[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts. Today's topic 

[00:00:06] Josh Kennedy: is do you have Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome? Now, fear not, it isn't a disease, and it is reversible. James. What is Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome? Can you define it for us, please? 

[00:00:19] James Breese: Crikey, in a nutshell, it is basically somebody who has a lack of aerobic base, and low aerobic fitness, essentially.

[00:00:28] James Breese: That's the very bare bone description of what it is. It is someone who is either sedentary, who isn't very fit, but it also can mean somebody who is an athlete. Who concentrates a lot of the time on high intensity, strong, hit type workouts, all the time, but doesn't think about the longevity and they can't recover fast enough.

[00:00:51] James Breese: So, in terms of thinking about your aerobic system, you have the aerobic threshold, and then you have the anaerobic threshold. That's kind of [00:01:00] three zones. You have, uh, between them. So you have the, the base one below the aerobic threshold, that's the aerobic, sub aerobic threshold, that's where you should be living most of the time, it's where we are right now, hopefully, as we talk on this podcast, and if you're sitting listening to this podcast too.

[00:01:15] James Breese: Then you have this middle zone where you try, you go across to this idea of using glucose and fat as a primary, as a mixture of the fuel sources, where below the aerobic threshold is predominantly fat. In the middle is the mixture of the two, and then above the anaerobic threshold is that zone of death where we all hopefully have experienced it one time, and otherwise you just can't keep on going.

[00:01:36] James Breese: It's at a point of no return. So, what most people don't have is that aerobic threshold, that aerobic base, that allows them to recover fast enough. And usually people who suffer from ADS, aerobic deficiency syndrome, they have what we call chronic fatigue. It's a good sign of what happens. Or they struggle to recover from things that they do.

[00:01:56] James Breese: So, athletes who can't recover fast enough from [00:02:00] workout to workout. Uh, people who struggle to recover from workout to workout. We've even had people who've had... Insomnia sometimes as well who struggle to cope with this and it's all about building them up. So it's, it's a mixture of things. Doesn't, doesn't, doesn't mean you're a bad athlete or a poor everyday, everyday athlete or poor human being.

[00:02:18] James Breese: It means you need to be aware of it to train differently because if you do, if we do come across it and we find that you are lacking or have a lack of aerobic base. We've got to train you very differently to somebody who has got this aerobic base. And it can become very, very frustrating, can't it Josh?

[00:02:36] James Breese: As a lot of our clients can... can, uh, testify. 

[00:02:40] Josh Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. I was going to say, um, you can be, or think that you are pretty fit and healthy. As you say, you can be used to exercising at high intensities and everything, but that doesn't mean that you have, don't have aerobic deficiency syndrome. That doesn't mean you have a great base, just because you can do, just because you do HIIT.[00:03:00] 

[00:03:00] Josh Kennedy: Workouts all the time and in actual fact, you probably don't have a great aerobic base for you are training like that all the time. And as you say, um, it is something we come across quite often and, um, you know, there really is only one way to train out of it. Uh, and it is something that can get a little bit frustrating for, for people, but.

[00:03:23] Josh Kennedy: In the long run, we promise, uh, it does pay dividends. James, you want to talk about a little bit about, yeah, how you can, uh, train to reduce aerobic deficiency syndrome. Here's a special message from our sponsor. 

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[00:04:18] James Breese: It's not something you're going to do. You know, it's strength training or you're not going to do this by doing crossfit wads over and over again It just just isn't going to happen You've got to look at this from an aerobic perspective, which means cyclical or non weight bearing activities walking jogging running Etc.

[00:04:34] James Breese: Etc. Those taught side of things are the best ways to make it happen. You can go rowing which is there's an element of strength training in that as well or the assault bike as well But this but ideally walking running swimming cycling those type of activities will help you the most here So very simply you calculate your heart rate Uh using the maffetone method because it was phil maffetone in the 80s that came across and started talking about this for the very first time and trained some of the best [00:05:00] iron men of that generation.

[00:05:01] James Breese: World champions. I think it was Mark Allen, I think it was, he was doing at the time. So you start using that math method, which is 180 minus your age. So if you're 40 years old, it's 180 minus 40. If you have been ill or de trained, you take another 5 off, that becomes 135. Or if you're highly trained, which means you've been doing this for a long time, you can maybe add plus 5.

[00:05:23] James Breese: But on a very simple way, just go 180 minus your age and keep it about there unless you want to go really into the nitty gritty of how you do things. Is it perfect? No. Has it been shown time and time again to be good enough? Yes it is. So we don't want to go too crazy with all these zone 1's, zone 2's, which is all the rage at the moment.

[00:05:42] James Breese: We find this is a much more accurate way of doing it and it's consistent. It's consistently more accurate because we're using the same methodology each time. So then you go for a walk, keep your heart rate below 140 if you're 40 years old. Go for a run, keep your heart rate below 140, ideally between [00:06:00] 130 and 140.

[00:06:00] James Breese: If you go over, slow down, keep on going. Will it be frustrating? Absolutely. Right? How long will it take to get there? You're talking three to six months to start to see improvements. And it's going to be terrible and you're not going to enjoy yourself for a while as you transition to this new style of training.

[00:06:16] Josh Kennedy: And you're going to message your trainer and say, Do I have to do 

[00:06:19] James Breese: this anymore? All the time, right? We get it all the time. But, we're thinking of your health and we're thinking of your performance. Because what we're doing is by improving that aerobic base, that aerobic threshold. Getting away from being, having ADS essentially, that's not, not ADH, it's ADS, right, into this world here now.

[00:06:36] James Breese: It allows you to recover faster, which means we can push you harder in those higher intensity exercises, and you can recover faster and you can do more of them, basically. So that's, that's really, really key. And again, and when we see, we say this before, like a lot of people that tend to have chronic fatigue who have this, we also see a lot of people who are fit, but they can't carry a high body fat percentage too.

[00:06:57] James Breese: Because we want to try and use fat as a primary [00:07:00] fuel source, and doing this, and if you're carrying a high fat, it means you're less efficient. That's the theory behind it. I know people can argue the case between this, but that's kind of the theory behind it, which we see a lot of, what's the word, I think we see a lot of people like this coming in through our, into our world.

[00:07:16] James Breese: Anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal, I think is a very good way to put it. So, that's, that's the way we see it. So, that's the way you train it. Nice and easy. And you're going for volume, as opposed to intensity. That's the key. 

[00:07:27] Josh Kennedy: Yes, indeed. Volume, volume, volume. Um, and I think that's where people get sometimes, do get a bit frustrated, because they have to do this, uh, A lot of repetitions for, for a while, as you say, at least it varies person to person, but three to six months minimum, I would say, but the great thing is, and I think we've noticed this with clients is, I think at the point where it just starts getting frustrating, we see then a turning point and they're like, Oh, that, that felt easy.

[00:07:52] Josh Kennedy: I could keep my heart rate lower that time. I can go a bit faster. I'm. Sleeping better, I can recover better, and there is that, would you say there is that little [00:08:00] turning point for most 

[00:08:00] James Breese: people? Yeah, there is, definitely, and you see it as well, when they start to see the stats, so for example... Let's take somebody who runs 10k with an average heart rate of 162 in 30 minutes, just, just to use it nice and easily, right?

[00:08:14] James Breese: When somebody runs that same 30, you know, 30 minute 5k with that average heart rate of 140, they're going to feel great at the end of it. And that's the whole point, you should be finishing your workouts like as if you could do it again, and like repeat it over and over and over again. So that's the, that's the most important thing.

[00:08:30] James Breese: They tend to find. They fall in love with cardiovascular exercise better because it becomes more sustainable and more manageable And you don't feel like death at the end because again Most people get a lot of pick on the runners look at looking around the local parks and how they run They're usually blowing out their arses, right?

[00:08:47] James Breese: They're gasping for air. They're craving the gel They're craving sugars and they go and eat cake afterwards, right? That shouldn't be the case. They do they go for a run They literally oh my god, I need sugars to replenish all the fuel. We're not saying 

[00:08:59] Josh Kennedy: there's anything [00:09:00] wrong with cake, 

[00:09:00] James Breese: by the way. It's fun, like I definitely, I went for a massive trail run, I had cake after my trail run on the weekend.

[00:09:05] James Breese: So it's, you know, definitely, but you shouldn't be craving it and it becomes a source of efficiency for fuel and movement. And we need to make in that, in the endurance world. We need to make fat your primary source of fuel to allow you to go for longer, stronger, harder, faster, and become more viable. What we call metabolically more flexible, I think.

[00:09:26] James Breese: So you need to use both. You don't want to focus on the carb side of things, which is approximately 2, 000 calories, I think it is. Is what they say, before it depletes, whereas fat is non limited fuel storage. So that's what we're thinking of. So aerobic deficiency syndrome is your ability and your, uh, basically your aerobic base fitness and most people don't have it and they really struggle and they can't hit those bigger numbers because they're always pushing and trying to harder, faster for longer.

[00:09:55] Josh Kennedy: Yeah, exactly. And we want you to train for health and longevity. And as you say, James, [00:10:00] be metabolically flexible. I like that term, which is a nice way to wrap up. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you want to find out more about our system of training, go to strength matters dot com forward slash system and get our free ebook.