Results Trump All in Fitness.

[Jim B]

Results Trump All in Fitness

A while back I was running down the steepest desert road I could find, one you have to stick the truck in “granny gear” low-range 4X4 and inch down as slow as possible to avoid sliding down. In fact, I was probably running at least 50% faster than I'd ever driven down it.

I had just run 4 rounds of Tabata sprints up to the top of the hill. Of course, that means all out 4-minute rounds, with a 3-minute rest between rounds. If you do a Tabata right, 3 minutes rest is a bare minimum needed.

It was almost 100 degrees out and I had to run all the way back to the base of the hill to where I parked the truck. It royally sucked, and since the road was rutted like crazy, I had to bounce back and forth over the ruts and over large rocks.

I hadn't taken any water with me because it really wasn't possible when doing sprints. A timer is about it. I was also fasted and had eaten less than about 300 calories that day, almost 10 hours prior.

I can remember thinking on the run down about things like dehydration, recovery, risk of injury due to fatigue, etc., and I realized that there were probably a lot of extremely educated fitness and nutrition experts out there that would advise against this, and also tell me 100 reasons why this was dumb and counterproductive.

Then it hit me.

I was likely in better condition and stronger than anyone who might give that kind of advice and had been for my whole life, from doing things exactly like this. And, I can safely say that even though I have great genetics, I am past the age where you get by on that alone.

I mentally recalled a list of folks I knew with degrees in various sports science, exercise physiology and related degrees years younger than me that couldn't or wouldn't do this type of training, and who also hid excess bodyfat under professional looking polo shirts.

Moral?

Results trump all academics in fitness. Screw any trainer, coach, fitness expert or whatever that can't show you their current, lifelong results, regardless of what studies or academic second-guessing they care to throw at you. 

-Jim