Quickest Endurance Gains/Advice

[Black Jack]

I have noticed of resent that my functional endurance levels seem to be a tad off, lose of breath, want to puke at a much more early stage than normal, legs getting tired getter, and so forth.

I checked with my doc and he states I am in very good health and it might be stress or that I was recovering from a cold or something of that sort.

My own theory is that I have neglected my cardio a bit to much of late for my 3-4 times a week (though the last two weeks have only been 2 a week) weight training program and the standard cardio one gets from martial training, both of which are no subsitute for a straight cardio workout for cardio gains.

I gave up regular soda for diet soda 2 weeks ago, am on a high protien, though not complete aktins diet, and take daily vitamens, amino acids and herbs.

Because of some training that will be coming up in a month I need to ask what cardio conditioning programs will give me the most direct gains the fastest????

I was thinking of going back to the tired and ture Roadwork but any other advice will be taken into consideration, with the exception that I hate the boring gym cardio machines, thanks.

[vingtsunstudent]

HIIT(high intensity interval training)
if you haven't heard of it or tried it you may want to do a search on the net for it.
i am sure that there is someone who could explain it better than me.(just not in the mood at the moment-sorry)
i will tell you that it will get you incredibly fit though.
vts

[David Jamieson]

...or you could go work on a farm for a while. :D

That'll get your endurance up.

peace

[Paul]

If you know how to swim, there is always lap swimming. I'm planning on taking it up again myself rather than running. I hate to run.

Unlike running it isn't counter-productive for you to go as hard as possible every time you hit the pool. No pounding on the joints either.

[Johnny Hot Shot]

If you want to build up endurance quickly try running wind sprints.

Working out on a heavy bag is excelent cardio, Try going Hell hard for a round or 10. Jumping rope is good as well .

The key to good cardio is maintaining your heart rate and controlling your breathing. But to attain a great level of cardiovascular endurance you must learn to pace yourself.

Quit drinking Soda, That stuff is pioson. Pineapple juice;) or tea is much better. Water is the most important of all beverages. Drink at least 4 litres a day.

Do you smoke?

[xiong]

I think Johhny Hot Shot hit on it. You need to be drinking water and lots of it. I don't drink 4L of water per day but can tell you from experience, if you push yourself when dehydrated you will hurt bad.

Drink lots of water before during and after workouts, actually go easy during just sip don't gulp. Stay hydrated, if you are thirsty that is the first sign of dehydration. Also remember that beverages with lots of sugars or stimulants act as diuretics and may cause you to lose more liquid than you take in.

I drink coffee in the morning and beer at night, but during the day and around training it is nothing but water.

[crumble]

A high protien diet is terrible for endurance work. It's okay if you need to repair tissue, but the metabolic cost of processing protien is very high. Lots of work to digest and flush the waste products. Whereas carbs burn very cleanly and provide good fuel for intense and/or long workouts.

These days, people switch to higher protien diets to lose wieght. It works because of the high cost of digesting protiens. But as a result, you will have less energy for the task at hand and your performance WILL go down.

As far as training goes, I'd suggest sticking with weights and doing interval or circut training. Basically, don't let your heart rate drop below the target for running. (Which if I remember is 220 minus your age, times .70 to .80 (which corresponds to training at 70%-80% of your max heart rate)). I don't think I'd start a new areobic sport, I'd just do more of what you're doing.

Good luck!

-crumble

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

"...or you could go work on a farm for a while.

That'll get your endurance up."

fu ck yeah it will. best advice i have seen on here.

[Royal Dragon]

Hey, for building endurance, ther is notihng that beas traditional Kung Fu forms, going non stop for 30-40 minutes 3 times a week!!!!


Black Jack, if you don't know any, I'll teach you a few that work good progressively together.

The cool part of traditional forms practice, is you get PLENTY of cardio work, AND you get to work the gross motor skills used in your techniques at the same time, VERY efficient way to train in my opinion.

RD

[Black Jack]

Maybe its my change from a carb diet to a very high protein diet, as I work the heavy bag and it is one of my main sources of cardio, nothing has changed really except for diet and that sounds like a good viewpoint to me, as I normally am in good cardio shape.

I think I will incorporate the wind sprints with the heavy bag workout and look into interavl training to boast me back up with my new diet, see if that helps, if not I will rearrange the new diet a bit to bring the energy back.

RoyalDragon,

Wassssssssup!

Formwork, do I have to;)

[Royal Dragon]

Actually, Forms are a GREAT way to do it. First you learn the shorter ones, then longer ones, then longer an harder ones, then you string them all togethher into one LONG super form. When done right, nothing beats it.

RD