High heart rate exercise, intensity management, and a 6-step progression to avoid injury

Supercharged Sundays #9

Happy Sunday!

I hope you’re having a great weekend. Here are this Sunday’s health, fitness, and wellness practices to carry into your week ahead.

What to expect:

• High heart rate exercise protocol in less time

• Intensity management with the 70-20-10 approach

• 6-step movement progression to not get injured (+ reap the benefits of compound exercise)

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High heart rate exercise in less time

Super high heart rate exercise, although short in duration, is probably the type of exercise we feel the highest resistance towards.

Why?

It's uncomfortable to get super out of breath and feel like your heart is going to explode out of your chest.

But for longevity, it’s important to get your heart rate close to maximum 1-2 days per week.

One way to do this in minimal time and without causing much strain on your body is by using breath holds to alter CO2 tolerance. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Go 10 seconds all out (sprints, air bike, rower, etc.).

2. Stop and hold your breath until you need to breathe again.

3. Recover for 30 seconds, nasal breathing only.

4. Repeat for three rounds.

If you’re not even close to being recovered at the start of the second round, stick to one round and build up over time.

Breatholds are a great way to elevate your heart rate to near maximum without that much physical work which saves you time and spares your joints, soreness, and energy. 

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Intensity Management: 70, 20, 10

How hard should you go in the gym?

Intensity is something we generally don’t think about. We just show up and do our workouts as programmed and leave the intensity up to how we feel that day or our default effort.

But there are benefits to be reaped from having an intensity plan.

The first and most important is to avoid injury.

As Peter Attia writes in his book Outlive, “The first commandment of fitness: don’t get hurt.”

If you have to stop exercising because of an injury, it will be extremely challenging to maintain your fitness and even harder to get it back once you lose it.