Shortly thereafter, Shaun T. delivered this adaptation of his “Cardio Power and Resistance” workout from Insanity: a mix of heart-pumping, power-building moves that will strengthen your whole body and energize your whole being.

“At its core, Insanity is about making yourself better,” says Shaun T. “I give you a specific time frame to do as many reps as you can do. It’s not about beating anyone else. It’s about holding yourself accountable. It’s about doing the best you can do. When you repeat the workout, try to beat your number. Just as in life, as long as you’re constantly progressing, it doesn’t matter how gradually.”

Full disclosure: Shaun T. admits this version is a touch more intense than the ones in the Insanity DVDs  — which is really saying something.

So if you’ve been out of the fitness game for a while, you’d be wise to ramp up slowly. “It’s OK to be tired,” says Shaun T. “It’s OK to take a break or slow it down. Just don’t compromise form at all.”

That said, if you’re already in good shape and feeling eager to ramp things up, you can minimize breaks and maximize pace for a workout that will flatten even the fittest contender. (I can attest to this, as you will see in the video demonstration at ELmag.com/insanevideo.)

Jot down your reps for each exercise set, and perform the workout weekly or biweekly to track your progress. And prepare to see results.

Shaun T.’s Crazy-Tough Routine

Ideally, you’ll complete the entire circuit three times, but if you need to start with one or two rounds, heed your instincts. Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, resting as little as necessary between reps. Rest for 30 seconds between rounds.

1. Pushup Jacks

•  Get into a straight-arm plank position, body in a straight line from head to heel.
•  Lower your body into pushup position.
•   As your chest nears the ground, hop your feet wide apart, jumping-jack style.
•   As you push your chest back up, hop your feet back together. Repeat.

2. Power Knees

• Stand with your weight on your left leg, knee slightly bent, left hand on top of right.
• Bring your right knee to waist height, tapping your knee with your right hand when it reaches that height.
• Do as many reps as you can in 30 seconds.
• Switch sides and repeat.

3. Ski Abs

• Start in a straight-arm plank position, feet together.
• Hop both feet up to the right, trying to bring your knees to the outside of your right elbow.
• Hop back into plank position.
• Repeat the move, alternating sides for 30 seconds.

4. Triceps Dips

• Sit on the ground and position your hands just outside of your body with your fingertips facing your rear end.
• Propping yourself up on your hands and feet, lift your butt off the ground.
• Bend your elbows, lowering your butt until it’s close to the ground. Repeat.

5. Plank Squats

• Start in a straight-arm plank position, feet together.
• Hop your feet forward and pop up into a squat position.
• Place your hands on the ground outside your feet (not shown) and hop back into plank position. Repeat.

6. Power Jumps

• Stand with your feet hip- to shoulder-width apart.
•   Quickly dip down, then jump up, lifting your knees up to waist height.
•   On the way down, straighten your legs and land softly on the balls of your feet.
•   Once your feet touch the ground, immediately recoil and jump again.

7. Power Squats

• Stand with your feet together.
• Hop your feet out, dropping to the bottom of a squat position. As you do, move your arms straight out in front of you until they are in line with your shoulders.
• Hop back to the starting position. Repeat.

Resources

www.shauntfitness.com — For all projects Shaun T.

www.getinsanity.com — If you dug this workout and want more, check out the whole DVD series here.

www.tryasylum.com — The Asylum DVD workout series takes the intensity up a notch, and adds an agility and footwork component.

www.hiphopabs.com — His first DVD project, Hip Hop Abs, was a bestseller because of the fun, dance-party atmosphere. 

I’d always liked to exercise — I especially enjoyed weight training and group classes like kickboxing. But when the pain started, I stopped working out and even took a medical leave from my gym membership. Unfortunately, this only exacerbated the problem. I experienced numbness and constant pain in my legs. I had trouble driving because my right leg would cramp on the gas pedal. On long car rides, I’d have to pull over every few hours to stretch my legs or be in agony.

I lived with this suffering, and with inconclusive medical tests and appointments, for years.

Then in 2008, when life began to feel unbearable, I saw a doctor who specialized in pain management. An X-ray and other diagnostic tests revealed that I had sacroiliac joint dysfunction. The sacroiliac joints (also called SI joints), located in the pelvis, are where the iliac bones and sacrum meet. The SI joint on my left side was curved and misshapen. My doctor couldn’t definitively say why it happened (though many women suffer from pelvic misalignment after pregnancy), but, in his opinion, there was no way to correct it. Instead, he performed a nerve ablation, a surgical procedure that deadens the nerve endings, in hopes of taking care of the pain. Although this gave me some relief from the pain surrounding the joint, the adjacent muscles remained chronically contracted and sore.

When the nerves regenerated themselves a year later, the crippling pain returned, so I had a second ablation. But still, the pain came back. I was 40 years old, depressed and beginning to doubt that I would ever recover.

That’s when my doctor suggested that I consider Pilates, a body-conditioning routine that emphasizes spinal and pelvic alignment, which could help support my back through breathing and core strengthening. He also thought that it could help reduce the muscle spasms resulting from the ablation.

I knew nothing about Pilates and was very afraid to go back to the gym, worried that any activity would make the pain worse. I’d been to so many doctors and been on so many medications — including an anti-inflammatory drug, prescription-strength ibuprofen and Zoloft — that I’d almost given up hope.

But I also knew that I had to do something, if only for my kids. I was saying no to them too often because of the pain.

Group Effort: Pilates, Chiropractic Care and Massage

In August 2008, I took the first step to recovery by rejoining the Life Time Fitness club in Rochester Hills, Mich. When I told the membership adviser at my orientation appointment that I was dealing with chronic pain, he referred me to Matt King, a trainer who has 12 years’ experience working with clients like me.

At our first meeting, Matt evaluated my posture and balance and could see that my muscles weren’t firing in the right place and my abs weren’t working to support my body, even during simple household tasks.

Although I was intrigued by his observations, I was hesitant to dive right in, and it took me over a year to schedule my first training session, despite Matt’s periodic check-in calls. In the meantime, I tried some group classes as well as weight machines and cardio, but because I was still in pain, I felt overwhelmed and was close to quitting the gym again.

I’m not sure why I waited so long, but as Christmas 2009 approached, I realized I needed to give myself the gift of getting healthy.

I started doing Pilates with Matt in January 2010, initially working out on the tower and reformer. This helped strengthen my limbs while my  core muscles stabilized my spine. I was amazed that I felt noticeably better, even after our first session.

We began meeting twice a week at first, with plenty of homework between sessions: general stretching and activating my abdominal muscles with small, easy-to-do movements. Pilates made me feel stronger; I felt like my body was more supported.

Just as important as Pilates was the fact that Matt put a strong emphasis on a team approach to treating my pain. He recommended I also see a chiropractor, Richard Beaubien, DC, and Amanda Ramaci, a massage therapist.

Rich worked with me on muscle activation, a process that wakes up muscles that aren’t doing their job, to help stabilize the rest of the body. His work, combined with Pilates, also helped my body release a lot of the chronic tension I’d been holding on to — both in an attempt to “protect” my vulnerable SI joint, and as the result of my pain.

As my muscles gradually reactivated and rebalanced, my need for the pain medications lessened, and Rich suggested that I wean myself from them. As they ran out, I didn’t refill them. I realized I simply didn’t need them anymore.

What’s more, Rich and Matt communicated regularly about my progress. There were many days when I would have a chiropractic adjustment and then arrive at the gym for training — just as Matt was receiving a text from Rich detailing what parts of my body needed to be supported during my workout.

Of all the changes I knew I needed to make, saying yes to regular massages was perhaps the most difficult. As a stay-at-home mom, I felt like getting a massage was a luxury. I thought of what spending that money would take away from my kids and my home. The truth is that these massages were essential in helping restore my body’s alignment.

Another key to my recovery was working with Anika DeCoster, a nutrition counselor. I didn’t understand how much diet could affect inflammation. I stopped eating dairy products and noticed a huge reduction in pain. Going off gluten also helped.

Nearly Pain-Free and In Charge of My Well-Being

By October 2010, I’d stopped taking any medications. I no longer experienced constant pain and often went long periods of time completely pain-free. Nearly two years later, I am still stronger than ever. I go to the club four to five times a week, and train with Matt three of those days. We do Pilates once a week, but most of our time is spent doing what I love most — working with weights.

Do I have setbacks? Absolutely. But I recover so much more quickly from them. Matt always encourages me. He has helped me realize that getting to the next level will involve some pain, but I need to keep a positive attitude, and I now have the tools to help myself.

My daughters, Kailyn and Alyssa, are now 13 and 10 years old, and we bike and Rollerblade together. I recently started water-skiing again and taking a Middle Eastern dance class.

I realize now that periodic setbacks will happen. I just need to remember that they are temporary and get back to the basics: doing Pilates, getting massages, using the foam roller, stretching and applying muscle activation techniques. These days, the pain usually subsides in a day or two. For the first time in years, my body isn’t controlling me. I am in charge of my body.

The 33-year-old former professional dancer has sold 4 million of these workout DVDs and splits his time between New York, Los Angeles and anywhere else he’s asked to deliver his message. The way of Shaun T. has become such a popular group fitness phenomenon that in 2010 he launched S.T.R.I.D.E., his own instructor certification course.

But Thompson’s philosophy stretches beyond fitness; he applies the same energizing principles to all aspects of his life, and encourages others to embrace them, too.

EL:  Has fitness always played an important role in your life? 

ST:  I was always an active kid, and I did track and field from adolescence into adulthood — I was a 400-meter hurdler and sprinter. But when I went to college, I didn’t run track the first year because I was on academic scholarship and wanted to focus strictly on school. I gained 50 pounds that year, going from 178 to 228 pounds. I looked into a mirror one day and I was like, This is crazy! I was still athletic in my mind, but not physically. So, I changed my major from communications to sports science and I started going to the gym again, at first just working out for 10 minutes a day.

For my new major, I was assigned to teach a group fitness class. It was a hip-hop aerobics class, and I loved doing it. I got really good, and had 90 people who showed up to my class regularly. That led me into dance. Later, I got into kickboxing, step and boot-camp classes, too, and I started to realize I could do this for a living.

EL:  How did you parlay your love of teaching into a fitness empire? 

ST:  Just out of college, I worked in corporate health in New Jersey and taught dance on the side. Then, in 2003, I was visiting a friend in L.A., and he suggested I go to a nearby dance-agency audition. I was like, “Yes, a free dance class! I don’t have to pay $15!” But I kept getting through to the next round and the next round, and they ended up asking me to sign with them. The first thing I did was call my mom, who told me, “You have to go; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” I figured I’d be a starving artist, though, so I arranged to teach group fitness classes at a number of gyms in the area to supplement my income.

But good things kept happening: I became a Nike fitness model, a back-up dancer for Mariah Carey, and I got to work on a DVD project Kathy Smith put together through Beachbody called Project: You! I helped her choreograph all of the routines.

In 2005, a producer for Beachbody who was taking one of my classes told me they were looking for a new kind of fitness program, and she suggested I come in for a 10-minute audition. It ended up being two hours long. From that point on we were creating Hip Hop Abs. Then came Rockin’ Body, and then Insanity and Asylum. It’s been the greatest experience of my life.

I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I never, ever feel like I’m working. Wait, I take that back: The only time I feel like I’m working is when random people ask to feel my stomach muscles.

EL:  What do you think it is about your approach that people are most drawn to?

ST: I’m giving it so much passion. I’m connected to the feeling the person at home is having — I know how you’re feeling, and I know you can do this. I use empathy to draw you along. My main thing is, no matter what you do in your workouts or in your life, it’s all about becoming a better version of yourself. I never say, “You have to do what I’m doing.” I always say, “Do what you can do.”

That’s why in Insanity, my message is “dig deep.” People say to me, “You have no idea how that message has infiltrated other parts of my life.” It becomes about “I can either give up right now or I can do one more pushup. If I can just get one more rep now, I can propel myself even further next time.” It may sound clichéd, but that attitude extends to everything.

EL:  What do you think are the keys to building great energy? 

ST:  The most important is, don’t put so much pressure on yourself. You have time to make things happen, and nothing is going to happen overnight. Saying “I have to work out for an hour every morning” or “I have to eat nothing but lettuce” will just become overwhelming, and why feel overwhelmed about something that’s supposed to make you feel better? Instead, how about doing five minutes the first day, and seven the next, and keep bumping it up again after that? You have to find a program that makes you feel motivated to do more. There is no fitness blueprint, no one right answer for when and how much. Just find a fun way to move that will add to your energy rather than deplete it.

For more on Shaun T., check out www.shauntfitness.com.

After we’ve lifted the remaining three sails, Captain Brenda Thomas guides us from the harbor and into Maine’s Penobscot Bay, where we sail for hours alongside two other schooners, the Grace Bailey and the American Eagle. On the horizon are the elegant sails of other tall ships representing the entire Maine Windjammer Association (MWA) fleet, which is headed to Gilkey Harbor for the annual Schooner Gam.

In the cove, crews lash the 13 ships together and passengers hop from deck to deck, admiring each boat’s sleek lines and polished brass bells. We mingle with fellow vacationers who, like my husband and me, left behind a few creature comforts to sail on historic, wind-powered boats.

“Our ships have changed little since the 19th century, except now they carry passengers instead of hauling timber, stone or fish,” says MWA marketing director Meg Maiden. The fleet’s ships range from 64 to 132 feet on deck and carry six to 40 passengers. The oldest was built in 1871; the newest in 1983. Despite their diversity, each owner-operated schooner provides an unplugged experience — one that many vacationers repeat yearly.

On the opposite coast, schooners departing from the harbors and bays of the Pacific Northwest offer similar adventure options for outdoor lovers of all types: singles, couples and families. (Check age limits before you book; some boats require a minimum age of 16.) Passengers can enjoy everything from swimming to fishing to rowing to islands and hiking their rocky shores. But nobody will mind if you simply want to lounge on deck and watch the world drift by.

At the end of our first day, we had slipped out of the 21st century and into the ageless rhythm of sun and moon, wind and tide.

Sailing Adventure for the Senses

A trip at sea can be an excellent place to hone creative powers. For eight summers, Frances Caporello, 65, of Amherst, Mass., has snapped photos on her annual sailing vacation aboard the Angelique, a 95-foot windjammer.

One of the retired math teacher’s favorite photographic subjects is the ship’s anchor chain as it is laid out on the deck, but year after year her shots of its links disappointed her. That changed in 2010, when she joined the Angelique’s weeklong digital photography cruise on Maine’s Penobscot Bay.

With help from professional photographer Neal Parent, Caporello’s images progressed from so-so to eye-catching. Each morning, Parent gave lessons on lighting, exposure or composition. The ship’s shutterbugs practiced throughout the day as they sailed or took walks after rowing themselves ashore. They reconvened after dinner to discuss their images’ strengths and weaknesses.

On the night Caporello’s latest anchor-chain close-up was to be discussed, she explained her frustration at not adequately capturing the links’ intricate patterns. On his laptop, Parent’s assistant quickly converted her color photo to black and white. “I practically jumped out of my seat,” she recalls. “The chain’s patterns just popped out.”

While the course taught Caporello to see like a photographer, her primary focus has always been on the sensory experience of being at sea. “I savor the sounds: the sails flapping, the groaning of the masts,” she says. “No noise from motors, radios or video games.”

On a schooner, she adds, “it’s just you and the water and the ocean air. In a brisk wind, the boat starts to heel and everything rolls around. That’s when it really gets exciting.”

She laid aside the camera long enough to learn to set the Angelique’s main topsail. “When you are raising the topsail, you have to really haul on the line to make the topsail move up the mast. I lift weights, but it’s still hard work.”

Caporello loves the images she takes home after sailing — whether they’re digital pictures or memories. “Whenever I get crazy busy at home, I breathe deeply and visualize myself on the Angelique’s deck — and my blood pressure goes down.”

Angelique Cruise
Six-night photography and naturalist cruise: $895. Neal Parent digital photo workshop: additional $200. 800-282-9989; www.sailangelique.com 

A Sea-Dream Come True

With the 160-foot schooner Zodiac anchored behind him among breathtaking Canadian fjords, 67-year-old Bob Hammer paddled his kayak toward a waterfall. Pausing close to the cedar-fringed shore, he floated quietly where fresh water showered into salt water, and he meditated on being part of nature.

Do performance mouthguards really make you stronger and faster?
A: A little bit, if they improve your jaw’s position, says Chad Boger, DDS, a neuromuscular dentist based in Plymouth, Minn. “Your jaw position is related to head position, and head posture is related to body posture,” Boger explains. “Your brain spends a lot of energy on balance, and any amount of energy that can be directed away from aligning the teeth or the head can be used on other activities.”

A 2008 Rutgers University study sponsored by mouthguard company Makkar demonstrated that the right mouthguard can enhance peak power output and performance in explosive, short-duration bouts of exercise.

“Before setting the mouthguard, it’s important to test basic strength and balance exercises with the jaw in several different positions,” Boger says. “It’s easy to determine ideal position based on the results.” Seek out a neuromuscular dentist in your area to administer the tests and find the right jaw set.

“Jaw clenching [encouraged by the device] improves cerebral blood flow,” says Dena P. Garner, PhD, professor of health, exercise and sport science at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., and research partner of Under Armour. “Our theory is that increased blood flow leads to a decrease in stress hormone response.”

It’s important to note, however, that a mouthguard won’t morph you into a pro athlete. At most, you can expect a 3 to 5 percent improvement, Boger adds.

Q2: Belly Bulge

I’ve had kids, and now, no matter what I do, I have a bulge of fat below my belly button. Is there anythingI can do about that?
A: Probably, says Jason Stella, NASM-PES, CES, Life Time Academy program manager for Life Time Fitness in Chanhassen, Minn. But you may first have to come to terms with the fact that your current body-fat percentage is higher than you think, he says, noting that he often witnesses midsection magic occur in women when their body fat dips below 20 percent. To hit that mark, Stella recommends upping your intake of good fats, protein and vegetables, and cutting way back on refined carbs.

Also, while the idea of spot reduction is mostly bogus, there may be a way to trim from your middle. There’s evidence that people who hold excess body fat in their abdominal area have a history of chronic stress. More cortisol (a stress hormone) is created in abdominal (visceral) fat than elsewhere, and also appears to trigger fat accumulation there.

The best way to determine your cortisol levels is to take a four-point, saliva-based cortisol/DHEA l lab test, says Stella. To lower your levels, he suggests cortisol-reducing supplements such as magnesium, fish oil, phosphatidylserine, probiotics and glycine. More sleep can also help, as can meditation and yoga. And since regular, long-duration, low-intensity aerobic exercise has been shown to elevate cortisol levels, Stella suggests sticking to shorter-duration, high-intensity interval and resistance training instead.

If you try these tips and still see no improvement in that region of your body, I’d be surprised. But in that case, it may be time to get comfy with your memento of childbearing and count your many maternal blessings.

Q3: Homemade Protein Bar Recipes

Do you have any good recipes for homemade protein bars?
A: I hit up Melissa Joulwan, author of Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat (Smudge, 2011) for advice. She says: “A great protein bar needs to include natural sources of protein and fat, be low in added sugar, and include no grains or dairy. At least 30 percent of the calories should come from protein and the carb content should remain low.”

Consider following these other rules of thumb: 1) The less sugar, the better. 2) Seeds like sunflower and sesame are high in omega-6 fatty acids, so use them for flavoring only. 3) Lots of recipes include oatmeal as a binder; replace with almond meal to avoid excess carbs.

Joulwan adapted this protein-bar recipe from MarksDailyApple.com. Each bar has 184 calories, 14 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbs and 13 grams of protein.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup nut butter (almond, cashew, walnut, hazelnut)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 11/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 3/4 cup unsweetened whey protein powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, to sprinkle on top

Fitness Fix

No-Pain Knees
Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, or runner’s knee, can often be resolved by strengthening the core and glutes. 

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS), also known as anterior knee pain or runner’s knee, is the single most common form of knee pain, yet it remains the most inexplicable.

Unlike other injuries, it doesn’t involve obvious structural damage to the knee joint. The pain itself, which can range from mild to stabbing, is the condition. This chronic irritation of the nerves under the kneecap is a result of a complex interaction between anatomical and training factors, explains Margarita Sevilla, MD, a sports medicine physician for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. “Overuse is often a factor, as is misalignment of the patella in relation to the hips, muscle imbalances and trauma.” Running style may also be a factor; heel strikers have a higher incidence of PFPS.

While you can’t control biomechanical factors that contribute to symptoms, there’s plenty you can do from a training perspective. “In my experience, one of the two main causes of PFPS is excessive use of shoe orthotics,” says Sevilla. “I analyze my runners’ gaits and help them find the right running shoes. And for bikers, it’s very important to have a good bike fit and make sure to use the right pedals. Everyone has different needs.”

The other common cause she points to is weak core and glute muscles. Sevilla recommends seeing a physician to rule out other sources of knee pain, such as meniscus damage or osteoarthritis, but for PFPS, she suggests doing the following exercises four to five times per week to see improvement.

Monster Walks

• Stretch a mini band around your knees.
• Bending both knees slightly, take small, lateral steps.
• Continue for one minute, switching directions at the 30-second mark. Do three sets.

Assisted Single-Leg Squats

• Face a waist-high railing, grasping it with both hands. (You can also use a suspension trainer.)
• Shift your weight onto your left foot.
• Keeping your right foot off the ground in front of you, push your butt backward and perform a deep squat on your left leg.
• Keeping your torso upright, drive through your left heel to bring your body back to the starting position.
• Do three sets of 12 to 15 slow, controlled repetitions.

Email your fitness questions to askjen@experiencelife.com.

So let’s take a look under the hood, shall we? Like a hybrid engine, your body has several ways of turning the stuff you eat into the stuff you do. All of these metabolic energy systems are switched on during physical activity, but each plays a different role depending on available energy and the specific demands of the task. Each burns a particular type of fuel at a particular rate — thereby affecting fat loss and muscle gain in a particular way.

• The adenosine triphosphate–creatine phosphate (ATP-CP) system, or phosphagen system, supports very brief, high-intensity activities like a single-effort vertical jump.
• The glycolytic system provides energy for activities of slightly longer duration and lower intensity like strength training.
• The oxidative system supports long-duration, lower-intensity activities like walking or distance running.

In recent years, exercise physiologists have learned how to target each system with specialized training to better prepare individuals for a specific event or sport.

On the next few pages, you’ll discover how your body’s energy systems interact, and learn how to challenge each one so you can reach your fitness goals faster and with less wasted effort.

First Responder: The ATP-CP Energy System

Whether you’re running a 40-meter dash, jumping up to answer the phone, or catching a child falling off the monkey bars, the adenosine triphosphate–creatine phosphate (ATP-CP) system is first to respond. Among your three energy systems, it’s the one most prepared for emergencies. It kicks in whenever the oxidative system, your body’s normal method for providing energy, isn’t up to the demands you’re placing on it.

All three of your energy systems ultimately run on ATP: It’s the fuel source for all your physical functions, from eating to breathing to running hill sprints. Your glycolytic and oxidative systems (which we’ll cover shortly) make most of this ATP to order, cobbling it together from the food you eat and the air you breathe as need arises.

But a small quantity of ATP is socked away in your muscles for when you need to expend a short burst of energy in a hurry. Let’s say you’re doing a single barbell squat with close to max weight. As you power the weight up, the muscles of your hips, thighs and lower back immediately burn through their ATP stores. Once the ATP has done its job, it’s either further broken down or recycled (with the help of another substance, creatine phosphate, or CP), so it can provide more energy to your working muscles.

How fast does the ATP-CP system gear up? Blink and you’ll miss it. “Once you begin hard activity,” says Christopher Scott, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Exercise, Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Southern Maine and an expert in metabolism, “it takes just thousandths of a second for the phosphagen system to kick in.”

There’s a cost for this speed and efficiency, however: You can store only enough ATP and CP in your muscles for about six to 10 seconds of serious effort. Though training the ATP-CP pathway will improve your explosive speed and power (so you can jump higher, sprint faster and throw farther), it won’t increase your storehouses of ATP-CP — or give you the ability to operate at full throttle for longer than a few seconds. That’s why activities like javelin throwing, Olympic weightlifting, and the 100-meter dash are “one-and-done” endeavors, even at the elite level. Most trained athletes need three to five minutes of rest before their ATP is replenished and they can perform near the level of their previous effort.

The “highlight reel” moments in soccer, tennis, basketball, hockey and many other sports are powered in large part by ATP-CP. But it also comes strongly into play whenever you need to move quickly (as when you’re making a dash to catch an elevator or grabbing a vase before it topples off a counter).

“As we age, we lose a lot of our ability to exert strength quickly,” says Scott. “So doing some of this training is important simply for maintaining quality of life.”

ATP-CP training doesn’t typically burn a lot of fat or build a lot of muscle, but that doesn’t mean you should cut it out. For one thing, it can be a lot of fun; and since you’re using lower reps, it probably won’t make you particularly sore. Most important, ATP-CP training is the best way to build serious strength, speed and power.

How do you train the ATP-CP system? “Intermittent training,” says physical therapist Bill Hartman, CSCS, co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training. This means very brief periods (10 seconds or less) of high effort with lots of rest (two minutes or more) between activities.

Training Your ATP-CP System

Speed: Fast
Primary Fuel: Adenosine triphosphate and creatine phosphate, stored in your muscles
Sample Activities: Swinging a golf club, sprinting to first base, lifting a heavy weight
How to Train It: Heavy strength training, medicine-ball throws, jumps, short sprints, sports-specific drills
Sets/Reps/Rest: 

• Three to eight sets
• Brief, maximum-effort sets lasting eight to 15 seconds; one or two heavy reps in strength-training activities
• Long rest between sets (up to five minutes); full recovery between efforts

Frequency: Up to three times a week

How fast does the ATP-CP system gear up?
Blink and you’ll miss it.

ATP-CP athletes are fast, strong and explosive, specializing in brief, single-effort activities like swinging a golf club or baseball bat, Olympic weightlifting, high-jumping, and shot-putting. Athletes in field and team sports like soccer, lacrosse, tennis, martial arts, basketball and other activities also rely heavily on the ATP-CP system during the highest-effort moments of sprinting, serving, kicking or driving to the hoop.

Fast and Furious: The Glycolytic Energy System

As your ATP-CP system sputters out, your glycolytic system steps in and keeps you moving for about another minute or so before it, too, begins to run out of fuel.

Because glycolysis relies on energy converted from carbohydrate (glucose) into ATP, your glycolytic system is slightly less responsive than your ATP-CP system. But it can still provide as much as half the energy you need in the first few seconds of intense exercise. (See “An Energy Systems Timeline,” below.)

If you’ve ever done an all-out set of max pushups, or a 400-meter sprint, you’re familiar with what it feels like to exercise the glycolytic system at close to its maximum. In a word, it hurts.

Contrary to popular belief, the burning sensation you get when you exercise intensely is caused not by lactic acid (another fuel source) but by a buildup of hydrogen ions, a byproduct of glycolysis, which can inhibit muscle contraction, giving you “wobbly knees” after a minute or so of full-out running or cycling.

The more you train your glycolytic system, however, the better you’re able to buffer these ions and the faster you can recover between sets of medium-to-high-intensity exercise.

The discomfort that comes from glycolytic training is well worth it. Increasingly, fitness pros are recommending this type of training for people who want to gain muscle, lose fat and get the most out of their time at the gym.

“A 200-meter sprinter is a great example of an athlete whose training is mostly glycolytic,” says energy systems researcher and body-transformation expert Mike T. Nelson, MS, PhD candidate, founder of MikeTNelson.com. “It’s a nice compromise between strength and endurance work.”

One reason glycolytic training burns fat so effectively is that it creates a significant “metabolic disturbance,” Nelson explains. And recovering from it requires work from all three energy systems. In this way, glycolytic training improves not only the functioning of each individual system, but also your ability to transition smoothly
among them.

Nelson argues that such “metabolic flexibility” is a significant, though little-known, component of long-term health and fitness. “Diabetics and obese people can’t transition well between energy systems — they’re metabolically inflexible,” he says. “Smart training doesn’t just develop the three systems in isolation — it also develops your ability to transition from one fuel source to another so all three metabolic pathways work together effectively.”

The best way to train your glycolytic system is through repeated high-effort activity, with less-than-complete recovery between efforts: 20- to 30-second sprints on foot, in a pool or on a bike, with a minute of rest between them, or strength training in sets lasting 30 seconds to one minute.

Many field and team sports also train the glycolytic pathway.

Training Your Glycolytic System

Speed: Medium-fast
Primary Fuel: Carbohydrate
Sample Activities: Traditional strength training; 200- to 400-meter sprinting; 50-meter freestyle swimming
How to Train It: Medium-intensity strength training; interval training; running stadium stairs or hills; shaking “battling ropes”; jump-rope sprints; kettlebell workouts; swimming repeats
Sets/Reps/Rest:

• Two to four sets
• High effort for sets lasting 20 to 40 seconds; eight to 12 reps in strength-training activities
• Short rest between sets (two minutes or less); partial recovery between efforts

Frequency: Twice a week per muscle group or area of the body trained

If you’ve ever done a 400-meter sprint, you’re familiar with what it feels like to exercise the glycolytic system.
In a word, it hurts.

Glycolytic athletes specialize in activities lasting 30 seconds to two minutes or so. They’re fast and seemingly tireless — though perhaps not quite as strong as the ATP-CP athlete, nor as enduring as the oxidative athlete — and they tend to be muscular and lean. This type of training is ideal for burning fat (in recovery) and building muscle mass. Strength training using sets of eight to 12 reps and sprinting 400 meters or less typify glycolytic training.

Long, Slow Burn: The Oxidative Energy System

The oxidative (or aerobic) system is your slow-burning furnace, always humming in the background, whether you’re fast asleep or running hard. It’s fueled largely on fat and glucose, and, of the three metabolic pathways that support exercise, it’s the only one that directly requires oxygen to function.

“We’re predominantly aerobic creatures,” says Scott. “We can go weeks without food, days without water, but if we’re deprived of oxygen for more than a few minutes, we’re dead.”

So although it’s last to kick in after you start to exercise, the oxidative system is the most important energy system of all. If it doesn’t work, neither do you.

Athletes in any long-distance endurance sport — cycling, running, triathlon — all need exceptional aerobic capacity, as do athletes in all continuous-action field and team sports, like basketball, lacrosse and soccer.

Fortunately, the aerobic system is very responsive to exercise. “Through training, you can increase the capacity of your aerobic metabolism up to 240 percent,” says Hartman. “And the better it works, the more effectively you burn fat in your workouts.”

Although the oxidative system is continuously active and produces loads of energy, the process of converting fat into usable energy can take a while. Once it gets started, though, it’s your body’s most reliable engine over long periods of time. In a 10-
second sprint, Hartman says, your
aerobic system is able to kick in only about 13 percent of the necessary energy; on an intense four-minute run, however, that figure rises to 80 percent.

Exercise physiologists used to believe that the best way to develop the oxidative system was through long, slow cardio exercise — an hour or more several times a week. Your aerobic system certainly responds well to this type of training, but recent research suggests that the oxidative system also works hard — very hard, in fact — to help you recover after a high-intensity anaerobic effort like a set of squats or a hill sprint.

Do a second, third and fourth set before you’ve fully recovered from the previous one, and the oxidative system ramps up its efforts even higher.

“A strength-training workout resembles a series of escalating waves of effort for the oxidative system,” says Nelson. That’s why you’re winded after high-intensity bouts of strength training and sprinting, even though the activities themselves are technically anaerobic. The oxidative system shifts into overdrive to replenish the depleted ATP-CP stores and clear out the glycolytic byproducts produced by your other two energy systems.

At the conclusion of an intense strength-training or interval-training workout, your oxidative system often continues to work overtime, sometimes for nearly two days. This is a phenomenon known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC, which can burn additional fat and calories long after the workout ends.

Scott and Nelson both concede that some of these processes remain theoretical. The actual effect of EPOC and the true energy demands of anaerobic activity can be hard to measure accurately. For the fitness enthusiast, though, the take-home lesson is that, unless you’re a competitive endurance athlete, lots of long, slow cardio is probably not the best way to exercise your aerobic system. Higher-intensity activities may be a more effective and efficient way to build your cardiovascular system — and to burn fat.

Exercise your oxidative system by jumping rope, training with light weights, or doing standard cardio exercises for periods of one to five minutes, resting one to five minutes between sets, for up to six sets.

If you’re serious about building your aerobic capacity, you can also do one to five high-effort bouts of 10 to 20 minutes long, resting five to 10 minutes between them.

Because low-intensity aerobic activity speeds recovery from the minor damage caused by other forms of exercise, perhaps the best use of oxidative training is as a restorative tool on your off-days.

Training Your Oxidative System

Speed: Slow to medium
Primary Fuel: Fat
Sample Activities: Jogging, slow swimming, cycling, walking, hiking, martial arts, continuous-action team sports (basketball, ultimate Frisbee, soccer)
How to Train It: Light circuit training; running five minutes or more; long-distance cycling; traditional cardio machines; long, slow swimming
Sets/Reps/Rest:

• Either three to six one- to five-minute medium-high efforts with one to five minutes rest between sets, or
• One to three eight- to 20-minute medium efforts, resting four to 10 minutes between reps

Frequency: One to three times a week

Although it’s last to kick in, the oxidative system is the most important energy system of all.
If it doesn’t work, neither do you.

Oxidative athletes are typically leaner and lighter than the other two athletic types. They can go on forever at a slow-to-medium pace, burning mostly fat — the ultimate high-efficiency, slow-burning fuel. Oxidative training is essential for endurance sports, but athletes in field sports shouldn’t neglect this kind of training. Done in moderation, oxidative training is also great for helping you recover from other, more intense forms of exercise.