Make me vomit!

May 31, 2007 6:54 PM

I want you to help make me vomit!

So, summer is upon us and that means two things: grilling and rugby sevens. I play rugby through out the year, but sevens is a bit of a different beast and as such I need to move a lot faster than I do now. I already do the lifting and cardio parts on my own, but I am looking to throw in high intensity interval training (HIIT) to develop greater speed and endurance.

I need help figuring out some good programs though, as most information I have found online can be summarized as "Run fast for a little bit, then jog for a little bit, repeat." I have some criteria though:

*I want to do this on my feet, no bikes or rowers or other such machines.
*It shouldn't use any equipment.
*It can be performed on a stretch of road or a field. I don't have track access.
*It has to be intense. At the end of most lifting or cardio workouts, I want to vomit. I want this to be the same, if not even more intense.

So, there you go. Be creative, I'm looking forward to some interesting workouts!

posted by Loto to health & fitness (17 comments total)

Ask your Coach or doctor and/or therapist. I don't understand why you want to work through a vomiting stage, even with rehydrating, you could die.

Or: Trespass alone on lands guarded by dogs and run for your life from them, vomit to distract them, climb trees and let your pulse settle, then do it again.
posted by longsleeves at 7:27 PM on May 31, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I want this to be the same, if not even more intense.

Ask a psychiatrist. Seriously, this doesn't sound healthy.
posted by dhammond at 7:30 PM on May 31, 2007

I should note that the point in which I will vomit in a workout is lower than the average Joe's due to a chronic post nasal drip that is aggravated even further through exercise. So, the more I exercise, the more snot that ends up in my stomach. Lovely, isn't it?

I've talked to my coach, my doctor, and my trainer about this already. I don't actually vomit all the time, probably about once a month, but I get to the point where I feel like I would if I do any more. I also take extra care with hydration both before, during, and after any sort of training.

So, I appreciate the concern, but don't worry, I won't hurt myself because if I do that I can't play rugby anymore!
posted by Loto at 7:38 PM on May 31, 2007

The training you describe may satisfy your masochistic urges but it may not result in anything like the performance increases you are hoping for. However, in biking the answer is hill work and the same is probably true if you are on your feet. Find a hill, run up it, rinse and repeat. You'll be puking just fine.

You don't want to bike, which is fine, but I can tell you that mountain biking on a gnarly trail with some really tough climbs will spike your HR more than you can believe and far more than trail running or anything like that. Puke on demand.
posted by sweet mister at 7:42 PM on May 31, 2007

Running cross country, there were two grueling workouts: Track workout and Hill workouts.

For track (aka interval) workouts, the idea is to run balls to the wall for 'x' period of time or distance and then lightly JOG (not stop/walk) for a fairly short time/distance.
For example, say we were going mile intervals and my PR was 5:00. We'd run a 5:30 or so, cooldown for 1/4 mile, and repeat 6 times.
On the other end, we did 400 meter interval (1/4 mile) at a 60-65 sec clip and do the light job for 100 meters. Adjust time/distances to your desire and rinse and repeat 12 to 16 times (or as much as takes to die).

While those were grueling, a good hill workout can make a grown man cry.
Find a constant uphill stretch of space. Ours was about 2/5 mile. Run it. I mean, book it up there where at the top, you're ready to relax and slow down. Of course, you get a chance to at the top of the hill as your JOG down the hill. Repeat. You should be able to repeat this around 12 times at a fairly good clip without actually throwing up (assuming you're not prone to it).

Interval training (particularly over shorter distances) is good for speed. Hill workouts rawk for endurance and being able to run like a wild man for extended periods of time. If learn to run up hills sprinting, you sure as hell will be able to do it on a flat surface.

There's also specific training for your fast twitch muscles for burst speed a sprinter would be more knowledgeable of, but a sprinter I am not.
posted by jmd82 at 7:49 PM on May 31, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I promise you that standard HIIT (sprint for 30 seconds, jog for 30 seconds, repeat 4-5 times, walk for a couple minutes, try it again) will kick your ass.
If you want to mix it up you can try something like sprint for 2 minutes, do pushups/squats/burpees for 2 minutes, repeat 5 times. If you can roughly map out a stretch of 400m or so, run 400m and do < insert bodyweight exercise here for reps> 3-5 sets for time is another ass-kicker.
posted by ch1x0r at 7:54 PM on May 31, 2007

Oh, one more thing, I really don't recommend doing this more than a couple times a week. It is really hard on the body, you will need to recover for a couple days in between.
posted by ch1x0r at 8:00 PM on May 31, 2007

jmd82 and ch1x0r are on it.

one other thing i enjoy having in the rotation is kinda like one already mentioned. I do burpee countdowns prison style, start at 20, then do 19, then 18 and so on, but instead of "walking to the other side of the yard" i do 100-400 meter (depending on how i'm feeling and what i've been doing in previous workouts) max speed sprints between sets of burpees. its one of the most nauseating workouts i do.
posted by teishu at 8:11 PM on May 31, 2007

This is not insane-- this is RUGBY!

Hell yea, I just got back from sevens practice myself...

I second Jmd82, to make yourself quicker, run up hills. Mountains are good-- back when I used to run cross country we ran up mountains-- but for sports like soccer and rugby you really just need an incline, almost any incline will do, 25 to 400 meters long-- although if the hill is shorter then it should be steeper...

We were actually discussing this at practice the other day... Indeed you need to develop your fast twitch muscles. And, okay, I might not be explaining this 100% correctly but from what I understand you can either do this via plyometrics or you can run up hills.

Now, I would recommend plyometrics because if you don't have any hills handy, well, you don't really have a choice. But I have never known plyometrics to make anyone throw up, whereas I've seen hills make people throw up many times.

So yea, you can either find a nice small or medium sized hill and just sprint up, jog down, as many times as you like or you could find a small mountain and sprint/jog up it in like 30 second intervals.

Is everybody happy, now?
posted by emmatwofour at 8:27 PM on May 31, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

One more thing: If you truly insane, you could try the beep test.
posted by emmatwofour at 8:29 PM on May 31, 2007

longsleeves writes "I don't understand why you want to work through a vomiting stage, even with rehydrating, you could die."

I really don't understand this. Many physical activities made me vomit or almost vomit in high school, and I was a very fit athlete with no health problems. Timed mile, running lines, the 100m and 4x100m on race day. If you don't feel like puking when you are finished with those feats, you are not giving 100%.
posted by peep at 8:47 PM on May 31, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Some genius that I work with got inspired by the '300' workout, that those buff guys were doing to get in shape for the movie.

He wound up in the hospital with rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure.

Take it easy
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 9:29 PM on May 31, 2007

One more thing: If you truly insane, you could try the beep test.

That is insane, they used to make us do it in high school as part of 'fitness testing' - I've never seen anyone get beyond 16.
posted by cholly at 10:43 PM on May 31, 2007

Yes! Sevens! I need to get in shape for sevens this summer too, probably moreso than you since I play prop. We just finished our regular season, so I'm taking a week off until the off season training.
posted by electroboy at 10:54 PM on May 31, 2007

Peak Performance, Previously an FPP. Some interesting workouts, many of them sports specific, including rugby. Pretty ad-heavy, though.
posted by Jakey at 3:07 AM on June 1, 2007

Oh, one more thing, I really don't recommend doing this more than a couple times a week. It is really hard on the body, you will need to recover for a couple days in between.

I meant to say this in my original post and it bears repeating. You need to give your body time to recuperate from intense workouts- preferably not by just resting, but rather with a less-intense workout. For us, it was just running long distances at a steady pace without feeling dead at the end.
posted by jmd82 at 5:50 AM on June 1, 2007

All of the suggestions so far are great, and I am looking forward to trying them out.

I know this sort of training is hell on the body, so I am only going to be doing it once a week, twice if I am replacing a lifting day with it. If twice, always more than 48 hours between. The rest of my endurance/speed work is just steady state cardio, either running or on a rower depending on how my joints are feeling.

I'm very glad at least some people understand where I'm coming from, though.
posted by Loto at 8:16 AM on June 1, 2007