Quincy
— Although walking,
jogging, hiking and cycling are excellent forms of endurance
exercise, many seniors prefer indoor means for improving
cardiovascular fitness during the winter months when snow,
ice and cold temperatures reduce the appeal (and safety) of
outdoor activities. Unfortunately, pedaling a stationary
cycle is less interesting than cycling in the great
outdoors, and most of us experience motivational challenges
with indoor exercise sessions.
While just going through the motions of an aerobic activity
is better than doing nothing, there are ways to make your
indoor endurance exercise both more effective and enjoyable.
My first recommendation is to change from a standard steady
state exercise routine to an interval training
protocol. The standard steady state exercise session is
characterized by maintaining essentially the same pace and
activity level throughout the entire training period (other
than during a brief warm-up and cool-down).
Conversely, the interval training protocol consists
of intermittent periods of lower-effort endurance exercise
and higher-effort endurance exercise. For example, on a
scale of exercise effort from 1 to 10 (1 being extremely
easy and 10 being extremely hard) an interval training
session on a stationary cycle might be performed as
follows:
|
Time Period |
Effort Level |
Cycle Resistance |
|
(minutes) |
(scale of 1 to 10) |
(watts) |
| 3
Minutes |
3
(warm-up) |
50 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
5
(lower effort) |
75 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
7
(higher effort) |
100 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
5
(lower effort) |
75 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
7
(higher effort) |
100 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
5
(lower effort) |
75 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
7
(higher effort) |
100 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
5
(lower effort) |
75 Watts |
| 3
Minutes |
3
(lower effort) |
50 Watts |
This program provides sufficient warm-up and cool-down
periods (3 minutes each), with about 20 minutes of aerobic
activity for cardiovascular conditioning. Alternating
lower-effort and higher effort exercise segments actually
provides a greater training stimulus than maintaining
moderate exercise intensity for the entire workout. Of
course, the key to successful interval training is
the higher-effort exercise bouts, which only need to be
performed for three minutes at a time, the lower-effort
intervals offer appropriate recovery periods while still
involving productive aerobic activity.
From a psychological perspective, interval training
ensures variety in an otherwise often monotonous bout of
endurance exercise. Rather than dreading the remaining
minutes of a steady state workout, you deal with just three
minutes at a time. You gear up for the higher-effort
segments and you look forward to the lower-effort segments.
Interval training workouts always seem to pass more
quickly than standard endurance exercise programs.
Another approach to aerobic activity is cross-training.
Cross-training uses different types of endurance
exercise during a given workout, which enhances both the
physiological benefits and the psychological enjoyment
factor. For example, instead of completing 30 minutes of
stationary cycling, you could perform 10 minutes of cycling,
10 minutes of walking, and 10 minutes of rowing. The
cross-training session provides the same 30 minute
workout duration, but involves three different exercises.
Although all three exercises offer similar cardiovascular
effects, each one emphasizes different muscle groups which
reduces the risk of overuse injuries and provides more
comprehensive conditioning. Of course, changing exercises
every 10 minutes also makes the training session more
interesting.
You may choose any combination of two or more aerobic
activities, such as the following:
| •
walking |
•
rowing |
| •
jogging |
•
elliptical training |
| •
upright cycling |
• stair climbing |
| •
recumbent cycling |
• swimming |
If you have
experienced motivational problems with standard indoor
endurance exercise programs, please try a few sessions of
interval training and cross-training. Both of
these program options offer more effective and enjoyable
exercise sessions than steady state training. After
experiencing the physiological and psychological benefits of
these training protocols, you should look forward to your
indoor training sessions this winter.
|
