Posts Tagged ‘sprints’

Today’s Workouts – June 16, 2009

June 16th, 2009
recumbant bike

Alan Ariail racing his NoCom - Photo: Dan Glatch

Tuesday’s Workouts

Workout # 1

  • 20 min of HIIT sprints on the bike – 100% intensity (10:50 / 15:45 / 20:40) w 5 min warm-up & cool-down

Workout # 2

  • 60 min of steady state cardio at intensity 6/10
  • 10 min of stretching
  • 20 min of meditation (approx time as time ceases to be linear in the meditative state…..ohmmmm

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Today’s Workout – June 10, 2009

June 10th, 2009

rocky boxing meat

Resistance Training Day

Warm-up

  • 5 min of Joint Mobility exercises & Dynamic Stretching

Workout

Superset #1

  • 10 minutes of heavy bag work – fists, knees, feet & elbows

No rest between techniques…sweat pouring off me like Niagara Falls

60 sec rest between superset 1 & 2 as I moved from the heavy bag room to the weight room

Superset #2

  • Push-Ups – various grips – Bodyweight – 10 sets of 10 reps, supersetted with
  • BW Row on Smith Machine – Bodyweight – 10 sets of 10 reps, supersetted with
  • Swing Snatch – 35 lb plate – 10 sets of 10 reps

No rest between sets

30 sec rest between superset 2 & 3

Superset #3

  • Straight Arm Pushdowns – Dynamic movement – lots of core involvement – 8 sets of 20 reps, weight pyramiding from 145 – 260 lbs., (last 3 sets 19, 16, 14 reps) supersetted with
  • Jumping / Shuffling Split Lunges – 8 sets of 40 reps, Bodyweight

No rest between sets

60 sec rest between superset 3 & 4

Superset #4

  • Cybex Incline Chest Press – 10 sets of 20 – 13 reps – weight increasing from 145 – 300 lbs, supersetted with
  • Bulgarian Split Squat – 10 sets of 7 reps, Bodyweight,

Flexibility/Mobility Training

  • no time to stretch…oops, gonna pay for that

Notes:

Short on time today. 35 minute workout. No rest between sets. No rest between supersets. Exhausted at the end of 35 minutes. Jogged to the gym and jogged/stumbled home from the gym

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Today's Workout – June 09, 2009

June 9th, 2009

old fashioned bicycle

Cardio Workout Day

  • 30 min of steady state cardio at 60-70% intensity (recumbant stationary bike)
  • 20 min of HIIT sprints on the bike – 100% intensity (10 sec sprint – 50 sec recovery time)
  • 10 min of steady state cardio @ 50% intensity
  • 10 min of stretching
  • 20 min of meditation (approx time as time ceases to be linear in the meditative state…..ohmmmm

Additional 60 min (approx) of walking today

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Today’s Workout – June 08, 2009

June 8th, 2009

one arm press paul anderson

Resistance Training Day

Warm-up

  • 10 min of Joint Mobility exercises & Dynamic Stretching

Workout

Superset #1

  • Rollouts – 10 sets of 10 reps, supersetted with
  • alternating sets of Bodyweight Squats & Bodyweight Reverse Lunges – 10 sets of 20 reps

No rest between sets – Total reps – 100 rollouts & 200 reps squats/lunges

3 min rest between superset 1 & 2

Superset #2

  • Pull-Ups – various grips – Bodyweight – 5 sets of 5 reps, supersetted with
  • 1 Arm DB Press – 75 lbs – 5 sets of 3 reps, supersetted with
  • Jumping Lunges – Bodyweight – 5 sets of 20 reps

No rest between sets

3 min rest between superset 2 & 3

Superset #3

  • 1 Arm Kneeling Pulldowns – 8 sets of 5 reps, weight pyramiding from 145 – 250, supersetted with
  • Glute Ham Raises – 8 sets of 5 reps, Bodyweight

No rest between sets

3 min rest between superset 3 & 4

Superset #4

  • Standing Cable Crunch – 7 sets of 3 reps @ 135 lbs, supersetted with
  • Bulgarian Split Squat – 7 sets of 7 reps, Bodyweight, supersetted with
  • Standing Cable Row – 2 hand – focus on scap retraction not biceps – 7 sets of 7 reps @ 225 lbs

No rest between sets

3 min rest between superset 4 & 5

Superset #5

  • Cybes Shoulder Press – 5 sets of 5 reps @ 205 lbs, supersetted with
  • DB Concentration Curl – Hammer grip – 5 sets of 5 reps @ 50 lbs

No rest between sets

Flexibility/Mobility Training

  • 15 min of stretching

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Today's Workout – June 07, 2009

June 7th, 2009

sprint

Cardio Workout Day

  • 30 min of steady state cardio at 60-70% intensity (recumbant stationary bike)
  • 20 min of HIIT sprints on the bike – 90-100% intensity (alternating 10 sec, 15 sec & 20 second sprints – recovery times were 50, 45 & 40 seconds respectively)
  • 10 min of steady state cardio @ 50% intensity
  • 15 min of stretching + foam roller work on my IT Bands

Notes:

Read a little of Dr. Natasha Turner’s “The Hormone Diet” during the first 30 min on the bike. Pretty good so far. This book is selling well in Canada but barely making a dent in the States. Too bad. Good stuff. I will be reviewing this book along with the Jillian Michaels book.

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HIIT Interval Timers: Review of the Inventico TMR04-B

February 11th, 2009
Bill Hall

artist: Bill Hall

One of my favorite training methods is HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training.

It’s one of the best tools I know for developing power, improving anaerobic endurance and maximizing fat loss.

But, it’s not perfect. One of the potential drawbacks to HIIT workouts is that instead of counting reps, your workout revolves around time.

And that’s fine if you are using a piece of cardio equipment with a built in timer.

However, if you are trying to time a set of HIIT hanging power cleans, you may be in for some trouble.

Unless you have a workout partner with a stopwatch, an expensive personal trainer like yours truly…or a dedicated Interval Workout Timer like the Inventico TMR04-B.

Inventico TMR04-B

Inventico TMR04-B

What is an Interval Timer

Basically, it is a stopwatch dedicated to counting down and alerting you to start and stop your HIIT work sets and rest periods.

The TMR04-B is not the only interval timer on the market. But, it is the only one that I have used.

Disclosure – Inventico contacted me in January and asked if I would be interested in trying out their product. At that time, offers of this kind were fairly new to me. I agreed to try out the unit because:

  1. I was sick of using a stopwatch to time my personal HIIT workouts
  2. The Inventico rep was very confident in the product and was willing to risk a bad review
  3. I am a geek for fitness equipment. You wouldn’t believe the amount of workout and rehab tools that litter my apartment

So, here’s the review:

How Does It Work?

  • The unit is about the size of a travel alarm clock – 3 1/2″ (8.3cm) wide & tall by 1 1/4″ (3.5cm) thick
  • You enter the number of interval sets and the length of the work sets and rest periods via the buttons at the top of the face plate.
  • The relatively large LCD display (height of numerals – 3/4″ or 2cm) counts down the work/rest periods
  • The unit beeps three times at the end of every work set and beeps 1 time at the end of your rest periods
  • At the end of your final work set, the unit produces 3 sets of 3 beeps
  • There is also a red LED light at the top of the unit that flashes in unison with the beeping.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • It made solo HIIT workouts a LOT simpler. For example, in the past when I wanted to do a HIIT workout using front squats, I had to pause between reps to turn and look at the wall clock in my gym. With the timer, I used the LED light as a visual cue to start and stop my sets. Outdoors, the auditory cue (beeping) was loud enough that I didn’t need to carry the timer during sprints.
  • The LCD screen is large enough to see from a few feet
  • Inventico designed the unit to be mounted onto fitness equipment. The unit has two holes in the casing that allow a piece of cable to be threaded through and attached to the frame of a piece of fitness equipment. Obviously, this was designed to help out a health club manager. For my use, I bought a piece of stick-on magnet and stuck it to the back plate of the timer. This allowed me to attach the timer to any piece of metallic equipment at whatever height was appropriate for that exercise.
  • The unit is durable – It was dropped more than once and it kept on tickin’

Cons

  • The beeping noise is way too loud for a health club. And it isn’t adjustable. But, it can be eliminated by removing a small chip from the circuit board inside. Note -  Inventico has plans to offer an adjustable volume control with it’s next edition of the timer
  • The LCD screen is hard to read in certain lighting conditions. However, I seldom used the screen anyway, preferring the LED indoors and the beeping outdoors.
  • The instructions were a little confusing. I gave the unit (with instructions) to a bunch of people and no one found it easy to adjust…at first. After a few tries, it becomes easier.

Overall

The unit isn’t perfect, but if you are a HIIT junkie, it’s worth the $26.

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Note about Health Habits and Product Reviews

In the past few months I have started to receive offers to try out different products & services. At first, I turned down all of these offers because I can’t stand when other bloggers write kiss-ass reviews for products simply because they got the product for free and felt that they owed it to the company.

I decided to take Inventico up on their offer because I was genuinely curious about the product. And I was 100% honest in my review.

In the future, if I write a review about a product that I received at no cost, I will:

  • Let you guys know that I received the product free from the manufacturer,
  • Review it honestly, and
  • Request from the manufacturer that they send a second item to one of my readers for their review. That way, we will get two different points of view on the same product/service.

Reference

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HIIT Training: The Cure for Insulin Resistance, Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Disease and Obesity?

January 28th, 2009
Art by Bill Hall - billhall.com

Art by Bill Hall - billhall.com

It’s official:

HIIT training is AWESOME!!!

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland have concluded that:

The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only 250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects  is  remarkable.

This novel  time-efficient  training paradigm can  be  used  as  a  strategy  to  reduce  metabolic  risk  factors  in  young  and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere  to  time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.

And for those of you that don’t know, here are the risk factors of Metabolic Syndrome that HIIT training is so effective at reducing:

  • Abdominal obesity (excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen)
  • Atherogenic dyslipidemia (blood fat disorders — high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol — that foster plaque buildups in artery walls)
  • Elevated blood pressure
  • Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (the body can’t properly use insulin or blood sugar)
  • Prothrombotic state (e.g., high fibrinogen or plasminogen activator inhibitor–1 in the blood)
  • Proinflammatory state (e.g., elevated C-reactive protein in the blood)

People with the metabolic syndrome are at increased risk of coronary heart disease and other diseases related to plaque buildups in artery walls (e.g., stroke and peripheral vascular disease) and type 2 diabetes.

It’s estimated that over 50 million Americans have it.

And I am 100% sure that you don’t want it.

metabolic-syndrome

So, what do you need to do?

  1. Go to your doctor and get checked out – Max intensity sprints combined with a sky high B.P. is just asking for trouble.
  2. Go through my HIIT resources
  3. Find an exercise bike, set of stairs, outdoor track or even a carpeted area in your home to do burpees
  4. Schedule 3 x 15 minute HIIT workouts per week
  5. Get HIITing

And I am serious about the doctor. I don’t mean to sound like your mother, but a visit to your doctor at least once a year for a check-up is a very, very, very good idea.

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Tabata Training 101

January 19th, 2009
My Great-Grandma doing her Tabata workout

My Great-Grandma (circa 1996) doing her Tabata workout

In 1996, Dr. Izumi Tabata introduced a select group of septuagenarians to one of the most diabolically effective training methods ever conceived by the mind of man:

Tabata Training

And for the next 13 years, these four women endured the physical torments of Dr. Tabata’s training protocol.

The Results?

fitness-competitors

The same four women (circa 2009)

I am pleased to say, that after 13 years, not only have these women completely transformed their bodies, they have each carved out lucrative careers as female fitness models….just kidding.

What Can Tabata Do For You?

Aside from burning off pounds and pounds of excess body-fat, Tabata Training can help you:

  • Improve your cardio-vascular function (aerobic endurance)
  • Improve your anaerobic endurance
  • Improve your muscular endurance
  • Make you strong and fit and look fantastic

How’s that for a fitness training method?

The Science Behind Tabata

The basis for all of the excitement surrounding Tabata Training comes from the good doctor’s 1996 research study published in the journal – Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

In that study, Dr. Tabata concluded that high-intensity intermittent training (HIIT) was a much more effective and efficient training method than tradional cardio training.

Not only was Tabata Training more effective at improving anaerobic endurance, it was also more effective at improving aerobic or cardio-vascular endurance.

And Why is Tabata Training so Effective?

Dr. Tabata believed that the reason behind the success of his training protocol was:

INTENSITY

The good doctor believed that exercising at a high level of intensity for a short period of time was more effective than  exercising at a low intensity for a long duration.

And he wasn’t alone.

Ever since Dr. Tabata released the scientific genie from the bottle in 1996, other researchers have built upon his work. Here are just a sample of the available research:

And there is lots more where this came from.

I just did a quick PubMed search and came up with 1110 studies related to Tabata’s work.

So, What is Tabata Training Anyway?

Dr. Tabata’s training method is a very specific version of High Intensity Interval (or Intermittent) Training.

In his 1996 study, Dr. Tabata had seven subjects perform:

  • An intermittent training exercise 5 days a week for 6 weeks
  • Each individual training session consisted of seven to eight sets of a single exercise
  • Each set was performed at the high intensityof about 170% of ˙VO2max.
  • Each set was timed to last for 20 seconds
  • Each period of rest between sets was timed to last for 10 seconds
  • This means that each Tabata Workout lasted for only 4 minutes.
  • 4 minutes of Tabata Training x 5 days a week x 6 weeks = 120 minutes or 2 hours of exercise over 6 weeks
  • In comparison, Tabata’s cardio-vascular group performed 30 hours of cardio training over the course of the experiment (60 min workouts x 5 days per week x 6 weeks)

And still, the Tabata workouts were more effective than the cardio-vascular workouts.

How Do I Design My Own Tabata Workout?

I am glad you asked.

In tomorrow’s post, I will give you two Tabata style workouts.

Each workout is to be performed 2x per week for the next 6 weeks.

I guarantee that those of you willing to give this program a serious effort will see some serious improvements in their physique and their overall level of fitness.

And while it’s not required, I highly recommend using an interval timer with your Tabatas. Trying to watch the clock an do these workouts is a real pain in the butt.

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And for those of you that can’t wait until tomorrow:

Here are some of my posts about HIIT training

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