SpartAcademy: Workouts
Ancient Sparta was of course, famous for its martial discipline and effectiveness.
Popularised by Frank Miller’s “300” the Spartan soldiers are nowdays associated with a 6-pack loaded, beefed up man in briefs with a red-blood cloak.
This is an image that inspires awe, and jealousy, and it is a bit counter-productive in terms of association, goal setting and personal achievement.
So the reality: Spartans where normal people that got a great deal of exercise, probably more than me and you, and quite possibly where in top physical condition since they retired at age 60 (quite a big number for a low-tech healthcare system) but, they did not necessarily looked like anabolic-beefed-up gymfolk.
Anyways, the inspiration we can draw from them is their dedication to physical exercise. No matter your body type, the achievement is not a look in the mirror, but your health. It is all about getting the right dose of physical activity every day to keep your muscles active, and send your body a message that says: “You are necessary for my survival and for my family and community survival dear body. Look what kind of work you have to do! You have to keep up because me and the others need you!”
This probably sounds ridiculous, but this is what exercise actually does. It sends a message to your body that science doesn’t exactly know the code of, but the message is this: Body, you are needed, build up. And the only way to convey this message is to work out.
After this simple but mind-blowing realisation you might be tempted to get out and start doing everything you can to remind your body to stay relevant. But here we have to remind you of the basic premise of right exercise, which is called “hormesis” or “eustress”. In a nutshell that means that you have to stress your body just enough in order to let it rebuild without being broken down beyond repair. A simple calculation would be to follow the “10% rule” in which you just get 10% beyond your comfort zone in terms of working out. Another way to think of it is the Pareto optimality of “80/20” in which 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. So to generalise a bit, a 10–20% more of what you normally do is considered effective exercise. Beyond that you fall under the concept of “diminishing returns” or even high-cortisol break-down. Along with this we should add another 80% rule, in reverse. This applies to the sets of exercise where you should never exceed the 80% of your capabilities per set. Now algorithmically we can calculate the right dose of exercise as 10–20% over total in sets of 80% of max effort.
As simple as it gets, let’s take the example of pushups (of course if it is applicable. If not, substitute this example with another exercise that is easy for you). If you can do a total of 10 pushups before you break your bones, then the pushups should be in total 12, and better split up in 2 sets of 6, or 3 sets of 4, or one set of 8 and a set of 4, adding different variants in order to facilitate progress.
Resting periods should be adjusted in a similar pattern: rest as long as needed to feel 80% refreshed. Be it 30 seconds to 5 minutes. In between days we can keep the similar pattern of working out 4 days, resting 1 day (working out not only with strength exercises but with with aerobic exercise/pilates/swimming etc)
In a series of articles we will explore different models of workouts, and through the channel discussions we will build up workouts suited to our members. Until then, try to utilise the above rules to build your own workout based on walking. Yes, walking. It is the most basic exercise and the most crucial of all. Try to be imaginative and think how you can use walking as a form of exercise and workout using the above rules. We will come with a detailed article next week to suggest out walking workout schedule so you can compare it with yours.
Until then, remember to sometimes “stop and smell the roses”!
