Apr 25, 2020
Liberal Arts Blog — High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), High Intensity Training (HIT), and the Cross Fit Philosophy
Liberal Arts Blog — Saturday is the Joy of Sports, Dance, Fitness, and All Things Physical Day
Today's Topic - High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), High Intensity Training (HIT), and the Cross Fit Philosophy
Three fitness programs that have taken off over the last 20 years are High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which requires no equipment, High Intensity Training (HIT), which uses a wide variety of equipment, and CrossFit which stresses maximizing diversity of physical challenges as well as the elimination of sugar from the diet. Any fans out there? Critics? Experts - please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING (HIIT) VERSUS HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (HIT)
1, HIIT: get that heart rate up. No equipment required. See first link for an at-home twenty-minute workout. Three phases: warm up, high intensity exercises, cool down. "A common formula involves a 2:1 ratio of work to recovery periods, for example, 30–40 seconds of hard sprinting alternated with 15–20 seconds of jogging or walking, repeated to failure."
2. HIIT: definition used in studies of its effectiveness: four intervals of four minutes at 85–95% of max heart rate with three-minute intervals at 60–70% of max heart rate."
3. HIT: a machine-based weight training program founded in the 1970s by Arthur Jones, the inventor of the Nautilus exercise machine and holder of over 40 patents. Rather than spending hours in the gym, do short, intense periods that take the muscle to failure just once or twice a week. This will maximize muscular hypertrophy and strength. Top body builders trained with Jones. Among them Sergio Oliva, "The Myth," the only person ever to best Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Mr. Olympia competition (1969).
CROSSFIT: from 1 gym in 1995 to over 15,000 affiliates in 150 countries in 2019.
1. Variety is key: different workout every day.
2. No sugar - "off the carbs and off the couch"
3. The first prize for both men and women at the CrossFit Games has risen from $500 in 2007 to $300,000 in 2019.
NB: Risk of "exertional rhabdomyolisys" (exercise-induced muscle breakdown) that can be fatal is allegedly no higher than for your typical triathlete. About 50% of the four million CrossFit athletes are women. About half of the affiliates are in the United States. Makes money by charging an annual fee for licensing name and certifying trainers.
CROSSFIT PHILOSOPHY: "Routine is the enemy"
1. "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar."
2. "Practice and train all major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, clean and jerk, and snatch."
3. "Similarly master the basics of gymnastics: pull ups, dips, rope climb, push ups, sit ups, pressses, handstands, ,pirouettes flips, splits, and holds."
NB: "Bike, run swim, row, hard and fast. Five to six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports."
High-intensity interval training
HIIT Home Workout for beginners
The founder of CrossFit credits his success to one simple secret
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to sports, dance, fitness. Or the coolest thing you learned about Sports, Dance, of Fitness in your life — whether on the field, on the dance floor or in the gym, whether from a coach, a parent, a friend, or just your own experimentation.
This is your chance to make some one else's day. Or even change their life. It's perhaps a chance to put into words something you have never articulated before. And to cement in your own memory something cool you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.
