The energy systems breakdown is often missing from fitness content, and the application for midlife women is spot on — training smarter to work with changing physiology. 💪
Hi Irina.. thanks for your comment. That's the whole point! It's more difficult when you alternate back and forth because you are challenging your body to quickly adapt between energy systems multiple times. This is the type of difficulty that pushes you out of your comfort zone where the fitness gains and adaptation live. So stacking it all at the end completely defeats the purpose and will not provide the same adaptation potential. Workouts like this are not about the amount of weight you can move during the strength portion - it's about energy system adaptation. On a different day, you would simply do the strength set with the rest in between, so you can focus on strength. Both types of workouts have value - but the stimulus is what is different. Thanks as always, for your subscribing and for your thoughtful comments. :)
This got me thinking about a practical problem I keep running into: what happens when you stack the HIIT or SIT at the end as a finisher rather than alternating it between strength sets? My performance drops noticeably when I go back and forth — the cardio fatigue bleeds into my next strength set — but not when the sprints come last. Does the finisher approach still get me most of the adaptation benefits, or is there something meaningful I lose by not alternating?
The energy systems breakdown is often missing from fitness content, and the application for midlife women is spot on — training smarter to work with changing physiology. 💪
Hi Irina.. thanks for your comment. That's the whole point! It's more difficult when you alternate back and forth because you are challenging your body to quickly adapt between energy systems multiple times. This is the type of difficulty that pushes you out of your comfort zone where the fitness gains and adaptation live. So stacking it all at the end completely defeats the purpose and will not provide the same adaptation potential. Workouts like this are not about the amount of weight you can move during the strength portion - it's about energy system adaptation. On a different day, you would simply do the strength set with the rest in between, so you can focus on strength. Both types of workouts have value - but the stimulus is what is different. Thanks as always, for your subscribing and for your thoughtful comments. :)
This got me thinking about a practical problem I keep running into: what happens when you stack the HIIT or SIT at the end as a finisher rather than alternating it between strength sets? My performance drops noticeably when I go back and forth — the cardio fatigue bleeds into my next strength set — but not when the sprints come last. Does the finisher approach still get me most of the adaptation benefits, or is there something meaningful I lose by not alternating?