Lower intensity revisited: cardio capacity

[SRP]

Hi there - a while back Afreet started a thread about the success she had withe lower intensity workouts. Lots of others also posted success. At the time I also was making a few changes to bump my intensity down... but people, things have been rough and I'm afraid it's time to take another step down.

My body tells me it's ready, but my brain is NOT. I've kept high intensity cardio in there, though I switched to low and no impact on my elliptical and treadmill (walking hills). I really, really want to keep my cardio capacity. While the lower intensity workouts may keep the weight off, what do you do about cardio endurance?

I know there's no magic bullet here. Sometimes you have to make a choice. I'm just wondering what your experiences have been.

TIA!

 

[kariev]

Actually, my cv endurance has not been effected. I haven't done intense cardio in over a month. Today, I decided to so some intervals in the soft sand at the beach. I have to say, I did pretty well! It was challenging but I felt like my breathing was good. I think by doing the low intensity my body was well rested for the challenge of an interval workout. I may try and do this 1 time per week. I find its mentally harder to psych myself up to do a workout like this b/c I know how challenging its going to be more so then physically challenging. I don't know if this helps but I hope it does someway

 

[jgoycoolea]

I haven't removed high impact cardio from my workouts yet. But after 20 or so years of keeping up (or trying to) with Cathe, I too have started to feel the effects of it and have started to scale back some (or am trying!). So while I don't have an actual experience to share with you, I did have a couple of thoughts.

My first one was why care so much about extreme cardio capacity? I mean you say you are still doing some cardio and caring for your heart. I personally do HiiT and Imax workouts to try and keep my weight down. If that were being taken care of by less grueling cardio workouts I'm not entirely sure I would miss them anymore. At least not 2-3 times a week, every week. Sometimes when I approach one of these types of workouts it is with dread. Like do I really feel like flying through the air and having to come back down and absorb this shock today? I just keep at them because I am in a never ending struggle to lose 5 pounds and I just can't seem to get my diet any better.

Also, I wonder if heavy leg workouts would keep up that cardio capacity. As you probably know, your heartrate really gets up there when you start moving weights around with the legs and glutes. Sometimes when I don't want to do high impact but feel like I need cardio I do walking lunges in a long space. I can get 8 across in my basement before I have to turn around. I will sometimes do them up and down by dumbbell rack to add a little variation into the repetition of it.

Good luck with the low impact. Let us know of your experience. I'd be curious to know how it goes. If your diet remains the same does your weight stay down with such intense cardio? Are you maybe less hungry? When my body is really telling me to scale back I hope I can listen and respect it. Its not so easy it? There's a line between being fit and healthy and breaking down. How to walk it is the question.

 

[melimcn]

When I read your post, I asked myself the same question as the poster above. Why do you care so much about the extreme cardio capacity? Do you need/use it outside of your workouts? Because remember that being very fit cardio wise does not necessarily give you the results that you want. Or, at least, it's not the only way.

If you find that you can maintain (or improve) with low intensity, then what difference does it make if your cardio comes down a bit? I seldom do high intensity work. I just feel too beat up afterwards. But my endurance has not suffered, and I can still do high intensity on the odd occasion I feel like being mean to myself.

 

[SRP]

Hi - thanks for your replies.

Kariev - that's encouraging! Actually it's what I hope to do too, after a rest, just work in a harder workout every so often for the fun of it.

jgoycoolea and melimcn - I'm sorry I gave the impression of being such an extreme cardio addict. I don't do extra long sessions like marathons, and I've never done any of the extreme cardio, such as Shawn T's Intensity. I just really enjoy a good, hard, sweaty workout. I've worked a long time to get where I am, and I guess it's one of the things I'm proud of in regards to fitness. But I do know that it's not worth beating myself up over, either physically or mentally.

 

[bethj]

I can relate. I've worked so hard to improve my cardio capacity this past year and I don't want to lose it either! One reason is that my endurance is so much better. I just don't tire out as easily.
I've read a book on triathlon training and one thing they recommend is that you take 1 month off a year where all you do is easy workouts-no intervals or high heart rate steady state. Just nice, easy workouts at 60-70% of your max heart rate to let your body recover. This book is co-authored by Dave Scott (Ironman triathlon winner) and is geared toward the elite athelete. I figure if the pros can take an easy month then I can too and not lose any major cardio fitness. In fact, I've just started my easy month and I feel fantastic. I really needed the rest.
Beth

 

[SRP]

Bethj - Great idea! I've started my month of easy workouts whether I want to or not. But I like this. I think I'll take it one month at a time. Good luck with yours!

 

[RapidBreath]

The idea of doing low intensity workouts is always appealing. In terms of maintaining your fitness level, I wonder if just doing one of those intense workouts 2x or 1x a month would be enough? I think it might be worth finding out.