Why Long
Bouts of Running Isn’t the Only Answer
In today’s overall view of exercise, one
thing is clear: You get into shape by running or some other form of long
continuous endurance event. My
question to you, as a reader, is why?
What if that wasn’t the whole truth? Why do we consume these endurance theories and think that we
were made to only function in one way.
We weren’t! Our bodies are constantly changing and always evolving, we
can’t rely on one form of activity to get us to our health and fitness
goals. There have been cultures of
‘athletes’ to buck this foregone conclusion and while I do not agree with all
that goes with crossfit or extreme weekend warrior training, etc there are a
few points that have been proven in the literature and deserves it's time in the
spotlight.
Running can be great for your
cardiovascular health, but it
definitely has its setbacks. I am
not opposed to running. If you like running that’s great! I hope you have a
healthy heart and continue to run without injuries. But what if I told you that you could get the same affects
from endurance running without the time?
I’m sure most people would scream ‘I’m in!’ along with ‘that sounds too
good to be true’. Well, I’m
sorry to disappoint you, but it is true!
Continuous running doesn’t have to be the only answer.
The activity that everyone talks about, but
doesn’t practice is interval training. It seems that everyone has their own opinions and programs
that ‘work well for your body type’, but the truth is that in exercise and
science there is more than one way to do things and facts often become debunked. As much as we like the world to be black and white the truth is that it is full of grey areas. A recent study looked at two training
protocols (endurance and high intensity) with a normal population and tested
them against each other. Here’s
what they found:
1. When individuals used a high intensity
interval training (HIIT) protocol they had the same positive effects as an endurance-training
(END) group. One benefit is just as much blood flow to the muscles (greater
vasodilation) using the HIIT protocol as the END protocol.
2. Along with the positive benefits, the
interval group had better retention rates!
3. If that wasn’t enough, the interval
group exercised 33% less than the endurance group.
It seems that the
popular talk among fitness pro’s is all about HIIT and how great it is, but yet
people are still killing themselves for long periods of time on the treadmill
or around their neighborhood. Give
this a shot and maybe it’ll work for you.
Now that’s one
study right? That could be an
outlier and so it wouldn’t apply to the general public. For the cynics out there let’s address
a second study. These individuals
were trained rowers. The
researchers had one group endurance train for four weeks and another group did
high intensity training for the a shorter amount of time. The researchers in this study were looking at adiponectin
levels, which are believed to increase fat oxidation (fat burning) in
mitochondria (where fat is broken down).
1. The study found that the HIIT group had
higher adiponectin levels post exercise than the END group.
2. The HIIT group also had lower body fat
percentage than the END group.
3. On top of the composition change, there
was greater power seen in the HIIT training group.
So why should you try this? First of all most people in America
need more exercise and activity and with our busy schedules, this type of
training may help you save time. An important thing to consider is our bodies tend to take the path
of least resistance. Just because
we want our bodies to look a certain way or perform a certain way this doesn’t make
it automatically happen. This means that as we run
more our bodies become more efficient and we actually burn less calories the
more we run. Remember that our
bodies first instinct is to survive and the better we get at activities the
better our bodies get at conserving energy. There are several reasons why and I won’t get into specifics,
but it makes sense doesn’t it? The
more you practice any activity the better you get and most of the time it has
to deal with saving time such as washing the car faster or finding a more productive
way to rake the yard. The more you
do it, the more effective you get.
Our bodies are no different.
We conserve energy (calories) during our runs by relying on things like the stretch
shortening cycle, efficient calorie consumption and various sling systems in
our bodies that aid us in everyday life.
Again, I’m not attacking people who enjoy running or even running
itself. What I am doing is
presenting activities that may be more beneficial to you and your busy
schedule. If running is what you
enjoy then by all means keep doing it, but there are more ways to be healthy
and various ways to become more aesthetic i.e. “toned” if that is your
goal. Remember that we must "train" our bodies and not simply burn hundreds of calories. This takes time and hard work!
So what do I do with all this information? Hopefully you’ll use it and you will
contribute more of your time to researching different programs and ways to
train. This article only touches
on two areas of exercise of which there is a vast amount of areas. I admit that finding the “right”
program or diet that works for you can be daunting and difficult, but it’s
worth a try. What I want you
to get from this article is that there is always a new finding and don’t be so
quick to assume things as facts.
I’m sure in 5 years more of our “facts” will be proven otherwise, but
until then keep active and stay healthy!
