Cardio Inheritance
In my book, The Purposeful Primitive, I made the statement that every intelligent physical renovation program needs three core elements: resistance training, cardiovascular training and nutrition. The goal of all our training and nutritional efforts is to morph the human body from what it is into what we want it to be - lean, muscular, athletically functional, healthy and vital. Resistance training has many legitimate forms and guises and has as its singular goal to increase muscle size and strength; cardiovascular training has many legitimate forms and guises and has as its prime directive increasing endurance and improving the function and capacities of our internal organs. Nutrition has many legitimate forms and guises and has as its goal refueling and revitalizing the body.
When intelligent nutrition is combined with intelligent training, results are amplified; a synergistic state-of-being manifests wherein results exceed realistic expectations: muscle is dramatically increased, body fat is dramatically decreased and both happen at an accelerated rate. Balanced and sustained application of the three core elements enables synergistic momentum to take root and when that physiologic miracle occurs radical results rapidly occur.
Yes there are enumerable additional benefits to be gained from the pursuit of "fitness" however any physical attribute you can name ("I want to run faster, jump higher, leap further, be a better ball player, mountain bike rider" etc.) can be achieved by dramatically increasing our allotment of functional muscle mass and by dramatically decreasing our current body fat percentiles. Want to be a better ballplayer than you are currently? Dramatically increase functional muscle while dramatically decreasing body fat; want to run faster, jump higher or be better able to climb Mount Everest or fit into a wedding dress? Dramatically increase functional muscle while decreasing body fat.
Using Krishnamurti-like deductive reasoning we are able to deduce that in order to achieve any and all fitness-related goals if we are successfully able to devise, implement and adhere to an effective training and nutrition regimen, if using this comprehensive regimen we are able to construct new muscle and melt off body fat - then any and all of our fitness-related goals and dreams can and will be achieved. To recapitulate....
➢ Fitness is a code name for physical transformation
➢ To transform we need to utilize resistance, cardio and nutrition
➢ Success is achieved by building more muscle and melting off body fat
The name of the fitness game is being able to construct a balanced training/nutrition program that pays equal homage to each the three core elements: our default position should be an even-steven adherence. Too many individuals (even the ones clever enough to understand and incorporate the three core elements) continually play to their strengths: they will overemphasis a lone aspect of the three elements to the near exclusion of the other two. Realistically and empirically, the real lift, the dramatic progress comes from concentrating on weak points and not continually playing to our strengths.
Each of the three core elements has within it a cosmos of variety and variation. Within the cosmos of cardio, I devised some easy ways to designate and differentiate the various modes and identify their particularities and distinctions. When engaged in any cardio activity that activity will generally fall into one of three categories. To make the already complicated more complex there are shades of grey that blend and blur crisp distinctions and delineations. Think of any cardio-related physical activity and it will generally fall into one of three types...
➢ steady state
➢ burst (or interval)
➢ long strength (or sustained strength)
Steady State cardio, as the name implies, is when the athlete seeks to attain a smooth pace during the cardio exercise session. By seeking to perform the cardio activity using a purposefully relaxed musculature, maximal session length is achieved. Muscle tension requires oxygen and those seeking to go as far as possible as fast as possible understand that by motoring along while keeping their muscles as relaxed as possible, they prevent or forestall oxygen debt. When muscles contract they trigger muscle "tie-up" and bring about premature exhaustion. Watching a Kenyan marathon runner or Michael Phelps swim 10,000 meters, the observer is struck by how effortless and graceful the athlete seems - the steady state purposefully relaxed propulsion mode enables athletes to go far longer than they would were they to 'power' their way through selected mode.
Burst or interval cardio, as the name implies, occurs when the athlete purposefully uses intermittent muscular contractions to sprint, bound, leap, lift or run as fast as humanly possible for as long as humanly possible. While muscle contraction enables them to move far quicker than they would if they were they to employ steady state propulsion, the very contractions that create the afterburner effect also creates oxygen debt. The body is propelled faster using a burst - but the very contractions that enable speed and velocity also create lactic acid that eventually shuts the muscles down. The burst must be followed by rest period to allow lactic acid to be cleared; at that point the athlete can burst again. Intense games such as basketball, rugby, soccer, football or tennis are examples of burst cardio. Burst cardio requires muscular effort followed by lactic-acid clearing rest intervals. Intense muscular effort is needed to propel the body with maximal speed and this requires oxygen. Accelerated activity requires periodic rest.
Long strength (or sustained strength) splits the difference between steady state and burst. The idea is to engage in a cardio mode that requires muscular contractions for a prolonged period of time. This is tricky: pick an activity that incorporates contractions then seek to push through the lactic acid buildup. By operating above steady state and below burst, by operating in a mode that requires muscle contractions you push into the lactic acid/oxygen debt zone. Long strength does so purposefully and continually, over time we push back our current lactic acid threshold limit. Optimally the sustained strength athlete creates muscular tension while operating at a tempo that allows them to go for a protracted period. Resistance of some type is implied and required. Push, pull, hoist or tug, do so in a sustained fashion for an extended period.
Len, Long Strength and Kettlebells
For the sake of convenience I label steady state cardio as 1st Way; burst or interval cardio as 2nd Way and long or sustained cardio as 3rd Way. Purposefully interjecting a muscular exertion element into a cardiovascular format requires resistance. You could use your bodyweight, a weighted implement or an opponent to create the requisite 3rd Way resistance. Good examples of 3rd Way cardio modes might include grappling or wrestling with an opponent; clean and jerk an ultra light weight from the floor to overhead for a protracted period of time; carry a weighted backpack for distance. Leading experts are convinced that 3rd Way cardio actually reconfigures muscle composition.
Over time 3rd Way cardio can create a hybrid super muscle, one capable of using both aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways simultaneously; the targeted muscles are trained to exert strength is a sustained fashion for a protracted period and this morphs the configuration of muscle fiber. Generally speaking athletes have a preponderance of fast twitch muscle fibers or slow twitch muscle fibers; by engaging in long strength activity muscle fibers can, over time "fuse" to create Type IIC fibers, this hybrid muscle fiber is capable of using both aerobic (dominant slow twitch) and anaerobic (dominant fast twitch) energy pathways.
"Hybrid super muscle" (as Ori Hofmekler points out) was quite common in ancient men: one need only look at the capabilities and capacities of ancient boat rowers to find examples of men possessing a preponderance of hybrid super muscle. The ancient boat rowers tugged on heavy oars all day long (an exercise mode to be sure) and established distance and speed records that have never been exceeded.
Kettlebell hoisting builds 3rd Way cardio and hybrid super muscle, along with a whole host of identifiable athletic and physiological attributes.
➢ Protracted kettlebell hoisting 'splits the difference' between classical weight training and classical cardio.
➢ Protracted kettlebell training infuses muscle with mitochondria, cellular blast furnaces that allow us to build more muscle and burn body fat.
➢ Protracted kettlebell lifting pushes back lactic acid and oxygen debt limits and frontiers. We increase the ability to work in the "burn zone."
I had a lot of interface with cardio genius Leonard Schwartz back in the 1990s. He was a cardiovascular prophet and made startling pronouncements about the use of "implement hoisting" to reap a whole host of physiological benefits. Nostradamus-like, way back in 1982, Len all but predicted the kettlebell revolution decades later...
"Strength athletes will soon produce the largest workloads ever seen. By that I mean that strength/endurance, in some optimal combination, involving large percentages of the musculature in simultaneous activity, will produce a larger amount of physical work within a given time segment than has ever been done before....
Strength athletes that who adopt Heavyhand {read kettlebell} techniques are in a good position to build both endurance and 'work intensity.' Heavyhands {kettlebells} creates stamina of both central - heart/lungs - and peripheral (muscle systems) components to the oxygen transport mechanism."
Len and I talked at length on a weekly basis for years; he indicated to me that he foresaw a time when heavily muscled athletes would 'round out' their 'absolute strength' with what he termed 'long strength.' He thought Heavyhands would be the mode but that was not to be: his timing was premature and the Heavyhand mode never gained traction with the conventional fitness community. My own personal theory is that Heavyhand hoisting had a decidedly feminine flavor while kettlebell hoisting has a decidedly masculine flavor.
It is my contention that kettlebells are, in a way, the 'male son' of female Heavyhands. Designed and marketed as an exercise system that split the difference between classic resistance training and classical cardio, Len felt Heavyhands eliminated the need for "pure" resistance training and "pure" cardio. Heavyhands was a "two for the price of one" exercise system. Still, men never really felt comfortable pumping the smallish red Heavyhand hand weights: three decades later and men are quite comfortable tugging and pushing on the brutish black kettlebell.
Len felt that Heavyhands could replace cardio (read steady state) and weight training with his hybrid exercise mode and this hybrid exercise format would produce hybrid super muscle. Len was the first to point out that sustained strength activity done for a protracted period created additional muscle mitochondria within the worked muscle. Modern Kettlebell Training is rooted in an ancient Russian system and has been updated for modern times by Pavel Tsatsouline. Every profound pronouncement, every muscle-building, fat-burning characteristic assigned to Heavyhands, every scientifically verifiable claim and result Len made for Heavyhands back in 1982 - can be factually ascribed to the systematic use of kettlebells.
Rereading his seminal book, Heavyhands, The Optimal Exercise System (written in 1982) I was struck by the fact that every miraculous benefit rightfully assigned to Heavyhands now becomes Kettlebell's legitimate inheritance: somehow this represented (for me) the completion of a journey. Pavel's kettlebell revolution is in many ways the fruition of Len's Long Strength vision. Len had the vision yet never quite saw that vision embraced. In a back-to-the-future moment, in a 'déjà vu all over again' occurrence, past becomes present and the future is now. Read this insightful introduction to Heavyhands written back in 1981. Every time you read the word "Heavyhands" substitute "kettlebells" and you will begin to understand the profound, prophetic, prescient nature of Dr. Schwartz and my own odd, nostalgic sense of revelation as the past comes to fruition and resolution in the present.
"Heavyhands is a new kind of exercise. It claims are explicit: a higher level of fitness then that produced by any known aerobic exercise. Heavyhands creates a new kind of fitness. Heavyhands brings strength plus endurance to all the muscles. No muscle group is neglected; muscles already well trained by other exercise and sports are even further upgraded by Heavyhands. Most exciting of all, the simultaneous movement of many muscles is a superlative way to train the heart and lungs. Hard Heavyhands actually feels surprisingly easy. The Heavyhander can become as strong as most lifters, as swift as most runners, and outwork both on a smaller investment of time with far fewer injuries."
Contact Marty Gallagher about becoming a 'phone train' client at...
www.mgso@embarqmail.com
In my book, The Purposeful Primitive, I made the statement that every intelligent physical renovation program needs three core elements: resistance training, cardiovascular training and nutrition. The goal of all our training and nutritional efforts is to morph the human body from what it is into what we want it to be - lean, muscular, athletically functional, healthy and vital. Resistance training has many legitimate forms and guises and has as its singular goal to increase muscle size and strength; cardiovascular training has many legitimate forms and guises and has as its prime directive increasing endurance and improving the function and capacities of our internal organs. Nutrition has many legitimate forms and guises and has as its goal refueling and revitalizing the body.
When intelligent nutrition is combined with intelligent training, results are amplified; a synergistic state-of-being manifests wherein results exceed realistic expectations: muscle is dramatically increased, body fat is dramatically decreased and both happen at an accelerated rate. Balanced and sustained application of the three core elements enables synergistic momentum to take root and when that physiologic miracle occurs radical results rapidly occur.
Yes there are enumerable additional benefits to be gained from the pursuit of "fitness" however any physical attribute you can name ("I want to run faster, jump higher, leap further, be a better ball player, mountain bike rider" etc.) can be achieved by dramatically increasing our allotment of functional muscle mass and by dramatically decreasing our current body fat percentiles. Want to be a better ballplayer than you are currently? Dramatically increase functional muscle while dramatically decreasing body fat; want to run faster, jump higher or be better able to climb Mount Everest or fit into a wedding dress? Dramatically increase functional muscle while decreasing body fat.
Using Krishnamurti-like deductive reasoning we are able to deduce that in order to achieve any and all fitness-related goals if we are successfully able to devise, implement and adhere to an effective training and nutrition regimen, if using this comprehensive regimen we are able to construct new muscle and melt off body fat - then any and all of our fitness-related goals and dreams can and will be achieved. To recapitulate....
➢ Fitness is a code name for physical transformation
➢ To transform we need to utilize resistance, cardio and nutrition
➢ Success is achieved by building more muscle and melting off body fat
The name of the fitness game is being able to construct a balanced training/nutrition program that pays equal homage to each the three core elements: our default position should be an even-steven adherence. Too many individuals (even the ones clever enough to understand and incorporate the three core elements) continually play to their strengths: they will overemphasis a lone aspect of the three elements to the near exclusion of the other two. Realistically and empirically, the real lift, the dramatic progress comes from concentrating on weak points and not continually playing to our strengths.
Each of the three core elements has within it a cosmos of variety and variation. Within the cosmos of cardio, I devised some easy ways to designate and differentiate the various modes and identify their particularities and distinctions. When engaged in any cardio activity that activity will generally fall into one of three categories. To make the already complicated more complex there are shades of grey that blend and blur crisp distinctions and delineations. Think of any cardio-related physical activity and it will generally fall into one of three types...
➢ steady state
➢ burst (or interval)
➢ long strength (or sustained strength)
Steady State cardio, as the name implies, is when the athlete seeks to attain a smooth pace during the cardio exercise session. By seeking to perform the cardio activity using a purposefully relaxed musculature, maximal session length is achieved. Muscle tension requires oxygen and those seeking to go as far as possible as fast as possible understand that by motoring along while keeping their muscles as relaxed as possible, they prevent or forestall oxygen debt. When muscles contract they trigger muscle "tie-up" and bring about premature exhaustion. Watching a Kenyan marathon runner or Michael Phelps swim 10,000 meters, the observer is struck by how effortless and graceful the athlete seems - the steady state purposefully relaxed propulsion mode enables athletes to go far longer than they would were they to 'power' their way through selected mode.
Burst or interval cardio, as the name implies, occurs when the athlete purposefully uses intermittent muscular contractions to sprint, bound, leap, lift or run as fast as humanly possible for as long as humanly possible. While muscle contraction enables them to move far quicker than they would if they were they to employ steady state propulsion, the very contractions that create the afterburner effect also creates oxygen debt. The body is propelled faster using a burst - but the very contractions that enable speed and velocity also create lactic acid that eventually shuts the muscles down. The burst must be followed by rest period to allow lactic acid to be cleared; at that point the athlete can burst again. Intense games such as basketball, rugby, soccer, football or tennis are examples of burst cardio. Burst cardio requires muscular effort followed by lactic-acid clearing rest intervals. Intense muscular effort is needed to propel the body with maximal speed and this requires oxygen. Accelerated activity requires periodic rest.
Long strength (or sustained strength) splits the difference between steady state and burst. The idea is to engage in a cardio mode that requires muscular contractions for a prolonged period of time. This is tricky: pick an activity that incorporates contractions then seek to push through the lactic acid buildup. By operating above steady state and below burst, by operating in a mode that requires muscle contractions you push into the lactic acid/oxygen debt zone. Long strength does so purposefully and continually, over time we push back our current lactic acid threshold limit. Optimally the sustained strength athlete creates muscular tension while operating at a tempo that allows them to go for a protracted period. Resistance of some type is implied and required. Push, pull, hoist or tug, do so in a sustained fashion for an extended period.
Len, Long Strength and Kettlebells
For the sake of convenience I label steady state cardio as 1st Way; burst or interval cardio as 2nd Way and long or sustained cardio as 3rd Way. Purposefully interjecting a muscular exertion element into a cardiovascular format requires resistance. You could use your bodyweight, a weighted implement or an opponent to create the requisite 3rd Way resistance. Good examples of 3rd Way cardio modes might include grappling or wrestling with an opponent; clean and jerk an ultra light weight from the floor to overhead for a protracted period of time; carry a weighted backpack for distance. Leading experts are convinced that 3rd Way cardio actually reconfigures muscle composition.
Over time 3rd Way cardio can create a hybrid super muscle, one capable of using both aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways simultaneously; the targeted muscles are trained to exert strength is a sustained fashion for a protracted period and this morphs the configuration of muscle fiber. Generally speaking athletes have a preponderance of fast twitch muscle fibers or slow twitch muscle fibers; by engaging in long strength activity muscle fibers can, over time "fuse" to create Type IIC fibers, this hybrid muscle fiber is capable of using both aerobic (dominant slow twitch) and anaerobic (dominant fast twitch) energy pathways.
"Hybrid super muscle" (as Ori Hofmekler points out) was quite common in ancient men: one need only look at the capabilities and capacities of ancient boat rowers to find examples of men possessing a preponderance of hybrid super muscle. The ancient boat rowers tugged on heavy oars all day long (an exercise mode to be sure) and established distance and speed records that have never been exceeded.
Kettlebell hoisting builds 3rd Way cardio and hybrid super muscle, along with a whole host of identifiable athletic and physiological attributes.
➢ Protracted kettlebell hoisting 'splits the difference' between classical weight training and classical cardio.
➢ Protracted kettlebell training infuses muscle with mitochondria, cellular blast furnaces that allow us to build more muscle and burn body fat.
➢ Protracted kettlebell lifting pushes back lactic acid and oxygen debt limits and frontiers. We increase the ability to work in the "burn zone."
I had a lot of interface with cardio genius Leonard Schwartz back in the 1990s. He was a cardiovascular prophet and made startling pronouncements about the use of "implement hoisting" to reap a whole host of physiological benefits. Nostradamus-like, way back in 1982, Len all but predicted the kettlebell revolution decades later...
"Strength athletes will soon produce the largest workloads ever seen. By that I mean that strength/endurance, in some optimal combination, involving large percentages of the musculature in simultaneous activity, will produce a larger amount of physical work within a given time segment than has ever been done before....
Strength athletes that who adopt Heavyhand {read kettlebell} techniques are in a good position to build both endurance and 'work intensity.' Heavyhands {kettlebells} creates stamina of both central - heart/lungs - and peripheral (muscle systems) components to the oxygen transport mechanism."
Len and I talked at length on a weekly basis for years; he indicated to me that he foresaw a time when heavily muscled athletes would 'round out' their 'absolute strength' with what he termed 'long strength.' He thought Heavyhands would be the mode but that was not to be: his timing was premature and the Heavyhand mode never gained traction with the conventional fitness community. My own personal theory is that Heavyhand hoisting had a decidedly feminine flavor while kettlebell hoisting has a decidedly masculine flavor.
It is my contention that kettlebells are, in a way, the 'male son' of female Heavyhands. Designed and marketed as an exercise system that split the difference between classic resistance training and classical cardio, Len felt Heavyhands eliminated the need for "pure" resistance training and "pure" cardio. Heavyhands was a "two for the price of one" exercise system. Still, men never really felt comfortable pumping the smallish red Heavyhand hand weights: three decades later and men are quite comfortable tugging and pushing on the brutish black kettlebell.
Len felt that Heavyhands could replace cardio (read steady state) and weight training with his hybrid exercise mode and this hybrid exercise format would produce hybrid super muscle. Len was the first to point out that sustained strength activity done for a protracted period created additional muscle mitochondria within the worked muscle. Modern Kettlebell Training is rooted in an ancient Russian system and has been updated for modern times by Pavel Tsatsouline. Every profound pronouncement, every muscle-building, fat-burning characteristic assigned to Heavyhands, every scientifically verifiable claim and result Len made for Heavyhands back in 1982 - can be factually ascribed to the systematic use of kettlebells.
Rereading his seminal book, Heavyhands, The Optimal Exercise System (written in 1982) I was struck by the fact that every miraculous benefit rightfully assigned to Heavyhands now becomes Kettlebell's legitimate inheritance: somehow this represented (for me) the completion of a journey. Pavel's kettlebell revolution is in many ways the fruition of Len's Long Strength vision. Len had the vision yet never quite saw that vision embraced. In a back-to-the-future moment, in a 'déjà vu all over again' occurrence, past becomes present and the future is now. Read this insightful introduction to Heavyhands written back in 1981. Every time you read the word "Heavyhands" substitute "kettlebells" and you will begin to understand the profound, prophetic, prescient nature of Dr. Schwartz and my own odd, nostalgic sense of revelation as the past comes to fruition and resolution in the present.
"Heavyhands is a new kind of exercise. It claims are explicit: a higher level of fitness then that produced by any known aerobic exercise. Heavyhands creates a new kind of fitness. Heavyhands brings strength plus endurance to all the muscles. No muscle group is neglected; muscles already well trained by other exercise and sports are even further upgraded by Heavyhands. Most exciting of all, the simultaneous movement of many muscles is a superlative way to train the heart and lungs. Hard Heavyhands actually feels surprisingly easy. The Heavyhander can become as strong as most lifters, as swift as most runners, and outwork both on a smaller investment of time with far fewer injuries."
Contact Marty Gallagher about becoming a 'phone train' client at...
www.mgso@embarqmail.com
