The Matthews Method

Looking for stronger, healthier abdominal muscles? Or perhaps you exercise regularly, but are becoming bored with your workout and are looking for something different. Perhaps this is the time to consider the Matthews Method. This exercise plan was originally developed by Gary Matthews, an Australian who began his fitness career as a trainer with the Royal Australian Air Force. Over the course of several decades, Matthews developed personal training plans and began to share them with the Air Force. Below are summaries of his main guidelines:

Don't Train Beyond Your Limits

Your body has an exhaustion point – one should never exercise past this point. The effects of exercise – any exercise – will begin to show in reduced blood sugar levels after approximately 30 minutes. That is not to say that you should immediately stop at 30 minutes, but after such period additional strain is placed upon the body and increased recovery time is required after exercise. Hence, Matthews is advised to focus upon a high-intensity workout that lasts approximately 30 minutes and stimulates as many muscle fibers as possible during this time period.

Exercise Using Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is Gary's term for gradually increasing the “load” of the workout. For instance, if one performs 3 sets of 20 repetitions of a given exercise with 50 pounds of resistance. Within a week or two the body will have adjusted to this ‘load’. Without increasing the workout – through increased sets, repetition or resistance – the body will no longer gain the same benefit from the workout. Once the workout can be performed with relative ease, one of these factors must be increased. However, he warns that under no circumstances should technique be sacrificed. Perfect technique is one item that must remain constant, as it is the greatest protection against injury.

Allow Your Body Recovery Time

This is the one area that most exercisers ignore - muscles require recovery time after a workout and by not permitting same, one allows a high risk of injury. Muscle mass requires more oxygen than other organs or organ groups to function properly. Realistically, the muscles will not obtain the required oxygen during the workout itself; there is simply too great a demand upon the body. Thus rest time is essential to appropriately oxygenating the muscles.

Utilize Multi-Joint Exercises

Rather than doing a series of exercises that focus upon one muscle or muscle group at a time, Matthews advocates exercising several muscle groups simultaneously for a more invigorating workout. This effort results in an intense, short-term workout, which should be completed before blood sugar levels drop too low. It is hard work but the results are quite rewarding.

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Is Exercise More Effective at Certain Times of Day?

Healthy individuals who follow an exercise regime will often create routines and rituals around their workouts. Some prefer to visit the gym or take a run before they start work, while others find exercise to be an effective stress-reduction technique at the end of a long day. But does the time of day chosen for exercise have any impact on its efficacy? And can timing workouts differently add value to the effort?

Workouts More Effective in the Afternoon

A study conducted by scientists at the John Moores University in Liverpool, England, would seem to indicate that it can. Dr Thomas Reilly and Jim Waterhouse conducted the study, which showed that workouts completed later in the day appeared to be more effective at raising heart rate levels while the same amount of exertion was performed, thus providing exercisers a greater health return for the same expenditure of effort.

The study also found that exercisers experienced no difference in the perception of their work rate, despite afternoon and evening workouts offering a greater rise in heart rates than those taken in the morning.

Scientists Split on Question of Workout Timing

The phenomenon is one that health conscious individuals have often commented upon with anecdotal evidence being recorded in a number of fitness blogs and forums, but many scientists have played down the possibility of timing playing a part in the efficacy of workouts. Physiologists argue that there should be no discrepancy between performances regardless of time of day, while chronobiologists claim evidence proves a greater capacity for a raised heartbeat is often witnessed later in the day.

Dr. Michael Smolenski of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center concurs with the choronbiology camp saying, “In the afternoon and evening you are in a different biological state.” Dr. Smolenski explained that the phenomenon had implications both for consistent exercisers and those first embarking on a fitness regime. He warned that those uninitiated into the rigors of physical exertion could place their heart under greater strain by attempting morning workouts and noted, “My personal approach is to train when your biological efficiency is greatest, which means late afternoon or early evening for most people.”

However, the jury remains out over whether it is more beneficial for dedicated athletes to train in the morning or afternoon. While an afternoon workout could result in a great increase in heart rate, some athletes argue that morning training constitutes a tougher workout, and that pushing the body when it is at its least willing offers both physical and mental rewards – indeed many professional athletes who train in the morning have set personal and official records at late afternoon and evening events – perhaps buoyed by their systems reduced resistance to the task at hand.

Balance Key to Health and Fitness

Fitness experts continue to recommend that consistency of regular workouts, at whatever time of day, eating nutritious foods and ensuring an appropriate balance of nutrients including multivitamins and antioxidants, is the most reliable route to long-term fitness and wellbeing.

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