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Aerobic training is where most exercise-related health benefits were initially established long ago within the medical and research realms and is the very foundation of all higher levels of fitness or athleticism. Our aerobic, oxygen-based energy system is the restorative system that allows us to recover and restore from higher bouts of stress. Whether it’s our energy levels in the middle of the day or our recovery from a set of higher intensity exercise, aerobic health is the underlying buffering system allowing us to go about our lives without accumulating too much stress. By training our cardiovascular/cardiorespiratory (CR/CV) systems, we’re building strength and resilience to lead higher quality lifestyles!
To give you a brief understanding of the typical progress we make in our aerobic exercise training and the related health and fitness parameters, I'm breaking the journey down into the four phases below. It’s been my experience over time that most people will traverse these phases quite quickly if they take on CR/CV exercise frequently enough without overdoing it. In most cases, someone completing aerobics three times per week building up to 20 to 40 minutes of a steady-state routine (meaning we elevate our heart rate to a certain range and keep it there for the duration of the exercise) can certainly expect to reach the third and fourth phases of this progression within a year’s time. With consistency of training usually being the top influential factor, obviously, some will move through faster or slower than others.
To get a better understanding of how you’re progressing and keep your motivation high, you’ll want to identify some measurables. In general, it's important to keep three metrics in mind when doing cardiorespiratory exercises: distance, duration, and heart rate. Heart rate is the best way of tracking intensity and should typically stay in the “moderate” range, which is roughly 50 to 70 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate (220 - age). For body weight-centered goals building duration and frequency may be more important than intensity. However, challenging the pace and building higher workload capacities is also an important preventative health mechanism for all ages. Track those three metrics so you can analyze your progress over time and get a better sense of accomplishment from each workout!
Phase 1: "Am I dead?"
Jokes, just jokes! Interestingly enough, people often do not have much of a heart rate response and cannot get their heart rates up very high when they first start doing aerobic exercise. Two factors that are usually at play in those who are apparently healthy are: the person might be unable to push themselves into much of a physical challenge due to overall poor physicality, and/or they may actually have a much lower max heart rate and workload capacity than expected. This is usually the case for those who are extremely deconditioned and just starting a new routine. Obviously, even in the "apparently healthy population", it's also common for heart rates and blood pressures to be regulated with medication, which can create lower or higher responses of these systems to any physical workloads.
Phase 2: "All or Nothing Phase" (This is where most people start their health and fitness journeys.)
When we take on a consistent aerobic exercise program we're literally taking our bodies out of their comfort zones and triggering some of the "flight or fight" stress mechanisms. In your first few challenging cardio bouts we'll notice things like:
high levels of perceived effort,
our heart rate shoots up all the way its maximum levels,
"breathiness" and the discomfort of the cardiorespiratory challenge.
(possible) high levels of difficulty with the skills of the new activity and moderate associated muscular soreness.
it takes a long time for our heart rate to come down once you've stopped the activity (heart rate recovery), and
we can't find much of a middle ground, or a "cruise control" pace between regular heart daily rates and and the high-intensity working rates.
Phase 3: "Building Phase" (This is where most people stay in their health and fitness journeys.)
As we practice and build our training consistency at more challenging aerobic levels, we'll notice the following adaptations:
incremental increases in duration (stamina) and improvements in pace (speed).
subtle decreases in perceived effort levels at what were previously challenging distances, durations, heart rates, or paces.
slights improvements in comfortability of the overall cardiorespiratory challenge.
usually still challenging levels of breathiness, as we continue to push the pace.
improvements in the neuromotor skill of the activity and lower levels of muscular soreness with previously challenging workloads.
the ability to manage different paces and associated heart rate ranges between regular daily activity and high-intensity working rates.
faster heart rate recovery once the activity has been stopped.
Phase 4: "Fine Tuning Phase"(This would be your upper echelon type exercises who've stuck with it and trained their aerobic and supporting systems for years.)
With time and continued challenge and progressive overload of the aerobic and supporting systems, we'll find we've become much more resilient and we have more control over our body system's stress responses. With this, we'll notice:
more significant increases in duration (stamina) and improvements in pace (speed).
continued decreases in perceived effort levels at what were previously challenging paces.
continued challenging levels of breathiness, as we continue to push the pace, but overall more comfortability with the cardiorespiratory challenge.
continued improvements in the neuromotor skill of the activity and lower levels of muscular soreness with previously challenging workloads.
significant improvement in our ability to manage different paces and associated heart rate ranges.
significantly faster heart rate recovery once the activity has been stopped.
Need some inspiration to get moving? Check out my YouTube Channel and online programs to complement your lifestyle and safely improve balance, stability, strength, flexibility, and foundational health.
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