“I’m 30. I don’t care how fast I run. Why would I do power training?”

Well, because being able to produce force rapidly (i.e. power) gives us quality of life, off the athletics track.

See as we age, we lose our speed and power first, then strength, then endurance.

So if you like the idea of:

• ⛷ Skiing with your kids and grandkids…
• 🚘 Maybe getting yourself across the road when you see the silent Tesla flying at you late…
• 🚶 And staying on two feet (falling is the leading cause of accidental death after 65 years)…
  

Then power might be something worth training.

Plus, when done right, it gives us a rare combination of side benefits:

• 💪 Muscle building
• 🏃 Aerobic power
• 🩸 Testosterone
• 🔋  Mitochondria
  

Power training is a short all-out effort. But unlike most HIIT classes would have you believe, it’s with sets of low reps and lots of rest.

These specifics are important for aerobic power training (there are others like plyometrics). Particularly for the benefits to our mitochondria.

The reason is to do with our energy pathways. And the 4th energy system you probably haven’t heard of…

As we know, the body has 3 main systems that supply us with the energy to move and function:

• 💥 CP or ATP/PC: powerful and instant, but runs out quick ~30 seconds (think 100m sprint)
• ‍🥊  Glycolysis or lactic: not as powerful, but lasts a little longer ~2 minutes (think 400m)
• ‍♾  Aerobic or oxidative: less powerful, but potentially endless (think marathon)
  

During a max effort (sprint, bike, jump squats, kettlebell swings, etc), it looks like this:

But there is actually a 4th energy system – the Myokinase (MK) system.

It acts like the manager of the show, looking over the other 3 energy systems.

After about 5 seconds of a max effort, it senses our energy dropping and steps in to help replenish it.

The orange bit of the graph below shows the extra energy we get from the MK system.

We like the MK system. Bloody saving the day. Silent hero. Giving us an energy boost. But that's not even the best part...

When the MK system gets activated (between about 5-30 seconds of max effort), it creates a byproduct called AMP (blue bit in graph below).

And it's AMP that triggers mitochondrial growth 🎉

So we wanna do training that creates as much AMP as possible (30 seconds).

But, as we can see in the graphs above, in this time frame, lactic acid starts to ramp up too (with its unwanted side effects – slower recovery, soreness, low energy, higher free radical release and hormonal imbalances).

So about 10-20 seconds of effort is the sweet spot for maximum mitochondria benefits and minimal lactic build up.

The problem with this is that after a 30-second max effort, our energy systems take about 2.5 minutes to recover. And a 15-second sprint every 3 minutes isn't really time-efficient training...

So we can use a training technique called the interval-serial method to time-efficiently and repeatedly pump us with AMP, while minimising lactic.

Here's how it works:

1. 🏃 Do a 5-10 second sprint
2. 🚶 Rest for 15-30 seconds (a 1:3 work-to-rest ratio)
3. ♻️ Do this 3-6 times (until you accumulate 30 seconds of total sprint time)
4. 🚶 Rest 2.5 mins
5. ♻️ Do that all again 3-6x times
6. 🗓 Do it 2x per week

🚴 Session examples (sprint, bike, sled):

• 6x (5-second sprint, 15-second rest), rest 2.5 mins, 3-6 times
• 3x (10-second sprint, 30-second rest), rest 2.5 mins, 3-6 times
  

🏋 Session examples (power push-up, kettlebell swing, kettlebell snatch):

• 4x (5 reps, every 30 seconds), rest 2.5 mins, 3-6 times
• 2x (10 reps, every 60 seconds), rest 2.5 mins, 3-6 times
  

You can knock over a session in 15 minutes. Getting power, strength, endurance and maybe most importantly mitochondria benefits.

Long time readers might note the similarities with this and anti-glycolytic training.

If you're interested in this stuff, highly recommend reading The Quick and the Dead.