Bottom Line Up Front: Wanted to share a technique for some beneficial cardiovascular endurance training: using both calories and time (or two other objective measures) together. Here’s how to implement it and some other ideas.
The Challenge
While browsing the Rogue Fitness website, I stumbled upon a challenge called “Mikko’s Triangle Challenge.” Looked interesting so I decided to do this for my next cardiovascular endurance session that weekend. The workout is as follows:
10 Rounds of:
- 1 minute Echo Bike
- 1 minute Rower
- 1 minute SkiErg
- 1 minute Rest
You do all the movements and total your calories burned on each piece of equipment then divide it by 10 to get the average calories per round. I don’t want to get into the details of the challenge any more because it’s not pertinent to my point, but, if interested, you can read more about it here.
Unfortunately, there was a snafu with the gym when I got there, so I had to issue a FRAGO and train at home, which is fine except that I don’t have a ski erg, which is why I was going to do this at the gym in the first place. I substituted burpees for that and then used my Echo Bike and trusty Concept2 Rower. Therefore, I was unable to truly score this per their challenge standards. I got the training effect I was looking for, however, which was ultimately the point.
As I was pushing through this workout, I realized that I usually pick one objective measure when doing cardio work such as heart rate, distance, or calories. Combining them is where the magic happens because it can truly step up the intensity.
For example, if the workout is “Run 5 miles” this can take as much time as you want. It leaves the ability to take the easy road, coasting at a comfortable pace in the middle perhaps. Same with “Run for 21 minutes” or “Run for 200 calories”. But now, imagine I say “Run 5 miles in 35 minutes”. This constrains you to a certain level of effort based on your level of fitness of course. If you are me right now, this is hard. I can run a 7-minute mile pretty easily. I can run two in a row at this pace too. Five miles though? This would be painful to attempt.
For the Mikko’s Triangle Challenge, I was trying to hold 20 calories per minute on both the Echo Bike and rower. I was able to do it, but it hurt. I was thinking that if I only had to bike 20 calories OR bike for one minute, it would be much harder mentally to hit that same 20 calories per minute pace because by the end, it would be so easy to “work at my best available effort” (a.k.a. take the easy road) for one minute, rationalizing that 17 calories in round 10 was still pretty good even though I did 21 the first round. Because I was scoring myself based on total calories over the 10 rounds AND I had a time limit (one minute per round), I kept crushing myself each round on both pieces of equipment, successfully pushing to keep the 20+ calories per round pace. I got my heart rate to 98% of my max (my theoretical max is 177 and I got to 173 beat per minute). Here is the evidence.
I was keenly aware that the burpee rounds were not getting measured for total calories but just there to keep the three minutes of work to one minute of rest ratio intact. I know I did less burpees in the later rounds, which illustrates my point. I could/should have picked a total number of burpees and stuck with it (or tried to).
How You Can Apply This
You just need to always have two objective measures in place for any workout (reps, distance, time, calories, etc.). It may take a few workouts to figure out a reasonable pairing. You may get the first one wrong and make it impossible, but you can apply this learning to the next workout. The good news is that in that instance, you set a goal you couldn’t achieve, so it should result in a high intensity/high effort session. In the event you pick measures that are too easy, it may make the session less than it could have been. It will be a learning experience though. Here are some ideas that I have done or interest me to try:
- Every minute on the minute, complete 8 KB snatches (4 left arm, 4 right) with 53lbs for 21 total minutes
- Row 1000 meters in 4 minutes, rest 4 minutes, repeat 3 more times
- Complete 500 KB swings in 55 minutes with 70lbs
- Expend 34 calories on the Rogue Echo Bike in 2 minutes
- Run 3 miles in 24 minutes
- Farmer’s Carry 2 x 35lb KBs one mile in 34 minutes
- Complete 89 pull-ups in 21 minutes
Post thoughts/ideas/recommendations/questions to comments below.