High Intensity - You want it, but just might not KNOW it yet

I hate sitting around. I used to love it.  I used to love going to the gym and sitting, watching MTV, or whatever lame show they had on the TV’s.  I would do some cardio and catch up on all the Jerry Springer I had missed.

What was I thinking?  Time is such a luxury.  I was hardly social, I just wanted to rest and catch my breath for the next set.  This type of lifting does grow your muscles but does it create better performing bodies?  Does it lengthen life?  I’m realistic – I want both.

Any exercise is beneficial – even walking to the donut shop.  Lifting is better than not lifting.  Cardio is better than no cardio. It’s better to do something rather than nothing; all that is pretty much common sense. 

That said, here is my plug for High Intensity:  In 2008 a study was released covering nearly 50 physical-education students (so these are people who exercise already).  They divided them up into 5 groups for 12 weeks of training.  They were all about the same age.  10 were control, 10 were circuit training, 10 were circuits with running after, 10 were running first with circuits after and 10 were endurance only.  The results were that the group who did only the circuit training produced strength and power improvements more than any other group.

Additionally, the Journal of Strength and Conditioning has the following recommendation for muscle growth (called Hypertrophy): “When training for muscular hypertrophy, consecutive sets should be performed prior to when full recovery has taken place. Shorter rest intervals of 30-60 seconds between sets have been associated with higher acute increases in growth hormone, which may contribute to the hypertrophic effect. When training for muscular endurance, an ideal strategy might be to perform resistance exercises in a circuit, with shorter rest intervals (e.g., 30 seconds) between exercises that involve dissimilar muscle groups, and longer rest intervals (e.g., 3 minutes) between exercises that involve similar muscle groups.” *

Translation: if you want to grow your muscles more – don’t let them rest enough.  If you want to add endurance to that, do circuits.  Guess what, workout with us and you’ll get both muscle growth and muscle endurance – a killer combo!

At TheDailyFit we blend high intensity with muscle chaos to get all the benefits at once: muscle growth, endurance and power.  Sure you could go back to the gym and get muscle growth, but that’s all you get.  Plus, your workouts are 5 times as long and who really has time for that?!

* Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 20(4):978-984, November 2006.
WILLARDSON, JEFFREY M.