[EZA]

I respect Jon Chaimberg and probably agree with him more than disagree, but this idea that you can achieve the same things with HIIT than you can with LSD but faster is simply not true. They lead to different cardiac adaptations, each with it's own benefits and costs in terms of energy production. There is a mountain of research that demonstrates this.

I recently had someone from my site, who happens to work in a cardiologist lab, send me the results of an echocardiogram done before and after 9 weeks of LSD style training. I didn't solicit this but it provided very good data.

The protocol was about 3-3.5 hours per week total of LSD type training with heart rates in the range for maximum stroke volume.

Here are some of the echo numbers (4/8/09 to 6/17/09):

Left Venticle (LV) Septal Wall thickness (diastole/rest): 1.04 cm to 1.04 cm (no change)
(systole/contraction): 2.08 cm to 2.08 cm (no change)

LV Posterior Wall thickness (diastole): 0.94 cm to 1.04 cm
(systole): 2.09 to 1.77 cm

Ratio of Septal Wall to Posterior Wall: 1.11 to 1.00

LV Diameter (diastole): 5.31 cm to 5.83 cm
(systole): 3.02 cm to 3.54 cm

LV Volume/Amount of blood in ventricle (diastole): 135.9 ml to 168.5 ml
(systole): 35.6 ml to 52.3 ml

Stroke Volume/Amount of Blood pumped w/ each beat: 100.4 ml to 116.3 ml

LV Ejection Fraction/ % of Blood in LV pumped with each beat: 74% to 69%

E/A Ratio / Measure of Diastolic Function: 1.46 to 1.97


What you see from this is an increase in cardiac dilation with stroke volume improving from 100.4ml to 116.3ml and an increase in efficiency as you see from a the decrease in LV Ejection Fraction %. In other words, his heart is now able to pump significantly more blood with each beat and has improved in efficiency meaning the myocardium fibers themself require less energy to contract.

It should be noted that he's also got fairly thick cardiac walls to begin with, otherwise there would likely have been an even greater increase. Also, the increase in dilation and elasticity means you get greater contribution from the Frank-Starling effect in contraction as well. These are very important qualities when it comes to both aerobic power such as is required in MMA.

The same person is now about to go through a 4 week high intensity interval protocol I gave him and will provide the same before and after echocardiogram results. From this you'll be able to see the distinct differences in myocardium changes that occur as a result of LSD compared to HIIT style training. These are incredibly important differences whe it comes to energy system production and cannot be ignored or simply written off as unnecessary.

If you're talking about a high level fighter, chances are they've developed a high level of cardiac output through years of training and they most likely have great cardiac genetics to start with. Just because they don't need LSD and won't see the same benefits since they already have those adaptations doesn't mean that lower level athletes or those with poor cardiac output will not.

I'll post the echocardiogram results showing the distinct differences in cardiac adapations depending on whether LSD or HIIT was used when the 4 week program is finished.

I'm also not so sure about the example of Rich that he used in his argument. Ever since I've known Rich he's done next to no LSD whatsoever. Even previous to training with me he's done very little of it. Most of his strength work in the past was circuit based, but he's never really done a high volume of LSD type training to my knowledge.

As a fighter, Rich has also won plenty of fights do to his conditioning levels and out of his 4 losses, it would be difficult to argue any of them resulted from a lack of strength or power. He's moved up a weight class higher than he really should be and he's certainly not getting overpowered by anyone. Rich is genetically predisposed to have excellent conditioning with moderate strength/power and he's used his genetics to his advantage and developed a fighting style that suits his strengths and he's been a world champion because of it.