I read Kipling’s 1899 great, ‘If,’ just before a 40-minute sprint/bodyweight workout yesterday and it struck me how relevant several lines of this poem are with regard to short, intense, full-body-challenging exercise sessions.
In case you weren’t already aware, it’s been well documented in several exercise/scientific journals that short, tough workouts are actually superior to the long, slow cardio variety when it comes to real-world, visible results in your body.
See Oprah Winfrey’s phenomenal article titled, ‘Sprinting To Weight Loss.’ Here’s the link: http://www.oprah.com/health/Lose-Weight-with-Short-Intense-Workouts. Article cites very convincing evidence, including one British study wherein growth hormone levels jumped 530 percent in subjects after they sprinted for 30 seconds on a stationary bike!.
This is critical as human growth hormone has been scientifically linked to both lean muscle-gain and fat-loss (i.e. High-intensity Interval Training: A Time-efficient Strategy for Health Promotion. Martin J. Gibala, PhD, Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada Current Sports Medicine Reports 2007, 6:211-213).
I don’t normally consult Oprah’s site/mag for fitness advice, but in this case I must admit—Excellent stuff, great research, O!
Short, intense workouts ARE superior to long cardio in my opinion. However, you can also intermingle short sprints and bodyweight training (push-ups, squats, pull-ups, etc.) INTO YOUR LONGER CARDIO SESSIONS.
And this is what I normally do. I’ll go for an enjoyable 45-minute to 1.5 hour barefoot or slipper-clad run (per Mcdougall’s great Born To Run—read it!), while incorporating several hundred squats, push-ups, crunches into the workout.
So I am getting excellent cardiovascular training, as well as muscle-strengthening benefits, IN THE SAME SESSION (if you’re short on time, however, go with short, intense, 15 to 20 minute bodyweight workouts, as outlined in my booklet/dvd set, Extreme Minimalist Fitness: http://superiorbodyhealth.com/. Excellent for core/cardio/muscular power in limited time).
The Kipling poem:
Here it is…pay particular attention to lines referring to holding on with ‘heart and nerve and sinew’ long after your body tells you, ‘Stop!’ As well as the bit on filling the tough, ‘unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.’
If (Kipling, 1899):
‘If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!’
…….Useful in so many ways beyond the realms of health and fitness. But strangely predictive of the scientifically proven value of PUSHING YOURSELF TO THE INTENSE, OUTER LIMITS of your exercise sessions. And other life endeavors.
Thank you R. Kipling! (and Oprah as well).
J. Sekerak
http://superiorbodyhealth.com/(free blog update info. here. Plus, get WAYNE GREEN, PHD’S THE SECRET GUIDE TO HEALTH—ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL BOOKS EVER WRITTEN ON HEALTH/LONGEVITY—with your order of my complete diet/exercise regimen, EXTREME MINIMALIST FITNESS. Great stuff!!!)
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*copyright 2010, Jeff Sekerak, all rights reserved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySRA0cNICuY&feature=related (read by D. Hopper)
