Now that the winter/spring seasonal change is upon us, It is time for Stacy and I to set new and different cardio goals. I thought I would review some different cardio techniques and tactics that we use to jump back into Spring. There are many different ways to challenge the body cardiovascularly from walking to sprinting to swimming. We try to continually change things up to keep training from becoming stagnant. I thought I would outline some different strategies below that may inspire those reading to set some new Spring cardio goals. 

Walking
One of our foundational resistance training strategies is to make light weights heavy. We make lifts and exercises purposefully difficult in a variety of ways, i.e., by insisting on full range of motion, via the use of pauses at the rep turnarounds, slowing down the rep speed, accelerating the rep speed, by invoking subtle technical changes, by shortening rest periods between sets, there are a myriad of ways to purposefully “disadvantage” a lift or exercise, thereby making light weights heavy. Most find walking insufficiently intense to elevate the heart rate to any significant degree. One way to make walking more effective as an exercise format is to revamp walking technique; another is to “purposefully disadvantage” walking via payload or gradient. 


Power Walking
Power walking is walking with a definitive technique. Definitive technique combined with concentrated effort. Power walking drives the arms, rotates the torso, extends the stride, and seeks to quicken the rate of turnover. Power walking requires the walker stay mentally engaged. Space out, start mentally daydreaming about unrelated subjects and the walking technique immediately collapses. As long as the distracted walker stays distracted, walking ceases to be exercise. Power walking optimizes propulsion via concentration. Power walking in the most basic of all locomotive exercise forms. Only after mastering power walking should the trainee “graduate” to jogging, then running. My mentor, Dr. Len Schwartz, used this technique along with hand weights to take power walking to another level. His invention was called Heavy Hands. Learn more about Len and his methods below.



Disadvantaged Walking
How can we make walking purposefully harder? It is quite easy to disadvantage walking, there are two obvious choices: increase the walker’s payload, i.e., give him a weighted backpack, or, secondly, walk up steep grades. How can you make walking “harder,” i.e., more intense? One way is to wrap a 25-pound barbell plate in a blanket and stuff both into a backpack before taking a power walk. Over time either walk faster or walk further with the 25-pound plate. Or maintain the pace and distance while adding additional poundage to the backpack. The second way to disadvantage walking it to power walk up hills. The steeper the grade the more intense the effort. The ultimate in walking intensity? Walk up a steep grade wearing a weighted backpack. There is a third less well-known method is called isotonometrics which was invented by Len. He discovered that by pushing and pulling on the hands while walking or jogging a significant bump in the heart rate occurred. See the post below where I outline the procedures I used to create a 1,000 calorie cardio burn combining all of these methods. 



Sprinting
All out sprinting done for short, repeated bursts, work the same muscular and neurological pathways as progressive resistance training. “Burst” or “interval” cardio is ideal for combining with strength training. Sprinting can be done running outside or on a treadmill, sitting in a rowing machine, in a pool swimming, sitting on a exercise bike or using a stairclimber, the tool is secondary to the methodology. No cardio mode is more simpicato to hardcore progressive resistance training than sprinting. You can sprint on dry land, you can sprint in the water, and you can sprint while using a cardio machine or device – regardless the tool used, the idea is to generate an all-out physical effort on each successive sprint. Many sprints are done within the cardio training session. Highly specific protocols and highly specific sprint techniques are used, regardless the mode or tool. In order to stay safe and minimize the potential for injury, three “gears” are used on every sprint.
 

1. Run the first 50% of the spring distance working up to 75% of all out max speed
2. Run the next 30% of the sprint distance accelerating upward to 95% of all out max speed
3. Run the final 20% of the sprint 100% or more, all out, as fast as your legs will carry you

If any hint of discomfort or pain occurs at any time during any sprint, the sprinter is to instantly pull up and stop running. Injury lurks anytime you are exerting 100%.

I start with an easy jog. The circle is roughly 400-yards in length and I run a lap to warm up the legs and raise core muscle temperatures. I concentrate on relaxing and sinking while opening my stride. I lean forward and remember to power my stride with my arms. This is not natural to me as I am a leg runner. By consciously pumping my arms, I go faster. My eternal goal is to become a better sprinter (in a technical sense) and I work hard at improving my speed by improving my technique.

Midway into my second lap I begin my short sprints. On my first few sprints I top out at 90% and only run 30 yards. At the conclusion of each sprint, I slow to a fast jog to recover my breath. I allow my legs to clear lactic acid. On every 400-yard lap I include two sprints. I start off with short 30 yard sprints, exerting 90% effort and extend the distance and crank up the top end speed as I get warm and loose.

Hybrid Cardio
Hybrid cardio melds aerobics with strength training and in doing so reconfigures working muscles by adding mitochondrial density. Len Schwartz, John Parrillo and Ori Hofmekler independently began advocating different exercise protocols, that each had the intended purpose of reconfiguring muscle composition. 3rd Way hybrid cardio requires a type of training that is both sustained and intense. Len, John and Ori all devised differing methods to arrive at the same destination: more muscle infused with more mitochondria. Technically we seek to create Type III Intermediate fast-twitch fibers; a cross between Type I and Type IIb. These hybrid fibers utilize both aerobic and anaerobic pathways for energy metabolism. To build mitochondria-infused super muscle requires the use of an extended, blended exercise protocol.

Modern MMA fighters are the greatest example of this. The modern MMA fighter needs absolute strength and sustained strength. They need sustained cardio capacity and burst cardio capacity; they need the ability to put out incredible amounts of power and strength over an extended period of time. This ability is not developed by simply sitting on a stationary bike pedaling along. Sustained strength is developed through sustained effort. See a recent post below on the cardio lessons learned by studying the training methods of MMA fighters.

The serious aerobic trainer, especially the walker, should wear a heart rate monitor. The heart rate monitor provides the report card of our efforts – Are our efforts sufficiently intense? Without a heart rate monitor, it is all guesswork. The heart rate monitor provides the trainee the cold data needed to plot the next move. For more information on cardio modes, periodization (planning) and what heart rate monitors we recommend. See the posts below.


          

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