I’m starting to surprise if I’m the one individual on the planet who has really tried the Sugarcane exercise. You may learn and listen to about it wherever: an Andrew Huberman podcast propelled it to web fame, there are many blogs describing the protocol, and you’ll’t scroll health TikTok very lengthy with out coming throughout a clip of Huberman touting it. However in contrast to different stylish exercises just like the Norwegian 4×4 or the 12-3-30, I couldn’t discover many individuals saying they’d really achieved the Sugarcane exercise, a lot much less loved it or seen outcomes. So I needed to attempt it for myself.
What’s the Sugarcane (or Sugar Kane) exercise?
The Sugarcane exercise is a collection of intervals described by Andy Galpin (on Huberman’s podcast). He says he realized it from coach Kenny Kane, which leads Huberman to dub it the Sugarcane (Sugar Kane?) exercise. Right here is the clip through which Galpin initially describes the exercise.
The Sugarcane exercise is usually described as a HIIT exercise or a VO2max exercise, however Galpin doesn’t use both time period. It is an interval exercise, although, with brief segments that you simply do at excessive depth, with rests in between.
Galpin says that it may be achieved with any size of interval, however solely walks by way of an instance of methods to do it with two-minute intervals. This exercise doesn’t appear to have been revealed elsewhere, so all we actually should go on is that this brief interview clip. Right here’s how he describes it within the podcast:
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Spherical 1: run (or bike, row, and so forth.) so far as you’ll be able to in two minutes. Word the space you lined.
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Relaxation two minutes
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Spherical 2: run (or bike, row, and so forth.) for a similar distance as spherical 1. Count on this to take barely longer than spherical 1.
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Relaxation two minutes
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Spherical 3: run (or bike, row, and so forth.) for a similar time as spherical 2. Purpose to beat your authentic distance from spherical 1.
So if you happen to lined 400 meters (one lap of a observe) in spherical 1, you may take 2:05 to cowl that very same distance in spherical 2. You’ll then must run for two:05 within the third spherical, aiming to cowl 401 meters or extra.
The way it went once I tried it
I selected to do that on foot, operating on a flat gravel observe. Ought to be fairly easy, proper? Only a good little night of operating intervals. Welp, I bumped into a number of issues.
No simple technique to program it in an app or watch
My first downside was that there was no simple technique to program the exercise on my telephone or watch. Within the Garmin Join app, I can create time-based or distance-based intervals, so the primary two-minute spherical is simple sufficient. However I can’t program the second interval as distance-based once I don’t know the space forward of time. And I can’t program the third interval as time-based, both, since I don’t know the time forward of time!
This can be a exercise that may really be simpler on a Eighties-style wristwatch, however regardless of the way you do it, you’ll must pay attention to the time and distance for every interval as you do it—for instance, hitting your watch’s lap button whereas additionally noting precisely which tree you’re operating previous. I’m not assured I’d have that many mind cells obtainable on the finish of a tough effort, however I’m positive somebody has managed to do it.
So I programmed it into the Garmin anyway. I set the primary interval as 2 minutes, every restoration as 2 minutes, and the opposite two work intervals as “till lap button press.” I additionally created an information display that would present me the earlier lap time and distance subsequent to the present lap time and distance. I’m all set. Let’s go!
It’s a whole lot of fuss for 3 very comparable intervals
It occurred to me that it could be very potential to sandbag this exercise and fail to get the supposed stimulus. Galpin says that “if you happen to slack, you make the subsequent spherical tougher,” however that doesn’t appear to be the case—extra about that under. I made a decision I used to be not going to slack. I’d do my greatest to run every interval at a near-maximal effort. Listed here are my splits:
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Spherical 1, two minutes: 0.27 miles
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Spherical 2, 0.27 miles: 2:06 minutes
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Spherical 3, 2:06: …I’m not precisely positive. I attempted to cease my watch at 2:06 however really stopped it at 2:07. I did make the 0.27 mile goal, although. That’s about 434 meters.
I give myself an A+ on pacing. For comparability, Galpin stated in his instance that if you happen to get 400 meters in spherical 1, you may cowl the identical 400 meters in 2:05 or 2:10, and that within the third spherical you’ll attempt to goal for 405 or 410. My watch doesn’t distinguish 5- or 10-meter increments, so I did about the most effective I might beneath the circumstances.
For Christ’s sake, simply do regular intervals
I completed this exercise questioning, what was the purpose? I might get just about the similar stimulus from a conventional runner’s exercise of time-based or distance-based intervals with a goal tempo or goal coronary heart fee.
For instance, I might have given myself “3×400 @ interval tempo,” the place “interval tempo” means a tempo that feels exhausting for that distance however nonetheless permits me to run all of my intervals in about the identical time. Not solely do runners do that on a regular basis (no must reinvent the wheel), you’ll be able to even use a vdot calculator like this one to let you know precisely what tempo to goal for. I plugged in a latest race time, and the calculator gave me a goal of two:04 for 400-meter intervals. That’s virtually precisely the identical as my common tempo over the three Sugarcane intervals. Why didn’t I simply do that?
One other technique to do intervals is to make them time-based. Two minutes exhausting, two minutes restoration, repeat. If you happen to’re utilizing a operating watch, you’ll be able to select a goal tempo right here as nicely. In my case, my two-minute interval tempo can be virtually similar to my 400-meter tempo. In case you are a sooner or slower runner, it will likely be a bit completely different for you, however you’ll be able to both do some math to resolve on a goal, or simply go by effort or coronary heart fee. My coronary heart fee averaged virtually precisely 85% of max on these intervals, if that offers you a way of what to goal for.
This regular method additionally teaches you to observe pacing: as a substitute of crashing and burning on the primary interval since you’re attempting to exit at “max effort” (after which being quite a bit slower on later intervals), you run the primary interval realizing that you simply’ll should match it three or 4 or seven extra instances on solely two minutes’ relaxation.
How do you progress the Sugarcane exercise?
Right here’s some extent of confusion. Within the interview, after the Sugarcane exercise is described and named, Huberman asks Galpin methods to progress the exercises he’s been speaking about. Galpin describes including extra work or further rounds, however his reply is fairly clearly not relevant to the Sugarcane exercise. He talks about revealed analysis (the Sugarcane exercise has not been formally researched, so far as I might discover) and talks about utilizing a 2:1 rest-to-work ratio (the Sugarcane exercise as described makes use of a 1:1 ratio).
The Sugarcane exercise is described as a one-off, a enjoyable little sport you’ll be able to play with your self if you’re doing a exercise. It’s not a exercise that’s backed by analysis or that you simply’re speculated to do a sure variety of instances per week (like, say, the Norwegian 4×4). It doesn’t have a built-in development scheme. It additionally appears to crumble fairly simply if you happen to don’t push your self on every spherical.
Then again, if you happen to do common runners’ intervals (400s, or 600s, or two-minute intervals), it’s simple to progress them. Simply add a spherical every time you do the exercise, till you’re doing about 8 at a time. At that time it’s possible you’ll wish to swap to a distinct exercise (say, 800s as a substitute of 400s, or hill repeats as a substitute of observe intervals) relying in your coaching objectives.
How typically ought to I do the Sugarcane exercise?
Galpin doesn’t say. Huberman suggests doing it as soon as each two to 4 weeks as a result of it’s so intense. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense—three two-minute intervals, even if you happen to run the primary one all-out, gained’t take you a number of weeks to get well from.
In additional conventional operating or cardio programming, you’ll do intervals like these a few times per week, however not all the time the identical exercise every time. For instance, you might need a tough exercise day each Wednesday, and alternate between observe intervals, tempo runs, and hill repeats.
If you happen to actually wish to do the Sugarcane exercise—and I feel it is best to, if solely as a result of I did it and distress loves firm—you may do it as soon as per week. Or, higher but, as soon as in your life after which transfer on to regular intervals.
How does the Sugarcane exercise be sure you work exhausting?
That’s the factor. It doesn’t, actually. Galpin says that if you happen to slack off on any spherical, you’ll make the subsequent spherical tougher—however I don’t see how that’s the case until you might be attempting to run your hardest every time, through which case you’re not slacking off in any respect. For instance, after protecting 400 meters in spherical 1, you may merely stroll 400 meters for spherical 2. Perhaps that takes you 5 minutes. Then in spherical three you’d simply should stroll a smidge sooner to have the ability to cowl 401 meters in 5 minutes. That’s not three exhausting intervals, that’s one exhausting interval and two leisurely strolls.
Once more, common intervals would work higher for this. Give your self three two-minute rounds of “run as exhausting as you’ll be able to whereas leaving sufficient within the tank to do it once more” and also you’ve eliminated any guidelines that reward you for sandbagging.
I feel the factor that bugs me most about this exercise is that it assumes you want to gamify a exercise to push your self, however the guidelines of the sport don’t require you to push your self. The one factor retaining you sincere is your need to run three exhausting intervals, through which case it is best to simply run three exhausting intervals.
