Iron, Speed, Paleo…and the Magic of HIIT

I get plenty of questions – and understandably so – one way or another related to my fascination with the fixed-speed (or fixed-gear) bicycle.  Well, one aspect of the fixie experience that I covet — aside from the cycling purist’s love of the unbroken convergence of body, machine and pavement – is the ability to absolutely thrash a high intensity interval training (HIIT) session on each and every fixie ride.  The fixed-speed machine lends itself well to HIIT sessions due to the fact that an all-out effort can be achieved virtually right out of the blocks, and for the fact that this effort can be maintained for the duration of the sprint – whether that sprint lasts 5 seconds, or as long as a full minute – which happens to be the top end of the range, for my particular purposes/goals.  On a fixie machine, if the wheels are spinning, your legs are humping – coasting is not an option – and slowing down requires a direct opposition to the momentum you’ve previously established.  The legs, in other words, are under constant assault.  “Huckin it fixed” imparts a huge overall energy expenditure coupled with a very fast power output/energy ramp-up requirement (if one so chooses to push the ride in this direction) that is unique to a fixed-gear set-up.  By way of analogy, I think you could look at the difference between a fixed-gear ride and a single/multi-speed ride as being the difference between a stadium step sprint session and a long, slow jog.

The spill-over efficacy of HIIT-like training, into the more endurance-ended demands of cycling, have been born out to me time and time again.  I never train for endurance per se, yet when I engage in endurance rides, my conditioning is more than equal to the task.  The link cited above references many of the most informative university studies on the efficacy of HIIT training.  If you’re endurance minded, looking for a conditioning boost (great preparation for the upcoming football season!), or if you simply want to kick-start (or maintain) some serious fat-burning potential, do yourself a favor and don’t overlook this method of training.  Of course sprinting is the easiest way to implement a HIIT-like protocol, but any exercise modality can be modified to work – weight training, biking, rowing – the possibilities are truly endless.

This I can tell you: a short HIIT session – whether that session involves riding, sprinting or weights — will leave your body in metabolic hyper-drive for many, many hours following the session – much, much more so than any prolonged-slog or plodding trudge will ever do.  For instance, on Monday I did a short series of sprints totaling approximately 8 miles and 30 minutes – approximately 4 miles/15 minutes to the coffee shop, 4 miles/15 minutes on the return.  Now, 8 miles is no big deal on a bike – especially since I kick back with a red-eye and a good read for an hour or so in the middle of it all — however, each leg of the trip was marked by a series of hard sprints and easy “spins” (“spins” being at a light, recovery cadence).  What was the sprint-to-spin ratio?  Well, it varied – hey, this is real life! —  the key is that I sprint until I have to stop due to exhaustion or traffic obstacle, and I spin until I recover “adequately”, or until I have another opportunity to sprint.  In this way, the sprint/spin ratio is highly fractal/variable, and that’s the way I like it.  Sometimes I’m fully recovered from the previous sprint before diving into the next, sometimes I’m still heaving like a freight train.  The bottom line is that little bit of work jacks my metabolism for the remainder of the evening and into the night.  The buzz in the legs, the elevated body temperature, the ravenous appetite – yep, those are the signs of a metabolism in high-gear; the same prolonged indicators you’ll never enjoy following a long, slow and excruciating dull session.

Of course, endurance types attempting to better performance in a particular event – or modality, for that matter — can always combine more precise and directed HIIT training together with heart rate monitoring/tracking in order to maximize training effect.  For example, check out Dr. Mike Nichols’ take on heart rate training, here (note: this is part 5 of the series, which is, as of this writing, the final installment on the topic.  Make sure you check out all the installments, though.  Very, very informative stuff indeed!).  It’s a little more than I care to manage at the moment, but hey, there may come a time when I’ll want to train in a more directed manner.  It’s always good to have options, and to understand the science behind those options.

Tuesday’s Iron Works –

Basic? You bet.  Effective?  No friggin’ doubt.  Remember, the mind might require novelty, but the body doesn’t give a damn.  The body’s job is to overcome a stress, and be better prepared to face that stress next time around.  Simple as that.

Beating the coming rain acted as added incentive, both in busting out a fast fixie sprint session heading into the gym, and getting my ass home following.

Kicked things off with the following superset:

front “military” press (strict, no “push”): 115 x 5; 135 x 5; 155 x 3; 165 x 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2

straight bar muscle-up (pull-up variety): bodyweight x 2 reps each round.

then,

good mornings (wide stance, slight knee bend): used red bands on all sets – 135 x 6; 155 x 6, 185 x 4, 4, 4

then a quick superset of –

db triceps roll-out extensions (from floor): 50 x 10, 9

ez bar bicep curl: bar + 80 x 12, 12

then, as a finisher –

Nautilus 4-way neck: front and each side – 50 lbs x 10; back – 65 lbs x 10 (last 4 reps rest-pause)

A cool front is punching its way down south tonight.  Sweet relief  🙂

The Five Elements — Matching “Wiring” to Modality

So, how are you “wired”?  Here’s another aspect to consider when mapping a training plan.  As one becomes more adept at “reading” one’s own body — and now we’re digging down to some serious n=1 activity — is determining one’s physio-psychological make-up.  Charles Poliquin uses the analogy of the Five Elements, or the five physical types described in Chinese medicine.  I think this is a fine analogy, so long as we resist the urge to “categorize completely and wholly”.  As is the case with astrology — stick with me here, I’ve not completely stumbled away from my gourd! — purity of type (sign, element, ect.) simply does not exist.  People can be “heavy” in one aspect or another — predominantly influenced by this element or that — to be sure, though, the human personality is more an alloy than a pure element; the n=1 challenge being to tease-out that predominant element in one’s own (or your client’s own) make-up.  I think it’s also important to note as well, the fact that no one is absent any “element”.  Diminished or understated, yes; each aspect, though, is present in every trainee — the matter of degree is what we’re searching for.

Of course, if you’re put off by all of this “touchy-feely” stuff, we can just agree that people are wired differently and respond to a given protocol rather uniquely.  Many times “non-responders” or “hardgainers” simply have not coupled their “elemental make-up” with the right modality.  Remember, few things in physical culture can be taken as absolutes — other than that there are no absolutes.  By cultivating a healthy n=1, pioneering attitude though, (embracing the “wood” aspect), one will eventually lock-on to a modality that fits.

Tuesday’s training –
An evening session this go-around.  One advantage for working out in the evening is that my CNS is fully “awake”; no matter how much I warm up in the morning, my CNS is just not ready to fully blow-and-go.  Of course, working out first thing in the AM has multiple advantages in its own right — the biggest being that “life” is less likely to bump a workout.  There’s a give and take to everything in life, and each person’s “optimum workout window” is no different.

About a 20-minute fixie ride to warm-up — “warm-up” being the understatement of the day; damn, it’s friggin’ hot out lately.

Superset fashion with these two –
clean-grip low pulls: 225 x 3, 3; 245 x 3; 255 x 3; 265 x 3, 3, 3, 3
weighted dips: 45 x4; 80 x 3; 90 x 3; 95 x 3; 100 x 3, 3, 3, 3

Followed by another superset here –
barbell muscle-up: 135 x 4, 4, 4
straight bar muscle-up (the pull-up variety): bodyweight x 3, 2, 2

…and then, some Nautilus 4-way Neck work: front and each side – 50 lbs 10 each; rear – 60 lbs x 10

Finished-up with a nice fixie sprint home to some damn fine leftovers — grass-fed eye of chuck being the main player.  Meal porn to follow.

The Past Weekend’s Workout Happenings

Saturday, 5/15/10
So the local farmers’ market is located about a hard 15-minute fixie burst from my house.  Soon after rolling out of bed on Saturday, splashing some water on my face and, after savoring a few cups of joe, I saddled-up and headed out for some provisions.  15-minutes later and without a hitch, I’m picking up 3 lbs of beef sausage and a couple of pounds of ground beef (all locally raised, grass-fed).  Life is great!  I saddle back up and hit the road, and 10 minutes into the return blitz I’m met with the pop/pffffft! and squiggly rear-end that all riders dread.  Damn.  Ok, time for some quick roadside (the parking lot of the Rocky Mount Telegram, to be precise) triage/tire swap — made a tad more urgent, now, due to the 5 lbs of frozen steer in my backpack.  No blood, no foul, as they say (that’ll come later), and in a few minutes I’m back on the road, rockin’ out a good, leg-burning pace.  The culprit, BTW?  A V-bent hunk of wire (clothes hanger wire?) that found its way into my sidewall.  What are the odds of that?  Oh well, shit happens.

OK, so I made it home, chucked the meat in the freezer, and headed back out with the intent of doing one of my favorite “endurance” workouts, the 15 x 15 in 15 — that’s 15 x 100 yrd sprints, each completed in 15 seconds or less, with all 15 sprints completed in a total time of 15 minutes.  In other words, 15 sec’s “on”, 45 sec’s rest x 15 rounds.  Sounds easy, huh?  Uhh, yeah…anyway, like a friggin’ dumb-ass, I decide not to don the ol’ Vibrams, opting instead to attack these au natural over the brick-hard ground.  Why, you ask, would I do such a stupid-ass thing?  I don’t know…the sparse grass felt good between my toes?  Who knows why I do some of the things I do.  Now sometimes this quirkiness pays big dividends in that I find a new wrinkle to add to my exercise tool box, and sometimes, well, it leads to something like this —

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On a brighter note, the placement of these blisters indicates a proper sprinting foot-strike.  Hey, when life hurls lemons your way, go fetch the tequila and lime  🙂

Yeah, so I cut the sprint session short at 10 rounds.  Oh well, what to do but saddle-up and head to the gym, right?  You bet.  After fixie-ing around a good bit more (Weather’s too nice to be inside just yet), that is.  Once I finally did make it to the gym, though, I did this nifty little superset:

btn push-press: 135 x 5; 155 x 3; 165 x 3; 185 x 2, 2
straight bar muscle-ups: x 3, each round

Then it was back on the bike for more riding.  I’d guess that by the time it was all said and done, I’d put in a good 2-and-a-half hours of combined saddle time.

Oh yeah, I began all of this madness in a 15+ hour fasted state, with the post-workout re-feed not occurring until after hour 20 (ish).  Any detrimental effects?  None.  If I were a sugar-burner, though, I’d have been a drooling, blithering, palsying spectacle — and that would have been even before I started my barefooted sprints.  Hmmm, maybe I can blame my non-Vibram wearing, abject stupidity on being in a fasted state?  Nice try, but I don’t think so.  About IF’ing: the bottom line is that IF can definitely help in eliminating those last few stubborn pounds, while at the same time contributing to improved, overall health.  However, IF does present an additional stress to the body.  As such, you need to first get your other dietary and lifestyle ducks in a row prior to dabbling with IF; to do otherwise is simply to add suction to the stressor/cortisol death-vortex.  There’s a place for radical and a place for reason — the key is realize the right time for each approach.  By the way, if you’ve got a membership to the Crossfit Journal, check out trainer E.C. Synkowski’s recent take on IF, here.

From the Crossfit Journal site:
HQ trainer and athlete E.C. Synkowski is no slouch in the gym and has had great success using intermittent fasting as an approach to insulin regulation and recovery. In this video interview by Patrick Cummings, E.C. takes us through the process of getting used to fasting and explains why she does it and how her body has responded over the last few years.

Sunday, 5/16/10
It’s gonna rain, it’s not gonna rain, it’s gonna rain, it’s not gonna rain…
So the plan today was to saddle-up the mountain bike and hit the trails, but the rain situation scared me off.  I don’t do fickle.  And yeah, I’m a fair-weather mountain bike kinda guy; I steer free of the rain and muck if I can avoid it.  Anyway, on to plan B —

More fixie riding — about an hour-and-a half worth today (and I can tell my legs are getting zorched) — broken-up by a 45-minute iron session, that went a little something like this:

Cuban press (very strict form): 3 sets of 10, fat Oly Bar.  Note: no need to press the bar to full lock-out from the intermediate position (as in the demo clip); in fact, this motion allows for unneeded rest between the “meat” reps.

whip snatch to overhead squat: 115 x 5 sets of 5.  Each rep as fast as possible without sacrificing form.  Very little rest between sets.  115 pounds feels like a 300 pound slosh tube by the 5th set.

Then this superset —

clean grip high pull, from the floor: 185 x 3, each round
weighted dips: 45 x 7; 70 x 3; 90 x 3; 100 x 3; 105 x 3

Note: I used standard 35 lb plates for the high pull set-up so as to force a lower starting position in the pull from the floor.  Just another way to change things up.

The take home message
Ok, so shit happens, and your workouts plans will get mucked-up at times.  Don’t let that be an excuse to wuss-out, hit the couch and nurse a cold one.  Think on the fly, and pull out another trick from the bag.  Maybe even try something totally off the wall.  Do you think your body really cares, in the grand scheme of things, that you substituted X workout for Y?

And a public service announcement about this weekend’s heavy volume —
I do a heavy volume “something” like this every now and then, but only when I feel like it — never do I force it.  It’s a random, chaotic thing, and when I feel it, I go with it.  Keep a pace like this for long, though, and an injury of some sort will see to it that you take it easy for a while.

3/27/10; Change-of-Direction Sprints, and Another Look at Walmart?

45 minutes worth of fixie sprints to start this one off today; 17-hours fasted.  I stopped off at the library for about an hour, and winded-up leaving with a copy of The 10,000 Year Explosion.  I’ve been wanting to read it for some time, now, as I keep seeing anti-Paleo arguments infused with vague references to the book.   From what I gather, these arguments are based on misinterpretations of the book’s points, but hey – I just want to see for myself.

Anyway, then it was back in the saddle for another 15 minutes or so, and out to the field where I mixed it up with some 3 cone and pro agility, change-of-direction sprints.  Why change-of-direction sprints?  Because the start/stop, turn & twist nature of these movements is altogether different than straight-line sprinting.  Again, just another tool in the toolbox.

10 x 25 yd sprint starts served as the bike-to-sprint transition; then 6 x pro agility (2 minute rest between runs), followed by 6 x 3 cone drill (2 minute rest between runs)

Pro Agility:

3 cone:

Then it was into the gym and in the power rack for the following:

btn barbell push-press: 135 x 3; 165 x 3; 185 x 3; 195 x 2; 200 x 1

jump squat (from 1/4 squat position):135 x 3; 165 x 3; 185 x 3; 195 x 3; 200 x 3

muscle-ups @ bodyweight: 3 each round

5 total rounds here, then picked it up and biked back home.  Good, good stuff.

Holding one’s own convictions in highest suspicion — this is the essence of epistemology.  It’s also the “freak flag” I most proudly wave.  In the spirit of that epistemocratic philosophy, I offer you the following: a second look at Walmart.  Yeah, that Walmart; the enterprise we all love to hate.

I have to admit that I am (was?) a total Walmart snob, opting to do the bulk of my food shopping at farmer’s markets, and upper-end chains such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and, in a pinch, Harris Teeter.  Over the past year or so  though, those times when I have slunk into a Walmart, I’ve noticed something odd — an abundance of fresh, good-looking fruits and veggies.  Plenty of organic choices and a clean, tidy appearance.  And damn if they don’t have the market cornered on good avocados.  Now, for the most part I’ve turned my nose up at these pleasant offerings (“trucked halfway across hell and back”, shitty employee labor practices, supplier manipulation, etc…).  Well, maybe it’s time to give the behemoth another look.  Can offerings of grass-fed beef be far behind?  Hey, I’m just sayin’…

So check out this recent NPR Talk of the Nation broadcast with guest Corby Kummer, senior editor for The Atlantic. His article, “The Great Grocery Smackdown: Will Wal-Mart, Not Whole Foods, Save The Small Farm And Make America Healthy?” appears in the March 2010 issue of the magazine.  It’s a good companion read to the interview.

Anyhow, listen to the broadcast.  Read the article.  Allow your assumptions to be challenged.  Epistemology is not about just flapping in the direction of the prevailing wind; it is, though, about having the strength to see your core convictions dragged out into the light of day and dusted-up a bit.   I won’t ever stop going to farmers markets, simply for the purity of that social exchange.  But if Walmart is serious about doing good and playing nice with the local farmer, I’ll give them another look, as I will any outlet that does the same.  I’m certainly not loaded with dollars, but those that I do have, I will “vote” with.

Oh yeah, and see if you can resist screaming “just go Paleo!” when, during the Talk of the Nation broadcast, the conversation turns to celiac disease, and the availability/cost of gluten-free products.  UGH!!

1/20/10, Power-Endurance Emphasis

This is the workout equivalent to last night’s crock-pot bison roast.  Nuthin’ fancy here, just a “put-up or shut-up” kind of a deal.  Not much in the way of equipment or space requirements, either; one relatively heavy dumbbell and a pull-up bar.  Some chalk and straps for the later rounds.  Booya!

As the Zen Master says: there is no say, there is only do.  I would add that there is no room for “contemplation” as well.  11 rounds of this in 26:43.  Skewed toward the heavier load/longer rest side of the continuum.  One of the more CrossFit-like workouts that I’ll do.  Call it MetCon, if you like (and I guess you could), though I believe that my “power-endurance” terminology comes closer to identifying the true nature of this workout.  In my opinion, this sprint-interval workout is more along the lines of true MetCon work.  But that’s just splitting so many hairs, and I digress; here’s the day’s fun:

– each of the 11 “rounds” entailed the following:

• the Cred + single arm press + single arm push-press + single arm split-jerk (right arm, immediate movement to movement transition)
• same drill with the left arm/side
• 2 pull-up bar muscle-ups

Bw muscle-ups, 90 lb db for the cred/press combo.

Are you down with “the Cred” (the single-arm db snatch)?  If not, check out this and this.  Transition directly from the overhead finish position of the Cred into the single-arm db press.  Of course, the weak link in this combo is the strict press, and this is the movement to first degenerate.  What I do to compensate, then is to allow for a minimum of “cheat” push as the rounds progress.  Being a stickler on the strict press would of course require that I reduce the weight used overall in the movement, and I’m not willing to do that (i.e., skimp on the cred portion of the combo).  But that’s just how I roll, others may choose otherwise.  As I critique this workout, I see that I should have pushed a bit harder on the muscle-ups (gone 3 or 4 each round -or added 10 lbs or so) or used rings.  I’ll note this and accomodate accordingly next time I do a similar combo.

Gym Closed? No Worries, Here…

“Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.”

– Leonardo Da Vinci

Today’s was a multi-element workout —  and a few exercise explanations are required —  so instead of my normal Twitter workout update, I’ll post today’s workout here.

First off, it was an absolutely beautiful day here in Eastern NC –sunny, low 80’s, light breeze and low humidity (a rarity in these parts) — made it an absolute pleasure to be outside.  No better time, then, to lug my 30-ish lb. homemade medicine ball up to the ECU throwing practice area (aka, the playground), via my trusty fixie.  Quite the warm-up.  Once there, I hit this little mash-up:

• Overhead Lunges x 45 lbs x 45-ish yds
• Pull-up bar muscle ups x 4
• Elevated feet ring flyes x 10
• Caber toss (for height rather than for for distance; a slightly different engagement and action) x 5
• Reactive press toss* x 20

Conservatively, I’d say I hit 4 rounds of this, but it may have actually been 6 or even 7.  My mind tends to wonder when I’m working out, and since total rounds completed doesn’t really matter to me — I go by per-exercise rep drop off mostly, to let me know when I’m “done” — I tend to lose track — especially when I’m outside at the playground.

the extent of my artistic skills...

*For this exercise, the key point is to pretend that the ball is red-hot — get it out of the hands and as far away as possible on each return.  A lightening-fast change of direction is what we’re after.

As a side note, the fixie intervals on the way home (with a diversion through the ECU campus) without the medicine ball made me feel as if I were flying.  Until my legs died,  that is — pre-exhausted as they were, from the OHLs.  Good times 🙂

In health,

Keith