You may think it takes a miracle to lose weight, build strength, and look great, but all it takes is the Miracle Workout! Developed by W. Jackson Davis, an expert in exercise physiology, this groundbreaking, scientifically tested, 3-step program incorporates aerobics, stretching, and weights into a fast, efficient, and streamlined workout anyone can do.

The key is Integrated Body Conditioning™ (IBC), which approaches the body as a complete interactive system. Train the whole system, not just the parts, and you'll get more fit faster than with any other kind of exercise. After all: What is good for the whole is best for the parts.

Top athletes at the University of California have already seen amazing results with the Miracle Workout. Now you too can do it anywhere, at the gym, or at home. The best part? Your muscles won't ache afterward.

When it comes to the Miracle Workout, three is the magic number:

• Discover the three secrets of the Miracle Workout: integrate different forms of exercise into your routine, exercise at a properly elevated heart rate, and monitor your progress by paying attention to your body.

• Master the three stages of the Miracle Workout: start with cardio exercises to build heart power, get flexible by stretching and bending, then build strength through resistance training.

• Start your Miracle Workout at one of three levels: beginners, intermediates, or advanced.

Illustrated with instructive, easy-to-follow line drawings, The Miracle Workout also includes: variations for the weight-conscious, the fitness buff, the athlete, the elderly, and those with specific health concerns; suggestions for adapting a workout to any setting-the beach, your home, a hotel room, even your workplace; tips for keeping it fun, staying motivated, and avoiding plateaus; and testimonials from those who swear by the program.

Forget trendy carb- and calorie-counting diets or grueling workouts that are impossible to maintain. Whether you've got fifteen minutes or ninety, The Miracle Workout will help you get into the best shape of your life.

This book is about a revolutionary way to manage your weight, sculpt your body, and reach peak performance, all in record time. The method is proven and easy, and it works regardless of your current physical condition, age, or personal goals. It is based on a newly discovered natural approach to exercise that is in reality as old as the hills, but has been long hidden in plain sight. I call it Integrated Body Conditioning, or simply IBC.

You have already practiced elements of IBC, though you probably didn't recognize it. You did it when you were a child without giving it a second thought-you just played, and knew it was fun. You can recapture similar magic as an adult with IBC. In the process, you can work miracles with not just your body but also your mind, emotions, and spirit. This book is your performance manual for IBC, your path to the best body you can have, and, if you're ready, your ticket to a new life. IBC has changed the nature and perception of exercise for me. When you finish reading this first chapter, I think you will feel the same way, and by the time you complete your first few IBC workouts, I know you will.

A Chronicle of Miracles

Since I discovered it years ago, integrated exercise has changed my life. Because of IBC, my muscle strength and endurance at the chronological age of 62 years exceed the 90th percentile of men in the 20-29 year age group. My maximum heart rate is typical of a 35-year-old man, and my bone strength and joint function resemble those of a 45-year-old man. And trust me-I am no genetic superman. I owe this personal miracle to a workout anyone can do, at any age, and at any level.

IBC can work miracles for you, too. It will bring you to your full genetic potential with minimum pain and in the least possible time. IBC can help reduce your body weight to its optimum level without calorie-restriction diets and without drugs, with due qualifications for members of special populations (Chapter 9). Put IBC together with the integrated diet (Chapter 10), and miracles follow. Perhaps most important for the long term, IBC is fun. To get and stay fit for life, you've got to enjoy the process. People who try the IBC workout generally rank it as their favorite, because it's fun to do, it's energizing, and it gives you a new vitality between workouts. Once your IBC program is under way, you may feel more invigorated than you've felt in years.

IBC is energizing because it conditions all three of your body's primary energy systems-the short-term phosphorous (your biochemical first gear), medium-term anaerobic (second gear), and long-term aerobic (third gear) energy systems. IBC is an energy-conditioning approach to exercise. In the process, it also produces unprecedented results in fat loss, muscle gain, cardiovascular health, aerobic capacity, muscle strength, and muscle endurance. Controlled, randomized, and double-blind scientific experiments on college athletes at the University of California (Chapter 3) show that IBC builds muscle twice as fast as the best conventional exercise prescription, and reduces fat three times faster than the best conventional exercise prescription-and all with little or no muscle soreness.

IBC is also your path to peak body flexibility. You may stretch and bend like a child again, with minimum discomfort. You can achieve these miracles for yourself anywhere you choose-indoors or out, at home or in a gym, in as little as 30 minutes per session, three times a week. Most important, IBC is thoroughly adaptable to your needs and preferences-and pocketbook. You can do the IBC workout inexpensively and with minimum equipment, and make it as easy-or as hard-as you want or require, depending on your level and goals. For example:

• If you are new to exercise and your goals are limited to losing pounds and keeping them off, feeling energetic, and being healthy and well, do the beginning (30-minute) IBC workout three or more times a week (Chapter 4). It's a cinch.

• If you are already exercising and in reasonable physical shape, and your goals include top physical fitness, select the intermediate (60-minute) IBC workout (Chapter 5). It's vigorous, but within the reach of most healthy people.

• If you are an advanced exerciser or athlete, and if your goals extend to peak performance, use the 90-minute-plus IBC workout (Chapter 6), in combination with sport-specific training exercises (Chapter 7) and a year-round program designed to peak just before your season. It's a challenge.

• If you are a member of a special population, there may be an IBC workout for you, although you may require special precautions (Chapter 9).

• If you are a senior with restricted capacities, or recovering from injury or illness, there may be an IBC workout for you-if your doctor approves (Chapter 9).

• If you belong to a sports team or are a coach and have the will to excel, there is an IBC program for you and your athletes (Chapter 3).

IBC helped propel the University of California at Santa Cruz men's soccer team to the NCAA West Regional championship and the national championship finals two years in a row. The IBC workout is working miracles for the women's soccer team, too, and it has become the foundation for conditioning in the UCSC athletic program. It's so easy to learn, so effective and energizing, so downright exhilarating, that your days of dreading exercise are over.

How IBC Works

IBC has three primary elements:

1. Integrate different modes of exercise into the same workout.
This book shows you the different modes-aerobic, resistance, flexibility-and how to assemble them into a quick, fun, highly efficient workout with simple, adaptable routines and (if you choose) user-friendly workout logs to record your progress.

2. Exercise at a properly elevated heart rate.
This book shows you how to build up to that point safely, at your own pace, and determine and monitor your correct heart rate training window for optimum conditioning in light of your personal goals.

3. Progress steadily according to how your body feels.
This book shows you a simple method to look within to optimize perceived exertion and minimize perceived pain while you exercise. That way, you can advance at your body's own best pace with minimum discomfort and minimum risk of injury.

Here's a preview of the IBC workout. Start with an exercise as easy as a brisk daily walk to improve your cardiovascular condition. Then use your newly empowered heart to develop the rest of your body. While your heart rate is elevated into your cardiovascular training window-we'll see exactly what that means shortly-do other kinds of exercise, such as stretching, bending, lifting, pushing, and pulling. When you do these other exercises while your heart rate is elevated, both your heart and the rest of your body develop much faster, in a mutually reinforcing growth cycle.

This first guiding principle of IBC is cardio-driving. This and several additional IBC principles and practices tap directly into biological universals (Chapter 2)-the physiological common denominators of every human being. You can therefore apply them to Pilates, Spinning, Yoga, or any other exercise system. If you already have a regular exercise routine going for yourself, and if you enjoy it, a few small modifications may enable you to apply IBC principles to your current exercise program and harvest dual benefits.

The IBC program is a three-step process. Think of it as a band or orchestra with three sections. You start with the rhythm section-your heart. Cardiovascular conditioning, commonly called aerobics, is your first step on the IBC path to balanced development. Once you have attained adequate cardio condition, you add the string section-stretching and bending, or Range of Motion (ROM) exercises-to your aerobic routine. When you achieve a satisfactory measure of body flexibility, IBC adds the brass section-resistance exercise, or weightlifting. Then, and only then, your body will begin to make the soaring music that it is capable of creating and that nature intended. Once your IBC program is well under way, adjust what you eat as required to achieve your desired equilibrium body weight, following the integrated diet (Chapter 10), and you'll be well along the path to realizing the fullest potential of the human body, mind, and spirit-and the integrated life.

Why Should You Bother?

Let us count the ways, starting with looking and feeling as good as you can. You will enhance your everyday coordination and balance, sleep soundly without drugs, minimize and manage everyday pain without drugs, improve your love life, and protect against injury. Research shows that regular exercise can even improve incontinence.

As we'll develop in the next chapter, your mind will benefit, too. You maximize mental acuity when you exercise regularly, you have more physical energy, and you experience more raw vitality. Regular exercise reduces depression and anxiety, which are approaching epidemic levels in this culture. Exercise even lessens the risks of contracting Alzheimer's disease, which currently afflicts four million Americans and, according to medical experts, could increase fivefold by 2050.

IBC can lessen your risk of heart disease, which kills another one in four Americans. Blood pressure is on the rise in the United States-one American in three, 60 million adults, now have high blood pressure, or hypertension, and a corresponding increased risk of cardiovascular disease. IBC can reduce blood pressure dramatically (Chapter 3), without drugs and their often grisly side effects. Regular exercise is also a key to combating obesity, which according to the UN World Health Organization is now responsible for 60 percent of the 56.5 million deaths that occur around the world each year.

Regular exercise even reduces the risk of most forms of cancer, which currently kills one in four Americans. Fully one-third of all cancers in the United States are directly attributable to diet and physical activity patterns, and

Evidence from more than 25 research studies on humans (from different continents with different diets, ways of life, environmental circumstances, race, ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds) . . . show a reduced risk of cancer development associated with higher levels of regular physical activity.

Regular exercise can even help you minimize the health impacts of toxins in the environment. Each of us, no matter where we live on the earth, carries an unavoidable body burden of pesticides such as DDT and other toxins, as one of the downsides of industrial civilization. IBC can help minimize the risk, because many toxins are stored in fat, and the level of these toxins in blood plasma is as much as one-third lower in people who stay lean. The intermediate and advanced IBC workouts also give you the full-body flush (Chapter 5), a bath from the inside out, which helps eliminate wastes from your body.

Why should you bother? In a sentence-because IBC is fun, inexpensive, efficient, and a proven fast track to health and wellness, physical fitness, and peak performance.

The Origin of Integrated Body Conditioning

Many before me have "discovered" elements of IBC. Animals do it naturally as part of their daily existence. Children do it every day when they play. IBC is built into numerous sports, including Nordic (cross-country) skiing, all-terrain mountain biking, and Olympic wrestling, to name a few. Several exercise systems or programs also incorporate IBC elements. Circuit training was among the earliest, and still comes closest. UCLA's Professor Laurence Morehouse was on the right track a generation ago. Some elements of IBC appear in many established exercise programs, such as muscle in motion, Power Sculpting, Spinning, and the Real Simple routine. Power walking and ShapeWalking contain components of IBC, as does

the HeavyHands exercise program. Some power lifters use the Westside Barbell method, which entails rapid performance of heavy weightlifting exercises. The Curves' franchise markets elements of IBC to a special population, and the U.S. military incorporates certain aspects of integrated exercise into basic training.

Elements of IBC have therefore already been applied to physical conditioning programs, although unknowingly and unsystematically. The three original contributions of this book are:

• To define the elements of IBC.

• To explore their remarkable capacities through scientific research.

• To distill the elements into a simple, efficient, and fun workout that you or your group or team can do safely, in steps, at any level, and anywhere, for a lifetime.

My personal process of exploration and discovery began with years of self-experiment using IBC, followed by scientific studies at the University of California. My colleagues and I evaluated IBC objectively, compared it with the best conventional exercise prescription, and used it to train collegiate athletes in several sports, including soccer, swimming, volleyball, tennis, and basketball. That experience helps affirm the results you can achieve with IBC.

Above all, my goal in writing this book is to make IBC accessible to all. I wrote it to show you how to harness the power of IBC in a workout that works for you-whatever your goals or current level-as a lifelong practice.

The Discovery of Integrated Body Conditioning

The IBC story begins half a century ago when, as a teenager in Silicon Valley, I started my first weightlifting program in the family garage. I continued to exercise regularly through my undergraduate years at the University of California at Berkeley, spending countless hours practicing a precursor to IBC, circuit training. I kept it going in to my 30s, but then, like so many people, life and career responsibilities intervened, and regular exercise suffered.

Throughout my middle age, I exercised in fits and starts, careening in and out of physical fitness perhaps a dozen times over three decades. Over this half century, I practiced almost every exercise program ever invented, and discovered anew every excuse to avoid it. Had I known about IBC earlier, I might have avoided all that zigzagging, and I hope I can spare you the same fate. In hindsight, however, this long personal incubation, including many stops and starts, is what led me to IBC and helped me recognize it when I stumbled upon it many years ago.

It happened like this. During one of many exercise comebacks, I changed my usual sequence of exercise and started my workout with aerobics, which conditions the heart, lungs, and vascular system. The conventional wisdom of strength training in those days was to start each workout with an initial short warm-up and then move straight to weightlifting and rest between exercises. Combining aerobics with weightlifting was taboo among exercise professionals. In contrast, however, I discovered that the longer and more vigorous my warm-up, the better I felt during subsequent weight training. So my warm-up just kept getting longer. Eventually I found myself starting every workout with 30 minutes of vigorous cardio exercise, followed by weightlifting. To save time, I took no pause between the cardio machine and my first resistance (weightlifting) exercise. With my heart still racing, I moved straight to the hip machine.

Excerpted from The Miracle Workout by W. Jackson Davis, Ph.D. Copyright © 2005 by W. Jackson Davis. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Tags: Exercise and Fitness

About the Author

W. Jackson Davis is professor of ecology and evolution at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he teaches exercise physiology. He is a certified health and fitness instructor of the American College of Sports Medicine and serves as strength and conditioning coach in the UCSC athletic department, where he has trained athletes for their individual sports. He has published more than 150 scientific papers, books, reviews, op-ed pieces, and articles. He received the Humboldt Award from Germany for outstanding original scientific research in the neurosciences. More