High Intensity Training (HIT). Jürgen Giessing

its value. Unlike most other things that can be possessed like jewelry, gold or money, time cannot be replenished. Their statement that “(…) nothing will allow us to regain time misspent” [1] hits the nail on its head.

      The outstanding value of time is also reflected economically. Overnight delivery is more valuable because of the time saved and therefore more expensive than regular delivery which may take a few days. International flights are another example. Non-stop flights are more expensive than connecting flights with a stopover that may even require a change of planes before reaching the actual destination. Although connecting flights (sometimes called “direct” flights to hide the fact that it is not a non-stop flight) cause higher costs for the airlines, they can charge more for non-stop flights because they help us save our most valuable possession: time.

      Training is no exception. A training program is more efficient if it produces the same results or even better results in less time. And that is why High Intensity Training is the most efficient kind of training there is.

      Those who say “I don’t care if I am wasting a lot of time in the gym as long as I am making good progress” should think twice. Even if there was no such thing as overtraining, which in fact impairs training progress, there is another factor that nobody can escape from: opportunity costs. This is another economical principle that also applies to time. And since time is our most valuable possession, it even applies more to time than to anything else.

      In an economical context the relevance of opportunity costs becomes obvious. When someone decides between investing a certain amount of money on stock A instead of stock B, this decision may earn this person a certain amount of money after some time. But if he or she would have made even more money by choosing stock B instead of stock A, the profit made by choosing A is as obvious as the opportunity costs of not choosing B.

      The same applies to time. Just as money spent on one thing cannot be spent on something else, the time we spend in the gym cannot be spent doing something else. Even if somebody does not mind wasting time in the gym (over)training, opportunity costs of that decision cannot be denied.

      And there is one opportunity cost directly related to too much time spent training: Every minute spent (over)training means less recovery time from the workout. So training more than necessary is not just a waste of time. It is much worse than that. Training more than necessary (regardless of whether the person may enjoy time spent training) is counterproductive!

      For this reason it is obvious that the “the more, the better” concept neither makes sense in an economical nor in a physiological context. Actually, the principles that are responsible for making muscles bigger and stronger have been identified a long time ago and could have been available for more than two millennia.

      Recently, training science has rediscovered the legend of Milo of Croton which illustrates how the process of muscle training works in a nutshell. The lessons that can be learned from this famous ancient legend have been ignored for too long.

       Milo of Croton

Figure 2: Milo of Croton

      Milo of Croton was an Olympic wrestler who lived in the 6^th century BC. In fact, he may have been the most successful wrestler in Olympic history. He won the wrestling competition at the ancient Olympic games several times and was also a multiple winner of the wrestling competition at the Pythian Games at Delphi. Milo remained unbeaten for about a quarter of a century. Contemporary authors described Milo as incredibly strong. Milo, a friend of ancient mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, allegedly once saved Pythagoras from being crushed when the roof of the house they were in broke down. Milo supported the central pillar until Pythagoras and the others could get out and then he saved himself by rushing out.

      Unlike other strong men in history who were described as “naturally strong” or “blessed by God with outstanding strength” young Milo was the opposite. He was a very weak child and was beaten by the kids in the neighborhood more than once. But Milo was determined to do something about that.

      According to the legend, Milo took a baby calf, put it on his shoulders and carried it around his parents’ farm. He did that exercise once every day. After several years the calf had grown to a full-grown bull so that eventually Milo was carrying a bull around the farm. Not only had the baby calf grown but so had Milo’s strength. His muscles had developed due to the progressively increasing training stimulus that they were exposed to on a regular basis.

      The legend of Milo may be a bit exaggerated but it clearly shows some of the constituent parts of how training works. Obviously, among other elements, training must be:

      Intense enough: It took a lot of effort and strain to lift and then carry the bull. Carrying a mouse would not have made Milo the strongest man of his time.

      Progressive: Lifting the same weight in every workout will neither stimulate muscle growth nor strength.

      Regular but infrequent: After working out the body needs time to recover from the strain of the workout. After adequate rest and recuperation (and time for positive adaptation), the next workout can follow. Working out once in a blue moon will not be enough to cause any positive adaptation.

      Apparently, this knowledge has been available for more than two thousand years.

      By the way: How many “sets” of bull-carrying did Milo perform during each “workout”? That’s right – just one!