How to Live on 24 Hours per Day

“You get into the morning train with your newspaper, and you calmly and majestically give yourself up to your newspaper. You do not hurry. You know you have at least half an hour of security in front of you. As your glance lingers idly at the advertisements of shipping and of songs on the outer pages, your air is the air of a leisured man, wealthy in time, of a man from some planet where there are a hundred and twenty-four hours a day instead of twenty-four. I am an impassioned reader of newspapers. I read five English and two French dailies, and the news-agents alone know how many weeklies, regularly. I am obliged to mention this personal fact lest I should be accused of a prejudice against newspapers when I say that I object to the reading of newspapers in the morning train. Newspapers are produced with rapidity, to be read with rapidity. There is no place in my daily programme for newspapers. I read them as I may in odd moments. But I do read them. The idea of devoting to them thirty or forty consecutive minutes of wonderful solitude (for nowhere can one more perfectly immerse one’s self in one’s self than in a compartment full of silent, withdrawn, smoking males) is to me repugnant. I cannot possibly allow you to scatter priceless pearls of time with such Oriental lavishness. You are not the Shah of time. Let me respectfully remind you that you have no more time than I have. No newspaper reading in trains! I have already “put by” about three-quarters of an hour for use.
 
Now you reach your office. And I abandon you there till six o’clock. I am aware that you have nominally an hour (often in reality an hour and a half) in the midst of the day, less than half of which time is given to eating. But I will leave you all that to spend as you choose. You may read your newspapers then.
 
I meet you again as you emerge from your office. You are pale and tired. At any rate, your wife says you are pale, and you give her to understand that you are tired. During the journey home you have been gradually working up the tired feeling. The tired feeling hangs heavy over the mighty suburbs of London like a virtuous and melancholy cloud, particularly in winter. You don’t eat immediately on your arrival home. But in about an hour or so you feel as if you could sit up and take a little nourishment. And you do. Then you smoke, seriously; you see friends; you potter; you play cards; you flirt with a book; you note that old age is creeping on; you take a stroll; you caress the piano…. By Jove! a quarter past eleven. You then devote quite forty minutes to thinking about going to bed; and it is conceivable that you are acquainted with a genuinely good whisky. At last you go to bed, exhausted by the day’s work. Six hours, probably more, have gone since you left the office—gone like a dream, gone like magic, unaccountably gone!
 
That is a fair sample case. But you say: “It’s all very well for you to talk. A man is tired. A man must see his friends. He can’t always be on the stretch.” Just so. But when you arrange to go to the theatre (especially with a pretty woman) what happens? You rush to the suburbs; you spare no toil to make yourself glorious in fine raiment; you rush back to town in another train; you keep yourself on the stretch for four hours, if not five; you take her home; you take yourself home. You don’t spend three-quarters of an hour in “thinking about” going to bed. You go. Friends and fatigue have equally been forgotten, and the evening has seemed so exquisitely long (or perhaps too short)! And do you remember that time when you were persuaded to sing in the chorus of the amateur operatic society, and slaved two hours every other night for three months? Can you deny that when you have something definite to look forward to at eventide, something that is to employ all your energy—the thought of that something gives a glow and a more intense vitality to the whole day?
 
What I suggest is that at six o’clock you look facts in the face and admit that you are not tired (because you are not, you know), and that you arrange your evening so that it is not cut in the middle by a meal. By so doing you will have a clear expanse of at least three hours. I do not suggest that you should employ three hours every night of your life in using up your mental energy. But I do suggest that you might, for a commencement, employ an hour and a half every other evening in some important and consecutive cultivation of the mind. You will still be left with three evenings for friends, bridge, tennis, domestic scenes, odd reading, pipes, gardening, pottering, and prize competitions. You will still have the terrific wealth of forty-five hours between 2 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Monday. If you persevere you will soon want to pass four evenings, and perhaps five, in some sustained endeavour to be genuinely alive. And you will fall out of that habit of muttering to yourself at 11.15 p.m., “Time to be thinking about going to bed.” The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes before he opens his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not living.
 
But remember, at the start, those ninety nocturnal minutes thrice a week must be the most important minutes in the ten thousand and eighty. They must be sacred, quite as sacred as a dramatic rehearsal or a tennis match. Instead of saying, “Sorry I can’t see you, old chap, but I have to run off to the tennis club,” you must say, “…but I have to work.” This, I admit, is intensely difficult to say. Tennis is so much more urgent than the immortal soul.”
 
-- Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 Hours Per Day, 1910, courtesy of Sebastian Marshall, The Strategic Review

Strength and Conditioning Periodisation

A Simple Block Periodisation Scheme for the Recreational Martial Artist

• Two support themes - strength and conditioning

• Three blocks for strength - base, strength & power, high intensity

• Two blocks for conditioning - base, high intensity

• Each block is eight weeks (can be flexed 6 to 10 to accommodate natural boundaries such as holidays, or event tapering)

• For both themes, high intensity blocks are done no more frequently than on a 1:2 basis.  Eg. two base strength blocks followed by one high intensity strength block.

• One strength block and one conditioning block run consecutively, but high intensity strength and conditioning blocks are never done at the same time.

• The ‘eight weeks out’ block prior to an event is a strength & power/ high intensity conditioning block with a two week taper

• High intensity strength is done only in the ‘off season’

• Bi-weekly sparring and technical drill sessions are assumed to be continuous, with higher intensity in the pre-event block

• One ‘active recovery’ back-off week between each block

• High intensity strength and the conditioning blocks are broken into two phases of four weeks each

Base strength

Two strength sessions per week, trained as ‘3 sets across’, eg:

1. Deadlift 1x5, press 3x5, chins 3x6-12 across.
2. Squat 3x5, bench press 3x5, high pull 3x5

For older/more experienced lifters, weight is not added every workout, but is added if the 3 sets become ‘comfortable’ (at least a rep in the tank).

Strength & Power

The same as base strength, except that every other week the deadlift and the press in workout (1) are replaced by power clean & push jerk, 7-10 singles.

High Intensity Strength

First Phase (four weeks)

• One base strength and one HIT workout each week:

• Base - Squat 3x5 across, press 3x5 across

• HIT - one set to failure at 6-12 reps of each of press, chins, bench press, high pull, dips, squats

Second Phase (up to four weeks)

Two HIT workouts (as in the first phase) per week.  On the second workout each week, the press and chins are taken to ‘super failure’ (partial reps, fought negative, cheat reps)   Workouts can be stretched to once every five days if recovery is a problem.

Base conditioning

First phase (four weeks)

One or two low intensity distance runs (45 to 75 minutes) per week

Second phase

One distance run and one shorter ‘threshold’ run at higher pace (say 5km).  The second run can be replaced by a hill run or tempo intervals.

High intensity conditioning

First phase (four weeks)

• One steady state run and one high intensity interval workout per week

• Steady state run 5km to 10km

• High intensity intervals on (ergometer) rowing machine at 40 seconds of maximum power output followed by 3 to 4 minutes of rest, for 4 to 12 reps (add one rep each week throughout the entire block).

Second phase (up to four weeks)

One high intensity interval workout per week (as above), plus one twenty minute AMRAP (as many rounds/reps as possible), done with combinations of one to three of:

• Dumbbell swings   
• Dumbbell snatch
• Box/bench jumps
• Press ups
• Drop chins
• Air squats
• Burpees
• Lunges

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"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."

- Thomas Henry Huxley

Notes on conditioning for HEMA fencing

Introduction

The starting point is that HEMA sparring (and drilling) is a form of conditioning in its own right.  This has two implications:

1. Impact on the ‘economics of conditioning’ - two hard drilling and sparring sessions a week (say) is equivalent to two hard conditioning sessions.  They will take a toll and have to be factored into any broader conditioning schedule.

2. Supplementary conditioning work  is best directed to the adaptations which will benefit fencing performance, but which are not in and of themselves driven effectively by fencing practice.

Almost all individual engagements are over within a few seconds.  That means that the primary energy system that fuels sparring is the phosphate or ‘alactic’ mechanism.  However, in the intervals between engagements (and between rounds) it is the oxidative or ‘aerobic’ mechanism that is working to clear waste by-products and replenish the stores of substrates which are used as fuel for explosive flurries.  The main job of the aerobic system is to drive this (partial) recovery, rather than to supply adenosine triphosphate directly (although it does do this, and since the muscles can store a couple of seconds worth, this can be important later in the fight).

The glycolytic or ‘lactic’ anaerobic mechanism which fuels maximal efforts longer than ten seconds or so  almost never becomes dominant, except in very extended grapples or in very long and intense rounds where the lactate threshold is breached.  

Power and rate of force development in an individual flurry is a function of strength and the ability to apply it quickly.  The former is a function of the contractile properties of fast twitch muscle fibres, while the latter is a function of the effectiveness of the nervous system in activating them.

Strength and speed

All things being equal, improvement in strength will be the single biggest contributor to improved engagement speed and force.   ‘All things being equal’ means that this is done without detriment to nervous system effectiveness (think of an Olympic weightlifter versus a bodybuilder) and without acquiring excessive mass which in extremis causes a loss of speed and, more significantly, a deterioration in endurance resulting from the increased weight of the limbs and the aerobic ‘cost’ of supplying the bigger fast twitch musculature (think of a heavyweight versus a flyweight boxer).  In the absence of a sustained programme of synthetic hormone administration, the latter consideration can safely be ignored.  The former is addressed in the training method.

Strength development also has an indirect effect on muscular endurance simply by making sword-swinging easier in relative terms.  Simplistically - doubling shoulder and arm strength will effectively halve the perceived weight of the weapon.  

Because increase in musculoskeletal strength can only be achieved by moving against a progressive increase in like-for-like resistance, it is not possible to drive this adaptation beyond a very basic level by drilling and sparring, and therefore an appropriate and progressive programme of strength training is probably the single most useful supplementary discipline for HEMA sparring and competition.

Although the details of programming will be trickier for a non-beginner and for an, ahem, older athlete, particularly given the other demands on the HEMA practitioner's energy, there is a general consensus (borne out by experience) that free weight (barbell) training based around a small number of fundamental compound exercises - notably barbell squat, overhead press or push press,  weighted chin up or pull up, bench press and some form of deadlift - is likely to be the most efficient and effective in developing strength for general athletic performance, although there is certainly a learning curve.  There is also no particular need to make specific accommodations for HEMA as such: basic strength training is general, not sport-specific, in character.

Strength development is best accomplished by lifting for multiple sets of relatively low numbers of repetitions (five or less), after adequate warm up, and with plenty of rest between efforts (around five minutes for the heavy, working sets).  Among other things, this also means that the alactic-phosphate mechanism is the principal energy system being stressed.

What is less clear is whether there are significant benefits to training neuromuscular effectiveness (the ability to deliver force as quickly as possible) over and above what is trained in drilling and sparring.  However, lifting weights as explosively as possible, especially in the lighter ‘warm up’ sets, may well drive useful adaptation (or at least prevent maladaptation), and some strength training programmes (such as ‘Westside’) make explicit and deliberate use of ‘dynamic’ lifting as a contributor to strength as well as broader athletic performance.  On the other hand, given the need to economise on training effort,  it may be that the benefits of introducing specific, additional  ‘speed lifts’, such as the power clean and push jerk, would be outweighed by the costs in time and energy.

The programming of strength work (volume, frequency, loading method) will depend on the level of experience of the lifters, their age, and their other training priorities and demands.

Aerobic base and endurance

Potential aerobic adaptations are more complex:

1. Cardiac output (stroke volume).
2. Cardiac power (heart muscle strength and endurance).
3. Lactate threshold
4. Muscle endurance (oxidative capacity of local fast twitch fibres)

Of the four, cardiac output is likely to be least improved by drilling and sparring.  Stroke volume is improved by increasing the capacity of the left heart ventricle (‘eccentric cardiac hypertrophy’).  This adaptation is driven by maintaining a heart rate in the 130 to 150 beats per minute region steadily for an extended period of time, preferably an hour or more [Jamieson (2009)].  There are various ways to do this, the traditional one being the ‘long slow distance’ run used famously by boxers.  This is probably not the safest choice (because of potential repetitive impact damage), but it does the trick.

Whether or not cardiac output is a limiting factor may be best indicated (and easiest measured) by resting heart rate [ibid].  Broadly, if resting heart rate is already comfortably below 60 bpm, low intensity steady state work is unlikely to be the most effective use of training time.  If resting heart rate is well into the 60’s or higher, the performance returns on time spent improving aerobic capacity are likely to be significant, and very noticeable in sparring.  Major improvement is achievable in a few weeks of LISS work, once or twice per week, without much if any adverse impact on other training (sustained higher volumes of this type of training are thought to be potentially detrimental both to strength and to speed).

Cardiac power is improvable by various forms of high intensity interval training (such as hill sprints).   Lactate threshold is potentially pushed up by working at a level of ‘sustainable discomfort’ (in the absence of an accurate assessment of the anaerobic threshold heart rate) in blocks of several minutes.  Both of these conditions are potentially simulated to a greater or lesser degree in drilling and sparring, and this needs to be borne in mind when planning any supplemental training.  These methods may also interfere with progressive strength training in the absence of adequate recovery.

Finally, specific, fast twitch muscle endurance (basically, improving the oxidative uptake of the working muscle through such adaptations as increased mitochondrial density) is also likely to be driven in part by prolonged sword swinging.  More generally, endurance is built effectively by resistance training in sets of relatively high repetitions (8 to 15 or so) with short rest intervals (forty seconds or less), inducing local muscular hypoxia but without excessively driving competing glycolytic adaptations.  To prevent interference with other training, this kind of thing can be efficiently tagged onto the end of a strength training session.  In HEMA fencing the key areas are the muscles around the shoulder joints and, to a lesser degree, the thighs.

Programming

The broad hierarchy of priorities that underpins any training programme is:

1. Skill acquisition and development - getting to class (and solo practice).
2. Strength
3. Aerobic capacity (output)
4. Aerobic power, lactate threshold and muscular endurance.

How these priorities are programmed for will depend on the level of development they already enjoy, the degree of overlap between them, and, for some, the need to peak for a competition. In general, moving down the hierarchy the adaptations become quicker to acquire (but often quicker to lose).

A relative (and relatively young) beginner to strength training will typically train two or three days per week using an appropriate and straightforward protocol.   An older athlete, or one nearer the top of their personal strength curve will typically programme a lower volume of lifting, with a less frequent exercise frequency (squatting once or twice a week rather than three times, for example) and with a slower and more complex rate of progression.  There may be exceptions to the rule about lifting less frequently where lighter/faster  lifting is done on some days (e.g. Texas Method, Westside), but other uses of that training time also need to be considered.

The need for supplementary  aerobic base work will need to be assessed and programmed appropriately.

An example of a general  training format  might be:

Saturday - Fencing, or high intensity interval training if fencing has to be missed

Sunday - Rest

Monday - Weight-training (squat, bench press, weighted chin ups. ancillary)

Tuesday - Aerobic base (LISS or threshold training, depending on assessed need)

Wednesday - Fencing, or high intensity interval training if fencing has to be missed

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Weight-training (overhead press, deadlifts, ancillary)

An individual with a more pressing need for aerobic base work (for example, if a couple of months out from a ‘serious’ competition) might reduce lifting to one day per week with a view to maintenance, to create space, at least for a few weeks.  An individual who is struggling with recovery from this volume of work might add a rest day, dropping aerobic base work or a strength day depending on priorities, rather than reducing intensity.   Someone with adequate conditioning from the two fencing sessions alone may prefer to divide weight-training over three days and drop the supplementary aerobic base day, at least for a time.   Some level of periodisation across strength and aerobic base programming is likely to be necessary, at least for non-beginners, for example by varying volume, intensity and frequency of lifting in a systematic way, and by cycling lower and higher intensity aerobic work over time.

Chris Bentley, February 2015

Bibliography

Bruno A. and Viada K.  So You Want to Run? Endurance Training for Strength Athletes (http://www.completehumanperformance.com/so-you-want-to-run-endurance-training-for-strength-athletes-part-1.html and http://www.completehumanperformance.com/so-you-want-to-run-part-2.html)

Burgener M. cited by Kubik B.  Dinosaur Training: Serious Training for Older Lifters (http://dinosaurtraining.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/serious-training-for-older-lifters.html)

Exrx.net  Westside Barbell Programme (www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Powerlifting/Westside.html)

Gillis J. MMA Training Bible (http://mmatrainingbible.com/)

Jamieson J. (2009) Ultimate MMA Conditioning

Krahn B. and Thibaudeau C. (2010) Thibaudeau on Ramping (http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-639)

Rippetoe M. (2013) Starting Strength, 3rd Edition

Rippetoe M. and Kilgore L. (2010) Practical Programming for Strength Training, 2nd Edition

Wendler J. (2012) 5/3/1: the Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength

Wendler J. (2012) 5/3/1 and MMA (http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/02/531-and-mma/)

Quote for the day

 "A perfect formulation of a problem is already half its solution."
David Hilbert

The Past Catches Up

I guess you could call this a nostalgia fest, of sorts.

As a kid, I used to be enthralled by a series of cheap little books that Santa used to drop down the chimney in batches every Christmas.  I knew them as 'project books'.  Here's the full catalogue:

They were published around 1970, and I still have a few sitting on a shelf.  They were a huge drain on my time back then.

They were exclusive to Woolworth and Woolco, but apparently published by the Milk Marketing Board, believe it or not:

And, with glorious hindsight, that must have been true.  This one is especially ironic: