MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA
  • KEEPING FIT: Mix it up to prevent boredom

  • In addition to watching television, listening to music, or reading the paper while you ride the stationary cycle, there are many programming factors you can manipulate to make your exercise session more motivating.
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  • Although outdoor aerobic activities are undoubtedly more interesting, there are several steps you can take to make indoor endurance exercise less boring and more beneficial. In addition to watching television, listening to music, or reading the paper while you ride the stationary cycle, there are many programming factors you can manipulate to make your exercise session more motivating. These include cross-training, circuit training and interval training, all of which have significant advantages over standard, steady state exercise.
    Standard Steady State Exercise
    Most aerobic exercisers follow a consistent pattern of training, known as standard, steady state exercise. A typical training session begins with a few minutes of the aerobic activity (cycling, running, etc.) at an easy effort level. This provides a specific warm-up for both the cardiovascular system and the muscles involved in the endurance exercise. The warm-up segment is followed by a 20- to 40-minute period of continuous moderate-effort exercise that elevates heart rate to approximately 75 percent of maximum. This is the steady state component of the exercise session that provides the cardiovascular conditioning effect. The steady state training period is followed by a reduced-effort cool down segment, lasting about 3 to 5 minutes or until heart rate is within 30 beats per minute of resting level.
    Steady state endurance exercise is easy to implement and effective for increasing cardiovascular endurance. However, there are alternative aerobic activity protocols that offer a lower risk of overuse-imbalance injuries and provide a greater cardiovascular training effect. Just as important, they are more interesting to perform, which makes these exercise sessions more beneficial psychologically as well as physiologically.
    Cross Training
    Cross training is an easily implemented training procedure at most fitness facilities, at least during non-peak use periods. Rather than spending 30 minutes on a single exercise (cycle, treadmill, elliptical, etc.), simply perform three successive aerobic activities for 10 minutes each. For example, a cross-training session could consist of a few minutes of walking warm-up, 10 minutes of stationary cycling, 10 minutes of elliptical exercise, and 10 minutes of stair stepping, followed by a few minutes of walking cool-down. By changing the mode of exercise, you reduce the risk of muscle overuse and muscle imbalance injuries that often result from performing the same movement pattern every workout. Also, by using different muscle groups for different exercises, cumulative fatigue is reduced and the performance level may be increased. The following aerobic activities may be interchanged in a variety of ways in a cross-training program: recumbent cycling; upright cycling; treadmill walking; treadmill running, elliptical training; stair stepping; stair climbing; rowing and rope jumping.
    Circuit Training
    Circuit aerobic training is similar to cross training, but involves a more systematic exercise selection/sequence and much shorter activity segments. Successive exercises emphasize different muscle groups so that some muscles are resting while others are working and vice-versa. Because successful circuit training requires relatively high effort levels throughout the workout, each exercise is performed for just 3 to 5 minutes at a time. Consider this sample circuit aerobic training program for a comprehensive 32-minute endurance exercise session: walking warm-up (4 minutes); recumbent cycling (4 minutes); treadmill jogging (4 minutes); rowing (4 minutes); elliptical training (4 minutes); upright cycling (4 minutes); stair climbing (4 minutes); and walking cool-down (4 minutes). In addition to the physical benefits of performing seven different exercises, the brief training segments make circuit aerobic workouts more interesting from a mental perspective.
    Page 2 of 2 - Interval Training
    The most challenging and productive form of aerobic activity is called interval training. Whether you are a beginning exerciser or an advanced athlete, interval training is the most effective means for improving your present level of cardiovascular fitness. Although you can apply interval training techniques to cross-training, I will present a sample program for the exercise cycle. The basic principle of interval training is alternating periods of higher-effort exercise and lower-effort exercise. The higher-effort segments increase the training intensity and the lower-effort segments maintain the training duration for an enhanced cardiovascular conditioning session. Interval training makes the workout more challenging physically and less monotonous mentally, as you look forward to performing the lower-effort intervals between the higher-effort exercise bouts. Generally, the training intervals should be equal in length and not exceed 3 minutes duration.
    Let’s say that you normally ride the stationary cycle at 50 watts for your 3-minute warm-up and cool-down segments and at 100 watts for your 20-minute steady-state period. Do the same warm-up and cool-down protocol, but divide your steady state period into seven intervals of 3 minutes each. Cycle your first, third, fifth and seventh 3-minute intervals at 125 watts (higher-effort training), and cycle your second, fourth and sixth 3-minute intervals at 75 watts (lower-effort training). You should see results after as little as 3 weeks of interval training, especially if you perform at least two interval training sessions per week.
    Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D., teaches exercise and directs the fitness research classes at Quincy College. He has written 25 books on strength training.
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