Keeping Fit; high intensity interval training

[Brazilnuts]

Not a question, just observations.



Today I did my first high intensity interval training. It was INCREDIBLE!

I lasted about 5 mins Although that is not bad for a total beginner, but as I've been to two martial arts classes in the past two weeks and done 15 minute, 20 minute, and 7 minute jogs recently, I kindda expected to do it for a bit longer.

First I did a warm up jog for 5 mins, then I sprinted as fast as I could for about 20 to 30 seconds, then walked briskly for about 1 minute and so on. By the end I was panting like mad! It's a sign of inefficient lung capacity, which is also something I hope to improve with this fitness plan. I am tired of running out of breath just trying to catch a bus, and then panting for several minutes later trying to recover. I was more fit than this some years ago.

I'm not planning on overdoing things though...

The maximum time spent on this form of exercise should be no more than 15 minutes, and no more than 4 times a week...unless you are a professional athlete.


Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Hopefully a better day. Goal is to last for at least 6 minutes.

[Brazilnuts]

Just as a future reference, this is where the thread is located.

I totally agree with RRM.

After being on the Wai diet for about a week I noticed what looked like the outline of a sixpack on my abs, and I am a woman who prior to a week ago did not do any form of exercise...at all!

I also noticed that in general, all the muscles in my arms, legs and back looked more 'prominent'/visible. If I moved my arms, it looked like I was deliberately flexing my arm and back muscles when I wasn't. Wow! I had no idea I had all this muscle definition under my skin all along. Whoohooo!

I deduced that it is the loss of water retention, which is weird in a way because to confirm this theory I went to weigh myself today and alas, since I started the Wai (& RRM) diet I have not lost any weight, or gained any weight. At all.

So can anyone explain what happened to the water weight I am supposed to have lost in order to have more visible muscles?

I swear, I look almost as muscular as a gym bunny, yet I and the gym dislike each other! LOL.

Of course, for bot men and women.
Everybody has those well trained abdominal muscles, simply because the body needs them to be able to stand up straight and keep your body in balance with whatever activities you do. In fact, bigger men and women have stronger developed abdominal muscles simply because more weight needs to be kept in balance.

So, what is a six-pack about?
Making those abdominal muscles visible.
There are 2 factors involved:
1) the amount of fat on top of those muscles
2) the thickness of your skin due to water retention
The more fat, and the more water in your skin, the less visible those muscles.
So, yes, when you control the amount of fat under your skin, and the level of water in your true skin, you are in control how visible your sixpack is.

[Brazilnuts]

So I found out I need to do some cool down exercise after interval training. No wonder I hurt quite a bit the day after. I was just stopping suddenly! Silly me!

Anyway, I've been able to move up to 10 minutes, that is 5 reps of high intensity, within one session. Wow! It was raining outside so I practised over two days by first repeatedly running up and down the stairs for one minute, then just moving from one foot to the other slowly for 1 minute etc. Then the next day I frantically ran on the spot for one minute, then just moved from one foot to to the other for one minute etc. I was really panting and sweating afterwards. My clothes are looser now (after the third HIIT session); perhaps I have been sweating too much water out of my system?

I've found a new schedule though, which I think might be better because it gives me two minutes 'rest' (i.e. low intensity) in the interval. It seems against the spirit of the HIIT according to others, but I'll never know how effective it is until I try it. Will hopefully test it out tomorrow.

Minute by
Minute = Type = Intensity Level
1 = Warm up = 3 out of 10
2 = Warm up = 4 out of 10
3 = Warm up = 4 out of 10
4 = Warm up = 5 out of 10
5 = Warm up = 5 out of 10
6 = Hard = 8 out of 10
7 = Easy = 3 out of 10
8 = Easy = 3 out of 10
9 = Hard = 8 out of 10
10 = Easy = 3 out of 10
11 = Easy = 3 out of 10
12 = Hard = 8 out of 10
13 = Easy = 3 out of 10
14 = Easy = 3 out of 10
15 = Hard = 8 out of 10
16 = Cool Down = 3 out of 10
17 = Cool Down = 3 out of 10
18 = Cool Down = 3 out of 10
19 = Cool Down = 3 out of 10
20 = Cool Down = 3 out of 10

20 minutes total

[Brazilnuts]

Yesterday I did the 20 minute HIIT plan. Worked a treat. In total, I ran (not jogged) for 4 minutes, and for the rest of the 16 minutes I walked at normal pace (too knackered to do any jogging after sprinting like that). I felt absolutely shattered immediately afterwards, but within half an hour I recovered and was back to my normal self.

Today was a rest day.

[Brazilnuts]

This is a copy of what I wrote as a reply to a guy's thread on this forum. I thought I should save a copy of it here as it contains a lot of important web links I refer to quite regularly. I am rather lazy you see

I could lose 10kg of fat but I think I carry it fairly well... I've pretty much got zero muscle definition....I'll keep up my jogging, and work on removing that layer of fat covering everything and see what I can do from there.

Your plan sounds vague.

As for the jogging, I think you should scrap that and do some High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to lose the excess fat. You might hear otherwise on this forum, but trust me, I am absolutely certain that one of the reasons RRM has a similar build to that guy is because he UNINTENTIONALLY does HIIT sessions everyday that he goes to work. He rushes about, slows down, rushes about, slows down etc. thus eliminating the body fat according to the principles of HIIT. Any other workout he does, helps him to build muscle. And because he drinks a lot of OJ & OO throughout the day, he helps prevent his muscles from catabolising.

Don't believe me? Okay, here it is from our Lady herself:

...if you dont want to lose muscle, dont jog very long, and make it a bit more intense, by running up (outdoor) stairs / hills.
also, to prevent muscle loss, it is best to not jog in one pace, but do sprints in between (or climbing)

Furthermore, if you work out to build muscle, you REALLY have to eat little and often, if not the little muscle mass you gain would be eaten up and used as energy whenever your blood sugar goes down.

Two very important quotes:

its even more important to keep your blood sugar level up all the time, as it is very much possible that you ingest all required energy / day, and still convert muscle protein into energy. Thats because that is what happens the moment your blood sugar level goes down in between meals (energy-lows alternated with energy-highs; the latter coming with fat and glycogen storage, the former coming with breakdown of muscle, bodyfat and stored glycogen).

and

Muscles need rest to recover and grow, so train different muscles on different days.

You can find the original quotes here.

So now that we have worked out how you can lose the fat and keep hold of the muscle you gain, lets turn our attention to HOW you gain the muscle in the first place.

There is a program I tried several years ago and I can swear by it. However I don't follow it any more as I am not really interested in looking ripped. I just want to get fit and reduce my body fat percentage (it is currently higher than average ). This is the program. See

http://bodyforlife.com/success/goals/sizestrength.asp

and

http://bodyforlife.com/success/goals/leanstrong.asp


What I like about the program is that it incorporates three similar elements to what I described above.

• 1. Eat several times a day. They say 6 times a day, but we all know that on the Wai diet it can be even more than 6 times a day.
  2. They encourage you to eat carbs with protein at every meal. This is actually similar to our method of eating carbs with fat at every meal, so just ignore the protein part and replace it with fat, taking care to consume your protein Wai-style (i.e. raw and when you are able to rest for a couple of hours afterwards)
  3. They encourage you to do a form of HIIT, in the sense that during the cardio days (they have weight-lifting days in between cardio days, so the muscles rest and grow, and the weight-lifting is split into upper and lower body per session). Their form of HIIT is actually pretty impressive, in that your cardio is performed as a kind of roller-coaster and then you peak, and then slow down and start building up again. I think you can either stick to their method of cardio or do the HIIT training described here:
  
  http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp
  
  and
  
  viewtopic.php?t=1802

One thing I must mention about the Body For Life Program though, beware falling into the trap of thinking you need all the 'supplements' they try to push you into buying. On the Wai diet, you don't need any supplements. Which is good cus you save money that way.


Good luck and please keep us informed of your progress.

[Brazilnuts]

This morning I did the 20 minute HIIT plan shortly after I woke up. On an empty stomach, as that is better at reducing body fat percentage.

I think I am going to start doing stretching exercises last thing at night, so that my muscles are not tense in the morning. I've also heard it aids sleep.

[Brazilnuts]

STATS.

Body Fat Percent

August 14th = 34%, w 144
August 17th = 32%, w 145.5

Wow, after a few sessions of High Intensity Interval Training my body fat has gone down by 2%! Whohooo!!!

My body weight, however, has gone up by 1.5 pounds. I hope it is an increase in muscle mass.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I still CANNOT believe that my body fat is that high. There must be something wrong with my Tanita scales. I've seen pictures of people who look similar to me and yet they claim to have a body fat percent within the 20's range.



I'm thinking of going to a gym JUST to have a professional measure it properly. Failing that, I will just get a set of calipers and start to measure it myself, but who knows how accurate it will be?

Instructions can be found here: http://musclemaster.net/body-fat-percentage.html

[Brazilnuts]

Previously, I wrote:

This morning I did the 20 minute HIIT plan shortly after I woke up. On an empty stomach, as that is better at reducing body fat percentage.

Bill Philips had claimed that doing HIIT in the morning could reduce body fat up to 300% faster than doing HIIT at any other time of the day (empty stomach or not). Since August 9th until August 14th my body fat had remained unchanged at 34% in spite of all the HIIT sessions I had done. Then I started doing it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and within 3 days my body fat had reduced to 32%.

This therefore leads me to the very simple scientific conclusion that THE SECRET IS IN WORKING OUT ON AN EMPTY STOMACH FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.
And then not eating for an hour afterwards.

Fabulous!

[Brazilnuts]

When I look at myself in the mirror, I still CANNOT believe that my body fat is that high. There must be something wrong with my Tanita scales. I've seen pictures of people who look similar to me and yet they claim to have a body fat percent within the 20's range.

I've found an example here. Look at this woman (her before picture).



She claims "I dropped my body fat percentage from 21% to 16.5%" (Through the Body-for-LIFE program)
How on earth can her body fat percentage be 21% in the before picture when I look wayyyy fitter than her and mine is 32% according to my Tanita scale.

Either that woman is lying, or she did not measure her body fat properly, or my Tanita scale is RUBBISH!

[Brazilnuts]

Gaining Muscle


As I want to gain muscle, I am thinking of working out with weights, but I don't want to get a bulky look. I need to spend more time researching what kind of work outs I can do with weights that would prevent me from turning into the incredible hulk.

I just want lean, sleek looking muscles

In the meantime though, I have to be careful not to lose the muscle I already have. So I am going to start using a MotivAider to remind me to eat something every 2.5 hours. Otherwise I completely forget, and that is really bad for the muscles.



One annoying thing about the MotivAider though is that although it is supposed to clip to your belt, the clip handle tends to fall off. Considering that I bought the machine from America and it took literally weeks to arrive, I can't risk losing it while walking in the middle of the street. That would tick me off!!

So I got some gaffer tape and wrapped it around the clip handle. Lets hope that does the trick and I never lose my MotivAider.

[Oscar]

Could be shorter than 2.5 hrs, if you ask me.

Quite a working out plan. I personally hate interval training, but I know how effective it can be.

[RRM]

THE SECRET IS IN WORKING OUT ON AN EMPTY STOMACH FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.
And then not eating for an hour afterwards.

No, thats not good.
You should only work out when your glycogen levels are up; muscles need the glycogen to be active. If not, you burn muscles for energy.
You need carbs for your muscles:
1) In the blood from a recent meal
2) In the muscles as glycogen, to be able to sustain the exercise without burning muscles for energy.

Please stop advocating this; its un-Wai.

[Brazilnuts]

Please stop advocating this; its un-Wai.

I never claimed that it was part of the Wai diet/lifestyle.

Are we not allowed to experiment with different types of workouts just because we are on the Wai diet????

[Brazilnuts]

Basic Tabata Protocol: http://www.skatetrain.ca/tabata.html

8 x 20 seconds @ 90-100% effort with 10 sec rest between

Number of repeats = 8; Work time = 20 seconds; Rest time = 10 seconds; Work-rest ratio = 2:1;
Total duration of set = 4 minutes

1. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 1)
2. 10 seconds rest
3. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 2)
4. 10 seconds rest
5. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 3)
6. 10 seconds rest
7. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 4)
8. 10 seconds rest
9. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 5)
10. 10 seconds rest
11. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 6)
12. 10 seconds rest
13. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout 7)
14. 10 seconds rest
15. 20 Seconds of skating (workbout

We have to keep in mind that the Tabata protocol was developed for elite, high performance athletes. This being said, the basic protocol can and should be modified (at least to start) for weekend warrior types and/or those not accustomed to high intensity training methods.

[Brazilnuts]

AT LAST, OTHER WOMEN WHO SUFFER FROM MY PREDICAMENT - Skinny fat lol!



This will motivate me to bulk up and reduce the (currently high) proportion of fat in my body.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles ... slim-shady


First woman is 5’4”, 123lbs, 30% Body fat. size 4



and


Second woman is 5’8”, 142lbs, 29.9% Body fat. size 6


If the images are not showing, click on the links on the size 4 and 6 highlighted text.