Cardio equipment is only there to keep the runners and cyclists happy. Besides, who wants to be part of the endless pounding on a treadmill? Is there a variety of cardiovascular training regimes that can result in benefits for both endurance and strength athletes? Let’s take a look.

Cardio training is fundamentally different to strength training but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all benefit from some cardio training or that it must be separated from our strength training practice. Let's look at some of the benefits of cardiovascular training and how we can include them in our training.

What is Cardio Training?

Isn’t that when you run or cycle for a really long time? No! Cardio training is basically anything that raises your heart rate and breathing rate which results in improved functioning of your heart and circulatory system. We commonly associate cardiovascular training with aerobic training but it also includes anaerobic training. And NO, anaerobic training does not mean that we train without breathing in oxygen. You still need to breathe during a 100m sprint.

So, What is the Difference?

The intensity and length of training determines which type of energy system and fuel that you are using. For high intensity, short duration activities lasting less than 60 seconds, your dominant energy system is the anaerobic energy system. The anaerobic system relies on high energy molecules such as ATP and glucose. The longer you perform an activity the more you will rely on the aerobic energy system to supply your energy needs. Aerobic energy systems use carbs and fats to produce large amounts of energy but at the expense of a lower intensity.

What benefits can I get from Cardio Training that Strength Training Can't Give Me?

The benefits of cardio training range from improved cardio health to stress reduction and a reduction in body fat percentage. One noticeable advantage of aerobic training over strength training is the reduction of resting heart rate. This occurs due to training adaptations to the heart resulting in a higher volume of blood being pumped during each heartbeat. There is also an increase in the number of capillaries to transport blood as well as an increase in myoglobin which is responsible for transporting oxygen from the blood to the working muscles. All these adaptations result in improved functioning of the cardiovascular system, allowing you to workout or compete at the same speed but at a relatively lower intensity.

Fat burning is a common talking point when it comes to the benefits of aerobic training. Aerobic training can result in an increased ability of the body to utilise fats which obviously is a good thing if you are wanting to reduce body fat percentage. There has been much debate about how anaerobic training can also result in fat reduction. Generally, the duration and intensity of the training doesn’t result in fats being utilised for energy. The good news is that anaerobic training can still result in fat loss via different mechanisms such as increasing muscle mass which is more metabolically active and therefore creates a bigger deficit in the number of calories burned per day.

Benefits of Aerobic Training

• Increased volume of blood being pumped per heartbeat

• Lower resting heart rate

• Increased number of mitochondria to produce more energy

• Increased myoglobin to transport more oxygen to muscles

• Increased utilisation of fat as an energy source

• Increased number of capillaries to increase blood flow to muscles

• Increased lactate threshold, allowing you to compete at higher intensities

How to Include Cardiovascular Training into your Program

So, it is safe to say that cardio training offers a lot of benefits and should be part of everyone’s training. The amount and type of cardio training depends on what you enjoy, how much time you have and what your goals are.

For those that would like to push their endurance and train aerobically there are three training zones that need to be considered. Each of these zones provide different benefits to improving your aerobic functioning. For simplicity we will classify these zones as such -

1 - Easy / Aerobic Zone

This should be the bread and butter of your training and make up much of your training, coming in at around 80% of your sessions. You should be able to talk to a friend the whole time you are training. Training in this zone primes your body to be able to utilize energy sources such as fats which in turn results in an improved endurance. Start with a manageable steady state of training and as you adapt you can slowly increase the training time.

2 - Lactate Threshold Zone

Threshold training helps improve our tolerance of performing at a faster speed and increases the time it takes for us to fatigue. The key to this training is to have a fast comfortable pace that you can hold for 10 - 30 minutes or for long intervals. If you were still training with a friend, you should be able to have a conversation but require sharp breaths between sentences.

3 - VO2max Threshold

This is the hardest form of aerobic training and generally comes in the form of intervals. This zone helps improve speed and movement economy. You certainly shouldn’t be able to hold a conversation with this form of training. An example would be 8 x 1min hard with 2 minutes slow recovery between reps.

If you have treadmill panic attacks don’t worry. You do not need to spend hours of cardio training to get the benefits of a cardio workout. Here are some of our favourite ways of getting a cardio workout while still maximising our strength training time. Most of these sessions would be considered anaerobic training sessions but by increasing the length of time of the session by inserting anaerobic training methods at regular intervals in your training session you are able to elevate your heart rate for a prolonged period of time and get aerobic training benefits.

Battle Rope

Who would have thought that all you need for a good workout is a long rope? Battle Ropes give the arms, shoulders, back and legs a great workout. Try 5 sets of 30 sec on and 30 sec of battle rope exercise such as the alternating wave exercise. Repeat these sets three to four times in your strength circuit to get a good cardiovascular workout.

Kettlebell Tabata

I am sure most of you have come across Tabata training sessions. The original Tabata training made use of circuits that were 20 seconds of high intensity exercises with 10 seconds rest which had a large focus on power training. However, by increasing the intervals to 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off we can start utilising aerobic systems more. Select eight to ten exercises and set a Tabata timer to beep for each interval. Kettlebells make a great training tool for these circuits as you can perform a high number of reps and a single kettlebell can cover a large range of exercises without having to change stations.

AMRAPS with Cardio

As with the Tabata, AMRAP or As Many Rounds As Possible is well known. This structure allows you to get a good cardiovascular workout in a short space of time. Do a circuit of eight to ten exercises. For each exercise keep the number of reps low with the idea being that you don’t require recovery time and can immediately go to the next exercise. Select a set training time to complete the circuit, such as 20 minutes and complete as many circuits as possible within the set time. I like to include one minute of hard cycling on a spinning bike or running on a treadmill as one of the exercises in the circuit to maximise the cardiovascular element. Sandbags are also great exercise tools for circuits like this where you can do functional exercises that use many muscles and movements.  An excellent example of this would be the Rotational Sandbag Lunge. For this exercise hold the sandbag with both hands with your arms straight and the sandbag resting against your thighs. Step backwards with one leg into a reverse lunge while at the same time rotating to hold the sandbag to the same side as your front leg. Return to the starting position and repeat on the opposite side.

Supersetting with Upper body and Lower Body

Another simple way to make the heart work harder is to superset two exercises together but make sure that one exercise is an upper body exercise and the second exercise is a lower body exercise. This forces the heart to keep changing where it is directing blood flow creating a higher cardiovascular effect. Try grouping exercises such as the walking lunges with Dumbbell renegade rows. You can also add in an additional cardiovascular element if you include exercises with boxing equipment or skipping at the end of the supersets.

Cardiovascular training provides a range of health benefits that strength training doesn’t. If you are looking for all round fitness, then you should be making sure that you include an element of cardiovascular training into your routine. The good news is that you don’t need to be spending hours doing just aerobic training to get all the benefits from cardiovascular training. Strength training and cardiovascular training also don’t have to be exclusive. Include cardiovascular training into your routine in a way that is enjoyable for you.

Written by guest author Brendan McBirnie.

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Tags: Exercise Type > Cardio