“It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.” That’s what Lionel Messi said in 2004 when football pundits around the world called him an overnight success.
On October 16, 2004, Lionel Messi played his first official match with Fútbol Club (FC) Barcelona. At 17 years and 114 days, he came on as a substitute for Barcelona in the 82nd minute and hypnotized everyone, as he has done ever since, when he is on the pitch.
As much as we complain about the current generation’s need for instant gratification, we’ve understood it for a long time, definitely longer since the speed of life has accelerated courtesy of our smart devices. For example, even then, a young Messi knew more than most experts; that years of repetition and hard work from him, in the field, would instantly gratify scouts, agents and fans everywhere. Behind the scenes, however, there is a story of perseverance, resilience, broad vision, and most importantly, repetition.
To each his own
As a friend recently reminded me, what you sell is not what people need, but what they want. All these claims on social media, and now even mainstream media, cater to that audience, of people who have no interest in what your needs are. This rings true today, especially in the world of fitness and exercise.
In recent years, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become very popular. As the name suggests, it means doing four to seven repetitions of short bursts of movement (including cycling and running sprints) lasting around 30 seconds, with four (give or take) minutes of recovery. Or some version of it.
A few months before Messi’s debut for Barcelona, I started my position in London as head of the medical department at Kieser Training, a Swiss-German chain of rehabilitation centers dealing with back and knee patients. At Kieser, I was introduced to High Intensity Training (HIT), which is a broader term than HIIT, but is mostly about strength training rather than cardio.
A case for HIT
Back in the 1970s, Arthur Jones, a proud generalist, popularized the HIT, which has again become fashionable in the fitness fraternity in India. He openly defied the long hours they spent in gyms every day. Dorian Yates, one of the most successful bodybuilders of all time, who won the Mr Olympia title six consecutive times in the 1990s, attributed his success to HIT training principles, which he continued to develop from one of the protégés Jones, Mike Mentzer. .
We saw amazing results in our back and knee patients at Kieser Training. But every repetition of every exercise had to be closely monitored by well-trained trainers. Contrary to HIIT sprints, in HIT the movement is slow and controlled, taking around 8-12 seconds per rep. High-intensity strength and endurance workouts last to complete muscular failure, are short in duration, and done once or twice a week. A long interval is required between these extreme sessions, as the muscles need this time to recover and positively adapt for optimal strength gains. These sessions were supposed to be extreme, almost making the person pass out. Definitely not for everyone.
In an online article published in August 2022, Professor Panteleimon Ekkekakis, chair of the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University, discusses in detail whether these extraordinary claims about HIIT are supported by extraordinary claims, and no less. But what is Kinesiology? It is the scientific study of the movement of the human body. On top of that, Professor Ekkekakis is an exercise psychologist, which puts him in a unique position to understand that exercise not only has physical benefits, but also psychological ones.
Working together
The problem in today’s scientific world is that most experts work in silos, unable to understand the big picture. They may know their own topic in depth, but they just don’t have the broader knowledge of other topics that are all interconnected. One such example is a study conducted a year after Messi’s debut, which has become the cornerstone of magical HIIT claims. This particular study was led by Professor Gibala, a physiologist at McMaster University, one of Canada’s leading institutions, who simply did not know or appreciate the role of the mind in exercise.
It is unfortunate that, even today, the best scientists at the best universities do not recognize exercise psychology and focus only on the physical aspect. Athletes and coaches since the gurukul era have known better.
This brings me back to the first patient we see as doctors in medical schools: cadavers. They teach us a lot, but they are simply dead. All your muscles, bones, and organs might be in tip-top shape, but they don’t work anymore. That spark of life is simply missing. Most of us physicians spend our entire lives treating patients who come through the door as if they were corpses. We are unconsciously unaware that they can feel and move. Most sports physiologists and scientists understand movement, but they are still missing the power of mind and psychology.
Gibala is of the opinion that lack of time is the main reason for not exercising regularly, something that Jones also highlighted, but being a self-proclaimed generalist, Jones understood the importance of habit formation and motivation even before more than 70 years. behind. Jones was clear that HIT was not for everyone, but only for highly motivated people. Gibala stresses that HIIT presents hope for people looking to do as little work as possible to get fit, but also acknowledges that given the extreme nature of exercise, it’s doubtful that HIIT can be safely or practically adopted by the general population. So it’s surprising that recent researchers report the greatest enjoyment of HIIT.
I did my own poll on Twitter and LinkedIn. Of the 113 people who responded, these were the results.
It is the repeated sprint intervals that are equivalent to HIIT. Only 11.5% enjoyed it more, that’s the smallest percentage of people. After all, exercising has to be fun, especially when we want people to move a lot more. Most people who exercise or play sports do so for their “me time,” to connect with their deeper self. We need to promote the joy of movement instead of going down the pharmaceutical route, expecting people to take the horrible-tasting pill one more time, or a painful shot of vaccine.
On top of that, being a sports exercise medicine doctor, I end up seeing a lot more injuries in exercise enthusiasts who do HIT or HIIT incorrectly or under poor supervision, compared to those who exercise at a slightly lower intensity. The risks far outweigh the benefits.
Both HIT and HIIT have their roles and some people enjoy them, including me, but that doesn’t mean there’s any magic to them, and they’re definitely not for everyone. This brings one back to Messi’s quote: “I start early and stay late, day after day, year after year.” — a sentence conveniently removed from the posters. That is what we all have to do. There are simply no shortcuts.
Keep walking and smiling.
Dr. Rajat Chauhan is the author of MoveMint Medicine: Your Journey to Peak Health and La Ultra: Couch to 5, 11 & 22 kms in 100 days
He writes a weekly column, exclusively for HT Premium readers, that discusses the science of movement and exercise.
The opinions expressed are personal.
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