As we’ve already alluded to, there are three main components of cardiovascular health that we must improve in order to raise your specific level of cardiovascular fitness—structure, function, and regulation. Considering that function is related directly to structure and regulation, we have to devise a cardiovascular training program around two specific goals—the development of the necessary structure and the improvement of regulation. Because most people reading this are also focused on performance of some kind, I’ll try to make this as EliteFTS-friendly as possible and show you how doing cardio can actually make you stronger!
Volume before intensity
So let’s get started and discuss the first goal—developing the necessary structure of the cardiovascular system. Now, I know how in vogue it is these days to bash endurance cardio in favor of interval type training. In fact, it’s hard to read an article on cardio training lately without reading references to how superior interval training is to endurance training. While interval training is an integral part of the process, I’ve got a news flash for everyone. Endurance cardio work also serves a vital role and needs to be done. Let me repeat that there is a time and a place when you do need to do long, slow, endurance-type cardio. Interval training is not the end all be all of cardiovascular development.
The reason it’s important to do long, slow cardio in the beginning stages of developing work capacity is simple. It improves cardiac output by making your left ventricle bigger. A bigger left ventricle means more blood is pumped with each beat and more oxygen can be delivered to your working muscles. This type of cardio also helps develop the peripheral vascular network needed to bring oxygenated blood to the muscles. This is something that simply doesn’t happen with the interval training method.
Higher intensity methods like interval training can actually thicken the walls of the left ventricle, making it more difficult to increase cardiac output because thicker walls are more resistant to the stretching that occurs as a result of the long slow cardio. Yes, interval training does need to be done down the road, but if your resting heart rate is in the 70 or higher, you need to start by improving your cardiac output. This can only be done with long, low intensity cardio.
Don’t worry. This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours on the treadmill or riding a bike or put on spandex and join an aerobic class. The easiest way to accomplish this goal is to use your GPP work for this type of cardio. The only important principle of this type of cardio development is that it needs to be done for at least 60 minutes at a time, and your heart rate needs to stay in the 120–130 range.
This means traditional GPP work like sled dragging, tire flipping, sledgehammer hitting, and medicine ball work will work just fine. Just make sure to keep your heart rate in the 120–130 range. I’ve found that the best way to avoid monotony is to mix it up. Drag the sled for 10 minutes, flip the tire for 10 minutes, and do some medicine ball work for 10 minutes until you’ve done 60–90 minutes.
I suggest doing this type of training 1–2 days per week for 4–6 weeks to start out. Do it on your non-lifting days to promote recovery. And no, your bench won’t go down 50 lbs and you aren’t going to lose 10 lbs of muscle. Developing a good level of cardiac output through this type of cardio is a HUGE part of developing your work capacity and will improve your health and your ability to train more often. It is also absolutely vital that you develop your cardiovascular system with this conditioning base before you move on to more intensive methods. Trust me. It’s not as bad as it sounds, and I guarantee it will pay off in the long run.