Ladies and the tramps.
I just read in In Style magazine that deadlift tape is this summer's big thing in fashion.
One of the very cornerstones of CrossFit is the idea that short very intense workouts can and will get one fitter than long plodding workouts. We believe, and this is what the vast majority of CrossFit programming is based upon, that 10 hard and fast minutes are worth a helluva lot more than a half hour on the treadmill. The rest of the world, head firmly in the sand, as taken a long time to awake to this idea.
However, a recent NY Times article caught my eye (the full article is at the bottom the post). The article trumpets the recent discovery that short very intense exercise is as, if not more, beneficial than long not very intense exercise.
I have to admit that it just feels really good to be right.
Please post thoughts to Comments.
CF West will hold class as usual on Saturday, at 8 and 10am. The Firecracker 10k run is at Harvey West this year and apparently Coral St. is closed from 7:30 to 10:30. I think the best bet is to take Sylvania Ave to Costco and park in the Costco lot and walk over. I hope to see a bunch of people celebrating Independence Day with some heavy lifting.
Workout (I like this WOD a lot and I’d love to be able to claim it, but I have to give credit where it is due–CrossFit Football):
7 Rounds
3 Handstand Pushups
5 Power Cleans 185/135#
7 Pullups C2B of course
Post WOD completed and score to Comments.
Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?
A few years ago, researchers at the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Japan put rats through a series of swim tests with surprising results. They had one group of rodents paddle in a small pool for six hours, this long workout broken into two sessions of three hours each. A second group of rats were made to stroke furiously through short, intense bouts of swimming, while carrying ballast to increase their workload. After 20 seconds, the weighted rats were scooped out of the water and allowed to rest for 10 seconds, before being placed back in the pool for another 20 seconds of exertion. The scientists had the rats repeat these brief, strenuous swims 14 times, for a total of about four-and-a-half minutes of swimming. Afterward, the researchers tested each rat’s muscle fibers and found that, as expected, the rats that had gone for the six-hour swim showed preliminary molecular changes that would increase endurance. But the second rodent group, which exercised for less than five minutes also showed the same molecular changes.
The potency of interval training is nothing new. Many athletes have been straining through interval sessions once or twice a week along with their regular workout for years. But what researchers have been looking at recently is whether humans, like that second group of rats, can increase endurance with only a few minutes of strenuous exercise, instead of hours? Could it be that most of us are spending more time than we need to trying to get fit?
The answer, a growing number of these sports scientists believe, may be yes.
“There was a time when the scientific literature suggested that the only way to achieve endurance was through endurance-type activities,” such as long runs or bike rides or, perhaps, six-hour swims, says Martin Gibala, PhD, chairman of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. But ongoing research from Gibala’s lab is turning that idea on its head. In one of the group’s recent studies, Gibala and his colleagues had a group of college students, who were healthy but not athletes, ride a stationary bike at a sustainable pace for between 90 and 120 minutes. Another set of students grunted through a series of short, strenuous intervals: 20 to 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the students pedaled hard again for another 20 to 30 seconds, repeating the cycle four to six times (depending on how much each person could stand), “for a total of two to three minutes of very intense exercise per training session,” Gibala says.
Each of the two groups exercised three times a week. After two weeks, both groups showed almost identical increases in their endurance (as measured in a stationary bicycle time trial), even though the one group had exercised for six to nine minutes per week, and the other about five hours. Additionally, molecular changes that signal increased fitness were evident equally in both groups. “The number and size of the mitochondria within the muscles” of the students had increased significantly, Gibala says, a change that, before this work, had been associated almost exclusively with prolonged endurance training. Since mitochondria enable muscle cells to use oxygen to create energy, “changes in the volume of the mitochondria can have a big impact on endurance performance.” In other words, six minutes or so a week of hard exercise (plus the time spent warming up, cooling down, and resting between the bouts of intense work) had proven to be as good as multiple hours of working out for achieving fitness. The short, intense workouts aided in weight loss, too, although Gibala hadn’t been studying that effect. “The rate of energy expenditure remains higher longer into recovery” after brief, high-intensity exercise than after longer, easier workouts, Gibala says. Other researchers have found that similar, intense, brief sessions of exercise improve cardiac health, even among people with heart disease.
There’s a catch, though. Those six minutes, if they’re to be effective, must hurt. “We describe it as an ‘all-out’ effort,” Gibala says. You’ll be straying “well out of your comfort zone.” That level of discomfort makes some activities better-suited to intense training than others. “We haven’t studied runners,” Gibala says. The pounding involved in repeated sprinting could lead to injuries, depending on a runner’s experience and stride mechanics. But cycling and swimming work well. “I’m a terrible swimmer,” Gibala says, “so every session for me is intense, just because my technique is so awful.” Meanwhile, his lab is studying whether people could telescope their workouts into even less time. Could a single, two- to three-minute bout of intense exercise confer the same endurance and health benefits as those six minutes of multiple intervals? Gibala is hopeful. “I’m 41, with two young children,” he says. “I don’t have time to go out and exercise for hours.” The results should be available this fall.
I just read this article as well the other day, and I agree that we are onto something here….
And that’s a great understatement Tina.
Unless of course you’re trying to, for example, run 5 minute mile pace for 10k. Then it might help to train for longer then 10 minutes at a time.
Love the Firecracker 10k shoutout! Sorry it forces the road closure.
Very true, Adam, but training for a 10k at 5 minute mile pace is sports specific training and certainly not the realm of GPP or even a general sports strength and conditioning program. CrossFit, hard and intense for 10 minutes a time, would be equally unsuited for a water polo player, a boxer, or a dancer, as well as a middle distance runner, if that is all they did and neglected their sport. In an athletic program, CrossFit, hard and intense for 10 minutes a time, supplements sports specific training; it does not supplant it, nor does it aim to.
Are you running tomorrow? Good luck.
Wow Adam, very good point. I suppose if you were specifically training for a 10K or even a marathon you might want to do more than your 5-15 minute CrossFit Metcons. But if you are a CrossFiter who is, by definition, training for general phyicial preparedness I think the metcons are just fine. But having said that I would like to add that Anerobic activity such as the CrossFit metcons does in fact increase aerobic and endurance activities such as distance running. On the contrary, aerobic activity alone will actually decrease your anerobic capicity over time. What I really enjoy hearing from many of our clients who are distance runners is how doing CrossFit took upwards of about 30 seconds off each mile during their marathons. Even Brian MacKenzie of CrossFit endurance has seen tremendous results in his distance athletes (including ultra marathon and ironman competitors) by implementing those short, intense workouts. So again, sometimes it just feels so good to be right. Good luck at the Firecracker 10k buddy!
I think you guys have an a good discussion going on here and there a few things that I’d like to add: Jocelyn’s last point about athletes achieving significant performance gains in primarily aerobic events by incorporating anaerobic workouts is entirely correct; it’s common practice for any endurance athlete and pretty much always has been.
A properly trained middle and long distance athlete will be varying their training efforts over anywhere from 3 to 5 different paces addressing all of the following areas: aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning. The mix volume will change to match event specificity and but even marathoners need to hit the anaerobic capacity intervals (about once every for workouts for most high level runners).
I really just wanted to make the point that we shouldn’t use examples of people who don’t really train correctly as a straw man with which to then argue against the training of those athletes who are–or at least used to be–trying to run reach their ultimate potential. Come on out to a speed workout and see us digging deep while in the full swings of anaerobia!
Sorry for the long post; I’ve been celebrating the 4th and my race this morning. Sam, I love the site. Hopefully I’ll make it into workout with you at the not so new new place soon to.
Hey Aaron, great to hear from you. How did you do in the Firecracker this morning? Actually, I have been meaning to get in touch with you for some marathon training advice. I hope you have a chance to come see us sometime soon.
Great points above. Thanks for posting. You are completely right. I think the confusion stemmed from an assumption that CrossFit can take the place of sport specific training. Never. However, CrossFit is an excellent strength and conditioning program and is now being used almost exclusively by several universities, UC Riverside for example, and more are turning to CF as it gains more and more mainstream acceptance.
CrossFit principles–short high intensity training often coupled with intervals or circuits–can also be adapted to more traditional sport conditioning for sports that one might not normally see as a sport readily friendly to CrossFit. Wrestling or mma seem like a perfect fit for CrossFit, but something like water polo does not. Water polo conditioning usually demands hours of swimming. In fact, most collegiate programs will have 2 practices a day with one being devoted exclusively to swimming. Not only is this a large time drain, but the wear and tear on the body, especially the shoulders, of the players is tremendous. Shorter, higher intensity, “heavier” training would alleviate a lot of the repetitive use trauma as well as better conditioning the athlete for the unique demands of water polo.
Sorry for being so long winded, I should probably get out there and do a little celebrating of my own. Happy holiday.
Nice points Sam. I think we’re on the same page–despite my typos.
I’m always up to talk training. Send me an email and we’ll set something up.
Will do Aaron, thanks. Congrats on winning the Firecracker.