high intensity short duration cardio exercise

Hey guys!

I have been doing some research these past couple of months on exercise's role in hair loss and I'd like to get some of your input on this.

So looking at the body composition of a marathon runner or someone who does alot of cardio exercise for 20+ mins a couple times a week it seems like it has a detrimental effect on their hair and bodies. I've come to believe that the human body isn't designed to be pushed for 20+ mins without rest, the hormonal changes it creates lead to muscle wasting due to high cortisol and a couple studies I've read show that people who do alot of cardio are more prone to actualy suffer from heart disease.

Now if we look at a sprinter instead we can see a huge difference, usualy full head of hair, muscular and overall super healthy looking. I think the body was designed to adapt to intense short bursts of exercise because if you push yourself to the limit it signals your body that it needs to adapt (become stronger) to cope with the situation. It seems that keeping your cardio work to under 15 mins is ideal (I personaly do 10 mins a day now) for hormonal balance. Sprinting stimulates the pituary gland to produce HGH and studies show that it improves insulin resistance dramaticaly in a short amount of time. The key is that those 10 mins that I do need to be pretty intense, not 10 mins full stop but a 30-40 second sprint and then 2 mins of light bouncing followed by another sprint until my 10 mins is up.

I do my cardio work on a rebounder (mini-trampoline) and just by jumping 10 mins a day on this thing for 90 days my entire physique has changed dramaticaly, there's really nothing else like it. I don't like weights and I'm starting to get really buff, the effect of gravity when you rebound puts more pressure on all your cells and it forces them to adapt by getting stronger. I'm interested to see if it has any effect on hair in the long term because the changes that it produces on a physical level are nothing short of incredible.

I'd be interested to hear what you guys think about this!

I meant to say I don't ''do'' weights right now, not that I don't ''like'' weights.

This forum really needs an edit function haha!

When you are comparing marathon runner with sprinters, you need to keep in mind that sprinters are as you say more healthy looking and muscular because they work on activating the fast twitch fibers and maximizing power. Whereas marathoners try to keep their weight to a minimum as a larger body requires more oxygen.

That is kind of my point, the activity they do makes their body adapt a certain way. Sprinters develop the fast twitch fibers in order to become explosive and powerful, marathon runners body go into life support mode.

The things you put your body through end up defining it's characteristics.

Icanbeatthis - Totally agree with your points. Basically, it's the difference between anaerobic and aerobics. Too much aerobics and breakdown tissue, whereas anaerobic builds on tissue.

What do you think about the rise in HGH after sprinting, it should theoreticaly be a good thing right? I'm a bit confused about IGF-1 and HGH in relation to hair loss...

Icanbeatthis--

Yep, it can be a good thing.

High intensity training is the healthiest form of exercise in my book.

This is probably a dumb question, but what is the difference between aerobic ro anearbic exercise? I usually do the eliptical cardio for 30 minutes straight I hate lifting weights. Any sugestions or advice? thanks.

Hairbeback wrote:This is probably a dumb question, but what is the difference between aerobic ro anearbic exercise? I usually do the eliptical cardio for 30 minutes straight I hate lifting weights. Any sugestions or advice? thanks.

Its based on your heart rate.

Very simply put, aerobic = "cardio" or endurance training, anaerobic = resistance or interval training.

Check out this chart from Wikipedia:

If you watch the tour de france, you will see that most cyclists have full heads of hair even though they ride upwards of 500 miles per week?

I didn't say it was going to make people who aren't susceptible to baldness go bald without fail. It does create physical changes that would impact hair negatively for someone who is more prone to lose it.

Good point about the cycling thing. I'm a road cyclist, and I think that cycling is semi-interval training. Because you go full speed until you get to a stop light then you wait along side the cars while you rest, then when the light turns green you shoot off again while racing the cars beside you. Wheras a distance runner will just go for one hour long run without rest. Also, look at the body differences between a cyclist and a distance runner. A distance runner is skinny, a cyclist is thin usually but has broad shoulders and toned arms. I don't know why, maybe because of the upper body endurance required to hold ourselves up on our handles for an hour?

Remember, marathon runners live on the edge of having an eating disorder, and many do. When it comes to cykling, I have never heard of it being a major issue.

Is it alright to say, perform interval training for 15 minutes, maybe have 10 minutes or so rest, then another 15 minute interval training on another machine? Me and some mates always go to the gym and usually spend 1-2 hours there and I don't want to be going or doing nothing for that long, also I don't want to pay to only stay 15 minutes.

tooyoung wrote:Is it alright to say, perform interval training for 15 minutes, maybe have 10 minutes or so rest, then another 15 minute interval training on another machine? Me and some mates always go to the gym and usually spend 1-2 hours there and I don't want to be going or doing nothing for that long, also I don't want to pay to only stay 15 minutes.

If you do interval training correctly, you won't be able to do more than 15-20 minutes or so. You should be far too tired to even consider doing a second interval set. Of course you can always walk on a treadmill or something like that.