Ok so I have a question in regards to cardio. First I have always hated cardio unless it involved tennis. But I KNOW I need it and I am giving it my all.

I just joined this site on Monday and since then I have done the following:

Monday- no work out - had to go join the gym late in the day
Tuesday - did cardio for 30 minutes on treadmill @ 3.0 mph
Wednesday - did cardio for 30 minutes on treadmill. Tried the HIIT like this:
2 minutes running @ 4.0 and then 3 minutes walking @ 2.7

My question is this:

How do you increase your cardio. I mean I want to be able to get to where I am running a full 30-45 minutes and trust me I am far from that. So how do I increase?

Do I run for 1 minute longer each day? Increase the speed from 4.0? I am confused.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Traci

i do HIT to an extreme i do 7.0 or 8.0 for as long as i can then drop it to 3.0 and keep doing the 7.0 or 8.0 as much at possible but if you wanna run that long all you can do it keep upping you rspeed and doing it as long as possible without dropping dead

Like any other form of exercise, there is no magic way to jump into being good at it. Take it slow, and gradually build yourself up to where you are doing more and more at harder speeds. Define goals for yourself and work towards them.

If you are just starting out, though, HIIT is probably not for you. You need to learn to Crawl before attempting to walk before attempting to HIIT.

Well I am not just starting out so to speak. I am active playing tennis twice a week so my legs are little better than most.

I want to take it slow but just want to know how I go about increasing it over time. I do not want to be running a full mile tomorrow (although I can dream right?) LOL

I have always been into sports. I just have never been into doing straight cardio so that part is new to me. I will get there though. Thanks for the advise!

T

Well, if you are looking to push your limits, then do just that. If you go 30 minutes one day, then the next day say "I'm going to go 35 minutes", or set some measurable goal for the next day.

It's the same idea that is applied through gains in any sort of sport. Use good judgement, don't push SO far that you hurt yourself, and stay competitive with yourself, and you'll do fine.

Thanks James - I will do that - trust me I do not want to push myself so hard that I hurt myself because that would not be good for one and well I would be a big baby!! LOL

Traci

Hi Traci,
One of the best running-for-beginners programs is the one at CoolRunning.com
Link: Cool Running :: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan

First of all, and no offense at all, but if your idea of "high intensity" is running 2 minutes at 4 mph, and your goal is time spent running and not speed, and you're not in shape enough to use it as weight loss... then just totally forget the whole "HIIT" thing for now, because that involves extremely intense all-out sprints for 10-15 seconds, not barely jogging for 2 minutes.

For whatever it's worth, the way I increased distance was over a winter, I ran 2-3 times a week, and I added 1/4 mile about on a weekly basis. That's all my knee could handle. I'm sure there's more scientific training programs, and that may not be fast enough for you, but that worked for me. There are lots of books based on training for a specific event that outlines your exact distance and intensity you should train at on a certain day over a certain period of time.

Yea, I agree with Corn.

That's not HIIT that you were doing.

And our bodies are adaptive in all aspects. They adapt to overload. Overload is an applied stimulus that is above and beyond what the body's used to handling.

We are lazy creatures by nature.

But our bodies can't make us stop being active and applying overload. So their only resort is to make the activity/overload easier to handle via adaptation. In this case, this adaptation will be better cardiovascular function/efficiency/health/etc.

Make sense?

And you mentioned cardio is necessary. Necessary for what, I ask?

Increasing your V02?

In that context, sure.

Well I never said I was fast at running - but the jog was good pace for someone that has not really done anything other than tennis playing which does not really require running other than a few steps with your doubles partner.

I wanted to know how to improve and get better. Not looking to point out that I am not the fastest and that I am not doing HIIT correctly. I know that true HIIT is a lot different than what I started but I have to start somewhere. Maybe I should not have used the word HIIT. But for me at the time it was intensity.

I know that just by walking a fast pace is not going to get me running anytime soon and I am not really pushing myself there. But I know that I can not get out and run for a long period of time either. So I did what I thought was going to at least push me into the right direction. I have to start running at a speed sometime, and I felt 4.0 was a good speed for me as I did not want to go flying off the treadmill. Remember I am a beginner here to losing weight, getting into the gym and trying to get healthy. I never said I knew what I was doing so that is why I am asking the questions. I need help and information to teach me what I should be doing verses what I think it is right.

Thanks Berl for the site you posted I will check it out.

Thanks
T

'high intensity' is totally relative to the person who's doing it... walking at 2.5 mph might be a huge effort for one person where was running at 4mph might be a walk in the park for someone else...

I am not sure what V02 is so I cant go off that.

You hear all the time that cardio is needed to help burn off the fat along with incorporating weights to your workout. Maybe I am wrong. Will weights just get me there? Or do I need the cardio as well?

Again, I am asking the questions, because I am new at this and well I am kind of guessing up to this point.

It's not based on being fast at running.

It's based on intensity, and by definition, we're simply saying you weren't doing HIIT.

You're missing quite a few points as well as misreading what we are saying.

Read my post again about adaptation.... that's your answer.

It was intensive.

Big difference between intensiveness and intensity.

Intensity in the context of the fitness realm relates to a % of maximum.