Circuit Training for Fitness
Picture this:
You got out of work later than ususal... perfect timing to hit rush hour at its height and extend your normal 20-minute commute to the gym into an all-out 45-minute crawl full of frustration.
By the time you get to the gym, you only have about 25 minutes before you need to leave.
What do you do? Do you literally throw in your towel and just go home? How can you possibly salvage a decent training session out of the train wreck that was the afternoon?
Circuit Training is waiting to save the day! Well, so are Time Turners, but pretty much no one has one of those things...
What is Circuit Training?
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination (and your physical capacity. I know from personal experience that performing box jumps after a barbell sumo deadlift is a baaaaad idea).
Typically, circuits are comprised of 5-8 exercises and you want to work with weights about 75-80% of your max. Translation: pick weights that you could probably perform for 8-10 challenging repetitions. String them all together, and work through the circuit with minimal rest between exercises.
In terms of time, you can set up your circuit a couple of different ways:
1. Set a particular rep goal per exercise and then set your time for 15-25 minutes and see how many rounds of the circuit you can perform.
2. Pick a number of rounds to complete and try to finish as quickly as possible. Usually, if you have about 5-8 exercises, 5 rounds will be around 20-ish minutes.
Benefits of Circuits:
1. They're a great way to improve overall conditioning without watching your hard earned muscle mass wither away. Two recent research reviews (abstracts here and here) have found that steady state cardiovascular training can a) decrease power output (yikes! Not good for athletes that need to produce power aka: everyone) and b) compromise muscle mass (and thus strength) gains. This effect is seen most prominently when aerobic training is 3x/week for greater than 20 minutes. The metabolic pathways that aerobic and anaerobic (think strength training and sprint/interval training) are conflicting. It's very hard to maintain a large amount of muscle mass and be a long-distance runner!
Circuit training is similar, metabolically, to sprint/interval/hill training in that it preserves lean muscle mass.
Steady state cardiovascular training, on the other hand, can lead to elevated levels of cortisol (stress hormone) which can decrease the effectiveness of muscle-building hormones such as testosterone and insulin-like growth. It also encourages muscle protein break down.
While strength training too breaks down muscle tissue, the anabolic (building) environment produced by strength training encourages repair more than the catabolic (break down) environment of aerobic training. Strength coach Charles Poliquin says:
Whereas endurance exercises compromise anaerobic performance and body composition, anaerobic training modes such as sprint intervals and weight lifting will benefit endurance athletes if programed properly. To improve endurance performance, do a strength-type resistance training program with loads of 80 percent of the 1RM or heavier. This will train the type IIA muscle fibers so they increase the rate of force development and get faster.
Type IIA muscle fibers = strong, powerful muscles. We want those!
So if you're still with me, we'll move on to the second point.
2. It's time-efficient. After a quick dynamic warm-up and maybe a warm-up set or two of the planned exercises, the total time of a circuit should be no more than 25-minutes start to finish. 15-minutes would even be sufficient depending on the intensity of the exercise selection and weights used. Nice huh? It's just long enough to make you feel like you've worked out but not too long that you're home late for dinner.
3. (but really 2.5) Not only are they time-efficient but they're efficient in the sense that a circuit can hit a lot of muscle groups, through full ranges of motion, in one fell swoop. While a jog will really only get your legs (and, I would argue, not very well since the range of motion is small, the force production is low, and the intensity isn't that high either) and maybe some low level core activation, a circuit can be full body. Take a look at this sample:
Goblet or barbell squat x 6-8
Pushup x 8-10
Step back lunge x 6-8/side
3 Point Row x 8/side
Kettle bell swing x 10
Can you see the total body genius in that? We have lower body (both bilateral and unilateral movements), upper body (push and pull) and a delightful amount of full range of motion exercises. All of which, if one wanted, could be done with just one kettlebell.
Run through that baby 5 or 6 times and try to tell me that's not cardio. Oh wait, you can't. I can't hear you over your screaming lungs and gasping breaths.
4. Because circuits demand so much from your muscles and cardiovascular system, they're pretty calorically expensive, which means your body will be burning calories longer post-workout than they would after a lower intensity training session (aka: low-intensity, steady state cardio). On those above-linked research reviews, it was found that athletes reduced body fat when they performed high intensity exercise (sprints or circuits).
So, if you're looking for an efficient way to reduce body fat, preserve lean tissue, AND improve your cardiovascular fitness, circuit training is definitely a tool you want in your toolbox!
I feel obligated to note that strength training, solid strength training sessions, need to make up the bulk of your training week. Picking up heavy things repeatedly is the best way to build muscle and get stronger. Circuit training, while it won't make you weaker and can aid with strength gains, is inferior overall to 80-90% max lifting in terms of producing maximal strength gains. While I don't recommend basing your entire training plan around circuits, they are beneficial and even fun (yes, fun.) to throw in every once and a while.
Strength as a Foundation
On March 15, 2013 I became a regular person - well my perception of regular anyway - and I love it!
Why did I have to relinquish my super-hero status? I’ll leave it at this: I saw my dreams not just faltering, but failing. So, to get back on track, I stopped working two full-time jobs... which I had been doing for years for "fun" versus necessity. I took a break from my love-affair with iron. I also sit more than I have in about 15 years... that's a mega regular person activity!
Well, if we fast forward to today, my big dreams in life are properly realigned and effectively back within reach. But, I want to talk about what has happened to my physical foundation over that time.
SAPT’s methodology is based on the approach of Strength as a Foundation. We use various examples to explain why this is the best approach for building speed and explosiveness, but my favorite is “imagine shooting a cannon out of a canoe” sounds silly, right? Well that’s because it is. Never having operated an actual cannon myself, I can still easily imagine how ineffective and potentially dangerous it would be to try to shoot the thing out of a canoe.
The same concept holds true for performance training. If Strength as a Foundation is ignored, you’ve effectively set yourself or your child up for ineffective and potentially dangerous training.
Okay, so getting back to my little story: since becoming proudly “regular,” I’ve been working out at home and put a huge emphasis on improving my overall fitness. “Fitness” in this case meant I wanted to put a big focus on improving my cardiovascular system's functioning and efficiency. My exercise of choice? Running. And because of time limits I have only been lifting an average of 20-minutes, twice a week... but my running workouts stick around 60-90 minutes, 4-5 days a week.
Do you see where this is heading...?
I've let my foundation crack. My strength foundation. It sort of sucks. But, I planned for this to happen... I guess I just didn't know what it would feel like once I arrived. I've been lifting consistently since I was 19 years old. The longest break I’ve ever taken (up until this year) would have been a MAXIMUM of one week off from lifting. Crazy, but this 20-min/2x per week lifting has been going on for almost 4-months. With several weeks in there taken completely off from lifting.
I’ve been trying to shoot a cannon out of an ever destabilizing canoe. Attempting to keep up such a high volume, frequency, and intensity of running without maintaining my strength foundation is trouble. I’m feeling it now.
My goals have been accomplished in terms of “fitness” but I’ve been surprised what a slippery slope running that much and lifting that little has been. It’s like the losses are compounded. My knees often ache and the muscle mass in my legs (read: glutes and hamstrings) has dropped significantly.
What’s the plan and what’s the lesson?
I need to build muscle and lift weights more frequently. That’s the plan. And the lesson? As advertised, running really is detrimental to strength levels. I’m undecided about how I feel about this. Where I am in my life, running really lines up well with my mentality and goals. I can’t even begin to tell you how many excellent ideas I’ve had while running... SAPT was actually conceived during a run 6-years ago(!). But, I need to prioritize more prehab exercises to keep myself on the trails. In terms of the biggie compound lifts, eh, I’ll probably continue to take a break. 13 years straight of weight training means I’m certain the lure of the iron will pull me back when the time is right. In the meantime, I’ll continue setting a laser focus on building an amazing business and embracing my “regular” side.
Last week I attended a workshop on marketing for the small business owner. It was amazing and led by John Jantsch who is *tha guy* when it comes to this topic. As much as I believe the experience has already had a permanent and positive change on SAPT, I will try to exercise some self-control and stay on-topic. I do mention the experience for good reason: the first - and most tangible - impact from this workshop for our readers is in how we deliver content on the blog. Here are the changes you can look forward to:
- Each month will have a theme that each primary (MWF) post will address. This month's theme: Give Me Strength!
- We will be attempting to up our quality from an internal standpoint by actually editing posts ahead of time.
- All this requires *gasp* planning, so posts should be more reliable with few, if any, missed posts.
Please engage if you like or hate or even have no feeling about what you read here!
Lifting & Running = Monster Benefits - An Intern Post!!!
This week we're going with one theme: RunFAST. This is the new program we've been developing that we'll officially take the lid off of on Friday. I have to acknowledge, we're offering something totally new, so we're gonna take it slow and start with a post a bit more traditional in terms of the usual SAPTstrength banter. But check the blog every day this week. We've got 5 killer posts lined up.
For the first RunFAST post, one of our interns has written a fantastic post describing in detail the benefits of lifting for ALL TYPES OF RUNNERS (yes, you distance folks can enjoy this, too!).
Why should you listen to this guy who I just admitted is an intern, well, he's a special intern. His name is Gustavo Osorio (or Goose from here on out) and he just graduated from George Mason. Goose was a member of the track team and a stellar decathlete who very recently repeated as CAA champion! Pretty cool, right? This guy knows his stuff. I learned a few things myself and, given that I was his strength coach, that means he really knows some awesome details about high-performance.
I opened up comments again, so please post your thoughts and share with friends. Here we go:
Lifting And Its Benefits For Runners!
“Strength is the foundation for excellence,” this is a mindset I’ve come to respect and adopt for myself after my short time here at SAPT. When you think about it a strong body is a health body, one capable of efficiently moving in any way and letting a person’s athleticism truly shine. Strength is without a doubt the foundation for speed and agility. This concept that may seem foreign to many runners because of all the myths regarding resistance training and running. Many runners and even some running coaches are under the impression that hitting up the weight room once in a while will only result in injury, getting “bulky”, and losing that speed they’ve worked so hard to achieve. When, in reality, a well-structured resistance training program can make the body bulletproof, make your muscles more efficient without bulk, and boost the training effects of your running workouts (aka make you faster).
Myth #1: Lifting (squatting and deadlifting) is bad for your back. Don’t do it!
When performed correctly and with the appropriate assistance work squats and deadlifts can help you build a bulletproof back, glutes, and hamstrings. All three of these muscle groups also happen to be three of the most common sites for sprains and injuries on runners. Coincidence?? I think not! When running you’re lower back acts as a shock absorber, while the glutes and hamstrings are used for force production to propel the body forward. If an individual doesn’t strengthen these muscle groups and continues to constantly hammer them with more running eventually the muscles breakdown from overuse and an injury occurs.
On the other hand, if an individual strengthens these muscle groups they reduce their chances of injury and increase the work load their body can handle. This means they’ll be able to put in more work on the track during practice and, when meet day arrives, fast times will be run!
Fun fact about elite runners, whether it be a sprinter or a distance runner, is that they have some type of year around resistance training program implemented into their training. When you get to the Olympic level and everyone is tenths of seconds away from each other, keeping your body healthy through resistance training makes the difference between being an Olympic medalist and not making the final.
Myth #2: Lifting will make you bulky and slow
A big fear amongst runners is that resistance training will put on too much “useless” muscle for them to carry around. Truth is, a resistance training routine will make you bulky and slow ONLY if you completely stop running and if you have no idea of how to make it sport specific. Just because you’re lifting weights doesn’t mean you’ll turn into the hulk overnight (or ever... let's be real here) but it can make your muscles more efficient at what they do. By training your energy systems through lifting you’re running can be exponentially enhanced. Think of your body as a car and that the energy systems providethree different types of fuel it runs on. These BIG 3 are: the phosphagen system, the anaerobic system, and the aerobic system.
The phosphagen system provide the equivalent of jet fuel for the body. It gives you tons of energy but it burns out super fast! How fast you ask?? Well it gives you enough for 6 to 10 seconds of all out exertion. It provides the energy for the beginning of every race and it is the most dominant energy system during short running event, 60 meters to 100 meters. It is also involved in any sport that requires any sudden bursts of speed and explosion such as basketball, baseball, football, and volleyball. This system is primarily trained through plyometrics and lifts that require high force production at high speeds.
The anaerobic system gives you a mix between jet fuel and regular gas, it still yields a high amount of energy and manages to last a bit longer, between 1 to 3 minutes depending on the intensity of the event. This system is the most dominant for the 400-800 meter distances.It is also involved in sports that require prolonged bouts of speed and some endurance such as boxing, wrestling, lacrosse, and soccer. This is a tricky energy system to train because it requires a mix of power training, muscular strength training, and some muscular endurance training.
The aerobic system gives the body the same effect gas would in a car, it doesn’t let you go blistering fast but it give you a constant stream of energy to keep you going for miles. This is the dominant system in athletes who compete in endurance events such as triathlons, marathons, long distance swimming, and cross country skiing. This energy system can be trained through circuit training and low weight/high rep/low rest lifting.
**WORD OF CAUTION: Train a certain energy system through lifting does not mean you’ll necessarily get faster. When you integrate a lifting program on to a running program correctly the two can complement each other quite nicely. However if all you do is lift aerobically and then expect to go run a marathon you most likely won’t finish.**
Myth #3: Lifting has no positive transfer to running.
Another great benefit of resistance training is the improvement in something called your Rate of Force Development (RFD). [Side note: Kelsey did an amazing job of going into great detail on RFD, if you haven’t read her posts I strongly recommend them! Part 1 and Part 2.] Basically what that means is how fast your muscles can produce a high amount of force. This is beneficial to runners and all athletes because producing higher amounts of force at a faster rate enable you to move faster. Through training this can help optimize your stride length (amount of distance covered per step) and increase your stride frequency (how fast your feet hit the ground) both of which will also make you faster.
This last bit is something most people often neglect, but it makes a world of difference in their running. Aside from improving energy systems and Rate of Force Development lifting can be used to improve running posture. When performed correctly the squat and the deadlift teach people to brace their core and to properly align their back so it’s in the neutral position. A lot of people can go through an entire running career (like myself) without ever realizing that this has a massive positive transfer to running.
The two pictures above demonstrate how the body should be aligned during the deadlift and squat. If you take a side picture of yourself you should be able to draw a straight line from your hips to the base of the head.
Let’s take a look at Tyson Gay coming out of blocks. You can make a straight line from his hips to his head, JUST like a squat or deadlift! Coincidence?? I think not! By keeping his back in a neutral position and bracing his core he is getting the most propulsion out of the power he is putting on the ground. By keeping his core rigid (not tense) all the force being placed on the ground is not lost or being absorbed by an arched or hunched back. Same thing would happen if you lifted with a rounded back, the spine would absorb a lot of the force going up (deadlift) or down (squat) instead of letting your legs and glutes do the work.
Now take a look on the right at Carl Lewis, he is in the Maximum Velocity phase of the 100 meters which means he is trying to maintain his top speed for as long as possible. The line from the hips to the head is still there which means he is getting the most out of the force production. But that’s not all! Notice how his hip are neutral and not anteriorly rotated, his butt isn’t sticking out. This allows him to get a higher knee drive, cover more ground with his stride, and keeps him from kicking his leg too far back. A great way to teach this to people is the finishing position in the squat and the deadlift often referred to as the “lock out”. And like the squat/deadlift lock out phase if his hips were too posteriorly rotated, too far forward, he would put his back out of alignment and sacrifice kick back range of motion.
SAPT Q and A: Question from a Runner and Help From Link
Oh wait, I meant, "Ask the SAPT Coach." Sorry, we were having a Zelda discussion with our interns the other day...
"Is there a benefit to doing your strength workout under time? If you get your cardio somewhere else do you really need to rush?" - Supa Fly Runner
Ok, that's not really the name of the questioner, but she's a really fabulous runner so that's her assigned pseudonym.
Great question yeah? As in all fitness-related question the answer invariably is: It depends. *insert head scratching here*
Huh?
However, for simplicity sake, I'll make the answer as straightforward as possible. I'm going to assume that there are two camps of people: 1- Team Runner. These folks run on a regular basis, either long distance or short. If they don't run, they find their aerobic work somewhere else: biking, swimming, swinging (that would be me), or some other modality specifically for cardiovascular/anaerobic training (sprints, hills, monster fighting, stuff like that.)
Morpha, the water temple boss, keeps Link running for his life. Great cardio!
2- Team Not-Runner. These folks do absolutely NOTHING (intentionally) to train their cardiovascular system (aka aerobic training). These could include general fitness folks who lift weights (either seriously or not... I'm looking at you Mr. On-The-Phone-While-Doing-Curls-Man), powerlifters who DON'T training beyond lifting (yes, I know weight lifting can be considered a form of aerobic training, but let's be honest, many powerlifters completely ignore their aerobic system. To that I say. "stop it." Oooo... future post! Sorry, I got distracted. Back to this one.) or anyone who just sits eating beans like this guy.
nom nom nom...
Answer for Team Runner:
Assuming that you are strength training for the purpose of getting stronger (which, I would hope is the reason), then no, you do not need to rush the workout. The purpose of training under load is to prod the body to adapt to the stress by getting stronger muscles. It's a bit more involved than that physiologically, but that's the basic idea of lifting weights. So, if one is rushing about with little rest between sets, the body won't be able to produce as much force (due to fatigue) thus one will be relegated to lighter weights. And light weights don't cut it when it comes to building strength. Solution? Rest as needed between sets to allow for near to full recovery so that the most force can be produced each rep (translation: heavier weights can be used). This has the added benefit of improving rate of force development of your muscles. If you don't want to read this lovely article by Kevin Neeld, then the bottom line is the faster muscles can produce the needed level of force (to say, run), then the faster you'll propel yourself across the earth. It's like the Bunny Hood in Legend of Zelda:
Yes! Link's rate of force development is increased ten-fold!
Focus on the purpose: increasing strength and don't worry about trying to make it a cardio session (if you're lifting heavy enough weights, you'll be winded anyway. ;) )
Answer for Team Not-Runner:
Even elite strength athletes need some sort of aerobic training. (as I alluded to, this will be a future post.) While the main movement of the day, be it a squat, deadlift, or press variation, should be completed with the needed rest periods in between, the accessory work can be sped up a bit. For those trainees who don't want to do any outside aerobic work other than their weight room sessions, which is totally fine, hustling a bit during the accessory movements or throwing in a weight cirucit every so often would provide a suitable aerobic training effect. Having an efficient aerobic system, namely the body's ability to use oxygen to produce ATP (the form of energy muscles need to function), is important both for recovery during training sessions and sustaining life. It would be unwise to ignore such things. This would be your heart status:
Not. Good.
Adding a little hustle to the accessory exercises will provide a decent aerobic training effect while still maintaining the goal of building strength during a training session. Training said system will help foster quicker recovery both during training and afterwards.
All that being said, again, it depends on what your training goals are but hopefully this post helps clear up the question of how to execute your strength training sessions.
SAPT's Baseball Summer Training Program
It's that time of year! Time to get stronger, faster, more powerful, and pack some muscle mass onto your frame. Check out our special offer for baseball players this summer:
For the past 6-years, the coaches at SAPT have been helping pitchers and position players alike achieve their potential on the field. Set up a comprehensive evaluation today and start down your path to superhero status!
Q & A: High Intensity Continuous Training
Q: Hey Steve, I came across your post on HICT with step-ups, and I was wondering if you could answer some questions I have. I am 25-year old recreational athlete trying to improve my conditioning, mainly for basketball. 1. How do you use this type of training within a program? How many times per week? Do you use it in concert with other methods of conditioning as well? And do you perform this work separate from any other training, or before/after a strength session?
2. You mentioned doing HICT via a spin bike rather than step-ups, and I have seen Joel Jamieson and Mark McLaughlin also mention this. Do you use both methods, and if so, for what purposes would you choose one over the other? What are the differences?
Thank you in advance for any answers you may have. I am new to your site and look forward to exploring it more, keep up the good work.
(Note from Steve: For those unfamiliar with HICT step-ups, it is a conditioning protocol, probably invented by Satan, in which you load up your back with an extremely heavy weight vest or backpack and do step-ups for sets of 10-20 minutes at a time. Because of the high resistance yet long duration, it develops the oxidative capacity of the fast twitch muscle fibers. Brutal yet certainly effective.)
A: Good questions! With regards to Question #1, the answer is - as typical within the sphere of strength and conditioning - "it depends." Let's break down each of your subquestions one by one:
How do you use this type of training within a program?
It depends on where the athlete currently stands with regards to his or her schedule, external stressors (ex. how many times a week is he/she practicing or competing), internal stressors (Girlfriend just break up with them? In depression because no one "Liked" their recent Facebook status?), what their physical condition looks like, and their goals. Are they currently inseason or offseason, what other "qualities" do they need to work on; for example, do they currently need to improve strength or power output? How many days a week do they have to train? Can they train 2x/day on some days but not at all on others? Answers to all the above questions will affect how to employ HICT within the program!
To simplify things a bit: If your PRIMARY goal is to improve aerobic conditioning, then you should prioritize something like HICT in your weekly training structure. Here are four different ways I recommend setting it up, depending on your schedule:
Option 1 (two-a-day workouts) - Strength or power work in the AM, and then HICT in the PM
Option 2 - HICT as a standalone training session
Option 3 - Sport practice immediately followed by HICT. The HICT would act as a pseudo "active recovery" and restorative tactic.
Option 4 - HICT and strength training in the same session. HICT would go first because your priority is aerobic conditioning. (Note: If you're someone who has a lot of strength and power to gain, you would train those qualities FIRST in the session.)
How many times per week?
One to two times per week. Begin with 1x/week, assess tolerance and recovery, and gradually increase the frequency to 2x/week.
Do you use it in concert with other methods of conditioning as well?
Yes, absolutely! While you certainly don't want to utilize everything and anything at the same time, something like HICT can certainly complement other conditioning modalities such as running or cardiac output circuits*.
To truly develop one's aerobic system, it takes more than just one or two haphazard sessions per week, or deciding to just "throw in" 10-20 minutes of aerobic training at the end of a resistance training session. I'd ensure you're undergoing some form of aerobic training 4-6 days a week, provided you remain prudent with the modalities and intensities you implement, of course.
However, don't neglect the fact that just playing basketball is aerobic training in nature! Thus, your pick-up games and competition games must be accounted for when analyzing your total volume of training in a given week.
*Note: These are actually one of my favorite methods of developing the aerobic energy system during the initial phases of training and/or during periods in which one has many competing demands outside the gym walls, as the risk of overreaching is extremely low.
And do you perform this work separate from any other training, or before/after a strength session?
While I touched on this a bit during the answer to your first question, let's expound a bit further here. The research is actually a bit mixed with regards to "mixing" aerobic training and strength training in the same session:
- This meta-analysis by Wilson et al. (2012) showed a loss in power when endurance training was trained concurrently with strength training, but no decline in VO2max when the endurance+strength group was compared to the endurance-only group.
- This paper by Want et al. (2011) concluded that endurance training immediately followed by strength training actually INCREASED mitochondrial growth compared to endurance-only training. (Mitochondrial growth will augment the muscles' oxidative capacity, thus improving one's endurance.)
- This paper by Hawley showed that conditioning before strength training blunts the anabolic effect of strength training, while conditioning after strength traning leads to greater amounts of inflammation and protein degradation.
(Note: Credit to Patrick Ward for pointing a couple of those out.)
While I obviously don't prefer to allow solely on research to dictate what I do and do not do with my athletes - after all, most research subjects are woefully untrained, along with the fact that many of the research protocols (ex. machine leg extensions for the "strength" exercise) are a far cry from what I use in the real world - it certainly still helps things to take a look at what goes on at the molecular level with human physiology.
So, what to do? Personally, I think it's ideal to separate the strength and endurance sessions completely - either by 8 hours or 24 hours - but this assumes that you have nearly every day of the week to train, and are able to fit in these sessions OUTSIDE of your practice and game schedule.
If you can't afford to split up the training sessions, then train FIRST what you want to prioritize, and then scale back the volume and intensity on the other goal. So if your goal is improved aerobic function, then do HICT first and follow it up with low volume strength training; for example, 2-3 exercises for 2-3 sets at 75-80% intensity. If your primary goal is strength, then attack your resistance training and follow that session up with HICT or a cardiac output circuit.
2. You mentioned doing HICT via a spin bike rather than step-ups.....Do you use both methods, and if so, for what purposes would you choose one over the other? What are the differences?
I primarily use step-ups with our athletes, but that is more a function of the fact that we don't have a spin bike in our facility. Not to mention, even if you do have a spin bike, it needs on the higher end of quality (ex. something you'd find in a good spin class) to be capable of cranking up the resistance so high that it's literally impossible to pedal quickly; you won't typically find these bikes sitting out in the cardio sections of gyms.
Here's a brief listing of the pros and cons of each:
Spin Bike
Pros - Less eccentric stress than a step-up, so theoretically less muscle soreness during the days following the HICT session; this also means a spin bike would probably be better suited for an active recovery and restorative tool compared to step-ups. No weight vest or heavy backpack required.
Cons - Requires access to a good spin bike. The "hunched" over position of biking forces a more flexed posture in general during the entire set: Kyphotic t-spine, shortened hip flexors, internal rotation of the shoulders, no hip extension achieved at any point (bad for glute function).
Step-Ups
Pros - No spin bike required. Achieve way more glute recruitment than on a bike, due to the glutes driving you up all the way to full hip extension at the top. Is much more of a total body workout than a spin bike as the bike will pretty much only hit the quads, but the step-ups will hammer the glutes, hamstrings, quads, not to mention the upper back+traps will be blasted during the weighted step-ups as these muscle groups have work like crazy to hold the weight vest or backpack in place.
Cons - More eccentric loading on the knees/legs when compared to a bike, so need to be more careful about where you fit them (step-ups) into the training week. Possibly worse for those with knee pain issues. Requires a heavy weight vest or large, heavy backpack.
Hope this helps! There is no doubt that HICT is certainly effective, but caution must be adhered to when planning and progressing it. Start on the low end of frequency and volume, and don't be in a rush to progress too fast too soon.
