How To Work Cardio Into Your Athletic Workout

December 28, 2009 on 5:27 pm | In Strength Training | 5 Comments

How To Work Cardio Into Your Athletic Workout

==>Guest post by Matt Wiggins<==

Cardio is an ugly word to a lot of people – especially athletes.

I think the word “cardio” has gotten a bad rap over the years – even from me.So many pimple-faced personal trainers and spandex wearing weenies out there have made cardiovascular conditioning such pansy form of exercise, that just the word “cardio” makes anybody serious about strength training cringe.

But in all reality, that’s not what cardio has to be.To be cardio, all you have to do is tax the heart and lungs – improve your cardiovascular conditioning.

(NOTE – There are a lot more elements to overall conditioning than just cardio – including muscular conditioning, strength/power-endurance, work capacity, etc. But that’s another topic for another time.)

So, just like getting stronger is ultimately about picking up heavy stuff, putting it down, and picking it up again, improving cardiovascular conditioning, one just has to get the heart and lungs working hard.Doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Now, we could turn this into a whole debate about aerobic vs anaerobic and the like, but for athletes, it’s not really necessary.There’s a pretty simple plan to follow:

1 – Make sure you have a base line of strength & conditioning.

2 – Increase that strength & conditioning and improve overall work capacity.

3 – Get better at your sport.

Now personally (I’m NOT speaking for Joe here, these are my words, so if you’ve got hate mail about this, send it to me – LOL), I think most of the ’sport-specific’ training out there is a waste of time.If you wanna get better at your sport, here’s an idea…

PRACTICE YOUR SPORT.Nobody ever became a better football player simply by lifting weights.Just like nobody got stronger in the weight room simply by playing football.

(Yeah, novel concept, I know…)

Now while trying to replicate your sport in the gym isn’t necessary, that doesn’t mean you can’t massage your training to fit the needs of your sport.If you’re a football player, and you’ve got decent work capacity already, there is no reason for you to be doing 400m sprints.Just like there’s no reason for a lineman to do much running past about 10-20 yards (and even that is stretching).Just like if a receiver thinks getting faster at sprinting a 40 only in a straight line will ultimately help him for anything outside of combines, he’s crazy.

That’s not to say cardio isn’t necessary, though.It just has to be done smartly – in a fashion that will improve his overall work capacity, augment his sport, and not counteract or work against him getting stronger and more powerful.

Many different methods could work for any of these scenarios – sled drags, prowler pushes, strongman training, heavy circuit/complex training, adding ‘active’ rest between sets, starting workouts off with GPP and/or dynamic warmups, etc.

Cardio doesn’t have to – nor should it – be avoided just because of the bad rap it’s gotten over the years.It just has to be done right.

_________________________________________

Running sucks – so do most cardio machines.Check out the cardio workout that can be done anywhere, uses hardly any equipment, and doesn’t use any stupid machines or running a single step.Check out Matt at http://www.workingclasscardioworkout.com

Joe Hashey, CSCS

PS. I performed 100 Seconds From Hell yesterday.I will be sending the video out to everyone on the Bull Strength Conditioning newsletter as a bonus!