SPRINTING: THE PUREST, MOST POWERFUL PHYSIQUE-SHAPER IN AN ATHLETE'S ARSENAL:

If you were to ask me to pick one form of exercise and say that - for as long as I lived, for the remainder of my days - I could do as much of it as I wanted, whenever I wanted, but could never work out any other way, why, I'd look you right in the face and say "sex."

But then you'd probably say sex doesn't count, and that it's not a valid form of exercise, to which I'd probably reply "oh the hell it ain't," and then we'd probably end up getting into a really long, heated argument about it.

But - as a fictional hypothetical - let's assume you win that dispute, and force me to pick again. Well if that were the case, it wouldn't take me long to reply "sprinting," because'deep down'I'd know I made the right choice.

Of course I'm being slightly facetious, but I think I may have also piqued a few people's interest. Especially those of you who typically scoff at HIIT, run 6-day weight splits, and haven't done cardio since the Presidential Physical Fitness Test's timed mile back in middle school.

Think about it. I, of all people, have one of the most unhealthy, obsessive fixations on being supra-physiologically ripped and cut. "And yet even in spite of this Loki," you ask, "you would be willing to leave the iron behind for all eternity?"

Yup. Because if I knew I could sprint whenever and however it pleased me, I know I'd be juuuuuuust fine - maybe not all that big, but fine (perhaps even "damn-fine").

SPRINTING: THE COURVOISIER OF CARDIO

When it comes to cutting you up and promoting a nutrient-partitioning milieu conducive to building and maintaining a lean, muscular physique, sprinting simply cannot be beat. A simple look at competitive athletics demonstrates this pretty clearly.

I am NOT even talking about PRO-athletics, a world rife with performance-enhancing-drug use, one-in-a-million-gene-possessing individuals who are able to log hours of gym-time every day while being tended to by a virtual cadre of trainers, coaches, dieticians and sports-specialists.

No, instead just think back to your high-school days (unless you were home-schooled, in which case may someone have mercy on your sad, coddled soul, because you're just going to have to skip a few sentences).

Okay - mild genetic-selectivity aside - who were the most ripped (i.e. lowest amount of bodyfat relative to the amount of lean body mass carried) guys on your football team? The running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs, right? Track team? Jumpers and guys who ran events 400m and shorter. Basketball team guards?

Almost none of the guys or girls whose athletic livelihoods depended on their being able to sprint at maximal or near-maximal speed (causing them to thereby hone their anaerobic threshold in the process) ever had an appreciable amount of bodyfat on their frames during their playing days.

Most folks (while speeding by the track on the way to the weight-room) still mistakenly attribute this phenomenon to simple 'ectomorphism.' Well I, Loki, shall not tolerate it any longer, and that is why I have come to preach the gospel of "going really fast with your feet."

The fact of the matter is, those kids' physiques may have been influenced by 'ectomorphism,' but they were influenced a whole helluva' lot more by "the big A's" when it comes to nutrient-partitioning, fat oxidation and physique-augmentation:

• 5'-AMP-mediated protein kinase (AMPk)
• Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and
• ADP : ATP (adenosine di- and tri- phosphate, respectively) cellular ratios.

The fact of the matter is, unless you simply happen to be the most inept Google-user on God's green Earth, if you're reading this article, you care about exercise and how you look. And if you care about either (and hopefully both), then you should make sure you save some room in that split of yours for some sprint work. Because 'booking it big-time' - be it on a track, in a park, in your yard, or from 'the 5-0' - will do more to develop your aesthetic and anaerobic capacities than anything else out there.

Trying to lose fat? You should be sprinting. Trying to gain lean mass? You should be sprinting. Trying to defy conventional established wisdom and be really badass and do both simultaneously in an effort to 'recomp?' Then you damn-sure NEED to be sprinting. And a look at the physiological effects and adaptations elicited by consistent (and possibly even infrequent) sprint-sessions,  ... will make things abundantly clear.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par46.htm

Tabata Style Boxing Workout #3: HIIT it!

The way this workout is used requires some dedication and determination. It’s focus is the shoulders with some cardiovascular active rests. It won’t feel exactly like the other two workouts we’ve done this month because it’s boxing focused AND it has active recovery segments rather than 10 seconds of stopping and resting. Because it won’t take our heartrate to the max, the high intensity needs to come from a non-stop, all out punch behind every boxing move. To make sure this happens, do these things:

• Squeeze your fist tightly. This will engage more arm muscle.
• Contract your core muscles to initiate, control and guide your movement. Power in punching comes from the core. If this workout is done correctly, your shoulders won’t be the only thing burning. You should feel your abs and obliques!
• Visualize your target and hit the target every punch. As you get tired, you’ll tend to shorten your reach and by doing so, you won’t be working the muscles as hard.
• Bend your knees, be light on your feet and think about your punch being like the tongue of a frog; it goes out and quickly retracts and comes back. This thought will help you utilize your upper back muscles and not over fatigue your smaller muscles of your shoulder and forearm.

Depending on how conditioned your shoulders are and dependent upon how long you’ve built your cardiovascular base, you might need to repeat the workout 1-8x. How do you know when you are done? You are no longer keeping good form, your arms feel like noodles and your shoulders are on fire!

Here is a brief explanation of each move (you can google the names of the punches to see them in action.)

• Jab- Starting with your fists by your face, extend your arm straight out to your imaginary opponent’s nose, mouth or chin as a target. Your thumb should point down, your knuckles should hit your target and your elbow should face out not down. Extend it quickly and retract your fist back to your face.
• Uppercut- Your target is underneath your opponent’s chin. To get underneath, you’ll have to bend your legs, drop the shoulder of the punching arm then drive through the legs up and under the target. When performing the uppercuts on the right and left alternating, you’ll feel a “rolling” through the rib cage as you rotate and drop your shoulders to get under the chin. Thumb will face you when you punch and elbow will be pointing down.
• Hook- This is a small range of motion punch. The strength does not come from a big wind up, but from a strong rotating core. The elbow lifts up, your arm is held in a 90 degree angle and your knuckles hit the target of the jaw or the temple of the opponent. As you punch, rotate your body to follow through and release the heel of the punching side. Think power from floor to fist.
• Cross Jab- If you start with your left foot forward and fists at the face, bring your right fist across your body from the back to the target. It’s similar to the jab except you are extending the “line of power”. Because you are bringing your fist from the back to the front, there is a longer line and more time for momentum and power. Use your body as you rotate to put more power in the punch. Release the heel of the punching arm as you bring it through. You’ll feel your abs on this one if you are doing it correctly.

http://www.zentofitness.com/tabata-style-boxing-workout-3-hiit-it/

What is HIIT?

 High Intensity Interval Training

A HIIT session often consists of a warm up period of exercise, followed by three to ten repetitions of high intensity exercise, separated by medium intensity exercise for recovery, and ending with a period of cool down exercise. The high intensity exercise should be done at near maximum intensity. The medium exercise should be about 50% intensity. The number of repetitions and length of each depends on the exercise, but may be as little as three repetitions with just 20 seconds of intense exercise.

There is no specific formula to HIIT. Depending on one's level of cardiovascular development, the moderate-level intensity can be as slow as walking.^[4] A common formula involves a 2:1 ratio of work to recovery periods, for example, 30–40 seconds of hard sprinting alternated with 15–20 seconds of jogging or walking.

The entire HIIT session may last between four and thirty minutes, meaning that it is considered to be an excellent way to maximize a workout that is limited on time.^[5] Use of a clock or timer is recommended to keep accurate times, number of rounds and intensity.^[6]

Peter Coe regimen

A type of high-intensity interval training with short recovery periods was used in the 1970s by the athletics coach Peter Coe when setting sessions for his son Sebastian Coe. Inspired by the principles propounded by the German coach and university professor Woldemar Gerschler and the Swedish physiologist Per-Olof Astrand, Coe set sessions involving repeated fast 200 metre runs with only 30 seconds recovery between each fast run.^[7]

Tabata regimen

A version of HIIT was based on a 1996 study^[8] by Professor Izumi Tabata (田畑泉) et al. initially involving Olympic speedskaters.^[9] The study used 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise (at an intensity of about 170% of VO₂max) followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles). The exercise was performed on a mechanically braked cycle ergometer. Tabata called this the IE1 protocol.^[10] In the original study, athletes using this method trained 4 times per week, plus another day of steady-state training, and obtained gains similar to a group of athletes who did steady state training (70% VO₂max) 5 times per week. The steady state group had a higher VO₂max at the end (from 52 to 57 mL/(kg•min)), but the Tabata group had started lower and gained more overall (from 48 to 55 mL/(kg•min)). Also, only the Tabata group had gained anaerobic capacity benefits. It is important to note that in the original study from 1996, participants were disqualified if they could not keep a steady cycling pace of 85RPM for the full 20 seconds of work. Implications for popular exercise regimes that advertise as Tabata training should include overall analysis of the original study.

Gibala regimen

Professor Martin Gibala and his team at McMaster University in Canada have been researching high-intensity exercise for several years. Their 2009 study on students^[11] uses 3 minutes for warming up, then 60 seconds of intense exercise (at 95% of VO₂max) followed by 75 seconds of rest, repeated for 8–12 cycles (sometimes referred to as "The Little Method"). Subjects using this method trained 3 times per week obtained gains similar to what would be expected from subjects who did steady state (50–70% VO₂max) training five times per week. While still a demanding form of training, this exercise protocol could be used by the general public with nothing more than an average exercise bike.

Gibala's group published a less intense version of their regimen in a 2011 paper in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. This was intended as a gentler option for sedentary people who had done no exercise for over a year. It included 3 minutes of warm-up, 10 repetitions of 60-second bursts at 60% peak power (80- 95% of heart rate reserve) each followed by 60 seconds of recovery, and then a 5-minute cool-down.^[12][13]

Timmons regimen

Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at the University of Loughborough, is a proponent of a few short bursts of flat-out intensity. In a BBC Horizon programme in February 2012, he put Michael Mosley on an exercise bike regimen consisting of three sets of about 2 minutes of gentle pedalling followed by 20 second bursts of cycling at maximum effort. This was done three times a week for a total of 21 minutes of exercise per week (3 minutes of intense exercise), plus warm-up and recovery time. Measurable health benefits were reported, including significantly improved insulin sensitivity.^[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

High Intensity Interval Training

Welcome to the H.I.I.T series. High Intensity Interval Training is fast being recognised as one of the best methods of losing weight that exist.

Let's begin by understanding clearly what it is. Well in fact to some extent it's exactly what you want it to be!

Simply take any cardio exercise and alternate between all out activity for a few seconds and then rest or go very slowly. Then repeat. How long you do each set for depends on the activity itself as well as your level of fitness. 

Don't burst your lungs  - start very unambitiously and gradually pick the pace up. To begin with perhaps pick 3 exercises and do say 3 -5 sets - 10 seconds all out and 50 seconds minimal / rest.  Each week gradually increase the all-out time to 30 seconds and reduce the rest to 30 seconds. Then start increasing the number of sets and then start adding the different exercises. Ultimately you are looking for a workout capable of lasting 20 - 30 minutes. And that's it for the day!

The point here is to avoid the gym-hoggers who spend half a day on a treadmill or elliptical machine going at the same steady pace. Not only are they irritating to other would-be users who can't get on the machine, but the are largely wasting their time (any movement is better than none at all but if you're investing time travelling to and from the gym and getting changed, why not do it properly and have a hope of losing weight?

Watch the series on this and happy exercising

Andy