fitness

SCKLM 2019: 10 KM Leisure

October 3, 2019 by figur8 Leave a Comment

On Sunday 29 September, I ran in the Standard Chartered KL Marathon (SCKLM). This year I was in the leisure category – no stress, just take it easy. I did the same race last year (nearly 18 months ago) and I thought it would be a great opportunity for a progress report since the course and distance was exactly the same.

My time last year:

My time this year:

Looks like I’ve managed to shave off my run time by about 4 minutes after nearly 18 months of additional training. That’s really not too bad. Well, I can’t say I’m complaining.

I must confess that I had a little more incentive to run faster this year. I was trying to catch up to my friend who started half an hour before me. She said she would walk and she kept texting me photos of the markers she passed. Would I have finished as quickly if I wasn’t trying to catch up to her? Possibly. I definitely pushed harder than I would normally run but it was good to see that I can pick up the pace and keep it up.

Oddly enough, my Garmin record shows somewhat different timings. It recorded the race distance as 11.1 km and my run time records improved for both 5 km and 10 km distances:

5 KM – 26:27 vs 30:08
10 KM – 1:01:16 vs 1:08:55 (previously my fastest 10 KM) vs 1:10:27 (my Garmin 10 KM record for SCKLM2018)

According to Garmin, I made an improvement of 9 minutes over last year’s run. Following that recording, I have nearly reached Sub 60 for a 10 KM run! Gosh, I do like the sound of that… Anyway, regardless of which stats I follow, it’s still progress!

Run Analysis

I increased the tempo this year and felt pretty good for most of the way. Instead of the 2:1 run/walk rhythm I used last year, I was able to keep up a 5:1 run/walk rhythm. My knees gave me trouble somewhere around the last two kilometer mark when I had to tackle the decline near KL Bird Park / Masjib Negara. They were okay at a slow jog, but I felt left knee pains after I reached the finish line. I couldn’t bend it and had to limp for a while. Luckily, it didn’t last too long and I was okay to walk normally by the time we were ready to head home.

Gear, Water, and Food

After running a Spartan Beast, I have to say that I felt quite relaxed facing a 10 KM run. Breakfast was the usual peanut butter and two slices of bread, a banana, and a coffee (two sugars, half milk). I only packed water and didn’t even stop at any of the water stations.

No knee guards this year, but I ran with the 2XU MCS compression tights I bought recently from Australia. Did they help? Well, I still had knee issues towards the end of the race so I can’t say they were fantastic. However, considering that I ran without knee guards, trouble-free for most of the way, they definitely did help.

2XU advocates wearing compression for recovery. Could I extrapolate that to suggest that continuing to wear the compression tights on after the run helped my knee? If I had taken them off, would my knee have continued to hurt? Now there’s food for thought…

The One Year Review

May 4, 2019 by figur8 Leave a Comment

It is now a little over a year since I “lost weight” for my Spartan Journey and I thought it would be a good time to review my progress. Change is not change unless it can be maintained for a significant period of time so this is where I stand a year later.

Before and After

Let’s start with the before and after picture: left – taken recently in Ipoh; right – taken last year at the Spartan Sprint in Semenyih. No significant changes since the goal has been maintenance rather than further weight loss.

Ipoh Girls Trip - Jungle Babes April 2019

Workouts and Physical Activity

My current workouts include a combination of the following, five times a week. I’ve mostly dropped the back-to-back classes now because it’s been extremely hard on the body and I feel the fatigue impacting my overall performance.

Flycycle aka spinning class
Tribe Boxing
Cirque Fit – circuit training
Pilates Reformer at Zenith
Flyclimb
2 on 1 Personal Training sessions with Fitness Achievers (I’ll write more about this soon)
Running – in the gym or outdoors (not so frequently of late, though)
Hiking/Walking
Indoor rowing

Diet and Food Consumption

I still eat recklessly, although I try to keep my indulging days to the ones where I actually workout. On the days I don’t workout, I try to be better behaved. I frequently enjoy my chocolates, ice cream, cakes, and, well, dessert in general (I eat one or more of these on a daily basis). The food fest during our recent trip to Gua Tempurung/Ipoh was a tad excessive but nothing I haven’t done on the occasional basis.

Body Stats

My weight hovers around 59kg – plus or minus. It has not changed since last April, which is good since the goal has been maintenance and I have been successful for a year now. Unfortunately, I still unable to claim a six pack and my bat wings have not gone. I suspect that if I could be more disciplined with my eating habits, I might actually have some abs to show off. But…

A long time ago, I listened to an interview with Supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista. When asked if they ever cheated with their diets, Claudia replied that she would allow herself a piece of chocolate once a week and Linda said she might have a chip. I don’t really care for chips, but you can slit my wrists before I’ll ever agree to one piece of chocolate a week.

So, yeah, I’m not very hopeful about those abs. I’m still waiting for someone to devise an “eat all you want six-pack” program. Until then, I’ll settle for a little more upper body strength so I can finally nail one upper body Spartan obstacle.

Since training with Fitness Achievers, I have more detailed body stats now. It’s a pity I don’t have anything from one year ago to see how far I’ve come in a year, but I do have some stats from over the last four months.

The interesting point to note was that while my weight has gone up, the fats have gone down and the muscles have increased. So there you go, it is true when they say that muscle weighs more than fat. We ought to focus more on the physical changes in our bodies rather than the number on the weighing scale.

Okay, so the changes are not particularly significant, but the numbers are moving in the right direction. When you consider the fact that I’ve enjoyed more than my fair share of junk food along the way, I’d say that this is a huge win. If I can continue to see this trend and keep eating the way I do, I shall be very happy.

Heart Rates – When You Really Should Be Worried

March 18, 2019 by figur8 Leave a Comment

Since writing my last post on “Heart Rates and Other Measures of Fitness“, I stumbled on an old article which challenges the Maximum Heart Rate Theory from The New York Times. I was re-reading an old post I wrote about my early flycycle experiences just to see how far I’ve come and noticed that I had a link to this article.

I don’t even remember reading it but boy did it have some great insights! Finally! Some real evidence to challenge the Maximum Heart Rate formula (220 minus your age). It turns out that the formula was devised on the fly based on limited data that was potentially flawed and not representative of the general population. The formula was never intended to be a prescription for the general public, but such was the desire for an easy way to determine how hard we should work out that it fell into mainstream use.

In my previous post on Heart Rates, I talked about #FMR’s slow and steady heart (where his heart pushes out large volumes each time it contracts) versus my hummingbird heart (which contracts at a faster rate but squeezes out less blood each time). I thought then that it had something to do with my lack of exercise in my youth, but it seems that even professional athletes can have hummingbird hearts.

So pushing my heart rate up over 200 bpm is not an indication that I am endangering myself. If I kick the bucket, it won’t be because of that. What is an indicator of danger is how quickly your heart rate falls when exercise is stopped. According to Dr. Michael Lauer, a cardiologist and the director of clinical research in cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation:

An average healthy person’s heart rate drops about 20 beats in a minute.
The rates of athletes can drop by as much as 50 beats in a minute.
In his studies, people whose rates fell less than 12 beats within a minute after they stopped exercising vigorously had a fourfold increased risk of dying in the next six years compared with those whose heart rates dropped by 13 or more beats.

So the stats that I should really be paying attention to is the heart rate taper at the end of a workout. As long as I’m dropping by more than 13 beats in the minute, I’m good!

Out of curiosity, I did an impromptu test in the gym when I took G1 for his run. I did six rounds of slow/moderate/fast runs, then checked how quickly my heart rate dropped. It was most consistently about 23 beats.

There were some limitations in this test, though. Firstly, I wasn’t wearing a heart strap and the Garmin watch measure against my wrist has proven to be inaccurate in the past. Secondly, I didn’t run for very long – each round was only 6 minutes long. If I had done 10 minutes or 20 minutes, would my heart rate drop less? Thirdly, I didn’t come to a complete stop after each sprint. I only slowed the treadmill to a walk. Would my heart rate have dropped more if I had stopped? Finally, it wasn’t a full minute because the machine take several seconds to slow down, during which time, my heart is still being taxed.

After that little gym test, it finally dawned on me that I had all the stats I needed from my Garmin! The image below was taken from today’s flycycle workout. My heart rate at the end of the workout – which isn’t marked, but you can see its peak – was 207 bpm. After a minute, it dropped to 184 bpm. That’s 23 beats. I guess my little gym test wasn’t too far off after all.

Heart rate taper — Flycycle Stats from 18 March 2019

Since I have all my workout stats from the last two years, I could go back and check if there has been an improvement in how quickly my heart rate drops after a workout! It’s getting late so I’ll have to save that job for another day.

Come Join the Cirque

March 15, 2019 by figur8 Leave a Comment

This post is a little overdue, but better late than never.

In the last quarter of 2018, a new workout gym, called Cirque, opened in our territory. Naturally, we had to go check it out…

Cirque is a 50 minute circuit workout that incorporates HIIT/burst training and functional training. Depending on the class you choose, the focus will be on:

Full body
Back, Chest and Shoulders; or
Legs, Glutes and Arms

Each class is split into six segments:

warm-up
3 rounds of 4 exercises x 2 sets
finisher – usually a game (losing team pays a penalty, like burpees); and
cool down

What Sort of Exercises Do You Do?

Aside from The Workout from Hell (which I did way back in 2002), the Fitness First Spartan Workshops, and the Spartan training I did at The Playground last year, I don’t really do this kind of training. I’m not familiar with the names of many of the exercises, so I’ll just show a few of the things we did during class (there is a lot more, but I don’t have the photos).

Weighted/unweighted glute lifts:

Ball Toss – with a burpee at the bottom:

Another kind of glute lift using sliders – from a plank, slide your to feet up towards your hands so your butt is as high as possible:

Kettle Bell swing:

TRX (Total Body Resistance Exercise) – which is a suspension based exercise system that can be used in a variety of ways.

Resistance running with bands:

Pulling exercises:

Dragging a weighted bag on all fours:

Pass the medicine ball with sit-ups:

I think you get the idea. In between all these wild and sometimes wacky exercises, we also do regular the regular stuff, like burpees, ab crunches, mountain climbers, push-ups, etc. The combination of exercises change from class to class so we have never repeated the same routine twice.

For the finishers, we sometimes rode the air bike:

And/or rowed on the Concept2 Rower:

Or played a variety of games with a physical element. It might be a relay or “musical chairs” with a twist – there’s always an element of competition and fun thrown in.

What Do I Think of Cirque

It sort of reminds me of personal training but in a group – so a little bit more fun. I find the workout very hard, but extremely satisfying. Every class takes me beyond my limits and I know that this is exactly the kind of workout I need more of. I don’t love it, but I like what it does for my body.

The most amazing thing about the body is how it adapts to the things we repeatedly do. After a while, workouts that are too reiterative have a reduced effect on the body. It’s what we call “the plateau” – when growth slows. If we want our bodies to keep growing, we need to shake things up and keep the workouts varying. That is what Cirque offers – a varying workout that prevents the plateau effect.

Why Cirque?

Cirque is a fun way to practice strength training (aka resistance training or weight training) – the type of workout I often find quite tedious and boring. Especially now that I am growing older, strength training is more important than ever. Strong muscles protect joints by supporting them. They improve mobility and balance, and reduce the risk of injury. Strength training can even improve long term memory by 20%.

Strong Bones for Life

For me, the greatest motivator for incorporating more strength training into my regular workouts is osteoporosis prevention. Osteoporosis runs in families and I am at risk – my grandmother had it, and my mother is on the borderline for it. One day, when my grandmother was rushing out of the car, she slipped, fell and fractured her back. One small fall was all it took to cripple her and ruin her quality of life.

To prevent osteoporosis, we need to increase bone density. With regular exercise and a good diet, this occurs naturally up until the age of 30 when peak bone mass is attained. After 30, bone mass stops increasing. We used to believe that the only thing you could do after 30 was preventative – hang on to as much of that bone mass as possible because that’s the most you’re ever going to have.

A combination of age-related changes, inactivity, and inadequate nutrition conspire to gradually steal bone mass, at the rate of 1% per year after age 40.
Harvard Health

Thankfully, that is not true. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, revealed some promising results for increasing bone mass through resistance training. There is a write-up on Berkeley Wellness. Although the study was small (only 20 participants), it is worth noting that some of the women were post-menopausal and a few of them had osteopenia (the stage just before osteoporosis). They were the ones who benefited the most from strength training.

We should probably also make the distinction between strength training and aerobic weight-bearing exercises (like running and hiking). According to Harvard Health, strength training offers added bone benefits by targeting the bones of the hips, spine, and wrists – the places that are most likely to fracture.

The inspiration that started me looking into strength training came from Ginny MacColl, mother to American Ninja Warrior Jessie Graff. She was diagnosised with osteopenia and was able to significantly build back bone mass through strength training:

More Muscle, Higher Metabolism

The other reason for Cirque is because I like to eat. More often than not – the things I shouldn’t be eating. To avoid turning into a ball, I have to balance the calories I put into my body with the calories I burn through exercise and my body’s metabolism (the energy our bodies use up while at rest).

While we can increase energy expenditure by working out, there is only so much exercise we can do before we burn out or risk injury. The other way to increase our energy expenditure is to increase our body’s metabolism. We can do that by increasing muscle mass. Even when we’re not working out, our muscles are using energy. So the more of it we have, the more our bodies burn at rest, and the more I get to eat.

Spartan Training

Okay, so there is one more reason I do Cirque. I’m targeting a Spartan Trifecta this year and I would like to pass as many obstacles as possible. Most Spartan obstacles require strength – largely upper body. The only way I’m going to get stronger is to add more strength training sessions into my weekly workouts.

How can we increase bone mass, muscle mass, and overall strength? By going to Cirque! So there you go… my grandmother story for why Cirque…

Find Out More About Cirque

Cirque Fitness Studio is located on Level 1 at The Verve Shops in Mont Kiara.

What I’ve written about are Cirque’s 50 minute HIIT and Functional Training classes. They also offer personal training tailored to the individual as a one-on-one or one-on-two program. Contact them to find out more.

FlyClimb – the New Vertical Workout in Town

December 27, 2018 by figur8 Leave a Comment

Now this is a workout I have been waiting for ever since I discovered the existence of rock climbing treadmills. While I may no longer be a rock climber, the lure of the vertical ascent is still in my blood. I have waited with anticipation for the launch of this class and have finally been rewarded.

Flyclimb by Flyproject

FlyClimb by Flyproject is the first vertical workout of its kind in Malaysia. Utilising the VersaClimber machine, this workout boasts more calorie and fat burning than your average workout.

A class estimates a climb from 3000ft – 6500ft, and targets to burn 660 calories per 30 min class.
Flyproject

A typical class runs for 30 minutes but don’t let that deceive you. By the time you’re through, you’ll be glad the class is over. Yes, it is that hard. Even the introductory class. And I didn’t even keep up with the timing because my body just could not do it. It was like speed climbing and I only made it to 1700 ft. I don’t know if that was sweat in my eyes or tears.

What Do You Do in Class?

Speed climb, slow climb, small moves, big moves, arms only, legs only – all in different variations and to the beat of the music. Well, that’s if you can keep up with the beat of the music. There is also a resistance knob that you will increase and decrease to make it harder and easier to move.

What’s Great about FlyClimb?

Aside from the calorie and fat burn, here’s what else you’ll get from this workout:

It is a full body workout so you will work your arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, abs and butt.
There is no impact! It’s great for those if you have joint issues.
You get cardio and strength training rolled into one.
It’s short and not very sweet at all – get more bang in your workout at a fraction of the time.

A Few Hard Truths

While it is a very tough workout, I think we should be realistic about the calorie burn. Not everyone is going to burn 660 calories in a 30 minute class. There are so many variables that come into play.

How fast you’re moving: if you’re moving at half the pace of the next person, you can’t seriously expect to max out on burning calories.
How hard you’re pushing: if you’re working at a lower resistance, that’s also going to impact your final calorie count.
The heavier you are, the more calories you burn. Sorry feather weights – there are advantages for being on the weightier side.
Mechanical efficiency: different people use more or less energy to move in the same way. It’s just how efficient your muscles are when you move. This is great from a survival perspective because you conserve energy, but not so great when you want to stuff your face after a workout.

You can check out my work out stats as recorded by the Garmin Fenix 3. It was a pretty intense cardio workout, but it didn’t save me from Christmas Dinner.

Where is FlyClimb?

Unfortunately, FlyClimb is only available in the heart of KL city. To get there, you need to head over to Level 5 of The JW Marriott Hotel. While they do have some lovely facilities, it is not terribly convenient to access. Hopefully, Flyproject will open another FlyClimb branch (*cough* Mont’ Kiara *cough* *cough*).

Final Words on FlyClimb

It was hard and I was dying in there. I thought I could climb and I thought I was fit, but this workout really popped my bubble. That said, I am a glutton for punishment. I love the intensity of it and I bask in the post-workout euphoria. I know I want to go back for more.

My goal: 3000 ft.

Heart Rates and Other Measures for Fitness

November 3, 2018 by figur8 Leave a Comment

I’ve been tracking my heart rate during workouts for some time now and it has always troubled me how high it is when I work out.

When #FMR sees my heart rate stats, he gets cross with me because he thinks I’m going to have a heart attack while working out. That’s probably because he keeps reading stuff like this:

It is recommended that you exercise within 55 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate for at least 20 to 30 minutes to get the best results from aerobic exercise. The MHR (roughly calculated as 220 minus your age) is the upper limit of what your cardiovascular system can handle during physical activity. – Active

My Problem with the Recommended Maximum Heart Rate

Based on the premise above, I should be working out to a heart rate of 152 bpm if I am at 85% of my estimated Max heart rate – 161 if I push it to 90%. That’s well below the 200 mark I often record when I do Tribe Boxing or Flycycle. If I tried to stick to 152 bpm, I would hardly be working out at all!

Remember that leisure hike/photoshoot at Sungai Pisang? I recorded a maximum heart rate of 168 walking along the river. The last time I went running with #FMR, I was at 130 bpm just walking out to the road and I hadn’t even started running!

Even if I worked out at 100% capacity, based on the standard calculation for determining maximum heart rate, that would be 179 bpm (yes, if you do the Math, I’m 41). If that really was my maximum heart rate, I should not be able to maintain it for very long before I had to slow down, according to Runner’s World:

The closer you are to your MHR (maximum heart rate) during your workouts and races, the shorter the duration of exercise that you will be able to maintain at that pace. If you can maintain a rate of 160 during your workouts and races, your MHR is well above that.

I have been running with #FMR for some time now and his heart rate looks like my leisure hike at Sungai Pisang compared to mine. The following stats are from a recent run (left: mine, right: #FMR). We ran together almost the entire way, keeping the same run/walk pace until the hill at the end when he took off and I held back because my knee was hurting too much.

According to these stats, my average heart rate was higher than his max heart rate. If he hadn’t raced up the hill, his max heart rate would have been even lower.

My Thoughts on Heart Rate Capacity

I’ve been wondering about this for some time now…

How does #FMR maintain such a low heart rate?
Is there something inefficient about my heart?
What can I do to make my heart more efficient?

Based on my study of two, the following thoughts have been floating around in my head for some time now…

I’ve never been a sporty person. I didn’t really get into fitness until I was an adult. #FMR on the other hand, has been involved in sports for the bulk of his growing years. Given the massive amount of development that occurs in a growing adolescent, it’s hard not to see how all that sporting experience might affect the development of his heart and it’s capacity.

You know the saying – use it or lose it. #FMR worked out a lot in his formative years and his heart would have developed to accommodate those activities. I, on the other hand, was pretty sedentary so my heart rarely had to work very hard. It makes sense that our divergent lifestyles had opposing effects on the development of our hearts.

We know that athletes have larger hearts as a result of their intense physical demands. Is it really such a leap to suggest that physical activity in the formative years would impact the growth of the heart? Of course, there are also genetic differences that we should not over look.

While I was griping about my “crappy” heart and being envious of #FMR’s more superior one, I discovered something else. I can chug quite comfortably at 180 bpm without suffering too much for it. #FMR confessed that he would struggle to maintain that heart rate for long.

So what gives?

According to Bicycling, “Max HR is largely untrainable and determined by genetics—some of us have hearts tuned like humming birds’ while others have the slow-and-steady type.” Right. So I’m the humming bird and #FMR is the slow-and-steady type.

If not by heart rate, then how do we know when we’re working out too hard?

How Hard is Too Hard?

I’m not sure where we got this idea that the fitter you are, the lower your heart rate should be when you’re working out. I don’t even know why there is this insistence that working out at a “high” heart rate is terribly dangerous and something you should never do. How high is “high” anyway? Certainly not that arbitrary 220 minus your age rule. It’s laughable that I can bring my heart rate up to 85% of “maximum” just by walking briskly.

What do we really know? According to Cherie Miner (Sports Medicine Physician) on Bicycling:

The 220 minus your age formula is a rudimentary system—like, “might as well use an abacus as a bike computer” rudimentary. It’s been the standard for years, but there are many variables that can throw off your max HR, like how fit you are, how hot it is, and how much stress you’re under.

The whole obsession with high heart rates when exercising is linked to the idea that working out beyond your maximum heart rate could lead to a heart attack or your heart exploding. I mean, we’ve all read about that guy who dropped dead while exercising. Surely it was because he pushed himself too hard, right? Well, not quite, because there’s this thing called built-in drive called “self-preservation” and it’s a really strong instinct.

At max heart rate, most of us can only last one to two minutes. You would have to be a highly trained athlete to continue for longer. Since I can complete an entire workout at 179 bpm, it cannot be my maximum heart rate. Anyone working at maximum heart rate will find their performance declining quickly. As they put it so succinctly at Bicycling – “years of evolving to survive prevents us from actually killing ourselves”.

So how did that guy drop dead while exercising? Possibly because he had an underlying medical condition. Remember those recommendations to check with the doctor before engaging in any exercise program? That’s why.

Going from couch to 100 is probably not a good idea either. If you’ve been sedentary for a while and suddenly decide you want to get fit, jumping into the middle of the ocean and expecting to swim to the nearest shore is definitely not recommended. It’s the fastest way to injury. If you’re just starting out on the fitness journey, it is advisable to start slow and gradually build yourself up.

When do you need to be worried about your exercise heart rate? If you’ve got pre-existing heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. In both these cases, you should be seeing a doctor before you work out anyway. If you’re part of the aging population, you should also be seeing the doctor yearly for a medical check up. Making sure that everything in your body is functioning well and that you’re good to keep going as you are is always a good plan.

How Hard to Work Out

Now that we can ignore the 220 minus your age rule, it is worth noting a couple of things about working out at maximum heart rate and how hard we should be pushing:

Rather than relying on heart rate numbers, Dean Golich, head performance physiologist for Carmichael Training Systems, prefers the use of personal judgment on how hard we feel we are working out.
Max heart rate workouts should be done sparingly because the ultra-high intensity can lead to injuries, extreme fatigue, and other symptoms of over-training.
Warning signs that you’re over doing it – when you get chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, or joint pain that doesn’t go away. Other signs include falling ill frequently, consistently struggling to complete a regular workout, feeling tired and moody after the workout, craving more sugar than usual, or gaining weight even though you’re exercising a lot.

Note to self – endurance workouts from time to time are fine, but they shouldn’t be done too often. In other words, marathon, back-to-back workouts should be kept to a minimum. Additionally, you don’t always have to go hard every time because working out at different heart rate zones is beneficial in different ways.

Heart Rate Measures for Fitness

The most consistent way to determine your fitness levels using your heart rate is by checking:

Resting heart rate – this is your heart rate when you have been lying down, relaxed for 10 to 15 minutes. It can also be measure when you wake up in the morning (not with an alarm clock). Generally, fitter people have lower resting heart rates.
Recovery heart rate – how quickly your heart rate returns to normal after working out is also a good indication of your fitness level. The faster the recovery, the fitter you are.