Spice Up Your Cardio

Add ginger, cloves, cinnamon. Oh no-that's the recipe for gingersnaps! Yes, yes, variety is the spice of life and works extremely well for your exercising. Spicing up your cardio program is a good thing-keeps your body stimulated and on its toes and prevents you from falling into a cardio rut. You know, that rut where I find you doing the exact same cardio program as you were doing a YEAR AGO?????!!!!! Ye gods........

Here are 3 ways to mix up your cardio:

LSD (not the drug, silly), tempo and sprints (otherwise known as intervals).

The short version:
LSD is short for long, slow distance. Tempo is between LSD and sprints. Sprints/intervals are pretty self-descriptive. Rotate among the 3 programs over the course of a week or two. For maintenance of your current health and fitness, split your routines like this: 40% LSD, 40% Tempo and 20% Sprint. That might work out to 2 LSD, 2 Tempo and 1 Sprint for a 1 week rotation.

For improvement of your current health and fitness and/or particularly if you have a weight loss goal, try for 30% LSD (use LSD routines as active recovery from Tempo and Sprint programs), 60% Tempo and 1 Sprint. That might look like 1-2 LSD, 3 Tempo and 1 Sprint for your week.

Note these routines are derived from runners' programs. They adapt nicely to any cardio machine. And LSD means miles (distance) for runners. For us gym rats, this translates into time, an hour or more. And make sure you read the caution/caveat below.

The long version:
First of all, understand the concept of RPE-rate of perceived exertion. It's a subjective measure of how hard you are working. In the world of exercise science, RPE is also known as the Borg scale. My favorite Borg scale (yes, there's more than one scale although only one Borg) is a scale of 1-10 which describes your work-load when you exercise. I tell my clients 1 is laying on your couch existing and 10 is climbing Mt. Everest. Therefore 5'ish is moderate exercise, above 6 is vigorous exercise and above 8 is usually not sustainable for any lengthy period of time (unless you're Lance Armstrong).

If you have a heartrate monitor (100 bonus points for you), let me know and I'll post the corresponding percentages for HR. If you don't have a HR monitor, consider buying one. It is an excellent tool and a wise investment in your health and fitness.

To help you determine your RPE (which will be different for each of you) here are some questions: are you sweating? If so, how much? Are you breathing more deeply? Huffing and puffing? Gasping? Can you carry on a conversation? Tell me your life story? Complete sentences? One word responses? Give me a dirty look when I ask you a question?

At an RPE of 5, the mythical average person (remember they don't exist, that's why they're MYTHICAL) will be lightly sweating (or glowing, for the ladies), deeply breathing and can talk to me in complete, grammatically correct sentences. (oh my mistake, that's the EDUCATED mythical average person).

At an RPE of above 6, the MAP will be moderately sweating, huffing and puffing and spitting out one word answers.

At an RPE of 8 and above, the MAP will be looking like something the cat dragged in, gasping and grunting or snarling wordlessly at me.

Let's go back to the 3 spices: LSD, Tempo and Sprints (gosh, I do like ginger, cloves and cinnamon more, makes a better gingersnap).

LSD corresponds to an RPE of 5. It's a work-load you can manage for a good amount of time. This is a maintenance, burn the calories from yesterday's pizza so it doesn't translate into 5lbs on the scale, pace. Definitely more work than laying on the couch where you probably ate said pizza while you watched Law and Order reruns. But not a big bang for your buck work-out.
Hint: that's why it's called MAINTENANCE.

Tempo corresponds to an RPE of 6-7. It's a work-load that's vigorous, tough to maintain but you can grit it out. Generally this is the kind of work-out they talk about in all those fitness magazines, you know, the 30 minute 5x a week dealio? Except that most people won't maintain the proper work-load. Most people do LSD (the exercise routine, not the drug!!!) and THINK they're doing a Tempo program. Silly folks. Sigh. An RPE of 6-7 is NOT a walk in the park. It's hard but doable. A real tempo program (as opposed to a fake one) is more but not most bang for your buck.

Sprints/Intervals correspond to an RPE of 8 and above. Well, that's a little misleading since the whole work-out isn't 8 and above. The sprint parts are. Here's the scoop: you start out at your LSD for 2-4 minutes, then you bump up your speed (treadmill) or start moving your feet faster (elliptical/precor) for 20-30 seconds. Basically go like a bat out of hell, as fast as possible for a very short spurt. Then recover back at a comfortable LSD for 2-4 minutes. Add water, repeat for 15-20 minutes. Huge bang for your buck if you don't collapse from shock at the intensity.

Caution: Sprints/intervals are an extremely vigorous work-out! You will probably feel like crap during the work-out but very victorious afterwards and then you'll crash. Don't schedule any important meetings or phone calls after this kind of work-out because you'll have no brain cells and you'll want to nap......for the next 3 days.

Caveat: Expect to be very, very hungry after sprints. Interval work-outs gobble up calories (and your available glucose) like nobody's business. We like this, however your body will start sending out the troops looking for food. And no, my arm does not resemble a juicy steak!

Plan to eat a balanced snack of about 200 calories (balanced: protein, complex carbs, a little good fat-not a snickers bar) within 30 minutes of completing an interval work-out. Otherwise you may inhale the entire contents of your fridge including that indescribable something that's been in the back of your fridge for the last 3 years. Ick. Consider yourself warned.

For heaven sakes' DO NOT do this work-out if you're new to exercising!!!!!!! Read my lips-you must have a good base of aerobic conditioning before you do sprints.

I do not want to be getting e-mails from you telling me that you keeled over in the middle of a sprint work-out. Do not write me and tell me that you did a 5 minute sprint or intervals for an hour!!! You are crazy people!!!! Either that or silly East Coasters (like me).

Sprints are huge bang for your buck, however, once you do one, you may wonder why anyone would ever put themselves through that experience willingly. Well, sprints separate the women from the girls, the men from the boys. Done correctly (see above and below) sprints will improve almost every facet of your health and fitness.

And do not, do not, do not entertain the idea that if sprints are so great, more must be better. I am the queen of Type A's and I can tell you: More sprints aren't better!!!!! If you are going to add sprints to your work-out, start with one sprint session per week, keep it to 15 minutes total (remember the ratio: 2-4 minute recovery for every 20-30-40 second sprint) for the first 6 weeks or so. Then you may increase the length of your sprint routine but NOT the frequency (keep it to once a week).

To recap: LSD is maintenance and may be the bulk of your work-outs depending on your goals. Tempo is 1-2 x a week or more particularly if you have weight loss goals. Sprints/Intervals, the biggest bang for your buck, is 1x a week maybe Saturday or Sunday when you can refuel and rest appropriately. Sprints/Intervals are for conditioned, experienced exercises, not novices or newbies or folks with significant cardiovascular issues. Check with your MD if you have any doubt as to the wisdom of adding sprint work to your exercising.

Over time (weeks-months) watch for your RPE to change. You'll be able to handle a higher work-load for your LSD and may be able to do faster sprints for your interval work-outs. Remember using a HR monitor will give you great feedback in pinning down what your HR is during moderate, vigorous and extremely intense exercising.

Good luck!

In health and loving a spicy work-out,

Laura