Getting Hyper-Fit
I'm interviewing Sean Burch for an article I'm writing, so I did a little research on the guy. This vid sums it up pretty well: mountaineer, adventurer, pioneer on the frontier of What's Humanly Possible, and inspiration to zillions of couch-potato types like you and me.
In his book, Hyperfitness, Burch makes a point I've tried to drive home in this space a number of times: that cardio and strength training really shouldn't be separate endeavors: using the muscles makes the heart pump faster; if you're working hard enough to make the heart rate soar, you're working hard enough to challenge and build muscle. Ideally, it's not either/or but both/and. So Burch's programs consist of numerous exercises done back-to-back, which, combined, challenge the whole system.
Another point that's worth underscoring: bodybuilding ain't fitness-building. Machines and single-joint movements are for isolating muscles; no one except bodybuilders needs to do that because in life, in sport, in everywhere except a bodybuilding workout, muscles work together. The body's a whole single unit, with every part affecting every other part. So Burch's workouts make the same demands on your system (those frog-jumps across the basketball court look brutal!).
The bodybuilding image has, in many ways, usurped 'fitness'--that is, a guy with a bodybuilder-type physique looks "fit" to most people even though a guy with Burch's longer, leaner lines can most likely kick his ass in nearly any test of fitness. I submit that muscle isolation is popular in part because, well, relatively speaking, it's EASY. The alternative--full-body, mad-dog sweating, heaving, and pushing to the limit--is way, way more than most people want to endure.
The best bodybuilding coaches are starting to integrate real-world training techniques and metabolic work into their programs. But it's rarely what you see in the gym.
0 recs |
0 comments
|

by 







