Hi Friend!
The girls were away this weekend, so Mikey played. And what did Mikey play? Tennis!
Do you play tennis?
Tennis is a fun sport that requires few people to play (1-3) and is a perfect high intensity interval training sport because of all the stops, starts, changes of direction and explosive power and speed. Its full body, multi-joint, multi-planar with compound movements. It requires and develops hand-eye coordination, footwork, neuromuscular coordination, cardiovascular conditioning, technique, concentration, sport specific movement patterns and more.
If you were to watch tennis on tv you'd be hard pressed to find an out of shape tennis player. They're usually, strong, elastic and lean.
One thing you don't see that tennis requires is strength. Strength to not only hit the ball and be fast, but strength to play for 60+ minutes, strength to reduce injury risk as you fatigue and take risks and strength to recover and play again the next day.
Strength training is one thing that most high intensity interval training lacks when the focus is solely on cardiovascular training, yet its the ultimate compliment to it, that and flexibility training.
Most cardio workouts and classes are preferred by the masses because they're easier to learn and do, with generally low risk for injury. And they work well for developing aerobic, and anaerobic endurance, VO2 max, converting slow twitch fibers to fast twitch or fast twitch to slow twitch and helping to manage body weight and decrease body fat. They can make your legs and/or arms stronger depending on the mode of exercise you choose compared to doing nothing, but they can't make you as strong as you could be or change your body for the best as fast as can be if you combined the HIIT training with strength training.
Solution: combine HIIT with Strength Training The easiest way to get the best of both worlds is to either have a weekly schedule that addresses both strength and conditioning and/or workouts that address both strength & conditioning.
Example #1: weekly schedule M / W / F : strength training T / Th / Sa : conditioning (HIIT)
Example #2: Barry's Boot Camp Barry's Boot Camp is an outstanding workout. It's fast. It's fun. It's like going to a night club with the dark atmosphere, sound system, playlist and lighting they use and the workouts they choose are all beach muscle friendly. They use body building splits paired with sprints on the treadmill. You'll leave soaked and energized.
Body Part Split Routines M: Arms & Abs T: Butt & Legs W: Chest, Back & Abs Th: Abs F - Su: Full Body
Example #3: Orange Theory Fitness OTF is a very cool workout that is similar to Barry's in that its a dark atmosphere, great sound system and playlist. Their workouts also combine strength & conditioning, however their strength is more full body every workout and their conditioning rotates between treadmill sprints and rowing machine during the workout. You'll also leave here energized and sweaty. A final and most important unique thing about these workouts is the heart rate monitor. You wear a heart rate monitor during these workouts and you can see in real time on a large screen, how hard you're working or not working. It's cool feedback and makes your workout experience more fun.
Example #4: Hurricane Workout Martine Rooney, one of the best fitness & most entertaining presenters out there (ask any personal trainer who goes to conferences) created his Hurricane Workout plan when he was training Mixed Martial Arts athletes and helping them win fights and championships. It's based on the Hurricane Categories (Category 1 Hurricane, 2, 3, 4 & 5) and starts with incline treadmill sprints and gradually increases the time, speed and incline of the sprint while adding strength training with it. This workout is BAD A**. Barry's do body building splits paired with sprints and Orange Theory did full body workouts paired with sprints, but Hurricane Cardio does the most challenging full body strength training lifts and movements paired with incline (10%) treadmill sprints @ (10-15mph) for 20-30seconds.
Hurricane Workout Lifts Category 2: MB toe touch crunch & judo push up; pike up & single leg burpee; MB triangle crunch & swiss ball push up Category 3: cable triceps & rear delts, DB cleans & shrugs, barbell upright rows & bent-over rows Category 4: close grip bench press & behind the neck pull ups; weighted dip & barbell curl; split jerk & decline DB pullovers Category 5: rope pull & sandbag lift, farmers walk & towel chip up; tire flip
Can you imagine doing sprints at this intensity and then getting off and doing these strength exercises? Very intense. If you can do this, you're a bad m'f'er.
Example #5: Change Your Body Boot Camps We mix strength & conditioning every workout and are designed for busy people ages 30-60, mean age in 40's. You're not looking to be an MMA fighter so we're not going to do the training they do in Hurricane Workouts.
Though looking good is important to you, joint health and injury risk reduction are first priorities, so we're not going to do the beach muscle split routines of Barry's Boot Camp or the large movement full body workouts of Orange Theory because these workouts assume you have great postural health and are really designed for 20 year olds with good postural health.
If you want to take your health, body transformation and performance to the next level, consider mixing high intensity interval training (HIIT) or sprints with strength training. You can do them on separate days like example #1 above or you can do them on the same day like examples #2, 3, 4 & 5. This intentional combination of strength & conditioning to your weekly schedule and/or individual workouts will provide a more complete workout experience and potentially make your training more engaging and fun, which could lead to better compliance and in turn results. You'll get stronger, more resilient & resistant to injury, leaner and faster. You'll present a better athlete to whatever sport you choose (e.g. tennis) and a higher performer to work, home and life in general.
While we're on the subject of combining strength & conditioning workouts, I've completed my initial goal of 2 dry runs of the Personalized Treadmill Workshop. I'm looking to schedule more for the fall and I'd like your help. If this might be something you'd be interested in learning more about and/or participating in or if you know someone who might love it, I'd really appreciate your feedback on the logistics. You can learn more here and you can share feedback on logistics here.
Making training fun and effective,
Coach Mike
p.s. learn more about personalized treadmill workouts.
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