As I discussed last week, cardiovascular training is crucial when you’re injured.
But what should that look like to be maximally effective?
Let’s dive into it.
Exercise Choice
Initially, opt for something non-impact so you can deload the injured tissue to promote healing. So in these stages you’d consider the bike, cross-trainer and swimming. If you can’t do anything with one of your legs, I have even had people on a rowing machine with their injured legs on a skateboard to completely offload it. If you can’t use your lower body at all, then you can always complete an upper body only session like a seated HIIT work out or using the ski-erg. There’s always an alternative!
Training Intensity
Like sport, this needs to be varied. In sports, both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems are utilised, so it’s essential to develop both during cardiovascular training.
Start by focusing on the aerobic system first. Why? Because aerobic fitness underpins anaerobic recovery. In other words, the better your aerobic system, the quicker you will recover from short bursts of efforts and therefore the more you will be able to do. An example of an aerobic session could look like this:
- 45 minutes
- 60-80% of maximum heart rate
There’s also no reason why you can’t vary intensities within that 45 minutes, such as:
- 40 minutes total
- 10 blocks of: 1 minute at 60%, 1 minute at 65%, 1 minute at 70%, 1 minute at 75%
To develop the anaerobic energy system, work at high intensities for no more than a minute, making sure you have adequate recovery after that burst of effort. A session could look like this:
- 21 minutes
- 3 blocks of: 1 minute at 80-95% of maximum heart rate, 2 minutes of recovery <50% of maximum heart rate
When To Do It?
Timing is crucial for your programming. Generally, I would try to separate these from your strength days, so you can spread your workload across the week. Which could look like this:
- Monday – Strength
- Tuesday – Conditioning
- Wednesday – Recovery
- Thursday – Strength
- Friday – Conditioning
- Saturday – Combined Strength and Conditioning
- Sunday – Recovery
Could you just do your conditioning on the same day as your strength? If this is the path of least resistance to getting all the work done then it could be effective. For example, if you can only commit 3 times per week to the gym but you can do 75-90 minute sessions then this approach will work. But if you can only commit to 45 minute sessions at a time but you can do 5-6 across the week then this will be a better option for you.
When combining Strength and Conditioning on the same day, prioritise based on what’s most crucial for your rehabilitation at that stage.
If you want to help with anything injury related then feel free to Book In and we can get you on the journey to becoming pain free again.
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