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Optimizing Cardiovascular Training
Some Comments, Examples, and Caveats (READ THESE FIRST!)
Why should you train intensely?
Two recent studies in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (click here for references) document the disease prevention, health-protective value of more vigorous (intensive) exercise. Those studied who engaged in non-vigorous activity and had low levels of fitness were at greater risk of heart disease and premature death.
In the Blair et al. (1995) study, and in other fitness and cardiovascular exercise studies, the "gold standard" to evaluate fitness (VO2max) is the standard treadmill test described previously in Master Trainer (see Master Trainer, February, 1993 issue). For the most part, this is a walking test that starts quite easily. You are walking at 3.3 mph, and after the second minute the treadmill's incline increases a percent every minute. At 26 minutes, the treadmill, now at 26%, moves faster by 0.2 mph every minute. At that point, to keep up, most people need to jog or run. Your score on the treadmill is the time you reach exhaustion and your VO2max is derived at that point. Many unfit people can't get beyond 9 or 10 minutes. Superbly conditioned people can get to 25 minutes, and a very small elite group can get to 30 or more minutes.
For our purposes, this test defines cardiovascular fitness. Of course we all know about specificity of training, so one major caveat is that unless fast walking or running on hills is one of your primary activities, don't expect to do great on the standard treadmill test. Your biking, much less swimming, isn't specific to the requirements of the treadmill test.
But suppose what we wanted to do was maximize our cardiovascular fitness as defined by the treadmill test. What would we do? The answer is simple. We would train in a way that closely followed the standard protocol. And we could only get a good score if we learned to walk and then jog up steep hills. In other words, we must train very intensely.
How long would we have to train? Not very long. It's been predefined for us. If we could last for 25 to 30 minutes of highly intensive walking up the high incline, we would succeed, I. e., perform on the standard test at a level with the most well-conditioned athletes.
How frequently would we have to train? Not very frequently. These are very hard workouts requiring a lot of recovery time. Maybe you could do these workouts twice a week, more than likely every fourth or fifth day.
You now have the structure for workouts which can take you to the highest levels of fitness:
- Train using short (duration), intense workouts
- Train specifically for the task
- Train less frequently
But, what are the more usual (and contrasting) recommendations for good cardiovascular fitness? Sticking to walking as our example, the usual recommendations probably would include the following:
- Five sessions per week at a brisk pace for 45 minutes.
- Walking hills are optional.
- Keep the duration at 3 miles per session and graduaully increase your pace from 15-minutes per mile to about 13-14 minutes per mile.
Pretty standard, and pretty ineffective. Such training would take between three and four hours a week and only lead to modest levels of fitness.
Higher intensity training will take at most one hour per week and virtually assure you a very high level of fitness. The more usual program wastes two to three hours and gives you only minimal returns. If you are healthy and reasonably motivated, why settle for such an inefficient approach?
How should you train intensely?
Virtually all readers of Master Trainer have already learned the essence of optimizing their weight training by training intensively (see Master Trainer, December, 1994 issue). Now that we understand the "gold standard" for cardiovascular fitness, we can construct our cardiovascular program by applying the principles we've learned to this new aspect of our total fitness program. Let's get even more specific and see what this means. (NOTE: If you haven't already read the caveats I've included in this article, click here.to do that now.)
If we were capable of doing any aerobic workout (e.g., running, swimming, rowing, etc.) that exercised and stressed our cardiovascular systems commensurate with the intensity level of 25-30 minutes on the standard treadmill test, by our definition we would be in superb shape. To improve and demonstrate fitness, most of us cannot reach such a high intensity level more than about once per week. Luckily, once per week is sufficient if the stimulus is intense enough to maintain super condition or even improve our condition.
The goal then is to do that one excellent cardiovascular workout per week. To be on the safe side, you can probably do one other cardiovascular workout in a week but at somewhat reduced intensity.
What about easier aerobic workouts? Except for leisure and recreational activities (e.g., walking, hiking, sports), which we do for our own pleasure, there's no need to do any easier aerobic sessions. They really serve no purpose but to tire us out and take away valuable time.
What about the issues of exactly when to do very intensive cardiovascular training? If we want to do our absolute very best on cardiovascular training, it needs to be separated from weight training. There are several options:
- The best option is to do the very hard cardiovascular work on a different day. This plan has at least one major plus and minus, however. The plus: You get to really focus on one type of training at a time; the minus: You increase the number of weekly training days and increase the potential for scheduling conflicts.
- Instead, you could do weights and aerobics on the same day, but to really maximize the aerobics part you need to have a lot of time between the sessions. I used to take about four hours between the sessions, but to do very hard aerobics that's not enough. About seven to eight hours (with at least two meals) works well. The advantage of this approach is you cut down on actual training days and increase pure rest days. It's also easier to juggle a busy schedule because there are fewer training days. The downside is the double dose of hard workouts in a day. That takes a physical and psychological toll.
- An interesting third plan can combine these two approaches.
- You could do the super-hard cardiovascular workout on its own day and the more moderate cardiovascular workout on a weight training day.
- Oddly enough, another way to combine these options can also work. The moderately hard aerobics workout can be done on an off day with minimal (though some) interference with recovery. The very hard workout can be done on an upper body training day (less stress than lower body training) if you allow the seven- to eight-hour interval between workouts and then have at least one but preferably two rest days follow.
Currently, I'm experimenting with this approach. I use either the Concept-II (tm) rower or the Versa Climber(tm) 7 to 8 hours after my last weight workout of the week. Since this weight workout usually only involves shoulders and arms, it's not very taxing.
The weight training workout is done in the morning, and then the hard cardiovascular workout is done in the late afternoon or early evening. I'm still "up" from the prior weight workout when I start the cardiovascular workout, which is quite desirable. But, I'm not tired.
The work part of these interval sessions is short (20 minutes) but very intense (up to 95% of maximum heart rate). The short duration makes these workouts psychologically and physically tolerable. This training day is then followed by two active rest days.
The beauty of this arrangement is that when necessary I can easily move around my training days to accommodate professional committments that may interfere with my 'normal' workout schedule. I usually do this rearranging by starting the training week on Sunday. Since there are only three training days (on alternate days), the training week is complete by Thursday. Such rearranging would become more difficult if I had to accommodate four or five training days (I. e., weights and aerobics on different days).
Looking to other possible arrangements, in my own experience, another option -- doing hard cardiovascular training on a weight training day before the weight training session -- is not a good one. Even with a long interval between the two workouts your strength will be undermined. For the same reason, do not do a very hard cardiovascular workout the day before a hard weight training session. For example, the day before a leg and lower back day, I just walk at a leisurely pace.
You can certainly play a bit with other schedules and find workable approaches. Just keep this goal in mind: To optimize cardiovascular fitness, plan on doing one very hard workout a week.
An Example
To illustrate the points I've made here, this is an example of one typical short, very high-intensity workout I recently did on the Versa Climber (tm) (see Master Trainer, June, 1995 issue). This workout leaves me a bit sore the next day but, because the workout is short, I don't have that exhausted, drained feeling usually associated with longer workouts. In fact, two days after this workout, I registered one of my lowest resting heart rates (45 bpm), physical evidence of a good recovery.
Sample High Intensity Cardiovascular Workout
|
Number of Minutes |
Pace |
Approx. Running Equivalent Rate |
Heart Rate |
Warm Up |
|||
| 5 | 90 - 100 (feet per minute) | 7.0 - 7.5 (minutes per mile) | 100 - 130 (beats per minute) |
Work Segment |
|||
| 3 | 115 - 120 | 6.3 - 6.0 | 145 - 155 |
| 3 | 105 - 110 | 6.7 - 7.0 | 145 - 150 |
| 2 | 120 - 125 | 6.0 - 5.7 | 155 - 160 |
| 3 | 105 - 110 | 6.7 - 7.0 | 148 - 152 |
| 1 | 125 - 130 | 5.7 - 5.5 | 160 - 165 |
| 3 | 105 - 110 | 6.7 - 7.0 | 155 - 160 |
| 1/2 | 130 - 135 | 5.5 - 5.0 | 165 - 172 |
| 3 | 105 - 110 | 6.7 - 7.0 | 158 - 162 |
| 1/4 | 140 - 145 | 4.5 - 4.3 | 170 - 175 |
| 1 | 115 - 120 | 6.3 - 6.0 | 166 - 170 |
| 1/4 | 145 - 150 | 4.3 - 4.0 | 170 - 175 |
Cool Down |
|||
| 5 | 80 - 60 | 8.9 - 9.0 | 150 - 110 |
There are two final points to consider about this aerobic workout and workouts similar to this one. I'd be less than frank if I didn't admit there's some genuine discomfort involved in high-intensity cardiovascular training. However, the discomfort of the hard repetitions is offset by the backoff intervals and knowing the discomfort will only last for the short duration of the workout. In addition, because this workout was not very uncomfortable, was brief, and was done infrequently, there was a real sense that improvement was possible. In fact, the Versa Climber (tm) workout was only done once every two weeks. During the three month period from May to July I was able to improve a bit with each workout.
NOTE: The April 1996 issue of Master Trainer will detail my performance improvement using this workout and show how I was able to reach the Elite Climber category for the Versa Climber (tm).)
Some Important Caveats
Master Trainer does not provide medical advice for specific medical problems. Medical advice should be obtained from qualified medical personnel.
- If you have evidence of cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease risk factors, you should not embark on ANY training without a thorough examination, a precise training protocol prescription, self-monitoring of each workout, and ongoing medical supervision. The risks of plunging into high-intensity training protocols without adequate examination, monitoring, and follow-up far outweigh the potential benefits for you.
- If you have no risk factors, but are not fit or have become deconditioned, you should first emphasize moderate intensity (70-80% maximum heart rate) in several workouts per week. After establishing a moderate level of fitness (about 6-8 weeks), one workout per week can be dropped, while one workout per week can be gradually made more intense.
- Not everyone will enjoy or be able to stick to such high-intensity cardiovascular training. If you do not like or cannot adhere to this approach, the minimum frequency of training will undermine your fitness. You would be far better off doing more moderate-intensity training several times per week to assure a good level of fitness.
- The reasoning in this article assumes that training principles that apply to the musculoskeletal system also apply to the cardiorespiratory system. It also assumes that since this aerobic training protocol so closely parallels weight training protocols the optimal training approach for both systems is virtually identical. These assumptions are just assumptions, and have not been proven with rigorous data-driven experiments .
- Less intense activity between training sessions promotes weight control, appears to have some other health benefits, and may help to maintain fitness between infrequent training sessions. Following a high-intensity cardiovascular training program is not a license to remain sedentary between training sessions.
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REFERENCES
- Lee, I-Min, Hseih, C-c., Paffenbarger, R. S. (1995). Exercise intensity and longevity in men: The Harvard Alumni Health Study. Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 273, 1179-1184.
- Blair, S. N., Kohl, H. W;. Barlow, C. E., Paffenbarger, R. S., Gibbons, L. W., & Macera, C. A. (1995). Changes in physical fitness and all-cause mortality. Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 273, 1093-1098.
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