As I get deeper into the next book, it becomes clearer that HARD aerobic exercise… intervals… for example… on two of the four aerobic days help a lot. Painful news.
I went out today, determined to give it a shot. Not bad: two long stretches with heart rate i the 80s and 90’s. And, pleased to boast, recovery rate of 50! BUT not amusing. If I made myself do taht two days a week, I am fearful I might give up the whole damn thing. Any experience out there? Any thoughts?
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Can’t say I look forward to them, but intervals DEFINITELY pay off in spades! AND (drumroll), you shorten the misery considerably, even if you increase the misery index transiently (age 52). Hey, if I can do it, anyone can do it. ANY aerobic activity will work, just do it in intervals and watch the results. Gratifying…
Now you’re getting to it. Interval training will work magic if you have the discipline to work correctly. I’m a competitive nordic ski racer (age 65) who is most successful at marathon (45km+) events. Most of my training is intervals since that is what ski racing looks like.
Typical workout: 10 minute warmup: 20-40 minutes intervals: 10 minute warmdown, 10 minute stretch. The activity tends to determine the length of the effort or ‘work’ portion. Hill bounding or sprinting will be 40 seconds on/off. Rollerskiing can be as long as 5 minutes on/off. The key is to resist the temptation to ‘go anerobic’ during the work portion. Push to the ‘threshhold’ and then sustain it without going so far that you can’t recover. Design ‘routine’ intreval sessions to make it easy to commit to doing them. Add extra protein to your diet if you are doing heavy interval or weight training.
A great side effect of long interval training is the psychological advantage of not giving in to discomfort of hard efforts.
I live the YNY life at 9800 feet in Breckenridge, PSIA level 3 Nordic instructor, Summit Masters coach, Max HR 171, Resting HR 47. Training for the Denver Century in a couple of weeks…
Lowell
Dunno if you got prior response BUT this is one of the best posts I’ve gotten, ever. You SO get it about intervals. Hope you will post from time to time. Such a nice bit of guidance for othrs Chris
My body type is skinny fat. In April 2011 my body fat ratio was 30.2. One year later its 33.4. I do hard cardio 45 minutes 4 days per week and then do resistance training 5 days per week. Now am being told to cut back on cardio if I want to build muscle. Will be 71 next week.and my weight was 138 when I started and is now 142. Any thoughts on how to get my body/fat ratio down?
don’t cut back on cardio…. thats nuts. Just add some weight on your strength days. Chris
The high intensity cardio definitely works. Try 30 second intervals of high and low for 15 minutes. This is sometimes easier than one minute intervals and psychologically goes faster as you are having to keep track of time more often and switching it up more often. Works for me and I’d rather do 15 minutes of high intensity cardio rather than 30 minutes of straight running for similar or better results.
Love that you are talking yourself into it every time. YOU are right!
I hear you Chris! I have managed to do the interval training once a week on the hill in front of my home, running as hard as I can uphill for one minute and walking down for two. So much easier than pounding on the flats to get my heart rate up to max of 166, but I’m hating exercising before and after this endeavor. If only I could become accustomed to the nausea! I’m thinking I could live well without it, but I do notice increased muscle strength because of this training.
nice work, denise. you are younger already! keep it up.
Nausea? wow.. that’s tough. All the time? Chriws
I have been reading a lot about inflammation recently and am wondering if you have any evidence or concern about the hard exercise days putting our bodies into “clean-up/recovery” mode and that causing some chronic type of inflammation?
Thank you for the amazing book and information you continue to share, it has changed my life and I recommend your book to everyone!
ShannonThat goes over my head a bit. If you do a day on and a day off, there should be no build up of inflammation. Chris
Want a fun way to get some hard intervals in?? play hockey!!! you have to go all out for a two minute shift, then you get to sit on the bench for a while!!! better yet – try playing with people who are better than you – makes you try harder just to keep up!!!
great idea. We need some photos of you out there!
Yes, intervals are HARD. I try to do them 2X a week, right after I have done my resistance training. Ten minute warm up on the treadmill, then 15 minutes of “high-lows”–one minute as hard as I can and then one minute of easier running or fast walking–for 15 minutes. After that I do a 5 minute cool down. Usually get the HR up to 85-90+% on the hard minutes and back down to about 70-75% on the easy minutes. It’s probably harder mentally and I have to talk myself into it every time. I’m 69 and row a single scull a couple of times a week. The HIIT definitely helps with the rowing.
Hi Gail. You are more or less AMAZING. Nice work. particularly love to hear about a rower. Nice Chris