Hacking Exercise For Health.md

Hacking Exercise for Health

Intervals

• A majority of the exercise benefit is seen from the first set, though further sets can help optimize.
  • It's much better to do something (anything) than nothing.
• High intensity seems to matter more that duration, weight, etc in terms of overall efficacy.

Cardio

• vo2max is the main way to measure cardio fitness, as it shows how well you exchange oxygen. Can be measured with Rockport walk test:
  • male vo2max = 145.486 - (0.388 * age) - (0.077 * weight in lbs) - (3.265 * time to walk a mile in minutes) - (0.156 * heart rate after walk)
  • female vo2max = 139.168 - (0.388 * age) - (0.077 * weight in lbs) - (3.265 * time to walk a mile in minutes) - (0.156 * heart rate after walk)
• high intensity causes both slow and fast twitch to be recruited, burning more energy in less time.
• high intensity burns fewer calories during workout, but results in a larger and longer increase in metabolism over time, netting a similar total calorie burn
• research tested HIIT protocols (easiest to hardest):
  • interval walking - ~60m - 10 repititions of 3 minutes easy walking and 3 minutes hard walking (about 3/10 difficulty)
  • 10x1 - ~20m - 10 repititions of 1 minute hard effort and 1 minute rest.
  • 1 minute workout - ~10m - 3 repititions of 20s highest effort and 3 minute steady slower pace.

Musculoskeletal

• Muscles that can generate more force fatigue sooner, and vice versa.
• Initial strength gains come from enhanced coordination/recruitment of muscle fibers, later gains come from growth/hypertrophy.
• Total weight and/or reps don't seem to matter as much as effort. Work to fatigue (and if this takes more than 30 reps, increase difficulty)w
• Ensure you get enough protein to allow you to outweigh muscle breakdown. Max usable is ~1.6g/kg/day.
• Mix: push, pull, core, and legs
• When sequencing, start with more complex movements that work more muscle groups, then move toward more isolated movements. Also, move between different types to avoid overtaxing any one area.
• Beginner: squat, push up, pull up, plank.
• FIIT: Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type (first three are most important)

Bringing it Together

• Can combine cardio and strength by limiting breaks and keeping intensity high. ie Tabata, 7m workout, etc
• Key Principles of programming:
  • Combination - high frequency with few breaks to combine strength and cardio
  • Variation - move between different muscle groups to avoid overtaking any one
  • Effort - should maintain 8 or 9 out of 10 difficulty throughout
  • Progression - as difficulty decreases, move to more difficult variations
• Exercise also helps with focus, mood, and other benefits.
• The key is doing something consistently.