Cardiovascular exercise has received a lot of attention over the last decade as the centerpiece of fitness, weight management, and cardio-respiratory health. With improved cardio-respiratory fitness:.
Heart function more efficiently.
More blood per beat.
Resting heart rate slows.
Blood volume increases.
Cooling of body improves.
Improve cellular metabolism.
Reduce risk of chronic disease.
Better control of body fat.
Improve immune function.
Improve psychological and emotional well-being.
A person is overall much healthier. I started cardio fitness well over a year ago, since then I feel more energetic, sleep better, and look better just to name a few. One of my goals is to maintain my current health level. Although I only row for fun now, I still train and compete with couple of friends from the team. We have similar erg test scores of around 4900m. Coach said that all men should be able to pull 5000m in 20 minutes and reach 5300m if followed the training schedules every week. That had an impact on my ego. I decided to really start training hard when school gets less hectic in the summer semester. My goal is to reach from 4860m to 5260m by the end of August. The extra 400m will be broken down into 4 smaller steps. It's common knowledge that as one reach higher capacity, improvements get harder and slower. So my plan is below:.
Date (2003) 20-minute erg test score (m) Improvements (m).
May 1 4860 NA.
May 31 5040 +180.
June 31 5140 +100.
July 31 5210 +70.
August 31 5260 +50.
More specifically, below is the example of a week's novice training schedule: .
University Novice Training Schedule.
Summer Training Schedule: May 17 - 23, 2003.
AM PM .
Monday Erg 8x 5- @ 30 Weights.
Tuesday Row 60 " cardio; weights.
Wednesday Erg 3 x 20- @ 24 Weights.
Thursday Row (small boats) 60- cardio; weights.
Friday Erg 2x 20 @ easy 22 Weights.
Saturday Row (large boats) Off.
Sunday Run/bike and/or erg @ 60- Relax.
Each week, coach will give us a new schedule.
