5 Outdoor Cardio Training Recipes
Thursday, June 24th, 2010The purpose of this article is to stimulate your thinking in terms of different cardiovascular activities to try with your clients in the great outdoors in order to keep interest levels high. My strong advice would be to try all these modes of training yourself prior to prescribing for others so that you know what the training stress feels like in order to make sure your exercise prescriptions for others are appropriate.
1. Recovery Heart Rate Intervals
Client works for a pre-determined time at a high intensity e.g. 2 minutes. They would then rest until heart rate comes back down to 140bpm (less fit clients may recover to 120bpm). Once the client’s heart rate hits the pre-determined rate, i.e. 140 bpm off they go again for another interval. The trainer obviously determines how many intervals the client goes for according to their goals and ability to tolerate the training stress. If you have never tried this method before you could start by doing shuttle runs (see below for explanation) for a total of 20 minutes including the time it takes to recover between intervals.
2. Active Recovery Intervals
This can be conducted as a circuit type program, i.e. you run/walk for 2-3 minutes. Stop and do a muscle conditioning exercise for 1 minute, e.g. Push Ups or Lunges and then return to running/walking. This is a great way to mix it up and reduce boredom some clients feel when doing a cardiovascular session.
3. Fartlek Training
Fartlek means “speed play” The way you can use it with your clients is to mix up both the speed and terrain used during your training session. You may jog on the flat and sprint up a hill, or run at a constant speed and then sprint to a landmark like a light pole.
4. Shuttle Runs
Use goal posts, witches hats, or pre-existing landmarks to determine running distances. Place markers at a set distance and have the client run to the 1st marker and then back to the starting line, out to the 2nd marker and back to the starting line, etc. for as long as you desire. Have client recover and then repeat as many times as is appropriate for the client’s goals and training ability. This is a fantastic conditioning tool which does not require much space. It is a particularly good conditioning tool for many sports people as it requires clients to turn, accelerate, and decelerate regularly. All of these characteristics needed for almost all field sports and produce a different overload on the body that running in straight lines all of the time.
5. Continuous Training
This is the equivalent to a manual program on a piece of computerised gymnasium equipment like a Treadmill or a Bike. Set a pace which may be determined by Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), Heart Rate, or previous training time over a distance and then the client completes for the desired distance or time.
Conclusion
You may mix and match the cardiovascular recipes discussed in order to keep giving your clients an overload stimulus to keep the client progressing towards their goals of increased cardiovascular fitness and/or fat loss.
