I am really bad at aerobic exercise, since I have EIB (exercise-induced asthma) that went undiagnosed as a child and and my teens and I kind of developed aversion to aerobic exercise. My measured VO2max is 44-45 (slightly above average for my age) but I would want it to be a bit higher and I want to optimize my aerobic training.
My zone 2 is mostly done during my 3x45 minutes of strength training a week where I maintain my heart rate in zone 2.
I do around two to three hikes a month with around 900 vertical meters.
I do daily 20-30 minutes yoga, but that rarely raises my heart above zone 1 so I don’t think this count as aerobic training? What about walking? Or taking bike to work?
I do two, sometimes three runs a week that follow similar pattern to what you are describing, but I would want to check if I am doing them correct to optimize for VO2max. Some 25 years ago I got this book Body for Life by Bill Phillips where he proposed 20 minutes aerobic solution that I found that even with my aversion could be done:
I have been doing one or two runs a week ever since (25 years) by this principle that I amended a little during the years reading on HIIT and SIT protocols. I take this table as a guide for exertion.
My current aerobic protocol is as follows:
4 minutes “warm up”
repeat 4 times:
1 minute “recovery”
1 minute “aerobic”
1 minute 30 seconds “anaerobic”
30 seconds “VO2max”
followed
4-5 minutes “recovery”
I don’t train following HR but intensity. Would that be a good protocol? I tried SIT protocol, with 6 sprints at maximum intensity followed by 2-3 minutes rest too but I prefer the above. I reach my MHR usually in second interval, sometimes in first if I really do my best. But what is MHR would that be calculated MHR or observed? My calculated MHR is 172, but observed (measured) during my runs per above protocol is 186. I reach that in second interval, in first interval I get to maybe 178.
Well any comment would be appreciated. When I read literature on training and zones and VO2max and lactate and minutes… I get lost. I all sounds like gibberish.
