Make Aerobics Great Again EP.01

Let's say you're watching a sporting match.

You see the athlete on a rugby field go into contact and wrestle for the ball.

Or they steal the ball and there's open space to sprint down a Basketball court to score.

They have to race with a defender to chase down a ball in open space on an AFL field.

They have to chase down a run away defender on a Touch Football field.

These are all bouts of exercise that have high intensity demands.

Now, i want you to be in their shoes (some of you will be).
After this bout of high intensity exercise has happened. How long do you reckon it would take you to recover to repeat that effort again?

How long it takes you to recover has a large influence from your aerobic energy system.

Feel like you can make a big effort but it takes forever to recover and repeat your intense efforts? We might need to do some work on that aerobic conditioning base. Prior to getting into the nitty gritty of more direct metric based aerobic conditioning.

This is in a game sense. But we can't forget about the most important thing, life. The quality of your health both mentally and physically can have large influences from the grounds of your aerobic fitness. 

So, we thought we would start the next mini-series of articles on;

MAKE AEROBICS GREAT AGAIN

Where this can be used;

- Feel like you're not recovering between high intensity bouts

- Unmotivated to do conditioning

- On low intensity days to help drive recovery

- Start of an off-season prior to more specific conditioning

- A coach wanting to learn new ways of programming through application and doing the workout

- Want to test yourself against others within your gym, team or social network for a bit of friendly competition

 

These can be for the average gym go-er, local/amateur athletes, coaches and even certain higher levels athletes in more of an off-season kick starter so to speak.

The key will be in how the coach manipulates the rounds, set targets, exercise selection and ideal overall time target to complete the session, to make this a little more specific for you.

 

WEEKS 1 - 3: Workout 1

Bike Erg; 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m

Lateral Bound to Med Ball Punch; 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (each side)

Ski Erg; 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m

Bent Over Med Ball Pass; 20, 16, 12, 8, 4

Complete 100m on the bike, then 6e/s on the Lateral bound, 500m on the ski erg, 20 Bent over Med ball passes before straight away starting the next rounds. 800m Bike erg, and so on.

Complete all 4 exercises back to back tracking how long it takes you.

When you complete it put it up on your story and tag @performhq_ and we will add you to the leaderboard (make sure to not try to break any records week one!).

 

There's a few key points to this workout;

1. You should see a 30-75 sec average decrease in your time from week to week

Don't aim to hit PB's in week one. Aim for that 6-7/10 RPE and try maintain a consistent pace the whole way through. If you have a HR monitor aim around that 145-155bpm mark. The goal is to hit your best week in round three. The aerobic system adapts quite quick so the more patient you are in week 1-2 the better rewards you will see in week 3.

 

2. Tailor the session as needed

The exercises are interchangeable with either yourself or the client you have. I've personally moved and switched exercises around depending on the individual, injuries, skill levels, conditioning levels and so on.

 

3. Time Frames

The average times we have seen have ranges from 15-22 minutes which is a perfect small dose on the aerobic system to start with.

 

4. We want a win every session
A good thought process for coaches. The workout format has the reps drop or descend from set to set. This provides a lot of motivation to complete the task. Something not only athletes thrive off is metrics or boxes to tick along with the finish line in sight, no matter how far away it is. Rather than just completing aerobic work for a time frame. Setting frame works like this is going to see buy-in and output at a much more ideal level.

 

Follow along over the coming weeks as we build out this full program explaining all the why's behind it. While ensuring to fill you in on the benefits utilising conditioning such as this.

Written by Isaac Davidson