Time Saver

January 22, 2015

Why You’re Probably Working Out All Wrong

When I was younger, my workouts were leisurely and mellow-tempoed: six to eight hours bike rides up the canyons around Boulder, CO, two to three hour workouts at the gyms, resting three minutes between sets and so on. These were days before work, marriage and children, days when I had the luxury of being inefficient. Today, I no longer have that luxury. I barely have three hours to sleep, much less ride my bike or hang out on the bench press for that long. But the funny thing is that today, even though my not-so-frequent workouts seldom last more than an hour, in many ways I’m in better shape.

What I know now that I didn’t know back then is that it’s intensity of exercise, not duration, that is the decisive factor in staying fit, strong and lean. A few years ago, I was introduced to (or rather I started incorporating) high intensity interval training, or HIIT. Most people know HIIT through Crossfit, the fitness craze conducted out of bunker-like gyms that involves high-intensity, short-duration calisthenics and olympic weightlifting. But the basic practice of HITT can be applied to any form of exercise. The core principle is to exercise in short, high intensity bursts, followed by short rest, then repeated. A HIIT workout often lasts less than a half-hour, but done right, can provide a better workout than a day spent on the treadmill.

NY Times Phys Ed columnist Gretchen Reynolds, one of the web’s more outspoken advocates of interval training, citing a study by a group of Canadian researchers reported “that 10 one-minute intervals—essentially, 10 minutes of strenuous exercise braided with one-minute rest periods between—led to the same changes within muscle cells as about 90 minutes of moderate bike riding.”

But low intensity exercise is not just a time suck–it might even be preventing weight loss. Studies by the European Journal of Applied Physiology have shown that when doing moderate-level cardio, our bodies actually learn to become more efficient in storing fat–a good thing when you’re out in the savannah with the nearest supermarket 15K years in the future, but pretty awful if you’re trying to shed a few pounds. They found that 20+ minutes of moderate cardio suppressed the hormone T3, essential for fat loss. It also increased cortisol and decreased human growth hormone levels, the former a fat loss inhibitor and the latter a muscle-producing inhibitor. No bueno.

None of this is to say that we should stop taking brisk walks, steady-paced bike rides and other moderate-level exercise we might label “cardio.” It is to say that that type of exercise alone is unlikely to lead to increased strength and weight loss or maintenance.

What should you do instead?

Get a timer and try to perform your exercise routine in a shorter amount of time than you normally do. If you go to the gym, take short rests between sets (I find less than 45 seconds best). If you’re a runner, throw some quick sprints into your mix to up the pace. Research has shown that even one minute of all-out exercise in an otherwise moderate half hour workout can produce positive physiological effects (note: a good indicator of intensity is elevated heart rate, sweat and being somewhat out of breath–or a lot if you’re able).
Try the 7 Minute Scientific Workout or similar routine that focuses on continuous, high-intensity exercise with short rest periods.
Try Crossfit, PX90, Insanity and other workouts that employ HIIT. They might seem like fads, but they are fads that will get you fit quickly. For safety reasons, this option is probably best for people who are reasonably strong already, but having a set routine can help wake up your body and get you out of any workout doldrums.
Get an app. I’ve recently started using the Tabata Timer. The Tabata Protocol is a four minute exercise methodology, where you have 20 seconds of high intensity activity followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times (i.e. four minutes). It’s hard as hell and pretty awesome. A quick scan through Apple’s iTunes store or Google Play reveal numerous apps focused on interval training–many of which can be done without any special equipment. Try one. What do you have to lose?

Whether you’re a youthful fitness god or greying couch potato–or some combination thereof–you can increase the intensity of your workouts. Start from where you’re at. It’ll not only make you feel better and make you trimmer, it’ll save you a ton of time.

Young man running image via Shutterstock

February 8, 2013May 23, 2014

Optimize Your Emailing with Keyboard Shortcuts

Many of us spend a good portion of our days dealing with email. Whether we relish or loathe the task, we can all agree that it makes sense to figure out how to do go through your inbox as efficiently as possible. We’ve looked at ways of optimizing your Gmail account, but today we’re looking at something a bit more basic: The keyboard shortcut.

Every on and offline mail service (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, Apple Mail etc.) has them, but many of us don’t use them. Just like when you discovered ctrl/Apple + c, v and x (you have discovered those, right?), a little know how can result in a ton of time saved over the years.

Rather than cover every mail service, we’re going to give a few keyboard shortcuts for Gmail, which is still the mail service of choice for the majority of us. (We’ve put links to other mail services below).

Enable keyboard shortcuts on Gmail by going to settings (the little gear in upper right corner). On the “General” tab, scroll down to “Keyboard shortcuts”. Turn keyboard shortcuts on and save settings at bottom of screen.
Shift + c to compose message in new window.
/ puts your cursor in search box. This is especially useful for those of us who keep documents in our inbox.
Shift + c to reply. Shift + a to reply all.
Shift + 3 to delete a message.
gi Takes you to your inbox.
? shows a keyboard shortcut cheatsheet.
Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, Outlook, Apple Mail (may vary between OS versions).

We like to say that the hours of our days are often lost in teaspoons, not gallons. While not revolutionary for many of us, sometimes mini timesavers like these keyboard shortcuts help us do the things we’re doing faster so we can get on to more important things.

What simple but important email timesavers do you use? Let us know in our comments section.

image credit Shutterstock.com

January 21, 2013May 23, 2014

Edit Your Workout with a Tabata Burpee Set

While there are some of us that relish working out–the chance to flex muscles, purge pores with sweat, gulp down air–there is surely an equal or greater number of us who do not enjoy it–who do it to keep weight off, keep some muscle tone, to offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle. For the latter category, the question becomes how do you do as much good for your body as efficiently as possible? There is a one word answer for that question. It’s burpee.

A burpee is a single exercise that involves a squat, leg thrust, pushup and jump. Watch the video above to see it performed. It works every upper and lower muscle you have in one continuous–and grueling–calisthenic motion.

No equipment or gym required.

Think you’re not strong enough. Think again. There are a million variations to cut intensity: Do bent leg pushups, use a chair to reduce the depth of squat, do your pushup against a table, don’t jump…you could literally make a nonagenarian adapted burpee (see one example of modified burpee below). There are also a million ways to add intensity.

One of the ways to truly maximize your burpee experience is to use the Tabata method. Tabata, named after Olympic trainer Izumi Tabata, is a form of high intensity interval training (HIIT), that requires 20 seconds of maximal effort, followed by ten seconds rest. You repeat this exercise/rest set eight times. Four minutes and you’re done.

One study (Gibala et al) showed that 2.5 hours of HIIT training had the same muscular and endurance benefits of 10.5 hours of specific endurance training. Another study reports that HIIT exercise is better at burning fat than aerobic exercises. (Note that HIIT can be performed with virtually any exercise and Tabata is just one form of HIIT.)

All of this runs counter to our aerobic-centric exercise world, where gyms are lined with elliptical machines and treadmills. Don’t get us wrong, aerobic exercise is great, and walking is still probably exercise supreme. But if you want to get stronger and leaner faster, nothing beats HIIT like Tabata. And if you want a complete exercise, few things outside of waterpolo do it like the burpee.

A proper warmup like a brisk walk, jog or jumping rope is highly recommended when doing HIIT to avoid injury. If you have health concerns, consult an expert. And consider adding something like a Tabata burpee set to your existing routine (maybe swap it for a cardio session) rather than replacing it altogether. See how it goes.