I Should Follow My Own Advice

You know, it’s always funny when I fall prey to one of the common pitfalls I advise people to avoid when it come to health and fitness.  Happens to the best of us, folks.  This time, it was over-training.

Specifically, taking on too much too fast.  I’ve been focusing on pushing the surge training component of my cardio exercise, and I pushed it too far too fast.

Surge training, by the way, is basically intermittent sprinting.  It doesn’t have to be done with running- you can apply the basic principles to biking, swimming, any cardio- but the basic idea is, you sprint like crazy for about 60 seconds, then slow down for a bit, then sprint again, then slow down for a bit, and so on and so forth.

It’s a great way to boost your growth hormone levels.  More than that, it keeps people like me, with too much ADHD for just running along forever at a regular pace, amused long enough to get me through an intense cardio workout.

HOWEVER.  As I always tell people, the down-side to intensity, is risk.  Risk of injury, to be specific.  The more intense you go, the more results you’ll get… but the more likely you are to injure yourself .  So, really, you have to ramp up to intensity, to try to avoid injury.

My ramp was a little too steep.  So, now I’m nursing a minor soleus (deep calf muscle) pull.  Oh, well.  It’s rather minor and will only translate to a week or so off from running- which will give me a good excuse to get on the rowing machine and in the pool.  Cross-training is a great way to deal with injuries.

So, take care out there, my friends!  Overall, consistency is more important than intensity, so don’t think you have to kill yourself to get ahead.