👋 Hey. Welcome to issue #111 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4 min read):
🌬️ The warm-up to boost cardio performance
Sometimes I come across a study that forces an audible "woah" out my mouth.
I'm probably subconsciously looking for a reaction from my partner who has her earphones in eating breakfast.
I keep reading.
"Holy sh*t".
Still no reaction.
"Oi, listen to this..."
Finally, some attention.
This study was one of those moments.
Researchers thought that doing different breath hold protocols before activity might improve aerobic performance.
So they got a handful of elite rugby players and put them through different warm-ups. Including:
- 🌬️ A regular breathing warm-up
- 🚴 "Dynamic dry breath holds" (holding breath while pedalling a stationary bike)
- 💨 And three other breath hold protocols
Dynamic dry breath holds were the clear winner. Significantly improving a range of indicators of aerobic performance:
- 🫁 VO2 peak (highest level of oxygen consumption recorded)
- ❤️ Peak stroke volume
- 🩸 Red blood cell count
- ⚖️ Hematocrit (ratio of red blood to total blood)
"Significantly" as in about a 30% increase in VO2 Peak vs regular breathing!
In lay terms: a massive difference (see brown bar in graph below).
It's a small study. On a specific population. And obviously, more research is needed.
But if you want to see if dong breath holds in your warm-up improve your performance, here's the protocol they used in the study:
- 🚴 Pedal (or jog or whatever you're doing) at a comfortable pace
- 🫁 Hold your breath until you feel a "strong urge to breathe"
- 😮💨 Release and breathe normally for 30 seconds
- 🔁 Repeat another 5 times (for a total of 6 breath holds)
Powerful tool the old breath.
🎙️ Podcast: Rest and recovery with Dr Mike
Dr Mike Israetel is a bodybuilder and an exercise science wizard.
He's a bit rare.
But smart as hell.
This podcast he did on rest and recovery is a great reminder for the type A's of us out there who struggle to relax.
He reckons if you're training hard, recovery is almost always about doing less than more.
As in, "what should I be doing for recovery?"
And actually resting on rest days.
Which includes mental rest as much as physical rest.
Something I've struggled with in the past...
Trynna make every minute productive. Zero brain downtime.
But I've learned creating this downtime is productive. Because it makes me more energised and effective in the long run.
Israetel describes psychological rest as stuff you find relaxing, enjoyable and stress-free.
Tech-free walks throughout the week, sauna, sunday arvo footy, and quality fiancée time work for me. But I know that's not everyone's cup of tea. (How's the poetry on the bloke).
Pair it with the physical recovery checklist and you'll be laughing.
Link to podcast here.
Admittedly, half of it is two guys talking sh*t.
But the other half is good stuff.
🚴 Tabata training: a time-efficient & effective cardio option
Last week we talked about sprint interval training (SIT)—an alternative to HIIT.
Both are super effective ways to improve aerobic and anaerobic fitness.
Both typically take around 10-40 minutes to knock out a session.
Enter, Tabata.
Tabata is a specific HIIT protocol originally developed for cyclists.
Tabata training is a 20-second effort, 10-second rest, repeated 8 times.
For a total of 4 minutes work.
A giant review compared Tabata to HIIT and SIT. Finding comparable improvements to:
- Maximum oxygen uptake or VO2 max (a measure of aerobic fitness)
- Maximum accumulated oxygen deficit (a measure of anaerobic fitness)
In as little as four weeks (when done 2x weekly).
So it gets you really fit, really quick.
And — what I love — in a fraction of the time of a HIIT or SIT session.
But when we decrease the time, we increase the pain.
See, doing Tabata training correctly requires sticking to one painful, yet important rule:
Pace should be “near maximal” (described in the research as the pace you can hold for a 50-second max effort)...
Where you're exhausted by the 7-8 rep.
i.e. you should be close to passing away at the 3min:30sec mark.
If that sounds fun, throw it in the mixer.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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The Everyday Athlete Newsletter is not a licensed health service and is not a substitute for professional health advice, treatment or assessment. The information given in this email is general in nature, written for a specific audience. If you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional.
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