do boxers run or jog?

I think that people who say that all you need is high intensity have never developed their aerobic metabolism and don't know how much of a difference it makes when you are able to recover so much energy between rounds.

 

Without an aerobic Base of Fitness, usually what happens is when working anaerobically, you will get injured. :yep lets start again, F==king Gravity.

 

And the funny thing is even when you are exercising at your threshold, going all out, your aerobic system is still contributing quite a great deal.

You aerobic system is never "off" regardless of the intensity.

 

So wouldn't fartlek training be ideal to improve both?

 

The higher the intensity the more the cardiorespiratory system adapts in terms of dealing with lactate, increasing stroke volume (VO2max) and improving all the important markers of fitness.
Intervals are PERFECT for an unfit person.
As you say they'll struggle with 5 minutes of running. Why not give 20 minutes of time and have them run hard as they can for a minute then rest for a minute, or whatever ratio is appropriate for the person.
With intervals they can put in more work and at a higher intensity. With continuous work they'll just burn into the ground very quickly.
Having an aerobic base is an extremely outdated idea that should've been well and truly put to bed at this point. With those intervals your heart rate is still elevated between work intervals, the difference is that your different energy systems have time to recover and your muscles can contract more efficiently in the work interval.
You adapt to how you train, it's simple.

 

Not true at all. As long as the person has done some resistance training their ligaments, tendons, bones and muscles will be well prepared for anaerobic work.
Just jogging puts a lot of force into the ground, running continuously wears down and fatigues everything. I'd be far more concerned about an unfit person trying to jog for 30 minutes rather than doing a supervised 15-20 minute session of interval work. We know who is going to get fitter with less grind on their joints.

 

Did you know that a lot of long distance runners only use intervals to train for competition? You might say that their intervals aren't high intensity but I'd disagree.

 

Ok. You have 3 energy systems, right? Think of them like an over-lapping Venn diagram. The Aerobic, the Anaerobic Lactic and the Anaerobic Alactic systems. The alactic system can provide 10-12 seconds of tremendous power, the anaerobic lactic can provide 60-90 seconds high output energy, and the aerobic system can provide hours of energy since it relies on oxygen. All 3 systems need to be developed.

Increasing your aerobic power increases your anaerobic threshold (reference Lyle McDonald). To inprove your aerobic energy production, you can improve your cardiac output- how much blood your heart pumps with each beat- as well as develop the vascular network to carry more oxygen to the working muscles.

How is this done? 30-90 minute sessions of activity with the heart rate of 130-150 BPM. This is an example provided by Joel Jamison: Think of a ballon constantly filled with water, over time it will stretch and become bigger. The same thing happens with your heart and you end up with a larger left ventricle capable of pumping more blood with each beat.

So you build your basic engine first. Of course of you just did sprints and other work there will be benefits. But there just seems to be this adversity to aerobic work lately that seems a little misguided.

And for the record, I changed my conditioning after reading alot from the above guys along with their links and sources. I applied it and it helped me a ton.

 

I also saw on Joel site (www.8weeksout.com) that he says newer research says even during high intensity exercises lasting as short as 1 minute like the 400 m sprint, almost 50% of total energy production can come from the aerobic system.

Even though the greater the intensity, other systems contribute more, but the aerobic system never stops- that I feel is my main reason for advocating this way of training. And I only think you should run a couple times a week for 30-60 minutes if you are fit.

 

haha yes I understand all of that, your ballon is what I mentioned before - stroke volume. To improve cardiac output? The most effective way is performing high intensity exercise at above VO2max pace, you obviously can't do that for a long period of time so that's where intervals come in. There is countless research to support that and the fact that the aerobic system plays such a large part in something like a 400metre sprint just demonstrates how unnecessary having an 'aerobic base' is, whatever you're doing you're going to be working your aerobic system.
I haven't heard anybody call it the anaerobic alactic system for years either, it's the ATP-PC system or phosphagen system.
Purely (well mostly) aerobic work is essentially pointless unless you're having a day off actual training and you're trying to recover a bit.
You get two people who are untrained and get them to train for a 10km run, have one do only continuous running and the other perform high intensity intervals. The guy doing the intervals WILL run a better time, he'll have a higher VO2max everything else being equal and his anaerobic threshold will be higher.
I don't take Lyle McDonald seriously, he claimed that some olympic weightlifters he knew started doing aerobic work and improved their best lifts. He has a bit of an aerobic cult going, it's very appealing to people who don't understand how the body works and people who don't do their own research. He selectively chooses studies and uses anecdotal evidence to support his beliefs.
Don't take somebodies word for something and then try to argue it, do your own research with a critical mind and understand first. Often if somebody knows something you don't you'll automatically assume that the person is an expert.

 

Ok. Can you provide links/sources? I would keep an open mind. I have never done this particular experiment myself, but would love to see research done by respected coaches.

 

Not how we do it as it happens, solved the problem of Gravity overload, thank you. While having Oral stability, with the cardio system works 35% more efficient, and producing 30% more Lactic than running per volume of work.

 

I run marathons and half marathons and what Longjab is saying is the generally agreed way of doing things for those events. Build an aerobic base by long slow runs and then worry about lactate runs and intervals.

I run 60-70 miles a week and only around 10% of that total are run at a decent speed.