Summer Tune Up – Four Workouts to Fine Tune Your Fitness

 By Rick Morris

The temperature hit 72 degrees today. A high for the year. I had just sat down in front of my computer to continue work on a book in progress when I was distracted by the sounds of The Beach Boys sending Good Vibrations though the window next to me. I turned to look out the window and saw my neighbors in their driveway. The music was coming from their car stereo, which was entertaining them as they washed and waxed their car. Right away I knew that summer was on the way. We love our cars and at the first sign that the good times of summer are on the way, we get out there to wash, wax and polish our cars so that they look their best. We also want to make sure our vehicles are in top running order for summer. We change the oil and have the engine tuned up so that our beloved automobile is running at peak efficiency.

Our car is not the only thing we have that needs a summer tune up. Our most important possession is our bodies. We are a machine, much like our automobile. The difference is our car is a mechanical device while our bodies are remarkable biological machines. Just like our vehicle, our body needs to be fine tuned so that it is in peak operating condition.

When you tune up your car you are making sure it is efficient at using the energy you put into its tank, in the form of gasoline, to produce power and motion. When you tune up your body, you are doing the same thing. You are training your body to be more efficient at creating and using energy to produce the power and motions that you need to perform exercise and everyday tasks.

It is easy to add fuel to your car. You just pull up to the pump and dispense the gas into your fuel tank. Your cars engine can use the gas right away to produce power. You add fuel to your body by eating foods. Eating higher quality foods means the fuel in your body will also be of a higher quality. That is why it is important to eliminate the “junk” foods from your diet and concentrate on eating foods that are high in nutrition. Unlike the gas you put in your car, the foods that you eat cannot be directly used to produce energy. They must first be converted into a substance called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The ATP is then burned in your body, like the gas in your car, to produce power and movement. 

Your muscles will not work without ATP. Thankfully, your body is efficient at producing this essential compound and with proper training becomes even more efficient. There are three ways that your body produces ATP. They are commonly called the oxidative system (aerobic or “with oxygen”), the anaerobic glycolysis system (anaerobic or “without oxygen”) and the ATP-PCr system (creatine phosphate). The oxidative system and anaerobic glycolysis system both use the fats and carbohydrates from the foods you eat to produce the ATP. Using the analogy of the automobile, this is the same as using the gasoline that you have pumped into your tank. The energy from the foods that you eat are stored in your body as fat and glycogen ( the stored form of carbohydrates), just as the gasoline is stored in your cars gas tank. In the case of the oxidative (aerobic) system, fat and glycogen are completely broken down with the assistance of oxygen, to produce large amounts of ATP. The anaerobic glycolysis system partially breaks down glycogen without the help of oxygen to produce smaller amounts of ATP. The oxidative system dominates energy production when you are exercising at low to moderate intensity levels and there is a plentiful supply of oxygen. At higher intensity levels, when the supply of oxygen has a hard time keeping up with demand, the anaerobic glycolysis system begins to take over. But you are always using both systems. The ATP-PCr system does not use the stored fat or glycogen to produce energy. It is somewhat like an emergency battery system that will produce small amounts of energy very quickly. When you are sprinting or lifting very heavy weights, you are using this system. This system is exhausted after about 15 seconds of work. A fit and finely tuned body is very efficient at making the ATP for energy and using the energy to produce power and movement. But after a long winter and spring many of us find ourselves in need of a tune up to get ready for summer.

Components of a Fit Body

There are four basic components or biological systems that need to be strengthened and trained into order to fine tune your body. They are cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, lactate threshold and VO2 max. If any of these terms seem like a foreign language, read on - they will be explained later. Here are four workouts that are designed to tune up each of these systems. Each of these workouts has a primary purpose, but also helps train the other fitness components. For example, the first workout below is primarily intended to improve your cardiovascular endurance, but also helps improve your VO2 max and muscular endurance.

Cardiovascular endurance

Your cardiovascular system is composed of your heart, lungs and the vast network of arteries, veins and capillaries that supply nutrients and oxygen to your muscles. Cardiovascular endurance is best improved by running medium to long distances at relatively easy paces. Long, slow distance running makes a number of improvements to your cardiovascular system, all of which are important in fine tuning your fitness level.

• Increased Heart Size – Your heart is the most highly efficient endurance muscle in your body. Just think – it works non stop from before you were born, throughout your lifetime. Your heart responds to endurance training by growing larger. A larger heart pumps more blood. This ability to pump more blood supplies a greater amount of oxygen to your working muscles with less strain on your heart. This allows your muscles to do more work and makes you fitter.

• Increased Blood Volume – In order to take advantage of your increased heart size, your body also increases your blood volume. Blood volume increases by about 15% following training. This change takes place fairly quickly. There will be noticeable changes in blood volume after just a couple weeks of training.

• Higher Capillary Density – Capillaries are very small blood vessels that transfer oxygen to your muscle cells. Endurance training increases the number of these blood vessels. The increase in the number of capillaries allows more of the blood flow and oxygen to make its way into your muscle cells where it produces energy.

• Higher Mitochondria Density – Mitochondria are very small structures in your muscle cells where aerobic (with oxygen) energy production takes place. Aerobic energy cannot happen without the mitochondria. Endurance training builds more mitochondria. The increased number of mitochondria gives your muscles the ability to extract and process the additional oxygen delivered by your dialed up cardiovascular system to produce more ATP for energy.

• More Aerobic Enzymes – The process of producing ATP cannot start without help. Enzymes are proteins that serve as a catalyst or “sparkplug” to start the process of converting the raw materials – glycogen, fat and oxygen – to ATP. Without these enzymes, the energy production cycle cannot get started. Endurance training signals your body to produce more of these enzymes to further heat up the energy production process. Enzyme activity can be increased by up to 250% with proper endurance training.

Cardiovascular Endurance Long Run

This classic workout is the backbone of distance training. A long run is primarily intended to build your cardiovascular endurance levels but because of the gradually increasing distance of each workout, it will also improve your muscular endurance and VO₂ max, up to a point. Running long distances requires mental toughness, so this workout is also good for improving your mental conditioning. You should perform this workout once every one or two weeks.

• You can perform this workout on the road, trail or treadmill. If you use a treadmill set your elevation to 1%. This will make your treadmill workout the equivalent of running outside on level ground.

• Run at a pace that feels moderately easy. One rule of thumb is that you should be able to talk but not sing. If you cannot speak clearly you should slow your pace. If you can sing clearly, you should speed up a bit. For your first workout, run 1 mile further than your longest run in the past 2 weeks. Each time you do this workout add one mile until you reach 10 to 12 miles. Unless you are training for a marathon, there is no need to extend your long run further than 12 miles.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

Running not only improves your cardiovascular system, it also strengthens your leg muscles and improves their endurance. Running is a weight bearing exercise that places stress on your leg muscles. In response to this stress your leg muscles build their strength. The initial strength gains are not associated with muscle size increase. The first increase in strength is a neuromuscular gain. Your muscles are controlled by nerve impulses sent from your brain. The impulses from your brain travel through a system of nerves to a structure in your muscle called a motor unit. A motor unit is composed of a nerve ending and the number of muscle fibers that it controls. As you begin to demand more work from your muscles they begin to recruit more motor units. The initial strength gains are brought about by this additional recruitment of motor units. The secondary strength gains are made possible by the growth of muscle size or “hypertrophy”.

Running is great at increasing the strength of your leg muscles, but it does not do much for improving your upper body strength. This is a circuit workout that includes both treadmill running and strength exercises that will provide with a complete body workout. Do this workout one time per week. Because of the frequent changes in elevation and the circuit training style of this workout it will be much easier to use your treadmill.

Muscular Strength and Endurance Circuit

• Set your treadmill at 1% elevation and warm up with 5 minutes of walking or easy running.

• Do as many push ups as you can in 1 minute.

• Set your treadmill at 2% elevation and run at a moderately easy pace for 5 minutes.

• Do as many one leg squats as you can in 1 minute.

• Set your treadmill at 3% elevation and run at a moderately easy pace for 5 minutes.

• Do as many triceps press ups as you can in 1 minute.

• Set your treadmill at 4% elevation and run at a moderately easy pace for 5 minutes.

• Perform as many abdominal crunches as you can in 1 minute.

• Set your treadmill elevation at 5% and run at a moderately easy pace for 5 minutes.

• Perform as many bench step ups as you can in 1 minute.

• Set your treadmill elevation at 6% and run at a moderately easy pace for 5 minutes.

• Perform as many biceps curls as you can in 5 minutes.

• Set your treadmill elevation at 1% and cool down with 5 minutes of easy running.

   

Lactate Threshold

You have probably heard the term lactic acid at some point. Many people have the mistaken belief that lactic acid is a waste product, brought about by intense exercise, that causes the burning sensation in their muscles. That belief is not correct. Lactic acid is produced at all times, even at rest. The harder you workout, the more lactic acid is produced. When you are at rest or exercising at low to moderate intensity levels, your body is able to clear the lactic acid and actually use it to produce additional energy. If you continue to increase the intensity level of your exercise, you will eventually reach a point at which your body is producing more lactic acid than it can process. At that point the acidity level of your blood rises which causes the energy production ability of your muscle cells to become diminished. That point is called your lactate threshold. Exercise becomes difficult when you reach that level. Eventually you will be forced to decrease the level of your exercise.

This lactate threshold workout will raise your lactate threshold. In other words, you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity level before you reach your lactate threshold. This will enable you to burn more calories and perform any activity at a faster and stronger pace. In addition to improving your lactate threshold, this workout will help your endurance and mental conditioning. Perform this workout one time per week. You can do this either outside or on your treadmill.

Lactate Threshold Workout

• If you are using a treadmill, set your treadmill elevation at 1% and warm up with walking or easy running for 5 minutes.

• A portion of these runs are performed at your lactate threshold pace (LT). This level should feel moderately hard. For this first phase run for ½ mile at LT pace. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 equaling no effort and 10 equaling all out effort, you should be running at about a level 7 or 8. It should feel hard, but not maximal.

• Decrease your speed to an easy pace and run for ¼ mile.

• Increase your speed to your LT pace and run for ¾ mile.

• Decrease your speed to an easy pace and run for ¼ mile.

• Speed back up to your LT pace and run for 1 mile.

• Run for ¼ mile at your easy pace.

• Speed up to your LT pace and run for 1¼ mile.

• Decrease your speed to an easy pace and cool down with ½ mile of running.

VO₂ Max

A very common measure of your overall fitness level is called your VO2 max. This is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body is capable of processing. A higher VO2 max equals a higher level of fitness and an increased ability of your body to perform work. The best way for you to improve your VO2 max is by exercising at very high intensity levels. This workout uses short intervals of fast paced running followed by a brief recovery period. This workout will improve your VO2 max, top running speed, strength, power and mental conditioning. Do this workout one time per week.

VO₂ Max Speed Interval Workout

• If you use a treadmill set your treadmill elevation at 1% and warm up with 10 minutes of walking or easy running.

• Speed up to a very hard pace for ¼ mile. On the scale of 1 to 10 this should feel like a 9. It should feel very hard, but not all out.

• Decrease your speed to a moderately easy pace and run for ¼ mile to recover.

• Repeat this sequence of ¼ mile hard and ¼ mile easy four more times for a total of 5 repeats.

Do this workout one time per week. Each week add one additional repeat. For your second week you should do 6 repeats, the third week 7 repeats, etc. Build up to a total of 12 repeats and then start doing five ½ mile repeats with ¼ mile recovery intervals.

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