Eliminating the Cardio Blues

With all this rain Vancouver has been feeling, I wanted to post an indoor cardio workout. Now, I hate running on treadmills, mainly because I feel like a hamster in a wheel- going around and around and around. But with that being said, it is safer to run indoors when it is a torrential downpour outside (Welcome to the Fall in Vancouver!). My first adventure in the gym years back was for this exact reason.. safety comes first! Below is a cardiovascular interval program that can be taken either walking, running or sprinting. It goes through different training zones, inclines and speeds to make things interesting!

Enough of this! Make Cardio INTERESTING!

All you need is, a treadmill, good pair of runners,water and of course a good sweat towel because believe me you will need it! Now this workout is formatted for an intermediate. With that being said you will want to adjust the speed and incline to what works for you! Please do not hurt yourself trying something too light or too hard! What I have done, is assigned a RPE scale to each interval. This is your Rating of Perceived Exertion. Very very important, as depending on how conditioned you are will determine the level of difficulty.

Here are a few things to remember:

Rating of Perceived Exertion or RPE: scale of 1-10, how hard is it? With 1 being “piece of cake, I could dance, and sing while walking” to 10 being the most difficult, “My heart is pounding, legs giving out and I think my breakfast might end up on the floor”.

Baseline: this is your starting point speed. If you are performing this program walking it would be around 4.0, jogging around 5.5, and running around 6.5.

Warm-up/Cool-down: Critical for your workout, this is a MUST! Even though it is boring, you must warm-up those muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons… Take care of your body, you only have one!

Grab your best workout music, and lets get this party started!