Runner's Corner

June 2007 ::  Index of issues

Secrets to Successful Aerobic Workouts

June 2007 Runner’s Corner

By Kitty A. Consolo, Ph.D.

Now that summer is almost here, many of use will not only be running but also adding other aerobic workouts to our schedules. Whether you are a beginner or a long-term aerobic exerciser, it is not always easy to tell if your training is successful. Without a good coach or personal trainer, it is easy to make training mistakes and end up sick, injured or burned out. The following information is designed to give you some specific guidelines to help your workouts be successful so that you can reach your fitness goals.

I. Success Secrets: Applying the Training Principles to You

1. The individual differences principle:

This key training principle takes into account that everyone is different and that you must learn to know yourself and do what works for you. Many athletes talk to their friends and try to copy what their friends are doing which may or may not be a great formula for them. The best way to learn what works for you is to keep a daily training log and monitor your resting and recovery heart rates (more later on this) as we as how long you exercised and how you felt.

2. Overload principle:

This key training principle states that in order to get better, you have to do more. However, this is tricky because there is a very fine line between training and straining. Here are a few choices. There are three ways you can increase or overload yourself in training. You can increase your frequency or the number of workouts you do in a week, you can increase your weekly time or distance or you can increase your intensity or how hard you workout. I find for most people the safest way to improve is to increase your overall time or distance just 10% a each week. And rather than make all of your workouts faster, try to increase your pace just one workout per week, limiting your “fast” training to 10-30% of your total time or miles spent workout out weekly.

3. Specificity Principle

This key training principle simply means that the more specific your goal is, the closer you should replicate the activity in your workouts. For example, if your goal is to be a faster runner, then your time would be best spent running rather than swimming. However, if your training goal is more general, such as you just want to get your heart in shape and tone, then you can do a variety of aerobic exercise such as running, walking, swimming or aerobics.

If you incorporate the above principles into your training, you are well on your way to success. However, even the best laid plans can go wrong and you can experience disaster if you fail to monitor your body and how it is responding to your training. So the next section is to help with that so that you can make modifications in your training on a daily basis.

To accurately monitor your signs, get a calendar or notebook or workout log that is big enough to record how much you exercised, how you felt, your resting and recovery heart rates and any of the signs listed below of over-training.

II. Monitoring Signs of Over-Training

1. The most important sign of over-training in an increase in resting heart rate of just 10%! To monitor your resting heart rate, take your heart rate with two fingers either alongside your neck at the carotid artery or on the thumb side of your wrist at the radial artery. You should be truly rested lying in bed at night or in the morning before you get up. Take a full minute to take your heart rate and record it daily for a week to determine what is “normal” for you. Normal heart rate a rest for adults in around 72 beats a minute and as you get in great aerobic shape, a clear sign you are getting better is to have your resting heart rate drop. Thus just a 10% increase is a bad sign and you need to cut your work out in half that day or rest totally until your heart rate goes back to normal for you. Definitely rest totally if your resting heart rate gets about 20% normal.

2. The second more important sign of over-training is failure of your heart to recover quickly after a workout. Practice taking a recovery heart rate at the same time interval after a workout—preferably 2 minutes after and in the same body position as this can change the rate. Ideally within 2 minutes of a workout, your heart rate should be within 20 to 30 beats of your resting heart rate and then continue to resume to normal once your body temperature is back to normal. Failure of your heart rate to drop after a workout and get close to normal quickly can be a sign of over-training or also on-coming illness. Again, if this occurs, your next workout should be easier or a rest day.

The remaining signs of over-training are equally important and signals you need to rest or reduce your workouts 20-50% until these signs disappear.

3. Tired, heavy legs that fail to improve three days in a row—rest.

4. No desire to train three days or more in a row.

5. Colds or illnesses—hopefully you will have listened to your resting heart rate and body before these happen.

6. Decrease in your appetite though you are training.

7. Inability to sleep more than three nights in a row.

8. You have a fever—NEVER EVER WORKOUT OUT WITH ONE. THIS CAN CAUSE HEART DAMAGE OR DEATH

Notice that I did not talk about an exercise heart rate. I find too many people get too confused with numbers and formulas and finding their exercise heart rate. Unless your doctor has said you need to carefully monitor your resting heart rate, I have found it best to training so that you feel “pleasantly tired” rather than to get too concerned with how hard your exercise heart rate is.

Fueling

Since aerobic training dehydrates the muscle and depletes it of carbohydrate stores known as glycogen, researchers have found that you can recover quicker from your workout if you consume 1 to 2 grams of carbohydrate per 2 pounds of your body weight within 2 hours of endurance exercise and also add some rich protein sources too at a carbohydrate to protein ratio of 3:1. For a 154 pound person this corresponds to about 70 grams of carbs and 25 grams of protein. A sample meal could be 1 regular bagel, 2 T peanut butter or lowfat cream cheese, 8oz lowfat milk, soymilk or rice milk, 1 banana (77 grams carbs, 23 grams protein, 18 grams fat

Summary

If you follow the above training secrets, monitor for signs of overtraining and re-adjust your training on a daily basis to meet its needs plus follow adequate nutrition, you should enjoy a body that is fit, healthy and has lots of energy to meet the goals and demands of your life. Congrats on having the courage to exercise, only 15% of the population does, so you are already part of a special group. Good Luck with your training and best wishes for success!

Dr. Kitty

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