Conditioning Training

Some of you know of my affinity for Capoeira, and that I enjoy the physical demand required. What I've learn though is that more is required from my body then I have th ability. So what can I do to correct that? Hours of training the gym? Maybe not. This is an excerpt from a book called Capoeira Conditioning by Gerard Taylor.

The Fat-Burning Power of High Intensity interval Training

In a three-week study conducted at McMaster University in Canada by Professor Martin Gibala, twenty-three individuals were thoroughly tested for different fitness regimes. one group cycles for two hours at a moderate, easy pace. The second group did 10 minutes of cycling per training session, including a few 60-second bursts. The third group went flat out for just four 30-second periods, interspersed with a 4-minute rest between each burst.

So the differentiated training was of a two-hour duration for one group, a 10-minute duration for another, and a 2-minute active duration for the third.

At the beginning, each participant did an 18.6-mile cycles time trial, and they concluded with the same at the end, to measure and compare the progress after three weeks. The results were all exactly the same. Despite the huge training time difference, everyone had improved to the same degree. Further, their VO2 Max (the rate at which their muscles absorb oxygen) had also improved by an identical amount. Gibala concluded: "Short bouts of very intense exercise improved muscle health and performance comparable to several weeks of endurance training."

The type of training Dr. Gibala was testing is called "high-intensity interval training" (HIIT). Today, more and more fitness-minded people are realizing that short, intense exercise sessions are the way to go for the best return on a training investment. An important paper, by Angelo Tremblay and Claude Bouchard, was published in 1995 and came to similar conclusions as those of Professor Gibala. Over a six-week period, a "sprint" cycle group dropped over three times as much body fat as a slow, aerobic group. This was despite burning only approximately half the calories during the active exercise. The aerobic group did 45-minute workouts five times a week at a steady medium pace. The high-intensity interval training group did only 30 minutes (including warm-up and cool-off recovery) three times per week. yet they burned off triple the body fat.

Why is it that HIIT works so effectively? It is because of a state known as "excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption." In practice, you ave a much higher post-exercise metabolic. rate following the intervals. In 1996, a University of Alabama study found a higher rate of metabolism (meaning calorie and fat burning) even 24 hours after a high-intensity interval training session. People who want to retain muscle bulk but lose fat love HIIT because it has the effect of increasing calorie consumption dramatically without using muscle as actual fuel.

The is one provisp here. It is that HIIT works far more effictively for poele already in good shape. Aerobic training is great for building initial stamina and endurance. So the rule of thumb is: take it easy. Build up your fitness with regular 15- to 30-minute sessions and then experiment with some all-out mega-energy bursts of 30 seconds' duration every few minutes (for example, four flat-out 30-second bursts embedded within a 15-minute training session). This will kick-start the ecess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect.

Note: When we talk of a mega-energy burst, we are in reality saying work flat-out, peak intensity for 30 seconds. Half a minute may seem like child's play, but once you've experienced 30 seconds of no-holds-barred exercise bedlam, you'll never knock it again.

So what does this mean for you or me? Basically we after we build a good fitness level then we can cut our conditioning training time down by training hard. With conditioning time cut down this frees up more time for other things: technique, precision, timing, or family and friends.

For anyone that has been to a Guro Inosanto seminar has heard him talk about maintaining what we have, and how it gets harder as we get older. If we can maintain a "good" fitness level then we can train at a higher intensity level, and free up the precious commodity of time.

My plan for the next month will be to experiment with this higher intensity level to reach a personal fitness goal. Hopefully this will be the catalyst I need to help in performing some of these fancy capoeira techniques. Wish me luck.

SBG