Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights_ - Alex Hutchinson [12]
Interestingly, taking a break from strength training actually leads to an increase in explosive power for a few weeks, as newly strengthened and rested muscles take advantage of elongated tendons. But don’t be fooled: University of Tokyo researchers found that the muscles of volunteers who completed a three-month strength training program shrunk back to pre-training size after a month of rest, even though the neuromuscular strength gains persisted for another few months. Just like aerobic exercise, it’s much easier to maintain strength than it is to rebuild it from scratch, so try to find time for at least a few short workouts even when you’re busy.
CHEAT SHEET: GETTING STARTED
• It takes three months of hard training to see significantly bigger muscles, and six weeks to boost endurance, but health and performance gains on a cellular level start within a few days.
• Aiming for a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week, in bouts as short as 10 minutes, will boost your health, but more is better.
• Your body can be “set” to build strength or aerobic fitness during any given workout, but not both at once, so start your workout with the exercises you’re focusing on that day.
• A few minutes of short, intense intervals can produce the same effect as a long, slow aerobic workout—but the intervals have to be hard.
• About two heart-related deaths occur for every million hours of aerobic exercise, due to pre-existing abnormalities in 94 percent of cases. Not exercising is far more dangerous for your heart.
• Cold air can’t freeze your lungs, but dry air can trigger an asthma-like response in between 4 and 20 percent of people. You can moisten incoming air by wearing a scarf or breathing mask.
• Be cautious doing prolonged hard exercise in temperatures above about 70°F (21°C). It takes about 10 to 14 days to acclimatize to hotter conditions.
• You take in more polluted air when you’re breathing hard. Exercising in the early morning or evening and staying a few hundred yards away from busy roads can reduce your exposure.
• Athletic ability and desire to exercise are influenced by many different genes; recent studies suggest that more than 80 percent of the differences among us are environmental, not genetic.
• You can retain fitness for about two weeks without training before significant losses occur. A couple of short, hard workouts each week can preserve fitness for longer.
Chapter 2
Fitness Gear
IN 2009, AMERICANS BOUGHT AN ASTONISHING $72 billion worth of sports and fitness gear—about three times as much as they spent on books. Some of that was apparel (led by running shoes); some was equipment (led by treadmills); and some, inevitably, was late-night infomercial fodder like the Dumbbell Alarm Clock, which for $30 will buzz until you complete 30 biceps curls. All this equipment has the goal of making your workouts more pleasant and more productive—but in a hyper-competitive and poorly regulated market, it’s a challenge to figure out which miraculous claims are backed by solid evidence, and which are nothing but hype.
Is running on a treadmill better or worse than running outside?
Running on a treadmill is a bit like making bread with a bread machine: purists say you’re missing the essence of the experience, while pragmatists say the convenience and results speak for themselves. Even critics have to admit that running indoors on a treadmill offers plenty of benefits, like controlled temperature, good footing, even pacing, and maybe even a big-screen TV nearby. But that doesn’t tell us whether you’re working the same muscles on the treadmill as you would outside—a crucial question if, for example, you’re using the treadmill over the winter to prepare for a 10K road race in the spring.
“This is actually a very ugly question, to which there’s no definitive answer,” says Colin Dombroski, a pedorthist (someone who specializes in footwear for athletes and people with foot or lower limb