15-min Conditioning: Maximum Destruction

I’m not a fan of “one-off” workouts. I’m all about training in a well planned system for superior results. I mean, have you ever talked to me?

While training plans are always best, sometimes it’s fun and totally appropriate for you to test yourself with a really hard single workout. It can be used as a measuring stick for the future or a way to see who ends up in the bathroom first: you or your buddy.

Also, if you only have a short amount of time and want to smash yourself (ie, maximize your time), this will be a good option for that, too.

Equipment needed for maximum destruction… I mean, progress:

Assault Bike or Woodway Curve***

Do a solid warm-up (if you need ideas here’s How to Warm-up in a Hurry)

Once you’re ready to go, hop on your bike or treadmill and go…

:45 as hard as possible (watch your watts and/or speed to ensure maintaining your peak) combine with 90-sec Active Recovery (jogging or light-ish biking)

REPEAT 6 times

Alright, so I know the above workout looks pretty benign. It is NOT. Please use good judgement before deciding if this is a good workout match for you.

If you’ve tracked your output via speed or watts and maintained your peak output, you can effectively leave the gym knowing your body is well on it’s way to recovering to a state that is more healthy and useful than when you walked in! 

Closing thought: if you’re not messed up the rest of the day, you didn’t actually give it your all and need to try again next week. Hey, sometimes we have to teach our body how to work. It’s okay, but just know this one is a killer.

***Lots of equipment can work like a traditional treadmill, spin bike or a VersaClimber. You want to be able to see some sort of measurable for your work and recovery periods. I would not recommend elliptical or stepper.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Breathing Basics: Switching Sympathetic to Parasympathetic

Breathing drills have become an important foundation to each and everyone of my training sessions and it is something that, while complex on the surface, can be implemented in very simple ways that come with huge payoff.

If you want to get a primer in breathing drills, please check out my post from a few years back to get a foundational understanding of WHY they can be an important part of any training session: BREATHING DRILLS

In the past, I really only used one breathing drill per session, today it is up to a minimum of three. I like using a 3-drill circuit as the first thing the athlete does in their session for dual purpose of reaching the autonomic nervous system and targeting the respiratory muscles for warm-up purposes.

When using these drills in this way, paying attention to the way the athlete is breathing is very important. In this case the correct way would be to get as much air in as you can through your nose, hold it for a moment, and then exhale through the mouth. 

Perhaps this runner could benefit from a pre-session breathing circuit to help optimize airflow and prevent excessive exhaustion?

Outside of this there are body positions that are more optimal to do this in than others, however this may be more useful when we are trying to reset positions than anything else. In truth, it really does not matter the position in which you are breathing, the most important thing is that we are breathing deeply. 

The main goal of this type of breathing drill is to take us or our athletes from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state. This would mean switching your brain away from the daily stresses that all people deal with (from their boss, family, relationships, etc.) to focusing on the practice/training session in which they are about to engage. It helps the mind separate from the noise that doesn't help while you’re training, practicing, or competing. 

The other purpose that the breathing serves is to get the airflow to go through the body in a way that is extremely helpful for learning how to properly brace and support the spine. This is a safety enhancement, first and foremost, and a performance enhancement second. We want the body to be able to brace against and resist force, while we also want it to be able to produce force. Both of these are optimized with proper breathing. 

Bracing and resisting against forces protects us from injury, while producing force is what aids our performance. Breathing drills are the easiest way to start to teach an athlete’s body how to do those things. The key is making sure that the airflow is going deep down into your belly and expanding into your lower back and into the sides of your waist. 

With this style of breathing we are also activating all of the important muscles in the trunk that are involved in bracing. Activating these muscles help realign the bony structures in our body to aid in stability and bracing.  For example, many people tend to have an anterior pelvic tilt. If you think about your hips as a bucket of water, if you dip it forward, that would be an anterior pelvic tilt, and the water is now spilling out a little bit. Breathing drills help us pull those hips back into neutral and teach the muscles what that feels like to be neutral and braced in that position. Another good example of this would be rib position. 

Another common positional fault would be an overextended position in the ribs, which carries over to both injury risk and performance. This is another common postural fault that increases injury risk and can decrease performance just through an ineffective improper rib position. If someone is standing and they seem to be sticking their chest out, they are probably overextended. They're not just standing straight up, they're going beyond that. The telltale sign for this is we see the ribs sticking out. There are simple breathing drills that work to tuck those ribs back in and teach them where they should be. We need to get them to have a closer relationship with the diaphragm, which is extremely important from a positional standpoint. 

Nothing fancy here. Just deep breaths.

We went pretty into the weeds here but the most important thing to take away is if you come into the gym a little stressed out, just take some time and do a breathing drill. For example, eight deep breaths as a minimum. You can do those seated, close your eyes or don't close them, just make sure that air goes in through your nose and out through your mouth, traveling deep deep down into your belly. Doing this alone will really help you feel more calm and ready to get into your training session or whatever it is that you're trying to transition into.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

More is NOT Better - Intern Post by Josh

I've been going on and on about the quality of our interns and the SAPT internship experience, but it's true. We've got some crazy awesome interns this summer. Below is Josh's first post. Like Goose, Josh was also on the track team at Mason... as a pole vaulter *gasp!* That's my gut reaction, anyway... terror! Having my feet above my head has never been okay. I never learned to do a proper cartwheel because of that. I'll happily pile hundreds of pounds on my spine, but feet over my head? No thanks.I used to watch in amazement as Josh would perform handstand pushups outside of my office at Mason. Pretty cool to witness an athlete perfecting that variety of movement as a key skill to their sport. If you ever get the chance to meet Josh (which you might) he's this super relaxed, low-key kind of guy. He'll very quickly put you at ease and somehow seems to have an endless supply of energy. But, he's also always on top of his stuff and tends to always impress me. Everything from the best off-the-cuff dynamic warm-ups ever to thought provoking questions to coming up with the below killer blog about regulating intensity and volume when addressing your conditioning work.

He's one of the RunFAST coaches, btw. ENJOY:

The Issue    

I ask younger athletes a lot what they plan to do over the summer now that school is out and the season is over. Many of them say that they will probably run a couple of miles a day to stay in shape and get faster. This mindset causes these athletes go out for the cross-country team expecting to get faster and stronger for their primary sport: baseball, lacrosse, or even soccer. Don’t get me wrong cross-country is great if you are out of shape and just want to develop general conditioning. HOWEVER, for the athlete that needs to be reactive and explosive, running 40-50 miles a week will not only fail to accomplish this goal but it will shift the muscle composition to be more slow twitch dominant thus losing explosiveness and reactivity capabilities.

Well Actually...

You may be thinking, “Endurance actually sounds great! I want to last a whole basketball game without passing out at the end or be able to run up and down a soccer field without gasping for air. I just want to be more in shape then everyone else.” and you still can! You can accomplish these same goals by running way less. Your sport does not only require you to last but also be quick and explosively responsive to the dynamics of the game. So why would you jog around for hours on end when your sport has high demands of fast twitch moments.

To help you better understand this concept of less there is the 80-20 Rule (or “Pareto Principle), which states that 80% of the gains comes from 20% of exercises you do. For example, let’s say for your workout for the day you do 10 exercises, 2 of those exercises are going to be responsible for 80% of the performance results. This does not mean that the other 8 exercises are not important, they are! However, this should help you understand that it is not the “more” that produces better results.

What Should I Do Then?The way this can be accomplished is by working on is fast twitch (type 1) endurance. Yes, as odd as it sounds there is such things as fast twitch endurance. Look at track and field for example. Many people who do not know the sport consider the sprinting events to be anywhere from the 400 meters races and below. However, when you start looking at the college and professional times of the 1600 meters (1-mile) race these athletes/runners are looking at the event as more of a strategic sprint.

 Ok I Get It... Just Tell Me How To Train For It Already!

Sprint endurance can be trained by running slightly longer intervals such as 200-400 meter workouts with a set rest time in between. Even though these distances are longer than one would run in a game, this trains the athlete to maintain a top speed for much longer durations.

The rest time for these intervals should be anywhere from a 1:3 - 1:5 work to rest ratio. Huh, you ask? These means that if you run a 400 meter interval in 70 seconds then you would rest anywhere from 3X to 5X the amount ran. So in this case it would range from 3 1/2 - nearly 6 minutes rest. The reason for this ratio is because biologically your ATP-PC energy system takes about that time to recover. When you are training speed endurance, you are actually training the ATP-PC energy system to recover faster. It normally takes the ATP-PC system 6-8 minutes to replenish itself.

For more information on energy system, which is IMPORTANT to understand, check out Gustavo's Article from yesterday. Scroll down to Myth #2 and he breaks down the energy systems really well.

Judging the amount of rest you should take also depends on what your workout is for the day and how you are feeling. You want to make sure you can get through the workout but you also do not want to make it too easy either. Longer rest should be taken for those who are running longer distances such as 400-meter intervals vs. 200 meter interval. Also if your main focus is on speed then you want to be well rested so that each interval is quality and fast.

One More Thing!

We live in a day where overuse injuries are very common. A lot of this is due to the association of the great workout burn to getting stronger. This mentality is what causes people to get hurt. They workout to feel that pain to justify what they do is working however they actually put too much stress on the body and not give it enough time to rest and recovery. Sure in the beginning everything is fine. You are getting stronger and more in shape but as time progresses you get that nagging pain in your hamstring or your foot. This can be caused by improper form that you have been running on consistently for months or one muscle group is trying to compensate for the other. These injuries are very difficult to treat and for an athlete to go through because in many cases the treatment is to do nothing. Every competitive athlete I know hates the idea of doing nothing.

SOOOooo....

Be smart about your training. Run with quality not quantity. It will benefit a lot more in the long run. Pun intended.

Tough Mudder Training: You're Doing it Wrong!

I have to say, SAPT's internship program absolutely rocks. We've got awesome interns and they regularly reinforce their awesomeness by rising to pretty much every challenge thrown at them. Our 400-hour interns, Goose and Josh, have been impressing me for about a full year now, beginning with volunteering hours at the Mason weightroom. Here's another great post from Goose:

With my first Tough Mudder coming up soon the topic of training has been on my mind. For those of you who’ve never heard of it, the Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile military style obstacle course with 20-25 obstacles spaced out throughout the course. Some of the obstacles include: climbing ropes, scaling walls, crawling long distances, submerging your entire body in 34 degree water, running through fire, and being electrocuted.

I asked people what they were doing to prepare and a shocking majority simply answered with running distance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a track guy and love running but this is not the best way to prepare for a Tough Mudder. With so many obstacles spread out throughout the course you’re doing a lot of starting and stopping not running 10 miles at once. People get too worried about the total mileage and don’t even think about what sets the Tough Mudder apart, the obstacles!!!

Here is where people go wrong:

1. Way Too Much Running Volume!

Like I said before, people are getting too caught up on the 10 to 13 miles part of the race. The largest distance between obstacles is no longer than 800m which means its lots of stop and go. People would benefit more from doing sprints than 10 mile jogs. Having speed endurance to run fast between obstacles while everyone else jogs will get you to the front of the pack real quick. Some of the obstacles also involve sprinting up a slippery slope and running over a wall. Speed training will benefit individual more than slow repetitive miles.

2. No Strength Training

As I previously stated, people somehow forget about the obstacles! Climbing, crawling, scaling, all of the above take strength and mobility. How are you going to complete theses if you can’t do a simple pull up??

As I explained in my previous article, lifting will make you stronger and run faster! The Tough Mudder is really a prolonged power event with some jogging in between, not an endurance event. Lifting and mastering your bodyweight should be on top of that priority list.

3. Too Much Too Soon

With individuals being in charge of their training and with the mindset that “the more you do the better you get” we’ve got a recipe for disaster. People like to jump right into running way too much or lifting way too heavy. The thought of a prep phase to get the body ready to go gets thrown out the window because we want results NOW! This leads to injury and/or mental burnout if they somehow survive their training. The plethora of knowledge floating around on the internet doesn’t help either. The average Joe seeking a good running and lifting program could end up on an Olympic marathoner’s training plan and Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 powerlifting program. That’s going to end well ß*sarcasm*

If there is one thing you learn when you’re an injury prone individual, like me, is to listen to your body! The way your body tries to tell you things is with pain signals and soreness. If you go run 10 miles after not doing anything for 6 years and can’t get out of bed the next day, that’s your body calling you an idiot! It may be cliché but slow and steady really does win the race. A well thought out training progression will get you much further than putting yourself through a hell week of training.

4. HR Monitoring

A simple way to gauge your training intensity is getting a heart rate monitor. You might be thinking, even if I get a HR monitor I don’t know what the numbers mean! Don’t worry I’ll explain it through some simple vocab and math:

• First we want to find your Maximum Heart Rate and Resting Heart Rate:

Max HR = 220 – Age

Ex. Max HR: 220 – 22 = 198 bpm (beats per minute)

RestingHeart Rate (RHR): take a couple of minutes to site down and relax. Next find your pulse on your neck or wrist and look at your watch. Count the number of beats for 60 seconds and that is your RHR. A healthy RHR can range from 40 to 80 beats per minute depending on your age and gender.

•Now we need to find your Heart Rate Reserve (HRR):

HRR = Max HR - RHR

Ex. HRR: 198 – 62 = 136

• Almost there! Now we find Target HR. This is where it get a little trick so stay with me. We do this equation twice, once with 60% and the other with 80%.

Target HR: (HRR x 60%) + RHR

Ex. Target HR: (136 x 0.6) + 62 = 143.6 <--- rounded up 144 bpm

Target HR: (HRR x 80%) + RHR

Ex. Target HR: (136 x 0.8) + 62 = 170.8 <--- rounded up 171 bpm

• There we go, finished! So now we have our Target HR range between 60% and 80%. This simply give you an indication of where your HR should be when training. If it goes over the range you’re going too hard, if it goes below you’ve got to step it up a bit.

*This calculation is a close estimate of your Target HR, depending on your conditioning level it may be higher or slightly lower <--- (not likely)*

5. Improper Recovery

Recovery, this is something that gets overlooked by athletes and average Joes alike! All they think about going hard in training 24/7 but are their bodies ready for it? If you went hard yesterday is your body ready to go again? Did you refuel correctly? Get enough sleep? Bro do you even foam roll?

3 simple but effective ways to enhance your recovery:

• Eat Right!

This may sound like a broken record but eating right really is the best way to refuel. Throw the “recovery drinks” out the window! Fruits, veggies, grains, lean proteins, and of course the staple of any healthy diet: PB&J!! ;)

Quick note on carbo loading. STOP WITH THE CONSTANT CARBO LOADING!!!!! There’s a time and place for everything. Carbo loading was designed to increase the amount of glycogen in the muscles leading up to competition! Glycogen = energy, you’ll get all the glycogen you need to train from a healthy diet. Leave the carbo loading for what it was meant for, competition time.

• Soft Tissue Work!

Foam rolling, sports messages, lacrosse ball smashing, voodoo floss bands! Yes it’s uncomfortable and yes it hurts but nothing worth doing was even easy/painless! Soft tissue work not only enhances your muscle and joint recovery, it prevent injuries, and it gets rid of those nagging aches all over your body! Tony Gentilcore wrote a great article explaining why even “tough guys” should do soft tissue work. So I repeat my previous question. Bro, do you even foam roll??

• No More Recovery Beers!

Sorry guys and gals! No more brewskis with the broskis to celebrate that hard WOD you just did. Don’t give me that “research has shown a beer a day is good for you” crap! That’s like saying a cigarette per day keeps the doctor away, sounds legit right???

Don’t listen to doped up Arnold people! And don’t get me wrong I enjoy a nice cold one just as much as the next guy but training is a commitment. How do you expect your body to perform for you if you keep shoving crap like that into it every day! I’m a big believer in you are what you eat/drink, guess what this guys been drinking:

Below is Big Joe, one of out clients here at SAPT. He proves that age is just a number by being stronger than an ox! He qualified for The World's Toughest Mudder which is a 24hr long Tough Mudder. Less than 5% of people who compete in TM qualify for this event, he is one of them and he also lifts heavy objects!

Enough said.

RunFAST - SAPT's Secret Program Development

I’ll be honest, I’ve got a secret... it’s about a new program SAPT is developing. We’ll actually be launching all the info about it next week, but I’ve got to let on about it at least a little! I’m simply way too pumped up and have had a little too much coffee to keep this under my hat any longer.

It’s so exciting and will introduce yet another innovative, high-octane training method to the area via our resident performance coaching geniuses at SAPT.

This is the type of program that is born from those really special places that foster high-levels of both creativity and respect. An incubator for ideas where art and science merge. The type of place that values quality, service, and creativity above all else. That’s where these kinds of innovations come from.

The program is called RunFAST... that’s all I’m going to mention, as I think the name tells enough.

And, I have to also tell you this new innovative approach we’ll launch next week is just the tip of the iceberg. I wish I could let on about all our projects. But, for the moment, I’ll simply leave you with SAPT’s Big 3: Purpose, Vision, and Mission. Read into them as you like...

Our Purpose: Strengthening bodies and minds to support excellence in life.

Our Vision: People of all ages, abilities, and resources will have access to, appreciation for, and engagement in regular physical fitness training that will lead to improvements in all aspects of daily life.

Our Mission: To develop, research, and share our comprehensive approach to physical fitness training that fosters long-term engagement, promotes excellence in life, nurtures human relationships and inspires the lifelong pursuit of health through exercise.

Please stay tuned to next week on the blog... we’ll be devoting the whole week to RunFAST details!