

Pulse training can be adapted for your favorite form of exercising. In other words, you can actually restructure your weightlifting workout into a pulse training workout. Again by using 4 exercises, 2 upper body and 2 lower body weightlifting exercises such as goblet squats and dumbbell presses. 

Rest-Pause Techniques

Fundamentally, this is what we are talking about:

1. Push for as many reps as   you can until your form breaks down. 

2. Rest for as long as it takes to be able to start again.

3. Repeat the process for as many “micro-sets” as you can fit into the five minute set for that exercise. 

4. Repeat this for 4 sets of  2 upper body and 2 lower body. 

5. Examples of lower body exercises are: lunges, squats, leg lifts, calf stretches,etc. 

6. Examples of upper body exercises are curls, flies with weights, push-ups, and sit-ups.

Benefits Pulse Training

This is what the experts say are the benefits of pulse training:

• Increased Time Under Tension (TUT): By pausing and pulsing at the most challenging point of a movement, you force muscles to fire continuously, which accelerates metabolic stress and stimulates tissue growth A.K.A muscle:).

• Deeper Muscle Isolation: Pulses enable you to zero in on specific muscle groups (like glutes, calves, or quads), improving your control and motor function without placing heavy stress on your joints. 

• Enhanced Awareness: Using light loads and/or bodyweight, pulsing forces you to concentrate deeply, significantly improving your overall mind-muscle connection. 

• Breaking Plateaus: Adding pulsing to traditional full-range workouts creates a novel stimulus that prevents adaptation (exercises that are no longer doing anything for the muscles.) This is what happened to me with my pushups:)

• Endurance and Burn: They are highly effective as “burn-outs” at the end of a set to exhaust remaining muscle fibers. This is a good thing.

If you’re interested in incorporating pulse training into your wellness routine please reach out to me. . 

I am Dr. Renae Norton and I am the Mind, Weight, Wellness Pro.