I’m not sure if “work capacity” is the right term.
I spent my Thanksgiving helping my parents build their lake house. Despite everything I’ve been doing, there were several moments where I felt particularly out of shape.
Two stood out in particular:
while digging post holes for the deck
picking up and throwing away tile and cement board scrap at the dump
Basically I just couldn’t maintain effort for very long time doing this; I had to take several small breaks just to catch my breath and recover. My dad, who’s nearly 60 and mostly sedentary, was able to outwork me and I don’t really understand why.
What’s going on and how do I address it? I was just getting worn out so quickly.
A guy I trained, who played pro football in the Canadian Football League and who had a 500lbs bench press had twins with his girlfriend… he told me that he can barely hold the babies in his arms for 10 minutes but his girlfriend can hold them for at least an hour.
I have a theory that when you are not used to long duration mid-intensity work, if you have a lot of muscle it will actually be harder to last long… someone who trains a lot,especially with heavy weights and explosive movements is more efficient at recruiting fast-twitch fibers. My theory is that these people will fatigue much faster because they will recruit the stronger but less fatigue-resistant fibers to do the manual labor.
As strength lifters we are also used to maximally contracting the muscles every time we use them to lift something… this will obviously burn more energy when working than if you are only contracting hard enough to get the job done.
If someone wanted to become better a doing manual labor he’d have to do a lot of manual labor Or in the gym lift moderate or even light weights trying to use the smallest amount of force/contraction to get the job done… which obviously isn’t conductive to muscle growth or strength gains.
That’s interesting CT.Like LoRez I was digging fence posts,replacing them from a storm we had last week and felt kinda the same way.Didn’t make sense to me but it does now.
can this also happen if one has been using your methods of high intensity low reps suddenly start doing moderate weight with higher reps? I can front squat singles,triples to 5 reps … but anything over 6 reps I start huffing and puffing
That’s interesting, and that theory makes sense. It surprises me how specific the body adapts to the kinds of training thrown at it.
I don’t particularly care to be better at manual labor… but I do have a snowshoeing outing coming up in about a month. I’d like to be a little more conditioned for that. I don’t know exactly where I stand right now, but I know it could be improved.
Do you think something like HIIT on an indoor rowing machine would work well to increase work capacity while still maintaining the explosive fast-twitch-based movement patterns? Basically explode on the pull, then recover… and then use a protocol like 30-30 to improve aerobic capacity?
Or is this something better served with complexes or another method?
I realize that I’m sort of asking to serve two masters here. I’m really looking for some improvement endurance-wise without doing too much to hurt the neurological improvements made from a strength and muscle-building standpoint. Not totally sure how to go about doing that. (I used to be a distance runner, so I’m pretty sure the “obvious” answer to me is completely wrong.)
[quote]LoRez wrote:
That’s interesting, and that theory makes sense. It surprises me how specific the body adapts to the kinds of training thrown at it.
I don’t particularly care to be better at manual labor… but I do have a snowshoeing outing coming up in about a month. I’d like to be a little more conditioned for that. I don’t know exactly where I stand right now, but I know it could be improved.
Do you think something like HIIT on an indoor rowing machine would work well to increase work capacity while still maintaining the explosive fast-twitch-based movement patterns? Basically explode on the pull, then recover… and then use a protocol like 30-30 to improve aerobic capacity?
Or is this something better served with complexes or another method?
I realize that I’m sort of asking to serve two masters here. I’m really looking for some improvement endurance-wise without doing too much to hurt the neurological improvements made from a strength and muscle-building standpoint. Not totally sure how to go about doing that. (I used to be a distance runner, so I’m pretty sure the “obvious” answer to me is completely wrong.)[/quote]
[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Yep try this for the rower once or twice week…
Thanks for the pointer to that article. I saw it when it came out, but had forgotten what the options were.
I’m working on the 30-30s, 30 on, 30 off, except I’m just doing it about 50% for the offs (basically Billat but for a rower). I’ve only been doing 8 intervals right now. Goal is 2-3x a week.
Try some cardiac output work. It will do wonders for your gneral fitness and overall health. 20-45 min of work with your heart rate between 120 and 140. You can do anything as long as your heart rate is in that range. You could do walking, jogging, rower, weight circuits, bodyweight circuits, med ball throws, jumps, kettlebells, anything as long as you stay within that heat rate range. 3-5 times a week works well.
Most people are lacking cardiac fitness and if you are having problems with moderate intensity tasks this should help a lot and doing manual labor will be a breeze.
Or in the gym lift moderate or even light weights trying to use the smallest amount of force/contraction to get the job done… which obviously isn’t conductive to muscle growth or strength gains.