Whether your a marathon runner, ultra marathoner, cyclist, mountain biker, swimmer, adventure racer, triathlete, or just someone who wants a kickass body with supreme fitness, this article is all about becoming more versatile in your fitness training by doing Cross Training with high intensity interval training instead of endurance training.
Here are the Benefits of doing High Intensity Interval Training ( HIIT ) with Cross Training
- You’ll save more time and won’t have to workout as long as you use to
- Increase in Cardiovascular Function
- Have a better physique, decreased body fat, increase in muscle mass
- Increase In Your Strength, Power and Speed
- Less chance of injury from over training
- Variation makes your workouts less boring
If your serious about improving your fitness and results within your long distance sport you should follow the Crossfit Endurance website and start doing their workouts. Crossfit Endurance is set up specifically for endurance athletes utilizing the Crossfit principles.
On to the PROOF !
There are multiple reasons and side effects from slow boring low intensity endurance training. This applies to you if you consistently do only one form of training or a combination of things where you don’t do anything at high intensity.
Example: My cousin is a marathon runner. He recently ran in the Boston Marathon. He use to train just by running for 8 miles at a time for 4 days a week and never changing his pace. No weight training, no crossfit endurance training, just running.
If your currently still training like this STOP IT right now!
So, lets look at several examples that relate to body structure, performance, and risks of endurance training.
NOTE : 99% of everything you do will be training. Races and Competitions are just roughly 1% of the actual load or cumulative effects on your body. So, “During your training” stop doing the long slow and boring low intensity endurance training ALL THE TIME, mix it up.
1. Look at the difference between a marathon runner compared to a Sprinter. Are their body shapes like this for a specific reason, YES. You decide which one you want to be…
2. Have you ever you heard of the “Jim Fixx Phenomenon”, a popular fitness guru of the 70s…? He claimed that the secret to heart health and long life was endurance running, up until he died of a heart attack while running! This may or may not be a special case as many long distance runners in marathons die every year.
Maybe they all have some type of pre disposition to do with their heart, lifestyle choices or maybe its from the running…?
3. A few years ago, Harvard researchers published the Harvard Health Professionals Study. After studying over 7,000 people they found that they key to preventing heart disease is INTENSITY, not long duration exercise. Can’t Find this article, can anyone find this…
4. Did you know your lung power is the best predictor of longevity? But your lungs shrink with age. Every year your lung cells die off faster than your body can replace them. And if you practice aerobics or cardio you’re making your lungs even smaller and weaker, according to Dr. Al Sears, creator of the 12 minute Pace Program.
5. Long-distance running shrinks your lungs and downsizes your heart’s output. Nature designed your body to adapt to whatever environment it encounters. If you ask it to run long distances repeatedly and routinely, it will adapt to meet the challenge more effectively. When you run long distances like in a marathon you’re actually training your heart to get weaker. Read This –> Marathon Kills 3 More in 16 Minutes
6. Can you name any animal that runs for an hour or more 4 days a week for 10 years or more…
7. Six Minutes of Exercise A Week is As Good As Six Hours – I wouldn’t do just 6 minutes of exercise a week. While this article does prove a point, you should do at least 3-4 workout days a week. With 1-2 being an intense interval training day at no more than 30 minutes and the other 2 days, resistance free weight training, and crossfit or cross fit endurance training.
If your an endurance athlete you may want to just follow the Crossfit Endurance Workouts.
8. Another great source of information to read on high intensity interval training vs. endurance training
The are plenty of academic articles/journals that have plenty of research behind this. They are mostly hard to read or understand for most but if your seeking more info contact me and I’ll give you some more articles.
You may be thinking, isn’t bodybuilding bad for you… no not really. Not unless you use steroids and massive supplements you don’t need. It’s also not a smart way to exercise because most bodybuilders rely on isolation training a certain body part at one time. Which is almost as stupid as doing crunches to try and get abs.
Depending on the type of energy system your training for you should have specific intervals you do in your training depending on your sport. Check out the What is Fitness Article by Crossfit for this.
If running makes you feel good just being outside, continue to do it. But don’t just run slow and steady. Do running intervals or biking intervals. Just by upping the intensity you’ll get way more benefit out of running and it will take less time.
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