With HIIT training if you are in shape you start to run up the time and number of intervals.
I did not include the second set of instructions which are to basically and slowly ramp it up.
There you have it. The % increase in the chances of not being dead per this study apply only when compared with doing nothing. Depending upon how many times a week and for how long (weeks, months??) you’ve been going at it, in all probability you’ve surpassed the best results achieved by the “exercisers” … by a big margin!
What it sounds like you’ve been doing is basically Zone 2/MAF/low lactate training which, done appropriately (time and frequency) provides a big stimulus for mitochondrial growth (Google * any of these terms+mitochondria * for a plethora of sites explaining the science and rationale. Depending upon your VO2MAX (your wearable probably estimates this) it’s possible to infer the benefits of where you are now over and above plain ole “not being dead” (there are states of still being alive that might be argued are actually worse, if you ask me)
It sounds almost as if your aerobic capacity/cardio respiratory and cardiovascular systems (your engine) is in better shape than your musculoskeletal system (your chassis) That’s apparently commonly the case outside of the elite (and young) athletic trainee.
@steve203 here is the research article.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02100-x
“We obtained similar results when repeating the above analyses for vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 62,344 UK Biobank participants who exercised (1,552 deaths, 35,290 women/27,054 men). These results indicate that small amounts of vigorous nonexercise physical activity are associated with substantially lower mortality. VILPA (vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity) in nonexercisers appears to elicit similar effects to VPA in exercisers…”
It sounds like your cardiovascular fitness is stronger than your orthopedic (muscle) fitness.
Wendy
1 Like
Well, those legs take me two miles around the hood, about 40 minutes, five days a week, in the summer, then pedal the bike for an equal time, five days a week, in the winter. Don’t know what else to improve their performance.
Steve
I was hesitant to reply, although this is a topic of great interest to me.
Recently entered my 6th decade on this planet, and have no serious health issues at present, and while my diet is spotty, I have been on a regular workout regimen since the gyms reopened (Fall of 2021?).
My hesitancy is in “absolute statements” from anyone about anything they do. Things generally work different for different people. That could be due to pain thresholds, genetics, their adherence to good form to avoid injuries, and their free time, or discipline, to actually exercise.
Here is what I have seen, and a bit of background:
- been familiar with gym/weights since Jr/Sr year high school…and liked playing basketball a lot.
- had sciatica issues in early 20s…might be genetic predisposition or just wasn’t watching form much back then. Issues went away with sleeping on my side and not being reckless with form.
- strained one of the “L’s” in my knee about 15-20 years ago and that ended racquetball and basketball pickup games for a long time. With family and work, basketball time was less available and racquetball died off a few years ago it seems.
- my weight fluctuates…never been thin but usually go from average to “need to lose 15 pounds” and back.
So covid hits and the gyms close and honestly I had been getting bored to tears of going to gyms…often starting a membership and then immediately regretting that decision when I realize every exercise I have done a ton of times.
But related to this thread, I started researching Sprints and all the benefits. Just go look at long-distance runners vs Sprinters to visually see the difference, from a muscle-building perspective. I was long wary of squats due to sciatica popping back up, and didn’t want to however be the guy skipping leg day. But I really like sprints and saw the benefits. I could only do about 5-8 sets a week, to keep my knees fresh, but saw muscle development in my legs and it just simply feels great (not in the moment of the last sprint perhaps, but afterwards and days that follow).
It may be controversial to many, but I much prefer walking mixed with sprints vs any jogging. All jogging seems to do is increase the amount of time my knees take a pounding. Sprints may be more intense, but the total amount of time impacting the knees is drastically lower than a long jog. So I never jog. I do bike a bit, but more to get to a forest preserve path to then walk…I don’t bike for exercise. The form of a bent-over bicyclist isn’t good, imo, and I see it only slightly better than jogging as it is at least easier on the knees.
If you haven’t done sprints in a long time, I HIGHLY recommend you really ease into it. Run at about 60-75% speed once or twice. Wait a few days. Increase slowly and stretch a bit in advance. I prefer to run on grass, and I always walk the area back and forth a couple times, removing any branches and looking for any obvious unevenness in the chosen path. There is a long underpass off a forest preserve I will use as a backup, but that pounding is harder on the knees than grass. The indoor track at gym is more shock absorbent, but often a bit too crowded for easy sprint sessions.
If you think you can do them, highly recommend you add the sprints.
For muscle-building:
I came across athleanx.com and highly recommend the youtube videos. The founder (Jeff C.) appears to be from a physical therapist background and is his own case study as his body is incredibly consistent for well over a decade now. Now a buff monster, more a lean monster.
What I liked most about Jeff’s approach is:
- no diet fads, no keto, no fasting…just common-sense. He does advocate removing sweets and alcohol from diet, which isn’t issue for me.
- shows a lot of examples of exercises NOT to do, helping keep you from being injured.
- shows a lot of new exercise types, which I really needed to combat that gym boredom of doing the same old routines over and over.
- I have seen results over the past 1-2 years that validates all of this.
Probably not at peak muscle mass in my life…hard to match my late 20’s. I definitely don’t stay slim easier as metabolism craps out for me in my 40s. And while I don’t concern myself with matching my bench press peak in my late 20s (I don’t do any max 1-2 rep lifting at all) I feel I am stronger now than ever in most areas, as I can lift heavier weight for 8-12 reps in a variety of exercises that I am fairly sure I wasn’t doing in my 20s/30s/40s.
The key is being very controlled, and I get tons of recovery time.
I have 3 main gym days a week, keeping at least 1 day off between each, and so I only do certain exercises once a week (shoulders, chest, etc…).
I am intense in my approach as I tend to alternate “push” and “pull” exercises and don’t really rest. This has benefit of keeping me moving and out of the gym before too long.
Final comment is that if I wasn’t such a crap swimmer, I would try and regularly do laps (much like sprinting) due to low-impact on joints and all benefits of sprints. I have considered taking swim lessons to fix my form to better do laps and may still do that. Maybe my 60s will be the decade of water.
good luck to all,
Dreamer
5 Likes
I have never had a gym membership. I walk around the hood in the summer and pedal the bike in the winter. I have a stereo and a TV in the back room, where the bike is. I historically listen to music or watch the noon news while pedaling. “Charge” moved the broadcast time for “Magnum PI” to late morning, and I have found that, even though I have seen the episodes many times, I can get absorbed in the plot and the pedal time goes a lot faster, than watching the “news” spew it’s daily dose of hype and hysteria.
And, as I am not dependent on a gym, using someone else’s equipment and air, the plague did not impact my routine one whit.
Steve
The quickest way to increase VO2max (measure of cardiovascular fitness) is interval training. The Swedes have used a method for a long time and coined the term “fartlek” for “speed play”. When I train for longer running events, a typical session would go: run 1 minute, jog 2, run 2, jog 4, run 3, jog 6, run 2, jog 4, run 1, jog 2, done. Each time seeing if I can go faster during the runs and cover more total distance during the session.
1 Like
@steve203 your legs are probably as strong as they are going to get.
If you want to challenge your cardiovascular system you will have to use more than your leg muscles. You can use your whole body. That’s what I do.
Get hand weights that you can lift above your head with moderate effort. (I use 5 pounds but used to use 8 pounds when I was young. You should probably use 8 or 10 or 12 pounds.)
Put on some music with a snappy, moderately fast beat. (Not super fast.)
Take your hand weights and do a squat. Then rise from the squat and do a shoulder lift (straight up). Maintain good foot position and posture to avoid twisting a joint.
Use the music to pace yourself with the squat - lift - squat - lift sequence for a couple of minutes. This is a whole-body exercise. Lifting the weights above the heart while straightening the legs puts a lot of pressure on the CV system.
If that doesn’t get your heart beating fast enough, speed up the music and/or increase the weights.
Wendy
I’m not a good swimmer. But I am a great believer in water exercise. I did deep-water aerobics (1 hour, 4 days a week) after I tore my posterior tibial tendon (in the ankle).
Deep-water aerobics uses many different movements, led by a teacher to nice music (similar to aerobic dancing). Unlike swimming, which uses repetitive motions, deep-water aerobics stretches and strengthens the body in all directions. I wore a flotation belt for neutral buoyancy since I’m not a good swimmer.
I found that I did not get as strong as land-based exercise. On the plus side, nothing hurt which was a huge benefit since my injury was painful. Some class attendees said that the only time they were not in pain is when they were doing the class.
If you have any orthopedic problems (which many people develop in their 60s) this will be the answer.
Wendy
1 Like
Not to me. Back in college I had a friend on the volleyball team who got me into doing his workouts with him, which consisted of running up (fast) and down (slowly) stairs at the football stadium. His theory was that after about 15 minutes of that your goose was cooked and so it was a very efficient workout. Back then, we certainly weren’t aware of any science that said that was a good workout, but it seemed to be very effective. Today, that’s probably what we call HIIT.
I still do a version of that. I walk to a nearby park that has a medium flight of stairs. I run up and down about five times, at which point my goose is cooked. Then I walk home. The whole thing takes about 25 minutes, of which is about seven minutes is running stairs.
I do it mostly to get in shape for ski season. There are almost certainly better ways (haven’t really investigated it), but it gets me into shape fast fast and doesn’t take a lot of time.
1 Like
From what I’m fathoming, you don’t quite have the muscular strength and endurance to provide a cardiovascular challenge, right? Not pain or signs of impending injury. Just plain old weakness.
That was me at the start of this year. Not because of faulty training practices or even “age”… bunion surgery a couple of months before (end of October) with the resulting time off my feet and no weight bearing activity. After procrastinating for a few years, I bit the bullet on decision making in Jan 2021, saw the orthopedist around March and scheduled the surgery for end of October. Since I expected to be laid up for a while and knew the potential effects on muscle loss…especially those fast twitch fibers…I set about a “supercompensation” training programme, adding more high impact and plyometrics to my usual regimen. Before my surgery I ran a pretty decent timed 10k and was able to do a 12" box jump multiple times no problem. Was intending to do the other foot this last October but postponed it pending evidence that I have some degree of resolution with my newly diagnosed ASCVD.
Well, point of this tale is that, even though I’ve challenged myself a fair bit more than your account suggests with a regimen that ought to have me in the shape I was before my surgery, I have not regained the muscle mass I lost with just a short time hors de combat. Can only just hack a quasi plyometric jump onto (gulp) a step with NO risers and I still have a Corporal Klinger calf. I can, however, bang out high intensity intervals on my Peloton (too nervous to run real fast on the treadmill) The Gravity of Aging.
If you actually want to improve performance, I think you need a fair bit more “fast twitch specific” training than you’re doing now.
All y’all are selling yourself short. I xc ski’d today, did 2 hours. I was either the youngest, or one of the youngest on the trail ( and I’m in my early 60’s ). And since it is a man-made-snow loop that the skiers nascar ( circle) around on, got to see everybody else that was skiing, and yeah, everybody was old. There is climbing, even though it’s a man made snow loop, so ones HR does spike at times. Nobody was having any trouble getting around the trail, despite their age. Don’t let the internet tell you that you’re too old to go out and have some fun while pushing yourself physically.
3 Likes
Wendy,
That is one form of HIIT. I studied a trainer on the Masterclasses. He was doing about 25 minutes of that as part of the program. It is extremely healthy as you know.
That trainer was a college football player bound for the pros till he had an ankle injury. Then he became a trainer to the stars.
What I have are two pounders, that I inherited. 200 presses/3 times a week. plus 40 crunches, plus 200 curls with a stretchy band thing (I forget what weight, it’s more than the dumbells). I look like a pot-bellied old phart, but almost broke out laffing when the girl at Walgreens was about to give me my flu shot a few years ago. Rolled up my sleeve and she said “ooh, muscles!”. Don’t know what she was looking at as I don’t see any bulging “muscles”.
I don’t want to go a lot heavier with weights, as one shoulder is still wonky from the flop I took on the sidewalk last summer.
I do the weight thing during the late news. They have a segment between the weather and sports that I call “the freak show”, it’s stupid criminals, people behaving badly, the usual garbage that the “news” pedals these days.
One positive of my routine, when the doc gives me the stink-eye and demands to know what I do for exercise, my routine shuts him right up.
Steve
1 Like
I stretch a lot and do a sort of inverted weight lifting mostly. It is meant to strengthen the joint tendons. Right now I am getting back into some basic core exercises that I will build on for three weeks.
1 Like
great post, thank you