The Discomfort Zone

Another new study shows that you can gain significant cardio benefits from intensity (interval) training in as little as ten to twenty minutes a few times a week. In this study, all it took was ten to twelve one minute sessions on a stationary bike, alternated with a seventy second recovery period.

In a fast-paced, time-conscious world like we live in, you have to wonder why aerobic exercise like running and biking still remain much more popular than intensity training. The reason is likely that, for short periods of time, it hurts.

Intervals push you into your anaerobic zone, where your heart approaches it's maximum rate. You enter a state that is not dissimilar to being in the high altitude death zone climbers experience as they near the summit of Mt. Everest, where they experience a condition known as hypoxia, which is dangerous when endured for a long period (hours) of time.

Most of us don't venture into that zone for an extended period of time, but even if only for a matter of seconds (like when you sprint a quarter mile around a track), it's very uncomfortable as you struggle for breath and lactic acid starts to burn in your muscles, like a self-defense mechanism for you to slow down, whether you want to or not. Being mostly pleasure seekers, we don't go looking for discomfort.

But, more and more, the scientific evidence shows repeatedly going into the discomfort zone for a minute or two is good for your heart and lungs, burning calories, and metabolic efficiency. Interval training is not inherently any more dangerous than long distance running if you don't have serious heart disease (and even then it can be good for you - discuss it with your doctor). Here are some good examples from exercise.com.

The best way to approach interval training is to go slow and gradually build up both the intensity (a heart rate monitor is nice, but you don't need one - you know when you are running out of breath and your heart is pounding) and duration (one minute intervals are a good place to begin). Whether you are going to sprint quarter miles or pump an elliptical, make each repetition slightly harder than the first. On the last few, see if you can spend most of the time in the top end of your discomfort zone because that's where you derive the benefits.

As this TOJ has rhapsodized many times, in the case of running there are other benefits that often puts it at the top of my exercise choices because of the runners high (a real phenomenon) and joy of being outdoors. Plus endurance running, where you go five, ten or more miles, presents its own kinds of pain to conquer in the leg muscles, joints, and feet. And if you race, the discomfort is guaranteed.

Intensity training offers only indirect benefits in any specific sport. Whether road running, trail running, bike racing, or cross county skiing, you have to spend most of your time training the specific muscles used in that sport. There is absolutely no substitute because optimum performance relies on specificity training. Lance Armstrong is a great bike racer, but a mediocre marathoner. Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, but mediocre baseball player. Neither spent the time training in their second sports as they did in the ones they dominated.

A TOJ is interested in good health more than athletic goals. Intensity training is short, sweet, and good for you, and afterwards you can enjoy a beer.

Surviving the Medicine Show

TOJs have a natural interest in health so that they can keep being TOJs. In the Information Age, separating the signal from the noise (that's the hip digital metaphor), or the truth from lies (old fashioned knowledge), ain't easy, especially when it comes to how to best maintain your health. There are a few reasons why this is so difficult:

1. The human body is very complicated. Modern science finds more and more to marvel at as it goes deeper and deeper into electro-chemical physical processes.

2. Each of us are more different from one another than science wants to admit. Complex factors like genetics, environment and age can make what is good for one person be poison to another.

3. Science is for sale. In the western world, scientific method is the accepted means by which truth is discovered. But we have also discovered that scientists are not above biases and skewing data (maybe even unconsciously) so their tainted conclusions are eventually rewarded with money, whether it's doctors selling their own concoctions to endowed chairs at prestigious universities.

4. A numbing barrage of advertising promises easy sleep, unbounded energy, four hour erections, etc. Much of it is not true.

So what's a TOJ to do, especially one like me who took a one too many shots to the head playing football and boxing causing my synapses to misfire here and there? I think you need to be skeptical, cautiously experimental, and open minded. What does that mean?

There's a good book by Robert Davis called The Healthy Skeptic: Cutting through the HYPE about Your Health. In addition to a hilarious (he didn't intend this) history of health scams through the centuries -everything from enemas, sexual deprivation, zany diets and food fetishes - he exposes some of the popular ones now like supplements, diet books, sunscreen mania and anti-aging doctors. After each chapter, he provides excellent sources for credible health information. Like him, you've got to dig for facts.

By cautiously experimental, I mean if something seems to have some encouraging evidence, and often it might be anecdotal, check it out yourself. Take glucosamine-chondroitin. I first heard about it from a neighbor and happened to mention it to my brother, who was a professional football player. He said he and other players he'd spoken with found it helped their battered bones. Academics have come out with recent studies that say it "probably" doesn't do anything. In my case it did, and it isn't the placebo effect (and if it were, so what?). I read about the pros and cons, got a reliable brand, varied the dosage, and gave it time to work. My knees feel better.

Finally, by open minded I mean you need to be curious about research and studies going on. I listen especially closely to people who are not being paid to endorse or recommend something. Health care consumes 16% of the country GDP. It's going up every year. The Boomers threaten to break the Medicare bank. Armies of researchers are looking for valid solutions to health problems. More than ever they will be making important discoveries, many of which will help TOJs, and I will discuss here.