Are Your High-Intensity Intervals Intense Enough? A Simple Super-Benchmark

Whether you are trying to trigger the natural release of human growth hormone or simply burn calories and soften your muscles through high intensity exercises, you may wonder what qualifies as "high intensity."

In his book Ready, Set, Go! , Philip Campbell argues that you can drive the release of natural HGH in your body through Sprint 8 - a training regime built around short distances from high-intensity sprints (short-term effort).

Sprint 8 can be done walking, walking, swimming, cycling or with some training - even just walking on the spot.

However, the key is to achieve full speed.

You have to work hard. But if the purpose of your interval training is not to release HGH, how do you know if you work hard?

Campbell provided four benchmarks to determine this. I will not use my cape, however, step into my Action Action role and use my power to easily align its benchmark to a super benchmark, with sidekick notes.

You can use these benchmarks to control the level of your business. First, though, here is Campbell's benchmark

Campbell's benchmark

The notes in parentheses are his.

1. Oxygen debt (out of breath)

2. Lactic acid (muscle burning)

3. Increase body temperature (one degree)

4. Adrenal response (slightly painful)

Related responsibilities

These benchmarks are all interrelated. If you satisfy one, you may at the same time satisfy another.

Let me briefly explain what happened with this benchmark and you will see the relationship.

1. Oxygen debt - When you work hard, your muscles need more oxygen to meet your energy needs. To meet this need, your body promotes inhalation - you take a bigger breath at a faster rate than usual.

2. Lactic acid - When you are in oxygen debt, your body is flooded with lactic acid. The acid burns, right? (Yes, JD, Acid does not burn) Lactic acid causes your burning muscles to work hard. There are several theories for the purpose of lactic acid, but they seem to be centered around lactic acid as a way of protecting the body by warning you that you are working hard. (thank you, body!)

3. Increase body temperature - Heat is a by-product of when your body produces energy. When you work hard, your body needs to produce more energy and the heat it produces causes your body temperature to rise. Your body then sweats to help control its temperature.

4. Adrenal response - This is believed to be part of our "fight or flight" response. When you are in a bad state - including muscle tension during hard work - adrenaline is released in your body. Adrenaline (epinephrine) strengthens your body, gives you the energy to get rid of it, or revives and fights your way. Norepinephrine is also released to support this reaction, if necessary, or to suppress the reaction * by controlling blood flow and restoring the body to normal operating conditions.

Here's the relationship between benchmarks:

• Oxygen debt causes lactic acid production
• Lactic acid causes muscle burns
• When your muscles burn, an adrenal reaction occurs
• If you exercise at an intensity that causes you to breathe and your muscles burn, your body temperature will rise - unless it is too cold for your internal temperature to rise.

Action Figure Fitness Super-Benchmark (and sidekick notes)

Here is what you can ask yourself to determine if your distance is at an appropriate level.

Super benchmarks: Ask yourself: "Does your muscle burn during your interval?"

Sidekick notes: Ask yourself: "Am I sweating?"

If you can answer "yes" to these questions, return your strength to your interval and finish your set.

You may be on your way to fat burning, muscle toning, curing human growth hormone doses.

Original URL of this article: http://www.jamesdouglasallen.com/Blog/Entries/2009/3/4_Are_your_high-intensity_intervals_intense_enough_A_simple_super-benchmark.html

Phil Campbell's book is available on Amazon.com.

Are Your High-Intensity Intervals Intense Enough? A Simple Super-Benchmark


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Live Longer by Eating Less

In countless experiments, every animal that has ever had a limited calorie diet has lived longer as a result.

Guinea flies, mice, rats, rabbits, pigs and dogs all live on about a third if they are fed less. For humans, this translates to about 25% longer lives. So, for example, instead of dying at 80 you can expect to live up to 100 if you reduce your food intake.

In addition to living longer, all tested animals have more zip and get-up-and-go, so they look and behave younger.

The message is simple: If you want to live longer ... eat less.

But why is this so?

Delays cell division

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have shown that this is because limiting calorie intake slows down the rate at which cells divide.

Cell age is measured in terms of the number of parts that have passed through and not over time. If you slow down cell division, you are slowing down as the lesser cell parts are less telomeres as discussed in the previous article How to Beat Aging (1) .

Telomeres is a string of DNA repeats located at the ends of a pair of chromosomes in a cell that protects the chromosome. Each time the cell divides its telomer is shortened. The maximum number of cells can vary from 50 to 60 depending on the type of cell involved.

Eating slows down cell division, which is the length of time between parts, and so you live longer.

But is it worth it?

Limiting your calorie intake is difficult

To live longer by limiting your calorie intake, you need to permanently reduce your intake to about two-thirds of the calories needed to maintain your current weight.

Losing the weight you experience initially will increase as your metabolism adjusts.

This anti-aging strategy is simple but not easy to implement.

To begin with, it was very difficult. In addition, your metabolic rate will decrease, you will get smaller and your sex hormones will decline which will block your sex drive. You may begin to lose sexual features such as body hair and breast development.

All the scientific studies done so far on a limited calorie diet only involve animals whose lives are relatively short in human terms. There are no controlled studies of the long-term effects on people with these diets as they require subjects to monitor throughout their life.

However there was a group of people called ' 'cronies' (which means calorie restriction with optimal nutrition ) who use themselves to test the effects of a long-term restricted calorie diet.

They monitor vital signs as they look for drops in glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol and temperature to ensure their diet works. Monkeys and rats on a restricted calorie diet experienced similar decreases in these measures.

Obviously the crony's Excessive diets will prolong their life but at the cost of most things are fun and worth living.

Is there a better way to live?

Short-term restrictions on calorie intake

Short-term calorie restriction means fasting one or two days a month regularly.

In September 2001, a study was published in Malaysia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, it is revealed that short-term calorie restriction actually lasts a lifetime, for at least rats.

Scientists have found that short-term restrictions on food intake occur rapidly in 11,000 mouse rats. Younger effects are even seen in older mice that have never released their calories.

Short-term fasting has the continuing benefits of anti-aging according to scientists ... it triggers an increase in the production of human growth hormone (HGH), one of the most important anti-aging hormones that, unfortunately, declines dramatically after 30 years. HGH will be discussed in a future article.

Avoid eating too much

As scientists found out more about how the mechanism of calorie intake affects aging, they came to the conclusion that eating too much speeds up aging.

There are a few things you can do to avoid eating too much:

• Avoid high calorie foods
• don't eat late at night
• stop eating early (leave food on the plate)
• do not eat when disturbed (for example, watching TV)
• run short term fasts for one day or more each month.

Diet is anti-aging --- Over-eating is speeding up your life

Live Longer by Eating Less


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