SWOD:
Today I made up yesterday's SWOD - 3x5 Front Squats @ 85% of 1 RM. I can't remember the last time I front squatted so I really needed to hit this workout.
My previous 1 RM was 155 but as I did warm up sets, I didn't feel comfortable going up to 85% of my previous 1 RM, so I stuck with 115# which was 75%.
The 3 sets were pretty difficult and I really concentrated on keeping my elbows up and pushing my knees out as I came up out of the squat. I will definitely be feeling these tomorrow, and the next day, and the next....
METCON:
Tabata Mash-up of Sumo Deadlift High Pulls and Abmat Sit-ups
20 sec on of Sit-ups
10 sec rest
20 sec on of SDHP
10 sec rest
Repeated 4 more times
I was first introduced to the Tabata concept doing Spin class years ago. When I first heard about it, I couldn't believe it and was sure my instructor was misinformed. So I researched it a bit and was shocked by what I learned.
The concept was originally used by the Japanese national speed skating team. When exercise scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata (for whom the protocol was named after), learned about it from the team's coach, he was intrigued. His research efforts focused on the effects of exercise intensity on fitness and he believed that intensity was just as, if not more important than exercise duration. (Hmm...sound familiar?)
So he developed a nifty study using stationary bikes rather than speed skates. For six weeks, one group biked using the four-minute Tabata protocol five times per week. The other group biked at a moderate intensity for an hour, five times per week.
At the end of the six weeks, the moderate intensity group improved their VO2 max (the maximum capacity of a body to transport and use oxygen during a workout) by 9.5%. Not bad, right? Well the Tabata group improved their VO2 max by....14%!
But wait...there's more!
He also measured both group's anaerobic capacity which is basically the amount of power the body can produce without oxygen. The moderate intensity group increased their anaerobic capacity by ZERO and the Tabata group? They increased anaerobic capacity by 28%.
As a runner at the time, logging 30+ miles a week, I could hardly wrap my head around the concept that just 4 minutes of exercise (and not really even a full 4 minutes, with rest times) could have such staggering results.
So which would I rather choose - a method that with 5 hours a week yields a 9.5% VO2 Max gain and a 0% anaerobic capacity gain? Or 20 minutes of work in a week for a 14% VO2 Max and 28% anaerobic capacity gain? It sure doesn't take a super smart Japanese fitness and sports scientist to figure that one out. Well, actually I guess it did but I've got one word for ya - TABATA!
