Exercise and heart rates

[yarmmit]

Lots of good information on intense, Tabata type workouts at crossfit.com and gymjones.com. The Gymjones site, owned by Mark Twight, has some interesting stuff about his experience with anaerobic exercises and their effect on his endurance in the mountains. I believe his gym is an affliate of Crossfit so the information will be similar at both sites. Mark comments as usual are interesting and intense.

I'm a former gymnast who at 59 wanted to see how fit I could get following the crossfit workouts of the day. After 6 months of following the program fairly closely, my morning HR is 39-41 and my maximum is 180. Mile time is now getting close to 6 minutes, doing handstand push-ups and one arm pull-ups again and my ability to sprint on uphill grades is the best it has been in 15 years. Body fat percentage went from 14-15% to 8-9% with my weight staying right around 185. The only other thing I did besides the WOD was run 30-40 minutes on cross country and mountain bike trails three times a week for 6 weeks during the summer.

[Shredgar]

That's awesome Yarmmit, way to go.

The crossfit & gymjones workouts are brutal & creative. I need to sack up & do them.

One of my neighborhood workouts is a mile run for time. Uphill 1,500' & takes me about 20 minutes.

[eastwest]

I've got some different questions. My heart rate is always low, mid to low 50's usually, sometimes in the high 40's at rest. I don't have a HR monitor, but have been working out a lot lately and notice that my recovery is great. I get my heart rate up to 150-170 on my bike and feel good there, above that it hurts and I just stop and rest for a minute or two and I'm ready to keep going. I used to do a lot of amphetamines and wonder if they could have possibly made my heart stronger? I know there is a lot of room for smartasses in this one, but if you think about it, everytime you whiff a line of crank or smoke a bowl of weed you increase your heart rate, sometimes to a great extent. That exercises your heart. So, my question is, could that possibly have a positive effect on the heart? What is the difference between artificial (drug induced) heart rate increases vs. exercise induced increases? Any doctors here?

[Toby]

Some random thoughts provoked by my bi-weekly Tabata workout:

(i) metallic taste in the mouth at the end of the workout? Check. Doesn't happen every workout, but fairly often I'll come to the verge of spewing.

(ii) if you're gunna do it, please follow the gradual build-up method discussed in the link I posted. Going straight into 20s on/10s off intervals might literally kill you. You should be on the verge of collapse at the end of the workout or you're not doing it properly.

(iii) I like to think of 8-10 20s/10s intervals as the equivalent to sprinting a mile. You're up there at 90%+ of your max HR for 4-5min. I do it on a rowing ergo and achieve 1050-1100m in 10 20s intervals not including the 10s active recovery amounts. There is no way I could match that pace in a sustained effort without the rest intervals.

(iv) the first interval is greasing the groove, the 2nd one is the money interval, the 3rd one is almost as good. From there on it's downhill and by the last you should be struggling to complete the work interval due to lactic acid buildup and aerobic system overload (you'll be struggling to get enough oxygen).

(v) the uniqueness of the whole workout is it really does tax both anaerobic and aerobic systems. If you're aware of your body, you'll feel it. As to the effects of the workout as a fat-burning exercise I dunno. I've never used it with that goal. If I wanted/needed to lose fat, I'd be tempted to try this workout, although it would be hard to stay motivated if you were doing it say 4+ times a week. I find twice a week hard enough.

(vi) the brevity of the workout is a strong positive for me. I do a 10min warmup and a 3min cooldown but apart from those, 4-5min of actual work is great, especially during the week for a cube drone.

(vii) I would personally never do this type of workout with weights. Speed is the key. You need something you can do fast. If I was e.g. lifting 50% of my squat 1RM I know it wouldn't take long for me to injure myself. Bodyweight exercises would be good as would any type of machine. I like the rowing ergo, I also liked sprinting on grass.

(viii) despite feeling like death straight afterwards, you recover very quickly. Once your HR drops you can feel shaky and weak, but you don't develop soreness. Sometimes I'll feel "taxed" the next morning, but not overly.