HIIT For Endurance
I love winter, snow and skiing, but as a summer athlete, for me winter means putting down a solid foundation for harder spring training and upcoming summer races. Training for endurance races means endurance work, which can become physically and mentally fatiguing if you’re doing it on a stationary bike in your garage. Luckily, evidence is growing for the benefits that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), in both cardiovascular and resistance training, has for endurance athletes, as well as athletes of all levels. HIIT mixes things up for our bodies and our brains, making it a welcome complement to traditional endurance work.
Physiologically, HIIT taps into and conditions both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems, increasing your body’s ability to maintain a harder workload for a longer period of time (hello, endurance athlete’s main goal!). For an effective HIIT workout, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals- meaning you go all out (a level of 9 to10 out of 10 on the perceived effort scale) during the work intervals, and take advantage of the rest periods to get your heart rate down and recover in preparation for the next effort. When done right, these are incredibly challenging and rewarding at the same time.
Tabata is one of the more well-known forms of HIIT. During this week’s WOW, we’ll complete a 20 minute resistance training Tabata and then a shorter set of longer intervals with rest in between. We’ll finish off with some core work- crucial for athletes of all types to maintain proper posture and functional movements during physical activity and life-in-general.
Warm-up
5 Minutes of Step-Ups
5 Minutes Ladder
10 Rounds (20 Minutes):
20 Seconds Weighted Sit-ups
10 Seconds Rest
20 Seconds Kettle Bell Swings
10 Seconds Rest
20 Seconds Kettle Bell Push Press
10 Seconds Rest
20 Seconds Goblet Squat
10 Seconds Rest
5 Rounds
30 Seconds Sand Bag Get Ups
30 Seconds Prowler Push
30 Seconds Sand Bag Drags
30 Seconds Box Jump
30 Seconds Elevated Plank
30 Seconds Rest
4 Rounds
10x Toes to Sky (on an inclined bench)
10 x EOS (each direction)
10x Bosu Bird Dog (5 each side)
20 Second Superman Hold
