Fortitudine vincimus.
“Through endurance we conquer”.
(Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1912)
Endurance was not only the name of the ship on which Shackleton’s crew explored the Antarctic. It was also the primary component of fitness that they needed to survive whilst completing what are widely considered the toughest human expeditions ever to be accomplished by land and sea.
In recent years, HIIT (high intensity interval training) has received a lot of press and rightly so, you get more ‘bang for your buck’ if you only have limited time to train. Benefits include; cardiovascular conditioning, elevated metabolism and reduced health risk factors. Many of the top training methodologies today (including CrossFit) are based on the HIIT model.
HIIT workouts are quite often less than 20 minutes, as it is hard to maintain high intensities for longer than this. During high intensity bursts of physical activity, the body can’t supply oxygen fast enough to break down carbohydrate and fat. Consequently, the anaerobic systems (ATP system, ATP-PC system, Lactic acid system) are required to release energy stored in the muscles and liver.
It would be a mistake, however, to overlook the importance of endurance (both muscular and cardiovascular) and the ability to work at low and moderate intensities over longer durations. Indeed, this has been a crucial physical attribute for the human race for thousands of years. Granted, the ‘big shop’ doesn’t require quite as much endurance as hunting, or working the land to put food on the table.
There is a direct relationship between the intensity / duration of exercise and the fuel used to provide energy. Whilst at rest, or engaging in low-moderate intensity activities the majority of energy for the body is provided aerobically via the breakdown of carbohydrates and fat stores. Generally speaking, the longer the duration of physical activity, the greater reliance on fat as a fuel source.
Therefore, supplementing high intensity training sessions with lower intensity / longer duration physical activities can be beneficial, not only as a means of training different energy systems, but also as a means of reducing unwanted body fat.
Starting Thursday 21st April, The CrossFit Leyland Endurance class will return to 60 mins, rather than the current 45 min slots. We will also be adding in a morning endurance class;
Every Thursday
9:30 – 10:30 am – Endurance
5:30 – 6:30 pm – Endurance
Unlike the CrossFit classes, in which you work as fast as possible, the emphasis of the endurance class will be to pick a pace that you can maintain for workouts up to 60 minutes in duration!
If you’re looking to improve your engine, or maybe shift a bit of holiday weight, then this would be a good class to attend!
Hopefully see many of you there on Thursday.
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