OK, this is the bit of Tactical Barbell that convinced me that I needed to do the "boring" stuff (thankfully much less boring since the weather improved and I can run outside!)
"At this time, the concept that aerobic work was evil came to my attention. I read that long steady state work was to be avoided, and that I could get highly conditioned by focusing on short intense sessions, things like sprints, burpees, or a mix of both. Not only would my training be brief, around 20 minutes or less, but within that 20 minutes of intense work, I’d be getting ‘better’ conditioning than if I worked for hours. Supposedly, aerobic work was actually lowering my strength, and taking away my explosive power. I could also expect to get skinny-fat because of the muscle loss, due to a slower metabolism. I loved it. Because. One, I wasn’t particularly fond of long steady state work. Two, the logic behind the ‘no endurance’ approach made sense to me. Get ultimate conditioning in only 20 minutes or less?? Who wouldn’t want to believe that? Plus I was always naturally better at the anaerobic stuff than that endurance work anyway. I was no longer in the military, so I wasn’t being forced to go on fun-runs or ruck marches. This made it very easy for me to dump the long-steady-state work. It was great. I was lifting three days a week, and doing brief ‘cardio’ sessions. Instead of slogging through 2-6 mile runs, I was doing sprints and other short met-con style workouts. My training was finished up in around 20 minutes, and afterward, I felt great. And the variety! Compare burpees, hill sprints, and sledgehammers, to simply pounding the pavement at the same monotonous pace for an hour. No contest. Unfortunately, no matter how good something feels or sounds, you have to stop and look at the results once in a while. Here’s what happened when I stopped and took a hard look at my results. After a couple years of just strength training and anaerobic work, this is where I ended up; My 1.5 mile time had crept up to over 10 minutes. I could squeeze out a 9:45 if I absolutely had to, but it was a challenge that required extra prep. That’s a far cry from my old peak times of 8:30-8:45. The 1.5 mile is a very common fitness test in the tactical community and is considered a measure of cardiovascular conditioning. My time was putting me in the ‘diesel’ category. Unacceptable. I used to run 5km in 19-21 minutes. Now I was struggling to finish in 26-28 with much effort. Operations were becoming tiring. In the past, it was nothing for me to carry heavy loads and patrol or work for hours. Now I felt fatigued, far more fatigued than I should have. I was doing far less physical work in law enforcement than in the military. There was a constant background feeling of fatigue, during my daily routine activities. I just felt plain tired most of the time. In the weight room, I was just going through the motions. In the past I’d have a feeling of motivation, a kind of fiery energy before lifting. Now I felt stale, and stagnant. I was no longer at the head of the pack during longer distance unit ‘fun runs’. Once in a while I’d go running or hiking with non-‘tactical’ members, and I’d be the one struggling! I was also developing a nice little layer of fat around my belly I couldn’t seem to shake. Initially I thought I just needed to train harder. So I buckled down on the cardiovascular work. I pushed the intensity. I increased the number of sessions per week. I’d do things like wear a gas mask and go for short hard intervals or do ultra-high rep kettlebell swings. I’d throw in frequent Tabata work. So what was the end result of all that? No change. I still felt like someone had removed my gas tank and had installed a smaller, less efficient one. I had become heavier and older, but I refused to believe that was the cause. There were plenty of athletes my age or older with just as much muscle mass outperforming me. Something in my approach was off. But I couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it was diet, maybe I should start eating paleo. Maybe I needed to double my carbs. Maybe I needed to cut out all my carbs. Maybe I needed more vitamin D or BCAAs. Nope. It was none of those things. I ended up in a conversation that pointed me in the right direction. It was with a close friend from prior military days. A Tier 1 special operations soldier and who was frequently involved in running selection courses for his elite unit. These selections were designed to weed out the weak, unsuitable, and unmotivated. A class that started with 35-40 candidates would end up with maybe 5 still standing when it was all over. During our talk, he stated that he was seeing more and more candidates lacking in one major quality: Endurance, or more specifically a strong aerobic system. More and more recruits were preparing for selection by focusing only on training the anaerobic systems. Short, high intensity stuff, because it was marketed as ‘functional’ and ‘elite’. They’d show up for selection looking fit, but couldn’t make it through the long hours of constant activity, and sleep deprivation. They had conditioned themselves to perform at a high level for about 20 minutes at a time. Anything longer or more drawn out, they’d fatigue, and ultimately fail or give up. This is exactly how I’d been training for the past few years. Around the same time I came across resources aimed at mixed martial artists. Articles and books by respected strength and conditioning coaches like Joel Jamieson, who debunked the ‘anaerobic only’ approach to training. They were advocating an intelligent return to roadwork. Mixed martial artists and tactical athletes are similar. They have to be skilled in multiple fitness domains. Things were starting to come together. I examined my own experience. It matched with what I was learning. The elusive obvious finally clicked into place. In the past, when I had trained general endurance on a regular basis, I was in far better shape overall. The difference was night and day. My current ‘symptoms’ matched having a poorly developed aerobic system. So, I decided to put it to the test, and slowly re-introduced long-steady-state and other types of aerobic work. Fast-forward again, several months later. I reduced my 1.5 mile time to a low 9 minute range. I had far more energy in and out of the weight room. My short high intensity anaerobic sessions improved dramatically, they felt easier, and my performance improved significantly. I brought my 10km/6 mile run time back down to 47 minutes (it had deteriorated to close to an hour). My resting heart rate dropped from around 69-74 to around 50-52. (It’s currently in the high 40s). I reduced my bodyfat levels. The benefits continued, and my performance progressively improved over the years. Surprisingly, my muscle did not disappear. I had no reduction in maximum strength. On the contrary, I had far more energy with the barbells, kettlebells, and everything else. The only change I had made in my training, was the intelligent addition of long steady state, aerobic training. Key word intelligent. If you’re not a marathon runner or endurance athlete, you need the right dose of aerobic training. Not too much, not too little. When you do too much in relation to your specific goals, then some of those aerobic ‘side effects’ DO become a cause for concern. If you overdo it, there certainly are implications to health, hormone levels, joints and loss of lean body mass. Alternatively, when you do too little, you limit your performance and fitness levels, and you lose the health benefits."