SESSION NOTES: Relative Stamina (774-778)

This session contains two upper body push based movements (each training different planes of movement) and two upper body pull based movements (each training different planes of movement).

The push movements and the pull movements alternate, which has two effects. Firstly, there is some degree of recovery between movements of a similar type to maximise volume. Secondly, there is a ‘blood shunting’ effect, where your body is required to deliver oxygen and fuel, and remove waste, from large and alternating muscle beds.

This blood shunting means there will be a cardiorespiratory benefit, and you will have the added challenge of training with high levels of hydrogen ions (the acid feeling you get from high intensity exercise) in your system, and not just under localised muscular fatigue.

The use of the gymnastics rings adds a stability requirement to the strength and stamina focus.

This session is a form of resistance training that provides a stimulus with lighter loads and higher volume than an absolute strength or power based session. While the high levels of fatigue in this session makes it less effective to increase strength and power, it will improve your stamina – the ability of your muscles to resist fatigue.

Often, higher repetition movements are neglected for the upper body (while walking/cycling etc are included for the lower body), but by including these higher repetition upper body movements, we’re helping to develop blood vessels in the upper body which will help reduce cardiovascular risk factors.

High repetition resistance training like this will also improve your flexibility (by going through a full range of motion), posture and coordination. It will also build stability around your joints and spine to give you a healthy musculo-skeletal system and reduce joint and back pain. These movements will also help develop tendon strength.

The use of the rings places a strong focus on unilateral strength and balance. Whereas ‘non-ring’ versions of these movements may mask any imbalances, the rings ensure that both sides of the body are working evenly. Additionally, there is a strong need for joint stability in order to stabilise the moving rings, which is beneficial for joint health.

Although this session is not designed with cardiovascular training as its priority, the higher repetitions do mean there is a crossover to cardiovascular benefits. These include improved cardiovascular endurance, respiratory function and cardiac health.

As a result of this style of session, you will experience changes in blood chemistry, including favourable effects on cholesterol, blood glucose, triglyceride and lipid levels.

In terms of body composition, higher repetition, lower load movements are an important part of an exercise program for increasing lean muscle. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue, so increasing it will maximise how much energy your body burns at rest. This makes it an effective session to reach healthy levels of body fat, both visceral fat (around the organs) and subcutaneous fat (under your skin). After this session, your body will go through a prolonged state of ‘EPOC’ (excess post- exercise oxygen consumption), meaning you’ll continue burning energy long after you finish training – further aiding healthy body composition.

The high repetition movements in this session train the ability of your muscles to resist fatigue – increasing their stamina. This comes from improvements in the efficiency of slow twitch (fatigue resistant) muscle fibres.

As a result of the volume of repetitions, this session will increase the mitochondrial density in your muscle cells, allowing them to more efficiently convert energy into fuel. This means you can sustain higher rates of muscle contraction before fatigue or failure.

The higher volumes will also increase capillary density in your muscles, allowing for efficient delivery of oxygen and fuel, and removal of waste products (further adding to the fatigue resistance).

The strength balance that will be promoted by the use of rings will have a carry-over effect to ‘non-ring’ versions of these movements. And the use of the rings will build shoulder stability, which is vital as a base from which to generate strength and power.

Although this session is not designed with cardiovascular training as its priority, the higher repetitions do mean there is a crossover to cardiovascular benefits. These include improved cardiovascular endurance, respiratory function, intramuscular substrate storage (increasing energy availability for muscle contractions) and increased enzyme activities (increasing the rate of energy delivery to the muscles).

The aim should be to make this session as ‘aerobic’ as possible, which is achieved by completing short sets with short breaks. Cycle quickly between different movements, alternating between pushing and pulling exercises. If you have to break a set of one movement, instead of resting then resuming that movement, go straight onto another exercise.

Although this session will get cardiovascular, the limiting factor here should be localised muscular endurance, meaning the muscles will be burning and it will be difficult to complete reps towards the end of each exercise.

The intent of this session is to achieve high repetitions with very little rest, so scale as required to achieve this. Scale the load (with some form of assistance) rather than the range of motion. You should scale the movements so you are doing no less than unbroken sets of five.

If you’re scaling using band assistance, do not attach the band to the rings, as this will remove the stability requirements (and therefore benefits) of the session.

Modify around injuries with exercises as close as possible to the stimulus of the movement you’re modifying.

Completing a large set initially will reduce the overall volume you can achieve. Keep the sets short, with the transition times short. Ensure all movements are of a similar difficulty (scale to achieve this if needed).

If you’re scaling using band assistance, do not attach the band to the rings, as this will remove the stability requirements (and therefore benefits) of the session.