If you haven’t heard about Intense Conditioning you should have!

I’m going to be relaunching it next year but need some more testimonials and so I’m on the hunt for some more Guinea Pigs.

I’m looking for 5 men and 5 women to start the program on Monday January 4th for 12 weeks. If you are going on holiday for a couple of weeks or are going to email me loads of excuses why you can’t do this and can’t do that, please don’t apply.

Flexibility with programming is built into Intense Conditioning but I do NOT want people who are going to email me every 5 minutes asking if they can change this and change that.

You need access to kettlebells or dumbbells and if you can get to a gym with barbell it’s useful but not necessary unless you’re strong already, and you need to not be averse to doing running intervals of 200-400m plus a nasty little test at the start.

There are rules which MUST be adhered to if you want to be eligible for the competition of winning 6 weeks fitness mentoring from me. 

The winner will get training and nutrition programming from me for 6 weeks which I usually charge £120 for.

Now given that the program is not a ‘build muscle, burn fat’ program it will not only be about who loses the most fat although if you do things properly, this will happen and fast.

The winner will be the one who I judge to have performed best doing the following:

- Improves the most in the tests (although I am aware that it’s not particularly difficult to go easy on the first test!)

- Improves their physique the most (don’t expect massive amounts of muscle gain – it’s not that kind of program although you can expect greater muscle density and minimal body fat)

- Blogs the most and keeps posting notes and links on Facebook and Twitter (there will be guidelines for this)

- Makes the biggest improvements in their attitude to training and goes through the biggest mind shift during the course of the program.

- Makes the most referrals leading to sign ups for the program (I’ll show you how you can actually easily make commissions just by creating simple links on Clickbank and sticking them in your blog posts so you actually get paid to do the program!)

- You must post front and side photos and measurements at the start of the program with the day’s (or day before) newspaper every single week.

If you are not willing to post photos on the internet which I can use for marketing purposes please do not apply to be an Intense Conditioning Guinea Pig!

There are no rules as to who can and can’t do it other than those mentioned above!

This program is not for beginners but similarly you don’t need to be a machine to do it! You will become one over 12 weeks FACT.

You will be pushed beyond what you’ve done before but all with short, intense sessions so you must be willing to work very hard.

You must also be willing to pay attention to deload weeks and technique practice days as Intense Conditioning is not about just drilling yourself into the floor but integrates strength and conditioning for all round athletic ability.

If you are not willing to treat yourself like an athlete and become more like one, then please don’t apply!

If you’re up for this and are willing to stick it out for 12 weeks, following all the rules then please post who you are and why you will make the perfect Guinea Pig below including your email address so I can contact the winners!

Let’s get it on!!!!

Jon

Here’s some evidence as to why interval training must be a regular, tough, sweat-fest of a session on your training timetable!

This really is just some of the piles of research I have next to me!

Let’s look at some answers to sceptics, aerobics fans and those who ‘don’t have time’…

But I want to improve my stamina for running / cycling etc

Gibala et al (2006) compared low volume sprint training with high volume endurance (typical of running fanatics).

Both groups performed 6 sessions over 14 days.

The HIIT group performed 4-6 x 30 second intervals @ 250% of VO2 max (very hard!) with 4 min rest inbetween.

The endurance group performed 90-120 min cycling at 65% of VO2 max (moderate).

The HIIT group did 2.5 hours of training over 2 weeks whilst the endurance group did 10.5h.

The results?

Muscle oxidative capacity improvements was similar in both groups so muscle endurance capabilities will have improved at about the same rate, but the HIIT group spent 8 hours less doing it over 2 weeks!

Aerobic exercise burns fat so it’s better for fat burning

5 well trained distance runners were tested at each of the following:

2 hours @ 24% of VO2 max (low intensity)
10 minutes @ 81% of VO2 max (relatively high intensity but continuous)
2 minutes on 2 minutes off @ 89% of VO2 max (high intensity intervals)

(Brockman et al, 1993)

After one hour of finishing the sessions, oxygen consumption was significantly higher following the intermittent exercise.

After just 40 minutes, oxygen consumption had returned to base level in the walking test. This means no more fat burning until you do mroe exercise.

This means metabolic rate was much higher – more calorie / fat burning whilst at rest!

I’ve heard you burn more calories at the time of aerobic exercise.

This MAY be true but check this study out!

A 20 week endurance program was compared with a 15 week High Intensity Interval Training program. (Tremblay et al, 1994)

Over those weeks, the endurance group burned 120mJ of energy during exercise whereas the HIIT group burned 57.9mJ.

Surely endurance wins then?

Not when you consider that the HIIT group showed more pronounced reduction in body fat!

So they trained for 5 weeks less but lost more fat – SHORTER TIME TO RESULTS!

When they adjusted the results to compare fat loss in proportion to the cost of energy of the exercise sessions, the HIIT group lost 9 TIMES as much fat.

It should be pretty clear now why I force home the point that how many calories you burn in a session is largely irrelevant – ignore calorie counters on cross-trainers etc – waste of time.

Get in, smash it, go home.

Jon