High Intensity Training and the gift of time

I was in Denver earlier this week for a work-related training. The lady sitting next to me in the meeting was very nice and sociable and overweight. Of the three, she was most focused on being overweight. She asked me what I did to work out and when I told her that for the past few months I've been working out for about 15 minutes once per week, like most, she didn't believe me. I shared that most people work out too much and that diet was ultimately the most important factor in getting results. When her skepticism softened, she asked me what my 15 minute workouts consisted of, and when I shared that information, a shadow of disgust clouded her face and she told me, "That doesn't sound very fun."

She then proceeded to share with me a new fitness class she had just enrolled in and was so excited to begin. I didn't understand much of what she was describing to me, but I believe she said that while they were doing their workouts that they wear heart-rate monitors and that the heart-rates of each of the individual members of the class were displayed on a giant screen in the front of the class and that the goal was to get and maintain the highest heart-rate for the longest period of time. She was planning to subject herself to this class five times per week. She then proceeded to eat two big bag of Cheetos during the day of training (on top of breakfast and lunch).

Now, again, I am probably mistaken to some extent about the nature of the class, but if I'm not, then the purpose of the class would be to induce cardiac arrest or atrial fibrillation.  While she would probably burn plenty of calories, she probably wouldn't see much in the way of progress as the workouts--assuming she survives them--would increase her appetite  and the combination of high intensity, high volume and high frequency of exercise would impact her long term motivation as well as her recovery, forcing her body into a constant catabolic state, which, as we've discussed before, if not given time to shift into an anabolic state, actually has negative effects on body composition and health.

However, none of this is what actually bugged me the most. I have buried the lede. What really tickled my crabbiness was her comment that my workouts "don't sound like fun." Who said exercise was supposed to be fun. Is brushing your teeth fun? Is flossing fun? Is wiping your ass fun? Because exercise, true-blue exercise done for general health and well-being, has far more in common with those things than it does with "recreation." No, exercise is supposed to be fun. You don't do it because it's fun, you do it because it's good for you. If it's enjoyable, then it's just a positive bonus. I personally love my workouts. And the fact that I only do them once-per-week basically ensures that when Sunday rolls around, unlike most people, I don't have to force myself to go workout. I'm excited and ready for it.

I bring all of this up because I meet people literally all the time who complain to me about the lack of time they have to workout. It's a constant struggle. I can sympathize. I used to be one of these people. In his book, "You are Your Own Gym" Mark Lauren writes about his frustration with successful people who look like shit. He says, and I paraphrase, "How can a person not even find half-an-hour each day to work out." Well, Mark, when you're working your ass off all day and have a family you may like to spend some time with, and interests other than working out, then it gets a little difficult. I used to do it. I did it for two or three years. But it was a constant effort to find time. Sometimes I would force myself to wake up early to fit in a workout. Sometimes I would do it at lunch. Sometimes after everyone had gone to bed. Sometimes I even fit workouts in while I was cooking dinner, chopping and frying and simmering in between sets of pullups and body-rows, for example. It was madness.

However, I stumbled upon High Intensity Training. It was a revelation. And I am trying to share this revelation with others and...most people don't seem all that interested. It's not that other methods of exercise don't work. I happen to believe just about any method of exercise will provide results. The questions is what is the most efficient and safest way of exercising. A person, in short, can do like how I used to do, and struggle to find time to work out 3-5 times each week and risk overuse injuries on top of it, or they can workout 12-30 minutes one time per week and not worry about it after that.

High intensity methods are not fun. Not for most people. In my opinion high intensity training is the most uncomfortable method of training I've ever done. But I subject myself to it for about 15 minutes once per week and I can get on with life.

One of my own key values is that exercise should improve one's life, not become the priority of it. Most people who are consistent and dedicated to their training have a tendency to schedule their lives around their workouts. There's nothing "wrong" with that, per se, but it seems a little unnecessary. There's more to life than exercise and it's always a little sad to me that the fitness industry has been so successful in convincing consumers that they essentially have to give up other interests in the pursuit of health and fitness.

Two weeks ago, I offered to put an acquaintance of mine through a high intensity workout. They in turn offered me to their nightly Insanity class. I thought it was a fair trade. I'd do one of their classes and they'd do one of my workouts and perhaps see the rationale behind HIT. So I went to the Insanity class. Unsurprisingly, I was unimpressed.  I'm going to sound like I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth, but the class was simultaneously not intense enough and yet much too intense. What I mean is that it took me about half-an-hour before I really started to get tired, when, recently, I've been getting wiped out about 8 minutes into my HIT workout. So, in that sense, it wasn't intense enough. However, on the other end, once I started to get tired, the workout kept going...for another half an hour. There was no end to it. I had long gotten the necessary stimulus but the workout was intent on beating me up even further.

In and of itself, this wouldn't be problematic, as James Steele PhD has written extensively about, intensity is the ultimate equalizer. It doesn't really matter how you go about it, but creating fatigue in the muscles and in the metabolic processes is most important. The issue was that, after the workout, my acquaintance offered me to come back again the next night.

"How often do you guys do this stuff?" I asked.

"Monday through Friday," he said.

It was, as is typical, madness. If you're going to beat yourself up to such an extent, you need to give yourself time to recover. Overtraining sets in, and the side-effects are reduced results, reduced motivation and, yes, ultimately reduced health.

Quite frankly, I just don't understand the mind-set. I'm a walking example of the quality of HIT. I was the only person in the Insanity class who didn't have to take a break in the middle of an exercise. I got through an hour of a tough workout despite the fact that I only workout 15 minutes per week. What more needs to be known? At the very least, I'm proof that HIT is superior to Insanity, and yet....

I feel often times like an evangelist. And I am. HIT has improved my life in many ways. It has taken nothing from me except 15 minutes every week. I continue to believe that it is bar-none the most efficient and safest way to workout. It's not the most enjoyable, it's not the hippest, and, yes, for best results you have to workout alone or with a trainer. But it opens up the rest of your life for other things.

You'd think the choice would be obvious.