Hacking Your Performance…into pieces

“Efficiency is intelligent laziness”    –David Dunham

It’s not quite a newsflash that humans have limited resources. In prehistoric times, if our ancestors wasted energy galavanting around performing recreational tasks, there was a good chance that they would not have the strength to capture their next meal. Even in the modern world, a hammer rarely outpaces a steam-engine drill and therefore, the drive towards mechanical efficiency, reduced input-to-output ratios and technological advancements creates high productivity with limited energy expense. And with, arguably our highest priced resource, Time, we are so protective that we develop “life-hacks” to save seconds, with the hope of hanging on to a few more precious moments, attending to our endless responsibilities or personal wants. ‘Wastefulness’ creates a competitive disadvantage, but does working smarter ALWAYS beat working harder?

The answer depends on the goal.

Certainly, it cannot be argued that time-saver conveniences such as ovens, cars and the internet have largely, positively shaped the health and progression of human achievement and personal health. And when the goal is to complete a task as quickly as possible, or to reserve some energy/time/money for use elsewhere, there is no doubt these technologies have improved the world.

But like anything, each time we save on energy input, we lose strength or dexterity in how well we can perform the process. For example, if you decided you no longer wanted to use the energy to lift your arm to point the remote at the TV, you may develop an even lazier-boy chair to robotically lift your elbow to aim at the screen. But in doing so, over time, you would slowly lose strength in that arm that you would otherwise gain/maintain by lifting it yourself. Another might be seen in academics: the increased use of calculators has all but removed fundamental mathematic skills from elementary schools to industry and most adults are hard-pressed to remember their long division. So what? Why spend the time figuring it out yourself when there’s an app for that? Absolutely! Unless of course, you realize that there may be times when that ‘efficiency’ may not be available in your life, or that you become so dependent on the convenience that you can’t problem-solve in the case the technology stops working, or in the case that your health and wellbeing depends on that strength and dexterity. In that case, your shortcut, may just limit your function or lifespan.

It’s not a far cry to see across many major chronic health conditions. Disuse in cognitive, physical and physiological function often leads to an eventual atrophy of each system. When you don’t use it, your body sees this as an opportunity to break down wasteful excess, which comes from a biological tendency towards efficiency.

Hanging onto unused muscle requires incredible amounts of added metabolic work, so the body simply rids itself of that burden.

None of this comes as a shock, I’m sure. Those who avoid physical activity often have a pretty good idea the influence on their health this decision brings. But what about those who choose to be active, why does this message apply just as strongly for them?

Recently, the top Worldwide Fitness Trends for 2018 were identified by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and thanks primarily to society’s continued apparent lack of time, the top trend has been projected to be High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) [“HIIT involves short bursts of activity followed by a short period of rest or recovery, these exercise programs are usually performed in less than 30 minutes” -ACSM]. The idea is that these short but intense bursts of exercise provide sufficient stimulus to convey similar health benefits as longer duration, lower intensity training. There is a significant body of evidence (more-or-less) supporting many of these claims, showing benefits in muscle maintenance, cardiovascular health blood sugar maintenance and even endurance metrics, and it may all be accomplished in a 1-minute workout. So where’s the problem?

The problem is, that all this added intensity and subtracted time-of-activity can create a slew of potential maladaptations that most individuals can’t afford to incur. Exercise Intensity is a potent stimulus and arguable one of the most important aspects in training for health and performance. But working at such a high rate of energy demand imposes very high stress on the heart and nervous system. Without an appropriate build-up towards this type of exercise, the fatigue and potentially functional stressors can impose worrisome safety implications. The HIIT strategy is not a new concept, it’s been around for decades, if not centuries, but what the general public must understand before seeing this method as a panacea for the time-crunched individual, is that intensity works best when a foundation of structural tolerance is in place.

Secondarily, these 60s of effort (usually up to ~30mins of total activity), mean that 23.5 hours of the day, you very well might remain sedentary. And since sitting just might be the new smoking, all this puffing time provides a potentially negating effect against the short workout. The healthiest societies in the world continue to be those who are consistently active throughout the day, creating a continuous environment that favours adaptation towards healthy systemic functioning. What are we losing by limiting our activity time overall? It’s hard to say exactly, but making a lifestyle out of healthy habits is generally a stronger stimulus for change and maintenance than trying to compartmentalize our ‘healthy’ times. Does that make HIIT the enemy? Of course not. Just about any activity is better than none, and done at the right times, HIIT is a wonderful stimulus for improving health and performance. And the same argument can be made for those who believe in working predominantly in the “Sweet-Spot” of training intensities- you will certainly find quick gains in fitness, but give it 2 years, and your performance plateaus, your adaptability is limited and you’re often in that circle of ‘staleness’ that kills your training mojo.

The point is, there are no shortcuts to sustainable health and fitness.

Thinking that 30mins of exercise can replace 24 hours of healthy activity choices, or months of 1-4 hours of ‘base training’ is a very false sense of efficiency. Ultimately, if all you’re concerned about is the outcome (getting the workout done, hitting a max power, lifting a certain weight), you’re likely headed for a short-lived fitness peak, a system that falls apart under the strain on its weakest link, and a motivational blackhole.

 

Doing the work requires building a solid foundation of training, extending aerobic endurance, building anaerobic tolerance, growing neuromuscular speed & strength, mobilizing flexibility… and the list goes on. A bigger base allows for a taller pyramid; when you try to shortcut any of those elements, you leave holes in your foundation and are limiting your growth potential.

There’s no shortcut to thorough success, and time and time again, a return to fundamental principles becomes the new and exciting trend. Engaging in the process ensures you have the strong base from which to build. While time will continue to be a limited commodity that we all need to optimize, if you don’t take the time now, it just might be taken from you later.