Kandace Power Graves talks with Ryan Hall,
a certified exercise specialist and owner of One To One Personal Training and
Clinical Exercise (735 Octavia St., 891-5121), about Superslow, a strength-building
exercise protocol that only requires a 30-minute, high-intensity workout a week.
Q: What is the Superslow system?
A: The underlying philosophy is based around
high-intensity training. In order to get results from exercise, you have to
balance stimulus and recovery. Exercise is a stimulus, and when you exercise,
you basically cause some type of tissue damage. Your body does not develop during
exercise; it develops in response to that damage, during recovery. The results
you will get from exercise are directly proportional to the intensity of that
stimulus: the greater the intensity of the stimulus, the greater your adaptive
response will be. So what we want to do is stimulate as intensely as possible
and allow enough time for you to have completely recovered from that initial
stimulus (before working out again). Superslow is a technique consistent with
that philosophy.
Q: Can you really build muscle and lose
weight with a 30-minute workout a week?
A: Absolutely you can. It's all about progress.
It doesn't matter how many times you workout as long as you improve. What we're
trying to do is get your body to make a physiological adaptation by building
its body tissue. Exercise is a negative; it is literally damage to your body.
What we're trying to do is find the minimum amount of exercise needed to get
the maximum response, not the maximum amount of exercise your body can withstand.
Q: As a personal trainer, how do you evaluate
how much someone is able to do?
A: When people first start out, they can work
out more often, usually twice a week. After they advance and get stronger, they
will be lifting heavier weight, thus creating a greater stimulus and creating
greater tissue damage. That greater stimulus will require greater time in order
to fully recover from that deeper stimulus. Research has shown that basically
the tissue damage from exercise is synonymous with getting a wound. Your body
has an inflammatory response ... that takes several days to repair the tissue.
If you introduce another stimulus before you are fully recovered, you just cause
more tissue damage. That's called over-training.
Q: While recovering, is there maintenance
people need to do at home?
A: That's not really necessary. Although we
advocate people have an active lifestyle, you want to fully recover between
sessions. Just do what you normally do: riding bikes, playing golf, those things
are basically low intensity.
Q: When Superslow was developed, what type
of person was in mind?
A: The protocol originally was developed as
a treatment for osteoporosis (at the University of Florida in Gainesville in
1992). The reason they used the slow-training protocol was that injury to the
body is caused by excessive increases in force. When we have a greater acceleration,
we have increased force and increased injury. If we decrease the acceleration,
we decrease the force, translating into a safer protocol. It's all based on
scientific research.
Q: This is good for any age?
A: The most recent study (of the protocol)
was done by Wayne Westscott in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness,
June 2001. Under the results section he wrote, "Superslow training resulted
in about a 50 percent greater increase in strength for both men and women than
regular speed training."
Q: How quickly do people see results?
A: That's kind of a loaded question. It depends
on what your fitness status is when you start. If you're closer to your maximum
strength, results are going to come slower. If you're pretty out of shape, you'll
notice results very quickly, because you're on the steep end of the results
curve.
Q: Is the idea that if it is manageable,
people will stay with the regimen?
A: What we're trying to find is the minimum
amount of exercise to get the optimum results. Because of the requirements of
the exercise, it fits in very easily with most people's lifestyle. Anybody can
fit this into their schedule.
