Curious about cardio?

Good morning. Yesterday I had a quesiton about what I do for cardio in terms of speeds intervals and inclines. This is very dependent on each person. Years and years ago, I use to be a treadmill junkie and thought I was super fast but when I started running outside I noticed that I was short of breath and wasn't as fast as I thought. At first I was pissed and felt like I had wasted so much time on a machine that assisted my performance but it was because I wasn't training properly and I realized the importance of intervals and inclines.

The reason I wasn't successful in increasing or building my cardiovascular strength was due to the type of running I was doing on the treadmill. Another thing to remember is that there are other cardio machines and you shouldn't be intimidated to use them. Yes running is good for you but so are other machines. You will not bulk up by using a bike or get crazy arm muscles from using the elliptical. A really great book that I bought at Chapters, 101 Body-Sculpting Workouts & Nutrition Plans for Women, has several great cardio routines that you can mix and match to suit your level of fitness. No that's not me on the cover...just yet. When you get up to doing 60 to 90 minutes of cardio a day (which I'm not at just yet) it is important to mix up the machines so your body doesn't get use to doing the same thing day after day. It's also good to switch it up to help keep yourself motivated. Boredom is one factor why people stop going to the gym.

 A good way to determine what kind of intervals you should do should be based on your max effort. This didn't make sense to me at first but once I did a few workouts I got it. My goal for cardio is to break a sweat for the duration of my 60 minutes and intervals will do that to ya.

Here is what you should take into consideration. Say you plan on doing 30 minutes on the treadmill. You can do incline intervals at the same speed or speed intervals at the same incline. For example: I do speed intervals of 5/6/7/8/9 mph for 1 minute each, for 25 minutes with an incline of 0. This has increased overtime, but I determined my speed because I had tested out what my max mph would be if I ran at that pace for a straight minute where I was almost at a sprinting pace.

Remember when you are determining your max that if you are doing 25 minutes you will hit this max 5 times. The first few rounds might seem easy but the last few get harder. The first 5 minutes of my time on the treadmill are for warming up my body. I walk at a pace where I could keep a full conversation without difficulty.

Other options are the StairMaster. Machines are different and the one I use looks like a set of stairs. I use the manual setting and sometimes I will do 20 minutes at the same number of stairs per minute or I will do floor intervals. Again, the main thing for me is to break a sweat. Right now I have been doing 35 minutes at 1 minutes intervals of 90, 100, 110, 120 stairs per minute. I am basically jogging up the stairs when I reach 120 and about 10 minutes in I am sweating like a mad woman. When I started the stairs I was doing 50, 60, 70, 80 just to give you a sense of my progress. You don't want to kill yourself but find what works best for you. It's important to have a plan when you go to the gym. I always know what I'm going to do for cardio before I get there so I don't have to think about it and this helps me get through my 60 minutes. Test out a few options your first time to figure out where you feel comfortable and then write down your plan on a piece of paper and take it with you. This is not a faux pas, but a sign of someone who is on a mission!

I hope this helps and all makes sense. Don't cancel out a machine if you've never tried it. Sometimes its a love hate relationship like mine with the Stair Master. If you have any questions about this, let me know.

Eat. Train. Sleep (only 30 more). Repeat.

Nic OUT!