Enjoying a workout with your better half or your friends can be a great opportunity for some quality time together, even if you have different fitness levels. Exercising together brings numerous benefits, including:

Social time
Whether it's just a sporting get-together or a social activity afterwards as well, you're more likely to enjoy your session in the company of friends.

Quality time
Nowadays, everyone is busy and rushing around and the opportunity to take a little quality time out should not be missed. A group workout that leaves you refreshed and relaxed is fantastically therapeutic.

Fun time
Training with a friend is good fun and the fun element of your exercise sessions should not be neglected. You may have some serious training goals but it is equally important to enjoy and bring laughter into your exercise routine.

Improving time
Competition with your training partner is a sure-fire way to give you that extra edge to push that little bit harder or further. Whether you're looking to chop a minute or two off your race times or you just want to be your best, the extra incentive that competition brings is certain to help you improve.

Motivating time You know your partner or friends well, particularly their strengths and weaknesses so you are in a great position to capitalise on this knowledge and motivate them when you can see that the going is getting tough. They will appreciate your help because they know that your support is genuine. Also, the tables can be turned and you can benefit from their support as well.

Commitment time
On those days when you're not 100% sure if you want to tackle your planned workout, because you've made an ‘exercise date' with your partner or friends, you're far less likely to ditch the session. You'll not want to let them down and it's likely that once you start your training session together, you'll be glad that you made the effort.

Cardiovascular Fitness Programs

Types of Cardio Training

Continuous training
Continuous training involves activities where most energy is supplied by the aerobic system. This is the type of training you would have been doing in Phase 1 (eg, going for a 30-60min walk/run). At this stage you should be able to sustain at least 20-90 minutes of activity. Your training intensity should be 65%-80%Hrmax.

Fartlek training

This form of training involves interspersing short bursts of intense/faster work throughout a continuous activity. It is a great way of introducing more intensive work. The difference between this activity and pure continuous work is that there is a deliberate attempt to increase the intensity which causes a temporary build-up of lactic acid.

For example:

• You are completing a 20 minute run. Increase your running speed (sprint) until your heart rate reaches 90%HRmax, then slow down to a jog until it reaches 65%HRmax. Repeat this throughout the run. *These HR zones are only used for this example and can be adjusted to suit each individual.

Interval training

This form of training involves alternating periods of activity and recovery. The advantage of this form of training is that it provides greater amounts of exposure to intensive training without incurring excessive fatigue. Greater recovery will occur if you remain walking or moving throughout. This increases the body's ability to remove lactic acid from the muscles, take it back to the liver, and convert it to energy.
A good way to improve your fitness is to work on a 1:1 or 1:2 work to rest ratio.

For example:

• You are completing a 20 minute training session. After warming up, run hard for 2 minutes then walk for 2 minutes. Complete this 4 times.

or

• You are completing a 20 minute walk. Power walk to the first power pole, then walk slowly to the third, and so on.

You can decrease the rest time or increase the activity during the recovery period, as your fitness improves.

So how often should I be cardio training?

You would have already built a base so regular exercise is no concern for you. The problem can be the increase in intensity with the Fartlek and Interval training. Start by incorporating 1-2 sessions per week of high intensity and 1-2 sessions per week of Continuous training. Extra sessions can be added as you adapt but also include rest days. These will allow your body to recover and improve. They will also reduce the chance of over-training or overuse injuries (eg, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, etc).

Interval Training

Lactic Acid Tolerance and Clearance

Methods of Lactic Acid Tolerance
To get the best out of our training we need to be able to tolerate high levels of lactic acid. This will enable us to perform at higher intensities and sustain it for longer periods.

• Duration of work: 30sec to 2min
• Intensity of work: 90-95% of best time for distance
• Recovery period: 1.5-6min
• Work-recovery ratio: 1:2 to 1:3
• Repetitions: 3-12

Methods of Lactic Acid Clearance
Clearance is important because it improves the body's ability to remove the lactic acid from the muscle, transport it via the blood stream to the liver, then convert it back to energy.

• Duration of work: 5-30sec
• Intensity of work: 95+ % of best performance
• Recovery period: 15-150sec
• Work-recovery ratio: 1:3 to 1:5
• Repetitions: 5-20

Sample Cardio Fitness Programs

*Always consult your Doctor before starting an exercise program!

Program 1

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Jog for 100m, walk for 200m.
• Repeat 5 times.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 2

• Choose a piece of cardiovascular equipment (eg, Bike, Rower, etc.)
• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Complete 2 minutes at 85%, then 2 minutes at 60%.
• Repeat 4 times.
• Increase the high intensity section and keep the low intensity section the same as it becomes easier.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 3

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Complete the following intervals 4 times: 1 minute at 90%, 2 minutes at 60%.
• Increase the high intensity section and keep the low intensity section the same as it becomes easier.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 4

Indoor Cardio Circuit:

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Choose 3 pieces of Cardio equipment (eg, Bike, Treadmill, Rower).
• Complete 2 circuits of the machines spending 5 minutes on each machine, each time. (eg. 5min on bike, then treadmill, then rower, at the first intensity. Then go through again at the second intensity).
• Spend first circuit at 60%-70% HRmax.
• Spend second circuit at 70%-80% HRmax.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Cardio Programs For the Fit Only

Program 1

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Complete the following intervals 5 times: 4 minute at 90%, 2 minutes at 60%.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 2

Indoor Cardio Circuit:

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Choose 3-4 pieces of Cardio equipment (eg, Stepper, Bike, Treadmill, Rower).
• Complete 3 circuits of the machines spending 5 minutes on each machine, each time (eg. 5min on bike, then stepper, then treadmill, then rower, at the first intensity. Then go through again at the next intensity, and so on).
• Spend first circuit at 60%-70% HRmax.
• Spend second circuit at 70%-80% HRmax.
• Spend third circuit at 80%-90% HRmax.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 3

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Complete the following intervals 5 times: 400m at 90%, 400m at 60%.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 4

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Complete the following intervals 5 times: 2min at 85%, 2min at 75%.
• Walk for 10 minutes.
• Complete intervals again.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Program 5

• Warm up and stretch for 5-10 minutes.
• Complete the following intervals 5 times: Sprint 400m then jog until heart rate reaches 70% HRmax.
• After the 5 intervals, walk for 5 minutes.
• Repeat intervals.
• Always complete a warm down before finishing the session.

Endorphins, the body's own opiate-like chemicals, have long been held responsible for the so-called exercise ‘high', and experts once thought that we needed to tough it out at a certain intensity, for a given length of time, in order to ‘flick the switch' and get an endorphin boost. For example, a report in the journal Physician and Sports Medicine concluded that to get an exercise ‘high', you have to work at 76% of your maximum heart rate, and may need to keep going for two hours or more. But with some exercise fanatics blissing out by doing much less work, and others putting in even greater amounts of effort to no avail, researchers began to realise that the formula wasn't so simple.

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I'm given alot of literature from supplement companies which include an array of supplements (ofcourse) to fitness magazines to more inspirational aspects of fitness. One of these books is from isatori "the ultimate 21 day ultimate energy plan' by Stephen Adele. Its a small booklet which gives you steps on how you can energise your life.  Yes its a little 'touchy feely' (boys! you'll find this relevant to you too) but it does have some good aspects to help you to bring more positivity into your life.  One of the sections is called 'learn to release' which talks about relationships how their influence can nurture or poison your success in life. 

I really believe that to achieve in anything, whether it be in life or sport, you need a good support around you to get where you want to go.  And to ditch the things that hinder you.  Hence, I've found this section of the book really interesting, so I've taken an exerpt from it so you can too decifer who are the people who will nourish or poison your future goals:  

" Basically there are two types of relationships: those with individuals who, when they're in your presence, make you feel better about yourself a relationship that nomally supports your every move - excites, inspires, and energizes you, and even challenges you to be your best. I call these people your nectar. They nourish your energy.

Then, there are those with individuals who tend to constantly drain you, bring you down, are self centred, and put you into a defensive mode.  I call these people poison.  They are negative, toxic, parasitic to your existence and drain your energy. Associating only with healthy, like-minded, positive people will: * increase your chances of having more success * uplift your energy * put you in a positive mood * increase your confidence

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