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...of your workout program.
A new Harvard study compared high intensity exercise (defined as running at 6mph or higher) vs. low intensity exercise (3 mph) vs. weight training vs. non-runners.
The 6mph group was 42% less likely to develop heart disease than the non-runners.
The 3mph group was 18% less likely to develop heart disease than the non-runners.
The weight trainers were 23% less likely to develop heart disease than those who did not pump iron.
NOTE: Low intensity walking had little benefit. That means that, contrary to what many would LIKE to believe, a leisurely round of golf isn't going to do squat for your heart.
Those of us who have been weight training for a while, know the heart benefits of lifting iron. This study simply vindicates what we've known all along.
The flaw in the study: the assumption that all weight trainers train equally hard. The researchers did not make this assumption with the runners, but they did with the weight trainers for some reason. As can be easily seen in any commercial gym, most people who lift weights really don't work very hard. Only a small percentage understand the true meaning of hard work. Fewer still do it. My guess is that most of the weight trainers in this study are the equivalent of the 3mph runners.
In Reply to: Time to get the lead out... posted by Lincoln on October 22, 2002 at 19:37:35:
Some approaches allow both aerobic and strength-building training. Might be even better.
In Reply to: Re: Time to get the lead out... posted by R. on October 22, 2002 at 19:55:40:
Kettlebell workouts often focus more on what we call strength endurance, also called General Physical Preparedness (G.P.P.), than pure strength. High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.) also falls into this category.
The effect of weight training on the cardiovascular system all depends on how much effort is put into the sets, how long the sets last and how short the rest intervals are between sets. Note the similarities between H.I.I.T. and "Circuit Training" from the 1980s.
In Reply to: Yes... posted by Lincoln on October 22, 2002 at 20:19:24:
Would you ellaborate on the ideas in your first paragraph (GPP, pure strength, etc.)? Pavel Tsatsouline says kettlebell routines strengthen you out overall, giving you strength, including explosiveness that martial artists require. I like that. But I could have easily gotten lost in his marketing.
Neither do I have any idea about Circuit Training or similarities between that and HIIT.
In Reply to: Re: Yes... posted by R. on October 23, 2002 at 00:21:18:
GPP is more a measure of how much volume of work you can sustain, rather than how much you can lift at one moment. Maybe you can lift a 100 lb. box once, but can you lift a 50 lb. box 10 times in a minute?
The largest kettlebell made is 2 pods (88 pounds). This is big for some exercises, but tiny for others. For example, the one arm snatch is a popular kettlebell exercise. Many of the guys at my gym can do multiple reps with the 2 pod bell. But these same guys can snatch 220+ pounds with a barbell! The gym record is 350 pounds in the two arm snatch, 550 pounds in the squat. Obviously an 88 lb. kettlebell is not going to be much of challenge to the legs for these guys. It's not meant to be. It's meant to build the supporting muscles - the stabilizers, the core muscles - and to build general fitness conditioning, aka GPP.
Pavel himself was a national ranked kettlebell lifters. In those competitions, the goal was not to see who could lift the heaviest; the goal was to see who could do the most number of reps in the least amount of time. If I remember correctly, we're talking about 40+ reps. That's strength endurance, not raw strength. There is some carry-over to raw strength, but not nearly as much as there would be for lower reps, heavier weights. A kettlebell-conditioned guy like Pavel is strong, but he's not going to win any powerlifting competitions.
Circuit training was a workout where you went from machine to machine, lifting as much as you could, with almost no rest in between machines. Maybe 30 seconds, just enough to adjust the machine. H.I.I.T. is short bursts of intense work, such as 100 yard sprints, with very short rest intervals between work, maybe 15 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest, 15 seconds of rest, 15 seconds of rest, etc. Very similar, except that H.I.I.T. is not restricted to weightlifting machines. The metabolic effect is nearly the same, however.
In Reply to: Time to get the lead out... posted by Lincoln on October 22, 2002 at 19:37:35:
Thanks, Lincoln.
Namaste`
Walt
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