(This article originally appeared in the 6 November 2012 edition of the StrongFast Planet newsletter.)

 When most people think of training with Resistance Bands, they think of the rubber tubes with handles on the ends that are used by senior citizens and for some rehab work. That's what I thought a while back. But not any more.

For distinction, the above style of resistance tubing is often called a "sport cord." The resistance bands I'm talking about are like giant rubberbands and are sometimes called "superbands" (not to be confused with Queen, U2, or Brainium). Here, I'll just all them "bands."

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A while back, I did a post that mentioned "wearables"--a term that usually refers to devices worn on the wrist to measure steps, heart rate, etc. But recently I got myself an early birthday present that's a different kind of "wearable": a weighted vest.

It's not for everyone, but it does have a variety of uses.

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I was talking with someone recently who was concerned about his daughter doing squats in her workouts. He didn't want any advice--he "used to lift weights" and "knows all about squats"--so there wasn't much of a conversation.

But I know he's not alone in his concern about squatting. But is it a bad thing to do?

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I was talking with a friend recently who mostly walks for exercise, and during inclement weather this means treadmill walking. She mentioned that she really doesn't enjoy it (although she's disciplined enough to do it anyway) and it got me thinking: should exercise be fun?

There are frequent references to finding something you enjoy doing to make sure you get enough exercise. But we can see how that works for most people (who don't get enough exercise).

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(This article originally appeared in the 9 October 2012 edition of the StrongFast Planet newsletter.)

One of the most popular training routines making the rounds these days is "High Intensity Interval Training", or "HIIT." It involves short bursts of very hard work ("high intensity") interspersed with short rests ("interval"). The intervals are measured in seconds, as high as 60 (yes, I know, that's a minute) and as low as 10. They are described using a work-to-rest ratio; for example, 30 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest would be written as 30:15.

The origins of today's fascination with HIIT date back to a 1996 study led by Dr. Izumi Tabata that compared two groups of cycling athletes. One group rode for 60 minutes straight (yes, I know, that's an hour) while the other rode 8 20:10 intervals for a total of four minutes of training. The result showed the interval group getting better results than the steady-state group. Awesome! So awesome, in fact, that the term "Tabata Intervals" or just "Tabatas" has taken root in the training lexicon. And why not? Four minutes instead of an hour? What's not to like?

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