‘Aerobics’ boost cardiovascular fitness
Vital to put tools together for the right program
The purpose of aerobic training is to enhance cardiovascular fitness and favorably affect body composition. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that exercise intensity be 65-90% of maximal heart rate (MHR) or 50-85% of maximum heart rate reserve, duration of 20-60 minutes, and frequency a minimum of three days per week. Because the risk of musculoskeletal injury increases as intensity, duration, and frequency of training increase, gradual progression is essential. Most of your aerobic workouts being aerobic 20-30 minutes and if you are a more advanced you would do 40-50 determining the duration and intensity of the aerobic.
There are so many types of “aerobic training”, what type of class type are you looking for and objectives. For example, if your goals are to improve health problems you might have you would be better to comply with a moderate program that keeps you free of injuries. Elite athletes require challenges that are beyond the training goals of the average person. If you are deconditioned you would need to reduce the intensity and duration of aerobic training while the musculosketal system adapts.
Your aerobic benefits are achieved by using continuous or intermittent format.
Continuous aerobic format: (also called steady state training), is the more common method. This is followed by a 5-10 minute warm-up; intensity is gradually increased until your target heart rate is achieved. Your target heart rate is sustained for the duration of the aerobic workout, and then a 5-10 minute cool-down which will lower intensity to below training level.
To keep a steady-state heart rate, select movements to provide physiological balance. For example, if a low-impact movement is combined with a high-impact movement, elements of variation can be employed to maintain consistent exercise intensity. Perform low-impact marches while lowering and raising the center of gravity to maintain intensity comparable to high-impact kicks. Perform smaller-intensity of larger range movements.
Intermittent training, or interval training, bouts of intense activity are alternated with recovery periods. The length and intensity of the intervals vary depending on what your objectives would be.
Many of us who go to the gym and get our “aerobic” workout in, often forget the most important piece to that workout...” aerobic cool-down”. Following aerobics, you should perform 5-10 minutes of lower-intensity work to reduce your heart rate to the lower end of the target zone. In other words you are not breathing heavily and can carry a conversation if you wanted to. This is so important because it prevents blood from pooling, removes metabolic waste products and reduces muscle soreness. Cardiac complications are more prevalent with the cessation of exercise, making sure you do your cooldown is critical for ensuring safety.
The large muscles of the lower body should continue contracting iso-tonically to assist the pumping of blood from the lower body back to the heart. Common errors do not lower, and then raise, the head below heart level as this can cause dizziness.
Balance training “muscle condi- tioning” should be added. This utilizes some form of external resistance, to enhance muscular strength and or muscular endurance. Strength training isolates individual muscles groups and trains muscles for maximum force production. Muscular endurance training also isolates muscle groups, but uses lighter loads and higher repetitions. Strength training also focuses on the whole body as an integrated unit and muscles in the roles they play in daily movement patterns. For example, the stabilizing role of the abdominals is emphasized along with the moving role in trunk flexion.
One of the most important things you need to know and hopefully if anything you learn today is “flexibility training”. If we only realized how important this part of our training is and it only takes 7 to 10 minutes. Stretching and relaxation! Your body at this time is optimal for achieving flexibility gains as your muscles are still warm. Remember when you are stretching to relax the muscles prior to moving into the stretch. Pay attention to those muscle groups that, if tight, can be an injury risk.
Avoid rapid, high force, or ballistic stretching, select stretches that have a mechanism for adjusting intensity. For example, bending the knee during a hamstring stretch and reduce intensity. If you are a beginner, incorporate stretches that isolate individual muscle groups and do not require balance.
Aerobic, muscular and flexibility should be in your workout program regardless of what class or program you are doing.
An alarming thought is averages of 12 to 20 athletes, most of them high school students, die suddenly each year from congenital heart defects that are not detected during normal physical examinations. About a third of the cases of sudden cardiac death are caused by a congenital heart defect called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (thickened heart muscle), with the next most frequent cause being congenital coronary anomalies.
For those who are at high risk for a heart disease, vigorous exercise can trigger fatal heart attacks. This seems to be men who were sedentary, over 35 years old, already had heart disease or were at high risk for it, and then exercised too hard for heir fitness level.
Some of you who are putting together your workout programs need to know the difference between “aerobic weight training” and “anaerobic weight training”.
Aerobic weight raining requires a high number of reps, performed with short rests between sets. To a degree, it develops cardiovascular endurance like other aerobic exercises, but because you can also progressively increase the weights you are in the exercises, you will be able to develop more lean mass on average than you will with the other forms of aerobic exercise.
Anaerobic weight training uses a short, intense burst of energy in lifting. Its purpose is to build absolute strength, the kind of strength that makes everything else you do seem easy. When doing a lower number of reps, starting with just one, move- ments can be explosive that is, starting slowly, and then accelerating. Rests between sets are long. At higher reps, going up to fifteen, movements can be moderate and rest periods correspondingly shorter.
With any type of workout program you have to stretch before and after. This is just as important as your routine of exercises you are doing.
In addition to an all around program that is going to get you in better health you need to keep your stomach happy while you work out!
Choose the time you like best to exercise, but be careful not to make it immediately after a meal. The digestive process is complex and makes a big demand on the body’s blood and lymph supply. If you try to work out when your stomach is full and hard at work, you start a conflict in your cardiovascular system, calling for excess blood and fluid in too many places at once. Dehydration can result along with a variety of unpleasant conditions, from nausea to cramps.
On the other had, don’t try to train on too empty a stomach. Being too depleted of food means your glycogen reserves won’t hold up to give you the energy you need. Take some carbohydrates about one to two hours before exercising to keep this from happening.
Drink plenty of water, five to six ounces every fifteen to twenty minutes while you are training.
Your goals make them short and attainable, and write them down. A log book is an indispensable aid for keeping track of your progress as you work toward your goals. Buy one that will hold plenty of information, including photos. Start by writing down your entire program, then go on to keep a completed diary of your training sessions and what you eat. Memory can play tricks on you if you don’t keep a record.
Listed below are lower body stretches to add to your routine after you have completed each workout... Low-back stretch
Stand and round the low back by using the abdominal muscles to produce an extreme posterior tilt.
Hamstring stretch (back of the legs)
Standing, extend one leg and slight lean forward chest up. Continue to hold for 30 seconds. Gastrocnemius stretch
Stand and keep your rear foot straight and the heel on the ground.
Shift the body weight forward over the front foot. Soleus stretch
Stand and the weight slightly to the back and bend the back knee.
I hope you have learned a lot today not only how to change up your workout “aerobic and anaerobic” but the importance of how to put all the tools together for the right program and what is needed!
Have a great week and good health!
Lisa your Personal Trainer