endurance athletes training methods

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You may (mistakenly) think this training method is old hat, but it is brilliant for endurance athletes. Here are a couple of suggested workouts:

Back in the 1970s, people began to realize that both 'aerobic' and strength workouts were important for fitness, and that created a dilemma. Who had enough time to carry out five or so aerobic sessions per week - and also three or four strength workouts? In a fast-paced society, people wanted 'McTraining' (e.g., training which was quick and easy and could do everything - knocking down the risk of heart disease but also producing ripply muscles).

Thus, circuit training was born. Circuit workouts were modest in length (you could complete most of them in less than an hour), and they were said to be good for both your cardiovascular system and muscles. Suddenly, training time could be cut in half - without cutting back on the benefits of working out. You didn't have to be a runty runner or cyclist with small strips of sinews - or just a muscle-bound lifter with a fat-filled heart. You could be buff - AND aerobically fit. That was very appealing, and scientific research backed up the idea that circuit training was a good idea. Late in the 1970s, researchers at the National Athletic Health Institute in the United States asked 20 men and 20 women to complete some simple workouts which contained three circuits and 10 exercises per circuit. The exercises were performed on a Universal Gym and included the following: bench presses, inclined sit-ups, leg presses, lat pulls, back arches, shoulder presses, leg extensions, arm curls, leg flexions, and upright rows. All subjects performed 15 to 18 repetitions of each exercise in 30 seconds, using a resistance equal to 40 per cent of their individual one-repetition maximum (1-RM) values (e.g., 40 per cent of the greatest weight they could lift once, but not more than once).

The subjects in this NAHI study took 15-second breaks as they moved from one exercise to another, making the work-rest ratio 30:15 (or 2:1). Of course, the near-continuous nature of their activity, moving fairly rapidly from exercise to exercise with only a small respite, was supposed to keep heart rate and oxygen consumption high and thereby create aerobic benefits for the workout, in addition to the obvious strength-related ones. In these early circuits, there was no actual running or cycling involved; participants simply moved from one resistance exercise to another.

Slicing away body fat
The NAHI research clearly showed how beneficial circuit training could be. Male participants averaged more than 75 per cent of max heart rate while conducting the circuits, while females exercised at over 80 per cent of max. In addition, the men burned 204 calories doing the three circuits, not bad for 15 actual minutes of activity (30 thirty-second work intervals). That of course would add up to over 800 calories for an hour of work; one would have to run about seven miles in the same time frame to achieve the same caloric effect. The researchers estimated that carrying out this simple, short workout just three times a week would carve away four pounds of body fat within a year.

A separate study carried out by the same group of scientists determined that circuit training produced a number of other desirable effects. In this second piece of research, subjects carried out the circuit workout described above three times a week for a total of 10 weeks (the only change was that resistance increased from 40 to 55 per cent of 1-RM in some cases).

After 10 weeks, lean body weight increased for both male and female subjects, and the females significantly reduced percent body fat. On average, men and women gained about three pounds of muscle and lost about two pounds of fat. Both men and women achieved reductions in skin-fold thickness (another indication of fat loss), and both sexes increased the girths of their flexed biceps muscles. Both also increased overall muscular strength.

On the aerobic end of the spectrum, although neither the men or women had engaged in any running during the circuit training, both improved endurance while running on the treadmill by about 5 to 6 per cent at the end of 10 weeks. In addition, the women improved VO2max by 11 per cent (surprisingly enough, this is about the same average gain in VO2max achieved by individuals who take part in a 10-week aerobic-jogging programme). Another study detected a 9-per cent increase in treadmill endurance time after 20 weeks of circuit training, and two other investigations linked circuit training with enhancement of VO2max. Circuit training was off to a great start!

Adding running to the mix
In the early 1980s, researchers at the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas took notice of the rave reviews that circuit training was getting and planned a unique and outstanding piece of circuit research. 36 females and 41 males took part in this investigation, which involved working out for 12 weeks. One group of participants carried out a circuit session similar to the one described above (with three circuits of 10 exercises per workout) three times per week. A second group of people served as controls, and a third collection of subjects carried out the really interesting workouts - a combination of the regular circuits with running.

While the first group (the conventional circuit trainers) rested for about 15 seconds between their exercises (to allow time to move from one station to the other), the third group's members ran for about 30 seconds on an indoor track between exercises. This was the first study which really looked at the effects of a combination of running and strengthening activities within circuit workouts, comparing this combo with circuits which included only resistance work. The actual circuit, carried out by both the strength-only and strength-plus-running groups, consisted of the following exercises: squats, shoulder presses, knee flexions, bench presses, leg presses, elbow flexions, back hyperextensions, elbow extensions, sit-ups, and vertical flies. Each exercise was performed for 30 seconds (usually permitting 12 to 15 reps) at 40 per cent of 1-RM, followed by 15 seconds of rest for the strength-only group and 30 seconds of running for the strength-plus-running individuals, after which the next exercise commenced. The running itself was fairly modest in nature, averaging about 189 metres per minute (8:30 per mile pace).

The results
How did the groups fare after 12 weeks? Not a single person was injured during the training; indeed, low injury rates are one of the most attractive features of circuit training. Since the amount of running is moderate, there are few overuse injuries; since the resistance is modest, there is usually little risk of severe muscle strain or back injury. After 12 weeks, both the strength-only (SO) and strength-plus-running (SPR) groups lost the same amount of weight, trimmed away a similar amount of body fat, and added equivalent amounts of muscle tissue. Both groups also improved bench-press and leg-press strength to a similar extent.

On the aerobic end of things, the SO people, even though they didn't run at all, were able to increase endurance while running on the treadmill by about 12 per cent. However, the SPR subjects spiked treadmill endurance by 19 per cent. Similarly, SO individuals moved VO2max upward by 12.5 per cent, while SPR athletes advanced VO2max by 17 per cent. Those gains in the SPR group are pretty terrific: when you think about it, SPR group members were really only running for 15 minutes (10 reps x 30 seconds x 3 circuits) three times a week, in addition to their three 15-minute bouts of resistance training, yet they made great gains. The advances are even more impressive when one remembers that the subjects were not running hard during the running portions of their circuits; higher intensities of running would have no doubt produced even greater improvements.

Yet even those individuals who did no running at all made progress with their VO2max values and treadmill endurance times. Why is that so? For one thing, they improved muscular strength, and greater muscular strength tends to decrease muscular fatigue during exercise, allowing individuals to exercise longer, including when they are taking a VO2max test. If you last longer on a VO2max test, you move up to higher levels of exertion (with greater treadmill speeds or inclinations) and therefore to higher levels of oxygen consumption.

In addition, the continuous nature of circuit training tends to keep heart rate and oxygen consumption high throughout the workout. You are always doing something, so the muscles keep using oxygen to furnish the necessary fuel, and the heart keeps pumping oxygen to the muscles. High heart rates and oxygen-consumption rates during workouts tend to heighten VO2max. Interestingly enough, studies have shown that blood (and therefore oxygen) flow through muscles is greatest when one is working at between 30 and 60 per cent of 1-RM. Below 30 per cent, activity is so light that heart rate does not increase appreciably; above 60 per cent, muscular contractions are strong enough to constrict blood vessels within the muscles. Thus, the choice of 40 to 55 per cent of 1-RM in the studies we've described was probably optimal, and the lesson of course is that if you want your circuit training to improve you aerobically, you should not consistently use very heavy weights.

An unjustified slump
Strangely enough, despite all the physiological positives associated with circuit training in this early research, the popularity of circuit training has been on a steady decline for the last 15 years or so. Today, runners, cyclists, and swimmers tend to carry out straight running (or cycling or swimming) workouts and separate resistance sessions - or even avoid strength work altogether. One reason for this is that endurance athletes aren't sure exactly which strengthening exercises to include in their circuits, but in addition circuit work is often considered a throwback to the 70s and 80s. It no longer seems to be an up-to-date, cool thing to do.

That is unfortunate, because circuit training improves strength, which lowers the risk of injury, helps to improve efficiency of movement, and can be the prelude to considerably more powerful running, cycling, or swimming. In addition, circuit work can heighten VO2max, especially if one replaces the rather wimpy intervals used in the research studies with more intense effort. And circuit training can also heighten lactate threshold, the best predictor of endurance performance, as key research has shown. In case you haven't noticed, that means that circuit training can improve all five key variables which are important for endurance success - strength, power, economy, VO2max, and lactate threshold.

Try this workout
But what kind of circuits should you use? There are an almost infinite number of possibilities, but the following circuit workout will boost your fitness dramatically:

Warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging, swimming or cycling, and then perform the following exercises in order. Move quickly from exercise to exercise, but don't perform the exercises themselves too quickly (don't sacrifice good form just to get them done in a hurry). The idea is to do each exercise methodically and efficiently - and then almost immediately start on the next one.

1. Run 400 metres at current 5-K race pace (if you're a swimmer, swim 100 metres at high intensity; if you're a cyclist pedal for 1600 metres at a high rate of speed)
2. Do 5 chin-ups
3. Complete 36 ab crunches
4. Perform 15 squat thrusts with jumps (burpees)
5. Do 15 press-ups
6. Complete 30 body-weight squats (fast)
7. Run 400 metres at 5-K pace again (if you're a swimmer or cyclist, see step 1)
8. Do 12 squat and dumbbell presses (with 10-pound dumbbells)
9. Complete 10 feet-elevated press-ups
10. Perform 36 low-back extensions
11. Do 15 bench dips
12. Complete 15 lunges with each leg
13. Run 400 metres at 5-K pace
14. Repeat steps 2-13 one more time (for two circuits in all), and then cool down with about 15 minutes of light jogging, swimming, or cycling.

It's tougher than it looks
Burpees? Press-ups? Feet-elevated press-ups? What do these exertions have to do with running, cycling, or swimming? John Q. Public tends to think that press-ups are good only for strengthening the arms and shoulders, but they are actually whole-body exercises, because they force the core muscles in the hips, abdominal, and low-back areas to support and stabilize the body while the trunk is moving up and down. And if you don't think that burpees work your whole body, try reeling off 15 of them right after you have run 400 metres hard and completed several chin-ups and a mess of ab crunches! The workout looks easy, but most endurance athletes find it to be far from that when they actually try it. We don't want to add to the toughness by leaving you confused about how to do the exercises, so here are explanations for the least familiar ones:

To carry out body-weight squats, stand with erect posture and your feet directly below your shoulders. Then, go into a squatting position, so that your thighs are roughly parallel with the ground. As you do so, it's okay to let your upper body incline forward a bit. Return to the standing position, and you have concluded one 'rep'. To perform ab crunches, lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Cross your arms over your chest and then use your ab muscles to lift your torso up and ahead as far as possible. Slowly return your shoulders to the ground to complete one rep.

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