8-Minute Sprint Session - Should Staying Fit be this Easy?

Location: The Field Behind My Folks' House, Cheshire, UK
Date: 31st August

1 minute jog followed by 30 seconds 'psyching up'

13-15 second sprint @100% then 1 minute rest

x 5

Total workout time: 8 minutes

Post workout nutrition, 1hr later: scrambled organic eggs, wild blackberries, cocoa powder


This sprint session was judged just right - I emerged feeling fresh, yet punished, if you can imagine such a thing. I allowed myself exactly one minute of rest between sprints, which meant I became progressively more challenged by each sprint, but not unduly fatigued after 5.

Had I attempted 2 or 3 more, I would perhaps have done a little more damage than I wanted.

I think I prefer mandating a rest period and doing fewer sprints rather than allowing myself whatever rest seems right, but perhaps needing more sprints to achieve the same perceived level of effort.

Rightly or wrongly I associate being outside my comfort zone with fitness effectiveness - and limiting the allowed rest is a good way to make that happen.

I am taking part in another fell run on Saturday morning. Last time I did a weekend fell run I did some sprinting the Monday before and skipped leg press on the mid-week strength training session. That seemed to work well, so I am doing the same this week. ... Read more

Body by Science Session 11: Progress on Overhead Press, at Last

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 27th August

Eleventh BBS Big 5 session:

Week 12

*Week 11*

Week 10

Week 9

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Pull Down

155

155

1:49

150

2:13

150

1:51

Seated Row

120

1:44

120

1:42

115

2:02

115

1:56

115

1:31

110

2:02

100

2:15

80

3:08

Overhead Press

60

60

1:48

60

1:38

60

1:36

Chest Press

95

1:37

95

1:52

95

1:39

90

2:01

90

1:39

100

1:11

100

1:17

90

1:28

Seated Row

105

105

1:38

110

1:29

120

1:04

Pull Down

145

1:56

145

1:46

140

2:09

135

2:11

130

2:15

130

1:56

125

2:15

110

2:26

Chest Press

85

85

(1:10)

90

1:13

95

1:03

Overhead Press

60

1:33

60

1:28

60

1:37

60

1:49

60

1:37

60

1:38

60

1:44

80, 70

0:35, 0:25

Leg Press

330

330

1:33

320

2:14

320

-

Leg Press

310

2:30

300

2:01

290

3:24

280

2:12

260

-

250

3:02

230, 270

4.31

200

2:57

Total Time

11 mins

14 mins

10 mins

25 mins

14 mins

25 mins

25 mins

22 mins

28 mins

27 mins

Rest period

7 days

7 days

8 days

9 days

11 days

6 days

8 days

7 days

7 days

8 days

Notes

Finally got that 4th rep with OH press. Because the chest press was in use, did leg press before chest and chest press on a different machine.

Lack of progress in pressing is mitigated by pulldown and leg success. Overhead felt better even tho TUL static

Less rest and a change in exercise order threw timings into disarray. Surprised by Overhead Press not being better

Baffling underperformance on chest and surprising improvement on legs, which may partly reflect increased intensity.

Finally finding the sweet spot for leg press. Much less rest, so not surprised by overhead press suffering.

Previous week's overhead press gains may have been due to slower reps.

First real signs of progress now that I have stability on the weights.

No leg press, hence shorter workout time. Was saving myself for fell race at the weekend.

Still finding it hard to judge the right weight for leg press.

Struggled to find right weight for leg press. Still finding the correct weight for all exercises.

Had to change weight with overhead because misjudged it.

"TUL" = Time Under Load
Red = got worse
Blue = improved
Black = weight changed or improvement did not exceed a previous best

Post Workout Nutrition: Primal/Paleo Breakfast of Champions (recipe here), 90 minutes later.

Positives from this session:

Back in the sweet spot: All exercises are now back in the 90-120-second TUL range, after adjusting the exercise order in week 9

OH Press Elusive 4th Rep: it came in relatively easily - so although technically not an improvement because I achieved one second more in week 5, I suspect at the time that this was because I had done the exercise much slower that week.

Total workout time was slashed: to 11 minutes, for two reasons: first, I consciously forced myself to start each exercise immediately; second, because it just so happened that none of the exercises exceeded two minutes of TUL.

Greatest Muscular Inroads so Far: so I was breathing very heavily at the end and it felt like the most effective BBS session to date. It felt like I made significant 'inroads' into the muscle and that at least a week of recovery would be required.


Negatives from the session:

Machine hog wrecks chest press: we train in a university gym. It is holiday time. There was only one other person in the gym. It's a big gym. Guess what he was doing when I needed my 90-120 seconds of chest press? So I did leg press next instead, hoping he would be finished by the time I was ready. But no. It looked like he had set up camp. So I used a different chest press machine with a totally different movement. Either because of the different movement or because I was pretty much destroyed from leg press, my TUL was the same as last week, in spite of my dropping 5 lbs off the weight. So, I will keep the weight the same for next week.


Summary

So although there was no blue colour on this weeks results, I feel nicely queued up for a good shot at the title on each exercise except chest press next week.

From now on, I am going to judge an improvement on the basis of the history since the change in order and slashing of the rest time - i.e. week 9.

Meanwhile, it seems Deline is having the same experiences with leg press as me (see this comment on week 10) - moving inexorably up the weight stack from week to week, before finally reaching a weight for which TUL is under 2 minutes.

Deline, you mentioned problems with your grip - my partner has the same issue, and he uses lifting straps for the pull exercises - it seems to work for him. I would rather not do that myself, as I feel it's important to let my grip strengthen along with everything else. ... Read more

Swimming Sprints with Post Wife-Carrying Fatigue

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre Swimming Pool, Aston University
Date: 25th August

6 x Front crawl length, 100% effort, 60 - 120 seconds rest between each

Total time: 10 minutes

Post Workout Nutrition: scrambled egg, wild bilberries & blackberries, cocoa powder, an hour later.

I really felt this in my legs and arms. I suspect this was due to unscheduled wife-carrying yesterday.

Mrs M sprained her ankle on Saturday night and we were meeting her folks for lunch the following day. The restaurant was only about 100 yards away so after a few somewhat farcical attempts to have her hop between her dad and me, I decided to carry her the rest of the way.

I shouldn't complain, having written this post earlier in the year extolling the virtues of using one's partner for resistance training.

It's surprisingly taxing to carry a weight out in front of you compared to balancing it on your back as with a barbell squat. I could stroll round the gym all day with an Olympic bar loaded to 140 lbs balanced on my traps, but I certainly could not carry Mrs M around for longer than 5 minutes.

It has inspired me to consider a variation of Dumbbell Stair Climbs... ... Read more

Body by Science Session 10: When will Leg Press Slow Down?

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 20th August

Tenth BBS Big 5 session:

Week 11

*Week 10*

Week 9

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Pull Down

155

150

2:13

150

1:51

Seated Row

120

1:44

120

1:42

115

2:02

115

1:56

115

1:31

110

2:02

100

2:15

80

3:08

Overhead Press

60

60

1:38

60

1:36

Chest Press

95

1:37

95

1:52

95

1:39

90

2:01

90

1:39

100

1:11

100

1:17

90

1:28

Seated Row

105

110

1:29

120

1:04

Pull Down

145

1:56

145

1:46

140

2:09

135

2:11

130

2:15

130

1:56

125

2:15

110

2:26

Chest Press

85

90

1:13

95

1:03

Overhead Press

60

1:33

60

1:28

60

1:37

60

1:49

60

1:37

60

1:38

60

1:44

80, 70

0:35, 0:25

Leg Press

330

320

2:14

320

-

Leg Press

310

2:30

300

2:01

290

3:24

280

2:12

260

-

250

3:02

230, 270

4.31

200

2:57

Total Time

14 mins

10 mins

25 mins

14 mins

25 mins

25 mins

22 mins

28 mins

27 mins

Rest period

7 days

8 days

9 days

11 days

6 days

8 days

7 days

7 days

8 days

Notes

Lack of progress in pressing is mitigated by pulldown and leg success. Overhead felt better even tho TUL static

Less rest and a change in exercise order threw timings into disarray. Surprised by Overhead Press not being better

Baffling underperformance on chest and surprising improvement on legs, which may partly reflect increased intensity.

Finally finding the sweet spot for leg press. Much less rest, so not surprised by overhead press suffering.

Previous week's overhead press gains may have been due to slower reps.

First real signs of progress now that I have stability on the weights.

No leg press, hence shorter workout time. Was saving myself for fell race at the weekend.

Still finding it hard to judge the right weight for leg press.

Struggled to find right weight for leg press. Still finding the correct weight for all exercises.

Had to change weight with overhead because misjudged it.

* no colour coding this week due to changes in running order and rest.

"TUL" = Time Under Load
Red = got worse
Blue = improved
Black = weight changed or improvement did not exceed a previous best

Post Workout Nutrition: Scrambled eggs, wild blackberries, cinnamon, 50 minutes later.

As you can see, this week saw progress on leg press and pull downs, so the weights are being increased next session.

I had dropped the weights for chest press and seated row, having misjudged the impact of the order switch last week. But I had clearly not dropped the weight enough - I want to get the TUL squarely into the 90 - 120 second sweet spot, then focus on progressing from there. So next week I am losing 5lbs from each.

I am starting to get used to the intensity of having 60 seconds or less of rest between exercises. It looks like 14-15 minutes is the quickest I can do these workouts, given the time it takes to move from machine to machine, write down my times and adjust the weight.

The rest between exercises varies because of the geography of the gym complex: the pull down, chest press and leg press machines are in one room, whereas the overhead press and seated row machines are in another.

This means very little rest between overhead press and seated row, and between chest press and leg press. It seemed to be less of a problem in the latter case, but I found seated row to be quite hard straight after overhead press.

Where I am least happy is with the pressing exercises. There have been changes to rest times and exercise order, so I will wait for some stability before taking any further action. In fact overhead press felt slightly better this time, in spite of the apparent lack of progress with TUL. That elusive 4th rep felt closer than usual. I think I can get it next time.

Finally, a thought on legg press. Like Deline, who shares some interesting BBS experiences in this comment on session 9, I am starting to wonder when my progess on this will start to slow down - I am running out of stack on the Cybex machine... ... Read more

Fitness Tips from 'The Best' - My Contribution to The Fitness Advisor Article

I was asked by Rafi of The Fitness Advisor last week for my '#1 fitness tip' for a post he was putting together, Fitness Tips From The Best. I set aside my reservations about whether I belonged in that category and offered the following:

Try not to let your passion for training unduly influence decisions about volume. Almost everyone trains too much and gets too little rest. Less is more.

On reflection I realise that this really only applies to a subsection of readers. Many people need to do more than they already are, given they are doing more or less nothing; but I like to apply the less is more principle to giving advice as well ;-)

I was therefore duly envious of Mark Sisson's entry, which was both shorter and more incisive:

Make your easy workouts longer and easier, and your hard workouts shorter and harder.

Anyway, check out the other dozen or so pieces of advice here. Worth a read. ... Read more

Sprints, a Barbecue and Way too Much Booze

Location: My Friend's House, Shropshire, UK
Date: 15th August

I was at my friend's house on Saturday for a barbecue. It has taken my this long to recover from the aftermath of that, and to get round to posting about the sprints I did in the daytime before the festivities.

Too much booze, not enough sleep.

This is the land they own behind their house - about 120 metres, and perfect for sprinting.

The workout: 5 x 90 metre sprints. 1 - 3 minutes rest between each.

Post Workout Nutrition: about 3 hours later, this , this and sadly (but deliciously) some of this .

Here we are in action:

I know it kind of looks as if our friend is burning his cigarette on my my opponent's arm, but this is a quirk of perspective. In fact he was rather half-heartedly acting as the starter.

Each sprint was taking my friend 11-12 seconds and me 12-13 seconds. Once again, in spite of my weight and height advantage, he was clearly faster - theories for which I cover in the post about our recent hill sprints.

On Saturday he reminded me that as a youth he once ran 400m in 48 seconds. This is an extremely impressive time and must surely speak of an innate talent for anaerobic performance.

I am still stiff 4 days later. I can't help wondering whether this is a reflection of the effort that went into the sprints, or the struggle my body has had repairing itself after being poisoned with sugar and alcohol.

Ironically, I often sleep rather well for a few nights after poisoning myself in this way, which one might expect to offer benefits to the recovery process. I suspect the benefits are outweighed by the disadvantages.

My BBS performance tomorrow will surely offer a clue. ... Read more

Body by Science Session 9: Different Order, Less Rest

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 13th August

Ninth BBS Big 5 session:

Week 10

*Week 9*

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Pull Down

150

150

1:51

Seated Row

120

1:44

120

1:42

115

2:02

115

1:56

115

1:31

110

2:02

100

2:15

80

3:08

Overhead Press

60

60

1:36

Chest Press

95

1:37

95

1:52

95

1:39

90

2:01

90

1:39

100

1:11

100

1:17

90

1:28

Seated Row

110

120

1:04

Pull Down

145

1:56

145

1:46

140

2:09

135

2:11

130

2:15

130

1:56

125

2:15

110

2:26

Chest Press

90

95

1:03

Overhead Press

60

1:33

60

1:28

60

1:37

60

1:49

60

1:37

60

1:38

60

1:44

80, 70

0:35, 0:25

Leg Press

320

320

-

Leg Press

310

2:30

300

2:01

290

3:24

280

2:12

260

-

250

3:02

230, 270

4.31

200

2:57

Total Time

10 mins

25 mins

14 mins

25 mins

25 mins

22 mins

28 mins

27 mins

Rest period

8 days

9 days

11 days

6 days

8 days

7 days

7 days

8 days

Notes

Less rest and a change in exercise order threw timings into disarray. Surprised by Overhead Press not being better

Baffling underperformance on chest and surprising improvement on legs, which may partly reflect increased intensity.

Finally finding the sweet spot for leg press. Much less rest, so not surprised by overhead press suffering.

Previous week's overhead press gains may have been due to slower reps.

First real signs of progress now that I have stability on the weights.

No leg press, hence shorter workout time. Was saving myself for fell race at the weekend.

Still finding it hard to judge the right weight for leg press.

Struggled to find right weight for leg press. Still finding the correct weight for all exercises.

Had to change weight with overhead because misjudged it.

* no colour coding this week due to changes in running order and rest.

"TUL" = Time Under Load
Red = got worse
Blue = improved
Black = weight changed or improvement did not exceed a previous best

Post Workout Nutrition: Mixed seafood, wild blackberries, half a coconut, 45 minutes later.

Two big changes this week:

1. We took it in turns to do the full workout, thus slashing the rest between exercises.
2. We switched the order, as shown in the table.

I strategically upped the pull down weight by 5lbs in anticipation of first-exercise additional strength - this proved to be a good call as I remained in the sweet spot.

Surprising then, that I failed to make the same adjustment for seated row or chest press, for which I left the weight the same and, not surprisingly, only just broke the minute barrier. However, in recent weeks a couple of you have suggested operating in closer to the 60 second mark, so I was happy making the best of those sets. But it did feel a little as though I was cheating because they were over so quickly.

Overhead press continues to be a conundrum, as the expected improvement due to being earlier in the running order did not materialise; but we must consider the reduced rest in conjunction with pull downs being arguably the most taxing of the upper body exercises.

As I mentioned I would last week, I skipped leg press to let my legs rest after my weekend hiking and Monday tabata and in anticipation of some sprinting on Saturday. I think it's feasible this might even lead to greater improvements, because in the BBS book, they talk about occasional longer rest periods sometimes resulting in greater gains. ... Read more

REAL Tabata on the Rowing Machine, a Murderous Session

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 10th August

Workout: Tabata Intervals on the Rowing Machine

Total Time: 5 minutes (includes 1 minute warmup)

Post Workout Nutrition: scrambled eggs + wild bilberries + cocoa powder, 45 minutes later.

Having read this article by Lyle McDonald, I was determined to perform this Tabata session correctly. It's a long and involved article, but nub of it that to truly get the benefits of the Tabata protocol, as evidenced by the original study, you have to put an incredible amount of effort into the intervals.

As Lyle puts it:

Doing thrusters or KB swings or front squats with 65 lbs for 20 seconds doesn’t generate nearly the workload that was used during the actual study. Nor will it generate the benefits... You can call them Tabatas all you want but they assuredly aren’t.

I have always regarded correct Tabatas as each and every 20 second interval being done at 100% effort. There should be no 'budgeting' for later intervals; but there have been times I have chickened out of really applying this literally, and found myself not genuinely giving the first few intervals my all.

The thing is, it's a genuinely traumatic experience when you do - to such an extent that last night, I was slightly nervous; and on the way to the gym this morning, had quite some adrenaline flowing.

In the event, the fear was largely justified - it was a very painful experience. It was at least 3 minutes after the intervals were over before I felt okay.

However, from then on, I felt great. It has been a while since I did a Tabata row, and other than Tabata sprints, which I dare not do at all, it's the most demanding thing I do. Perhaps it's the very fact that my objective is to truly give 100% to each interval that makes it so scary. The pain is the objective so there seems to be no escaping it, however fit I am.

Anyway, I shall probably skip legs on my BBS session on Thursday. They took a fair hit from today's session, after also working hard yesterday in the hills; and with the threat of more sprints (like these) on Saturday with my fell running partner, I think it is the sensible thing to rest them until then.

All that will make this a pretty busy week, workout-wise:

Yesterday - hills
Today - Tabata rows
Thursday - BBS
Saturday - sprints

...so I will make the following week a very easy one.

Another point Lyle makes in the article is that the benefits appear to peak after 3 weeks of regular sessions. Fortunately for me, I have no desire to put myself through them with that regularity, so I am unlikely be frustrated by that particular limitation. ... Read more

Hills, Sun, Bilberries & How to Work Hard when your Partner Doesn't

Location: The Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, UK
Date: 9th August

I'm going to borrow a format I used on Pay Now Live Later for this post. Click on the photos for an enlarged version in the top left.

We went hiking but I wanted to get some sustained 55-75% heart rate work, which did not jibe with how Mrs M planned to work. There were too many steep bits, such as here , here , here and here . And here .

So I tried a new technique, whereby I would do everything twice. Back down to the bottom of each section then up again whilst Mrs M caught up. We could talk at various points as I went past. Once I had let go of that nagging sense of not wanting to go back down, it worked really well. And Mrs M did not feel as if she was always being 'dragged' along.

There was plenty of sun , so I got a good chunk of vitamin D. As a bonus we found some bilberries (like small blueberries) growing near the top and picked a couple of handfuls to keep us going.

Nice view from the top, where I could not resist including the Vibram Five Fingers . You can imagine the looks I got when I was taking this photo ;-)

There was plenty of terrain ideal for running downhill , which I took advantage of at various points, but still also threw in some brief uphill runs just to mix it around and keep the heart rate up.

One more photo, just because I like it!

Post Workout Nutrition: None - fasted until dinner.

... Read more

Body by Science Session 8: Time for some Changes

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date: 5th August

Eighth BBS Big 5 session:

Week 9

*Week 8*

Week 7

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Lbs

TUL

Pull Down

145

Seated Row

120

1:44

120

1:42

115

2:02

115

1:56

115

1:31

110

2:02

100

2:15

80

3:08

Overhead Press

60

Chest Press

95

1:37

95

1:52

95

1:39

90

2:01

90

1:39

100

1:11

100

1:17

90

1:28

Seated Row

120

Pull Down

145

1:56

145

1:46

140

2:09

135

2:11

130

2:15

130

1:56

125

2:15

110

2:26

Chest Press

95

Overhead Press

60

1:33

60

1:28

60

1:37

60

1:49

60

1:37

60

1:38

60

1:44

80, 70

0:35, 0:25

Leg Press

320

Leg Press

310

2:30

300

2:01

290

3:24

280

2:12

260

-

250

3:02

230, 270

4.31

200

2:57

Total Time

25 mins

14 mins

25 mins

25 mins

22 mins

28 mins

27 mins

Rest period

9 days

11 days

6 days

8 days

7 days

7 days

8 days

Notes

Baffling underperformance on chest and surprising improvement on legs, which may partly reflect increased intensity.

Finally finding the sweet spot for leg press. Much less rest, so not surprised by overhead press suffering.

Previous week's overhead press gains may have been due to slower reps.

First real signs of progress now that I have stability on the weights.

No leg press, hence shorter workout time. Was saving myself for fell race at the weekend.

Still finding it hard to judge the right weight for leg press.

Struggled to find right weight for leg press. Still finding the correct weight for all exercises.

Had to change weight with overhead because misjudged it.

"TUL" = Time Under Load
Red = got worse
Blue = improved
Black = weight changed or improvement did not exceed a previous best

Post Workout Nutrition: scrambled eggs + cocoa powder, 45 minutes later.

Over the weeks I have been grateful for the suggestions offered by people reading the accounts of my BBS training. This weeks saw a mixed bag of results - some progress, but also some stagnation. So it's time to take some of that advice and mix things around a bit.

The reduced TUL on chest press came as a surprise. This had previously been the exercise with which I felt most comfortable and most confident. I did improve the time on both seated row and pull downs, although the 2-second increase for seated row could scarcely be regarded as significant.

Shoulder press, as ever, was in a state of stagnation, whereas leg press continues to go from strength to strength. In the case of leg press, I suspect that this at least partly to do with increased intensity. I initially found this exercise unusually painful, and perhaps did not genuinely take it to failure....that is until this week when the final complete rep left me on my knees unable to write my time down for 10 seconds.

So... we are going to take Skyler's advice from week 7 and switch the exercise order. As you can see, this means adding a column into the table to reflect the new order.

...and we are also going to take Bryce's advice from week 7 and take turns to do the session. This has two benefits:

1. The workout is more intense and we get the metabolic conditioning benefits - we can then strive to decrease the amount of rest between sets without the constraint of waiting for the other person to finish.
2. We have the option to introduce spotting to get through sticking points.

We are keeping in reserve the advice offered by Don in week 6, to increase the weight by 5% on shoulder press and operate in the 60 second TUL range. ... Read more