Maffetone Method Part 3: Review

Hopefully by now you have tried the Challenge to work out your own Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate, and done some testing to set a baseline, which is all just generally useful information to have.

But is it worth actually following the Method properly and in a dedicated manner?

Well, the cons of the method:
My first issue is he complains that the maximum heart rate formula of 220-age is not individualistic enough, but what he offers is 180 - age with just a 10bpm leeway. It doesn't sound all that individualistic either. If maximum heart rate can vary a lot between people then the maximum aerobic heart rate will vary as well. Therefore, I would start with his formula and use the testing to adjust it to your needs over a few months. I am not, of course, the only one to have noted this. For example see Greg Crowther's blog post where he lists this and a number of other problems.

Second, a lot of people complain that after following it religiously, they didn't see any improvement. (For example see the lead post in the thread on the cool running forum.) I admit that I did it for three-four months earlier this year and didn't see that much improvement. Having said that, I now realise my heart rate was based on what I had worked out a few years previously when I was fit and healthy, not old and recovering. So I was probably working out at too high a level. Also, if you go three months and see no improvement, then you aren't following his method properly: you should be doing your testing every month and adjusting until you do see improvements.

One thing that Greg Crowther also noted was that most of the high level athletes that support Maffetone are competing in endurance racing such as Mark Allen who does Ironman racing and Stu Mittleton who does ultra marathons. There are questions about whether it is as useful for high level sprinters and other short distance/time events. 

Pros:
First, which most people agree with, it is amazingly peaceful and relaxing, ensuring that you actually enjoy exercising and feel better afterwards not worse. And to be honest, if that is all you get out of it, that is an awful lot in today's society.

It doesn't appear to aggravate any existing injuries or develop new ones.

When done properly, ability to run (either faster or longer) does appear to improve, even though each session is well within your comfort zone, so that's pretty exciting.

The basic concepts (regular testing, adjust programs until there are noticeable improvements, monitoring life stress when planning workouts etc) are all really sound and good ideas. 

The message that the 'no pain, no gain' theory isn't actually necessary is useful for those who have been burned and scared off exercise by Army Sergeant type gym instructors.


My Personal Experience: 
As mentioned, I did it for 3-4 months, though possibly at too high a heart rate. Over that time I didn't see much improvement, but also managed to go to the gym five times a week because I knew I wasn't going to be killing myself so didn't lose motivation. At the end of the period I then started more interval training and found my speed increasing very quickly, and I'm sure that was partly due to the good preparation. Also, I found after stopping and going onto harder workouts, my overall stress levels in general increased.

Therefore, my recommendations:
For athletes I recommend it as an off-season training tool and for active recovery. However, during the season, you will need to do some speed and weight work to be at the top of your game.

For people coming into exercise for the first time or after a long time, I definitely recommend doing at least 4 months of the method before moving onto harder programs because it will keep you motivated, keep you from injury, and build up your aerobic system.

For regular exercises it is still good to vary your workouts. Over winter, or a stressful time at work, try the Method in a dedicated manner for a few months and see if it works for you. 

For myself? Well, everything is a bit stressful at the moment, and the thought of just doing a nice, enjoyable workout is hugely appealing (and allowed me to do a 21km ergo the other day) so I'm going to be using it as my base, and added in a few other workouts a week, and just see how it all goes.

Have also just ordered his new book online, so will read that and see if it has anything particularly new. 

Maffetone Method Part 2: The Practicals.

So, are you intrigued yet about how to actually apply this method?

Well, as mentioned in the previous post, the Maffetone method is not a rigid program such as Couch to 5k which tells you what to do every workout of the week. Rather, it is a set of principles for how to approach exercise (as well as diet and lifestyle, but here I’m going focus mainly on the exercise component).

But, that doesn’t mean you can’t develop a practical application. In order to create a program, you need to include two aspects in order to be considered suitable by Maffetone standards:

1.     The majority of your exercise program should be focused on developing aerobic fitness.

2.     Every exercise program needs to involve ongoing testing to evaluate its effectiveness and to identify when problems start to arise.

Aerobic Fitness = Working out at your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate:

If you google Dr. Maffetone, you will find quite a bit on his 180 formula. This is a method for working out your maximum aerobic heart rate.

As mentioned in the series on heart rate, a lot of programs are based on exercising within particular heart rate bands, usually based on a percentage of maximum.

However, Dr. Maffetone suggests that instead of working on a percentage of maximum, which can be difficult to work out and is very variable between individuals, you should work out within a 10 bpm range of your maximum aerobic heart rate, worked out by his rough formula:

180 – your age, then:

-       Minus 10 if you are recovering from serious injury or illness or have been on long term medication.

-       Minus 5 if you haven’t exercised regularly for the last few years, have been exercising with an injury, have been regressing in training or have more than 2 colds per year 

-       Stay at this number if you have been exercising regularly for a few years without any problems.

-       Plus 5 if you are a competitive athlete who has been improving and had none of the above problems.

(Though note that over 65 or under 16 this needs to be individualised as the formula breaks down a bit).  

So, for me it would be 180 – 29 and minus another 5 as I get colds all the time = 146.

Then take 10 to give you your range. So, the majority of my workouts should be between 136-146 bpm.

Now, if you go and try that, you will find out why the theory has been considered with some skepticism: 140 can be a walk for a lot of people. I went through a really annoying stage where the range was just in between a jog and walk, so I did this sort of shuffle thing when outside, or just put up the incline and walked when on a treadmill.

However, the claim of the program is that if you continue to do this, you will get faster, but your heart rate will stay the same, demonstrating an increase in your aerobic fitness.

In turning this into a work, he includes a long warm up and cool down of 15 minutes each, slowly building up to the required heart rate and then building down again. This can result in a ‘workout’ of only 15 minutes at the require heart rate, or for beginners it might even just be a warm up and cool down.

In developing a long term program, he recommends spending 3-6 months doing nothing but aerobic work, and only after that, once you have a suitable base, can one or two anaerobic sessions can be added.

Testing:

The second important aspect of the method is constant measurement in order to tell if you are actually improving.

As the method claims to focus on building aerobic fitness and increasing the body’s fat burning, he suggests two tests that should be done on a monthly basis to ensure everything is on course.

1.     Fat Burning: Obviously if you increase your fat burning ability, this should be seen in a decrease in body fat content. While this can be worked out using complicated measurements, he suggests just using a waist to hip measurement ratio to see if the program is working.

a.     So once a month (not more often) you should measure your waist at the height of your belly button, and again at the widest part of your hips.  Then work out your waist to hip ration: waist/hip.

b.     He argues that if your aerobic system is developing properly, this ratio will gradually diminish, along with your excess fat.

2.     Speed: Similarly, Maffetone recommends conducting a Maximum Aerobic Function Test (MAF test) once per month. The test requires maintaining the same heart rate over the same distance or time, and repeating the test every month.

a.     For example, I would try to maintain a heart rate of 145 over a distance of 1 mile and ideally every month my time would improve. Or I could test myself for 10 minutes and see how far I got in the same time.

b.     He starts with examples of 1 mile, but does mention that some prefer to do a longer distance such as 5 miles to add an element of endurance. Either is fine, though with the 5 miles he notes the time for each mile for comparison.

c.      He argues that if your MAF test results start to worsen, it is an indication that there is a problem such as excess stress, dietary/nutritional imbalance or a physical problem.

And that’s it. Work out at an aerobic heart rate and keep measuring yourself to make sure you are improving.

So, your challenge for this week:

Work out your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate range, and then do initial tests to work out your waist to hip ration and baseline MAF test score.

Next post, I’ll look at some of the critiques of the method and general verdicts.

The Maffetone Method Part 1: What is it?

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Want exercise to be fun, non-stressful and actually effective? Well, Dr. Maffetone has been claiming for almost 30 years now to provide just that, and a lot of people appear to agree with him. So, it seems worthwhile having a look at what he says.

I have divided this discussion into three parts: an explanation of the theory behind the method, how to apply the method, and then verdict/feedback on it. Welcome, to part 1.

Dr. Phillip Maffetone has published numerous books over the years detailing different aspects of his approach (it should be noted that it is not a strict formula, but more of a set of guiding principals for approaching health and fitness). The most recent is 'The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing', which I have to admit I haven't read yet. His seminal work was 'The Maffetone Method' which came out in 1999, but he acknowledges on his webpage that it is outdated now. On his webpage there is also a lot of useful info, and there are various discussions about the method on health/fitness forums (both positive and negative). I’ll be working mainly from The Maffetone Method and his webpage, as well as other articles.

The Maffetone Method, according to the book, is ‘The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness’. It was developed by Dr. Maffetone after working as a sports physician for many years and found the ‘no pain – no gain’ theory did not get the results he or his clients wanted.

I first heard about this program through my eldest brother. He was on Reserves Officer training with the Australian Army and it was recommended to him by one of the Personal Training instructors, who spoke very highly of it. He said he had used it to get army personnel into exceptional shape, even in their later life.

The first thing to note is that the focus is on developing health, not just fitness. Maffetone gives the example that when he was younger he worked his way up to doing the New York Marathon, but did huge amounts of damage to his body while doing it. He decided he might have been fit enough to run the marathon, but did not have the underlying health to do it properly.

So what is the method? According to the introduction, the important features of the method are:

1. The best exercises for burning fat and improving your health is aerobic.
2. Exercise should be fun. If it’s a chore, something’s not right.
3. Excess stress is bad, and an improper exercise program can increase stress.
4. Many People eat far more carbohydrates than necessary, and more people than we realize are carbohydrate intolerant.
5. Certain dietary fats are good.

He also mentions quite a bit in the book barefoot/minimalist running.

Some of the concepts are not particularly unique, such as exercise should be fun, stress is bad, and some fats are good. Though it is good that he points out exercise stress needs to be taken into account with all other stresses in your life.

Some of the concepts are whole movements in themselves such as the reduced carbohydrates (his is similar to the paleo-method of eating) and minimalist running.

For me, the most interesting concept was that the best exercise for health and fitness training is aerobic. I had heard before that it was best for burning fat, but assumed that training as an athlete you would need to be doing mostly high intensity training.

However, his claim is that for at least the first 3-4months, and then as the majority of training after that, exercise should be at a low heart rate and should leave you feeling like you could do the entire work out again. Of course, I thought about this today as I staggered back from CrossFit barely able to raise my arms to swig from my water bottle.

So, to conclude about his method let me quote from his webpage:

"There are many different facets of health and fitness that also must work together to create optimum human potential—like you felt when you were younger and full of vigor. This approach is a way for an individual to more objectively look at his or her whole life, and address any and all factors that are not working most advantageous for optimal health and fitness. These factors include ones diet or nutritional status, exercise routine, and how physical, chemical and mental stresses are best regulated."

In the next post, I'll look more into what is involved in training according to Maffetone.

A fuller list of his works for those interested:
Complementary Sports Medicine (Human Kinetics, 1999);
The Maffetone Method: The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness (Ragged Mountain Press/McGraw Hill, 1999);
Fix Your Feet: Build the Best Foundation for Healthy, Pain-Free Knees, Hips, and Spine (Lyons Press, 2004);
In Fitness and In Health (David Barmore, 1993-2009, five editions.);
The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing (Skyhorse Publishing, September 2010);
The Big Book of Health and Fitness (Skyhorse Publishing, December 2011)