The Quick and the Dead
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On the other hand, mitochondrial dysfunction is a likely cause of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and aging.
Mitochondria are the primary source of free radical generation in our bodies. You can eat blueberries until you are blue in the face, yet they are not going to save you from ROS: Antioxidant foods and supplements have turned out to be surprisingly ineffective. What you need are more, bigger, and better mitochondria. They not only generate and leak fewer free radicals—they act as “net sinks,” as Dr. Alexander Andreyev put it.
If you plan on remaining quick—as in “alive”—as long as possible, you had better treat your mitochondria right.
Choices that damage mitochondria include the usual suspects of smoking, drinking, overeating, eating garbage, pollution, and overtraining.
Choices that build mitochondria are caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, controlled hypoxia and hypothermia, and steady-state aerobic training.
Then there is the state of the art training designed to beef up the mitochondria in your fast-twitch fibers: Q&D.
Part II: The Ferocity of Life
A Long and Winding Road
Back in the 1980s, the glory days of Soviet sports, Prof. Yuri Verkhoshansky had a revolutionary endurance training idea.
What if instead of training the athlete to tolerate ever-increasing concentrations of lactic acid, we trained him to produce less of it?
Anti-glycolytic training (AGT) was born.
Born in a country that no longer exists, AGT culminated in the 21st century with remarkable performance breakthroughs on a number of Russian national teams in a mind-numbingly diverse array of sports: judo, cross country skiing, rowing, cycling, full-contact karate.
This is how Prof. Verkhoshansky summed up AGT: “…training must have an ‘anti-glycolytic’ direction, that is, lower glycolysis involvement to an absolute possible minimum.”
Thus it was written.
More than five years ago, members of the StrongFirst instructor leadership asked me to develop the next generation of conditioning protocols. I agreed, thinking it would be easy. I intended to apply the existing Soviet and Russian AGT research to kettlebell swings and other exercises in the StrongFirst arsenal. I was certain I could write a book in a couple of months. Little did I know what kind of a rabbit hole I was burrowing down.
Since the primary adaptation target in AGT is the mitochondrion, I decided to do my due diligence and review the literature, both Russian and Western, on mitochondrial adaptation in fast-twitch fibers to exercise. Annoyingly, the two were decidedly at odds.
Prof. Verkhoshansky was an empiricist. He operated with black boxes and usually chose not to mess around under the hood of the cell. His approach was remarkably successful, considering at least two major breakthroughs he contributed to the sports world: “plyometrics” and AGT.
His method also assured that his works would live on. Explanations come and go; results stay. As the old scientist joke goes, “That works very well in practice, but how does it work in theory?”
While Verkhoshansky did not speculate on the biochemical events powering his innovation, his successors did. They hypothesized that by creating aerobic conditions in fast fibers, AGT increases the size and number of mitochondria in them.
Unfortunately, according to some very reliable Western research, this only works in slow fibers.
Shortly after hitting this first wall, I plowed into a second one. Some Russian specialists stated that high acidity destroys mitochondria—while in the US, HIIT was used to build them.
Reconciling these contradictions took me several years and many headaches. Without going into gory details—this is what the Strong Endurance™ seminar is for—this is what I concluded.
Champion martial artist Andżelika Stefańska holds nothing back as she is using fellow SFG Team Leader Mike Sousa as a heavy bag while demonstrating an anti-glycolytic training protocol for fighters at a Strong Endurance™ seminar.
Soviet and Russian AGT, while it somewhat increases the mitochondrial quantity (size and number), is not optimized for it. It excels at enhancing the mitochondrial quality—upgrading the mitochondria to handle heavier traffic and rendering the incoming acid harmless.
HIIT increases both mitochondrial quantity and quality, but in a haphazard way and often at an unacceptably high cost.
Western scientists did a fine job of identifying the cellular pathways leading to mitochondrial biogenesis or creation. They traced the metabolic events triggering these pathways. Other scientists, those who experimented with HIIT, paid token attention to these discoveries and viewed them out of context of the many other biochemical reactions taking place at the same time and some of the events happening in the body at large. The resulting training protocols worked, but often inefficiently and with serious side effects. Like drugs with long disclaimers in small print.
Deep soreness. Low energy. Stress. Hormones out of whack. Free radical damage. Unfavorable changes in the heart.
I became convinced there was a better way.
There is some fairly dense science awaiting you around the corner. Although I explain the madness behind the method in lay terms, I realize that such reading is not everyone’s cup of tea. Should you choose to, you may skip half the book and go straight to Part IV, Happy Hunting! You big sissy.
The Three Energy Systems
I have no intention of boring you with a detailed dissection of the energy systems because you either know this stuff or do not care (in either case, you are welcome). Here are a few highlights relevant to Q&D.
Carbs, fats, and proteins contain energy, which, to use a financial analogy, is not “liquid.” Before it is spent by muscles and elsewhere, it needs to be converted into “cash” called ATP.
What is “A”? This information is on a need-to-know basis and you do not need to know. Since it is the structure around which ATP is built, we will nickname it the “A-frame.”
“P” stands for “phosphate,” a molecule containing phosphorus. This element is known for forming chemical bonds loaded with energy and easily releasing them.
“T” means “tri” and refers to the number of phosphate groups attached to the “A-frame.”
When ATP is split to release energy, it loses one “P” and becomes ADP, where “D” stands for “di,” two.
When one goes from zero to 60, the body’s ATP demands increase up to 1,000-fold. The problem is, ATP, being a capacitor rather than a battery, drains quickly. Stored ATP can power only a half to one-and-a-half seconds of maximal intensity work. ATP has to be constantly replenished by the so-called energy systems that put the missing “P” back in. There are three main energy systems:
Creatine phosphate (CP)
Glycolytic
Aerobic
The following highly generalized diagram represents what happens in a given muscle in an all-out dynamic effort such as a sprint or a set of hard style swings.
Approximate contribution of the three main energy systems to the total energy output in trained athletes in brief, all-out dynamic exercise.
The CP and aerobic systems are efficient and clean burning. In contrast, on the glycolysis watch, muscles produce acid that rapidly accumulates and creates many problems, both short-and long-term.
The CP system is one-and-a-half to two times more powerful than the glycolytic system and three or four times more powerful than the aerobic system. The CP system is the one the cat used to earn her dinner.
The CP system revs up to full power in point-five to point-seven seconds, while glycolysis takes about 20 seconds, and the aerobic system one to four minutes. CP is the rapid deployment force.
Although it takes about 30 seconds of all-out sprinting to fully exhaust the CP “rocket fuel,” the CP system can sustain its max power for only about five seconds and something close to it for eight to 10 seconds, and then rapidly fizzles. It is telling that even the best sprinters slow down toward the end of a 100-meter rac
e.
To clear up this contradiction, consider an analogy. Imagine a car designed by an Orwellian state to never run out of gas. As long as the tank is at least half full, it allows you to put the pedal to the metal. Once the half mark is passed, the cyber nanny starts pinching off the fuel lines. No matter how hard you pump the pedal, the closer the needle edges toward empty, the more sluggish the car becomes. Driven crazy, you will stop to refuel long before this happens, just as the Big Brother intended.
This is exactly how the CP system was designed. The emptier the CP tank gets, the more the throttle is closed. This feature has profound implications on performance and adaptation.
The Emergency System
In the title of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas omitted the fourth member of the crew and the main protagonist, d’Artagnan. Many biochemistry textbooks do the same when they discuss the energy systems. How many readers have heard about the fourth energy system, the myokinase system?
When the three main energy pathways are unable to keep up with the demand for ATP, the organism breaks the glass and presses the red button. The fourth musketeer to the rescue! Enter the fourth energy system, myokinase (MK), that Prof. Nikolay Yakovlev called the “emergency system.” This system is especially active about 10–20 seconds into an all-out dynamic effort, for reasons that will soon become clear.
The myokinase system ekes out some energy by breaking off another phosphate group from the “A-frame.” The capacitor loses another “stripe” and ADP becomes AMP. You may have guessed that “M” stands for “mono” and refers to the last phosphate group standing.
The MK reaction takes a “P” from one ADP molecule and attaches it to another ADP molecule, thus making AMP out of the former and ATP out of the latter:
Now the capacitor is fully drained. Even though on paper AMP still has one phosphate group, it does not store any more energy.
This “fourth musketeer” not only saves your tail at the given instant, it is favorable to you in the longer term. Scientists have concluded that its byproduct, AMP, triggers mitochondrial growth.
Intensity Is Not the Effort, but the Output
Back when Deep Purple was recording Speed King, preeminent Soviet scientist Prof. Felix Meerson discovered that products of ATP breakdown induce synthesis of mitochondrial proteins. Unfortunately, his discovery was overlooked and had to be made again almost half a century later.
Today we know that something called AMPK is the master switch that initiates the chain of events leading to mitochondrial biogenesis. AMPK is a low cellular energy sensor that, as you have guessed from its name, measures the AMP concentration.
To get to maximally achievable AMP numbers and wake up AMPK, one must redline the rate of ATP use. The exercise is so intense and its tempo so high that the energy systems are unable to keep up with the ATP expenditure.
ATP deficit starts accumulating after about five seconds of all-out exercise, as soon as the CP system’s output starts flagging. Of course, to maximize the amount of AMP, we need to keep at it longer than five seconds.
But not too long, as the intensity will drop…with dire consequences.
“Intensity” has nothing to do with drama—as in the gym motivation slogans aimed at teens yet strangely appearing on 40-year-old dudes’ T-shirts. “AMRAP or die!” “For Sparta!”
Intensity is not the effort; it is the output—power output, measured in watts or speed, measured in units of your choice. These external markers reflect the internal rate of ATP use.
A mighty effort is a must, but it is not enough. Even if you somehow sustain a superhuman “nerve force” later in the set, your commands will arrive at your muscles muffled by acid. In addition, the acid will gum up the works that split up ATP (enzyme ATPase). As a result, you will not be able to burn through ATP fast enough to produce a lot of AMP.
It is telling that once the intensity of ATP use drops low enough for glycolysis and the aerobic system to replenish it, the ATP deficit is quickly repaid. Soviets discovered that intermediate to elite sprinters and runners experience ATP balance disruption at distances in which the CP mechanism is a major player, up to 400 meters, but not at longer ones. In other words, once your CP system has flamed out, you are suffering for nothing.
“Daddy, what is that red ribbon on the runner’s shoulder?”
“It is not a ribbon, daughter, it is his tongue.”
From the athlete’s point of view, sucking wind at 800 meters qualifies as an emergency much more than sprinting 200 meters. But muscles have a logic of their own. I am sure the cat would agree: When finishing her dinner preparation, it is nice to have a little boost from the emergency system at around 15 seconds. Why would a good hunter be concerned about what happens two minutes later?
Approximate timeline of ATP demand and supply in brief, all-out dynamic exercise.
In summary, to produce AMP, we need to burn through ATP faster than it can be replenished. Research suggests that in all-out dynamic exercise, most AMP is manufactured in the five-to 30-second window, between the time the CP system’s output (and thus the total power output) dips and the time the CP is fully exhausted. This seems like a reasonable window for a bout of high-intensity exercise aimed at beefing up the mitochondria.
So far.
...And Then the Wheels Come Off
Indeed, in the lab, a single all-out 30-second velo sprint increases the AMP/ATP ratio by as much as 21-fold and significant AMPK increases—signs of upcoming mitochondrial growth—are detected afterward.
In the field, coaches know that 30-second bouts of all-out exercise deliver. Some of the most successful training protocols I taught in the early years of my first kettlebell instructor certification were based on around 20 reps in the snatch and double jerk sprints with 32kg kettlebells. Today, I am convinced that many of the benefits of a 30-second effort are derived during the first 10–20 seconds. There are reasons to occasionally push to 30–45 seconds, but they are outside the foci of this minimalist program.
If the emergency continues and the MK reaction is allowed to run too long, another reaction, deamination, kicks in. It demolishes the “A-frames” in some AMP molecules, leaving the phosphates with nothing to attach to.
This is bad news.
First, this reduces the AMP concentration—the signal to the genetic machinery to bulk up the mitochondria. Recall that the target metabolic state is a high AMP-to-ATP ratio. And now we are taking some of the hard-won AMP off the table altogether.
Second, ammonia is a byproduct of this reaction and it is toxic to our cells. Former Master SFG Geoff Neupert even suggested that ammonia toxicity could be one of the factors slowing down fat loss on HIIT.
Third, rebuilding the “A-frames” is a costly and time-consuming process. And while it is taking place, you feel tired and run down, with ATP short of a full stack. Some fish can use up their muscles’ ATP and break off the “A-frames” when running from a predator. Then they have to lie helpless under a rock for many hours to restore ATP. Fortunately, humans are not as desperate and we cannot drain our ATP to the point of total immobility. But we still can exhaust it enough to feel dead the day after HIIT. Patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have reduced ATP pools. If you choose to feel that way, metcons are right for you.
Drum roll…a high concentration of lactic acid is the primary driver of deamination.
This is not surprising, considering that one of the goals of this reaction is a desperate attempt to buffer some of the acid.
In all-out exercise, muscle lactate barely budges above its resting level for the first five seconds, while max power is maintained. Then the acid concentration doubles between five and 10 seconds. Then it doubles again from 10 seconds to 20, from 20 seconds to 30, and from 30 seconds to 60.
The amount of acid produced up to 20 seconds is still manageable, but the next doubling is over the top: Even a single 30-second sprint spikes the ammonia levels almost five-fold. Why trash your body for no good reason?
Untrained people deaminate easier than trained athletes, which highlights the irresponsibility of throwing newbies into HIIT. In addition, overtraining lowers one’s resistance to deamination. Piling more HIIT workouts on top of each other only makes matters worse.
In disgust, Prof. Yakovlev commented on the “perversion of the muscular activity’s chemical nature” taking place during overtraining. He added that the resulting disruption of the aerobic metabolism and a drop in metabolic efficiency lead to significant weight loss in advanced overtraining. Is this why the gen pop loves metcons?
Sweet Spot in Time