Workouts come in lots of
flavors. Actually, I am not sure about
the literal flavors since I don’t actually test them by licking, but it’s a
good metaphor anyway.
One popular kind of
workout is the cardio endurance workout.
When we see all those people on the treadmills and elliptical trainers
and stair climbers and such at the gym, those folks are, by and large, doing
cardio endurance. They work to get their
heart rates up and keep them up for 30 minutes or 45 minutes or even longer.
The cardio interval
workout is similar, but not quite the same.
If a cardio endurance workout is vanilla ice cream, a cardio interval
workout is like that same ice cream with sprinkles and/or a cherry on top. Which is to say, it’s slightly more
interesting. It’s also better for you,
but the analogy breaks down there—sprinkles don’t make the ice cream into a healthier
food choice. People doing this kind of
workout hop on the equipment or stride out onto the pavement or trail just like
the endurance folks, but every so often they put on a burst of speed. That burst lasts up to a minute and is at a
pace that can’t be sustained for longer than that. Then, when the burst is over, these people go
back to their previous pace until their heart rates slow a bit (but not all the
way down to normal). They repeat these
intense intervals throughout the workout.
A good ratio to use doing this work is two minutes of recovery between
one minute maximum effort bursts. This
kind of workout is better because it burns more calories in the same amount of
time and it improves cardio fitness faster because it trains the system to
recover.
Many of the exercise classes
available at gyms are one of these kinds, although the ones that involve dance
give extra bonus points for working on coordination and balance.
Then there are the mind-body
workouts, like Pilates and yoga. These
workouts train flexibility, balance, and strength, plus proprioception. Often, they promote relaxation and other
mental well-being. Some people do this
kind of workout exclusively, but I like them mixed in with some other kinds for
a more rounded experience.
When it comes to
strength-training workouts, it gets a little more complex. One way to sort strength workouts is by
goal. Endurance workouts use lighter
weights and lots of reps to build basic strength. People starting out begin here and many women
stick to this kind of weight workout.
Once those basics are mastered, some people want big muscles and others
want to lift the heaviest things. The
former group will lift pretty heavy weights a medium number of times (about
8-10 reps). The latter group will lift
heavy weights in short sets, culminating in a one-rep maximum for each exercise.
Structuring weight
workouts for any of those choices can involve something as simple as a list of
all the exercises. People start at the
top, do their three sets of each exercise with appropriate rests between, and call
it a day. Circuits spice that up a
little; those same exercises are organized so that people do a single set of
each and repeat the whole shebang a few times.
They can be more efficient if they are well-constructed because one
muscle group can rest while another works (say, if upper body and lower body
exercises alternate through the circuit.).
When I create strength workouts
for my clients, I use a circuit variation with cardio intervals. They are efficient, more interesting than
straight lifting, and adaptable. Cardio
exercises get the heart rate up, making the weight lifting more
challenging. At the end, clients have
done their sweating and lifting and get the cardio bonus points.
