Went to my Chiro’s office last night, he told me that I needed to lay off the running for a few days to let the corrections he did set. For the time being he recommended I concentrate more on interval training.

Lately I’ve been having issues with the right leg. The talus seems to come out of place and the right hip flexors and soleus are really tight keeping my leg muscles and joints from really moving properly. They’ve loosened up a considerable amount in the last 6 months due to diet and the exercise routine I was doing. Both legs and glutes used to be tense, there wasn’t much distinction between the stiffness of my muscles and the density of a wooden table. The chiro said the talus coming out of place, probably related to an old injury I had during my time while on Active Duty in the Navy. We were completing a field exercise and on our “hump” back I twisted my ankle. I was carrying a couple of packs as well as two rifles on top of my own. We had some injuries during the exercise and I had to carry gear back. When I twisted my ankle I ended up going down and turned into a casualty myself. At that point I was unable to walk on my own and had to get stretchered back to the BAS. It sucked. But apparently, long after healing, it still impedes me.

When I first found out about interval training, I found that there were very little on proper interval training. I took what I knew and combined it with Tabata style workouts from CrossFit since it seemed more in line with Interval Training. However the chiro advised me to modify my workouts to have longer burst periods followed with longer periods of rest. Just enough to get my heart back to baseline at about 130 BPM with a longer rest period then the actual burst. His recommendation was to go of of sets of 90 seconds with each set’s burst period progressively getting longer and longer.

An example he gave:

90 Second Set

Set 1
15 second max output
75 second rest

Set 2
20 second max output
70 second rest

Set 3
25 second max output
65 second rest

set 4
30 second max output
60 second rest

set 5
35 second max output
55 second rest

set 6
40 second max output
50 second rest

set 7
45 second max output
45 second rest

set 8
50 second max output

He said this is probably one of the most effective ways to maximize muscle growth and leanness. He recommended sprints and even with the elliptical and bike. It works with any exercise. I’m definetly excited and can’t wait to see the results.