Interval training vs. Long slow: part 1

The traditional exercise theory for fatburning has been to get on a cardio machine and go for 30-60+ minutes at a slow pace. This is our "optimal" fat burning zone, so they say.

Also, for endurance training (marathon, 5k, etc) the theory has been to be able to run long distances you have to run long distances. (yes I said it)

There is new research proclaiming that interval training (shorter bouts of high intensity exercise with bouts of rest) burns more fat and produces the same cardiovascular/ endurance changes, if not slightly more than long slow training.

Here are some articles and a brief summary of what they found:


Wallman K, Plant LA, Rakimov B, Maiorana AJ. The effects of two modes of exercise on aerobic fitness and fat mass in an overweight population. Res Sports Med. 2009;17(3):156-70

Two groups were selected (either interval training and diet education (INT group), continuous aerobic exercise and diet education (CON group), or diet education only (DIET group)) and were found to have similar significant improvements in VO2 max and time to exhaustion on a graded exercise test. Only the INT group was found to have a large effect size for loss in android (belly) fat mass over time.


M J Gibala, J Little, M van Essen, GWilkin, K Burgomaster, A Safdar, S Raha and M Tarnopolsky Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance September 15, 2006 The Journal of Physiology, 575, 901-911.

Brief, intense exercise training may induce metabolic and performance adaptations comparable to traditional endurance training. Training decreased the time required to complete a bicycling test equally between both groups. Biopsy samples obtained before and after training revealed similar increases in muscle oxidative capacity, as reflected by the maximal activity of cytochrome c oxidase (COX) and COX subunits II and IV protein content (main effects, P ≤ 0.05), but COX II and IV mRNAs were unchanged. Training-induced increases in muscle buffering capacity and glycogen content were also similar between groups (main effects, P ≤ 0.05). Given the large difference in training volume, these data demonstrate that SIT is a time-efficient strategy to induce rapid adaptations in skeletal muscle and exercise performance that are comparable to ET in young active men.

Tremblay, Angelo, et al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism. Vol 43. no 7 (July). Pp 814-818. 1994

Researchers at Laval University in Quebec divided participants into two groups: long duration
and repeated short-duration exercisers.1 They had the long-duration group cycle 45 minutes
without interruption. The short-term interval group cycled in numerous short bursts of 15-90
seconds, while resting in between.
The long duration group burned twice as many calories, so you would assume they would burn
more fat. However, when the researchers recorded their body composition measurements, the
interval group showed that they lost the most fat.
In fact, the interval group lost 9 times more fat than the endurance group for every calorie
burned.


D. C. Poole and G. A. Gaesser, Response of ventilatory and lactate thresholds to continuous and interval training, Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 58, Issue 4 1115-1121
We conclude that both continuous and interval training were equally effective in augmenting LT (lactate threshold), but interval training was more effective in elevating VT (Ventilatory threshold).

Talanian JL, Galloway SD, Heigenhauser GJ, Bonen A, Spriet LL. Two weeks of high-intensity aerobic interval training increases the capacity for fat oxidation during exercise in women. J Appl Physiol 102: 1439–1447, 2007.

In summary, seven sessions of HIIT over 2 wk induced marked increases in whole body and
skeletal muscle capacity for fatty acid oxidation during exercise in moderately active women. Exercise whole body fat oxidation increased by 36% (from 15.0 _ 2.4 to 20.4 _ 2.5 g) after HIIT. Resting muscle glycogen and triacylglycerol contents were unaffected by HIIT, but net glycogen use was reduced during the posttraining 60-min cycling trial. HIIT offers a mechanism to quickly increase muscle mitochondrial capacity, as well as whole body fat oxidation and V˙ O2 peak, in untrained individuals.

Tjønna, AE., Et al (2008). Aerobic interval training (AIT) versus continuous moderate exercise (CME). Circulation, 118, 346-354.

“Of all established risk factors, low aerobic exercise capacity appears to be the strongest predictor of mortality.5 We demonstrated here that high-intensity exercise (AIT) increased V˙O2max to a higher degree than moderate-intensity exercise (CME) in patients with the metabolic syndrome.“

“Physical activity and a healthy lifestyle promote insulin sensitivity, whereas a sedentary lifestyle and a Western diet are associated with insulin resistance. In our study, AIT promoted insulin sensitivity and cell function more than CME”

”The present study demonstrates that high-intensity exercise training is superior to moderate-intensity training in reversing risk factors of the metabolic syndrome.”

_______________________________________________

Pretty interesting huh? To think that interval training for fewer minutes per week (at higher intensities) would provide so many benefits compared to long slow training. Americans have a "more is better" mentality these days, so it's hard for some people to get out of that thinking.

For further (anecdotal) proof let's take a look at a sprinter and an endurance athlete, like a marathon runner. Which person has the more appealing physique (more muscle mass and less body fat)? The sprinter of course. Why don't we train like that then? High intensity training is hard and people don't want to work hard. It's easier to go slow for 60 minutes rather than hard for 20. That's 40 minutes of your life you just waisted.



Next time I will post some different exercise protocols for interval training.

New Recipe - Zoned Minestrone soup

Here is a delicious recipe I came up with. I wanted to make some minestrone soup that would make 3-4 servings for Kelsa and I. I also wanted it to be in the correct Zone proportions (9 grams carbs, 7 grams protein, 1.5 g fat x 3-4 for women and 4-5 for men in each meal)

Here it is:

Ingredients:
4 c chicken broth
1 tube (16 oz) italian flavored ground turkey - browned (12 blocks protein)
1 c sliced carrots (1 block carbs)
2 c sliced celery (1 carb)
1 1/2 c diced onion (1 carb)
2 c diced zucchini(1 carb)
1/2 c chick peas (2 carb)
2/3 c tomato sauce (1 carb)
2 cans diced tomatoes (1 with jalapeno chilis and one regular) (3 carb)
1/2 c kidney beans (2 carb)
1 tsp minced garlic
Italian seasoning to taste
1 cup coarsely chopped spinach leaves
Parmesian cheese optional

Instructions:
Brown turkey. Saute onions, celery, carrots and garlic in a large pam coated sauce pan. When onion is translucent, add broth and remaining ingredients. Bring to boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 10-15 minutes. In the last 2 minutes add the spinach. Add parmesian cheese if desired.

Enjoy. This makes 12 blocks of zone meals, so 3 x 4 block meals.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Today I did 150 wallballs with a 20 pound medicine ball in 7:25. On 5/26 I did it in 9:38. Quite a bit faster! That means I did it faster, but what else?



Using this link I figured the difference in power outputs from 5/26 to 8/20. (I actually used the excel program on this link because the first link did not have a "wall ball" parameter. I originally used a thruster with 40# but then used the excel which had specific parameters for wall balls and most crossfit exercises)

On 5/26 my power output was: 108.16 watts (1.578 W/Kg)
On 8/20 my power output was: 140.48 watts (2.04 W/Kg)

(That is .0000001578 gigawatts compared to .00000014048 gigawatts if you are Doc Brown. His Delorean needed 1.21 gigawatts to get back to 1985!)

Because I performed the same workout with more speed, I have improved my power.

Here is a great article on power output and athletic performance. Basically, power is a measure of (force x distance)/time, or a measure of speed and strength.

Someone who is purely training for strength will not be as good an athlete (or as powerful) as someone who works on exercises that emphasize speed and strength like the clean and snatch. Therefore athletes should emphasize the cleans and snatches.

Get it up there

Today I performed a 7 set, one rep maximum of Push presses. A push press is a shoulder (overhead) press that uses a small dip in your hips to get the weight you are pressing up into the air.




One of the benefits of a push press is that you are able to lift a little bit more weight than you would with a strict shoulder press. One more exercise that will allow lift you even more weight is a push jerk. Here is a video comparing the three:




You can see that the with the push jerk you actually push your body under weight as you perform a push press.

So why would you use these different exercises instead of sticking to a regular shoulder press? I'm glad you asked...

While the shoulder press uses solely the shoulder muscles for a concentric contraction (or the raising of the bar over your head) as well as the eccentric contraction (or the lowering of the bar), the push press and push jerk allow you to get more weight up by using other muscles (hips and core) therefore lowering more weight with the eccentric contraction of only your shoulders.

Here are a couple of benefits on eccentric contractions from LifeFitness:

1. Greater increases in Strength

When eccentric only training has been compared to concentric only training, several researchers have discovered that eccentric training yields greater increases in strength than concentric.

One study looked at 6 weeks of eccentric vs. concentric training in women. Hortobagyi et.al. (1996). After the training, the concentric group improved strength 36% while the eccentric group had a 42% increase. This difference was significant (P<.05). The authors concluded that training eccentrically yielded greater strength adaptations faster than concentric training in women.

The superiority of eccentric training versus concentric training for developing strength has also been reported by Farthing and Chilibeck (2003), LaStayo et.al. (2003), Seger, et.al. (1998), and Hortobagyi et.al. (1997).

Greater muscle hypertrophy (increase in muscle size)

It is well accepted that the stimulus for muscle growth is microtrauma to the muscle following exercise. The process of lengthening during a contraction increases the amount of microtrauma experienced by the muscle. In turn, this stimulates the muscle to rebuild and add and increase muscle fiber size in order to handle the load. While concentric training can induce some microtrauma, over the same period of time, eccentric training is more effective for promoting muscle growth.

Numerous studies have reported that eccentric training is superior to concentric training for inducing muscle hypertrophy. Farthing JP and Chilibeck PD (2003), Higbie (1996) and LaStayo et.al. (2003)

References

American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand on Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults.(2002) Med Sci Sports Exer.34(2):364-380.

Bird, SP, Tarpenning, KM, & Marino FE. (2005) Designing resistance training programmes to enhance muscular fitness: a review of the acute programme variables. Sports Med , 35(10):841-51

Colliander EB and Tesch PA (1990) Effects of eccentric and concentric muscle actions in resistance training. Acta Physiol Scand, 140 (1):31-9.

Gur, H, Cakin, N, Akova, B, Okay, E, Kucukoglu,S. (2002) Concentric versus combined concentric-eccentric isokinetic training: effects on functional capacity and symptoms in patients with osteoarthrosis of the knee. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 83(3): 308-16.

Hilliard-Robertson PC, Schneider SM, Bishop SL, and Guilliams ME (2003) Strength gains following different combined concentric and eccentric exercise regiems. Avait Space Environ Med. 74(4):342-7.

Hortobagyi T, Barrier J, Beard D, Braspennincx J, Koens P, Devita P, Dempsey L, and Lambert J (1996) Greater initial adaptations to submaximal muscle lengthening than maximal shortening. J Appl Physiol. 81(4):1677-82.

Farthing JP and Chilibeck PD (2003) The effect of eccentric training at different velocities on muscle hypertrophy. Eur J Appl Physiol. 89(6):570-7.

4 Reasons to use gymnastic rings for upper body training

If you've ever watched a men's gymnastic competition, you've probably been awed by the pure power and strength displayed with the rings.




They actually have been around since the mid-1800's in Germany and were exclusively used in school fitness programs until 1903, where they were used in an international competition in Belgium. They were then introduced in the 1924 Olympics and have been a major men's event ever since.

It's a shame that more gyms don't use them. They used to be a staple in gymnasiums in the olden days but have gone to the wayside because of the Nautilus machine phase in the past 50 years. They require a certain skill to perform as well as teach/ coach and today's globo-gyms don't want to have to deal with that, let alone the liability.

Here are reasons why you should add these to your repertoire.

1. They work every muscle in your upper body and core.
Working biceps, tricep, chest, back/ lats and core with every exercise, you can hit every muscle with only a few exercises.

2. They are adjustable for your fitness level.
They are easily set up on a pullup bar, squat rack or even a strong tree limb. You can then adjust the height. The lower the height of the rings, the harder the exercise (in most cases).

3. They require tons of core stabilization
All exercises require that you engage your core. If you have ever done a "plank" for your abdominals, you know what I mean. Now add the instability of holding yourself on two free moving rings while moving your body through a range of motion. Awesome!

4. You can make your own.
You can buy rings from Elite Rings here. Or you can make your own. Last year I made an instructable on how to make your own. They are quite easy to make and will cost under $20!! Compared to $90 from Elite Rings. Here is the instructable.

Once you make or puchase your own, you can then try these exercises!

Enjoy!

7 Benefits of the Front Squat

7 Benefits of The Front Squat: from Stronglifts.com


1. Less Spinal Load. The Front Squat is a harder exercise than the Back Squat:

Less hip involvement because of the upright position
Less stable position: shoulders hold the bar using your back muscles
This will prevent you to lift as much weight as with the Back Squat. Less weight on the bar, equals less Spinal Compression.


2. Less Spinal Flexion.

The upright stance during the Front Squats, makes it impossible to lean forward. If you do, the weight drops. This decreases your chances of bending your back. Which is much safer.


3. Less Torque.

During a Front Squat, the torso stays nearly vertical during the whole lift. This puts less rotational force on your lower back. Another benefit of the Front Squat’s upright stance.


4. Less Chance of Bad Form.

Your torso is not erect during the Front Squat: the bar drops on the floor. You don’t place the bar correctly: the bar drops on the floor. You can get away with bad form on the Back Squat. Not on the Front Squat.


5. Abdominal Training.

Keeping your torso erect during heavy Front Squats requires a strong set of abs. The Front Squat is a great exercise to work your entire core. If you lean forward too much during Back Squats, start doing Front Squats. They will quickly solve this problem.


6. Quadriceps Development.

The Front Squat will develop your quadriceps like nothing else. The upright stance emphasizes the quadriceps more than a Back Squat does. Take a look at the quads of weightlifters. You’ll get what I mean.


7. Carry Over.

The Front Squat imitates the catch position of the Clean. If you intend to Power Clean one day, Front Squats are a good way to prepare yourself. Same for the Overhead Press. The starting position in the Overhead Press is identical to the Front Squat.

Front Squat

7 x 1 front squat max out
I did
135
145
155
165
175
180
195! -- Got a little feisty there and it paid off!!

I love front squats, they engage your core so much more than a regular squat or any other lower body exercise for that matter.



Last time I did front squats for maximum weight I did 5 sets of 3 reps and maxed out at 170#. Using this link again, my predicted should have been 180#, but since that was June 23rd my max obviously increased!! I see Kelsa did really well too!!

Question of the Day:
Changing topics, onto nutrition. Are you following a certain program for your nutrition? If so, why did you choose it? If not, what are your nutrition goals (if any) for the day, week, etc?

Deadlift

Today's Crossfit WOD (or Workout Of the Day) was 5x5 max weight of Deadlifts. Here is wikipedia's description of a deadlift:
"The deadlift is a compound movement that works grip strength, and the primary muscles used in the deadlift are the erector spinae, the gluteus maximus, adductor magnus, hamstrings, quadriceps, and the soleus. The remaining muscles are involved in stability control. It is, in a sense, the purest single event test of strength because it is one of the few lifts of dead weight (weight lying on the ground). In most other lifts the weight changes direction or starts in the air and several other athletic skills such as balance, coordination are emphasized. For example, both Olympic weightlifting events require a great deal of athletic skill in addition to strength. In addition, it is commonly believed to be the oldest test of strength, dating back to cultures who competed at lifting the heaviest stones"

I did:
5x 185
5x 205
5x 225
5x 245
5x 255

My one rep max for DL is 290. I used this link to find out that my predicted 5 rep max based on a 1 rep max of 290# is 258# . Not bad!

Question of the day:
Do you use one rep maximums for your strength training? How do you calculate the weight that you use for your strength training? Post your thoughts to the comments...