I am beginning to wonder if I’m the only person on the planet who has actually tried the Sugarcane workout. You can read and hear about it anywhere: an Andrew Huberman podcast propelled it to internet fame, there are plenty of blogs describing the protocol, and you can’t scroll fitness TikTok very long without coming across a clip of Huberman touting it. But unlike other trendy workouts like the Norwegian 4×4 or the 12-3-30, I couldn’t find many people saying they had actually done the Sugarcane workout, much less enjoyed it or seen results. So I had to try it for myself.

What is the Sugarcane (or Sugar Kane) workout? 

The Sugarcane workout is a series of intervals described by Andy Galpin (on Huberman’s podcast). He says he learned it from trainer Kenny Kane, which leads Huberman to dub it the Sugarcane (Sugar Kane?) workout. Here is the clip in which Galpin originally describes the workout. 

The Sugarcane workout is sometimes described as a HIIT workout or a VO2max workout, but Galpin doesn’t use either term. It is an interval workout, though, with short segments that you do at high intensity, with rests in between. 

Galpin says that it can be done with any length of interval, but only walks through an example of how to do it with two-minute intervals. This workout doesn’t seem to have been published elsewhere, so all we really have to go on is this short interview clip. Here’s how he describes it in the podcast: 

• Round 1: run (or bike, row, etc.) as far as you can in two minutes. Note the distance you covered.

• Rest two minutes

• Round 2: run (or bike, row, etc.) for the same distance as round 1. Expect this to take slightly longer than round 1. 

• Rest two minutes

• Round 3: run (or bike, row, etc.) for the same time as round 2. Aim to beat your original distance from round 1.

So if you covered 400 meters (one lap of a track) in round 1, you might take 2:05 to cover that same distance in round 2. You’ll then need to run for 2:05 in the third round, aiming to cover 401 meters or more. 

How it went when I tried it

I chose to do this on foot, running on a flat gravel track. Should be pretty simple, right? Just a nice little evening of running intervals. Welp, I ran into a few problems.

No easy way to program it in an app or watch

My first problem was that there was no easy way to program the workout on my phone or watch. In the Garmin Connect app, I can create time-based or distance-based intervals, so the first two-minute round is easy enough. But I can’t program the second interval as distance-based when I don’t know the distance ahead of time. And I can’t program the third interval as time-based, either, since I don’t know the time ahead of time!

This is a workout that might actually be easier on a 1980s-style wristwatch, but no matter how you do it, you’ll need to take note of the time and distance for each interval as you do it—for example, hitting your watch’s lap button while also noting exactly which tree you’re running past. I’m not confident I’d have that many brain cells available at the end of a hard effort, but I’m sure someone has managed to do it.

So I programmed it into the Garmin anyway. I set the first interval as 2 minutes, each recovery as 2 minutes, and the other two work intervals as “until lap button press.” I also created a data screen that could show me the previous lap time and distance next to the current lap time and distance. I’m all set. Let’s go! 

It’s a lot of fuss for three very similar intervals

It occurred to me that it would be very possible to sandbag this workout and fail to get the intended stimulus. Galpin says that “if you slack, you make the next round harder,” but that doesn’t seem to be the case—more about that below. I decided I was not going to slack. I would do my best to run each interval at a near-maximal effort. Here are my splits: 

• Round 1, two minutes: 0.27 miles

• Round 2, 0.27 miles: 2:06 minutes

• Round 3, 2:06: …I’m not exactly sure. I tried to stop my watch at 2:06 but actually stopped it at 2:07. I did make the 0.27 mile target, though. That’s about 434 meters.

I give myself an A+ on pacing. For comparison, Galpin said in his example that if you get 400 meters in round 1, you might cover the same 400 meters in 2:05 or 2:10, and that in the third round you would try to aim for 405 or 410. My watch doesn’t distinguish 5- or 10-meter increments, so I did about the best I could under the circumstances.

For Christ’s sake, just do normal intervals

I finished this workout wondering, what was the point? I could get pretty much the identical stimulus from a traditional runner’s workout of time-based or distance-based intervals with a target pace or target heart rate. 

For example, I could have given myself “3×400 @ interval pace,” where “interval pace” means a pace that feels hard for that distance but still allows me to run all of my intervals in about the same time. Not only do runners do this all the time (no need to reinvent the wheel), you can even use a vdot calculator like this one to tell you exactly what pace to aim for. I plugged in a recent race time, and the calculator gave me a target of 2:04 for 400-meter intervals. That’s almost exactly the same as my average pace over the three Sugarcane intervals. Why didn’t I just do that? 

Another way to do intervals is to make them time-based. Two minutes hard, two minutes recovery, repeat. If you’re using a running watch, you can choose a target pace here as well. In my case, my two-minute interval pace will be almost identical to my 400-meter pace. If you are a faster or slower runner, it will be a bit different for you, but you can either do some math to decide on a target, or just go by effort or heart rate. My heart rate averaged almost exactly 85% of max on those intervals, if that gives you a sense of what to aim for.

This normal approach also teaches you to practice pacing: instead of crashing and burning on the first interval because you’re trying to go out at “max effort” (and then being a lot slower on later intervals), you run the first interval knowing that you’ll have to match it three or four or seven more times on only two minutes’ rest. 

How do you progress the Sugarcane workout? 

Here’s a point of confusion. In the interview, after the Sugarcane workout is described and named, Huberman asks Galpin how to progress the workouts he’s been talking about. Galpin describes adding more work or additional rounds, but his answer is pretty clearly not applicable to the Sugarcane workout. He talks about published research (the Sugarcane workout has not been formally researched, as far as I could find) and talks about using a 2:1 rest-to-work ratio (the Sugarcane workout as described uses a 1:1 ratio). 

The Sugarcane workout is described as a one-off, a fun little game you can play with yourself when you’re doing a workout. It’s not a workout that’s backed by research or that you’re supposed to do a certain number of times per week (like, say, the Norwegian 4×4). It doesn’t have a built-in progression scheme. It also seems to fall apart pretty easily if you don’t push yourself on each round.  

On the other hand, if you do regular runners’ intervals (400s, or 600s, or two-minute intervals), it’s easy to progress them. Just add a round each time you do the workout, until you’re doing about 8 at a time. At that point you may want to switch to a different workout (say, 800s instead of 400s, or hill repeats instead of track intervals) depending on your training goals.

How often should I do the Sugarcane workout? 

Galpin doesn’t say. Huberman suggests doing it once every two to four weeks because it’s so intense. That doesn’t make a lot of sense—three two-minute intervals, even if you run the first one all-out, won’t take you multiple weeks to recover from. 

In more traditional running or cardio programming, you would do intervals like these once or twice a week, but not always the same workout each time. For example, you might have a hard workout day every Wednesday, and alternate between track intervals, tempo runs, and hill repeats. 

If you really want to do the Sugarcane workout—and I think you should, if only because I did it and misery loves company—you could do it once a week. Or, better yet, once in your life and then move on to normal intervals. 

How does the Sugarcane workout make sure you work hard?  

That’s the thing. It doesn’t, really. Galpin says that if you slack off on any round, you’ll make the next round harder—but I don’t see how that’s the case unless you are trying to run your hardest each time, in which case you’re not slacking off at all. For example, after covering 400 meters in round 1, you could simply walk 400 meters for round 2. Maybe that takes you five minutes. Then in round three you’d just have to walk a smidge faster to be able to cover 401 meters in five minutes. That’s not three hard intervals, that’s one hard interval and two leisurely strolls.

Again, regular intervals would work better for this. Give yourself three two-minute rounds of “run as hard as you can while leaving enough in the tank to do it again” and you’ve removed any rules that reward you for sandbagging. 

I think the thing that bugs me most about this workout is that it assumes you need to gamify a workout to push yourself, but the rules of the game don’t require you to push yourself.  The only thing keeping you honest is your desire to run three hard intervals, in which case you should just run three hard intervals. 

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for September 12, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in four. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 12, Wordle #1,181! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

They’re almost all common letters from our mnemonic today! Only one isn’t, and it’s also fairly common.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

A metal alloy, used to make some instruments.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There is one repeated letter today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There is one vowel.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with B. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with S. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is BRASS.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE, which gave me three letters. I tried CRASH next as a possible solution, followed by GRASP, which left BRASS as the answer.

Wordle 1,181 4/6

🟨🟨⬛🟩⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was “you’ll find this in both a grocery store and a theater” and the answer contained five common letters.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was AISLE.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

iOS 18 is nearly here: When you update your iPhone next week, you’ll have access to total Home Screen customization, a better texting experience with friends on Android, and a new password manager app. (Apple Intelligence is coming with iOS 18.1.)

If you have a pair of AirPods Pro 2, you’ll also get five new features when you update to iOS 18. The thing is, your AirPods also need to be updated in order to try them out. Apple dropped that AirPods update this week, which means if you’re running iOS 18 early, you can try out these new changes right now.

New AirPods Pro 2 features

You’ve been able to control Siri with your voice for a decade, but following the firmware update, you will be able to control Siri with head movements as well. A head nod indicates a positive command, while a head shake denotes a negative command. For example, you can shake your head side to side to decline an incoming call, or nod your head to confirm you want to send the message you dictated to Siri. If I had a pair of AirPods Pro 2, I’d be excited for this feature: It’d be convenient to interact with Siri in public without having to start talking to myself out of the blue.

There’s also a new Voice Isolation feature for these AirPods that should make it easier for people to hear you on the other end of a phone call. iOS and macOS already have a built-in Voice Isolation mode for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but now the feature is extending to AirPods Pro 2, when you take a call while wearing them. This will also work with both pairs of AirPods 4.

The other three features are all about gaming: Developers can now take advantage of a new API to add Personalized Spatial Audio to their games. The idea is playing these games with AirPods Pro 2 will deliver “the most immersive audio experience.” I don’t know about all that, but if it games sound more realistic while wearing your earbuds, I’m all for that. This feature will also work with AirPods 3 and newer, all AirPods Pro models, as well as AirPods Max.

In addition, Apple has reduced the latency (or delay) for high-quality audio (now up to 16 bits at 48 kHz) when live-streaming or communicating with friends. In-game audio is also upped to 16 bits at 48 kHz while live-streaming and talking with friends.

As someone with both an OG pair of AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, it’s a bummer that so many of these features are exclusive to the latest AirPods models. I’m not likely going to take advantage of Personalized Spatial Audio on iOS games, but head nods with Siri? Voice Isolation? Those would be great.

How to update your AirPods’ firmware

To try out these features today, you need to be running iOS 18 or macOS Sequoia. Those updates are due to release on Monday, Sept. 16, so you don’t have to wait long. That said, Apple has seeded the release candidate (RC) for both of these OSes: While technically beta software, an RC is meant to be the final build of the OS, barring any unforeseen issues. As such, there’s a much lower risk installing the RC on your devices than a typical beta. If you want to try these features early, you can install the RC on your compatible iPhone and/or Mac today.

From here, you need to update your AirPods Pro 2. That is easier said than done. For some reason, Apple doesn’t let users manually update their AirPods firmware. Unlike other software updates, it just kind of happens on its own. That’s usually fine for smaller updates, but when you want to try out new features, not being able to update your AirPods yourself is bizarre.

The internet has plenty of tricks to try to force the firmware update installed, but, in general, your AirPods update their firmware when stored in their case, and paired to your Apple device. So, pop your earbuds in their case, move them over to your iPhone, and open and close the lid. You can check whether your AirPods updated by heading to Settings, tapping on your AirPods, and scrolling down to Version under ABOUT. The new firmware version is 7A294, from 6F8.

If you’re not sure what type of AirPods you have, check out the model number in the ABOUT section, and cross-reference it with the list on this Apple support page. If you have a pair of AirPods Pro 2, that will be model numbers A2931, A2699, A2698, A3047, A3048, or A3049. Alternatively, just look at your case: A second-generation pair of AirPods Pro will have a lanyard loop on the side and a speaker on the bottom, and may have a USB-C port. A first-generation case will have a Lightning port, and neither a speaker nor a lanyard loop.

This week, a new FDA regulation went into effect that requires mammogram facilities to notify patients about the density of their breasts. Thirty-nine states (and D.C.) already had some sort of notification requirement, but the new rule makes the messaging consistent nationwide and will bring these notices to states where they are not currently required.

What is “dense” breast tissue?

Breasts contain fat, glandular tissue, and connective tissue. On a mammogram, fat appears as dark areas, and the other tissue types tend to appear as white areas.

This matters because tumors and calcifications also appear in white, which means a mammogram is easier to read on a person whose breast tissue is less dense. The National Cancer Institute has images here of the four different categories of breast density. Breasts that are “fatty” or that only have “scattered” areas of denser tissue appear darker. Breasts that are “heterogeneously dense” or “extremely dense” have more of the white areas. If you’re told you have dense breast tissue, you fall into one of these last two categories.

Who has dense breast tissue?

Dense breast tissue is common; the FDA estimates that “almost half” of women over 40 have dense breasts. You may be more likely to have dense breasts if you have used hormone therapy for menopause, or if you have a lower body mass index.

People who are older or who have had children are less likely to have dense breasts. But your chances of having dense breasts are also likely inherited; some people just have denser tissue than others.

Is it bad to have dense breast tissue?

Dense tissue isn’t bad by itself, but there are two reasons why it’s considered important to know whether you have it or not. One is that mammograms are less likely to pick up early signs of cancer, because it’s hard to tell normal dense tissue apart from tumors or calcifications.

The other is that breast cancer seems to be more common in people with dense breasts. We aren’t sure why. That said, it seems that having dense breasts does not make you any more likely to die of breast cancer if you do turn out to have it.

How will I find out if I have dense breast tissue?

According to the new FDA rule, your mammogram report must tell you which of the four types of breast tissue you have. If your breast tissue is “almost entirely fatty” or has “scattered areas of fibroglandular density,” it is considered to be not dense and the report will include this message:

Breast tissue can be either dense or not dense. Dense tissue makes it harder to find breast cancer on a mammogram and also raises the risk of developing breast cancer. Your breast tissue is not dense. Talk to your healthcare provider about breast density, risks for breast cancer, and your individual situation.

On the other hand, if your breast tissue is dense, you will be told that it is “heterogeneously dense, which may obscure small masses” or “extremely dense, which lowers the sensitivity of mammography.” In that case, you will see this message:

Breast tissue can be either dense or not dense. Dense tissue makes it harder to find breast cancer on a mammogram and also raises the risk of developing breast cancer. Your breast tissue is dense. In some people with dense tissue, other imaging tests in addition to a mammogram may help find cancers. Talk to your healthcare provider about breast density, risks for breast cancer, and your individual situation.

What happens if I am told I have dense breast tissue?

This is the tricky part. We don’t yet have enough evidence to say whether people with dense breast tissue should go on to get more or different kinds of screening, or if it’s fine to go ahead with the normal screening schedule and not do extra tests.

Ultimately, it should be up to you and your doctor, experts say. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force declined to make a recommendation, saying that “the current evidence is insufficient” to properly weigh the harms and benefits of breast ultrasound, MRI, or another technology called digital breast tomosynthesis in people who have dense breasts.

The benefits of extra imaging might include detecting cancer earlier, but the downsides might include getting sent for biopsies or additional procedures that you don’t need. Insurance doesn’t always cover extra imaging if you’re getting it done because you have dense breasts.

Whether you decide to get extra screenings will depend on things like your risk for breast cancer and your personal preferences—some people would rather err on the side of caution, while others might feel more strongly about avoiding unnecessary procedures. Your doctor can help you understand your risk and talk to you about the pros and cons of extra screening.