Whole of Jun 2012, I focused on increasing speed and time and by month end I was jogging/running at a reasonable pace - sometimes on treadmill, sometimes outside and weekends I would break the monotony with swimming and yoga. While my upper body was responding well to 100+ sun salutations, I was getting bored of the routine. After I hit 176 sun salutations in one sitting I felt a strong need to try something tougher. Same with running - while I was building lean muscles I wasn't providing the workout to my fast twitch muscles.
Essentially, muscle breaks down into two kinds: slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). Slow-twitch muscles work well if you run marathons, but if you want to achieve fast, explosive movement you need bigger, high-velocity, fast-twitch muscle fibers. Most of us have about half slow-twitch and half fast-twitch muscle fibers. In contrast, Olympic sprinters boast about 80 percent fast-twitch muscle. Interval training, heavy weights & low reps are couple of ways of building fast-twitch muscle fibers.
In Jul 2012, I decided to experiment with 30 Day Shred from Jillian Michaels. The program has three levels and usually one stays on level 1 for 10 days, level 2 for next 10 and level 3 for last 10 - hence the name 30 Day Shred. Each level consists of a warm up routine, three 6 minute circuits - each circuit comprises of 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, 1 minute abs and finally a cool down. All in all about 24 minutes workout. Sounds easy, right? 24 minutes...big deal! I can jog for 50 minutes...it is less than half of that. Well...two days into the program and I realized that I couldn't do it everyday. The push-ups, the calisthenics and the free weights - all felt very tough! So I started doing level 1 every alternate day, then two days in a row followed by 1 day break. It took me 15 days to complete 10 days of level 1.
Then I started level 2 and couple of days later took a fortnight long break from it. Level 2 had lot of planks and my upper body simply wasn't ready for it. Then I started level 2 again but on alternate days. By first week of Aug, my body had started to get used to 30DS and I decided to add cardio to this training. Instead of usual jogging at 7.5 kmph, I started with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on treadmill.
A HIIT session often consists of a warm up period of exercise, followed by three to ten repetitions of high intensity exercise, separated by medium intensity exercise for recovery, and ending with a period of cool down exercise. The high intensity exercise should be done at near maximum intensity. The medium exercise should be about 50% intensity. Depending on one's level of cardiovascular development, the moderate-level intensity can be as slow as walking.
One can start with 1:2 ratio of high intensity to medium intensity periods (which is what I started with), then you can graduate to 1:1 and finally to 2:1. As you increase the ratio, you may need to reduce the interval period. For instance at 1:2 ratio I run for a minute and jog for 2 min (3 minute cycle). But if I were to do it as 2:1, then its better to do 30–40 seconds of hard sprinting alternated with 15–20 seconds of jogging or walking (1 min cycle).
In addition as you get fitter, you must increase the intensity of the high intensity interval. For instance, when I started HIIT I would run at 10 kmph for a min and for 2 min jog at 7.5 kmph but today at the same ratio my speeds are 12 kmph and 9 kmph. If I want to increase the ratio I must keep my high intensity interval at 12 kmph but reduce the speed of medium intensity interval to say 7.5 kmph. The medium intensity interval is used to bring the heart rate down before you take through the roof again. So if you want to increase the work to rest ratio, the intensity of workout during rest period needs to come down.
Guess I have confused you enough :), so lets get back to my story...First day I managed eight HIIT cycles in addition to level 2 of 30DS. Now my weekday routine was 30DS level 1 or 2 plus about 7-8 three minute HIIT cycles. Weekends I would swim to rest my sore muscles. By end of Aug 2012 my average jog/run speed had gone up to 8.5 kmph and the days I wouldn't do 30DS I would run for 40-45 minutes. I continued this for another two months and last week of Oct 2012, I finally reached level 3 of 30DS. Level 3 introduced me to plyometrics and soon a new set of muscles in my body was paining. I had to intersperse level 3 with running and swimming as my joints and muscles couldn't take all that jumping.
The 30 day program had become more of a 120 day program for me because my upper body was extremely weak and unable to lift my own body weight while doing planks or push ups. But I knew that I was improving. I had started with doing push ups on my knees and even then I could barely touch the chest to ground. By the end of 120 days I was not using my knees any more and was getting a bit closer to ground with every passing day. I also used these four months to increase my average running speed and cardio fitness through HIIT on treadmill.
Come Dec 2012, I started playing with various combinations - some days I would do level 1 and level 2/3 of 30DS, some days I would do 7-8 HIIT run cycles and do level 2 or 3 of 30DS, some days were only for HIIT, some days for jogging out in the open and some days for just swimming. What stayed constant was the 30-35 minutes yoga and stretching routine that was essential to keep my fibromyalgia pain under control.
This variation not only kept the boredom at bay, it also ensured that I didn't overwork same set of muscles. Doing different workouts stressed different parts of my body and allowed the muscles to heal before I would stress them again. I had finally learnt to listen to my body. Though I was still in pain and needed 2-3 hours of daily physical therapy but I was getting stronger and my reliance on pain killers was almost nil.
Thanks to Hussain, Jillian Michaels and HIIT, 2012 turned out to be a great start to my fitness journey!
Essentially, muscle breaks down into two kinds: slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). Slow-twitch muscles work well if you run marathons, but if you want to achieve fast, explosive movement you need bigger, high-velocity, fast-twitch muscle fibers. Most of us have about half slow-twitch and half fast-twitch muscle fibers. In contrast, Olympic sprinters boast about 80 percent fast-twitch muscle. Interval training, heavy weights & low reps are couple of ways of building fast-twitch muscle fibers.
In Jul 2012, I decided to experiment with 30 Day Shred from Jillian Michaels. The program has three levels and usually one stays on level 1 for 10 days, level 2 for next 10 and level 3 for last 10 - hence the name 30 Day Shred. Each level consists of a warm up routine, three 6 minute circuits - each circuit comprises of 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, 1 minute abs and finally a cool down. All in all about 24 minutes workout. Sounds easy, right? 24 minutes...big deal! I can jog for 50 minutes...it is less than half of that. Well...two days into the program and I realized that I couldn't do it everyday. The push-ups, the calisthenics and the free weights - all felt very tough! So I started doing level 1 every alternate day, then two days in a row followed by 1 day break. It took me 15 days to complete 10 days of level 1.
Then I started level 2 and couple of days later took a fortnight long break from it. Level 2 had lot of planks and my upper body simply wasn't ready for it. Then I started level 2 again but on alternate days. By first week of Aug, my body had started to get used to 30DS and I decided to add cardio to this training. Instead of usual jogging at 7.5 kmph, I started with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on treadmill.
A HIIT session often consists of a warm up period of exercise, followed by three to ten repetitions of high intensity exercise, separated by medium intensity exercise for recovery, and ending with a period of cool down exercise. The high intensity exercise should be done at near maximum intensity. The medium exercise should be about 50% intensity. Depending on one's level of cardiovascular development, the moderate-level intensity can be as slow as walking.
One can start with 1:2 ratio of high intensity to medium intensity periods (which is what I started with), then you can graduate to 1:1 and finally to 2:1. As you increase the ratio, you may need to reduce the interval period. For instance at 1:2 ratio I run for a minute and jog for 2 min (3 minute cycle). But if I were to do it as 2:1, then its better to do 30–40 seconds of hard sprinting alternated with 15–20 seconds of jogging or walking (1 min cycle).
In addition as you get fitter, you must increase the intensity of the high intensity interval. For instance, when I started HIIT I would run at 10 kmph for a min and for 2 min jog at 7.5 kmph but today at the same ratio my speeds are 12 kmph and 9 kmph. If I want to increase the ratio I must keep my high intensity interval at 12 kmph but reduce the speed of medium intensity interval to say 7.5 kmph. The medium intensity interval is used to bring the heart rate down before you take through the roof again. So if you want to increase the work to rest ratio, the intensity of workout during rest period needs to come down.
Guess I have confused you enough :), so lets get back to my story...First day I managed eight HIIT cycles in addition to level 2 of 30DS. Now my weekday routine was 30DS level 1 or 2 plus about 7-8 three minute HIIT cycles. Weekends I would swim to rest my sore muscles. By end of Aug 2012 my average jog/run speed had gone up to 8.5 kmph and the days I wouldn't do 30DS I would run for 40-45 minutes. I continued this for another two months and last week of Oct 2012, I finally reached level 3 of 30DS. Level 3 introduced me to plyometrics and soon a new set of muscles in my body was paining. I had to intersperse level 3 with running and swimming as my joints and muscles couldn't take all that jumping.
The 30 day program had become more of a 120 day program for me because my upper body was extremely weak and unable to lift my own body weight while doing planks or push ups. But I knew that I was improving. I had started with doing push ups on my knees and even then I could barely touch the chest to ground. By the end of 120 days I was not using my knees any more and was getting a bit closer to ground with every passing day. I also used these four months to increase my average running speed and cardio fitness through HIIT on treadmill.
Come Dec 2012, I started playing with various combinations - some days I would do level 1 and level 2/3 of 30DS, some days I would do 7-8 HIIT run cycles and do level 2 or 3 of 30DS, some days were only for HIIT, some days for jogging out in the open and some days for just swimming. What stayed constant was the 30-35 minutes yoga and stretching routine that was essential to keep my fibromyalgia pain under control.
This variation not only kept the boredom at bay, it also ensured that I didn't overwork same set of muscles. Doing different workouts stressed different parts of my body and allowed the muscles to heal before I would stress them again. I had finally learnt to listen to my body. Though I was still in pain and needed 2-3 hours of daily physical therapy but I was getting stronger and my reliance on pain killers was almost nil.
Thanks to Hussain, Jillian Michaels and HIIT, 2012 turned out to be a great start to my fitness journey!
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