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07 Sep 16
08:01
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29 Sep 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmesl81AE50 9 (what an hour long vid, I haven't the time guv'nor)
interval training - sprint for seconds(explosive exercise). recover, then sprint again. recover.
do it six times and your finished.
do this in the morning. takes ten minutes.
i did this years ago when i was 30, i'd sprint then walk then sprint after i recovered. But I did the daft thing of just doing long runs for years. small exercises, bigger benefits. going back to interval training.
interval training - sprint for seconds(explosive exercise). recover, then sprint again. recover.
do it six times and your finished.
do this in the morning. takes ten minutes.
i did this years ago when i was 30, i'd sprint then walk then sprint after i recovered. But I did the daft thing of just doing long runs for years. small exercises, bigger benefits. going back to interval training.
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Less is more: how to be fit after 50 | The Times
Peta Bee
Published at 12:01AM, January 5 2016
Sitting opposite Dr Peter Herbert in a busy café in the market town of Carmarthen, in
west Wales, it’s hard to believe that he is in his seventies. Wearing an unforgiving
white Tshirt
and jeans, his physique is buff enough to pass for a fit fortysomething.
I know men decades younger who would trade their car for his biceps. Yet while his
appearance suggests training of ironman extremes, we are here to discuss the fact that
his approach to exercise is far from the hammer and tongs school favoured by your
average middle aged man in Lycra. It involves no marathons, triathlons or any other
lastditch attempt to hold on to a youthful physique that have become de rigueur
among men heading towards 50 and beyond. In fact, his physique is honed on a
scientifically determined regimen that is best described as “minimal” — and he says it
could work for you.
Herbert is an exercise physiologist and director of the Human Performance
Laboratory at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. He has a pedigree of
helping elite sportsmen achieve their goals in his former roles as strength and
conditioning coach to the Wales national rugby team and the Llanelli Scarlets rugby
club, as well as fitness adviser to several world and Commonwealth champion boxers.
Yet his most impressive subject to date has to be himself. A rugby player in his youth,
he had always maintained a high level of fitness. As the years rolled by, he began to
feel that he was treading water when it came to keeping his body in shape. By his mid fifties
he realised that the considerable number of weekly, even daily, hours he was
devoting to exercise seemed to deliver ever diminishing returns.
It was clear, he says, that something had to change. “I took up competitive indoor
rowing and cycling later in life and would spend hours on the bike, preparing for
events like the World Masters championships,” Herbert says. “I was probably training
harder than I ever had done, yet there was still this fitness plateau. No matter how
much harder I tried, my body didn’t respond.” As a scientist, he was aware of the
physiological limitations that come with age. “There are so many factors that can
negatively influence fitness as you get older,” he says. “Recovery takes longer so you
have to allow your body more recuperation time between workouts. Your absolute
strength and aerobic capacity also take a downturn.” For many, it’s not so much a
slippery slope post40, but a black ski run with moguls.
A man’s maximum attainable heart rate declines by about one beat per minute, per
year, after about age 30 and the heart’s peak capacity to pump blood drifts down by 5
to 10 per cent per decade. An average 90g of muscle is lost each year from the age of
40 (a sharper decline than for women). After 50, these losses are accelerated by a
drop in the male hormone testosterone, which falls by about 1 per cent per year so
that the male body loses up to 500g of muscle a year. Someone in their 70s who does
no exercise typically has a third less muscle than a 25yearold.
If that’s not depressing enough, the visible side effects can seem worse. These factors combine to
cause the eruption of the dreaded male paunch, seemingly from nowhere.
Mindful of the age associated changes occurring to his own body, Herbert set about
evaluating how, if at all, they could be stemmed. Initially, he used himself as a case
study, varying the frequency and duration of his training load. He was intrigued by
studies on high intensity interval training (or HIIT) that had shown impressive gains
in sedentary groups or people with the kind of conditions that plague the middle
aged, such as diabetes. Could it be that infrequent shorter, harder workouts were the
way forward for the ageing superfit, too? “Over the past few years there’s been a glut
of studies confirming that exercising hard for a very short period, even once a week, is
better for you than remaining on the sofa,” Herbert says. “What nobody had
investigated is whether the approach of higher intensity, reduced frequency sessions
might help fit men in their 40s, 50s and 60s to ramp up their fitness.”
In those first few months, he attacked his own marathonesque
schedule with a sledgehammer. “My hunch was that my body needed greater amounts of recovery and
I began to cut out my long duration
workouts to do one weekly interval session on the
bike,” he says. Remarkably, his fitness improved. “Within a couple of months, I
performed better in cycling races and I felt stronger.” It proved the trigger for several
groundbreaking
studies, such as investigating how downsizing workouts could prove
key to offsetting the adverse effects of ageing in older athletes. Herbert has since
worked with subjects from a range of sports to come up with a format that has huge
potential for anyone wanting to maintain a high level of fitness and avoid the niggles
that plague the later years.
In one of his most recent studies, published last year in the journal of the American
Gerontology Society, Herbert and his team persuaded almost 20 hardcore veteran
athletes, from their mid fifties to mid seventies, who were preparing for competitive
cycling, rowing, squash and triathlon events, to ditch their normal training
programmes for six weeks in order to follow his plan. For most, this meant a drastic
reduction in weekly exercise, cutting their training load from a minimum three hard
weekly sessions to one workout every five days involving 30 second
sprints on an indoor bike. In between, their activity was limited to gentle aerobic exercise, such as
jogging or steady cycling, for no more than 30 minutes a day. “It wasn’t easy to
convince them it would work, but they stuck to it rigidly,” Herbert says.
The results were astounding. There were significant increases in the maximal oxygen
capacity (or VO2 max) of all the older athletes when they reduced their training to the
fiveday
cycle of HIIT sprints. Their body fat dropped and muscle strength improved.
There were significant increases in leg power, which improved by an average 15 per
cent, a factor that Herbert says has more physiological importance than
cardiovascular fitness as you get older. “A lot of studies confirm that the strength of
your legs has a direct influence on many aspects of your health as you age,” he says. In
November last year, scientists from King’s College London discovered a “striking
protective relationship” between strong legs and a fit brain that resists the effects of
ageing. Their findings showed that leg power was more closely linked to age related
changes in mental function than any other lifestyle factor tested.
In a study awaiting publication, Herbert shows how his “fit HIIT”
programme boosted levels of testosterone in the men who took part. “Higher levels of this
dwindling male hormone in older men are associated with reduced loss of lean muscle
mass,” he explains. His trials have also looked at the effects of the intermittent five day
programme on a group of subjects, each of whom had been sedentary for more
than 30 years. For six weeks, the former couch potatoes followed a preliminary plan
that gradually increased the amount of exercise they were doing until they met the
150 weekly minutes of moderate activity advocated in NHS guidelines. They then
progressed on to the routine of six 30 second
sprints every five days with daily walking in between. Like the athletes, their leg power and
aerobic capacity soared on the HIIT plan, and their body fat dropped.
Herbert says that, despite being highly sceptical before taking part in his laboratory
studies, some of the athletes are now sold on the concept of minimising their training.
He is one of them. “I do this approach by the book,” Herbert says. “Every five days, I
work to 90 per cent of my maximum capacity and then tick over, burning calories
with gentle exercise the rest of the time. I recently won a bronze medal at the World
Masters Track Cycling Championships and, despite training far less, I am
undoubtedly fitter than I have ever been.”
How to minimise your training
Dr Peter Herbert’s programme for men aged 45 plus.
Preconditioning
schedule:
This is essential if you haven’t exercised in a while.
Week 1: 8-10 minutes a day of walking
Week 2: 10-12 minutes a day of walking or cycling
Week 3: 15 minutes a day of walking or cycling
Week 4: 20 minutes a day of walking or cycling
Week 5: On alternate days do: Day 1 (am) — 3 minutes of steady walking or cycling,
4 minutes of faster walking, 3 minutes of steady walking; (pm) — 10 minutes of steady
activity. Day 2 — 20 minutes of steady walking
Week 6: On alternate days do: Day 1 (am) — 3 minutes of steady jogging, swimming
or cycling, then alternate minutes of the same activity, faster and slower, for 5
minutes, then 2 minutes of slow activity; (pm) 10 minutes of steady jogging, walking,
cycling or swimming; Day 2 — 20 minutes of steady walking
Fit HIIT:
This is a five day schedule that can be repeated with the specific HIIT activity varied
to suit. If you wear a heart rate monitor, you should push to 90 per cent of your
maximum heart rate. If not, work hard enough that you are puffing and unable to
speak during the “efforts”. Make sure you allow five days’ recovery between each
interval session.
Day 1: 20-30 minute swim, jog or cycle
Day 2: 30-40 minutes of walking
Day 3: 20-30 minute swim, jog or cycle
Day 4: 25 minutes of walking and some stretching
Day 5: Either 6 x 30 second sprints on a bike (with 3 minutes of gentle cycling
recovery between each burst); or 6 x 20 second
sprints of uphill running or on a
rowing machine (30 seconds of gentle recovery); or 6 x 30 seconds
of swimming or treadmill running (3 minutes of gentle recovery).
Peta Bee
Published at 12:01AM, January 5 2016
Sitting opposite Dr Peter Herbert in a busy café in the market town of Carmarthen, in
west Wales, it’s hard to believe that he is in his seventies. Wearing an unforgiving
white Tshirt
and jeans, his physique is buff enough to pass for a fit fortysomething.
I know men decades younger who would trade their car for his biceps. Yet while his
appearance suggests training of ironman extremes, we are here to discuss the fact that
his approach to exercise is far from the hammer and tongs school favoured by your
average middle aged man in Lycra. It involves no marathons, triathlons or any other
lastditch attempt to hold on to a youthful physique that have become de rigueur
among men heading towards 50 and beyond. In fact, his physique is honed on a
scientifically determined regimen that is best described as “minimal” — and he says it
could work for you.
Herbert is an exercise physiologist and director of the Human Performance
Laboratory at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. He has a pedigree of
helping elite sportsmen achieve their goals in his former roles as strength and
conditioning coach to the Wales national rugby team and the Llanelli Scarlets rugby
club, as well as fitness adviser to several world and Commonwealth champion boxers.
Yet his most impressive subject to date has to be himself. A rugby player in his youth,
he had always maintained a high level of fitness. As the years rolled by, he began to
feel that he was treading water when it came to keeping his body in shape. By his mid fifties
he realised that the considerable number of weekly, even daily, hours he was
devoting to exercise seemed to deliver ever diminishing returns.
It was clear, he says, that something had to change. “I took up competitive indoor
rowing and cycling later in life and would spend hours on the bike, preparing for
events like the World Masters championships,” Herbert says. “I was probably training
harder than I ever had done, yet there was still this fitness plateau. No matter how
much harder I tried, my body didn’t respond.” As a scientist, he was aware of the
physiological limitations that come with age. “There are so many factors that can
negatively influence fitness as you get older,” he says. “Recovery takes longer so you
have to allow your body more recuperation time between workouts. Your absolute
strength and aerobic capacity also take a downturn.” For many, it’s not so much a
slippery slope post40, but a black ski run with moguls.
A man’s maximum attainable heart rate declines by about one beat per minute, per
year, after about age 30 and the heart’s peak capacity to pump blood drifts down by 5
to 10 per cent per decade. An average 90g of muscle is lost each year from the age of
40 (a sharper decline than for women). After 50, these losses are accelerated by a
drop in the male hormone testosterone, which falls by about 1 per cent per year so
that the male body loses up to 500g of muscle a year. Someone in their 70s who does
no exercise typically has a third less muscle than a 25yearold.
If that’s not depressing enough, the visible side effects can seem worse. These factors combine to
cause the eruption of the dreaded male paunch, seemingly from nowhere.
Mindful of the age associated changes occurring to his own body, Herbert set about
evaluating how, if at all, they could be stemmed. Initially, he used himself as a case
study, varying the frequency and duration of his training load. He was intrigued by
studies on high intensity interval training (or HIIT) that had shown impressive gains
in sedentary groups or people with the kind of conditions that plague the middle
aged, such as diabetes. Could it be that infrequent shorter, harder workouts were the
way forward for the ageing superfit, too? “Over the past few years there’s been a glut
of studies confirming that exercising hard for a very short period, even once a week, is
better for you than remaining on the sofa,” Herbert says. “What nobody had
investigated is whether the approach of higher intensity, reduced frequency sessions
might help fit men in their 40s, 50s and 60s to ramp up their fitness.”
In those first few months, he attacked his own marathonesque
schedule with a sledgehammer. “My hunch was that my body needed greater amounts of recovery and
I began to cut out my long duration
workouts to do one weekly interval session on the
bike,” he says. Remarkably, his fitness improved. “Within a couple of months, I
performed better in cycling races and I felt stronger.” It proved the trigger for several
groundbreaking
studies, such as investigating how downsizing workouts could prove
key to offsetting the adverse effects of ageing in older athletes. Herbert has since
worked with subjects from a range of sports to come up with a format that has huge
potential for anyone wanting to maintain a high level of fitness and avoid the niggles
that plague the later years.
In one of his most recent studies, published last year in the journal of the American
Gerontology Society, Herbert and his team persuaded almost 20 hardcore veteran
athletes, from their mid fifties to mid seventies, who were preparing for competitive
cycling, rowing, squash and triathlon events, to ditch their normal training
programmes for six weeks in order to follow his plan. For most, this meant a drastic
reduction in weekly exercise, cutting their training load from a minimum three hard
weekly sessions to one workout every five days involving 30 second
sprints on an indoor bike. In between, their activity was limited to gentle aerobic exercise, such as
jogging or steady cycling, for no more than 30 minutes a day. “It wasn’t easy to
convince them it would work, but they stuck to it rigidly,” Herbert says.
The results were astounding. There were significant increases in the maximal oxygen
capacity (or VO2 max) of all the older athletes when they reduced their training to the
fiveday
cycle of HIIT sprints. Their body fat dropped and muscle strength improved.
There were significant increases in leg power, which improved by an average 15 per
cent, a factor that Herbert says has more physiological importance than
cardiovascular fitness as you get older. “A lot of studies confirm that the strength of
your legs has a direct influence on many aspects of your health as you age,” he says. In
November last year, scientists from King’s College London discovered a “striking
protective relationship” between strong legs and a fit brain that resists the effects of
ageing. Their findings showed that leg power was more closely linked to age related
changes in mental function than any other lifestyle factor tested.
In a study awaiting publication, Herbert shows how his “fit HIIT”
programme boosted levels of testosterone in the men who took part. “Higher levels of this
dwindling male hormone in older men are associated with reduced loss of lean muscle
mass,” he explains. His trials have also looked at the effects of the intermittent five day
programme on a group of subjects, each of whom had been sedentary for more
than 30 years. For six weeks, the former couch potatoes followed a preliminary plan
that gradually increased the amount of exercise they were doing until they met the
150 weekly minutes of moderate activity advocated in NHS guidelines. They then
progressed on to the routine of six 30 second
sprints every five days with daily walking in between. Like the athletes, their leg power and
aerobic capacity soared on the HIIT plan, and their body fat dropped.
Herbert says that, despite being highly sceptical before taking part in his laboratory
studies, some of the athletes are now sold on the concept of minimising their training.
He is one of them. “I do this approach by the book,” Herbert says. “Every five days, I
work to 90 per cent of my maximum capacity and then tick over, burning calories
with gentle exercise the rest of the time. I recently won a bronze medal at the World
Masters Track Cycling Championships and, despite training far less, I am
undoubtedly fitter than I have ever been.”
How to minimise your training
Dr Peter Herbert’s programme for men aged 45 plus.
Preconditioning
schedule:
This is essential if you haven’t exercised in a while.
Week 1: 8-10 minutes a day of walking
Week 2: 10-12 minutes a day of walking or cycling
Week 3: 15 minutes a day of walking or cycling
Week 4: 20 minutes a day of walking or cycling
Week 5: On alternate days do: Day 1 (am) — 3 minutes of steady walking or cycling,
4 minutes of faster walking, 3 minutes of steady walking; (pm) — 10 minutes of steady
activity. Day 2 — 20 minutes of steady walking
Week 6: On alternate days do: Day 1 (am) — 3 minutes of steady jogging, swimming
or cycling, then alternate minutes of the same activity, faster and slower, for 5
minutes, then 2 minutes of slow activity; (pm) 10 minutes of steady jogging, walking,
cycling or swimming; Day 2 — 20 minutes of steady walking
Fit HIIT:
This is a five day schedule that can be repeated with the specific HIIT activity varied
to suit. If you wear a heart rate monitor, you should push to 90 per cent of your
maximum heart rate. If not, work hard enough that you are puffing and unable to
speak during the “efforts”. Make sure you allow five days’ recovery between each
interval session.
Day 1: 20-30 minute swim, jog or cycle
Day 2: 30-40 minutes of walking
Day 3: 20-30 minute swim, jog or cycle
Day 4: 25 minutes of walking and some stretching
Day 5: Either 6 x 30 second sprints on a bike (with 3 minutes of gentle cycling
recovery between each burst); or 6 x 20 second
sprints of uphill running or on a
rowing machine (30 seconds of gentle recovery); or 6 x 30 seconds
of swimming or treadmill running (3 minutes of gentle recovery).
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/couch-to-5k.aspx
i managed to read all that? I did all that in the past got legs like stallone? My arms improved with swimming and an elastic rope I have which i stretch. Mid rift is useless. Just got a ab crunch gismo today to strengthen my core. (tenner in charity shop).
the interval training sounds very scientific. My brother said Seb Coe's dad used to train him that way.
it allows any fitness level to get fitter and fitter. It's about lactic acid. if you exercise longer than a minute lactic acid will build up and up to the ceiling.
a quick sprint for ten seconds, stop. the lactic acid goes back into your body's cells. recovered. you repeat six times. Your body get's stronger and stronger. Less damage.
the interval training sounds very scientific. My brother said Seb Coe's dad used to train him that way.
it allows any fitness level to get fitter and fitter. It's about lactic acid. if you exercise longer than a minute lactic acid will build up and up to the ceiling.
a quick sprint for ten seconds, stop. the lactic acid goes back into your body's cells. recovered. you repeat six times. Your body get's stronger and stronger. Less damage.
I've just recently started the HIT regime after reading quite a lot of positive stuff about it. I've tried everything to shift the beer belly to no avail. Could this be the magic bullet?
I'm not holding my breath, but I'll give it a good go.
At first I was doing 7 sets of 2 minute runs, with 1 min recovery in between.
Then I changed this to 7 sets of 1 minute runs, with 30 sec recovery.
I've also tried 5 sets of diff 30 sec exercises (pushups, side lunges, planks, tricep dips, squat jumps) with no recovery between exercises.
Any personal trainers out there can advise which HIT program to follow ?
I'm not holding my breath, but I'll give it a good go.
At first I was doing 7 sets of 2 minute runs, with 1 min recovery in between.
Then I changed this to 7 sets of 1 minute runs, with 30 sec recovery.
I've also tried 5 sets of diff 30 sec exercises (pushups, side lunges, planks, tricep dips, squat jumps) with no recovery between exercises.
Any personal trainers out there can advise which HIT program to follow ?
started it tonight - halfway thru I pulled a muscle in my leg.
I'm that unfit. I'll stick to the swimming.
back to bed. watch Diagnosis murder.
I'm that unfit. I'll stick to the swimming.
back to bed. watch Diagnosis murder.
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