In my last post I discussed high-intensity interval training and its benefits, but didn't provide a lot of practical information in terms of incorporating it into your own program. Today I'll be covering some basic HIIT prescription and expanding upon why high intensity exercise is so beneficial.
Before getting into the nitty gritty science and research bits, let's look at a couple of very simple ways you could incorporate HIIT into your exercise regime.
Depending upon the volume of resistance training you do (or don't do, but you should!) 1-3x per week is probably going to be plenty in terms of HIIT frequency. When done properly, HIIT should be taxing and requires a bit of time to recover from, so generally it's best to perform it on non-consecutive days. HIIT can be done on a day of its own, or thrown in after your resistance training session. The beauty of HIIT is how brief your cardiovascular exercise can be. A good bout of HIIT is probably going to last between about 10-25 minutes of actual work, with only a fraction of that being at a high intensity.
A couple protocols that I like are 15/45 and 15/75. That'd be 15 seconds of max effort work followed by 45 or 75 seconds respectively of a recovery pace. Max effort means you go as fast as you possibly can. Recovery pace should be fairly easy and the goal is to be prepared for the next max effort interval. Try not to kill yourself during the recovery period, go easy and get ready. This sequence would be performed 10-15 times total in a workout.
The entire thing, using 15/45 as an example, would look like this:
Warm-up - ~5 minutes of gradually increasing intensity, but nothing too strenuous
Intervals - 15 seconds max effort, 45 seconds recovery, repeated for a total of 10-15 times (10-15 minutes total in this case)
Cooldown - ~3-5 minutes of gradually decreasing intensity as heart rate begins to return to normal
As you can see, total time, including warm-up AND cooldown is at most 25 minutes for this example.
Intervals that are of short duration, such as 10-30 seconds, are best performed on pieces of equipment that allow you to rapidly change your speed and intensity. Rowing machines are fantastic, spin bikes and ellipticals work as well, as does running on a track or outside. Treadmills are not optimal for this kind of interval because it takes an extended period of time to increase and decrease speed.
Intervals of a longer duration can also be performed, and it's nice to get a mix in once in a while. When doing longer intervals, you can either base them on distance or time. For example, you might do 4-6 sets of 400m on the treadmill/track or 500m on the rowing machine with 1-4 minutes of rest in between them. Try to finish each interval as quickly as possible. Instead of distance you could perform 1-2 minute intervals. The distance or time for each interval does not really matter, as long as they are relatively brief (no more than a few minutes) and performed at a high intensity with recovery in between.
You can abstract this concept to any number of other workout formulations. For example, you may try to see how many times you can sprint 50-100m in 15-20 minutes or you can randomly intersperse bursts of intensity into an otherwise relatively steady state workout. If you're a particularly sick person you can do fun things like find a hill that takes 15-30 seconds to sprint up and see how many times you can repeat that in 15-20 minutes or how long it takes you to perform 10-20 sprints up it. Stairs work in a similar fashion.
High intensity training methods are so effective because they result in a physiological condition called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). What exactly contributes to the EPOC effect physiologically is not completely clear, but the basic premise of it is that after exercising at a high intensity, your metabolism is elevated for a period of time afterwards. When the body is at rest, it burns more calories from fat, so an elevated metabolism at rest is great for fat loss. The duration of EPOC depends upon the intensity and duration of exercise and appears to be longer when resistance training is involved.
I don't think you should go and replace every single episode of your traditional cardiovascular work with HIIT, but if you are short on time and can only pick one, go with something that is higher intensity. Ideally a blend of HIIT and more sustained cardiovascular conditioning should be performed to achieve the best of both worlds, especially if you enjoy doing long slow distance cardio.
My next post will continue our high intensity trend and discuss what happens when we introduce the resistance training variable into high intensity conditioning methods (and thus why our kettlebell bootcamps are so awesome for fat loss and improving conditioning!).
In essence: HIIT alternates periods of high and low intensity. The lengths of the high intensity interval doesn't have to be super specific, but it needs to be relatively short so that it can be approached with a max effort. I like work/rest ratios of 15/45 and 15/75 on equipment like rowing machines, bikes, ellipticals, or running on a track or outside. You can also have longer intervals based on time or distance. Repeats of 400m runs or 500m rows with a couple minutes rest in between are great. If you're masochistic, you can see how many times you can run up a fairly steep, short-moderate distance hill in 15 or 20 minutes. Stairs work too. Max effort means WORKING AS HARD AS POSSIBLE! Recovery/rest means just that, let yourself recover for the next interval. High intensity training methods elevate your metabolism via EPOC. A blend of HIIT and longer duration cardiovascular exercise is probably optimal compared to picking one or the other, but if you're short on time, do HIIT.
- Jonathan
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
High intensity, high effectiveness.
"Cardio is dead," spoke Zarathustra... or something like that.
Recently there has been the beginning of a much needed shift away from traditional forms of long slow distance (yes, it's referred to as LSD) cardiovascular exercise towards higher intensity forms of interval training. There is still a place for longer, paced cardio, especially if you participate in activities that are continuous and of long duration (mostly long distance running/cycling/swimming events); however, if your goal is body recomposition - fat loss or the gain of lean muscle mass - LSD is a largely outdated and inefficient means of achieving your goals.
High-intensity interval training (henceforth HIIT) is a relatively straightforward concept. Periods of higher intensity are alternated with periods of lower intensity for a given duration. There are many time variations for these, with the high intensity intervals ranging anywhere from about 8 seconds to a couple minutes. What is important is that during the high intensity interval, the individual is working hard. You need to be working at a pace greater than your ability to recover, preferably much greater, to really receive the benefits.
Here we have a study demonstrating the effectiveness of sprint intervals of cycling compared to a more traditional training method in terms of improving performance. Results demonstrate similar improvements despite the fact that the interval group performed 4-6 bursts of 30s of maximal effort activity with 4 minutes of recovery in between compared to 90-120 minutes of continuous cycling. That's 2-3 minutes of actual work per session versus almost 2 hours! If that's not efficient, I don't know what is.
When it comes to fat loss, interval training wins again. This study concludes that "HIIE three times per week for 15 weeks compared to the same frequency of SSE exercise was associated with significant reductions in total body fat, subcutaneous leg and trunk fat, and insulin resistance in young women."
And even better here! Of particular note is that: "Despite its lower energy cost, the HIIT program induced a more pronounced reduction in subcutaneous adiposity compared with the ET program. When corrected for the energy cost of training, the decrease in the sum of six subcutaneous skinfolds induced by the HIIT program was ninefold greater than by the ET program."
While this doesn't mean that HIIT is nine times better than endurance training, it does help demonstrate that for a given portion of time or energy, HIIT is dramatically better at reducing body fat.
I'll be expanding upon this in my next post, discussing how we can further improve this powerful effect and providing some specific exercise examples for incorporating HIIT-based conditioning into your workouts.
In summary: high intensity conditioning methods are much more effective at reducing body fat and even more effective when considered at a per unit of time basis. Longer paced cardiovascular activity tends to be accompanied by an increase in food consumption, often resulting in a lack of progress. Incorporate interval based exercise into your workouts if you have goals based around fat loss or staying lean.
- Jonathan
Recently there has been the beginning of a much needed shift away from traditional forms of long slow distance (yes, it's referred to as LSD) cardiovascular exercise towards higher intensity forms of interval training. There is still a place for longer, paced cardio, especially if you participate in activities that are continuous and of long duration (mostly long distance running/cycling/swimming events); however, if your goal is body recomposition - fat loss or the gain of lean muscle mass - LSD is a largely outdated and inefficient means of achieving your goals.
High-intensity interval training (henceforth HIIT) is a relatively straightforward concept. Periods of higher intensity are alternated with periods of lower intensity for a given duration. There are many time variations for these, with the high intensity intervals ranging anywhere from about 8 seconds to a couple minutes. What is important is that during the high intensity interval, the individual is working hard. You need to be working at a pace greater than your ability to recover, preferably much greater, to really receive the benefits.
Here we have a study demonstrating the effectiveness of sprint intervals of cycling compared to a more traditional training method in terms of improving performance. Results demonstrate similar improvements despite the fact that the interval group performed 4-6 bursts of 30s of maximal effort activity with 4 minutes of recovery in between compared to 90-120 minutes of continuous cycling. That's 2-3 minutes of actual work per session versus almost 2 hours! If that's not efficient, I don't know what is.
When it comes to fat loss, interval training wins again. This study concludes that "HIIE three times per week for 15 weeks compared to the same frequency of SSE exercise was associated with significant reductions in total body fat, subcutaneous leg and trunk fat, and insulin resistance in young women."
And even better here! Of particular note is that: "Despite its lower energy cost, the HIIT program induced a more pronounced reduction in subcutaneous adiposity compared with the ET program. When corrected for the energy cost of training, the decrease in the sum of six subcutaneous skinfolds induced by the HIIT program was ninefold greater than by the ET program."
While this doesn't mean that HIIT is nine times better than endurance training, it does help demonstrate that for a given portion of time or energy, HIIT is dramatically better at reducing body fat.
I'll be expanding upon this in my next post, discussing how we can further improve this powerful effect and providing some specific exercise examples for incorporating HIIT-based conditioning into your workouts.
In summary: high intensity conditioning methods are much more effective at reducing body fat and even more effective when considered at a per unit of time basis. Longer paced cardiovascular activity tends to be accompanied by an increase in food consumption, often resulting in a lack of progress. Incorporate interval based exercise into your workouts if you have goals based around fat loss or staying lean.
- Jonathan
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Why train with kettlebells anyway?
So you may be wondering what kind of benefits you could receive by training with kettlebells. This is an excellent question and an important question to ask before you begin any kind of training program. No one wants to waste their time or money on something that isn't effective.
Fortunately, proper kettlebell training is very effective and provides a number of benefits:
Fortunately, proper kettlebell training is very effective and provides a number of benefits:
- Due to it's full-body ballistic nature, kettlebell training is very metabolically demanding. In fact, kettlebell training can result in burning up to 1200 calories an hour! On top of the aerobic and anaerobic caloric demands of kettlebell training, we also have to take into consideration that we are performing resistance training. Resistance training further amplifies this metabolic cost by requiring calories to be allotted to repairing and strengthening the muscle tissue used during the workout. Since kettlebell training targets most of the body's musculature with each exercise, there are a lot of calories being diverted to repairing tissue instead of being stored as fat. On top of burning a lot of calories, this kind of training will dramatically improve your cardiovascular abilities.
- Again due to the compound [compound means multiple joints of action. For example, a bicep curl is an isolation exercise as it has one joint of action, the elbow. A barbell row is a compound movement as it works at the elbow, shoulders, and scapula] integrative nature of kettlebell training, we are teaching our bodies how to move efficiently and effectively. Compound exercises result in an increase in coordination between muscles, allowing them to perform the movements of sport and everyday life more easily and more powerfully.
- Kettlebell exercises such as the Turkish get-up can dramatically improve joint health (plus it's a wicked core exercise). By moving the shoulder through a broad range of motion under tension, we can simultaneously improve stability and mobility. In essence we are working to increase our range of motion at the shoulder joint while simultaneously strengthening it throughout this range of motion. Compare this to ordinary static stretching that only increases range of motion (and sometimes not even that) and typically at only one angle and we can see there is a clear winner. A recent study also demonstrated that kettlebell swings can decrease neck/shoulder and lower back pain: http://www.bettermovementnow.com/articles/Jay_et_al_2010.pdf
- Kettlebell training places particular emphasis on the lower body, back/core, and shoulders. Not only are the muscles that comprise these the ones most important for sport, strength, and day-to-day life, they also are the key areas for building an excellent physique. Whether you want to be stronger, run faster, or look great in a bikini, the tremendous emphasis on the legs and glutes will accommodate your goal.
There are many more benefits to kettlebell training, some of which will be explored later lest I run the risk of making this post far too long!
To summarize: kettlebell training will burn a LOT of calories, allow you to move more easily, improve joint health, increase strength and conditioning, and make you look good naked (or clothed).
- Jonathan
Welcome
Welcome to the Kelowna Kettlebell blog!
We will be regularly making updates pertaining not only to Kelowna Kettlebell classes and programs, but also with information regarding training, nutrition, workouts, exercise videos, thoughts, and advice in general. Even if you're not from the Okanagan area, I encourage you to check back frequently as a topic applicable to you is very likely to pop up in the future.
For now, happy training.
- Jonathan
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