Interval Training. Soccer Is Better Than Jogging
Play more team sports (basketball, volleyball, tennis). In the meantime, do interval (or Fartlek) training when I run, swim, bike, or rollerblade. Repeatedly alternate sprinting for a certain time with a normal speed for a certain time. Never stay at the same speed. Push my heart rate to 90% of max.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) "increases the RMR (resting metabolic rate) for the following 24 hours due to EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), and may improve VO2 max."
Benefits:
- Exercises BOTH my anaerobic and aerobic systems.
- Burns MORE fat and calories than moderate-intensity exercise.
- Increases resting metabolic rate.
- Increases endurance.
- Builds more muscle.
- Causes mitochondria to burn fat BEFORE carbs.
- Less boring than staying at the same speed for an hour.
Make my running (or swimming, skating, etc.) fun by competing against the clock. Sometimes I'll try to catch up to others on the track. Sometimes I sprint by the same joggers for 1/4 of a lap, each time I pass them.
When I rollerblade my usual 6.5 miles (or sometimes 13 miles), I try to sprint almost the entire way. Rollerblading has some similar motions to skiing and works out some of the same muscles.
A Healthy Mix of Rest and Motion (NYT):
[N]ew evidence suggests that a workout with steep peaks and valleys can dramatically improve cardiovascular fitness and raise the body’s potential to burn fat.
Best of all, the benefits become evident in a matter of weeks....
A 2005 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that after just two weeks of interval training, six of the eight college-age men and women doubled their endurance, or the amount of time they could ride a bicycle at moderate intensity before exhaustion....
Such a stark improvement in endurance after 15 minutes of intense cycling spread over two weeks was all the more surprising because the volunteers were already reasonably fit. They jogged, biked or did aerobic exercise two to three times a week.
Doing bursts of hard exercise not only improves cardiovascular fitness but also the body’s ability to burn fat, even during low- or moderate-intensity workouts, according to a study published this month, also in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Eight women in their early 20s cycled for 10 sets of four minutes of hard riding, followed by two minutes of rest. Over two weeks, they completed seven interval workouts.
After interval training, the amount of fat burned in an hour of continuous moderate cycling increased by 36 percent...Cardiovascular fitness - the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to working muscles - improved by 13 percent....
The high-intensity phase should be long and strenuous enough that a person is out of breath - typically one to four minutes of exercise at 80 to 85 percent of their maximum heart rate. Recovery periods should not last long enough for their pulse to return to its resting rate.
Also people should remember to adequately warm up before the first interval. Coaches advise that, ideally, people should not do interval work on consecutive days....
“The rest period in interval training gives the body time to remove some of the waste products of working muscles,”...
To go hard, the body must use new muscle fibers. Once these recent recruits are trained, they are available to burn fuel even during easy-does-it workouts. “Any form of exercise that recruits new muscle fibers is going to enhance the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates and fat,” Dr. Coyle said.
Interval training also stimulates change in mitochondria, where fuel is converted to energy, causing them to burn fat first - even during low- and moderate-intensity workouts, Mr. Talanian said.
Improved fat burning means endurance athletes can go further before tapping into carbohydrate stores. It is also welcome news to anyone trying to lose weight or avoid gaining it.
Study Says Soccer Is Better Than Jogging (AP):
A friendly game of soccer, a new study has found, works off more fat and builds up more muscle than jogging.
Danish scientists, who conducted their research on 37 men, also found the soccer players felt less tired after exercising than the joggers because they were having more fun....
Each period of exercise lasted about one hour and took place three times a week. After 12 weeks, researchers found that the body fat percentage in the soccer players dropped by 3.7 percent, compared to about 2 percent for the joggers.
The soccer players also increased their muscle mass by almost 2 kilograms (4.5 pounds), whereas the joggers didn't have any significant change. Those who did no exercise registered little change in body fat and muscle mass.
"Even though the football (soccer) players were untrained, there were periods in the game that were so intense that their cardiovascular was maximally taxed, just like professional football (soccer) players," said Dr. Peter Krustrup, head of Copenhagen University's department of exercise and sport sciences, who led the study.
The soccer players and the joggers had the same average heart rate, but the soccer players got a better workout because of intense bursts of activity.
Krustrup and his colleagues found there were periods during soccer matches when the players' hearts were pumping at 90 percent their full capacity. But the joggers' hearts were never pushed as hard.
"The argument as to whether or not vigorous activity is better than moderate activity is over," O'Donovan said....
Unlike the soccer players, the joggers consistently thought their runs were exhausting.
"The soccer players were having more fun, so they were more focused on scoring goals and helping the team, rather than the feeling of strain and muscle pain," Krustrup said.