Quick Cardio
Quick Cardio Fix
Trying to improve your cardio in a short amount of time can be a challenging goal. One must stay focused and remain determined to reach cardio goals even until after they have succeeded it.
To gain cardio you must do cardio, however, there are certain stretches, exercises and workouts you can do to help gain endurance and speed.
Stretch
In recent years there has been speculation that stretching before and after workouts has been proved ineffective. Regardless, you will be stretching before your workouts throughout your entire Marine Corps career, starting at boot camp. Begin your journey with a good habit and start stretching now.
Begin by doing a chest stretches, back stretches, abdominal stretches and leg stretches. Then add in dynamic workups that will set you up for success before you start your workout.
Lounges, mountain climbers, push-ups and jumping jacks (side straddle hops) are all examples of warm-up exercises that will get your heart pumping in preparation for your workout. Master them now because you will do a lot of them on the depot.
Interval Training
A typical example of Interval Training is what we call an Indian Run. These runs are usually done with multiple people (we will go over how you can do it alone).
When you start on your run route, you will start in a single file line. The person at the front will keep a slow steady pace everyone can keep up with. There will be a small gap of about 20 feet in between each person, even less if there are more than 5 people. The person at the back will then sprint to the front and yell “up.” Yelling up will signal the next person to sprint to the front. This can be done at any distance, but you should strive for at least a mile and half considering you must be able to run that far to go to boot camp.
To do this interval training alone you may use a track or a run route.
On a track, try a fast paced jog for one lap, and then sprint the next. Continue to do this for whatever distance you can make. 4 laps on a normal track equals 1 mile.
On a run route, you can easily begin by doing a slow run and sprinting to certain points you see ahead of you. Do not allow too much time to pass (no more than 30 seconds) before you pick up your sprint between rests.
At the end of your run, try some cool down stretches to prevent any cramping you may experience. In boot camp, they have you join a cool down circle and make you hydrate while you wait for each other to finish. A cool down circle is simply walking in a large circle.
This is only one example of many workouts that are out there that will help you achieve your cardio goals. Like said before, you must continue to run to maintain what you have already achieved.
Helpful Hints
Many people don’t know how to control their breathing.
Check out this article on controlling your breathing for techniques that can make a huge difference in your run time. Control your Breathing!
A tip that was told to me by my drill instructor was to never let more than two days go between runs. If you do, your efforts will regress during your next run session.