Body by Science: can mine measure up?

It is ironic that given my age and condition -- over 60 and with a chronic illness -- my short sharp bursts of full on intense exercise  exertion don't necessarily extend me as much as I'd hoped.

I'm too 'fit' for my own good perhaps?

...or I'm stifled by a limit to how far my musculature and breathing will serve me.

Yesterday, I had to get to round six among eight before I was beginning to gasp for reserves. What can I do to challenge myself more so that I am struggling earlier?

This was boxing so I have limited options I can use  to up the intensity. I can only punch harder and faster.

The other thing is that I don't do the euphemistic 'warm-up' as I am active before hand and I don't want to detract from the session itself. I've wondered about this warm-up business. Its' not stretching as that is now considered passe.

It's muscular/skeletal saute-ing I guess. But to what  effect? Injury prevention? Is that it? But I don 't suffer from injury. In  Tabata and Interval Training you alternate intense stress with relaxation/inactivity.

So that the systems aren't over taxed? But that's the point isn't it: to engineer a sharp, quick rise in stress?

The problem is that with High Intensity Interval Training like this the research isn't quite consolidated. The parameters seem to me to be pot shots rather than absolute rulings. A researched option is the so called "Little" method.(This is aligned to the Body by Science perspective)

An alternative regimen based on a 2009 study^[4] uses 60 seconds of intense exercise (at 95% of VO₂max) followed by 75 seconds of rest, repeated for 8–12 cycles. Subjects using this method trained 3 times per week, and obtained gains similar to what would be expected from subjects who did steady state (50–70% VO₂max) training for five times per week. While still a demanding form of training, this exercise protocol could be used by the general public with nothing more than an average exercise bike.

My problem is that while I trained in Physiology in the 1980s, research is now so complex and cellular  that I'm a bit befuddled by the terminology. However, Body by Science is a useful anchor in all this  and I am keen to re-read this book and study it more carefully.

So me, I'm an experiment...

Doug McGuff, MD (co-author with John Little of the book Body By Science)  speaks about failed fitness attempts and common thinking errors we all make in assessing authority in exercise.