What if Too Good to be True Really IS True?

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When too good to be true is really true.

“Train 2 miles to run 100.”  This is the claim of a new Crossfit Endurance training plan.  When I saw this I felt it was heresy.  I appreciated the shock value but I didn’t believe it.  I didn’t believe it for two reasons, first, it sounds too good to be true and second, it violates everything I ever learned about endurance training.

After college I started running because I wanted a way to stay fit.  I was never a runner so I did some research to learn about how to train.  There was a wealth of information available and it was consistent.  One of the key aspects of every training plan was the long slow runs.  The theory is that the long slow runs build your aerobic capacity.  This plan worked for me.  I significantly reduced my race times from middle-of-the-pack to 95th percentile levels.  I qualified for the Boston marathon and could run a 5K in under 20 minutes.

Fast forward to today.  I haven’t run a race in three years.  In fact I haven’t run at all.  For the last year, all I’ve done is train at Hyperfit.  There is some occasional running in the workouts but never more than 400 meters at a time.  After seeing the Crossfit Endurance claim, I decided to try it out.  I ran the Evans Scholars 5K trail run.  I did it in under 20 minutes.

I’m 7 years older, I barely run at all, and I can race just as fast as I could when I did nothing but run.  Too good to be true.  How is this possible?  The answer is high intensity interval training.  I found that since I had done my initial research on running, much more has been discovered about the effectiveness of high intensity interval training.  It is still far from mainstream but word is getting out.  The Crossfit Endurance site does a nice job of listing the pros and cons of traditional aerobic training and interval training on their FAQ page.

Sometimes, too good to be true, is really true.  If you are still skeptical, I challenge you to try it.

 

When Markets are NOT Efficient – Why your Gym looks the way it Does

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I was advocating strength training to a friend who is a believer in “efficient markets.”  He asked, “Did your barbell strength training fall out of favor because better methods replaced it?  Hasn’t the market spoken?  Aren’t today’s modern methods better than the simple barbell?”  Fair questions.

Gyms today are filled with machines that are supposed to make us “fit.”  These complex high-tech looking contraptions must be better than a simple barbell.  Right?  Wrong.  These machines were designed to prevent you from hurting yourself, not to maximize your strength.  In some cases they were designed to isolate a specific muscle for the purpose of bodybuilding or rehab.  These idiot-proof machines give gyms a way to scale.  They can fill a room with “the latest” in fitness equipment and sell thousands of memberships without having to bother with teaching anyone how to use them.  So the machines are optimized for the gym’s income statement, not your strength training.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the other reason that strength training fell out of favor.  What?  Arnold was the epitome of fitness wasn’t he? It was actually his success and popularity as a bodybuilder that killed strength training.  Bodybuilding became so popular that it engulfed all forms of weight training.  Bodybuilding and strength training both involve lifting weights, however, this is where the similarity ends.  The objective of bodybuilding is to isolate a single muscle and overdevelop it so that it looks cool (or ridiculous depending on your perspective.)  This can lead to imbalances in the body, especially for amateur gym goers.  Ever see that guy with the huge biceps and the chicken legs?  The Olympic lifts in particular require that a huge portion of your muscles all work together very quickly.  Learning to do this well develops a strong, flexible, balanced and healthy body.  For the 99.9% of us who are not going to compete as bodybuilders, strength training will be a much more effective and beneficial.

A quick aside for women.  Most women do not do any strength training for fear of “bulking up.”  This is also Arnold’s fault.  Steroid enhanced, muscle isolating, bodybuilding will bulk you up.  Strength training will not.  Strength training will give you the much desired “toned” (insert body part here) that you want.  It is also beneficial in preventing osteoporosis.

The market, in this case, is not efficient.  It did not select the optimal fitness method.  Machines replaced barbells because they made gyms more money and quest for huge biceps replaced the pursuit of healthy balanced strength.

 

Why be Strong?

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I wrote earlier about five strength training movements and claimed they would make you a healthier, happier, and more productive person.  I was asked, “why?”  This is a fair question, and I should have known better than to throw out a claim without properly articulating the benefits.  I don’t expect anyone to buy my software just because I say it is great.  I’ll apply the same principle to my strength training claim.

Let me tell you my story.  A year ago, I’d come home from the office every day and lie flat on floor in my living room.  It was the only way to relieve the pain in my lower back  Then I started strength training.  I learned and trained the five basic movements, press, squat, deadlift, clean and jerk, and snatch.  Within six months, my back pain was gone.

It turns out that I was just weak.  I wasn’t strong enough to hold myself up behind a desk all day.  I know I was weak not just because my pain disappeared but because my strength gains have been dramatic.  I can now deadlift twice my bodyweight, a level that is one hundred pounds more than my first attempt at a maximum deadlift.  The key metric is not how much I can lift now, it is how little I could lift when I started.  You might say “well you’re just pathetic.”  But here’s the thing, I had just finished qualifying for and running the Boston Marathon.  I thought I was “in shape.”  Which along a single dimension of fitness is true, however, aerobic fitness is not enough.

Another word of caution here, DO NOT go to your gym to find out what your max deadlift is today.  It takes months of training and learning proper technique before you should even attempt a max lift.

These movements work because they are functional.  Think of each one of the movements in terms of everyday life.  A press is putting a box of photos on the top closet shelf.  The deadlift is lifting your couch.  The clean and jerk is picking up a bag of mulch.  Weakness, not age or anything else is the reason that you are sore for a month after spending the weekend cleaning your garage.  Get strong.

The Cure for Weakness

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I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but you are weak.  Why?  Because strength training has fallen out of favor.  You probably don’t do it.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet some very knowledgeable people who have taught me the methods and benefits of strength training.  I’ve tried it and I’m better for it so I thought I would share…

Crossfit, and specifically for me, the talented coaches at Hyperfit USA, are bringing back strength training.  As with many fundamentally sound practices, the core principle of strength training is simple.  The only way to get strong is to lift something heavy.  There are five basic movements that will make us all healthier if we practice them:IMG_5517

1) Press (or overhead/shoulder/military press as it is commonly known)

2) Squat (a full squat, not a half squat)

3) Deadlift

4) Clean and Jerk

5) Snatch

These five movements, and maybe even just the first three, will make you a happier, healthier, more productive person.  You might have heard, or tried, the latest “core strength” craze.  I think that all of the new “core” exercises are more complicated than they need to be and they don’t always help you build strength in your arms and legs.  If you do the five exercises I mention above, you will gain core strength (no huge beachball required).  Notice that all of these movements are done when you are standing up.  Your “core” is what keeps you from falling over when the weights get heavier.

A word of caution however, find a good coach and learn how to do these movements correctly.  These are all very safe exercises but only if done correctly.  If you live near Ann Arbor, come to Hyperfit USA.  If you don’t, find a Crossfit gym or a USAW club.

 

The Importance of Fun

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Marketing of fitness is fascinating.  The most common message is easy.  I understand, easy is good.  When I sell software, I sell easy.  But fitness is different.  In order to be effective, it can’t be easy.  Easy is what requires us to find a fitness solution.  Cars, elevators, and escalators are all easy.  Fitness is hard but it can be fun.  “Hard” is a tough marketing message but fun can work.  I just started Crossfit at a gym here in town called Hyperfit.  Crossfit is fun.  It is not marketed as fun, in fact it is barely marketed at all.  I tried it because a friend told me it worked and it was fun.  So now I’m making the same pitch.  Try it, it’s fun.  Learn more at www.crossfit.com and www.hyperfitusa.com.  Have fun.

UPDATE: When I wrote this post in 2009 there were approximately 1,500 Crossfit Gyms, today in 2015 there are more than 10,000