4 Week Experiment

I’ve been planning my training in four week chunks. I think the Navy uses the term “evolution” as their form of demarcation. The last four weeks were spent doing a progression of exercises with the goal of seeing strength gains in several key measurements. I was successful. Here’s the next experiment.

4 Weeks of Intense Strength Training with No Running.

Men’s Health put out a book/magazine thingy called GET FIT NOW, and it reminded me of studies that show that running tends to negate any serious muscle growth. I’d read that a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. This involves slow twitch versus fast twitch fibers, and how endurance strengthens the slow twitch stuff, but that it’s fast twitch that account for more of your muscle mass. I’m not educated enough to speak in depth about it, but I’m willing to try a quick 4 week rotation of this method to see what comes of it.

Reading something in the recent Experience Life magazine helped me bring this decision about, too. They had a piece on body type (can’t access it via the website), and I reminded myself that I’m a blend of endomorph and mesomorph. I can build muscle fairly easily, but I have a hard time losing fat weight. I have to work at it. To that end, running is *not* in the category for my body type. In ayurvedic medicine (Indian stuff), I’m a Vasu, which is also not a runner’s category.

So how did I decide running was for me?

I really love the experience of getting out into nature, of scaling tricky hills and descending into lush forests. I enjoy the miles of distance I can throw beneath me while enjoying a spirital connection to the world surrounding me. It’s one of the only times I feel like I’m in church.

But why did I choose to run?

I guess it’s because I think of running as something “worthy.” People who can run distances are impressive to me. My coworker, Mark, had just run Boston, and it beat the stuffing out of him because of the heat. But a friend who struck me as a lot less serious about his running did fairly well in Boston, so I had this sense that lots of people do this sport at different levels.

My new friend, Luc, pointed out that running (especially trail running and ultras) is the only sport where you can do the same event as the celebrities of the sport. I’ve run in races with “name brand” athletes, and that’s kind of neat. If I were into football (which is what endomorphs are ’supposed to’ like), I wouldn’t be able to hang out with Tom Brady, right? So, I like the fact that running is open to everyone.

Also, no gear per se. I’ve got shoes, a water bottle, a few things here and there, but nothing insane.

So for at least four weeks (the offical program is 7, but I’ll assess at 4), I’m going to throw running out and focus on intense, heavy weightlifting. By not resting more than 30 seconds between sets, I’ll get my cardio from the lifting itself. Of course, I’ll lose some of my endurance conditioning, but I’m not worried. I’ll get it back when I apply myself to that effort again.

What I love most about life is that it’s made up of choices, and that you can often choose several directions. My current choice (for just a month, by the way) is to see what happens when I focus all my efforts on strength training and power building. I’m hoping that this ultimately helps my 30# weight loss goal, even though I’ll build lots more muscle mass (I hope) through this. I hear all the time that a pound of muscle burns 50 calories more a day than a pound of fat. I’m all for it.

Of course, I’ll keep you all posted.

What are you afraid of changing in your life? Why haven’t you tried?

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