Every so often, Trainer changes my cardio routine around to give a renewed shock to the system. It works for resistance training, so of course it should work for cardio too.
What I have now is something called the "beep test". To do this, one must run between two points (20 meters is the standard, according to Wikipedia), while listening to a series of pre-recorded beeps. The idea is to start when you hear the first beep, and to make it to the other point before the next beep. There are 21 levels, and these levels are broken down further into shuttles (7 in Level 1 to 16 in Level 21), so you can imagine that it starts off slowly, then increases in speed.
Trainer introduced me to the beep test on Thursday evening. We had played a little squash and had done some of a new workout, so I was already a little bit tired, and I didn't do very well, getting to level 6, shuttle 5 (if I am remembering right).
When I was preparing to do it on my own Friday night, I was worried I wasn't going to get a place with enough space, since the first time was in the group class studio at a different place, which is much bigger than the one at my gym. There, we could set the points 22 of my steps apart from each other easily, and there is not enough room for that at my gym unless I use the training studio, and that isn't always feasible.
Anyhow, I thought I'd test out the group fitness studio at my gym, just in case, and I found that from one end to the other, long ways, it's 20 of my steps. Not too far off! I decided to go with it, and to stick with it in the future to keep it consistent, since I always do cardio on my own anyway. I just hope that I won't have to fight for the space too often. Friday nights are usually dead at my gym so I wasn't surprised the room was empty. A couple of kids came in and did a mat drag for a few minutes and then left, but they weren't in my way.
I was also worried I wasn't going to be able to find a good beep track to use. Trainer downloaded an app for his Android phone, but I couldn't find one in the Blackberry App world, so I went the You Tube to mp3 route, and saved this full version to my phone. All set!
It's not an easy workout. Sure, it starts out slowly and you get a few seconds of rest before the next beep goes off, but 6 or 7 levels in it starts to pick up and you're pretty out of breath. In the end, I made it to Level 12, Shuttle 1 when the beep went off before I made it to the opposite side. I considered doing another one after I did a little steady-state low intensity cardio to calm myself, but decided not to, and just did more bike and elliptical instead. At that point my blood sugar felt a little low and I just didn't see myself going through another one.
I think I'll like it because it doesn't last as long as my interval workout, and I see it being relatively easier to measure progress, since all I have to do is try to get to higher levels. Wish me luck!
What I have now is something called the "beep test". To do this, one must run between two points (20 meters is the standard, according to Wikipedia), while listening to a series of pre-recorded beeps. The idea is to start when you hear the first beep, and to make it to the other point before the next beep. There are 21 levels, and these levels are broken down further into shuttles (7 in Level 1 to 16 in Level 21), so you can imagine that it starts off slowly, then increases in speed.
Trainer introduced me to the beep test on Thursday evening. We had played a little squash and had done some of a new workout, so I was already a little bit tired, and I didn't do very well, getting to level 6, shuttle 5 (if I am remembering right).
When I was preparing to do it on my own Friday night, I was worried I wasn't going to get a place with enough space, since the first time was in the group class studio at a different place, which is much bigger than the one at my gym. There, we could set the points 22 of my steps apart from each other easily, and there is not enough room for that at my gym unless I use the training studio, and that isn't always feasible.
Anyhow, I thought I'd test out the group fitness studio at my gym, just in case, and I found that from one end to the other, long ways, it's 20 of my steps. Not too far off! I decided to go with it, and to stick with it in the future to keep it consistent, since I always do cardio on my own anyway. I just hope that I won't have to fight for the space too often. Friday nights are usually dead at my gym so I wasn't surprised the room was empty. A couple of kids came in and did a mat drag for a few minutes and then left, but they weren't in my way.
I was also worried I wasn't going to be able to find a good beep track to use. Trainer downloaded an app for his Android phone, but I couldn't find one in the Blackberry App world, so I went the You Tube to mp3 route, and saved this full version to my phone. All set!
It's not an easy workout. Sure, it starts out slowly and you get a few seconds of rest before the next beep goes off, but 6 or 7 levels in it starts to pick up and you're pretty out of breath. In the end, I made it to Level 12, Shuttle 1 when the beep went off before I made it to the opposite side. I considered doing another one after I did a little steady-state low intensity cardio to calm myself, but decided not to, and just did more bike and elliptical instead. At that point my blood sugar felt a little low and I just didn't see myself going through another one.
I think I'll like it because it doesn't last as long as my interval workout, and I see it being relatively easier to measure progress, since all I have to do is try to get to higher levels. Wish me luck!
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