Endurance Athletes: is Metabolic Conditioning for ME?

In the health and fitness world, metabolic conditioning is a term used loosely and frequently. It is generally associated with Cross-Fit; intense workouts, derived from lifting heavy weights in great succession, racing against the clock, or against other athletes. Now in some cases this is true. I have also heard it used to describe a workout consisting of a series of time based work dictated by minimal rest. Another word I hear a lot is “Tabata.” Tabata consists of very quick bursts of work followed by very short amounts of rest, done cyclically, until exhaustion. Then, given a longer rest period to recover before beginning the next cycle. These are two very different workout styles, amongst many, within the metabolic conditioning realm. The truth is this current hip thing is really an old concept that has finally trickled down to the general public.

High intensity interval training, also known as (HIIT) is all the rage, but it is something all athletes have done, and probably done a lot of. It is generally best to balance the rush with the gush, and leave a little room to siphon off some of the workout steam generated -which is where athletes can really gather speed when not working on their aerobic capacity.

I would like to try to decipher this. A metabolic conditioning workout should be based on a desired outcome dictated by the level of fitness and ability of the individual doing such a workout this has been researched in depth by The Journal of Strength and Conditioning. The human body has several different methods of getting energy. In order to tap into those different energy systems, different ratios of work to rest must be implemented in order to cause adaptations in the body for a desired performance goal.

A desired goal to maximize efficiency of a particular energy system is usually the response one is looking for from the body; so the way the patterning of work and rest are structured makes that exercise “circuit” metabolic conditioning. For example, a person looking to “bulk up” should have a different amount of rest in relationship to work, than a person looking to become leaner or run farther. Structuring a workout where timing is disregarded and getting through it as quickly as possible is not nearly as effective for performance goals as a planned attack, with regimented work to rest ratios.

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Here are the basics of Exercise Metabolism:

Everything we eat must be broken down into smaller things in order for the body to use them. This means of creating energy is known as metabolizing, and in layman’s terms is known as the metabolic system. There are three pathways that are primary to making this happen and each has their own place and purpose. By tapping into them correctly for performance or physical goals should be the idea behind writing the training circuit.

The Immediate System: (ATP-CP)

Think of this as explosive energy your Olympic lifting, sprinting, and jumping. Any exercise that takes less than 10 seconds to accomplish is utilizing this system. What is important is how long the work to rest ratio is. The exercise is so physically taxing that it can take roughly three to five minutes to fully recover.

The Intermediate System: (Anaerobic system)

It is used for shorter duration high intensity work such as your middle distance running (400-800 m) or swimming (100-200m) and your middle range weight lifting. This could be any exercise that takes anywhere from one to four minutes to complete. Depending on the ability of the athlete recovery time can take anywhere from one to three minutes.

The Long-Duration System: (Aerobic system)

This is your marathon running or century bike riding or 1500m swimmers or triathletes. The work is low to moderate in intensity and can go on forever as long as the athlete does not run out of energy (fat). The recovery for this kind of work is a mere seconds.

Now with those hard guidelines for energy usage detailed in the human body there is always crossover and interplay. No one energy system operates all by itself within exercise. The ratios at which they are called upon generally work in one primary system or another.

saratoga meet

Developing the appropriate Met-Con Circuit:

The idea is to create efficiency for a specific energy system, one that will allow performance enhancement or physique. Also thanks to great amounts of research done by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, this system creates increased EPOC. So the metabolism runs higher after a Met-Con session for a few hours.

Now once you figure out what it is that you are training for then you can really tailor your training program. The key factor for making this all work is your rest periods. Not enough rest you risk taking your anaerobic training session and turning it into an aerobic one. Too much rest and you leave your ATP-AC phase and create an anaerobic or even an aerobic workout. In order to make this really effective use large non-isolated actions. Start with bodyweight activity and remember when lifting weights to use proper form at all times and self regulate. If it doesn’t seem safe don’t do it, or find a facility or trainer that can help you learn those actions correctly and safely. Getting hurt training will not only ruin race day, it will put a huge chink in the armor of invincibility you once had.  To remain competitive, it’s usually best to stay out of the ranks of the walking wounded. After all, health trumps strength any day! So stay healthy, and stay strong, with smart workouts!

open house | october 5

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It only took only took 11 months for me to plan an open house. (When I say me, I really mean all the awesome people that helped me in SOOOOO many ways put this together!)

What to bring:
Bring Friends! Lots of them!

 Some people say I am slow. I like to think about it as tactical.  All the pieces had to be in the right place and I think that they finally are. So on the eve of my initial lease signing almost a year ago I am quite ok with saying, hello public. Contemporary Athlete is here and Team CA is ready to change the Capital District.

Here is your opportunity to show off the place many of you call home.

Meet my friends and associates while you nosh on some awesome healthy food from Nancy and her staff at Good Morning Café (The Good Karma Ninja, oh and my favorite Thursday Breakfast Ninja); Robin Morgan of ANew Nutrition who I trust with all my nutrition (“What do you mean no more cookies?” The Food Ninja); Paul Jensen of Albany Therapeutic Massage and Sports Performance Center (“Paul I did this…so can you fix me?” Ninja) oh and ME (Humble Ninja)!

There are going to be some awesome door prizes to win, for anybody that’s interested, a 3pm “Warm Up”, and something I am really excited about, and have been for a long time now…

The Official Launch of…

CAIR

Don’t know what it is? Well, hopefully the anticipation will make you excited enough to show up!

The “C” Word

The “C” Word

There are some words that all coaches and trainers hate. We all have a list of words that make our skin crawl or blood boil. Our own verbal pet peeves but I think the “C” word is the most frequently used within many training facilities, and for me and what we do here at Contemporary Athlete is the most infuriating of all of them.

I CAN’T

Can’t is a lack luster, poorly descriptive, half hearted word for quit. It is generally used for early onset defeat; a submission to mental weakness, or in most cases the fear of failure. It brings about uncomfortable feelings, warm ears, sweaty palms, nausea, and an intense desire to find the closest exit and to use it… quickly. Can’t flows like a fast running spring stream of verbal diarrhea preceding or following the why’s and how’s for not trying.

For me, this is a debilitating word. It can take an amazing training day, filled with the opportunity for greatness, PR’s, and personal growth and immediately send it into the workout wood chipper.  The downward spiral of doomed feelings and tears trigger a good trainers highly honed training as an emotional triage expert and an a long toothed conversation about desire, and positive reinforcement quickly follows the dirty word can’t.

Can’t is a choice, it’s a choice to not try.

Now here is the happy part of this trainer’s rant, it starts with a question:

Vic Crawl:Pull

Why not choose TO try?

I CAN

sounds exponentially better. It is much sexier. There is no hard consonant sound at the end of it. It’s shorter to say; so that is always nice for those of you that are endurance athletes looking to conserve energy. The best yet though, is it always ends with you smiling. (Yeah seriously, try that s**t out in the mirror)

By saying I can you accept the challenge, which lay ahead of you willingly and with a smile. So go out there and be a catalyst for awesome and stop standing in your own way, lead those around you with a smile. Best yet you won’t get up-charged by your trainer for the psychological services that will be offered for saying you can’t. Or the dry cleaning bill for crying on their clean training gear for saying you can’t.

Gabby:Erin The future

Athlete Profile: Lauren Salter

Lauren Salter (Part 1)

Life offers you what you need when you need it. The question is will you know how to see it and will you accept the opportunity when it walks through your door? – Bender

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Lauren pushes her sled at the start of 2013 US Skeleton National Championships

Lauren goes by many names here in the CA, Captain of the “Salty Crew”, “L”, “Salter”, and my personal favorite “Optimist Beta” (Thanks Erin!). All of them are good, yet small indicators of who she really is.

I met Lauren through a great friend of mine, Lindsey Murray, who was Lauren’s roommate when they both slid skeleton together. Lauren was visiting Saratoga Springs, and Lindsey told her she should come check out the gym while she was in town.

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Working on snatch

Lauren came during a Saturday workout and we talked a bit of shop before I said I would love to help her train if she decided to move to Saratoga for the summer. A few months later, I got a phone call saying she was moving down, and wanted to know when she could start. I replied, “Great! I’ll see you in 6 to 8 weeks”.

She seemed perplexed.

Erin:Lauren DL:FS
Lauren (right) and Erin Little during a heavy lift day

As her trainer (I’m not sure what she actually calls me) I was going to help her get to the next step, but she was coming off of a season that essentially had lasted eleven months. Lauren needed time off. So I made her take it.

We talk a lot about what training is, and I have a simple formula. W+R=T (Work + Recovery = Training). It’s not complicated, but it takes all of those parts to make things happen. “R” is what she needed, so that is what I told her to do. During her month and a half of rest,  she apparently finished several TV series via Netflix.

Lauren Jump KB
Another day, another test.

Lauren’s first day back was with my super awesome “Team XXX” (the Tuesday night women’s group). Unfortunately, she came out of the “pan” that is the Olympic Training Center, and into the “fire” that is CA. It was a dreaded “cards” day, where each suit is a different workout, and the number on the card is the number of repetitions the athlete does.  I am pretty much sure that Lauren will never look at step-ups the same way  again. She got through day one, but the road was long and full of adversity.

H&L PSUTU
Lauren and Haley Sive (right)

We all come upon forks in our psyche at one time or another. As we go from “faking it” to “making it,” there is a place where we are unsure, insecure, and question everything. Eventually, it takes us to a place where we ask no more questions, put our head down, and accept our wants and desires in order to take the next step.

Lauren Track day
Braving the heat during an early track day

Let’s jump ahead a bit.  Lauren has now learned that “awesome” is a mindset, and it comes from somewhere that even most 13-year-olds know instinctively. Ironically, a 13-year-old client of mine reminded her of this during a goal setting session.

In order to win races, games, or matches, an athlete has to be strong and fast. If they want to be fast, they have to have to have fun. If they are having fun, then they will be awesome. As we get more experience our views change, but ultimately, it’s about having fun. If you want to win a 5k, or go to the Olympics, it all boils down to having fun, because if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.

20130524-213649More on Lauren at www.dashofsalter.com

Read her blog post for USBSF: The “O” Word

The List

I recently was having a conversation with a friend and client about how they explain what happens here at Contemporary Athlete. I realized that I have a long list of things that aren’t done.

 

Contemporary Athletes…

 

don’t have treadmills

don’t have spin bikes

don’t do memberships (what we do is training programs, there is a difference)

don’t wear knee high socks

don’t do fitness. (It’s a fleeting goal, what we do is a lifestyle!)

don’t go shirtless  (keeps the sweat off my pretty floor, excuse the marketing photos I already took it up with the boss won’t happen again. Sorry for the visual abuse!)

don’t play lame music (well sometimes it happens mostly because I have awful taste in music)

don’t own any cable – based equipment

don’t have anyplace comfortable to sit down

don’t have any magazines

don’t have any TV’s

don’t own any mirrors

don’t tell you we are a “Judgment Free Zone”… it just is.

don’t count for you. Crazy right?

don’t have costume days; although the more I think about it we might start…

don’t have a smoothie/shake/snack bar

don’t believe tossing your cookies is desirable or a “good” thing. Actually it’s a bad thing.

don’t have showers, or locker rooms. (Yeah we know we should, we’re working on it. Training space took priority; everybody loves a winner, even if they are smelly.)

Yep not cool…

 

This is what we do!

We do Awesome! (Thought it was funny so it’s what I’m starting with! Also its true.)

We do performance goals. (Sometimes a little crazy, life is short, live loud,  smile often.)

We do quality movement over quantity. (Nobody wins the warm-up.)

We do better. (Anybody can make somebody tired)

We support each other!     (If you can’t risk, fail, and try again you can’t grow. We all need help it’s given and taken freely and generally with a smile or a swift kick in the ass. Depends on what you need. Sometimes love hurts! [Thanks for the insight MOM, now let go of my ear!])

We do specialized. (Not everybody is training for the same thing. So one workout doesn’t work for everybody!)

We do good food choices. (Food is fuel; you don’t put regular gas in a Lamborghini.)

We do fast, and explosive!  (If you weren’t before you will be soon!)

We do strong, both physically, philosophically, and mentally! <- (This is the most important).

We do fun! (G**damnit, and your going to like it!) ß That’s for you Molly!

We do Ninja!!!

If you don’t know what that means, come find out!

 Welcome to the CA!