Three out of three formidable German women suggest you do 10-20-30's
So, what starts off slowly, then gets more uncomfortable, then downright painful, then proceeds to repeat itself over and over and over 'til you want to puke?
Why yes, it's a Cranky Fitness blog post!
But this also describes the exercise I love to hate, high intensity interval training, or HIIT. And there's a newish variation, getting all kinds of rave reviews of late, called the "10-20-30."
Curious about the why's, how's, when's, whether's, and whatevers? Let's check out this puppy out.
Crabby is off camping again, slacker that she is, but she will be back in a few days. (Assuming she doesn't fall off a cliff or choke on a S'more or something).
In the meantime, we have a guest post from personal trainer Taylor Ryan with some motivational advice, as well as some practical tips and a cool video.
Crabby will be back soon! She might even return with.... [cue scary music]... photos from the trip!
How To Avoid Making A Butt Mold In Your Couch by Taylor Ryan
I want to thank “Crabby” for letting me share some awesome info today! I love reading Cranky Fitness, so it’s an honor to be able to write for it and share my training “know-how”.
We all have those days where all you dream of doing is getting off work, walking in your front door, being greeted by the smell of dinner already being prepared (a gal can dream, right?) and then plopping your tush down on the couch for the remainder of the night.
So long in fact, that when you get up for a glass of water there is that perfect concave imprint left from your tush as a reminder that you just spent over two hours on the couch without budging... not even once.
No shame in that, we have all been there but it doesn’t mean that because we’ve all been there that it is okay to do it on a day to day basis. The sad thing is that this is what over half of Americans do each night.
So how can you find the motivation to lift your tush off the couch and do something a bit more rewarding, I don’t know... like getting your workout done?
I was recently given a picture with the quote that read “No One Ever Regretted Doing A Workout” and it’s so true. I remind my boot campers of this all the time! Your feet may drag to get started but think of the feeling of achievement and satisfaction you get once the workout is over!
You feel like a rock star! Better yet, you feel like Super Woman!
So that is your first tip! Imagine the feeling of getting it done! Also picture the feeling of not getting it done, that feeling of slight guilt you get when you know it was your day to workout but you chose American Idol over your exercise plan.
Second, Leave no room for excuses. Instead of going home before the gym (if you workout at a gym), keep a packed gym bag in your car. Better yet, put it on the front seat, not in the back seat or the trunk. When you go to start the car after work it’s the first thing you see... and how can you deny it?
Third, who says you can’t have the best of both worlds? Some people workout great during their favorite shows, it helps to keep the workout moving. Simply write down a 15-20 minute interval style workout) and do it right there in the living room.
Here's an example:
(Editorial note from Crabby: Holy Crap! It's not complicated but it's totally kick-ass, check it out!)
Then when it’s time for the show to wind down, its time for your cool-down.
Fourth, if no matter how hard you try to tell yourself you are going to follow these tips but just can’t seem to make it happen it’s time for a change. Change the time you workout to make it better on you and your schedule. If you can’t seem to make it happen after work, then it’s time to try morning workouts. And if you keep saying you will workout before work, perhaps it is time for lunch time or evening workouts.
And finally, working out doesn’t have to take up your time. You can get in an amazing heart pumping, muscle toning, belly melting workout in less than 30 minutes! All it takes is planning, walking into your fitness area (gym, garage, streets, etc) knowing what you want to do and doing it. Personally, on the days where I don’t have all the time in the world I lean towards interval workouts or circuits.
Just to give a quick idea, I may choose 6 exercises (all total body and all with free weights or body weight) and I will do each exercise as quickly and efficiently as possible for 60 seconds, then have a 10 second rest before moving down to the next exercise.
These are intense, help increase your metabolism and burn fat but if you do it just for 2 complete rounds, you’ll feel as if you worked out for an hour but you will see it’s only been 15 minutes! No excuses, just do it.
And remember, “No one ever regretted a workout!”
Who is Taylor?
Taylor Ryan is a NASM certified personal trainer and nutrition consultant. She currently lives in Charleston, SC with her husband where she runs a successful women’s boot camp as well as the online fitness community, The Art of Weight Lifting.
What's a Tabata? Simple: It's a 20/10 HIIT protocol repeated 8 times.
Wait, you want that in English? Sorry, let's try that again!
A Tabata is a form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Tabatas require 20 seconds of all-out effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, and this cycle is repeated consecutively for a total of eight times. So it really is "simple," though it sure as hell ain't easy.
And you math majors are all probably way ahead of us here... yep, that's a FOUR MINUTE workout.
Everyone knows that that HIIT interval training comes with great health benefits. And there are lots of different approaches to doing interval training, including the program we introduced at Cranky Fitness a while back. Remember Somewhat High Intensity Interval Training? However, strangely enough, "doing S.H.I.I.T" never really caught on in the fitness community the same way that "doing Tabatas" has.
Go figure!
I'd been doing a rather slapdash, off and on HIIT program myself for years--but with fewer, longer, intervals than Tabatas, and with way more recovery time. But seeing that Tabatas were getting more and more popular, and inspired by Charlotte's recommendation over at The Great Fitness Experiment, it finally seemed time to check 'em out and report back.
It's been a few weeks now and... wow, they're, um, interesting!
Tabata Basics
A few important things to keep in mind when contemplating adding Tabatas to your fitness routine:
1. They're intense. You need to be in good shape before you start messing with high intensity intervals, or else you need to build up to them gradually. Check with your doctor first, and don't go suing me if you jump on a treadmill and have a heart attack your first time out. (Note: wouldn't it be amusing if every time someone told us "check with your doctor" before doing something, we all actually ran off and made appointments and dutifully went in and asked our busy doctors? I'm sure my PPO would just love that! But, um, seriously, it's probably the smart thing to do).
2. You should warm up for a few minutes first.
3. Choose a simple, demanding exercise. You should be using lots of large leg muscles so that you can work intensely enough to cause yourself to gasp for breath, curse the universe, and seriously ponder whether your heart might explode out of your chest.
This means the exercise can't be too complicated, dangerous, or reliant on small muscles that can tire out quickly. Sprinting on an uncrowded track or pathway, running up a hill, pumping away on an exercise bike at high resistance (especially standing up), cranking up the resistance on an elliptical, etc are good places to start.
Treadmills work well for some folks, but can be a bit scary for others. I, for example, fear that if I'm sprinting all-out to exhaustion, it would be all too easy for me to trip up and go flying off the back. And while pausing to suffer major life-threatening traumatic injuries might make a nice break from the Tabatas, they do come with health complications.
4. Consider getting some sort of interval timer. You will be amazed at how quickly your ability to count to three, let alone eight, is impaired when you are distracted by wanting to die. There are free phone apps if you have a smartphone that will give you a visual countdown and even blow a whistle at you. Note: not recommended for those suffering from PTHGCSD (Post Traumatic High School Gym Class Stress Disorder). I think this is the HIIT app I have. If you don't have a smart phone, some workout watches come with interval timers, or you can buy cheap stand alone gadgets that will keep track for you.
5. Don't do this more than 3 times a week; in fact, I'd recommend only once or twice a week. These get old very quickly! And once the novelty wears off I suspect they could easily make one start dreading workout times. You may want to alternate "official" Tabata intervals with adding other more flexible sprint intervals to your cardio workouts.
What Totally Sucks About Tabatas:
If you're doing them right, they get unpleasant rather quickly. The ten second "recovery" period feels like two seconds. You have to force yourself to pump harder and harder, even as your body is saying "Leave me the f@#ck alone goddamnit!"
Also, depending on where you work out, you may feel a bit conspicuous. You will be flailing around, gasping, possibly grunting, and definitely cursing. Doing Tabatas may make you look trendy in some settings but in others you may seriously freak people out.
What's Mind-Blowingly Fantastic About Tabatas
They are amazingly fast and efficient and gratifying. You will feel SO damn smug when you're done! They rev up your metabolism, blast fat, boost your mitochondria, and help you feel superhuman. It's counterintuitive, but research suggests that somehow these super-short workouts also boost your endurance as well as your peak efforts. They leave you with a lovely pumped-up feeling long after you're done.
Tabata Variations
You may find it easier to stick to Tabatas over the long haul if you can find ways to mix it up, either across workouts or even within a single workout. Charlotte has a great article featuring a bunch of Tabata variations over at Shape. Or for the testosterone-soaked version, T-Nation has a big bad-ass list as well, including barbell, kettlebell and bodyweight variations.
I'm thinking if you have a workout partner, some sort of race, contest, or competition might add a bit of real-time motivation. (Although pie-eating or beer drinking competitions are not highly recommended for this purpose).
Personally, I've experimented with spinning bikes, ellipticals, a stepper, and a dumbbell/bodyweight series of 4 exercises repeated twice. They all were great! And by "great" I mean, of course, excruciatingly awful.
Anyone else doing Tabatas or other sorts of HIIT? Or does this all sound like crazy talk?
[And from our friends at Maxifuel: Need a boost to get through this intense workout? Try Maxifuel sports nutrition for the extra energy you need!]
Yep, it's indeed a very random Friday this week. (Or should I say a Freaky Friday? For any of you who stopped by earlier and were greeted with a post that made no sense because it was missing the middle half--it's fixed now! Sorry about that! Guess I need to think again about pre-publishing posts to appear first thing in the morning East Coast time, hours before I can see them.)
So anyway, in addition to a tiny bit of research, some blog links, and a fair amount of silliness, we've got a few Official Announcements to make.
I know, you're saying to yourselves, "oh boy, blog announcements, I'm so excited!!!"
Er, maybe not. But you if you see some announcements on the way down to visit the silly videos at the bottom of the post, don't worry! They won't bite, I promise.
First Announcement: Call for Guest Posts!
Yep, it's that time again. Crabby will soon be making her bi-annual cross-country trek. The Crab, the Lobster, and the Moo (she's a cat, not a cow, for those who are new here) will be migrating from the West Coast to the East Coast in a couple of weeks. But fear not, Merry will still be here, thank goodness! And who knows, Crabby may be doing some posting from the road. But it's also a great time for a little variety, and if any of you have a health and fitness-related guest post you'd like to submit, please give us a holler.
I'm not exactly sure of our departure date, or how long we'll be on the road. But mostly likely we'll take off about March 1 and be gone ten days to two weeks or so.
Second Announcement: Random BlogRoll Update!
I have officially given up the fantasy that I will ever keep the random rotating blogroll properly updated without help. We've been fairly picky about not just adding folks with possibly sketchy sites who have no particular relationship with Cranky Fitness (no matter how many times they email us). On the other hand, I've gotten really lazy about noticing when a regular commenter or linker to Cranky Fitness has a cool blog that's not yet on our blogroll. I always think that if I like your blog, it must be listed already, but often I'm wrong!
Since the display is random, you may have to visit fairly often to figure out if your blog is on it. But if you have hoped in vain for your blog to appear one day and it never has, and you are a Friend of Cranky Fitness, please add a comment or send us an email with your blog name and URL and we'll update! Likewise, if anyone notices any defunct blogs on there we can take 'em out.
One Last Announcement: Check Out Acacia, Our Newest Sponsor!
Cranky Fitness really, really appreciates our independent sponsors. There are few companies forward-thinking and open-minded enough to work with individual blogs when they could just go to Google or Blogher and make the process a lot easier. Instead, these guys generously support independent, scrappy little blogs directly and we love them for that! We're also psyched to advertise actual quality health and fitness products instead of crappy diet pill ads. (And we've got a couple more cool independents coming soon too, so stay tuned.)
So we'd like to officially introduce you to Acacia. Some of you may remember them from their awesome DVD giveaways earlier. They have a great selection of fitness titles of all different sorts, from Bollywood Dance Workouts to Keeping Fit in Your Fifties. So if you haven't had a chance to check out their catalog, try visiting to see what they've got! (And by checking them out, you make Cranky Fitness look like an influential sort of blog, rather than an irrelevant, ignorable blog, and we totally, totally appreciate that.)
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Blogging the Deep Stuff:
It's rare that the Crab blogs about anything more emotionally wrenching than finding her favorite machine at the gym occupied when she'd like to use it. Other bloggers out there, however, blog bravely about their emotional journeys and it's always powerful stuff.
Recently, for example, Charlotte at the Great Fitness Experiment wrote about confronting her dark, aggressive side during karate class. And POD talked with frankness and humor about some of her rock-bottom moments in the course of losing weight.
Also contemplative, but a bit lighter... a rumination on "U.M." at Training for a Half. What's, "U.M" you may ask? Well, it's kinda like transcendental meditation, but, well, kinda not!
And the always inspirational MizFit had a great suggestion this week about being open to the "so not me" experience!
Next, a tiny bit of research...
Three-Minute Workouts?
First up, a recent high intensity interval study finds that even as little as three minutes of huffing and puffing a few times a week can actually do some good! Sixteen young sedentary males did 30-second bouts of high intensity exercise, repeated 4-6 times, with recovery breaks in between. In two weeks of training, they significantly increased their bodies' ability to control blood sugar levels and reduced their risk of a bunch of future health problems. Researchers aren't saying 3 minutes is all you need to do for optimal health, but if you crank it up, you can do a LOT in a short period of time.
Don't Blow Your Nose When You Have a Cold?
A New York Times article claims that blowing your nose makes cold symptoms worse, not better. Apparently it reverses the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slows the drainage.
Sorry: ain't happening! If I have a stuffed nose, whether from a cold (which is impossible, because I don't get colds) or an allergy, I'm sure as hell gonna blow it! However, the article did say it was OK to blow one nostril at a time or take decongestants. Well thank you, scientists!
Afternoon Slump?
Mark's Daily Apple has some great tips and reminders about how to beat a mid-afternoon slump. (But does anyone else find that even if they were perfectly perky before reading about a mid-afternoon slump, the mere mention of slumpiness will make you sleepy? Yawwwwwnnn... Very sneaky, Mark!)
Also, Mark's site alerted my to this product advertisement spotted by Andrew from Go Healthy Go Fit.
I don't know why, but I just LOVE this photo! I'd be totally happy to give credit to the company whose product this is... but when I tried googling "neck harness" to find the source, the results just got WAY too weird!
And now some VIDEOS!
I don't know if the rifle-toting women pictured above, plus Charlotte's aggression post, plus this next video are adding up to a theme of sorts... but if so: welcome to Random Friday, the Women Happily Kicking Ass edition.
This vintage jujitsu demonstration brought to you via Boing Boing.
Next up, this video (which contains some amazing footage on the theme of "feeling lucky?") was stolen from the always amusing Half Fast.
And our last video is for those of you who really wish you could afford a Romantic Cruise but just can't quite swing it in these tough economic times. You may be feeling pretty lucky yourself that you're not on a cruise by the end.
At some point a while back, I first posted about High Intensity Interval Training, (H.I.I.T) and how doing intervals is really good for your health. I started doing them myself, and it really is a great way to pump up your workout in a minimum amount of time.
But intervals are kind of a pain! The whole point of them is to work hard enough to get uncomfortable, over and over and over.
So later I wrote a post about a new Cranky Fitness exercise invention, S.H.I.I.T., which stands for Somewhat High Intensity Interval Training. It's really just a mellower approach to H.I.I.T., but it still involves a fair amount of being uncomfortable.
Anyway, for those of you are interested in intervals and their awesome health benefits, and who want to know more about how to get started, I have a handy new resource to tell you about below. But for others who have no intention of ever, ever doing this crazy S.H.I.I.T.-- don't worry, this post is not really about that.
It's more about the pro's and con's of being Flexible. And not in that can-you-wrap-your-ankles-around-your-neck-way.
Flexibility is Great!
Generally, the more flexible I can be about how I work out, the better. I tend to get too stuck in a routine, too attached to my favorite exercises and routes. I grow to hate them, and it often takes something like moving across country to shake things up and make things interesting again. I'm always happy when I discover new options, yet I'm stubbornly reluctant to seek them out unless I absolutely have to. I need to get better about this!
However, one way in which I AM awfully flexible is in my exercise goals. Alert readers may notice that Cranky Fitness is not as Hardcore and Ambitious as many other fitness blogs. I never seem to be charting my progress towards some impressive goal like running a marathon, or doing 100 pushups, or climbing a mountain or whatever. And if I do actually set some little goal, I never put a time limit on it or berate myself for backing off if it gets too hard.
This flexible approach means I've never "failed," and keeps me from getting discouraged. Overall, it's been working pretty well for me.
However, back to the Interval Training...
The Disadvantages of Being Flexible
I'm still doing interval training, in my usual half-assed way. And I've been feeling pretty darn pleased with myself when I do it. Hooray for me!
Here I am, a middle-aged slacker of no great ambition, sprinting up fake treadmill hills, gaining all these tremendous health benefits and getting stronger and faster and....
Hey. Wait a minute. I'm really not getting all that much stronger, or faster.
Sure, I'll make a bunch of progress for a little while, and then I start hating intervals too much. I find myself doing 'em a little less often, and then even a less, and then pretty soon I have to dial the speed back down and the incline back down too and take longer rests. But then I'll get tired of my lack of progress, get all determined again, and ramp back up.
I thought I'd been doing intervals maybe six months or so... til I looked at the date of my first interval post. Sure, it was only back in June--June of 2007! That's like a year and a half of intervals, and I'm probably still pretty much doing what I was doing 3 or 4 months after I started. (I think. To tell you the truth I don't track it all that closely).
And it's not just intervals, either. Strength training and regular cardio are the same way--bursts of diligence and progress, followed by grumpiness, slacking and skipped workouts.
I never quit entirely, but I never get a whole lot further along either. I started messing around with fitness, and got real serious for a year or two, let's see.. oh, about 25 years ago! And before that I did sports in school. So it's really been pretty much a lifetime of physical activity.
That's a lot of years without making a hell of a lot of progress.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Yet I still have no plans to start getting out charts and graphs and stopwatches, or setting the date for my 10K or marathon.
I really admire you folks who do that. It's so inspiring! But it's just not me.
I keep hoping a benevolent Exercise Fairy will wave a magic wand and make me fitter and stronger without doing an extra work. And I do keep trying... just not hard enough to make continuous gains. As much as I'm sometimes jealous of you folks who run 7 minute miles or bench press 200lbs or whatever, I just don't seem to be willing to devote the time and determination and energy it takes to get there.
So I pick little goals along the way, and then I backslide, and then I pick other little goals, and I keep at it, year after year. Compared to most folks my age, I'm in pretty good shape. I'm strong and fit and I'm gaining all the great health benefits, both immediate and long-term, that regular exercise gets you. I think, for me, had I not developed a flexible approach to goals I would have gotten discouraged and given up.
The best thing, though, is the older I get, the more "credit" I get for doing the same things I did when I was in my twenties. And as I may have said before, while temporary goals come and go, my bottom-line goal is to stay at the same level of fitness I was as an in-shape twenty-something... until I'm an Eighty Something. (Once I hit ninety, I figure--screw it). And so far, so good. I got into fairly decent shape in my twenties, and now, with only a couple years until I reach 50, I've managed to cling on to it--whining and griping the entire time of course.
Want to Know More About H.I.I.T?
Over at Experience Life Magazine, they have a good article about H.I.I.T., including research on why it's so good for you, as well as plan to get started. And unlike some resources, they emphasize balance and don't get all extreme and hardcore about it.
Anyone else struggle with the issues of flexibility and setting goals and making progress? Do you keep getting fitter every year, or is it sometimes tough just to keep from backsliding?
Sounding Really Cool when you Throw Around Terms Like "Resting Metabolic Rate" and "VO2 Max";
Getting Your Workout Done in Under Twenty Minutes So You Can Watch More TV Devote More Time to Saving the Planet.
All these benefits simply from incorporating a few bouts of extreme torturehigh-intensity exercise into your workout? It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?
But you may have looked into H.I.I.T. before and thought to yourself: "Gosh, that sounds great! But sprinting like hell until you can't breathe and want to die, then repeating that cycle over and over again until you want to puke? Thanks, but ... Are You F*cking Nuts?"
Yes, actually, quite bonkers--but we do understand. Very few people wants to feel like puking on a regular basis, least of all us.
So that's why we invented an alternative, the H.I.I.T. that's for everyone! Our brand new patented* program:
"Somewhat High Intensity Interval Training!®"
Yes, you too can join the fitness revolution and do some great S.H.I.I.T® for your health!
So what's this S.H.I.I.T® all about?
It's quite simple: Almost everyone agrees H.I.I.T. works, but it's hard. And no one really seems to "own" it, so there's no money to be made off of it consensus about how to do it.
Some folks say sprint for 8 seconds and walk for twelve seconds and do it over and over again for twenty minutes. Other folks say sprint for 30 seconds. Or 45 seconds. Or several minutes. And accordingly, rest longer in between.
Some say do dozens of cycles per workout. Others say do 4-8 cycles. Do the whole thing once a week . Do it every single workout. It's so confusing!
But with S.H.I.I.T® we say: do whatever the heck you want! Just set aside a workout every now and then to focus, in what ever way you want to, on pumping it UP! And then resting. And then pumping it UP!
But this is crucial: if you're absolutely miserable and traumatized, then TURN IT DOWN A NOTCH, DOOFUS! Doing one or two Incredibly Kick-Ass Invigorating Interval Workouts, then never ever doing them again because they suck, will get you surprisingly limited health benefits.
How Do I know if I'm doing this S.H.I.I.T® right?
If you've tried to do H.I.I.T., you may have noticed that there's no "right" way to do it. Whatever you are doing, someone will tell you it is wrong.
Try one approach you've read about in a magazine somewhere, and then read something totally different in another magazine, then go visit fitness bloggers and find out that they're all totally kicking your ass by doing ten times whatever you were doing.
Who needs that aggravation?
With a S.H.I.I.T® program, you know you're doing it right. Because if you're trying-- then you're doing it right. By definition! It's our program, and we get to define our own S.H.I.I.T®
How Do I Stay Motivated to Keep Doing S.H.I.I.T® For the Long Haul?
Mix it up! Some days, do your S.H.I.I.T® on an elliptical. Do S.H.I.I.T® running up hills. Try 8 second intervals; two minute intervals; longer rest periods; shorter rest periods, whatever. The more you mess around, the more you may find that S.H.I.I.T® happens!
To Learn More About How Fit S.H.I.I.T® Into Your Healthy Lifestyle:
Just ask us! After all, Cranky Fitness is your expert resource--because we're proud to say we totally made this S.H.I.I.T® up!
*Patent Pending. (Pending our getting off our asses and patenting it)
So yesterday we were talking about New Years Resolutions and whether people were keeping them or not. And I explained that like many of you, I hadn't made any official resolutions, but I'd already announced earlier I was going to do a couple of things.
I was going to get more serious and structured about interval training; and
I was going to stop trashing my knees by running.
So today, I'm going to try to explainjustifyrationalize make up some weasely lame-ass excuses as to why I'm Zero for Two on those.
Yes, like one of those wholesome house-wifey drug abusers straight out of a made-for-tv-movie, I've been keeping up appearances but sneaking out the back door to get high. I may say "exercise" or "workout," but for the last month or two that's included running, and it feels wonderful, so much better than dork-walking! And yeah, my knees do hurt a bit more sometimes (but not THAT MUCH, okay?).
Is this some sudden magical change in the physiology of my middle-aged knees? Maybe that fish oil and glucosamine are finally kicking in, even though I've been taking them for years? Or is this is yet another short-term experiment that will only end badly?
Any sensible person knows the answer to that question--but someone who desperately craves running endorphins is not a sensible person.
Why no doctor visit? Well, the reason is boring--it involves our moving, and filling out insurance applications again, and my wanting to look like I never actually visit a the doctors office. But I swear I'll go once I'm set up again. It's not like I'm doctor-avoidant or anything...
In the meantime, I've discovered icing.
Not the fun kind of icing, like on cupcakes. I discovered that kind of icing quite a long time ago. No, I mean the kind where you wrap something freezing cold around your injured joints after you abuse them. And (this may be wishful thinking, but...) icing helps! I'm pretty darn sure that my knees are not nearly as crotchety after a run as they used to be.
I started with the low-tech version of a Cold Pack:
And yeah, I know you're supposed to use peas or carrots or something more pliable, but we didn't have any of those.
(By the way, Frozen Asparagus? Works way better as an ice pack than as a side dish. Some vegetables just should never ever be frozen and asparagus, it turns out, is one of them.)
Anyway, now I have an Official Expensive cold pack instead, which is good, because the asparagus bag finally split open and was dripping foul asparagus ice-water all over everything.
So enough about the running and the asparagus. What happened to the intervals?
Well, I still do them, because I do think they're really good for you. But I bailed on the whole "structured" part, which worked better on a treadmill. It was too creepy going all-out on a treadmill and hoping I didn't trip and fly off the back and slam into a wall and kill myself. (Paranoid? Who me?)
So I'm back to doing un-timed, unofficial intervals when I run--and these tend to coincide with hills or really great songs on the ipod. I think I'm pushing myself further and harder with these intervals than I did on the treadmill, but in all honesty, I'm probably not doing as quite as many of them.
Whatever. Close enough.
So of course there's two ways to frame this. "Bailing on my resolutions..." or, the much better sounding "Being Flexible!"
And thanks everyone for checking in about your own progress yesterday. Since this is sort of a continuation of yesterday's post, it doesn't leave a whole hell of a lot to stuff to comment on. So feel free to say hi or not or weigh in something totally unrelated that made you happy or cranky or amused you today.
On a personal note, I'll be in and out today, as the Lobster and I are going to be visiting a notary and signing a stack of documents about two feet high, then wiring what seems a rather whopping sum of money cross country. If all goes well, by close of business we'll be the official owners of a place in Provincetown, Massachusetts!
We plan to visit it next week, start getting it fixed up, and put our California house on the market as soon as we can after we get back. (We'll also be in DC again, as the Lobster has some Business to Attend to and I get to come along for the ride). So if I'm a little lax in blog visits etc these days, I promise I'll get much better once things calm down a bit. ('Cause I'm obviously so good at keeping promises).
[Written by Mary, who has her own very fine blog Sheesh. Crabby is currently scheming to persuade Mary to hang out at Cranky Fitness and keep the Crab company].
Drop Acid? Wait a Minute... Yes, this is a post about fitness. Or at least a rant about fitness. And I do remember the 60s. But I remember the 70s even more.
Thirty years ago, fitness was all about goofy-looking track suits and people dutifully jogging round and round a track until their legs fell off from boredom.
Twenty years ago, it was Jane Fonda and people deliberately wearing spandex until they felt the burn.
Ten years ago, it was Covert Bailey, and LSD* (long steady distance, also known as long slow distance) work that would promote fat-burning.
This is not, not, not to say that interval training is a bad idea. Au contraire.
What I am saying is that The Merry objects to fitness being treated as if it were fashionable, something trendy. The press tends to trumpet the latest discoveries as if the scientists had re-invented the wheel, when in reality they haven't even re-invented the Krebs cycle. The basic principles of human biochemistry have been known for awhile now.
These approaches to fitness all work, to one extent or another. Even jogging around a track ad boredom does help the cardiovascular system up to a point. But a lot of people, including fitness experts (who should know better, except that they're usually promoting a book), seem determined to focus on one approach only, regardless of what works best for any one individual. We hold these truths to be self-evident: just because an expert is promoting a book, it doesn't mean the expert's approach will help with your specific goals. These different approaches should supplement each other.
Should you stop LSD and start HIITing yourself instead?
Both Long Steady Distance and High Intensity Interval Training can work to increase fitness. But they are not created equal.
If you're trying to increase your endurance, you want to increase your fat-burning capability. After two hours of steady cycling, your body is going to be relying on fat-burning to keep going.
Likewise, if you've been an obese, sedentary couch potato for years, long steady exercise sessions are a much more healthy approach than sudden intense exercise. If you're not in shape, HIIT would probably be a marvelous way to hurt yourself.
On the other hand, if you are in shape, HIIT could be the perfect way to work yourself off an annoying plateau, while LSD could make you bored out of your gourd. (Unless you want to be the next Lance Armstrong.)
It depends.
It shouldn't be about the latest expert's theory of fitness.
It shouldn't be about the latest expert at all.
It should be about you.
* Okay, so LSD in this post doesn't have anything to do with acid, strictly speaking. It was a cheap, meretricious trick designed to make you look at the post, that's all. I'm deeply ashamed of myself. Opinions expressed by minions of Cranky Fitness do not necessarily represent the views of the womanagement.
Here at Cranky Fitness, we tend to turn our attention to the negative fairly often, just because it fits in well with the whole Complaining theme. And every blog needs a theme, don't you think?
But even Cranky ol' Crabby McSlacker gets tired of whining sometimes, especially about how hard it is to be healthy. So today she thought it might be nice to check in with everybody and find out what might be going right for you in your personal quests for health and fitness. And, if you happen to have any idea, what the reasons might be for your success.
Now this doesn't have to be some huge accomplishment, like quitting smoking, or starting to jog. It could be a small victory in an ongoing battle--like switching from full fat milk to 2% on your way to nonfat. Or getting an extra half hour of sleep a night. And while it could be a whole new endeavor you've just started, it could also just be an old habit that's really good for you that you never remember to give yourself credit for.
Crabby's is fairly small and recent, but she'll tell you about it anyway, to get things started.
As regular readers may recall, Crabby was discussing the benefits of interval training, and decided to get more serious about doing it herself. And by serious, she does not mean "intense"--because Crabby picked the wimpiest version of interval training she could find. By serious she meant: do it regularly, on purpose, in a specific way. So to do her intervals, she gets on a treadmill and runs as fast as she can uphill, in short little bursts.
And guess what? After about six weeks, she's still keeping up with it! She likes it! It seems to be adding to her general fitness, and is not any more loathsome than any other form of exercise she does.
The main reason she hasn't abandoned it, she thinks, is because she was determinedly not very ambitious about her goals, or her progress.
She only has to do it once a week.
And only for 45 seconds, six times.
And she takes at least two minutes to recover by walking in between.
As she's getting a bit better at it, the only thing she is letting herself adjust is her speed--she goes a little bit faster now. But no additional intervals; no making the 45 seconds into a minute.
It's the sort of "interval program" that would make a serious fitness person laugh. But--it works for Crabby. And by keeping it very doable, she is keeping up with it. She still does regular cardio three or four other days a week, but because this is "different" she actually looks forward to it.
(And by the way, there was another recent study saying how good interval training was for you, and Crabby was all excited until she read it more closely. Because this interval training study used a version about ten times harder than the one Crabby was doing. So she ignored it!)
So do any of you have any recent health accomplishments that you're happy about, or any longtime habits that you should be giving yourself credit for? And why do you think you've been able to do this? Crabby would love to hear all about it!
Apologies to those who don't give a crap about intervals.
A second post in two days?
Readers who feel aggrieved may want to just skim through this one (but don't miss the Important Website Recommendation), and then hurry off to a better blog. Or just plop down comfortably into the comments section without absorbing any of this. Interval Training is not a required subject of conversation down there; we'll come up with something better by the end of the post.
So late yesterday morning, Crabby took her own advice and climbed onto the treadmill to actually test out this interval thing. As she mentioned, she already does "interval training," but in a random, haphazard manner. She usually goes extra hard for a couple of minutes during some of her weekly workouts, but she probably only does it two or three times during a session. She isn't really doing it the way the experts advise.
(For more on Crabby's most common form of exercise and why you might not want to be caught dead doing it in public, go here.)
To correct this haphazardness problem, Crabby resolved to be more formal about her interval training. She decided to start with the easiest amount that the experts said would be helpful: thirty second bursts of intense activity, followed by four minutes of moderate activity, repeated four to six times. For her intense phase, she cranked up the treadmill incline to the max and ran as fast as she could uphill. (And she hoped not to fly off the treadmill smack into the wall behind her). For the moderate phase, she walked more slowly uphill.
Here are some things she found:
Thirty seconds felt too short, even for running uphill, so Crabby made it 45 seconds instead.
Four minutes in between was too long and boring, so Crabby just started up again when she felt like it.
Forty five seconds was still short enough that Crabby felt encouraged to do eight repetitions instead of 4-6. She does not necessarily think this will happen next time, and she reserves the right to go back to 4-6.
Crabby's knees were a bit sore when she was done. (This was not a surprise; she has trashed her knees through years of running and it's why she doesn't run very often anymore).
The intervals were fun and the whole workout was over really quickly. (This was a surprise).
It probably wouldn't be fun done more than once a week. (Probably not after the novelty wears off either).
Thirty to forty-five second intervals aren't nearly as exhausting as two minute ones, and so if the experts say you can do them this way, Crabby is all for it. Plus, by the end you still feel good and exercised, with all the kick-ass endorphins that accompany this state.
Bottom line: Crabby likes interval training!
(This week.)
Now for the second part: the blog that rocks.
Crabby is embarrassed to say that she found it once before, thought it was great, may have even commented on it, then forgot to bookmark it. Result: gone entirely from her little crab brain.
But fortunately, Kelly over at Fitness Fixation is smarter, probably because she works out harder and eats fewer cupcakes, so she found Crabby instead. She very generously linked here and reminded Crabby what a great blog Fitness Fixation is.
It's sort of like Cranky Fitness, only better. (But Crabby hopes that you will find room in your heart and on your Favorites for both of us).
These girls (Kelly seems to be the ringleader, but here's also, for example, a great post by Tsan) are funny. Plus they're hardcore (in a good way). They could probably explain this interval thing a lot better than Crabby can.
(Plus, lurking behind the blog is something called the "Ice Chamber." Doesn't it sound sort of medieval and scary, yet at the same time irresistible?)
As promised, Comments will likely veer away from Interval Training as there is only so much one can say about it. So feel free to take a break today, or weigh in on Trying New Things, or Blogs That You've Just Discovered, or Why Exercise Sucks, or Any Old Thing You Can Think Of.
Remember a while back Crabby wrote a nagging post about how you might want to start doing some strength training? Well, this is going to be a similar post, on interval training.
It will only hurt for about thirty seconds or so, then you'll feel much better afterwards.
So, are you warmed up and ready to go?
Interval training, as you may have heard, requires short bursts of "very intense" exercise, followed by "recovery" periods. (These "recovery" periods do not, however, require supportive meetings in church basements, bad coffee, or turning anything over to a higher power. Just gasping for air and cursing).
Here's how it works:
After you've warmed up a bit, you go for it: you haul ass and go all out for a short period of time. How long? From about 30 seconds to several minutes, depending on whom you ask. Crabby recommends you start with 30 seconds, because, hell, if some experts say that's enough, then that's good enough for Crabby.
So if you generally do brisk walking for exercise, then during this 30 seconds you would run. Or ascend a steep nasty hill at a fast pace. Or at least waddle with much more velocity than usual and swing your arms in a more frantic fashion.
If you normally run, you sprint. You get the idea.
Then, after you start to feel somewhat miserable, but before you actually perish from exhaustion, you slow down again. Hooray, it's time for the recovery part!
But not forever. Not long enough for your heart rate to go all the way down to resting again. And, unfortunately, you have to repeat this whole cycle several times. Again, the advice varies on how often. At least one of the studies mentioned below said 4-6 times, so we'll go with that. Let's say four. (Others advocate eight, but screw them. We don't want to do that many).
Why on earth would you do interval training, other than masochism?
Well, for one thing, you get a tremendous training effect in a very short amount of time. One study, for example, found that four to six 30-second bursts of "all out" cycling interspersed with 4 minutes of recovery equaled the benefits of 90-120 minutes of continuous moderate-intensity cycling each day.
Coolio. That would save a lot of time.
However, there's more to it than the time savings. Want to know some of the great things interval training can do? How about: burn fat, build stronger lungs and heart, add more mitochondria to muscles (this is a good thing, even though mitochondria sound scary), build lactic acid tolerance (also good), and increase the release of human growth hormone, making you feel young and frisky. (Read this article and the research cited therein if you think Crabby is just making this sh*t up).
Crabby needs to get better about interval training. She does it, sort of, unofficially. She maxes out when the music gets good, or a hill comes along, or a mean dog lunges at her. But given all the nifty benefits she could get by doing it less haphazardly, she resolves to get a bit more serious about figuring out a Program and a Schedule.
Some caveats:
Don't do this if you're just starting out exercising or if you have any health problems. It's intense; that's the point. Check with your doctor, blah, blah, blah.
Don't do it every workout. Start with once a week.
This also might be a good time to think about a heart rate monitor to track your exertion, so you don't kill yourself.
And here are a few random sources of more information on interval training; you can probably find many more through google, your local library or bookstore, or by asking that cute buffed trainer at the gym you've been wanting to chat up anyway.
Is this something you already do? Something you'd consider... when hell freezes over? Anything else on your minds? Crabby loves comments.
