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REPSTAX

Cardio Health

Steady-State Endurance Builder

Four longer sessions a week — a run, a bike, a row and a swim or cross-trainer — for somebody who can already do forty minutes of continuous easy work.

Days a week
4
A session
57 min
Sessions in it
4
Split
Multi-Modality Aerobic Base, Four Days

How it runs

It delivers two hundred and twenty-five moderate-equivalent minutes, the biggest weekly dose on this shelf.

What you actually train

4 sessions, in order. Every movement links to how to do it.

  1. Day 1: Run 40 min - Zone 2 - full sentences

    8 movements

  2. Day 2: Bike 45 min - Zone 2 - full sentences

    6 movements

  3. Day 3: Row - 6 x 5 min - Zone 3 - sentences

    8 movements

  4. Day 4: Swim or Cross-Trainer 40 min - Zone 2

    6 movements

Why it works

  • Eighty-five per cent of it is easy and one day is hard. The volume is what makes it work, not the effort.
  • Four different modes, so the week is not four repetitions of the same joint angle.
  • The rowing day is a threshold session rather than an interval session — five-minute efforts, not sprints.
  • Day one is the only impact in the week, and it moves to a bike, rower or cross-trainer if that does not suit you.
  • When you have held the full week through two easy-week cycles, the next change is intensity rather than more time — and it is one change, written down.

Aerobic work is half of what the guidelines ask for. The other half is muscle-strengthening activity on two or more days a week, and this programme does not contain any — run it alongside one of the Build Muscle programmes rather than instead of one.

What to expect

Expect every session but one to feel easy, and expect the volume rather than the effort to be the thing you have to plan around.

Before you start

Four steady aerobic sessions a week on four different surfaces — a run, a ride, a rowing tempo session and a swim — for somebody who already has a base and wants a bigger one.

You should be able to do forty minutes of continuous easy work before you start; if you cannot, Low-Impact Cardio is the programme below this one.

Every session has a warm-up ramp and a cool-down built into it, and the one hard day is preceded by three rising build-up efforts so nothing hard starts cold. Before you start, please read this one.

Aerobic exercise is among the safest and most useful things most people can do for their health, and it is also the setting in which a heart problem nobody knew about is most likely to announce itself.

Get medical clearance before you begin if any of the following is true of you. Chest pain, pressure or tightness on exertion, including anything that comes on when you hurry, climb stairs or carry shopping and eases when you stop.

Dizziness, light-headedness or fainting, on effort or when you stand up. Known heart disease, a heart-rhythm problem, or a heart attack, stent, bypass, ablation or any cardiac procedure at any point in your life.

Or no regular exercise for a year or more, if you are also over 40, or you smoke, or you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, or a parent or sibling who had heart disease before 55 in men or 65 in women.

Any of those means speak to your GP before you start, and follow what they tell you over anything written here. This programme assumes you can already do forty minutes of continuous easy aerobic work, and it opens with forty minutes of continuous running.

Do not begin it until you have been cleared.

If you are waiting for that appointment, or you cannot yet do forty easy minutes, start on Daily Cardio Foundations or Low-Impact Cardio and come back — both are walking or easy machine work at a pace where you can talk in full sentences.

Also speak to your GP or a physiotherapist first if you are pregnant or within a year of giving birth, if your blood pressure or diabetes is not currently controlled, if you have low bone density or osteoporosis, if you have a lung condition, or if a joint or tendon is flaring.

Stop the session and get medical advice the same day for chest pain, pressure or tightness; pain spreading into the jaw, neck, back or an arm; breathlessness far out of proportion to the effort; dizziness or feeling you might faint; a heartbeat that is unusually fast, slow or irregular; or a cold sweat with any of those.

Call emergency services rather than driving yourself. Nothing here is medical advice.

What you need

  • Bodyweight
  • Bike
  • Rowing Machine
  • Pool
  • Mat

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Train it, and keep the record

Import the programme, log the sets as you do them, and watch the numbers move week to week. Starter is free, with no card.

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