Training – Cardio: Slow Continuous Endurance

2012/08/16

Today I’ll start off on the topic of cardiovascular training.  There are many methods of training our cardiovascular system, and all have a time a place.  Factors in determining which is best suited for you depends on your current disposition, needs, and future goals.  

Slow Continuous Endurance training aims at expending energy, if you live a mainly sedentary lifestyle, or developing basic long lasting endurance if you’re more well conditioned.  This should be performed at an intensity of about 60-70% of your VO2max, or 75%-82% of your MHR, maximum heart rate.  The MHR can be calculated easily by using this formula: MHR = 200 – Your Age.  There are definitely more recent formulas, but this one is still very useful. 

Depending on the type of exercise, running or biking, you’ll want to perform this for 30min to 3hrs.  For the bike for instance, it could last upwards to 5-6hrs.  This should feel like a 3-4 on a scale of 10 for perceived feeling of exhaustion.  The recommended rest period for to this type of training is 12-24hrs, depending on how long your work out was.  

Next week, I’ll go over another cardio training method.  Until then, do your heart some good, and make it work!!