Relentless Cardio, Overtraining & Injury

Hi again all !

I have been hard at it the last couple of days in my downtime, finishing a new e-book called the Power of the Press up. It’s a short book about how the Press up is overlooked these days in favour of Bench Pressing  and fancy machines. It has 30 or so variations of this age old exercise, and even though I say it myself, I reckon it is pretty good, ha ha. It will be available free on my website in the next few days.

Training wise, it has been pretty good over the last couple of days, with some Speed training and a small challenge we have put together on the Website called the Watan 500.

Anyway, the speed training is excellent, it gives a great workout, backs up my resistance training and is finished in 40 minutes, not only that, it doesn’t hurt my back, knees or anything else for that matter. Just makes me feel sharp(I know I am not though, never have been) which at my age is all I ask for.

This is a lot different to when I was doing endurance training in my Military day’s, when all I felt was knackered after grinding it out to my limit, and always running injured, not only that, no matter how much strength training I did, I never really got any stronger. Even worse, I got so obsessed with endurance training, I made myself ill, all my targets in the gym started to go backward, which then made me train even harder to get them back. DUH!!! I JUST GOT WORSE. What an idiot. This went on for a few months, eventually I had lost all motivation to train, the only thing that kept me training was because I thought I was just being weak by not going, everything was going backward timings, numbers the lot.  I just felt awful all the time and in the end I just broke down and was ill, couldn’t train even if I had wanted too. This was my wake up call, in those days, I wasn’t really all that clued up on Physiology and all that kind of info, also the information wasn’t as freely available as it is today. I just trained balls to the wall all the time, the harder it was the better. What a mug!! 

Now I am no Olympic athlete and no great shakes at anything, never was and never will be. But now with the knowledge I have acquired over the years, I can train smarter, not harder.  I train every day, and if I feel a bit tired, I don’t feel guilty for not doing anything so I just give it a miss. I train for an hour, that’s it. I very rarely go over it.  But it’s what I do in that hour that gives me my buzz. Resistance training including Bodyweight, Weights and always finish up with something that makes me feel good when I go out of the gym.  All my Cardio comes from my weights and speed training, that’s it. I feel great!

Unless you are training for a Marathon or some other far out endurance event (if you are, ignore this bit) there are smarter ways to help you stay healthy, look fit, and slow the ageing process. I mean how many people can really say, they actually ENJOY going for a long run, and pushing them- selves so hard it’s painful. I used to think I did, until I got smarter.  As I have said, it made me ill, it made me hurt with all the small niggles and injuries that I picked up and I never let them heal and the only time I ever really enjoyed it, was when it was finished. What sort of enjoyment is that?

So here is my advice gained through some negative experience. Try this out.

 These are the Does!

Think about changing your training if you are a Cardio Junkie, especially if you are getting on a bit.

Have a look at Resistance training. Just some simple exercises,

1. The Squat
2. The Lunge
3. The Press up
4. The Pull up
5. The Overhead press

These exercises are just the job to start off with.

 Nail the technique of all these exercises so that your movement is spot on, as I have stated in previous blogs, these are fundamental movements for us. If you need to do a bit of cardio work, that’s fine but 15 minutes after the resistance training is all you need at most.

Do resistance training 2-3 times per week, to get the most from it.

When you are a bit stronger and used to putting a bit of stress on your muscles, think about adding some Speed Training to your programme. Nothing fancy; just ensure that you warm up well first with some dynamic and static type stretching if you have any tight spots.

Here is a very simple Speed type workout to start out on.

For the first couple of times you do this, do not go out at your maximum, keep the speed around 80-85% of your max.

1.  Run hard for 15 to 20 secs. Then walk recovery.
2. Recovery will be around 6 times longer than the effort. So if you run for 20 secs, rest for 120 secs
3. Build up until you can do 9 efforts (9 efforts will remain constant through the whole programme) of 20 secs. The recovery will be, 120 seconds between each effort. Session = 21 minutes total, less warm up time
4. When you can do that, reduce the rest time to 1:4 =80 seconds.  Session = 12 minutes total
5. Build up to 9 efforts again
6. Then bring the recovery to 1:2 = 40 Seconds. Build up to 9 efforts = 9 minutes total
7. Finally bring the recovery down to 1:1 = 6 minutes total time

Meaning apart from your warm up, you will be done in 6 minutes, that’s it.

Keep your speed as high as you possibly can for all your efforts.

The benefits for increasing your Cardio are proven using this type of training, so why go out plodding along for hours, getting bored or injured through repetitive strain when you can get all you need from 6 minutes work 2 x per week.  Plus another 2 -3 hours of resistance training.

Total weekly outlay of time. Resistance training + cardio =  3hours 6minutes (there are 168 hours in a week) it’s not very much is it when you look at it like that?  You will feel so much better for it.

Now the don’ts

1. Do not do Cardio before resistance training..... When you warm up, use some dynamic stretching and some static stretching that prepares you for the movements that you are going to do in your training.
2. Unless you are a beginner, stay away from machines(and I still would not advise using them anyway). The majority of Machines make no demands on all the small receptors that you need to control a free weight, which is what you come across mostly in your daily life, for tasks around the house, going out shopping, moving furniture and especially if you are into some sort of Sport. Machines will get your muscles strong, but do little for your Tendons ,Ligaments and these tiny receptors,  as the machine allows you to lift in a fixed line only (or one movement plane) in sport and daily life we do not move in one plane at a time, we use multiple planes of movement to carry out a task.  If you are only training in one plane and that is supported by a machine, as soon as you come away from the plane you have been training in, you will not be as strong.
3. Unless you want to be one, do not train like a body builder. Train for movement not muscle. Remember body builders are training to show off their physique, not just for a healthy life and daily movement.
4. Don’t take programmes out of Muscle magazines and try to do them. They are not designed for the average person and definitely do not use the so called programmes of the big bodybuilding stars or you will end up injured.

For  information on Stretching, Speed and Agility training and resistance training, there is plenty of free information on my website Click here if you want to have a look.

Well that’s it for now, I hope this has been useful for someone, whether you are new to training or if you are a seasoned vet who pounds out the miles, or a female that just spends hours on the cardio machines. Have a try and see how you go, you have nothing to lose but lots to gain.

 IF YOU ALWAYS STAY CLOSE TO THE SHORE, YOU’LL NEVER KNOW WHAT’S OUT THERE FOR YOU.

Have a great day, and if you have any questions at all feel free to e-mail me Here

Steve