Now I’m just regular person. I’m not a personal trainer and I don’t have a client list to prove to anyone anything. What I’ve discovered in the past year is that HIT is highly effective for me. I did it the other way for 16 years. In my N=1 experiment, High Intensity Training is superior to traditional weight lifting or explosive training. I’m not saying HIT is superior for everyone – just for me.

Is Coca Cola Better than RC Draft Cola?

One of the things I constantly read from fitness “experts” is how HIT is flawed because they see better results with clients that don’t follow a High Intensity Training protocol. They say this as if it is proof that HIT is less effective. For starters, I don’t discount that statement is true. But it is not for the implied reason.

Way more people are exposed to traditional weight lifting protocols than HIT. I’d be surprised it HIT made up 1% of all strength training. It only makes sense with that huge of an advantage that non-HIT trainers would have a greater pool of successes. Also, those athletes that respond well to classic strength training are going to be less likely to give it up and embrace HIT. So we don’t know if they would do better or worse on HIT, what we know is they aren’t going to be as motivated to switch.

Back in the mid-1990s, I was still drinking cola. I preferred Coke over Pepsi. One day I spotted RC Draft Cola and tried to recall if I liked it as a child. I wasn’t sure, but I was willing to give it a try. The taste blew me away. It was superior to Coke, probably because it used raw cane sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. For a few months I recall telling friends and co-workers about RC Draft Cola. With one exception, I don’t think anyone tried it. Coke was working for them, why should they seek out a far less popular cola option? I was able to get one die-hard Coke fan to try it and agree with me.

The fact way more people prefer Coke to RC Draft Cola isn’t proof that Coke is superior. And the fact the majority of elite athletes don’t use HIT isn’t proof that traditonal strength training is superior.

Measuring Failure

Just as Coke has far more fans than RC Draft Cola, more people have quit drinking Coke than have quit drinking RC Draft Cola. The same is true for strength training. There are far more lifters that quit or got injured doing traditional weight lifting than High Intensity Training. Popularity cuts both ways when it is used a metric to measure efficacy.

Try Both

Instead of repeating the same old arguments for and against HIT, why not just try it for yourself? Seek out a top trainer in your area and schedule a workout. I thought I understood intensity after reading Body By Science and watching a few videos online. I didn’t. After my workout at Ideal Exercise, it all clicked.

UPDATE (Feb 4, 2012): I changed the title of this post to be more descriptive.

When it comes to making curries, I don’t measure anything. Just throw in as much or as little as you like. You really can’t go wrong. If you like the ingredients and the spice level, it is very likely you will like your curry. I’ve made curry well over 100 times and the combination of pumpkin and broccoli stood out to me as a personal favorite. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Pumpkin and broccoli are super healthy too. Both made the cut in the book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.

Mae Ploy Thai Red Curry Paste – 14 ounce per jar

My first clue that I probably shouldn’t be doing distance running came in 1992. The USA Olympic trials for the Men’s Marathon came to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. I clearly remember flipping through the program which highlighted the 125 runners that were invited. Only one runner was over 6 foot tall and he didn’t place in the top 3. If 14.5% of all men in America are over 6 foot tall, why were less than 1% of our elite distance runners that tall? Some of us gravitate towards other sports that reward height, but the rest of us just experience too much pain when we run.

Sprinting is Superior

The past few years I’ve been a regular reader of Conditioning Research, which has had numerous articles on the benefits of sprinting and high intensity interval training. Here are a few examples.

• Intervals (HIIT) and the Heart – This post is about a study that showed interval training was superior to low or moderate aerobic training for cardiovascular function and aerobic capacity.
• Exercise and brain health : just sprint for new mitochondria?- Sprinting or interval training may protect the brain from dementia or other central nervous system diseases by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis in the brain.
• Is sprint exercise a leptin signaling mimetic – By sprinting in a fasted state you could trigger the leptin hormone which controls appetite.

A few months ago I got fired up to start sprinting. Right from the beginning I was having pain issues. I adjusted my warm-up and tried to improve my stride. It helped, but whenever I tried to dial up the intensity, something would happen and I’d be sidelined.

I understood why distance running was hell on my tall physique, but why was sprinting a problem? Thankfully, the search engines were able to answer this question for me. From the article Taking Sprinting to New Heights by Edward McClelland:

Traditionally, height has been seen as a detriment to sprinting. The formula for speed is stride length times stride rate. If the longest legs always won the race, then Yao Ming would have the world record in the 100, and lions wouldn’t eat giraffes.

And:

Big guys have physics working against them. According to the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, “[T]he acceleration of the body is proportional to the force produced but inversely proportional to the body mass, according to Newton’s second law. … This implies an inverse relationship between height and performance in disciplines such as sprint running.” In other words, it’s hard to produce enough power to overcome the drag of a big body.

The article discusses how 6-foot-5 Usain Bolt became an amazing sprinter only after he shortened his stride. But I have no interest in working on my technique or becoming a great sprinter. I just want the health benefits without feeling pain.

Running Up That Hill

The problem with running for tall people is the long stride. One way to shorten the stride is to wear minimalist shoes. That is a good start, but the best way I discovered is to just run uphill. Unlike my first two hometowns of Columbus, OH and St. Petersburg, FL, which were were flat as a pancake, Seattle has some amazing hills inside the city. One of those hills just happens to be less than 100 meters from my front door.

My uphill running course.

I’m not the first to figure this out. Conditioning Research also did a post on hill sprints titled The single best exercise. For the past month or so, I’ve been experimenting with just running uphill. My body loves it. My stride is shorter, the intensity is much greater than flat ground sprinting and my body doesn’t take a pounding when my foot lands. And it is time efficient.

I’m using Phil Campbell’s Peak 8 protocol as a template. Go all out for 30 seconds and then rest for 90 seconds. Repeat this 8 times. For me this means sprinting uphill and then slowly walking back downhill to ready myself for the next sprint. I’m easing into this program and expect to be at 8 sets within two weeks.

I’m running again. Only this time I feel great.

Note: I have made this dish 3 times now. I prefer to have twice as many pieces of pork butt and sweet potatoes as beef. Personal preference is best.

Photo by Ben

One of the reasons I left the Glitter Gym was that they kept the temperature in the gym too warm. From the post No Longer a Gym Germaphobe:

People continually confuse sweat with intensity. If you are sweating it is because your body is trying to cool you down. The resources and energy that could have been used for deeper muscle recruitment have been shifted to temperature regulation and now are a limiting factor in generating more intensity.

Today I think I found the flip side to this rule. If you are too cold, the body will devote resources to staying warm that could be used for deeper muscle recruitment. Those resources might just be mental, but I discovered that even after an extended warm up period, I was too cold to completely focus on the exercises. My time under load was decreased. My hands were frozen and my feet were cold as well. I should have brought gloves. Maybe I should milk another free week pass at a new Glitter Gym until spring comes?

Writing Your Own Search Engine Using SQL Server

This details how I rewrote the search engine on INeedCoffee. Most websites these days use content management systems that already have their own built-in search functionality. This solution is for websites that run on IIS and have their content inside a SQL Server database. Like INeedCoffee.

It was surprisingly easy to create a smoking fast search engine that delivered relevant results. I can’t help but think of cooking analogies. That great meal at the restaurant often isn’t that difficult to replicate at home. Google is an amazing chef, but my home cooking is pretty awesome too!

Hey graffiti photo taken near the University of Washington

Myth #1 – Eat Breakfast Before Engaging in Endurance Events

On the majority of my urban hikes, I consume zero calories before I take my first step. I fast. The body is fully capable of using stored body fat for fuel. Intermittent Fasting will not “eat up” your muscle, nor will eating breakfast jack your metabolism more than the calories consumed. From the post Intermittent Fasting – Fears and Motivation:

When you fast your insulin levels drop big time. Your Growth Hormone (GH) levels increase. Exercise, especially interval and weight training, also elevate GH levels. GH is protein/muscle sparing and GH helps the body mobilize fat for fuel. Not eating for long periods of time (starvation) is catabolic, short periods of fasting aren’t.

When I wake up in the morning my body is in a fat burning mode. Why would I want to interrupt that process with a smoothie or Cliff Bar? I can eat when I get back home. My energy levels are much more constant in a fasted state than when I used to ride the carbohydrate roller coaster. Yesterday, my “breakfast” consisted of a few ounces of kimchi and one tablespoon of coconut oil. If that seems odd, read the post Intermittent Fasting – The No Hunger Method. It describes a wonderful hack that I tested from The Perfect Health Diet.

Perfect Health Diet: Four Steps to Renewed Health, Youthful Vitality, and Long Life by Paul Jaminet

Myth #2 – Endurance Events Require Endurance Training

Back in 2008 and 2009, I used to do a lot of urban hiking throughout the hills of Seattle. However, in the last few years it has really slowed down. In fact, the last long hike I did prior to yesterday’s 20 miler was in June 2010. I consider a long hike to be more than 10 miles and without multi-hour breaks. The only exercise I do these days, other than neighborhood walks, is a 7-10 minute High Intensity Training workout that happens just once a week. How is this possible?

How did I perform an endurance event, not only without doing any endurance training, but without doing any cardio? Most fitness professionals fail to understand exactly what creates endurance. Renaissance Exercise has an FAQ written by Greg Anderson called Why Not Aerobics? (PDF) that explains that the three components of endurance are genetics, skill and muscular strength. Genetics we can’t do much about. I could train “the skill” of endurance, which the article says are things like stride length and efficiency. A better plan is to just work on getting a lot stronger and then letting those benefits spill over to other activities.

Muscular strength is the single most trainable factor in endurance performance. It is the muscles that actually perform work. When strength increases, the relative intensity of any given task decreases.

I’m someone that has done it both ways. When I was in college, I ran two marathons and didn’t work on muscular strength. I focused on the skill components of endurance. These days, I just focus on muscular strength. Let me say that life is much sweeter now. My energy levels are higher, I no longer get aches and pains from over use injuries and my immune system is much stronger. When I trained as a marathon runner, my “skill” didn’t carry over into cycling or other endurance activities. It was localized.

Earlier this week I reviewed HillFit by Chris Highcock. His message is the same as mine. The most efficient and safest way to get to the top of mountain or whatever your endurance goal happens to be, is to increase your strength.

Myth #3 – Make Sure You Get the Right Gear For Your Event

Seattle is the home to REI (Recreation Equipment Incorporated). They sell any piece of outdoor fitness equipment you could possibly imagine. Hiking shoes and socks for every season. They offer a jacket or coat for every possible micro-climate condition. Bring your credit card, because this stuff isn’t cheap. And in my opinion, it isn’t necessary. Most of the customers that go these sporting gear stores are not climbing K2. They might be doing a 2 hour hike. That shouldn’t require hundreds of dollars in gear. Don’t fall for the “must get gear” mentality. The best gear you can bring with you to any event are stronger muscles.

For my 20 mile hike through the snowstorm, I wore a sweatshirt with a rain jacket. I didn’t have water proof pants, gloves or hat. Oh well. I didn’t run out to REI to save me from the elements. Yes I was cold, but my body adapted and I made it home OK.

The sledder on the left is using a piece of cardboard for a sled. No trip to REI for her!

You’ll Be Fine

You don’t need breakfast, skills and special gear to take on the world. Focus on getting stronger and you’ll be fine.

Today’s urban hike was 19.978 miles.

Sledding Family on Phinney Ridge

Interlaken Blvd on Capitol Hill

Snowmobile in Madison Park

Snowboarder coming down the Queen Anne Counterbalance

More fun coming down Queen Anne Ave.

A family of bears spotted in front of the Fremont Brown Bear Car Wash

Full photo gallery for Urban Hike – Seattle Snowstorm (JAN 18, 2012)

Photo of me hiking slot canyons outside of San Diego in 2007. I would have benefited from Hillfit back then.

It was Chris Highcock that convinced me to give High Intensity Training a try. Not directly though. I saw he shared the same opinion that I did on many other health related topics. Maybe Chris was on to something with this High Intensity Training? So a little over a year ago I went all in with HIT and haven’t looked back. High Intensity Training is a highly effective and safe method for developing strength in minimal time. I refer to High Intensity Training as the espresso of weight training.

In November, I left my gym and took my High Intensity workouts outdoors using body weight exercises. I describe my current workout in the post Escaping the Glitter: Taking High Intensity Training Outdoors. Although I am proud of this post, it probably is not that useful to someone that is new to the concept of HIT. They will need guided instructions, photos and background information to help them get started on constructing their own High Intensity Training program. That is exactly what Hillfit: Strength by Chris Highcock does.

The 52 page Hillfit e-book is the most user friendly introduction I have seen on High Intensity Training. All the exercises in the Hillfit: Strength program can by done from home without purchasing any equipment. Although the book’s title and early pages suggest the audience is for hiking, the reality is that developing strength will benefit you no matter what your sport happens to be. Even if your sport is playing with your kids. I highly recommend Hillfit: Strength as an introduction to High Intensity Training.

Click here to visit Hillfit

Disclosure: I received a copy of Hillfit in exchange for feedback on a draft version. I’m also in an affiliate relationship with E-junkie.

(L) Florida 1 Gallon Pin, (R) Puget Sound 1 Gallon Pin