Sprinting for Muscle

by Travis Hansen   01/30/14

Here's what you need to know...

•  Sprinting isn't the primary method for muscle growth, but like all speed work, it can quickly get you bigger.

•  A few sprint workouts during mass phases can greatly reduce bodyfat accumulation and also increase insulin sensitivity so you get even leaner in the process.

•  Doing some speed work immediately after your warm-up will potentiate the CNS, thereby increasing force output.

Sprinting has typically been associated with athletic development rather than as a way to acquire quality muscle mass. However, while in many ways sprinters and bodybuilders couldn't be more different, the fact is there's considerable overlap between the two disciplines and you can exploit this overlap in your pursuit of bigger, stronger legs.

Speed work such as sprinting isn't the primary method for muscle growth, but it does "speed up" the hypertrophy process. So think of sprinting as a secondary technique for size, one that can get us to our size destination much faster.

Here's how specific speed work and sprinting can help you with your physique.

1. Speed Work Prevents Fat Gain

Speed training creates a huge metabolic disturbance and is one of the best methods for losing or maintaining fat stores. According to the many DEXA scans I've run on athletes and clients, body fat stores rapidly decrease and muscle size increases once sprinting is employed. One reason is the effect (and after-effect) sprinting has on our underlying physiology. Sprinting significantly increases EPOC, or post-exercise oxygen consumption, which sucks up calories like a sponge for hours after high intensity training.

This can really assist your efforts during mass phases by limiting unwanted fat gain. Keep in mind that you only need a few hundred calories to pack on a single pound of muscle, while any extra will be diverted to fat stores. Sprinting effectively establishes a safeguard against this all too common bulking pitfall.

Additionally, since a leaner body is more insulin sensitive and has less aromatase (estrogenic) activity, it's in your best interest to keep body fat to a reasonable level – even while adding size.

2. Speed Work Improves Anaerobic Conditioning Levels

The more work we do in the hypertrophy training zones (70-85% of 1RM), the better we can grow. Sprinting can ensure that the specific energy support systems (alactic and lactic) that fuel performance in these zones are performing at optimal levels. This will generate greater rep work output, resulting in more muscle growth.

3. Speed Work Potentiates the CNS

By sequencing some speed work immediately after your warm-up or movement prep but before strength work, your CNS and force output will be far greater, resulting in more growth.

Furthermore, even general speed training will induce specific adaptations in the neuromuscular system (i.e., rate of motor unit recruitment, synchronization, etc.) that will allow the body to generate force faster. The faster you can summon force, the more total force you can generate during a rep attempt. This allows you to lift more weight and complete more volume, two of the most important variables for building muscle mass.

4. Speed Work is a Form of Progressive Overload

Barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells are forms of external resistance. However, sprinting offers a not-so-common form of resistance by way of the momentum of our body mass, which creates another essential source of overload.

Studies show that the landing impact during sprinting can exceed three times bodyweight. Multiply this across several foot contacts during a sprint and you can see both the challenge and benefit that this type of training can bring for promoting tissue growth.

5. Speed Work Functions as Supplemental Hip Training

Sprinting is a good general test for hamstring strength, since the hamstrings are the dominant muscle group in sprinting. The specific joint angles that occur during a sprint mimic a reverse hyper, a staple supplemental exercise for people looking to get strong or big. Integrating some speed work into your training helps address weaknesses at the posterior chain and ensures that this area is contributing maximally during your lifts.

Real World Evidence

Powerlifters are very big and strong. They also do a form of direct speed work in their training programming called Dynamic Effort work, which is markedly similar to sprinting. Their speed work helps recruit more mass, increase force production, drive through sticking points, and provide a new source of stimulus to prevent stagnancy – not to mention putting on size!

Another example of individuals who do speed work, obviously, is sprinters. Many are very muscular and extremely lean, often without doing much resistance training work. Of course, the best of the best have genetic advantages that influence their results, but clearly sprinting helps accentuate their genetic gifts.

These sprinters are generally very muscular because the conditions required for growth are all present during sprinting – general overload, volume-fatigue, and high eccentric contractions.

The Plan

Note: You must start with an Acceleration/Speed Prep Phase. This is designed to increase specific strength of the sprinting musculature and improve coordination, flexibility, and mobility. It also helps prevent the initial muscle strain that often occurs when someone integrates standard sprinting into his program without preparing for it.

The Program

Week 1: 5 x 5-second sprints on treadmill at an incline.
Week 2: 5 x 20-yard sled sprints using bodyweight + bodyweight as external load.
Week 3: 5-10 x 10-yard sprints
Week 4: 5 x 20-yard sprints

If you're an athlete, you could expand this to 40 yards x 3 reps in week #5, but there's no need to train at a greater distance if you're just looking to get big and strong. Twenty yards is sufficient and safer, too.

The progressions provided will still enable you to build speed and power, groove your sprint pattern, limit fatigue, and reduce the rate by which the limbs have to react – all of which can be a source of sprinting injury. By the fourth week you should be ready to go with standard sprint training.

Here's how to apply your sprint work into a 3-day "modified" Westside Barbell template. If you prefer to train 4 days a week, make sure to sprint every other training day on lower body days only, so you enable full recovery and limit both local neural fatigue and lower body muscular fatigue.

3 Day Template

Day #1
Sprints
Max Effort Lower
Supplemental Work

Day #2
Max Effort Upper
Supplemental Work

Day #3
Sprints
Dynamic Effort Lower
Supplemental Work

At the Speed of Martin Rooney: Why You HAVE to Sprint - How to Build Muscle

Hey Renegades, I’ve got a great interview for you today with my colleague, Martin Rooney, the creator of the Training For Warriors system. Check it out…

Jason:  Let’s start with an exercise that both of us share a common love for – sprinting. Why should people be doing it?

Martin:  Thanks Jason.  Funny we start with sprinting because I say that sprinting is the exercise that most people stopped doing a long time ago.  Most trainers aren’t doing any speed work and it’s a shame. Lifting weights and then sitting on the couch is not complete training.  Sprinting, even if you think about gym class, used to be mandatory for a number of reasons.  Not only does sprinting get your nervous system fired up, it also releases endorphins and growth hormone, and activates muscle fibers that would otherwise be dormant. That means triggering muscle growth and burning fat, all while doing something for which your body was built to do.  After all, why have Achilles tendons to store energy if you were made to jog on your heels?

Jason: Those are great points.  So about sprinting: How often? How many sets and for what kind of distance?

Martin:  Well, I usually answer questions like these with two words: It Depends.  Every client is different, starts at a different level and can tolerate a variety of intensities.  I would always suggest a conservative approach.  I know that may not sound like my style, but it is. If you hurt someone, they can’t train.  If they can’t train, they don’t pay.  If they don’t pay, you don’t eat.  So, if you like eating, make sure you use proper training.

For most of my clients, however, I like to use 30-40 yards of distance to start.  6-10 reps of a sprint will be enough as well, but the key is not the sets, it is the intensity.  I have found that there is a breaking point where technique falls apart and your nervous system gets fried.  The key is to find this in your clients and stay just below it.

Jason:  Interesting stuff.  Since I know you use sprinting in your TFW style of training, do you have any theories to support speed work like this over new and popular exercises like the kettlebell, TRX and rope?

Martin:  This is a great question.  Now, don’t get me wrong, all of the tools you mentioned are great for getting people engaged with exercise and can be used to produce results.  I also use all of them in my training on a weekly basis.  In my hierarchy of exercise, however, I choose the sprint.  If you look at an Olympic sprinter, you will see a body most people want.  As I tried to understand how these results were produced I pulled an important lesson from this that I call the The TFW Lock-And-Key Mechanism of Sprinting. Here is how I explain it.

Do you think ingesting 1000 calories of junk food has the same effect on the body as ingesting 1000 calories of fruits and vegetables?  Most people would say “no” and I agree.  A calorie in is not a calorie in.  Your body has a way according to how it was designed and has evolved, to recognize foods differently.  This leads to different effects that are produced on your body, some good and some bad, depending on what you put in the hole under your nose.

Jason:  I would agree with that.

Martin:  Of Course!  And since we all agree on input, I just want people to think about output.  If we all agree there are better foods to achieve optimal health, what about an optimal output mechanism?  Since muscle growth, fat loss and health are what all clients are after, why aren’t we searching for this instead of what’s cool, colorful and new.  Although sprinting isn’t as “sexy,” I still think it is the best.

Jason:  Now what about jogging? The Renegade Nation knows my feelings on that but in your mind,  does that count?

Martin:  I say “no.”  I know that will ruffle some feathers, but jogging as a hobby or for fitness is newer than you think.  Without a “fun run,” which I say is an oxymoron or marathon in your town, you probably wouldn’t do it.  And although jogging looks like sprinting, you are not using your body the way it’s designed to be used.  Jogging is constant breaking that pounds your body, chews up muscle and bangs you up.  Again look at the body style.  No one comes in and tells me they want to look like a marathon runner.  So stick with what the sprint is telling us.

Jason: I guess that is enough said on that.  So where and how then do you use sprinting in your TFW system?

Martin:  In my system, we have strength days and metabolic days called Hurricane Days. On the strength day, I load you up.  On the Hurricane day, I jack you up.   The simple truth I have found over the years: If you want to get fast, you need to train fast!   This training for speed and power can not only be invigorating, it can also help to prevent injury as well.   The impacts on your body with sprint training can help to stimulate muscle growth and protect you from possible problems.

Hurricane Training is one of the most popular forms of TFW.  The template for a Hurricane does not change: one form of a sprint variation, which could be a treadmill, regular sprint, ladder, resisted band run, hills, or stairs followed by two exercises repeated for nine sets.  We do this two workouts a week.  The good news is that you choose the sprint variation according to the client, the exercises and the rest in between.  Just follow the formula and results will be yours.

Jason:  This is great stuff.  I know you share a lot of this information and more in your new Training For Warriors Certification program.  Can you tell us about that?

Martin:  Sure.  Yes, over the last 3 years, I have been presenting certification events around the world.  In addition to sprint and metabolic training, I also cover topics like evaluations, warmups, bodyweight training, coaching and my warrior challenges.  Over 1200 people have been through the course and now there is an online version.  If anyone wants to get a taste of the course and learn more about TFW, they can sign up for my “Free TFW Video Course” HERE.

Jason:  Thanks again Martin for coming on an sharing the information.  This should get people thinking and asking the right questions about their training.

Martin:  My pleasure Jason and I hope this gets everyone thinking a little differently about the sprint

Train Like a Man 5: The Real Paleo Exercise

by Martin Rooney – 9/17/2012

"Life is a marathon, not a sprint."

Whenever I hear that little nugget of cheese-ball inspiration, I want to throw up, because it's usually said by some sloth that never reached his goals and he's just trying to make sure you stay in no rush to reach yours.
I don't know when exactly sprinting through life and achieving one goal after the next became a bad thing, but have no fear, I'll address humanity's aversion to sprinting throughout this article.
Our solar system hurtles around the galaxy at 450,000 mph, so our time here on this rock we call Earth (which is circling the sun at 70,000 miles an hour), in comparison to eternity is less than a blink of an eye.
The way I see it, life is an all-out sprint – and we should attack it that way.
So then what's with the distance approach to cardio? I hear people say all the time that they entered a 10k or a marathon to get "in shape." Is that so? I'm tempted to have these folks stand in front of a full-length mirror and ask them what shape were they looking for exactly?
If it's extra slender, pencil-necked, and endomorphic, then I'll condone the distance work. If they say, however, that the shape they seek is lean, muscular, and mesomorphic, then they're barking up the wrong tree.
Furthermore, if I have one more distance-junkie proudly brag about the doctor visits, MRIs, or therapy they're using to recover from their jogging or ultra-marathon, I'll be forced to buy a big bat and carry it with me.
You're proud of being injured, huh? So if I smack you in the knees with the bat and produce an injury, are you still proud? Or then are you just a masochist? Maybe such drastic measures are what it takes for you to realize that pain doesn't equal productivity, and that you've been chasing the wrong dog – and way too slowly at that.

Enjoyment Versus Results

I understand that (unfortunately) many of us need something to drive us and get us moving besides the ultimate fact that training will help you live longer. And I understand that some people may simply enjoy distance jogging and/or be genetically suited for this style of training. I'm not here to argue either of those things.
The purpose of this article is to argue in favor of the benefits of sprinting. And interestingly enough, whether you like jogging or are naturally skinny or slow, you can still benefit from this all-powerful training medium.
Don't think we need this argument? Then explain why most people stop sprinting by high school. Explain why most parents tell their children to stop running and slow down.
Plain and simple, besides the Olympic 100-meter final, sprinting gets much less love than distance work. Whether it's the marketing of jogging gear, the social aspect of distance events, or the fact that "No Pain, No Gain" is imbedded into the average training psyche, you're sure to see more people walking and jogging at your local track than to see them sprinting short portions of it, resting, and repeating.
In a world slowly being taken over and dominated by brightly colored equipment tools and fancy programming, we've forgotten to use the most important piece of equipment we were given, our body. And we've definitely forgotten to use it the way it was designed – to sprint.

Why Do We Run Marathons?

In Train Like a Man Part 4, I suggested that if Baron Pierre de Coubertin loved American folklore instead of Greek tragedy, perhaps we'd have millions of people lining up to test themselves in the 100 meter instead of 26 miles.
If our hero was a steel drivin' sprinter, rather than a solitary noncombatant whose chosen pursuit literally ran him – and millions of poor souls centuries later to follow – into the ground, just perhaps the world and its view of fitness would be different.
In all the emails I've ever received, I don't think I've ever received anything from a recreational athlete telling me they're entering a 100-meter dash.
Why? Because it's not okay to suck in a sprint.
If you jog – especially if you enter a marathon – it's okay to be mediocre. By contrast, it's decidedly not okay to suck at sprinting.
Show up to an actual race and take thirty seconds to run 100 meters and you're absolutely exposed for the world to see. Suck at sprinting in the wild, and you're somebody's dinner.
Suck at the marathon, on the other hand, and they'll hand you a juice box and a medal, even if you come in last.

The Paleo Idea

Add speed and power to any movement and the body changes. Look at a sprinting athlete versus a distance athlete. Large, developed muscles are the norm on just about any athlete involved in sprinting.
So why does this happen? You could cite the activation of the larger fast twitch fibers in sprinting or how cutting weight and losing muscle improves distance performance, but what about the "why" behind how sprinters look leaner and more muscular from seemingly much less work?
I have an interesting theory using the popular Paleo concept.
No one thinks twice about applying the Paleo concept to eating, but what about its application to movement? In terms of body development, sprinting is the ultimate Paleo exercise – and perhaps many of the problems we face today as a society are because this movement is no longer used during most peoples' daily routine.
(Granted, like all Paleo arguments, this is mere speculation. Were we meat eaters or vegetarians? Were we distance runners or sprinters? Until we invent a time machine, we'll just continue to enjoy the brainstorming and debate, but it's still interesting to speculate.)

The TFW Lock-And-Key Mechanism of Sprinting

When I address groups of people, I ask them if they think ingesting 1000 calories of junk food has the same effect on the body as ingesting 1000 calories of fruits and vegetables.
Without fail, according to the Paleo dogma, every attendee answers the same way – they believe that a calorie isn't just a calorie. So in terms of energy intake, most people agree that due to the way the human body was designed and has evolved, there are particular foods that can act as keys and unlock specific pathways to either promote health (muscle gain, fat loss, etc.), or allow detrimental effects (diabetes, cancer, heart disease) when those proper pathways aren't accessed.
Well if we can all agree on energy intake, I'm confused why people rarely discuss caloric output in the same manner? If there's an optimal input mechanism of calories to achieve optimal health, what about an optimal output mechanism?
If muscle growth, fat loss, and health are what you're after, I argue that sprinting may be the key that no one's using – because those thousand calories you're burning when you jog aren't nearly the same as when you burn them off at a sprint. Not even close.
That's because when you jog, you're not using your body the way it's designed to be used. That's what sprinting is for. I mean, why have an Achilles tendon if we're supposed to run on our heels? Why have huge glutes if we're supposed to simply jog monotonously and see how long we can last?
Is the reason we have big traps because we're supposed to act as perpetual motion machines for the better part of five hours at a time? And why the hell are our quads so big if we're just supposed to pound them with muscle-eating eccentrics from jogging? It makes no sense to me, and it shouldn't make any to you, either.

Sprinting: The Real Measure Of Fitness

Distance jogging makes your lifts go down. Your muscle mass decreases and you have to accept it. On the other hand, sprinting mandates that you get your numbers higher to complement it.
To lower your marathon time, you need to get out and log miles, cut weight (including muscle), and get ready for pain. To lower your time in the 100-meter sprint you need to get strong, pack on muscle, lose fat, and get in some explosive, technical workouts.
So if you want to run faster, you have to do a few things:

• You have to increase your relative body strength, so you have to get stronger for the amount you weigh. You can accomplish this by adding muscle or losing fat, or both.
• You have to improve your sprint technique. This will be done through technical work, which will improve coordination. Here you may recognize specific areas in which to improve strength while developing muscular endurance specific to sprinting. And this is where my next article will focus.

So, to review, sprint training involves improvements in speed, strength, diet, endurance, coordination, and flexibility. Sounds a whole lot like fitness to me. To top it off, sprinting will also help any marathon runner. Too bad the opposite isn't true.
But before you fans of distance running fire off your emails defending your chosen sport, I'm not saying that elite distance athletes aren't impressive in terms of time Ð I'm saying they're usually not impressive in terms of physique.
A guy that can run an under 5-minute mile pace for 26 miles is impressive in ability, no doubt, but he's probably not concerned with having bigger arms or legs, or is even reading T Nation for that matter.
My Train Like a Man articles are for guys concerned about building mass, getting strong, and being able to clean clocks. And if I have to scrap, I'll choose to battle the jogger over the sprinter every time.
Now that I've made a case for sprinting, Train Like a Man 6 will cover one of the muscle groups that will benefit most from this exercise.

30 Seconds to Leanness

by Mike T Nelson – 6/12/2012

Every time you turn around, there's a new diet plan based on a hormone. While there's some merit to all this madness, most of the plans fail to completely understand their respective physiological underpinnings. The body isn't a simple, linear, straightforward machine – it's complex and redundant at almost every turn.

This article will reveal some new research on the hormone leptin to provide some simple actions for you to take to help you get leaner. Just because the physiology is messy doesn't mean your actions need to be complicated!

First, here's a short crash course on this important hormone.


Leptin 101

Leptin was discovered by Ingalls and friends in the early 1950's (Ingalls, AM, et al 1950). Fast forward to the early 90's when it was "rediscovered", and many were predicting it would be the biggest weight loss breakthrough ever.

It's a hormone that is released primarily by fat cells (adipocytes) and works to regulate appetite, body fat mass, and basal metabolic rate.

Until just a few years ago, researchers thought that fat cells sat on their collective butts all day and were only a storage place for unsightly body fat.

We know now that those pesky fat cells are very metabolically active, releasing and receiving a myriad of messenger hormones, one of which is leptin.


How Does Leptin Work?


Leptin travels up to the brain where it acts on receptors in the hypothalamus to inhibit appetite.

More leptin in your brain = less food intake.

This is great news for anyone looking to get leaner, since more leptin means you'll be less likely to prowl your kitchen at 3 AM in search of leftover birthday cake. Leptin is your body's way of putting the brakes on fat gain by decreasing appetite.

The chronic level of leptin you have is also a rough measure of the amount of fat you have on your body. Many things can affect leptin as shown in the table below:

Factors promoting leptin secretion


Excess energy stored as fat (obesity)
Overfeeding
Glucose
Insulin
Glucocorticoids
Estrogens
Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor and Interleukin-6 (acute effect)
Factors inhibiting leptin secretion


Low energy states with decreased fat stores (leanness)
Fasting
Catecholamines and adrenergic agonists
Thyroid hormones
Androgens
Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor-agonists
Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (prolonged effect)

Leptin Super Mouse to the Rescue!

Researchers lead by Zhang,Y in the mid-1990s did a series of mouse experiments to show that mice with messed up leptin (ob/ob mouse) became fat little fury bastards (Zhang, Y et al. 1994).

Their metabolic rate was lower, they didn't move as much, and they ate tons of mouse chow.

The catch was that this mouse ob/ob (think double obese) didn't make any leptin at all.

To make the mouse lean, they injected it with leptin, and voila – a thin mouse again!

The researchers all joined hands, sang Kumbaya, and went out for tasty adult beverages while taking turns patting each other on the back for single-handedly solving the obesity problems. We just need to inject humans with leptin and poof, thin humans, and more visually appealing shopping experiences at Walmart.

The problem was it didn't work.

Researchers measured blood levels of leptin in obese humans and found that leptin levels were sky high!

That wasn't supposed to happen. Leptin levels were expected to be low since the humans were fat. As leptin increases, it signals that the body has enough fat, so we would expect low leptin levels in obese populations.

As you recall, when injected with leptin (thus increasing the level), the mice in the studies got thinner.

But these obese humans already had high levels of leptin. Injecting more leptin was like pissing in the ocean to try to raise the water level.


Leptin 201: The Receptor

It appeared that the receptor for leptin is out of joint. The receptor isn't telling the brain that leptin is high. Tons of leptin, but the silly brain can't tell since the receptor is as broke as Terrell Owens.


Why it Matters



We already know that sprint training is a great way to burn fat, but it may have another benefit.

A study done by Guerra et al. in 2011 looked at sprints as a leptin signaling mimetic.

Unlike most research, this study used a group of T Nation style humans who were pretty lean (about 15% body fat) and young (23 years old). They split them into two groups: a fasting group, and a glucose group where they ingested 75 grams of glucose one hour before sprints.

Both groups did one Wingate bike sprint for only 30 seconds.

If you're not familiar with this set up, in short, it's hop on a bike set to a high workload (10% of body weight used here) and pedal like a rabid grizzly bear is chasing you.


What They Found

Subjects had a series of muscle biopsies done over the course of the study and researchers found that a single session of sprint training showed alterations in leptin signaling. The sprints were jacking up leptin that, in theory, should get the waddling Walmart shoppers to start dropping fat.

However, this was not seen in the group that ingested glucose before their sprint. Only the fasted group saw leptin alterations.

It appears insulin may interfere with the leptin signaling to some degree. To quote the researchers directly:

"Altogether, these results indicate that sprint exercise performed under fasting conditions elicits signaling events similar to those described in the rodent skeletal muscle after leptin injections, i.e. sprint exercise under fasting conditions acts as a leptin signaling mimetic in human muscle. However, glucose ingestion before the sprint training exercise blunts this effect." (Guerra et al. 2011)

So it appears that fasted sprint training can pinch hit for leptin.


Do This! A Training Template


Hop on a bike and work up to one maximum, all out, pedal-as-hard-as-you-can sprint for 30 seconds.

The tension should be relatively high, but the goal is to keep your pedaling at a fast pace for the entire 30 seconds. If you slowed to a snail pace 20 seconds in, go to a lighter workload.

Make sure this is done in a fasted condition, such as first thing in the morning.

Don't have a bike? While the study didn't look at running, it may elicit the same response as the pathways are very similar.

It sounds ridiculously simple, but my purely anecdotal experience with my athletes shows that this does seem to help speed fat loss.


Summary



More leptin is associated with less food intake.
Some may have a leptin receptor issue where it's not responding to the amount of leptin floating around. Unfortunately, science isn't at the point yet where we can easily tell who has a receptor issue, but the more overweight you are, the more prone you are to having broken leptin receptors.
Doing just one sprint in a fasted state works to pinch hit for leptin, putting you on the road to leanness. However, non-fasted training does not have the same effect. So add some sprint training in, but it has to be done in a fasted state.
Fasted sprints can be done any time on a fasting day (where you're not consuming any calories), or done before breakfast. This way it's unlikely to interfere with your normal training session.
While we don't have a long-term study to show how much this will help your body composition, it's simple to add in and there's some very strong data to show it will help.

Heck, it only takes literally 30 seconds to do the sprint. Try it out, and let me know what you find.

Questions or comments? Post them in the LiveSpill below.


Selected References

Everard, A., Lazarevic, V., Derrien, M., Girard, M., Muccioli, G. G., Neyrinck, A. M., Cani, P. D. (2011). Responses of gut microbiota and glucose and lipid metabolism to prebiotics in genetic obese and diet-induced leptin-resistant mice. Diabetes, 60(11), 2775-2786. doi:10.2337/db11-0227

Finocchietto PV, Holod S, Barreyro F, Peralta JG, Alippe Y, Giovambattista A, Carreras MC, Poderoso JJ. Defective leptin-AMP-dependent kinase pathway induces nitric oxide release and contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction and obesity in ob/ob mice. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2011 Nov 1;15(9):2395-406. Epub 2011 Jun 28.

Galgani, J. E., Greenway, F. L., Caglayan, S., Wong, M. L., Licinio, J., & Ravussin, E. (2010). Leptin replacement prevents weight loss-induced metabolic adaptation in congenital leptin-deficient patients. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 95(2), 851-855. doi:10.1210/jc.2009-1739

Guerra, B., Olmedillas, H., Guadalupe-Grau, A., Ponce-Gonzalez, J. G., Morales-Alamo, D., Fuentes, T., . . . Calbet, J. A. (2011). Is sprint exercise a leptin signaling mimetic in human skeletal muscle? Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md.: 1985), 111(3), 715-725. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00805.2010

Ho, J. N., Jang, J. Y., Yoon, H. G., Kim, Y., Kim, S., Jun, W., & Lee, J. (2012). Anti-obesity effect of a standardised ethanol extract from curcuma longa L. fermented with aspergillus oryzae in ob/ob mice and primary mouse adipocytes. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, doi:10.1002/jsfa.5592; 10.1002/jsfa.5592

INGALLS, A. M., DICKIE, M. M., & SNELL, G. D. (1950). Obese, a new mutation in the house mouse. The Journal of Heredity, 41(12), 317-318.

Kelesidis, T., Kelesidis, I., Chou, S., & Mantzoros, C. S. (2010). Narrative review: The role of leptin in human physiology: Emerging clinical applications. Annals of Internal Medicine, 152(2), 93-100. doi:10.1059/0003-4819-152-2-201001190-00008

Kowalik, S., & Kedzierski, W. (2011). The effect of interval versus continuous exercise on plasma leptin and ghrelin concentration in young trotters. Polish Journal of Veterinary Sciences, 14(3), 373-378.

Plinta, R., Olszanecka-Glinianowicz, M., Drosdzol-Cop, A., Chudek, J., & Skrzypulec-Plinta, V. (2011). The effect of three-month pre-season preparatory period and short-term exercise on plasma leptin, adiponectin, visfatin and ghrelin levels in young female handball and basketball players. Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, doi:10.3275/8014

Wolsk, E., Mygind, H., Grondahl, T. S., Pedersen, B. K., & van Hall, G. (2011). The role of leptin in human lipid and glucose metabolism: The effects of acute recombinant human leptin infusion in young healthy males. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 94(6), 1533-1544. doi:10.3945/ajcn.111.012260

Zhang, Y., Proenca, R., Maffei, M., Barone, M., Leopold, L., & Friedman, J. M. (1994). Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue. Nature, 372(6505), 425-432. doi:10.1038/372425a0

The Return of Aerobic Work

by Anthony Mychal – 4/19/2012
Not long ago, I frequently used the word "conditioning." I thought the best way to condition athletes was through anaerobic workouts that tested the limits of pain and pushed the boundaries of regurgitation. After all, we're taught that sports are anaerobic, and that blasé aerobic work has no place in a serious program.
Today, the word "conditioning" makes me cringe. As you can imagine, I cringe a lot. And, unlike before, vomit-inducing anaerobic work is rarely in the cards for me or my athletes. Thanks to people way smarter than me (Joel Jamieson, James Smith, Buddy Morris) I have an appreciation for different types of "conditioning," much like I have an appreciation for different types of strength.

Conditioning Conundrum

I can't define "conditioning" as the very word is akin to the phrase "lifting weights." You can lift weights in many ways and for many reasons. Most of us do it to get stronger. But others do it for more specific reasons, like training for strength-speed, strength-endurance, and starting strength. For those of you that managed to get past the first ten pages of Supertraining, you know this list continues seemingly ad infinitum.
So if we lift weights to get stronger, do we perform conditioning to become more conditioned? The problem is ambiguity. We have different types of "conditioning" just like we have different types of strength.
Conditioning, in its true sense, refers to training the body's energy systems. We easily distinguish between the anaerobic (without oxygen) and aerobic (with oxygen) systems. We even associate different body types to proficiency in each system. Jacked football players and sprinters are anaerobic beasts. Gangly marathoners, however, are aerobic creatures.
But neither stereotype is correct because jacked football players frequently rely on the aerobic system. Yeah, I said it. Football is aerobic. Before I face the stones, let me explain.

Energy Systems

Breaking the energy systems into anaerobic and aerobic isn't enough. The anaerobic system can be further split into the alactic pathway and the lactic pathway. Each corresponds with the energy deriving metabolic processes.
Alactic Anaerobic – (ATP-CP) – 1 to 12 seconds – Immediate
Lactic Anaerobic – (Glycolytic) – 60 to 90 seconds – Intermediate
Aerobic – Hours – Long term
Bottom line is, all anaerobic work is not created equally. Football is a prime example. In an effort to "condition," coaches rely on suicides, Prowler pushes, and Tabata intervals until their athletes' legs are loaded with lactate and loopier than Gumby's.
Anaerobic? Absolutely.
But the right kind of anaerobic? Nope.

Another Dimension

Next, it's important to know that each metabolic pathway has a power component (how fast the system can derive energy) and capacity component (how long the system can be sustained).
So someone with great alactic power can produce a few intensive bursts of energy at a high level. This, for example, includes an Olympic weightlifter, powerlifter, 100m sprinter, javelin thrower, shot-putter, etc. These athletes give a maximal effort, blow their load, and take a long time to recover. Just think of hitting a PR in the gym. It's not easily repeatable.
Someone with great alactic power and capacity, however, can replicate intensive efforts over time – a baseball pitcher, for example. A pitcher with amazing alactic power will hit triple digits on the radar gun. But if their capacity sucks, their speed will diminish with each successive throw. So a pitcher with good capacity and decent power is likely to be a starter. One with a lot of power and shady capacity, however, more likely a closer.

Importance Of Capacity

Many sports require short-term explosiveness – alactic anaerobic power. This is why the NFL Combine gawks at 4.3 speed.
Over the past few years, aerobic work has been vilified for decreasing absolute explosive potential. But most sports require capacity in addition to power. There are problems if 4.3 speed turns into 4.7 speed during the second quarter, 5.5 speed during the third quarter, and 6.1 speed during the fourth quarter.
Ray Lewis isn't known for playing six downs and calling it quits. He's known for being on the field every play and always performing at a high level.
So what's more important, absolute power, or the capacity to sustain power? Wouldn't it be better to run a consistent 4.5 and sacrifice a little power for a lot of capacity?

The Aerobic System's Role

There are two underappreciated aspects of the aerobic system. First, it's very important in developing alactic anaerobic capacity (think explosive stuff). Second, most sports are aerobic despite the common perception.
Upon exercise, all energy systems turn on. The power clean is rooted in alactic anaerobic power because of its short duration, not because the aerobic system fails to ignite. The duration, not the intensity, determines energy system involvement.
As repeat sprint exercise continues, the energy system contributions become "truer" to their respective time zones. And each successive explosive bout increasingly relies on the aerobic system (1)(2).
But studies emerged about aerobic work diminishing explosive ability. And we all got caught up in absolute power, foregoing capacity.
"Despite the endless promotion of interval training as the only form of training necessary," Joel Jamieson says, "the world of combat sports has not seen a noticeable increase in conditioning over this time. If anything, the general conditioning level of fighters today is worse than it's been in the past."
Basketball is another example. There are some sprints and jumps here and there, but for the most part you see guys trotting up and down the court. Yeah, they're jogging. Fancy that.
Somehow we're brainwashed into thinking that athletes never jog, but it happens in nearly every sport. In soccer, unless the ball is in their vicinity, athletes lazily move about the field. Football? Jogging to and from the sideline and back to the line after every play.
And what about athletes with their faces in oxygen masks (even though they don't really work)? I don't foresee Boba Fett inspired uniforms with oxygen tank backpacks anytime soon, so these guys better start fixing their shitty aerobic development.
To be fair, the sports mentioned also have a short-term explosive component, which makes respecting the work-to-rest interval important. A 2009 study found that, "More than 70% of the total [soccer] match duration was performed at low "aerobic" intensities, while only 1-3% of the match was performed at high-intensities ("sprinting") (3). The overall work-to-rest ratio of these soccer players averaged out to a 2-4 second sprint every 90 seconds."
In math speak that interval looks like 4:90. Football usually shakes out to 6:40, barring a two-minute drill (in which case it becomes even more aerobic). Olympic weightlifting, at minimum rest, is about 3:120. Truer alactic anaerobic sports like javelin and the 100m have even longer rest periods.
Compare those ratios to Tabata's 20:10. Not even close.

Aerobic Work vs. Lifting Weights

Way back, nearly all athletes performed aerobic work. Bill Starr writes about running in The Strongest Shall Survive. Thomas Kurz in The Science of Sports Training notes that weightlifters jog in the early off-season. Old school fighters were known for doing roadwork. Hell, even Ricky Bruch, the eccentric discus thrower, jogged.
Now, aerobic work is shunned. But the aerobic system not only increases overall health markers but also aids in recovery from heavy weight training sessions.
As discussed in Heart Rate Variability Training, an over active sympathetic nervous system – a pitfall of shitty aerobic development – destroys performance.

"Compared to more average competitors, Olympic caliber athletes and Special Operations personnel have simultaneously stronger sympathetic responses during competition and higher parasympathetic input during rest. They swing further to either side of the continuum.

They tend to have lower baseline stress hormones with greater diurnal variation of cortisol, meaning that they have significantly higher levels of cortisol in the morning than in the evening, which allows their body to fluctuate between higher arousal during the day and deeper recovery at night."

It's like this: a developed aerobic system kick starts the recovery process. More time recovering means more recovery.
Also, you're able to save and concentrate "intense" bouts of energy for when they really matter. The opposite of this being in a constantly amped up state and slowly wearing yourself down – this is what I referred to as "idling" in 12 Tips to Tune the Nervous System.

Methods of Aerobic Development

Aerobic doesn't always mean distance running. As long as your heart rate stays around 120-150 BPM (everyone has a different lactate threshold) and lactate doesn't accumulate, you're training the aerobic system. "Fun" things outside of distance running are stringing together a circuit of the following:

• Rope jumping
• Calisthenics
• Mobility exercises
• Tumbling and locomotor movements (cartwheels, forward rolls, backward rolls to handstands, inch worm walks, and bear crawls).

But if you enjoy running, tempo runs, essentially "low intensity" interval training, are a great choice. Tempo runs involve running a predetermined distance in a time window that's of a low enough intensity to tax the aerobic system and yet fail to go anaerobic (70 yards in 20 seconds, for instance). Once the distance is covered, the runner can rest for thirty-or-so seconds to keep the heart rate in check before doing another heat.
More specific to a lifter, however, is a method used by track coach Dan Pfaff that consists of doing many sets of Olympic lifts over the course of 50+ minutes for 1-2 reps, striving to keep the heart rate around 150 BPM.
Ultimately, the best aerobic work matches the specific demands of training. A circuit of push-ups, squats, and pull-ups can train the aerobic system, but it isn't ideal for a soccer player. Lance Armstrong isn't a world class marathon runner. His adaptations are specific to riding a bike.

Conclusion

Aerobic work is making a comeback. All conditioning isn't created equally. What's the work : rest interval? What energy system(s) are utilized? Do you need capacity? Power? Or both?
One thing is for sure: you could stand to do a bit more aerobic work. That is, unless you're holding out for the Boba Fett technology.

Sources

1) Parolin, M., et al. (1998). Regulation of skeletal muscle glycogen phosphorylase and pdh during maximal intermittent exercise. American Psychological Society, 227(5), 890-900.

2) Haseler, L., et al. (1999). Skeletal muscle phosphocreatine recovery in exercise-trained humans is dependent on o2 availability. American Psychological Society, 86(6), 2013-2018.

3) Osgnach, C., et al. (2010). Energy cost and metabolic power in elite soccer: A new match analysis approach. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 42(1), 170-178.

4) Oetter, E. (2011, October 10). [Web log message]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.8weeksout.com/2011/10/10/research-review-energy-systems-interval-training-rsa/

5) Jamieson, J. (2012, February 23). [Web log message]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.8weeksout.com/2012/02/23/roadwork-2-0-the-comeback/

5 Ways to Improve or Maintain Your Athleticism

MARCH 15TH, 2012

If I had to place a bet I’d confidently say that there are at least an equal amount of people who ruin their athleticism through their strength training efforts, as there are people who improve it. The majority of guys who have been training for more than a decade have worse athletic ability than they did ten years earlier. It’s sad but true.

Most typical training protocols will slowly but surely ruin your athleticism. The overemphasis on maximal strength, the shortened ranges of motion, the imbalances created, the injuries accumulated…

It all adds up and one day before you know it you tear a hamstring playing a leisurely game of beach volleyball or blow out your back helping your mom move a thirty pound loveseat.

When people see you move on the dance floor at your sisters wedding they laugh and count their blessings that they never started weight training so they would never have to move like you, ya big doofus.

OH! Look atcha now. Popped an Achilles trying to do the running man during Bust a Move while the alcoholic stock brokers and sixty year old ladies next to you get down all night without a care in the world.

Everyone wonders what all that training is good for as you’re rushed off the floor on a stretcher.

Thanks for putting another black eye on the game, pal.

“Train like an athlete.” It’s a popular, buzzword-ish concept these days. But what does it mean exactly?

If you play a sport it’s pretty obvious that one of your main goals during each offseason should be to improve your athleticism. In my opinion it’s as equally important for everyone who doesn’t play a sport to do the same.

It’s commonly known that when you age you lose your ability to perform explosively and move freely into athletic positions without pain or restriction.

I’d argue and say it’s more of a case of allowing yourself to lose those qualities that enhances the aging process and leads to your first rocking chair purchase.

Some people believe that training like an athlete means you squat instead of leg press. While I agree that those seeking enhanced athleticism should steer clear of machine training there is nothing exceptionally athletic about performing a squat. It’s the first major movement pattern you mastered as an infant. Since then you have probably screwed it up a bit and may not be able to do it as well but there is nothing exceptionally “athletic” about taking two steps back and squatting down. It’s commonly performed millions of times per day in crappers worldwide.

I’m not knocking the squat, of course; it’s a great exercise that will do more for you and will incorporate far more muscle groups, and requires more hip and ankle mobility, along with core strength and stability than any machine.

Just don’t think that just because you put a bar on your back instead of lying down on the hack squat machine that you are magically going to become Jerry Rice.

Exercises like the handstand pushup, overhead squat one arm row all enhance your ability to perform athletically (provided you don’t do anything stupid or injure yourself). However, these are all exercises where you remain in a stationary position.

To really improve or maintain your athleticism you have to move. It’s as simple as that. No matter how “functional” an exercise may be deemed, if you remain stationary when performing it there is still a huge component missing.

Below are 5 ways to maintain or improve your athleticism.

1) Jump

Every training program should include some type of jumping. Low level jumps like bounding, hopping and skipping rope can be performed quite frequently. I’d recommend jumping rope at least three times per week, if only as part of your warm up. 

Intermediate level jumps should also be performed fairly regularly, but unlike the lowest level of jumps you should be concerned with counting ground contacts. I typically prescribe 5-6 sets of 3 reps, two or three times per week. That seems to do the trick. 

Advanced level jumps like depth jumps and landings should be performed less frequently and in blocks of 2-3 weeks before deloading and switching to another lower level jump.

2) Sprint

This doesn’t really require much of a description I hope. At least one or two days per week you should be getting out and opening it up on a field, beach or hill. Sled work is great and I consider it irreplaceable in my training programs, but sprinting is far more athletic and needs to be included.

3) Change Directions

If you simply sprint in a straight line your athleticism will slowly decrease over the years because breaking and cutting will have been ignored. You need to incorporate change of direction drills. These don’t have to be fancy. Just grab a bunch of cones, set them up and sprint to them in random patterns. The most basic is four cones in a square. Sprint to the first one, side shuffle left to the next one, back pedal to cone four and side shuffle right back to cone one. If you use your imagination you can come up with some more without me listing them all here. These drills should last no more than ten seconds per set and can be performed once or twice a week.

4) Use An Agility Ladder

Now before people get up in arms and accuse me of being some “functional” dude let me explain. I actually believe that the agility ladder is more useful than non-athletes in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s than it is for those who are regularly competing. The reason for that goes back to what I discussed earlier- most people don’t move quickly anymore once they stop playing a sport and that contributes to accelerated aging. The agility ladder is a perfect warm up for any workout just because it gets you moving your feet quickly again. It’s not going to do much for Cam Newton but I have seen it help the 45 year old office worker who’s been sitting on his ass the last 15 years.

5) Incorporate Loaded Carries

These are an essential part of any training program and not many activities can qualify as more functional than picking up something heavy and carrying it. You can use any implement you can think of such as barrels, sandbags, kettlebells, steel briefcases, water filled stability balls, a yoke, whatever. And you can carry them in a zercher position, two hands overhead, one hand overhead, with two hands at your side, one hand at your side, one hand overhead and one at your side, unevenly loaded, in the racked position, on your back, etc. etc. Pick one and do 3-5 sets of 20-40 yards once or twice a week.

One thing to note here is that I would also consider a walking lunge a form of weighted carries, and I believe in doing them in a non-traditional way such as with a log or sandbag over one shoulder. To crank it up a notch you could even hold a kettlebell in the opposite hand of that which you are holding the sandbag over your shoulder with. (Just please don’t do these until your knee stability is up to par). People often argue that single leg training is more functional but how much athleticism is required to do a stationary split squat or step up?

Does your training program include all of those components? If not I can almost guarantee you that you are not doing the most to maximize your athleticism and many of you are probably losing it.

Don’t go into battle unprepared.

And don’t get carted off the dance floor at your sisters wedding.

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