Day 4: Endurance Training

To improve any of the pillars of athleticism, all you have to do is stress it out enough and then just allow it to recover and adapt. The ridiculously complex and fascinating adaptive physiological response is thankfully something our body does for us. Imagine for a minute if we had to consciously do this or attempt to control all the body’s other functions: regulate temperature, digest food, beat the heart every second, blink, and turn oxygen into energy. 99.9% of ‘life’ happens without our mind’s involvement  (thankfully!). Our bodies are undeniably awesome.

Cardio

Aside from the well-documented health benefits, Cardiovascular Training is an effective weight management tool as it burns many calories in a single workout. As you move more, the muscles that need more oxygenated blood will ‘pull’ oxygenated blood into them (rather than the heart pushing blood out). This is a key distinction, as it’s yet more evidence that its movement helps our organs, and it’s movement, not the heart doing its job that keeps the blood pumping into our veins. We must MOVE to be healthy, and movement is an innate part of life.

There are associated benefits to mental health too. Cardio stimulates the brain’s neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, which are feel-good chemicals that also help with anxiety and feelings of mild depression. Longer sessions, ideally over 90 minutes, will produce more happy chemicals.

Long-distance endurance athletes often seem such a strange bunch of folk.  However, once you get into endurance training, it does get weirdly addictive as you get a kind of natural high feeling when you train. It’s great! If you read the excellent book SPARK by Ratey & Hagerman, you’ll discover the mountain of evidence that shows how (moderate intensity and long) cardio directly makes our brains literally work better.

Any type of cardio is good cardio. Though with clients, I tend to favour mixed conditioning workouts, running, rowing, Assault Bikes and the Versa Climber; it’s how we use it, rather than what we use, that is key. I use a combination of submaximal intervals, High-Intensity intervals and steady-pace training with clients. I’ve found it’s the combination of all types that optimise fat-burning, physiological and psychological benefits.

A fun fact about cardio is that the body recovers far quicker than strength training, as the adaptive processes happen as you perform. Therefore cardio/endurance training can be done as much as you want! If you have a job, it’s nearly impossible to overdo it. When using it primarily for building a fitness base and/or weight management, I usually prescribe 3 x per week, with twice being some kind of mixed interval style and once being a long slow, distance style. Be it a slow 10k run, a long bike ride or a 2-hour fast hike.

Being outside is better for the soul than being in a gym, and remember, any sport or movement that gets the heart rate high is cardio.  I love cardio personally, but I do it for my mental health and productivity rather than my body. When I sit in my office or start with my first client, I’m always in a more positive and resourceful emotional state if I’ve done a bit of cardio beforehand… and I’m pretty sure you’ll feel the same way.

I’m a fan of morning runs, as they are logistically easy and wonderfully refreshing. However, for those of you that hate running and want to get your cardio in before you leave the house, I would recommend indoor rowing (Concept 2 is the best rower) or getting a Versa Climber, Assault Bike or Peleton.

CLICK HERE to see my home-gym & other recommendations

Other types of Physical Endurance

Muscular endurance and connective tissue endurance are also things you can develop. These things are developed by doing lots of reps or doing them very slowly, sometimes not moving at all (e.g. a ski sit isometric hold), all to put the muscles under more tension for more time. When we do lots of reps (50-100) of a resistance/strength exercise, we also start changing the working muscles’ nature. Fast twitch fibres become slow twitch – it’s pretty amazing when you see it!.

As always, you train for the body you want – so if you need more muscular endurance for your sporting endeavours, then you may be better off by dropping the weight and adding in more total volume. If you love lifting, hit a plateau and want strength and endurance, I suggest you try out GVT (German Volume Training). This is where you do 10 sets at a time, with short rest between sets – it develops lactic acid tolerance, which is a fancy way of saying you will get more endurance in the muscles. i.e. they will last longer before they fatigue.

Now, personally, I rarely prescribe GVT to clients because I think for 90% of us, it puts too much strain on tendons & ligaments and unnecessarily overly fatigues the body. (I prefer four sets with a 2-tear drop set as an alternative). I’ve done GVT myself, just for a laugh, and it is very effective.. brutal.. but effective. So rather than just reading about it and dismissing i… Try it! – we all have different gym preferences, and you must experiment to find out what you like and what suits your body.

How you move/train dictates how your body will adapt. If you do 30 min planks every day, guess what … your body will adapt to get better at them!. If you sprint every day or play Tennis, do BJJ or whatever, your body will ALWAYS adapt accordingly. This is why we must be clear about what we are training for and how much of a priority it is, and why it’s far more fun, freeing and functional, NOT being a competitive athlete than being one. We’ll discuss this in the programming lesson in more detail.