I’ve written before that interval training is the key to effective cardio workouts. And now, I have scientific evidence to back it up!

Here’s the deal: some exercise is better than none, but if you think you’re going to get fit by riding a stationary bike or doing the elliptical for 45 minutes every day, you’re fooling yourself. If you do it because you enjoy it, more power to you, but if you’re doing it because you think it’s the key to health and fitness, you’re wasting your time.

You should do intervals. I like hill sprints, but there are all sorts of other things you can do. All you need to do is perform at your maximum level of effort for thirty seconds. Then rest for a while (two to four minutes). Then do it again. Then rest. Overall, you’ll spend maybe a half hour doing this, and then you can get on with your day.

Not only will you build a better cardio base, but because sprints are anaerobic, you’ll be building muscle and you’re going to burn more fat throughout the day.

Don’t use cardio to lose weight.

Most people do cardio to lose weight. This is stupid. Cardio is incredibly inefficient at burning calories: you have to do a ton of cardio in order to achieve the same effect as lifting weights.

Basically, you burn calories while you’re doing the cardio, but as soon as you stop, you stop burning calories. When you lift weights, you’re burning calories, and building muscle, which will allow your body to burn more calories throughout the day.

So why do cardio?

The main reason to do cardio is to strengthen your cardiovascular system. This will reduce your resting heartrate and increase your body’s ability to process oxygen efficiently (your VO2 level), and help you perform at higher levels during activity.

A secondary reason to do cardio is to strengthen your ligaments and other structural things: basically to get your body used to moving for long periods of time.

The two types of cardio training you should do.

With this in mind what sort of cardio workouts should you do?

Interval training. This is the foundation of a good cardio plan, and it’s intended to strengthen your cardiovascular system. Do thirty-second bursts at your maximum effort, then rest, then repeat. By maximum effort, I mean maximum effort, not almost maximum effort, or just hard. If you can keep going after 30 seconds, you’re taking it easy.

You should be completely spent. I like hill sprints. Swimming sprints would also be effective for me, since I’m bad at swimming, but I don’t have easy access to a pool. Do two to six intervals (or whatever you feel like) once a week, or twice a week if you’re hardcore. Don’t do it on your lifting days.

Long training. Occasionally do a long, easy workout. This will strengthen your body’s infrastructure–your ligaments and stuff–and get your body used to moving for longer periods. By long, I mean three or more hours - none of that wussy 45 minute stuff.

I like to watch a movie while I sit on the bike or do the elliptical machine, or go for a long hike. Don’t push it - your goal with this workout isn’t to burn calories or anything, it’s just to get your body moving for a long time. I like to keep my heartrate under 150. Plan to do this at least once a month and you’ll be fine.

Other things. I try to get something interesting in on weekends - whether it’s one of those long hikes I talked about, a run out a jetty, doing some stairs, or just going for a run. These often aren’t in either category, and they aren’t my primary cardio workout; I do them for other reasons, just to mix it up, or just because they are fun.

A note about long-distance sports.

If you want to run a marathon, I’m not advocating skipping on long-distance training. Anyone who’s looked at doing some long-distance sport (biking, running, whatever), knows that long-distance training is a big part of it. Long-distance training doesn’t really help with the cardio, though - it helps get the rest of your body prepared to do whatever you’re planning to do.

If you plan to run a marathon and only do interval training, you’ll have the lung capacity to pull it off. But the rest of your body won’t be able to handle it. It’s just not used to taking 3-4 hours of pounding.

Conclusions

Anyone can get in shape. It’s really simple, and actually isn’t that time-consuming. But it does take hard work, discipline, and a willingness to suffer through some pain. Effective cardio routines fit within this - when most people think about getting into cardio shape, they think about doing long sessions at the gym. These may be boring, but they’re actually pretty easy.

Getting in real shape isn’t boring, doesn’t take a long time, but sure isn’t easy.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Blog, Training & Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.