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Dr. Mehmet Oz and his partner Dr. Michael Roizen have written a great book called “You On a Diet,” that provides much needed straight talk on the subjects of nutrition and the need to exercise. I said, “the need to exercise.” When it comes to the specifics of exercise the good doctors should stay out of the conversation.
The ubiquitous Oprah Winfrey, who loves to find diet and exercise experts but can’t stick to the regimen set forth by any of them, is giving props and publicity to Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen and their new book, “90- Day Live Longer, Feel Younger Plan.” The features of his plan are; do yoga and lift weights, walk 30-minutes every day rain or shine and adopt a “food is medicine” philosophy and avoid foods that Dr. Oz says belong in a Hall of Shame.” Of course this plan is being touted as providing “fast” results.
Of course “fast” has to be included in any of these pop diet and exercise programs, or else people won’t shell out the 20-or-so bucks to buy the book. Who wants to hear that slow and steady wins the race when there are people out there who promise fast and easy results?
Dr. Oz has a fitness test and he says all 30-year old women should be able to perform 45 bent-knee, also called “modified,” push-ups while men should be able to perform 35 “real” push-ups. Dr. O goes on to say that 5 push-ups can be subtracted for every 10 years of age.
I must say that I’m not very impressed with Dr. Oz’s exercise prescription or his fitness test. First of all, while yoga is a good supplementary activity there are many other valid, even superior, choices of exercise to be paired with weight training. Swimming, Pilates and martial arts are but a few of these options.
Giving people the goal of walking 30-minutes every day, rain or shine, is a prescription for failure. There is no need to exercise every day, and while walking is a great activity, except for beginners and/or the non-motivated, there are much better ways to spend your exercise time. But for the sake of giving Dr. Oz the benefit of the doubt in that he’s trying to appeal to the masses, I won’t pick the nit of recommending walking. However, I do have a big problem with telling people that they have to perform this activity – or any activity – every day.
Exercising every day guarantees that the quality of the exercise will diminish over a very short period of time. Despite what many so-called fitness experts want you to believe, the mind and body wants and needs time to rest and recover from exercise, even from low-intensity/high-volume activities like walking. And with regard to these kinds of activities it’s more important to take a mental break when following any kind of exercise program.
High-volume/low-intensity exercise is inefficient and very often leads to burnout and/or over training. After consecutive days of exercise, the benefits of rest and recovery in the form of an off day will do much more than will another day of exercise. Certainly for the very short-term some people can train every day, and even fewer people at high-intensities, but following a healthy lifestyle plan is a long-term commitment that requires the appropriate mix of work and rest.
Dr. Oz’s push-up based fitness test leaves much to be desired. For starters it is woefully one-dimensional. While push-ups are one of the best exercises you can do, in the broader context of an exercise program there are certainly better exercises, and exercises that can better assess a person’s fitness/capability level.
To assert that women should do “girl push-ups” – bent knee push-ups – is to be ignorant of women’s physical capabilities. Women should and can do traditional, real push-ups.
“Girl” nothing, “real” everything.
Over the past 2 decades I have had women clients of all ages and ability levels perform perfect, real push-ups. Right now I have 3 women who can perform multiple sets of 15 or more push-ups. And there’s no two ways about this, bent knee push-ups are a euphemism for “girl” push-ups.
Dr. Oz states that as people age 10 years they can do 5 fewer push-ups, which is absolutely ridiculous. Using this standard my 60-years young clients would only have to do 30 “girls” push-ups instead of the 60+ real push-ups that they currently do. My clients aren’t athletes or even ex-athletes, just real women who work hard and as a result are in great shape. To express the notion that women and older people can or should do less, or should strive to do less, is to reveal a fundamental lack of understanding with regard to human capabilities.
Dr. Oz’s nutritional mantra that “food is medicine” just furthers the misguided school of thought that eating should be about weight control and avoidance behaviors, and ultimately not eating. Feeding becomes a joyless exercise that is equated with taking medicine; now there’s a real attractive image. According to Dr. Oz, one of life’s pleasures should be reduced to the level of taking medicine. It’s no wonder that disordered eating is rampant and that so many people, particularly women, have poor body images.
Not too long ago equating eating with taking medicine would have be laughed at as being preposterous, now this concept is front and center in a marketing plan to help sell books. It’s too bad that these doctors have taken this turn and have become just another voice in the crowd of cookie-cutter, misguided diet and exercise programs. My advice is to read “You on a Diet” and just ignore this new book.
Readers have left 6 comments.  No.1 UntitledThank you for the interesting read...no one thing works for sure! Thank you for reminding folks that "fast" doesn't mean real. No.2 Untitled I must comment on your idea that "...while yoga is a good supplementary activity there are many other valid, even superior, choices of exercise..." like swimming and Pilates. I have been doing yoga regularly for over a year now, and I feel that is has benefits that swimming, Pilates, and martial arts simply cannot offer. Yoga increases flexibility and strength, but the real benefits are mental and spiritual. Yoga has taught me how to focus my mind, how to use my breath to relax or feel more energetic, and how to get in touch with my soul. Yoga is not simply exercise, it is a way to become enlightened. Yoga helps me to notice my habitual patterns of thinking and acting so I can change myself for the better. No other form of exercise has the same benefits as yoga. No.3 Untitled it's great that yoga has done that for you. the important think to keep in mind is that as far as the elements of focus and self-improvement are concerned, these are benefits that other forms of exercise can offer, and are really "user generated." swimming, pilates, weight training and any other physical activity can do the same if the individual wants them to. yoga is a great way to exercise, but hasn't cornered the market on combining the spiritual with the physical. No.4 Untitled I as an exercise science major in school understand where you are coming from on the basis of exercise perscription, but at the same time atleast he's promoting the fact that yes EVERYONE needs to be getting off of their tushes and get moving. And have you looked at his credentials!? The man is extremely intelligent and doesn't say much without backing it up without some sort of research. And when you said that there is no need to exercise everyday please explain to me why the surgeon general and almost every thing that I was taught in school suggest that everyone should be doing some form of cardiovascular exercise on most if not all days of the week. This is not only to help with weight loss but also disease prevention. And with your clients they are obviously not the general American population seeing how more than 60% of American adults are overweight and more than 30% American Adults are obese. So while these standards may not be true for your clients they may hold true for the general population. No.5 Untitled your weight-centric approach to health and fitness is illustrative of just one of the many problems present in today's mainstream.
the obsession with weight as a bench-mark for fitness has created more problems than it has solved, and research doesn't offer any clearcut evidence that there is a direct link between health and weight. people can improve markers of health, and the problems thought to be associated with excess weight can be resolved independently of weight loss.
furthermore, as the definition of obesity has been modified over the years, and predictable outcome is that the more people are classified as obese.
No.6 Untitled I took Dr. O's suggestions as guidelines, not the be-all/end-all...if one is capable of doing more, then so be it, but if you can't hit the minimum, then maybe there's a problem and/or it's something to strive for. I believe that knowledge is power to make the right choices and certainly Dr. O offers a great deal of knowledge even if his interpretation of that knowledge may fall short (according to you), however, at least he's putting himself on the line unlike someone like you that is lurking in the background quick to judge the actions of others while you remain dormant...phero |
The Healthy Skeptic 
