Exercise regimen meets mix concept

This is inspired by an exercise regimen which I originally heard about on the Bob and Sheri Show (best morning radio EVAR, podcast it at www.bobandsheri.com or via iTunes) and which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology (98:1985-1990, 2005, if anyone cares). The basic point is that sprint training can be just as, or nearly as, effective as endurance training for things like muscle tone, metabolic rate, etc. So, although conventional logic suggests that you should do endurance training for endurance events and general cardiovascular health, this study concludes that this is not necessarily true; you can get benefits in endurance and so forth from sprint training.

The advantage, of course, is that sprint training takes MUCH less time than endurance training. The regimen the sprinters followed was (this was on exercise bikes but you should be able to do it running as well):

30 seconds ALL-OUT sprint (you have to perform at your absolute max or it doesn't count)
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint

So, a total of only about 15min spent doing this procedure, out of which only about 2min is actual exercise (although you FEEL like you are still running for like an hour after you finish, which is kind of the point). People who did this 3x a week got essentially the same benefits as people who trained at a moderate pace for like 2 HOURS A DAY, the same number of times per week.

At any rate, I am planning on taking up this regimen at least a couple of times per week. To facilitate this, I am making several iPod mixes with fast/slow alternations (30 sec "sprinty" clips, intermixed with 4min "resty" songs) that should help motivate me. It is fun.

Anyway, I think the fast/slow mix idea could be fun to do in just the general mix-CD sense... kind of like when ^kat^ did the Up/Down concept a couple of years ago. But the catch here is finding "fast" and "slow" songs (I use quotes because I am not really just going by BPM here... some of my "slow" songs are really rather uptempo... I guess it would be more "arousing" vs "soothing" to be more accurate... or "sympathetic" and "parasympathetic" if you are a neuroscience dork) that you can play in alternation without the whole mix sounding too weird. If an added constraint is desired, you could stipulate that each fast/slow pair must come from the same artist (or album, if you wish to draw from compilations). I may do this at some point, in which case I will be happy to share my labor-fruits.

And, BTW, Kat, I still have not forgotten my own take on the track-numbers mix... general busy-ness and the death of my first iPod this semester set back my hobbyish endeavors a bit, but I am very happy to announce that in terms of workload, my summer has arrived. So hopefully a bit more hobbying soon.

Back to track-picking....