15-minute Blog: SMART High Intensity Training

I had my time on the high-intensity training wagon, preaching TABATA and telling my endurance buddies to stop wasting their time with their distance training.  And then I stepped back and saw the big picture: there's a time to do high intensity, a time for low intensity, and life is better when you do BOTH in moderation.

I jumped on the  High-Intensity wagon initially because of it's success for fat reduction and time efficiency.  The only downside to high intensity training is fatigue and discomfort.  I recently saw a forum thread entitled HIIT (high-intensity interval training) burns 9-times more fat than regular cardio.  This thread cited the infamous TABATA protocol of 7-8 bouts of 20 seconds of high intensity work followed by 10 seconds of recovery.  It blew my mind when I saw some of the subsequent forum posts suggesting the WORST modes of exercise for this protocol.

FACT: Most if not ALL the studies on  high intensity interval training and its dramatic rate of fat loss and cardiovascular gains were performed on ergometers A.K.A. STATIONARY BICYCLES.

• The TABATA protocol required one to push at 120% of their VO2 max. for 20 seconds at a time.  Remember that VO2max is the maximum work output one can do aerobically, and 120% of it means that one is going significantly anaerobic.  120% of one's VO2 max is pretty damn exhausting and the national caliber speed skaters in the original TABATA study were wiped out after the 20 minute protocol (includes warm-up and cool-down).  My point is that these people generated ridiculous amounts of fatigue to perform the protocol correctly and that the bicycle ergometers  allowed for high levels of fatigue without increased chance of injury.  There were idiots on the forum thread bragging about doing the protocol with heavy and technical lifts!  Try and do a technical or heavy lift (snatch, clean, deadlift, etc.) under tremendous fatigue and I guarantee form will suffer.  Try and push through such exercises with compromised form and the likelihood of injury goes through the roof!

The moral of this post is to be smart when selecting your mode of high intensity interval training.  Pick an exercise where the likelihood of injury remains low even if your form goes to shit.  I would recommend the stationary bike, the elliptical machine, a rower or any other exercise machine that allows one to bail out quickly, and that doesn't require a whole lot of technique.  Get fit, save time, but don't get hurt.

Happy Training,

DAVE

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