History Channel's "Ancient Workouts" Features Florida Atlantic Faculty Expert

April, 2022

The History Channel’s “Ancient Workouts” show recently featured Michael Zourdos, Ph.D., FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Chair and Professor for the Department of Exercise Science and Health Promotion, to discuss the strength and endurance training of ancient Apache warriors. 

The Apache warriors emphasized endurance training as part of their regular workouts and were considered some of the strongest fighters of their time. Many of today’s athletes are concerned that including cardiovascular exercise into their program will blunt the effects of strength training. This is commonly known as the “interference effect.”

“Aerobic exercise and endurance training together is called concurrent training,” said Dr. Zourdos. “The ‘interference effect’ of aerobic exercise occurs when [it’s] done to a large degree and ‘interferes’ with resistance training adaptations.”

Dr. Zourdos went on to explain that the effect can be minimized by adjusting the amount of aerobic training and striking the right balance between the two modalities. To view the complete episode and Dr. Zourdos’ full interview, click here. 

Interested in helping to train today’s athletes? The Department of Exercise Science and Health Promotion offers some of the most popular undergraduate and graduate degrees at Florida Atlantic. To learn more about the program offerings, click here.