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The Drill Sergeant looked down at me with darkened eyes under his round brown hat—a symbol of terror to all those who lived under its reign. I think I deserved what he said. I wasn’t broken anymore and I wanted to get better.
For most people, Army Basic Training takes about 10 weeks with in and out processing included. It took me about 20 weeks. Not what I had hoped but what doesn’t kill you, right?
I was into my third week of Basic when I entered the pugil stick arena. I thought I was light on my feet as I lunged forward and back against a heavier opponent, but I was wrong. During one of my marvelous back shuffles, my right ankle burrowed into the loose sand while my body weight continued backward – down and over my stuck foot. Crack, crack! I heard and felt two distinct pops in my ankle.
In minutes it hurt so badly I couldn’t walk on it. I kept my boot on and that helped. I was sent to the ER where I waited for hours just to be seen. Prognosis: broken fibula. Prescription: spend five days in a soft “bulky cast” and re-evaluate.
I spent the next five days in a haze of painkillers. The bone was broken clean through so each time I moved excruciating pain ensued. The doctor kept me in this soft cast to see if the bones separated or stayed together. This reasoning didn’t help me when I was required to get out of bed every morning and afternoon to crutch to the dining facility to eat.
I was put in a cast after those five days and remained in a Basic Training environment for the duration of my recovery. Every morning I woke up at 5:00 am, bounced around my bunk as I tucked in hospital corners and then lurched off to formation. I approximated the position of attention the best I could, recited the Soldier’s Creed and waited to salute the flag. My ankle throbbed.
Not having time for health and fitness is no longer an option.
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After battling off the blues, exercising as much as possible, and sticking with other Soldiers who were motivated to leave quickly, I was free from my cast. And it only took me six weeks. Then I realized how weak my leg had become and how slow I was at running. I ran two miles in 17 minutes. I needed 15 minutes to escape the purgatory. It was crucial for me to get faster and to do it quickly.
That’s when the Drill Sergeant looked down at me and said this: “If you want to get faster on your two-mile run, do sprints. I don’t know why it works, but it works and works fast.”
At the time I didn’t understand the power behind his advice but I did heed it.
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That was in 2004. Less than a year later, Dr. Martin Gibala published a study on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in the Journal of Applied Physiology which described why it works so well. For years, many Olympic athletes have been using interval training to get world record breaking results. In 1952, Roger Bannister used sprints to run a mile in under four minutes—a barrier most thought unbreakable.
Interval training techniques can be traced back as far as 1912 when a Finnish runner won three gold medals. Another Finnish runner, in 1924, won nine gold medals—his training regime of choice was intervals. There are many examples, but the point is using HIIT is not new and it’s been proven in practice.
Now it is proven in science. After Dr. Gibala released his studies showing that you could get the same fitness results from HIIT in only 30% of the time, A.J. Jacobs wrote in Esquire, “HIIT could be the biggest time-saver since microwaves.”
Thirty minutes of HIIT training a week created the same fitness results as 150 minutes a week of traditional aerobic exercise. And those 30 minutes includes all the warm up and rest periods. You can do the math. Not having time for health and fitness is no longer an option. In as little as 10 minutes three times a week, you can get fitter.
Dr. Martin Gibala just released a book, The One Minute Workout: Science Shows a Way to Get Fit That’s Smarter, Faster, Shorter, in which he breaks down the science so that even I can understand it. What that Drill Sergeant knew from experience we now know from science.
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So what? Why does any of this matter? I dropped my run time from 17 minutes to 15 minutes in a matter of weeks which allowed me to escape terrible circumstances. Dr. Gibala has shown that as little as one minute of intense effort can create fitness gains for anyone which can help improve negative health trends. I needed to escape. Do you or someone you know need to escape poor fitness and bad health?
You no longer need to spend an hour pedaling on a stationary bike or running for 45 minutes. If you are pressed for time, like most of us are, then get the same benefits from using HIIT techniques in less than half the time.
Please feel free to comment below with any questions or skepticism you may have. Also, I highly recommend you learn more by checking out Dr. Gibala’s research or his new book.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images