Over the course of human evolution our bodies have developed the ability to perform in a wide range of movement types and intensities. From moving massive amounts of weight extremely fast, to moving our own mass a long long way, our bodies are extremely capable biochemical machines. During those early days of hunting and gathering, all the way up to the very different lifestyles of today, our bodies have maintained these amazing capabilities, even if they may not always be realized. With that in mind, most people find that some type of exercise really gets them going, and many will pursue this exercise far past the level of a mere hobby, into the realm of competitive training and some may even base their entire lifestyle around this one aspect of their lives.
One category of exercise that's probably more popular than others is that of endurance training. Whether long distance runners, cyclists, tri-athletes, or other forms, many people find a lot of joy in these types of physically as well as mentally challenging endeavors. One unfortunate drawback of these types of exercise is that they can be very detrimental to the body if not done in a responsible manner. Many long distance runners can cover over 50 miles or more in a typical week. And while this can provide them with a very aerobically efficient body, it can also lead to some pretty severe injuries and/or chronic orthopedic issues. Many competitive athletes train this way simply because that's the way people have traditionally trained, and it just makes sense that in order to compete at longer distances, one should also train at longer distances.
However, I'd like to provide a bit of an alternative to including only long distance endurance type of training. From a strictly performance standpoint, an individual becomes a more efficient endurance athlete by eliciting certain adaptations in their body through training in addition to improving technique and form. These adaptations include improved respiratory volume and enhanced oxygen uptake, improved heart strength, volume and efficiency, higher concentrations of capillaries in and around muscle tissue, increased stores of intramuscular triglycerides (fats used for energy, a good thing), and many other enzymatic changes that make the body function more efficiently for such long periods of time. These are just a few of the changes that take place in the body in response to consistent endurance exercise. Quite obviously Exercise is some pretty powerful stuff!!
Now what if I told you you might not have to log quite so many hours and miles each week, and still be able to achieve these adaptations?? These days any extra hour here or there is worth a great deal, so let's see if we can't save you all some time, and improve your training at the same time. Many studies have shown that exercise durations of around 20-30 minutes can elicit very similar aerobic adaptations and improvements as longer sessions of 60 minutes or more. This means there's a good chance you're not making any more improvements exercising for 2-3 hours than you are in just 20-30 minutes. Now before you jump on me for implying that there's never any reason to push farther than 20 minutes, let me be clear that if planning to accomplish a long distance event such as a triathlon, marathon, or century ride, you'll still need to include some longer duration training to ensure that the necessary structural and mental conditioning is still taking place. All I'm saying is that you can make the necessary adaptations in much less time, while at the same time reducing your chance of over-training or debilitating injury.
In addition to the aerobic adaptations, there are a number of other changes that may improve your performance if you choose to turn up the intensity during these shorter sessions. Most notably is a question of energy systems. During long endurance type exercise your body will, for the most part, be functioning by way of the Aerobic energy pathway, utilizing oxygen to convert fat to energy. Higher intensity exercise will drive past the capabilities of this aerobic pathway into the Anaerobic zone, utilizing stored forms of carbohydrate for energy without the need for oxygen. Working in this anaerobic zone has its own quirks and adaptations attached, but we'll just concentrate on those that should improve endurance exercise performance. First off, as I just explained, when working anaerobically, your body's aerobic energy system will be working at maximum capacity trying to keep up with what your doing. This is important, because during a 2-3 hour session you'll be functioning at a significantly lower percentage of this aerobic capacity (often referred to as some percentage of your VO2 Max). The problem here is that if you're not pushing your body to its limits (meaning pushing beyond the level of that VO2 Max), it has no real reason to want to respond by changing. So by working at a higher intensity you'll consistently hit that magic VO2 Max range, and your body should respond by becoming even more efficient aerobically than it might by performing aerobic exercise only, as weird as that may sound.
Now even though aerobic capacity and efficiency are obviously very important to an endurance athlete, there are a few more adaptations that'll have a great deal of impact on an athlete. First, in order to turn up the intensity, an individual will have to increase the amount of resistance or workload placed on the body. This could be done, from a runnner's perspective, by performing sprints or sport specific weight training. This additional resistance causes the body to increase it's level of strength. If done properly this will make the athlete more efficient by improving power and effective range of motion, as well as raising the intensity level at which the body must rely on the anaerobic energy system, therefore once again improving aerobic efficiency. The second adaptation I'll cover may not be one you're likely to notice outright, but trust me it's there. This adaptation concerns your hormones, and can make a huge difference in your training. One problem with long duration exercise is that it drives up your level of stress hormones, namely Cortisol. You've likely heard of this hormone, but may not know what it does. Its job in the body is to break down molecules to be used for energy during these long exercise sessions. The problem is that it has a tendency to break down muscle tissue to provide that energy. This is type of cannibalism is obviously not a good thing, as it puts your body in a destructive mode, and through other mechanisms can actually encourage fat storage in the wrong places, like your waistline. So while cortisol does perform a necessary function, it can also be kind of a jerk. Now, on the other hand, higher intensity, more anerobically powered exercise can cause increases in both Testosterone and Growth Hormone. Unfortunately, thanks to a few bad apples in the world of professional sports these hormones have come to have kind of a bad name. But I assure you, they're both perfectly safe, natural, and floating around in each and every one of your bodies right this instant. Yup, even you ladies, for these two perform extremely important functions. From an exercise standpoint, Testosterone will support the recovery and repair of muscle and bone tissue, and improve neuro-muscular drive and efficiency. Growth Hormone is an extremely effective fat burner, and also has wide-ranging recovery effects, allowing the body to more easily rejuvenate itself, and support all those adaptations we've been discussing.
Again these are just a couple of the changes that shorter duration, higher intensity exercise can bring about. And chances are I'll get around to covering the others eventually. Obviously I don't expect every one of you to immediately adopt the training regimen of an olympic sprinter, and if any of you have a race coming up soon this may not be a great time to rearrange your training. But, should you have a couple months in the off season to experiment, give this a try and see what kind of improvements it can bring. And as always if you're at all unsure about designing this type of program change, PLEASE ask somebody to help!
Go Harder, Go Faster, and Go Longer!!
(10 burpees for anybody that just smirked)
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