Cycling Vs. Running

Before you decide to invest in cycling or running shoes, I want to reassure you: Cycling and running are both fantastic forms of cardio exercise that can boost your cardiovascular and mental health. You don’t have to choose one or the other. They’ll both serve you well, granted in slightly different ways.

[Read More: The Best Leg Exercises for Muscle & Strength, According to a PhD]

But since you asked (otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this), I’m going to break things down into fitness goals for you. Do you want to lose weight, build muscle, or increase strength? One may win over the other. I’ll also dive into which is more efficient for different populations, how each relates to injury recovery, and what the science says about each activity and heart health.

For Efficiency

When deciding how efficient a cardio workout is, consider the equipment you may need, how long it takes to reach the same output or intensity, and how feasible it is for different fitness levels. 

[Read More: Expert Tested: The Best Treadmills for Running]

Burning calories isn’t always the best indicator of a solid workout, but it helps show you how hard you may be working in the same amount of time, so I’ll include those figures, too.

Cycling:

• Equipment Needed: You’ll need to own or rent a regular bike and safety gear for outdoor cycling or hop on a stationary exercise bike for indoor cycling. Some people like cycling shoes for spin classes.
• Amount of Time and Calories Burned: The number of calories you burn during exercise depends on your body weight and other factors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states the number of calories a 154-pound person may burn on a 30-minute and one-hour bike ride at different speeds. (1)

• Level of Difficulty in Reaching Intensity: One of the benefits of cycling is that even beginners can reach a high intensity, especially on a stationary bike. Solid form still matters, but you may be able to pedal faster and with more resistance — even at a lower fitness level. It’s also easy for advanced athletes to scale up by cranking up the resistance, trying high-intensity interval training (HIIT) cycling workouts, and alternating sitting with standing.

[Read More: The Benefits of Exercise Bikes (Plus Workouts From a Personal Trainer)]

Running:

• Equipment Needed: You’ll need proper running shoes. Other than that, you can run on a treadmill or outside. Many people get into running because it is free and relatively accessible when you just step out of your building and into your workout.
• Amount of Time and Calories Burned: The CDC gives the following number of calories a 154-pound person may burn running. They only list the amounts for running at five miles per hour, and some runners may run faster (or slower). Still, it gives you an idea. (1)

• Level of Difficulty in Reaching Intensity: Running burns more calories than cycling, but you need to be at a fitness level that is high enough to achieve it. Running for 30 or 60 minutes without stopping is challenging for a beginner, and even for more experienced runners.

The Winner: 

• Running is more efficient for intermediate and advanced runners. You only need a pair of shoes and your body weight, and you’ll burn more calories and work harder in the same amount of time as a comparable bike ride.
• Cycling is more efficient for the general population, beginners, or otherwise fit people who are new to running. You can burn as much energy on a bike at a lower fitness goals.

For Weight Loss

If you have a weight loss goal, the general theory is to burn more calories than you take in to increase your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). You might assume that running is best for weight loss since it can burn more calories. Still, it’s more complicated than the cold hard numbers.

Cycling:

• Low-Impact: Cycling is a low-impact activity. Your feet never leave the pedals; you don’t have to support your body weight. If you have a weight loss goal or are at a heavier weight, starting with a non-weight-bearing exercise like cycling may be more comfortable. 
• Calories Burned: Since cycling causes less impact on your joints, you can withstand a longer period of cycling to burn the same amount of calories you could do on a shorter, high-impact run.
• Moderate Intensity for Weight Loss: You can get a great cycling workout at a moderate intensity. Some research suggests that people with obesity new to exercise may enjoy moderate-intensity exercise more than high-intensity exercise because it has a lower rate of perceived exertion (RPE). (2)

Running:

• Calories Burned: Advanced runners can burn more calories in a fast, long-distance run, which could lead to more weight loss overall. 
• High-Impact Activity: Running is a high-impact activity. Each time your heel strikes the ground, your joints take on the force of two to three times your body weight. For people at higher weights, a higher impact may increase the risk of injury. (3)(4)
• High-Intensity: The high-impact, high-intensity nature of running may also lead to more weight loss. 

[Read More: The Best Incline Treadmills on the Market]

The Winner: All things being equal, running burns more calories, but cycling is lower impact, gentler on joints, and might be safer for higher-weight people who may have weight loss goals. 

For Strength

Though you’re not lifting heavy weights for a few reps — a classic component of strength training workouts — both cycling and running may increase your strength. You’ll get stronger at what you do consistently. Some populations may see more strength gains than others, though.

[Read More: The Best Air Bikes for Your Home Gym]

Cycling:

• Strengthens Leg Muscles: Cycling, especially with resistance or uphill, will strengthen your leg muscles. Your quadriceps (cycling is particularly quad-heavy), hamstrings, glutes, and calves all need to engage in pushing and pulling the pedals. You’ll also get some upper body work in an indoor cycling class. 
• Older Adults: One review of studies suggests that older adults may build more strength during cycling than younger adults. Younger adults may gain some strength by doing HIIT exercise bike workouts, but moderate intensity works for older folks. (5)

Running:

• High-Impact Weight-Bearing Exercise: High-impact, weight-bearing exercise like running will likely build more strength than cycling since you need to support your total body weight while powering yourself through a run.
• Bone Health: Medical professionals may advise older adults at risk of osteopenia (low bone mineral density or BMD) or osteoporosis (a more severe loss of BMD) to do weight-bearing cardio exercise and resistance training. Researchers have investigated running versus cycling and BMD.
  • One systematic review found that cycling is less beneficial for bone health than running and other weight-bearing cardio exercises. Runners had a higher BMD in their lumbar spines than cyclists. However, cycling is more beneficial to bone health than a sedentary lifestyle. (6)
  • Another study of cyclists and runners assigned male at birth found that the cyclists were seven times more likely to have lumbar spine osteopenia and lower BMD than runners. (7)
• Strength Athletes: Strength athletes can increase their anaerobic capacity in HIIT sprint workouts or by doing tempo runs. 

The Winner: Although cycling offers more resistance for working your muscles, running builds more full-body strength — down to your bones. It’s a toss-up here for which type of strength you’re trying to focus on.

For Muscle Growth

If you’re aiming to gain muscle mass, you don’t head to the cardio floor as your primary form of training. But when you’re working out with an eye on getting swole, cycling and running can still help. (If nothing else, they’ll help boost your work capacity so you can handle more weight lifting. And that’ll help you bust through many shirt sleeves in the long run.)

Cycling:

• Builds Leg Muscles: Research suggests professional cyclists who ride long distances and train for years may build leg muscles from their high volume of work. However, they likely also do resistance training outside of cycling. (5)
• Older Adults and Sedentary People: Older adults and sedentary people may also build muscle through cycling. Younger adults can also achieve some muscle hypertrophy through cycling. (5)
• Some Upper Body Work: If you regularly take indoor cycling classes that engage your upper body with dumbbell work, you could theoretically build muscle there as well. Try to increase the reps over time and get enough protein to fuel muscle growth.

Running:

• More Muscle Group Engagement: Although you’ll be up against less resistance when you run, it’s a weight-bearing exercise that recruits more muscle groups. 
• May Sometimes Interfere: Concurrent training — both endurance and strength training in one cycle — may in some circumstances eat into your gains just a little bit. If you’re not eating enough to fuel all your training, or if you’re pouring most of your energy into runs instead of lifting, you may find yourself stalled in the muscle department. Make sure you’re eating enough and that you train for strength before jogging sessions to optimize your recovery and gains.

The Winner: More research suggests that you can build muscle through cycling, likely due to the higher potential for resistance and the time you can stress your muscles under tension. 

For Injury Recovery

Few things are as frustrating to a fitness enthusiast as suffering an injury and getting knocked out of your exercise routine. For some injuries, you can do cycling or running to maintain mobility, strength, and heart health. 

Cycling:

• Lower-Impact, Non-Weight-Bearing Exercise: A stationary bike comes in handy if you have an injury that allows you to use your lower body but not bear your body weight. A recumbent bike is closer to the floor and may be more accessible.
• Recovery from Running Injuries: If you’re a runner with an injury, you may find yourself cycling during recovery. You can keep your leg muscles working; just be mindful of knee pain.

[Read More: The Best Recumbent Bikes for Small Spaces, Streaming, Seniors, and More]

Running:

• Upper-Body Injury: If you prefer running and have an upper-body injury, you may be able to continue running while you recover. Of course, checking with a doctor or physical therapist is important.
• Weight-Bearing Exercise May Help Recovery: In some cases, weight-bearing exercise may benefit injury recovery better since it builds more strength than non-weight-bearing exercises. 

The Winner: Cycling, especially on a stationary bike, is a go-to for cardio exercise for most injury recovery. 

For Heart Health

Regular aerobic exercise (or cardio) is one of the best ways to protect your cardiovascular health and prevent avoidable cardiac health conditions. 

Aerobic exercise is any type of physical activity that raises your heart rate and breathing, engages multiple muscle groups, and can be performed rhythmically for some time. Aerobic activities utilize oxygen as an energy source. (8)

[Read More: The Best Budget Treadmills on the Market]

The American Heart Association (AHA) offers the following physical activity guidelines for adults. Each week, aim for: (9)

• 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise 
• 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity
• Combine the two
• Add on two days of resistance training

Reaching these minimum goals lowers your risk of cardiovascular diseases and can improve heart health by managing blood pressure and cholesterol levels. (9)

Both types of exercise can get you these health benefits. One study on sedentary people assigned male at birth investigated whether running or cycling was better for heart health. (10)

• Running increased VO2 max and heart rate more than cycling in a steady-state workout at about the same intensity. 
• The cardiac output was higher for cycling than for running in HIIT workouts, likely because untrained individuals have a lower work capacity for HIIT running workouts, and they can work harder at cycling.

Here are a few areas where they differ.

Cycling:

• Improves Cardiovascular Health: A systematic review of studies found that consistent cycling was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases and mortality. (11)
• May Be More Accessible: Cycling may be more accessible to sedentary people looking to start exercising for heart health.
• Moderate-Intensity and High-Intensity: Cycling is scalable; you can do a moderate-intensity workout or keep the intensity high in either HIIT or a steady-state bike ride. 

Running:

• Improves Cardiovascular Health: Running is excellent for cardiovascular health because it is very demanding. Here are the findings of two major studies.
  • A study on over 55,000 people aged 18 to 100 found that runners had a 30 to 45 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality than non-runners. Runners also lived an average of three years longer than non-runners. Even taking a five to 10-minute daily run slower than six miles per hour provides heart health benefits. (12)
  • The Copenhagen City Heart study compared 18,000 joggers and non-joggers of all genders, aged 20 to 98. Joggers had better heart health markers (lower blood pressure, resting heart rates, and cholesterol levels) and lived an average of six years more than non-joggers. The highest cardiovascular health benefits were associated with people who ran at least 2.5 hours per week slowly, spread over three to four days. (13)
• High Fitness Level, High Intensity, High Impact: To reach the cardio exercise requirements for heart health through running alone, you need to be at a fitness level that is high enough to sustain the high-intensity, high-impact nature of running.

The Winner: Cycling and running are both great for heart health.

• Cycling is great for heart health for sedentary people because it is more accessible and can be done at a moderate intensity.
• Overall, running is also great for heart health if you have the fitness level and experience to do it safely.

Takeaways

Did you catch all of that? Here’s a quick recap of the winners of running versus cycling.

• For Efficiency: Running is more efficient due to the lack of equipment needed and how taxing it is, but cycling is more efficient for non-runners because they can work harder for longer.
• For Weight Loss: If you have a significant weight loss goal, cycling is best because it’s gentler on the joints and allows you to do more intense workouts safely. However, running may cause more weight loss overall.
• For Strength: Running strengthens your bones and muscles more than cycling.
• For Muscle Growth: Evidence suggests cycling builds more muscle than running if you do a high enough volume with resistance — especially for older adults and sedentary people.
• For Injury Recovery: In most cases, cycling is better for recovery, especially if you got injured from running.
• For Heart Health: While running is more cardiovascularly taxing than cycling, cycling is more accessible to people new to exercise, and both can boost heart health. This one depends on your fitness level.

FAQs

You’ve probably still got questions. Before you make your choice (remember that both are solid options), head out as informed as you can.

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

References

1. CDC. Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2. De Feo P. Is high-intensity exercise better than moderate-intensity exercise for weight loss? Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2013 Nov;23(11):1037-42. 
3. Glancy, J., CO (1984). Orthotic Control of Ground Reaction Forces During Running (A Preliminary Report). Orthotics and Prosthetics, 38(3), 12-40.
4. Winter, S. C., Gordon, S., Brice, S. M., Lindsay, D., & Barrs, S. (2020). A Multifactorial Approach to Overuse Running Injuries: A 1-Year Prospective Study. Sports Health.
5. Ozaki H, Loenneke JP, Thiebaud RS, Abe T. Cycle training induces muscle hypertrophy and strength gain: strategies and mechanisms. Acta Physiol Hung. 2015 Mar;102(1):1-22. 
6. Nagle KB, Brooks MA. A Systematic Review of Bone Health in Cyclists. Sports Health. 2011 May;3(3):235-243. 
7. Rector, R. S., Rogers, R., Ruebel, M., & Hinton, P. S. (2008). Participation in road cycling vs running is associated with lower bone mineral density in men. Metabolism, 57(2), 226-232. 
8. Patel H, Alkhawam H, Madanieh R, Shah N, Kosmas CE, Vittorio TJ. Aerobic vs anaerobic exercise training effects on the cardiovascular system. World J Cardiol. 2017 Feb 26;9(2):134-138. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.134. PMID: 28289526; PMCID: PMC5329739.
9. Piercy, K. L., & Troiano, R. P. (2018). Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans From the US Department of Health and Human Services. AHA Journal, 11(11).
10. Kriel Y, Askew CD, Solomon C. The effect of running versus cycling high-intensity intermittent exercise on local tissue oxygenation and perceived enjoyment in 18-30-year-old sedentary men. PeerJ. 2018 Jun 19;6:e5026.
11. Nordengen S, Andersen LB, Solbraa AK, Riiser A. Cycling is associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases and death: Part 1 – systematic review of cohort studies with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2019 Jul;53(14):870-878. 
12. Lee DC, Pate RR, Lavie CJ, Sui X, Church TS, Blair SN. Leisure-time running reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014 Aug 5;64(5):472-81. 
13. Peter Schnohr, Jacob L. Marott, Peter Lange, Gorm B. Jensen, Longevity in Male and Female Joggers: The Copenhagen City Heart Study, American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 177, Issue 7, 1 April 2013, Pages 683–689,

The post Cycling Vs. Running — A Personal Trainer Runs Through the Best Form of Cardio appeared first on BarBend.

Not because he said something particularly inflammatory, as is often the case these days. Also not because a new generation of physique neophytes were awed by his esteemed career on stage; Mentzer never won the overall title at the Mr. Olympia.

[Related: The Best Supplements for Bodybuilding]

Maybe it was the mustache — those are back in a big way. In truth, Mentzer’s unexpected resurgence can be attributed to the athlete and man he was during his heyday: an idiosyncratic, hard-headed maverick with some pretty novel perspectives on bodybuilding workouts, diets, and philosophy. 

Which is exactly the sort of sugary content that contemporary social media algorithms adore. Mentzer was undeniably ahead of his time, for better and for worse. In some ways, Mentzer’s newfound adoration online is entirely misplaced. 

The Many Misguided Mentzerisms

Scour Instagram and TikTok, and you’ll see scores of Mentzer montages hoarding millions of views. Many sport thumb-stopping captions like…

• “PROTEIN ISN’T IMPORTANT”
• “This is why you must lift until failure!” 
• “Mike Mentzer: Only One Set” 
• “Why Mentzer almost ATTACKED Arnold!”

…and so on. They’re tabloidy zingers that magnetize eyeballs and, more importantly, come with a fallacious appeal to authority built in. Mentzer was an uncommonly jacked and diced-as-Hell bodybuilder for his time, so his hot takes about lifting weights must be true. 

But that’s not really how it works. For one, some of Mentzer’s ideas — most notably his dedication to high-intensity training (HIT) and atypically-low volume — don’t hold up.

Secondly, many of these videos beg and plead for your attention by contorting Mentzer’s words or obfuscating his meaning. For example, Mentzer didn’t say protein “wasn’t important,” despite that being plastered on the thumbnail and it being attributed to him as a consequence. He said some of his contemporaries had overstated its value.

(In an interview for Iron Man Magazine, Mentzer recommended a macronutrient split of 60% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 15% fat.)

Yet an avid scroller on TikTok might see that thumbnail, scoff at its absurdity, and instantaneously dismiss Mentzer altogether even though his advice in this particular case isn’t outlandish — though the protein bit may be more of an exception than a rule.

[Related: The Fitness Influencer Arms Race — How Content Creators Push the Envelope for Clicks]

Sports science has come a long way in the last half-century, and anyone with CapCut downloaded on their smartphone can capitalize on a deceased bodybuilder’s musings without fear of retaliation (unless you’re particularly superstitious, that is).

But while exercise science may have been in its relative infancy in his prime, modern academia isn’t on Mentzer’s side in all cases: 

Bodybuilding’s Thought Leader

So what’s happening here? Well, according to Renaissance Periodization mastermind and Sport Science PhD Mike Israetel in a Jan. 19, 2024 YouTube video, Mentzer’s return to the nexus of bodybuilding culture is explained by how well his philosophies carve through the Internet’s information glut:

“[Mentzer] was a precision-oriented person. He remains popular even to this day because [his training philosophy] is insanely simple and brutally difficult … We are eternally indebted [to Mentzer] for trying to make some God-damned sense out of lifting.” 

Social media is bursting at the seams with everyone’s hot take on how to build muscle, burn fat, or increase strength. The methods and mechanisms to achieve these goals are often complicated (and often deliberately). Mentzer’s approach was straightforward, which is why he’s so easily co-opted on social media.

Beyond that, sports historian and lecturer Dr. Conor Heffernan says that Mentzer’s career as a physique athlete may have contributed to his becoming bodybuilding’s black sheep. “Mentzer was strongly influenced by the teachings of Arthur Jones, [inventor of the Nautilus machines], who bucked many mainstream bodybuilding practices at the time,” says Heffernan.

Heffernan notes that Mentzer may have walked away from bodybuilding due to the debacles of the 1980 Mr. “O”, but “[Mentzer’s] own philosophy had solidified long before then.”

[Related: Best Casein Protein Powders for Muscle Growth]

Mentzer Had It Right…Sometimes

To his credit, Mentzer was ahead of the curve in some ways. 

[Read More: All Bodybuilding Eras Explained]

Even nutritional science is cooling on exactly how much protein you need to build muscle, and Mentzer was all-in on flexible dieting long before the “IIFYM” moniker took hold on bodybuilding message boards in the late 2000s.

But generally, the further he strayed from practical training advice, the less credible Mentzer’s ideas became. In 1981, Mentzer reportedly made dietary claims like “You’re not going to gain fat from eating carbs like white rice” and “It’s ridiculous to go on low-carbohydrate diets to get cut up, because you will, inevitably, lose some muscle.”

• You can absolutely gain fat by eating too much of anything, including and especially a palatable, easy-to-shovel-down carb source like rice.
• Contemporary academia largely supports protein intake as the mediating factor in muscle loss during a calorie deficit, more than carbohydrates. (7)

Dig deep enough, and you will find some real headscratchers attributed to Mentzer. It’s easy to criticize bodybuilding advice from decades before Y2K scared the daylights out of most TikTok’ers parents. Mentzer has become a convenient social media mouthpiece, but his ideas are still a mixed bag.

“Potential Is the Expression of Possibility”

By all accounts, Mike Mentzer was not a dispassionate man. In a rather touching obituary penned a few weeks after his passing in June of 2001, writer and personal friend of Mentzer’s John Little said:

“Prior to Mike’s coming, bodybuilding had cried out for a watchdog or protector of young bodybuilders who might otherwise fall prey to the blandishments of the corporate interests that had infiltrated the sport.”

Little’s tribute was more poignant than he realized. His assessment clearly illustrates, at least in part, why Mentzer is one of Gen Z’s favorite bodybuilders. The guy just plain loved lifting, which made his words all the more infectious and influential. 

Have all of his views held up against the relentless marches of time and science? Heck no. Mentzer was a great bodybuilder who was ahead of his time in some ways and pretty off-base in others — but he was undeniably well-intentioned. Mentzer deserves his 15 minutes of Internet fame, as long as you don’t get too caught up in his charm and lose the plot in the process. 

Bodybuilding culture cried out for Mike Mentzer.

John Little

You probably shouldn’t heed “his” one-set-only, eat-all-the-rice-you-want advice, even though it often comes with the implicit authority of thousands of likes and comments. Mentzer is, however, more than worth hearing out when it comes to his philosophy on training and how it can guide your life: 

“Don’t worry about your individual potential. Potential is only the expression of possibility — something that can be assessed accurately only in retrospect.” 

In essence, don’t lose the forest for the trees. Just go to the gym and work your ass off. 

More Op-Eds on BarBend

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References

1. Nóbrega SR, Libardi CA. Is Resistance Training to Muscular Failure Necessary? Front Physiol. 2016 Jan 29;7:10. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00010. PMID: 26858654; PMCID: PMC4731492.
2. Refalo, M.C., Helms, E.R., Trexler, E.T. et al. Influence of Resistance Training Proximity-to-Failure on Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis. Sports Med 53, 649–665 (2023).
3. Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Aragon, A. A., Devries, M. C., Banfield, L., Krieger, J. W., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British journal of sports medicine, 52(6), 376–384. 
4. Bernárdez-Vázquez R, Raya-González J, Castillo D, Beato M. Resistance Training Variables for Optimization of Muscle Hypertrophy: An Umbrella Review. Front Sports Act Living. 2022 Jul 4;4:949021. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.949021. PMID: 35873210; PMCID: PMC9302196.
5. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2016 Nov;46(11):1689-1697. doi: 10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8. PMID: 27102172.
6. Kataoka, R., Hammert, W. B., Yamada, Y., Song, J. S., Seffrin, A., Kang, A., Spitz, R. W., Wong, V., & Loenneke, J. P. (2024). The Plateau in Muscle Growth with Resistance Training: An Exploration of Possible Mechanisms. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 54(1), 31–48.
7. Cava E, Yeat NC, Mittendorfer B. Preserving Healthy Muscle during Weight Loss. Adv Nutr. 2017 May 15;8(3):511-519. doi: 10.3945/an.116.014506. PMID: 28507015; PMCID: PMC5421125.

Imagery: @mentzerhit on Instagram

The post Opinion: Mike Mentzer Was a Good Bodybuilder With (Some) Bad Advice appeared first on BarBend.

The gel or silicon inserts meant to separate your toes aren’t just a TikTok trend amongst aspiring athletes and influencers. Big-time CrossFitters like Sam Briggs, Emma Lawson, Jeff Adler, and Danielle Brandon have all been known to flaunt their toe spacers on social media.

Here, you’ll learn the ins and outs of what these strange separators are, how to use them, and the potential benefits of toe spacers for improving strength athletes’ mobility, foot strength, and even overall performance.

Recent Updates: In our latest round of updates on April 30, 2024, BarBend’s Senior Editor Alex Polish added an FAQ section along with a series of takeaways to help you access the information you’re looking for most efficiently. We’ve also updated the media on the page and helped make it easier to navigate.

What Are Toe Spacers?

Toe spacers — also referred to as toe separators or toe spreaders — are generally made of silicon or gel, designed to slip between your toes and separate them from each other. They come in varying sizes that separate your toes to different degrees.

Some styles are somewhat bulky, meaning that you’ll be wearing them around the house with no shoes. Other toe spacers have a sleeker design, meant to separate your toes while wearing cross-training shoes with a slightly wider toe box.

Why Do People Use Toe Spacers?

Toe spacers can counteract the effects of squishing your feet into shoes with narrow toe boxes. Athletes often tout them as a way to stretch their foot muscles and ligaments, realign their foot angles, and reduce foot pain.

Some athletes may opt to use them as a countermeasure to wearing high heels and training shoes with narrow toe boxes. If you’re going to wear constricting shoes, the logic goes, you can undo some of that squishing by stretching your toes out afterward.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Emma Lawson (@emma.lawson_5)

[Read More: The Best Mobility Exercises, PT-Approved]

Others may choose to replace or supplement their current shoe selection with wider toe boxes that can accommodate toe spacers. This way, you’re giving your toes the opportunity to explore a broader range of motion day to day without any constricting effects of tight shoes. 

This approach may be particularly helpful to athletes with bunions or other potentially painful foot conditions that impact toe angles.

Other athletes opt to wear toe spacers during training, hoping to improve their ability to grip the ground and maintain mobile, strong feet while lifting.

Why Your Feet Are Important in Lifting

You need more than strong lats and a solid posterior chain to deadlift heavy. Although these muscles might not come to mind immediately, your feet need to be strong if you want your lifts to have a steady foundation. 

The ability to “grip” the floor with your feet during powerful pulls and squats demands a strong relationship with your feet.

The stronger your feet, the better you’ll be able to channel strength through your toes to maintain the crucial three points of contact with the ground during your lift. Also known as a tripod position, this stance entails displacing equal pressure between the base of your little toe, the base of your big toe, and your heel.

By creating a stable base to lift from, maintaining these three points of contact sets your knee and hip joints up for a successful lift. 

[Read More: What Does It Mean When Athletes Maintain Three Points of Contact in Lifting?]

Without a solid stance, you start off all your standing lifts — everything from squats and deadlifts to overhead presses and even standing biceps curls — with a weak link. 

This shortcoming only gets worse if your foot muscles are unbalanced, such as if your toe angles are less than optimal. (1) For example, if you have bunions (aka hallux valgus) and your big toe is abducted away from your foot, it will be very hard to maintain three points of contact. Your ankles and knees may be negatively — and painfully — impacted by this, too. (2)

The idea of toe spacers is that they may be able to even out your toe angles, whether temporarily during training or more permanently over time. This may enable you to optimize your foot pressure and strength to give yourself the strongest base possible for your lifts.

How to Use Toe Spacers

When you’re trying a new strategy on or off the lifting platform, it’s often wise to apply the principle of progressive overload. Start small — with something you know your body can tolerate — and gradually increase the intensity from there.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by THE TOE SPACER (@spacermobility)

[Read More: How Many Steps Are in a Mile? Calculate by Height and Pace]

With toe spacers, that means putting them on and wearing them for 10 minutes at a time for a couple of weeks to let your feet acclimate. Do this while sitting at first. Then, try 30 minutes. Once you’ve worked up to wearing them while sitting, try walking around in them. 

When your body is used to walking around in them for the length of your average training session, you might consider doing a stretching or mobility session while wearing them. If it’s part of your goals, you might then work up to performing your training in toe spacers.

Depending on your goals, you might want to wear toe spacers for:

• Recovery: when you’re not being very physically active at all
• Mobility: during warm-ups, cool-downs, stretch sessions, and perhaps light cardio
• Training: during your workout sessions themselves

Benefits of Toe Spacers

If you’ve never tried toe spacers, it might be hard to get behind the hype. Here, you’ll find research-backed benefits of toe spacers that might just convince you to give them a try.

They Stretch Your Toes

Since toe spacers are designed to stretch your toes, as opposed to the constraints of certain types of shoes, they can help counter the effects of constricting shoes. This can take a lot of pressure off your feet and strengthen them at the same time. (3)

If your preferred training shoes have a narrow toe box, you might want to consider wearing toe spacers after your workouts to counteract the impacts of squishing your toes into that narrow box.

[Read More: The Best Weightlifting Shoes, As Tested by Our Experts]

They Help with Gripping the Floor

You may be tempted by barefoot strength training because of the idea of strengthening your feet. After all, when you’re not wearing shoes, your toes are literally gripping the floor during your lifts. 

But your commercial gym might not allow lifting while barefoot. Or you may have bunions or another foot condition that sets your toes at an unusual angle. In that case, it may be difficult or impossible to establish those coveted three points of contact painlessly and effectively.

Enter toe spacers. You can get the freer toe splay available with barefoot training, but you’ll be wearing  (wide-box) shoes. Plus, if your toes are splayed in a less-than-optimal way, wearing spacers during your lifts can reorient your toe angles so that you may grip the floor more solidly.

Toe spreaders designed specifically for an individual’s feet can alter a person’s hallux valgus angle and intermetatarsal angle. (4) Customized toe spreaders may help permanently make a tripod position easier to maintain, since your toes may become more evenly spaced.

[Read More: 3 Simple Exercises Strength Athletes Should Do for Stronger, Healthier Feet]

Potential Pain Reduction

If you live with bunions or other foot conditions that may negatively impact both your quality of life and lifting performance, toe spacers might help.

Performing foot-strengthening exercises by deliberately spreading your toes can be helpful in pain reduction for bunions. (5)(6) Since toe spreaders keep your toes spaced out, they may be able to stretch and strengthen your foot muscles. In turn, this may help with pain relief.

For people with painful bunions, insoles with toe separators may be more helpful for pain reduction than wearing night splints — even if the spacers don’t alter toe angles. (7)

Who Should Use Toe Spacers

Toe spacers can be useful for a range of athletes who want to do everything they can to give themselves an edge on the weight room floor. This might mean helping themselves lift more efficiently or counteracting the impacts of tight shoes.

Athletes Who Can Get Customized Gear

If you’re a serious athlete who’s willing and able to dedicate the resources to getting custom-made gear, you’re in luck. Toe spreaders that are personalized to fit an athlete’s feet stand a good chance of altering their toe angles to help reduce pain and maximize movement efficiency. (4)

While regular toe spacers — particularly those in insoles — may be helpful for reducing foot pain, you may be more likely to change your toe angles with customized spacers. (4)(7) If you can shell out for this personalized gear, you might be setting yourself up for even more success than going with a generic spacer.

Athletes With Foot Pain

Many athletes experience pain in their feet from wearing constraining shoes, like those with narrow toe boxes and high heels may. (3) This pain may be relieved by emulating barefoot training and stretching the ligaments of the feet to counter the effects of tight footwear. (3)

Toe spacers can be a big help here, as they’re designed to help simulate a more barefoot-esque environment for toes better able to grip the floor evenly. The stretching and strengthening provided by spacers may also contribute to significant pain relief. (5)(6)

For athletes with pain due to foot conditions like bunions, toe spacers are a noninvasive treatment that may be able to help reduce pain without a lot of medical intervention. (8) So if you’re concerned about getting treatment without relying on invasive treatment (like surgery) that requires recovery time, toe spacers may be quite helpful.

Athletes Who Want Stronger Feet

Research has found that deliberately spreading your toes may help reduce pain from bunions — but that’s not all it does. (5)(6) This spreading of the toes is considered a strengthening exercise for your feet overall. (5)(6)

When you spread your toes with spacers, you’re increasing your ability to maintain three points of contact with the ground during your lifts. In doing so, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to strengthen your feet even further by exposing them to a healthy training stimulus.

Who Shouldn’t Use Toe Spacers

Just because it’s popular on social media doesn’t mean it’s for you. Toe spacers may not be useful to every strength athlete. If your instinct is to stay away from anything that gets between your toes, don’t sweat it. They’re not a must-have for everyone.

Athletes Without Access to Customized Gear

Some research indicates that the most effective toe spreaders are the ones that are custom-made to suit an athlete’s feet. (4) If you don’t have access to personalized gear, then you might want to forgo participation in the toe spacer phenomenon.

Athletes Who Find Toe Spacers Uncomfortable

Let’s be honest — some people are just plain squeamish about your feet. If you don’t like dealing with your feet more than absolutely necessary to slip on your socks and training shoes, then these probably aren’t the innovation for you.

You may also find that the material of toe spacers — some are gel, some are silicon — is just plain uncomfortable. It’s worth noting that even for athletes who love them, toe spacers take time to adjust to. 

So if you try them for the first time and find them a bit uncomfy, you might want to try again for a little while. The discomfort may fade into your new favorite training and mobility accessory.

[Read More: Best Running Shoes for High Arches, Flat Feet, Cross Training, and More]

Takeaways

FAQs

So you’re on the search for the quick and dirty answers? Sounds good. Because we’ve got them right here.

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

References

1. Arinci Incel N, Genç H, Erdem HR, Yorgancioglu ZR. Muscle imbalance in hallux valgus: an electromyographic study. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2003 May;82(5):345-9.
2. Park C, Kang N, Jeon K, Park K. Quantifying the Dynamic Stability of Gait Patterns in People with Hallux Valgus. Appl Bionics Biomech. 2021 May 10;2021:5543704.
3. Xiang, L., Mei, Q., Xu, D., Fernandez, J., & Gu, Y. (2020). Multi-segmental motion in foot during counter-movement jump with toe manipulation. Applied Sciences, 10(5), 1893.
4. Cha, Y. H., Kim, S. J., Lee, K. H., Kwon, J. Y., Kim, D. H., Seo, A., & Kim, S. J. (2018). Designing personalized toe spreaders for hallux valgus with three-dimensional scanning and printing. Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Biosciences (JBEB), 5(1), 1-6.
5. Glasoe, W. M. (2016). Treatment of progressive first metatarsophalangeal hallux valgus deformity: a biomechanically based muscle-strengthening approach. journal of orthopaedic & sports physical therapy, 46(7), 596-605.
6. Kim MH, Yi CH, Weon JH, Cynn HS, Jung DY, Kwon OY. Effect of toe-spread-out exercise on hallux valgus angle and cross-sectional area of abductor hallucis muscle in subjects with hallux valgus. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015 Apr;27(4):1019-22. 
7. Tehraninasr A, Saeedi H, Forogh B, Bahramizadeh M, Keyhani MR. Effects of insole with toe-separator and night splint on patients with painful hallux valgus: a comparative study. Prosthet Orthot Int. 2008 Mar;32(1):79-83.
8. Park, C. H., & Chang, M. C. (2019). Forefoot disorders and conservative treatment. Yeungnam University journal of medicine, 36(2), 92-98.

Featured Image: Dr. Michael Tang PT, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

The post The Benefits of Toe Spacers (and Who Should Use Them) appeared first on BarBend.

But which one is the better workout? Both offer health benefits, so it depends on your goal, the amount of time you have, and which one you prefer. Here, I’ll crown a winner in the battle of cycling versus walking in six categories. Let the competition begin.

Biking Vs. Walking 

To hit the pedals or the pavement? Biking and walking are two great forms of cardiovascular exercise. They’ll get your heart rate up, engage your leg muscles, and can help support a variety of workout programs.

[Read More: The Best Treadmills for Walking, Researched and Tested by Our Team]

When deciding which exercise is best for you, be specific about what you want. Are you busy and need something quick and efficient? Are you trying to lose weight, increase strength, or build muscle? Maybe you’re recovering from an injury or looking for information on the best natural way to prevent heart disease. I’ll dive into each topic next.

For Efficiency

When it comes to efficiency, think about what equipment you can access and how much time you have to do it.

[Read More: The Best Treadmills for Running]

The amount of calories you burn during exercise is likely not the most important factor, but it is a helpful way to gauge your energy expenditure, so I’ll include it here, too.

Biking:

• Equipment Needed: You’ll need access to an exercise bike at the gym or a regular bike (and a helmet) to take an outdoor bike ride. This can be a barrier, especially if you’re away from the gym, don’t own a bike, and don’t live in a city where you can easily rent one.
• Scaling Intensity: Though it’s always best to start slow, even beginners may be able to easily pedal more than 10 miles per hour on a stationary bike, especially on flat terrain.
• Time and Calories Burned: The number of calories a person burns depends on each individual’s body. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC) lists the number of calories a 154-pound person would burn on a 30-minute and one-hour bike ride at different speeds. (1)

Walking:

• Equipment Needed: You can walk on a treadmill or outside; all you need are shoes (which could also be optional).
• Time and Calories Burned: Here’s how the CDC breaks down burning calories walking for a 154-pound person. (1)
• Scaling Intensity: If you’ve ever cranked up the speed on the treadmill, you know it’s challenging to get your walking speed up to 4.5 without jogging. On a treadmill, you can increase the incline to work harder without walking faster. 

The Winner: In terms of equipment, walking wins since many people can do it anywhere, anytime, for free. However, although the calorie breakdowns are similar, it can’t be a leisurely walk at a moderate pace to match an easy bike ride. Walking at a 3.5 or 4.5 speed on flat terrain is challenging (but possible), while you can burn roughly the same amount of calories on an easier, faster bike ride. 

[Read More: How Many Steps in a Mile? Calculate by Height and Pace]

Overall, cycling is more efficient (unless you don’t have a bike — then, walking wins the efficiency battle).

For Weight Loss

If your goal is weight loss, you generally need to expend more energy than you take in — though it’s not always a perfect science. In addition to adjusting your nutrition, boosting the number of calories you burn daily through biking or walking may help you lose body fat by increasing your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

[Read More: The Best Weight Loss Programs]

Plenty of research suggests that weight loss may occur when you combine a caloric deficit with cycling or walking.

• One study had participants do a 12-week program of three weekly 45-minute indoor cycling workouts while in a calorie deficit. These participants experienced weight loss. (2)
• An 18-month study was done on 280 participants in a caloric deficit. Those who walked more than 10,000 steps daily — with 3,500 steps as part of a moderate-to-vigorous intensity walk of at least 10 minutes — lost more than 10 percent of their body weight. (3)

Biking:

• Calories Burned: A brisk walk and a casual bike ride burn around the same amount of calories. How fast you can walk levels off, so you can burn more by riding faster, especially on an exercise bike.
• Lower-Impact: Biking and walking are low-impact exercises, but biking is an even lower impact since it is a non-weight-bearing activity. Sometimes, lower-impact exercise like cycling can be more comfortable for higher weight people.
• NEAT and TDEE: Another way of boosting your TDEE is by increasing your NEAT — non-exercise activity thermogenesis — which is the energy you burn outside of eating, sleeping, and structured exercise. If you can commute to work on your bike, you can increase your TDEE, which may help weight loss. (4)

Walking:

• Calories Burned: Even though walking at a moderate pace doesn’t burn as many calories as a bike ride, it still burns calories.
• Low-Impact: Walking is a low-impact, weight-bearing exercise. This type of exercise may strengthen your muscles and bones while you raise your heart rate during your cardio workout. 
• NEAT and TDEE: Walking will contribute more to your NEAT than cycling. Getting up and walking around your house, office, up and down stairs, and to and from your car adds up. You can also intentionally boost your NEAT by taking breaks at work and walking around the room. 

The Winner: If you’re looking at it from a purely calories-burned angle, cycling wins because you can work harder at a lower impact. However, NEAT-wise, walking wins — you’re unlikely to hop on and off your bike all day. 

[Read More: The Best Budget Treadmills on the Market]

Whichever activity you enjoy and can see yourself doing more of will benefit weight loss the most.

For Strength

Both walking and cycling can increase your strength, but I’ll zero in on a few populations to declare which likely works better, and for whom.

Biking:

• Strengthens Lower Body Muscles: Biking, especially with resistance, will work and strengthen your leg muscles. Your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves work together to push and pull on the pedals. You also get some upper body work in outdoor biking by steering and going up hills. In a cycling class, you may also perform upper body exercises with light dumbbells. 
• Older Adults: Research suggests that older adults can gain significantly more strength through cycling than younger adults. Younger adults can increase strength by cycling in high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts. (5)
• More Challenge for Strength Athletes: Intense cycling may be more challenging than a brisk walk for strength athletes seeking to add cardio exercise to their routine.

Walking:

• Lower Body Only: Walking will also increase strength, especially if you’re new to exercise. Taking an incline walk on the treadmill or uphill strengthens your leg muscles. Though cycling can incorporate your entire body, walking is lower body only.
• Older Adults: As a weight-bearing exercise, walking is an essential strength-building exercise for older adults. Medical professionals advise people at risk of osteoporosis to do weight-bearing cardio exercise, like walking, in addition to resistance training. (5)
• Active Recovery for Strength Athletes: Strength athletes can still benefit from a brisk walk for active recovery or a mental break from intense training.

The Winner: Biking can increase strength in your upper and lower body, especially for professional cyclists, people doing HIIT workouts, and older adults. However, it’s a non-weight-bearing exercise and may not impact bone health for older adults at risk of osteoporosis. 

[Read More: The Best Rowing Machines to Buy for Your Home Gym]

Walking wins for bone strength, but cycling wins for muscular strength.

For Muscle Growth

Cycling and walking are predominantly aerobic exercises, though you can increase resistance in cycling and repeatedly stress your leg muscles against it. Because of that, some research suggests cycling can induce hypertrophy — but you typically need to do a high volume of it. 

Biking:

• Cyclists May Build Muscle: Professional cyclists often have very visible leg muscles. They likely also engage in resistance training outside of their cycling workouts. But, research suggests that since they do such a high volume of cycling over a long period, cycling itself may build some muscle. (6)

• Older Adults and Sedentary People: The same research suggests that older adults and sedentary people may build muscle with cycling. Younger adults might as well, but they need to do a higher volume and level of intensity. (6)
• Upper Body Hypertrophy Possible: Some cycling classes incorporate upper body work with light dumbbells. If you do this consistently with the proper nutrition, it may be possible to build some muscle.

Walking:

• Helps Older Adults Retain Muscle: Weight-bearing exercise, like walking, may help older adults avoid natural muscle loss from aging, but the best results come from combining it with resistance training. (7)
• Active Recovery for Hypertrophy Training: While walking may not build muscle in trained individuals, it’s a good option for an active recovery day.

The Winner: There is more evidence that cycling can build muscle, specifically in older adults and sedentary people. When you engage in resistance training with muscle growth as a goal, both options are good additions to your training program for cardio exercise or active recovery. 

For Injury Recovery

You’ll often see stationary bikes and treadmills at physical therapy offices. Engaging in safe (medical professional-approved) movement while recovering from an injury can help you regain strength and recover better. Here’s where one may win over the other.

Biking:

• Lower Impact: Exercise bikes are great for lower body injuries. If you have an injury preventing you from bearing your total body weight, a non-weight-bearing exercise like biking can help you retain mobility.
• Types of Stationary Bikes: Although cycling can be a full-body activity, you can still hop on a recumbent bike if you have an upper-body injury since you can ride it without your hands.

Walking:

• Upper Body Injury: If you have an upper body injury but don’t have access to a recumbent bike, walking may be the best option since you only need your lower body.
• Weight-Bearing Exercise: Walking may be better depending on the type of injury because bearing your body weight may help you regain strength.

The Winner: It is tough to call a winner since many types of injuries exist. If you can’t bear your body weight, cycling may win. If you can, walking may be better.

For Heart Health

Cardiovascular health may not be the most exciting fitness goal to go after, but it certainly matters. Biking and walking are both types of aerobic exercise. Aerobic (or cardio) exercise is any physical activity you perform rhythmically while engaging large muscle groups that you can sustain for some time. It uses oxygen as an energy source and should raise your heart rate and respiration. (8)

[Read More: The Best Air Bikes for Your Home Gym]

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends the following weekly guidelines for adults: (9)

• 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise
• 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity
• Or a combination of both
• Plus, two days of resistance training

Consistently reaching these weekly goals can improve cardiovascular health by preventing heart disease and managing blood pressure and cholesterol. (9)

Biking:

• Boosts Cardiovascular Health: Any type of exercise you enjoy and do consistently can get you these health benefits. A review of studies on cycling, specifically, suggests that regular cycling is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and mortality. (10)
• Can Meet Moderate and Vigorous-Intensity Aerobic Exercise Criteria: A cycling workout can qualify as either moderate-intensity or vigorous-intensity.
• Increases VO2 Max: Biking also improves cardiovascular fitness, a well-known predictor of cardiovascular health. (11)

Walking:

• Accessible Exercise for Heart Health: Regular walking is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular diseases. For many people, walking is a relatively accessible form of exercise that may help sedentary people be more likely to do it and get the health benefits of consistent physical activity. (12)
• Can Meet Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Exercise Criteria: Brisk walking meets the recommended amount of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. Incline walking may bring you closer to vigorous intensity.
• Increases VO2 Max: Even if it’s not as intense as cycling, research shows that consistently walking at a moderate intensity improves VO2 max and cardiovascular fitness. (13)

The Winner: Both forms of exercise are good for heart health. Walking may be better for untrained individuals because you don’t generally need any equipment or instruction to start doing it. For strength athletes, cycling may improve your cardiovascular fitness more because you can do it at a higher intensity.

Takeaways

Let’s wrap up with the winners in each category — cycling versus walking. Which one is better?

• For Efficiency: Biking is more efficient (as long as you have a bike). You can get your heart rate up faster at any fitness level.
• For Weight Loss: Although you can burn more calories on a bike, walking wins for weight loss. Walking more throughout your day outside of a workout boosts your NEAT and TDEE.
• For Strength: Walking is better for strength because it is a weight-bearing activity and contributes to bone health.
• For Muscle Growth: Some evidence shows muscle hypertrophy is possible with biking, especially for cyclists who perform a high volume over time, older adults, and sedentary people.
• For Injury Recovery: It depends on the type of injury. Biking may be better at first if you can’t do weight-bearing activity, but walking may be better once you can to help regain bodyweight strength.
• For Heart Health: Walking may be best for many sedentary people who just need to get moving. For athletes, intense cycling can lead to greater cardiovascular gains.

Frequently Asked Questions

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

References

1. CDC. Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2. Valle VS, Mello DB, Fortes Mde S, Dantas EH, Mattos MA. Effect of diet and indoor cycling on body composition and serum lipid. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2010 Aug;95(2):173-8. English, Portuguese. 
3. Creasy SA, Lang W, Tate DF, Davis KK, Jakicic JM. Pattern of Daily Steps is Associated with Weight Loss: Secondary Analysis from the Step-Up Randomized Trial. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2018 Jun;26(6):977-984. 
4. Levine JA. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Dec;16(4):679-702. 
5. Benedetti MG, Furlini G, Zati A, Letizia Mauro G. The Effectiveness of Physical Exercise on Bone Density in Osteoporotic Patients. Biomed Res Int. 2018 Dec 23;2018:4840531. 
6. Ozaki H, Loenneke JP, Thiebaud RS, Abe T. Cycle training induces muscle hypertrophy and strength gain: strategies and mechanisms. Acta Physiol Hung. 2015 Mar;102(1):1-22. 
7. Yoshiko, A., Tomita, A., Ando, R. et al. Effects of 10-week walking and walking with home-based resistance training on muscle quality, muscle size, and physical functional tests in healthy older individuals. Eur Rev Aging Phys Act 15, 13 (2018).
8. Patel H, Alkhawam H, Madanieh R, Shah N, Kosmas CE, Vittorio TJ. Aerobic vs anaerobic exercise training effects on the cardiovascular system. World J Cardiol. 2017 Feb 26;9(2):134-138. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i2.134. PMID: 28289526; PMCID: PMC5329739.
9. Piercy, K. L., & Troiano, R. P. (2018). Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans From the US Department of Health and Human Services. AHA Journal, 11(11).
10. Nordengen S, Andersen LB, Solbraa AK, Riiser A. Cycling is associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases and death: Part 1 – systematic review of cohort studies with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2019 Jul;53(14):870-878. 
11. Nystoriak MA, Bhatnagar A. Cardiovascular Effects and Benefits of Exercise. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2018 Sep 28;5:135. 
12. Kukkonen-Harjula K, Laukkanen R, Vuori I, Oja P, Pasanen M, Nenonen A, Uusi-Rasi K. Effects of walking training on health-related fitness in healthy middle-aged adults–a randomized controlled study. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 1998 Aug;8(4):236-42. 
13. Omura JD, Ussery EN, Loustalot F, Fulton JE, Carlson SA. Walking as an Opportunity for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. Prev Chronic Dis. 2019 May 30;16:E66.

The post Biking Vs. Walking — Which Is Better For Your Goals? A Personal Trainer Weighs In appeared first on BarBend.

If you fall into that bucket, or you just want to get a bit better at the push-up (or any of its variations), you’ve come to the right place. At BarBend, we think push-ups are one of the best chest exercises you can do, period. That’s why we’ve put together this four-week, 30-day push-up program for beginners. 

The Push-Up Program for Beginners

If you’ve never ventured onto the floor to attempt a push-up, you’re in the right place. This guide will teach you how to perform a push-up, literally from the ground up. Even if you have been proudly pressing out push-up repetitions for decades, it never hurts to revisit the fundamentals and potentially learn how to extract even more value from one of the most foundational movements in fitness.

Rest Days and Equipment: You should take at least one rest day between each training day. Rest is important for post-workout muscle recovery, and if you’re going to be training your muscles with push-ups multiple times a week, taking days off should be a vital part of your strategy. The advised frequency options for your training include:

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or
• Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

The good news for you is that the only equipment you need for this program is enough floor space for your body to fit into. 

Rest Times In-Between Sets: You should feel free to rest anywhere from one to two minutes between push-up sets. However, if you believe you can satisfactorily complete all of the reps of every set with less rest time, you should absolutely give it a shot. 

[Read More: The Best Lower Chest Exercises You Can Do]

Assisted Modifications: There are multiple ways for you to adjust the difficulty of your push-ups to accommodate your present fitness level and physical capabilities as they improve (see “Push-Up Progressions” below). Whether you’re starting from your knees to eliminate some of the weight and tension from your push-ups, or slowing the pace of your lowering and pressing phases to enhance the movement’s difficulty, there are several equipment-free ways to adapt your push-ups to meet your needs.

The Program

If you already have a chest or triceps training program underway, we suggest putting it on hold while you complete this program. If you’re a more advanced trainee, you can work this program into your existing workout split, but we suggest toning down your upper-body workout so you don’t over train. 

[Read More: The Most Effective Workout Splits, Created by Our Experts]

Begin this program by completing as many ordinary push-ups as possible until your form breaks down. It’s quite okay if you can’t perform a push-up initially. After you take the test, enjoy one day of rest, then start on the 4-week program below. After finishing the program, rest another day or two and re-test your max push-ups.

Day 1

[Related: The Best Upper Chest Exercises for Push-Up Strength]

1. Assisted Push-Up: 3 x 8-10 
   • Perform these push-ups with either one or two of your knees on the ground, as described above. Place one or two knees on the ground based on your starting strength and fitness level.
2. Assisted Tempo Push-Up: 2 x 6 
   • Slowly lower your chest to the ground over a 4-second interval. Count to four in your head while lowering, then press back up as normal. If you cannot press yourself back into the starting position using strict push-up form, you may stray from strict form to return to the starting position by any means.
3. Decline Push-Up: 3 x 6-8 
   • Find a bench, staircase, or piece of furniture, and place your hands on it to elevate your hands from the ground while your feet remain on the floor. From this position, begin your push-ups. You should feel like much of the work is being performed by the lower portion of your chest.
4. Extended Plank: 4 x 20 seconds
   • Assume the customary elevated push-up position — also known as the plank position — and hold yourself in that position for the recommended time. Add five to 10 seconds to each set every week until the end of the program.

Day 2

[Read More: The Best Shoulder Exercises, + 4 Workouts From a CPT]

1. Assisted Close-Grip Push-Up: 4 x 8 
   • With either one or two knees on the ground, place your hands shoulder-width apart or slightly closer to perform your push-ups with a focus on your triceps, the muscles in the back of your upper arm.
2. Half Range of Motion Push-Up: 2 x 5 
   • From a normal push-up position, bend at the elbows to lower your chest halfway to the ground over three seconds, and then press yourself back to the starting position. You should feel considerable work being performed by your triceps.
3. Bodyweight Skull Crusher: 3 x 8 
   • Place your hands on the back of a couch or against a wall. Your hands can be anywhere from approximately shoulder-width apart to within a thumb’s-length reach of one another. Take a step backward, then bend at the elbows and tilt your body forward while keeping your back straight. Allow your head to gently touch the area of the couch or wall between your hands. Set your hands at a height allowing you to complete 8 reps of the exercise. For a more detailed description, check out this in-depth guide for a bodyweight skull crusher how-to.
4. Up and Down Plank: 3 x 10-20 reps
   • From an ordinary plank position with your palms on the ground, lower one forearm to the ground, followed by the next, while maintaining a flat-back position. When both forearms are resting on the ground, lift yourself back to the starting position by replacing one of your forearms with the palm of that arm’s hand and elevating back to a full plank position, followed by the next hand. One full cycle of this movement equates to one rep.

Day 3

[Read More: The 15 Best Triceps Exercises for More Mass]

1. Wide-Grip Assisted Push-Up: 3 x 8-10 reps
   • Keep one or two knees on the ground. Position your hands roughly one hand’s width wider than your normal push-up setup. Bend at the elbows to perform your push-ups with a wider-than-average hand position.
2. Assisted Pause to Dead-Stop Push-Up: 3 x 5 reps
   • Keep one or two knees on the ground. Bend at the elbows and take three full seconds to lower your chest until your arms form a 90-degree angle at your elbows. Pause for one second, then lower your chest the rest of the way to the ground for two more seconds. Once your chest makes contact with the ground, press against the floor to return to your starting position.
3. Lateral Raise: 3 x 10-12 reps
   • You can do ordinary lateral delt raises by grabbing two dumbbells, standing upright, and raising them up and out to the side with your arms straightened. This is primarily a strengthening exercise for your shoulders. If you don’t have access to dumbbells, you can substitute a milk jug, a phone book, resistance bands, a backpack with some weight in it, or any other stable object that can provide your shoulders with sufficient resistance.
4. Prone YTWs: 3 Rounds
   • Lie flat on the ground with your face down. Extend your arms with your palms down so that your arms and body form a “Y” shape. Raise your arms off the ground and hold them in an elevated position there for a count of five. Return your palms to the ground, and move them into a “T” shape with them straight out from your sides. Raise them off the ground for five seconds, and then return them to the ground. Bend your arms at the elbows to slide your palms closer to your head, and raise your arms from the ground in a “W” configuration for 5 seconds. Perform three full rounds of YTWs. 

Push-Up Modifications & Progressions

Before you commence this beginner’s push-up program, you’ll want to have a thorough understanding of two standard push-up progressions that you will be using throughout this four week protocol. These two progressions will enable you to build a foundation of strength and form to advance to more challenging push-up variations.

Assisted Push-Ups

In this instance, you’ll place one or both of your knees on the ground to reduce the amount of body weight you’re moving during each rep. Based on testing results, you press approximately 64 percent of your body weight when you do a regular pushup as opposed to 49 percent of your body weight when you execute push-ups from a kneeling position. (1) This differential of 15 percentage points will make you feel like you are pushing substantially less weight when you do a push-up from your knees.

[Read More: The 8 Best Knee Sleeves You Can Buy (Spring 2023 Update)]

Kneeling push-ups teach you how to execute proper form using a lighter load. They also enable you to quickly adjust the weight you are pressing if it becomes necessary to squeeze out a few final reps at the end with reduced resistance.

• Double Knee: If you’re a true beginner, this is a great option to get you fully acclimated to the process and feel of doing push-ups with a sizable reduction in resistance.
• Single-Knee: This slightly more advanced variation will add more resistance to your push-ups than when you have both knees on the ground. When using this variation, pay careful attention to your hips to ensure they’re squared to the ground.

Tempo and Paused Push-Ups

These suggested push-up progressions — tempo and paused push-ups — are intended to enhance the challenge of your push-up sets. By intentionally slowing your movements down, pausing them outright, or both, you will be increasing the tension on your muscles, and therefore the difficulty of the push-ups.

• Tempo: You will be modifying the lowering and pressing portion of the movement.
• Paused: You will halt your push-ups at a specific position and hold for a time-based goal.

Common Push-Up Mistakes

Take heart: Most of the mistakes you’ll be tempted to make while agonizing through push-up sets will be made out of a desire to make the movement easier. Just remember that push-ups are supposed to be challenging. Steer clear of these common push-up mistakes, though, and you’ll be in business. 

Your Body Isn’t Straight

When push-ups become difficult for you, one of the first areas where you might feel tempted to compromise in form will be your body’s alignment. Bending at the waist and keeping your rear end high in the air will be one way you can reduce the tension on your core. 

[Read More: The Best Posture Correctors on the Market]

Fix It: As you prepare yourself for a push-up, actively squeeze your abdominal muscles before you lower yourself to the ground. You’ll find it very difficult not to retain your alignment as long as your core remains engaged.

Your Hand Positioning Is Incorrect 

Positioning your hands wider than shoulder-width reduces the tension that push-ups place on your triceps. Likewise, shifting your hands closer together will accentuate the resistance placed on your triceps at the expense of some of the chest-developing shoulder mobility. 

Both options are okay in some scenarios, but they are a departure from the well-rounded intentions of the standard push-up that we are attempting to master through this training regimen.

Fix It: Arrange your hands roughly toward the middle of your chest, and slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. That way, your chest, triceps, and also your anterior deltoids will all remain sufficiently engaged throughout the exercise.

You Lack Control

The point between the eccentric phase — or lowering phase of your push-up — and the concentric phase where your muscles are struggling against gravity to drive you upwards, is a critical stage in your ability to build up and strengthen your muscles using the push-up. 

If you disengage your muscles from the process and fully relax yourself at the bottom of the movement, you’re stripping the exercise of several of its muscle-building benefits.

[Read More: The Best Online Personal Trainers]

Fix It: Don’t fully relax any of your muscles during the push-up. Even though several of your muscles will be supplying significantly less force during the lowering phase than during the concentric (or lifting) phase, the application of tension throughout your muscles should remain constant.

Pushing Your Way to Proficiency

You can repeat this beginner’s program as many times as you want to advance to the point where every push-up you do — paused reps and all — is the picture of perfection. Once you’ve accomplished this, you’ll have fully unlocked the pure muscle-developing potential of one of the truly universal tools of fitness. 

From this point forward, any floor you find yourself standing upon is a gym unto itself. It’s up to you to capitalize on the power-building potential that now awaits you simply by lowering yourself to the ground and choosing to do the work.

Frequently Asked Questions

References

1. Ebben, W.B., Wurm, B., VanderZenden, T.L., Spadavecchia, M.L., Durocher, J.J., Bickham, C.T., Petushek, E.J. (2011). Kinetic analysis of several variations of push-ups. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(10), 2891-2894.

Feature Image: Flamingo Images / Shutterstock

The post One-Month Push-Up Workout Plan for More Push-Ups appeared first on BarBend.

But knowing your maximum heart rate is a fantastic tool for improving your cardiovascular fitness. It’s also a good piece of information to have in your back pocket to keep tabs on your overall health. For insight into what goes into your HRmax and why it’s so important, I chatted with Calum Fraser, physiotherapist and owner of Advantage Healthcare and Physiotherapy. You’ll learn how to calculate your max heart rate and why you’ll want to. 

What Is Your Maximum Heart Rate?

Your maximum heart rate (MHR or HRmax), defined plainly, is the fastest rate at which your heart can beat. More specifically, max heart rate signifies how quickly your heart can beat when your body is under stress during physical activity. It’s measured in beats per minute (BPM). 

What Is a Resting Heart Rate?

Your resting heart rate (RHR) refers to how quickly (or slowly) your heart beats when your body is at rest. Also measured in beats per minute, your resting heart rate can change throughout the day and is usually lower during deep sleep than during the day. 

[Read More: The Best Fitness Apps on the Market]

A “normal” resting heart rate for the average adult is considered to be 60 to 100 BPM, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). What’s considered healthy varies by age, activity level, and other factors — athletes may have a resting heart rate as low as 40 BPM, according to Harvard Health. 

Factors That Impact Your Heart Rate

Let’s take a look at some things that can alter your resting heart rate and max heart rate. 

• Genetics: Genetics influence heart rate just like they do other human characteristics. Some people have a naturally higher or slower resting heart rate than others. Genetics also influence an individual’s heart rate response to exercise. (1) 
• Age: The defined “normal” range for resting heart rate changes with age. It’s higher for infants and young children, lower for teens and adults, and higher for older adults. (2)
• Fitness Level: One’s resting heart rate generally decreases as your cardiovascular fitness increases. (3)
• Gender: People assigned female at birth have a higher heart rate than individuals assigned male at birth, by a few beats per minute. (4)
• Stress: Acute stress, physical or emotional, elevates the heart rate. Chronic stress may alter your heart rate, according to the AHA. (5)
• Sleep: Being short on rest time, especially chronically, may increase your resting heart rate. (6)
• Nutrition: Emerging research suggests that micronutrient intake may change resting heart rate. Sugar, alcohol, and caffeine are known to affect heart rate, and simply eating a meal elicits an acute cardiovascular response (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)
• Medical Conditions: Any form of heart disease, including high blood pressure, can alter your resting heart rate and exercising heart rates. Beta-blockers, for instance, slow your heart rate, which means you may need to adjust your HRmax. (12)
• Pregnancy: Pregnancy alters many physiological functions, including heart rate. (13)
• Weather Conditions During Exercise: When exercising, environmental conditions affect your heart rate. In hot conditions, your heart rate will be higher than it would be for the same session at a more comfortable temperature. If you’re training at higher altitudes than you’re used to, expect your HRmax to decrease. (14)(15)

Why Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate?

Knowing your HRmax helps you plan workouts that suit you, Fraser explains. This especially applies if you’re an athlete, and even more so if you’re an endurance athlete. 

“For sports like long-distance running or cycling, understanding your HRmax helps you train smarter to improve your heart health and avoid getting hurt,” Fraser explains. 

Low- and moderate-intensity training is important for endurance athletes. If you know your heart rate range for each target zone, you can avoid strength training at a vigorous intensity when you should be training at a moderate intensity. 

[Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Heart Rate Variability and Strength Training]

This is important because endurance athletes are training to be more aerobic (long, lower-intensity efforts) so that their bodies can sustain efforts for longer periods. Training too much in anaerobic zones (short, higher-intensity efforts) can backfire for the endurance athlete. 

“Non-[competitive] athletes too can benefit from knowing their HRmax,” Fraser continues. “It can help them structure their fitness regimen within safe limits, minimizing the risk of overstressing the heart, especially for those with underlying heart conditions.”

How to Estimate Your Maximum Heart Rate

There are a variety of methods for estimating your HRmax. Let’s go through a few here.

Estimated Maximum Heart Rate Formula (Fox Formula)

The age-predicted formula, 220 minus age, is the simplest and most common way for individuals to calculate their max heart rate. While it’s a good starting point, Fraser emphasizes that it’s just an approximation and does not account for any individual factors aside from age. 

Tanaka Formula 

Another age-based equation, the Tanaka equation is 208 minus 0.7 × age. Again, it provides only a rough estimate, Fraser says, and doesn’t factor in fitness level or other important considerations. (16)

Gulati Formula 

The Gulati formula was developed specifically for cisgender women after researchers found that other methods tended to overestimate max heart rate for people assigned female at birth. The equation is 206 minus 0.88 x age. Even though this equation accounts for sex assigned at birth, it still fails to account for genetics, fitness level, health conditions, and other factors. (17)

Karvonen Formula

This formula is more complex and builds upon the Fox Formula, using your heart rate reserve (HRR) to determine maximum heart rate at a given exercise intensity. Your HRR is the difference between your max heart rate and resting heart rate (RHR). 

[Read More: The Best Workout Apps for Women on the Market]

You can use this formula to find target heart rate zones for exercise. For example, the Karvonen formula can tell you how fast your heart should beat when exercising at a 75-percent intensity level. 

Heart Rate Calculator 

There are a number of calculators online that can do all of that math for you. Just be sure to choose a calculator that has your desired formula programmed. 

Fitness Trackers

If you’re not a fan of math (I don’t blame you!), formulas are not the only way to estimate your max heart rate. If you have a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker, you can use that to get an idea of your resting heart rate and your heart rate at different effort levels while exercising. 

You’ll need to understand the concept of RPE — rating of perceived exertion — for this method to be beneficial. The idea is that you can correlate your effort level to the heart rate reading on your fitness watch. Over time, you can come to conclusions like, “When I’m running all out, huffing and puffing, and can’t talk at all, my watch reads between 175 and 185 beats per minute.” 

In that case, you can reasonably assume that your max HR is around 185 beats per minute. 

This method isn’t foolproof — fitness trackers aren’t 100 percent accurate — but it has the added benefit of providing more data over time. If you record data consistently, you can uncover patterns and then use that information to guide training intensity and exercise programs.

Some trackers, like WHOOP and various Garmin watches, will provide you with a heart rate max estimate after gathering enough data. 

“In terms of fitness trackers, while advancement in wearable technology has improved their accuracy, it can vary among different devices and under different exercise conditions,” Fraser says. “Therefore, they should not be used as a replacement for traditional testing methods, especially for individuals with medical conditions.”

Field Test 

You may be able to squeeze more accurate data out of your heart rate monitor by completing a field test. One example is INSCYD. This exercise test protocol has the athlete perform a number of running or biking intervals, with efforts ranging from warmups to moderate-intensity efforts to all-out sprints. INSCYD uses data collected by the fitness tracker, plus other data points like age, gender, and body fat percentage, to determine your max heart rate, VO2 max, and heart rate training zones. 

Stress Test 

For even greater accuracy, a lab test is the recommended option. A graded exercise test (GXT) evaluates your body’s physiological response to exercise. During such a test, you’ll exercise on a treadmill or exercise bike as instructed by the technician, gradually increasing your speed until you reach various thresholds, including your aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold. A GXT can tell you key data points like your HRmax and VO2 max.

How to Use Your Heart Rate in Training

Now that you know how to find your max heart rate and heart rate zones, it’s time to deploy that knowledge to improve your physical fitness. 

From a fitness professional’s standpoint, knowing one’s HRmax is essential for exercise prescription, particularly for endurance athletes. That key number allows a personal trainer or coach to determine target heart rate zones at various exercise intensities, thus maximizing training load and training responses. 

In addition to knowing your HRmax, you must also be familiar with the standard heart rate zones: 

Once you know your maximum heart rate, you can calculate your heart rate zones and use them as a guide for training. Instead of guessing what intensity you’re working at, you’ll have concrete data to base your training sessions around. 

[Read More: The Best Lower Chest Exercises for Building Strong and Full Pecs]

It’s also helpful to understand the benefits of training in each zone. 

Takeaways

• Your max heart rate refers to the maximum number of beats your heart can complete per minute while exercising 
• Many factors, including age, gender, fitness level, and pregnancy, can impact your resting heart rate 
• There are several formulas you can use to find your max heart rate. Or, you can do a field test or lab test to find it. 
• Knowing your HRmax can help you maximize your training, particularly for endurance athletes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

References

1. van de Vegte YJ, Tegegne BS, Verweij N, Snieder H, van der Harst P. Genetics and the heart rate response to exercise. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2019 Jun;76(12):2391-2409.
2. Santos MA, Sousa AC, Reis FP, Santos TR, Lima SO, Barreto-Filho JA. Does the aging process significantly modify the Mean Heart Rate? Arq Bras Cardiol. 2013 Nov;101(5):388-98.
3. Pinckard K, Baskin KK, Stanford KI. Effects of Exercise to Improve Cardiovascular Health. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2019 Jun 4;6:69. 
4. Prabhavathi K, Selvi KT, Poornima KN, Sarvanan A. Role of biological sex in normal cardiac function and in its disease outcome – a review. J Clin Diagn Res. 2014 Aug;8(8):BE01-4.
5. Chu B, Marwaha K, Sanvictores T, et al. Physiology, Stress Reaction. [Updated 2022 Sep 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan
6. Mezick EJ, Matthews KA, Hall MH, Richard Jennings J, Kamarck TW. Sleep duration and cardiovascular responses to stress in undergraduate men. Psychophysiology. 2014 Jan;51(1):88-96. 
7. Lopresti AL. Association between Micronutrients and Heart Rate Variability: A Review of Human Studies. Adv Nutr. 2020 May 1;11(3):559-575
8. Eckstein ML, Brockfeld A, Haupt S, Schierbauer JR, Zimmer RT, Wachsmuth NB, Zunner BEM, Zimmermann P, Erlmann M, Obermayer-Pietsch B, Aberer F, Moser O. Acute Changes in Heart Rate Variability to Glucose and Fructose Supplementation in Healthy Individuals: A Double-Blind Randomized Crossover Placebo-Controlled Trial. Biology (Basel). 2022 Feb 21;11(2):338.
9. Pop GN, Christodorescu R, Velimirovici DE, Sosdean R, Corbu M, Bodea O, Valcovici M, Dragan S. Assessment of the Impact of Alcohol Consumption Patterns on Heart Rate Variability by Machine Learning in Healthy Young Adults. Medicina (Kaunas). 2021 Sep 11;57(9):956.
10. Gonzaga LA, Vanderlei LCM, Gomes RL, Valenti VE. Caffeine affects autonomic control of heart rate and blood pressure recovery after aerobic exercise in young adults: a crossover study. Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 26;7(1):14091.
11. Täubel J, Ferber G, Van Langenhoven L, Del Bianco T, Fernandes S, Djumanov D, Kanters JK, Graff C, Camm AJ. The Cardiovascular Effects of a Meal: J-Tpeak and Tpeak -Tend Assessment and Further Insights Into the Physiological Effects. J Clin Pharmacol. 2019 Jun;59(6):799-810.
12. Farzam K, Jan A. Beta Blockers. [Updated 2023 Aug 22]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan
13. Bossung V, Singer A, Ratz T, Rothenbühler M, Leeners B, Kimmich N. Changes in Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, Breathing Rate, and Skin Temperature throughout Pregnancy and the Impact of Emotions-A Longitudinal Evaluation Using a Sensor Bracelet. Sensors (Basel). 2023 Jul 23;23(14):6620. 
14. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research; Marriott BM, editor. Nutritional Needs in Hot Environments: Applications for Military Personnel in Field Operations. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1993. 3, Physiological Responses to Exercise in the Heat.
15. Mallet RT, Burtscher J, Richalet JP, Millet GP, Burtscher M. Impact of High Altitude on Cardiovascular Health: Current Perspectives. Vasc Health Risk Manag. 2021 Jun 8;17:317-335.
16. Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR. Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001;37(1):153-156.
17. Abdelmoneim SS, Gulati M, Mulvagh SL, et al. Impact of utilizing a women-based formula for determining adequacy of the chronotropic response during exercise treadmill testing. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2015;24(3):174-181.

Featured Image: Credit: Ljupco Smokovski / Shutterstock

The post How to Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate (+ Insights From a Physiotherapist) appeared first on BarBend.

To help you along your path to running a continuous mile, I sat down for a chat with elite running coach Lee Whitaker. Along with being certified by U.S. Track & Field, Whitaker is one of the premier high school distance running coaches in the country. With Whitaker’s advice, you’ll be able to start your running journey off on the right foot.

Tips for Running a Mile Without Stopping

It’s not just about getting up and going — but yes, you also do need to start somewhere. Here’s how Whitaker advises you to go about it.

Just Start Running 

At first, don’t worry about speed. Sure, it’s cool to have a “fast” time, but remember that fast is relative. The first step is to actually finish that first mile, no matter how slow it might be. Whitaker encourages you to simply start running and see how long you can maintain an unhurried run pace without stopping. 

[Read More: The Best Treadmills for Running on the Market]

“If you come to me and want to run a mile, I’m going to tell you to just start running, and I’m going to ask you to try to do it at an aerobic threshold pace,” explains Whitaker. “This means you need to be able to run at a conversational pace, where you could talk with a friend without gasping for breath or having to alter your speech. Your eventual goal should be to try to sustain that sort of running pace for 20 minutes.”

Perform Walk-Run Intervals 

If you haven’t yet been able to run a continuous mile, that’s OK. Use walking to your advantage. You can piece together a series of jogging, then walking, then jogging, then walking — intervals — to total a mile or more. Gradually, you’ll build your ability to run longer without taking those walking breaks.

[Read More: The Best Treadmills for Walking]

“It can be helpful to run for five minutes and then walk for five minutes, and repeat that process for as long as you can,” explains Whitaker. “Then you can start to change those ratios. You can do an eight-minute run and a five-minute walk, or a five-minute run and a three-minute walk. You can keep interspersing your runs with walks and then shorten those gaps over time until you can run one continuous mile without stopping.”

If five minutes is too much to start with, go even lower. A 30-second jog will eventually become a one-minute jog, and on and on until you can run that mile.

Learn to Pace

Yes, pacing is an advanced skill that experienced runners will need to develop. If you say to a seasoned runner, “run at your mile pace” or “jog at your 10K pace,” they may very well know exactly how fast to go. Newbies, however, don’t yet have an established running mile time. No worries — you’re going to estimate to help you create some goals. 

“It’s not perfect, but you could still test yourself by running 400 meters and getting a sense of what your mile-running potential is,” Whitaker says. “Do some testing around the track and determine what kind of pace it takes to reach [a certain mile time] and run beyond them.”

[Read More: The Best Budget Treadmills on the Market]

If it takes you five minutes to run 400 meters, a full mile (four sets of 400 meters) will likely take around 20 minutes (five multiplied by four). Keep that in mind as you train. Or maybe you can run that 400 meters in four minutes, so you’re aiming for a 16-minute mile to start. Find what feels reasonable and exciting to you and keep those numbers in mind to help pace your runs.

Warm Up and Cool Down

It might be tempting to kick everything but the actual workout to the curb, especially if you’re pressed for time. However, a sufficient warm-up and cool-down can help you prevent injuries and preserve your health. This is why Whitaker always advises his athletes to warm up and cool down in a fashion that doesn’t interfere with their training goals.

[Read More: The Best Folding Treadmills]

“Warming up is really important,” explains Whitaker. “You want your muscles to be warm and pliable, and you want your movement mobility to be adequate for running. I think a proper dynamic warm-up is essential for running regardless of your fitness level. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced, a proper warm-up and cool-down are very important.”

Strength Train

Squats, lunges, and other lower-body strength exercises are often included in the training programs of experienced runners, and they benefit beginner runners, too. By forging a stronger lower body, you’re supporting your legs in their ambition to run that continuous mile.

[Read More: The 5 Best Running Workouts to Level Up Your Conditioning]

“Strength training is good for everybody regardless of whether they’re a beginning runner or an advanced runner,” insists Whitaker. “Strength training for a beginner is more about injury prevention and establishing good form. It’s certainly important, but probably not the prime focus of a beginner.”

Try one or two strength sessions per week to start.

Gradually Walk Less (And Run More)

You don’t want to walk less overall in your life, but as you gain more strength and endurance, you’ll eventually need to run more during your workout. In the early stages, you can walk fast to accelerate your heart rate. However, you’ll eventually need to increase the ratio of the time you spend running versus walking during your sessions.

[Read More: The Best Nordictrack Treadmills — Yes, We Tested Them All]

“You can certainly walk fast and get an aerobic threshold workout in, but as your fitness level improves, you want to have more and more running,” says Whitaker. “There’s nothing wrong with a beginner walking quickly and getting their heart rate up because it’s all helpful; your cardiac system doesn’t know if you’re walking or running. But the fast walking you’re doing today won’t get your heart rate to the same place weeks from now. You’ll need to increase your run time.”

This can be as little as adding 30 more seconds of running per training session. Just make sure you’re trending in the speedy direction.

Get the Right Shoes 

Running a mile is primarily about your aerobic conditioning, not the fancy new kicks you’re sporting. Still, wearing the right running gear can help you stay comfortable, which means you may want to take a trip to the shoe store early on in your training.

[Read More: The Best Cross-Training Shoes (Personally Tested)]

“Having the right footwear is certainly important for beginner runners no matter what distance they’re running,” adds Whitaker. “It’s all about comfort and owning a shoe that is suited to your biomechanics.” This way, you can stay on your feet long enough to make the improvements that you need to your running.

Try the Treadmill

Getting outside for your runs grants undeniable benefits, to be sure. But if the weather is getting you down, or you’re simply more comfortable training at home, locking into the best treadmill is a great way to get that practice in. It may also be easier on your joints.

[Read More: The Best Commercial Treadmills on the Market]

“A beginner can get a lot of benefit from the treadmill because it’s all about just getting them running at a level they can sustain for some time,” says Whitaker. “[Treadmill running] may even be a little more beneficial than outdoor running early on because it’s not as hard as the sidewalk or the asphalt.”

Training Plan to Run Your First Mile

To help you get where you want to go, Whitaker has assembled a repeatable weekly training plan for people who are already capable of running for at least three minutes without stopping. 

If you are presently unable to run at all, or if you can’t run for three consecutive minutes just yet, fear not: Whitaker has provided you with a workout plan that can be repeated until you progress to the point where you have enough stamina to string together longer runs.

Weekly Plan for Someone Who Can’t Run Comfortably

Weekly Plan for Someone Who Can Run Comfortably 

Frequently Asked Questions

If you still have questions about how to get yourself to complete a one-mile run as quickly as possible, we’ve got the answers to your questions below!

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

The post Want to Learn How to Run a Mile Without Stopping? 8 Tips From an Elite Coach appeared first on BarBend.

As a runner, you’ve got to pay special attention to your knees. To equip you with the knowledge you’ll need to navigate any treatments you might seek out, I spoke with physical therapist Heather Asti. With two decades of experience and several degrees in physical therapy under her belt, Asti had a lot to share about why your knees might hurt when you run. Here we go.

Common Knee Injuries From Running

A round of painful knee problems can certainly derail your running regimen. But before you head to the orthopedic surgeon’s office, you might want to read up on knee joint pain. 

While it’s best to see a doctor or physical therapist personally to diagnose your pain and offer formal treatment options, we talked with Asti to lay out some groundwork knowledge to help you along your journey toward pain-free running.

[Read More: The Best Cross-Training Shoes (Personally Tested)]

The prevention and treatment tips below are provided by Asti — but again, working with a professional one-on-one is the most effective way to diagnose and treat injuries.

Runner’s Knee

“Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) or runner’s knee typically results from muscle weakness, specifically muscle weakness in the pelvis and ankle regions that cause improper alignment of the leg and kneecap during running,” explains Asti. 

Symptoms

• Pain in the front of the knee while running.
• Pain in the kneecap when touched.
• Grinding in the knee.

How to Prevent It

• “Strengthen the glutes, lateral hip muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, and ankles before starting your running program.”
• “Exercises like squats, lunges, deadlifts, leg extensions, and hamstring curls are all helpful to prevent runner’s knee.”
• Get a gait analysis to determine if your present form might contribute to injury.

How to Treat It

• Rest.
• Take inflammation reduction measures, such as icing and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.
• Get a massage.
• Stretch the area gently.
• “Strengthen all the muscles that support good limb alignment during running,” says Asti, “which are the glutes, lateral hips, external rotators, hamstrings, and ankles.”
• “Get a professional running analysis to identify any breakdown in your running form that could be causing increased stress on the knee.”
• Asti also says to “purchase a different type of running shoe to accommodate your gait.”

[Read More: The Best Treadmills for Bad Knees on the Market]

Shin Splints

“Shin splints are caused by excessive stress on the medial tibia, which is why its hallmark symptoms are tenderness of the medial tibia (inside lower leg bone), and pain whenever you run or hop,” says Asti. “The pain of shin splints can extend anywhere along the shinbone from the knee to the ankle.”

Symptoms

• You feel pain in the shins during running.
• Worse yet, you experience pain in the shins when they’re touched.

How to Prevent It

• Slowly increase your training mileage.
• Monitor your time spent running on hard surfaces.
• Train using various methods like swimming or cycling to reduce knee impact.
• Give your legs regular rest time.
• Ensure you have shoes that properly support your legs and feet.

How to Treat It

• Give the specific area time to heal.
• Apply ice regularly to the area.
• Stretch your calves frequently.
• Acquire shoes and/or orthotics that properly support your legs and feet.
• Use over-the-counter pain medication like ibuprofen or naproxen sodium.

IT Band Syndrome

“Iliotibial Band Syndrome, or IT Band Syndrome, is most commonly caused by a muscle imbalance between the hip flexors and the glutes,” explains Asti. “It’s usually a weakness of the glutes that causes the hip flexors to take over the work, resulting in the IT band being pulled over your thighbone, or femur. This causes pain in both your knees and your thighs.”

Symptoms

• Knee pain.
• Hip pain.
• Popping sensations in your knees.
• Inflammation of the knee.

How to Prevent It

• Perform strength training for your glutes. (You can start with our list of best glutes exercises.)
• Stretch your hip flexors regularly.

How to Treat It

• Take a rest from running.
• “Gentle trigger point work on the TFL muscle — located just in front of the bony part of the side of the hip — can help reduce the tension you feel in the IT band,” says Asti.
• “Remember, rolling the IT band itself is generally not helpful due to the thickness of the connective tissue along the band.”

[Read More: The Best Cushioned Treadmills on the Market]

Patellar Tendonitis

“Your patella is your kneecap, and patellar tendonitis occurs when the tendon connecting your kneecap to your shin becomes inflamed,” explains Asti. “This almost always results in pain that is very precisely located in the lower part of your kneecap.”

Symptoms

• Pain in the lower portion of your kneecap.
• Primary feeling of pain during jumping and landing movements.

How to Prevent It

• Resting after exercises that deliver repeated impact to the knees.
• Avoid dramatically increasing the duration of running or jumping exercises.
• Strengthen the quadriceps muscles. (Try out our list of the best quad exercises.)

How to Treat It

• Rest.
• Ice the area frequently.
• Stretch your quads.
• Strengthen your quads.

How to Run for Knee Health

The best way to treat a knee injury is to avoid the injury altogether — and though that’s not always possible, you can take steps to make your runs less risky. Asti has offered up several tips that can help keep you on your feet before you get injured in the first place.

Get Your Gait Assessed

The casual cardio crew may not think they need to solicit expert advice; however, one of the foremost causes of running-related knee injuries is improper form. Asti advises a gait analysis if you intend to spend serious time running for your health.

“Most running knee injuries result from misalignment of the hip, knee, and foot through the gait cycle,” says Asti. “Making sure that your knee does not rotate or lean inward when supporting your body weight and that your foot is in a relatively neutral position throughout is key. This can be very difficult to correct without having a professional examine your running.”

[Read More: Expert Tested: The Best Treadmills for Running]

Can’t work with a coach right now? Some high-end running shops offer a gait analysis in the store — check that no purchases are required and see what you can learn.

Strength Training

In theory, it sounds nice that your different muscle groups will take up the slack for one another if one group is feeling weak. Yet, if one muscle compensates too much for another, this can lead to knee injuries. Spend time building strong, well-balanced legs in the weight room to avoid nursing a knee injury caused by a muscle imbalance.

[Read More: The Best Bodyweight Exercises, + Workouts and Tips From a CPT]

“The major key to healthier knees while running is the strength of the glute muscles, hip external and internal rotators, and hip abductors,” explains Asti. “Achieving good balance in hamstring strength, quad strength, and flexibility can help keep knees healthy, and prevent the sort of imbalance that leads to knee injuries.”

Rest When There’s Pain

There may be a difference between injury pain and training pain, but when there is any pain in your legs, you may unconsciously alter your running form to work around it. This can have disastrous consequences for your knees, since the change in your form may shift the impact of the ground, putting too much pressure on your knees.

[Read More: How Many Steps in a Mile? Calculate by Height and Pace]

“Pain is always your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right,” Asti explains. “Ignoring that signal usually just results in more pain and longer recoveries. If your knee pain is very mild and goes away after a little dynamic warm-up, then it is probably safe to continue running as long as the level of pain does not continue to increase over time. If the pain is more severe and causes you to change your running form through gait compensations, or it continues throughout the run, it is best to stop and have your injury assessed.”

Active Recovery

If you’re running for heart health and other cardiovascular benefits, remember that there are other low-impact cardio machines you can use to achieve similar results. This doesn’t mean that you need to stop running for long stretches. Still, logging a few cardio sessions on the bike or rowing machine in between your runs can help preserve the health of your knees.

“When it comes to knee pain from running, the best place to start is a short rest from running and corrective strength training for the glutes and hips,” says Asti. “Cross-training through swimming and other forms of cardio that place less impact on the joints is a great way to maintain your cardiovascular fitness during this time of running rest.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

The post Why Do My Knees Hurt When I Run? A Physical Therapist Explains appeared first on BarBend.

Here, I’ll break down the five best running workouts to give you an overview of the different types of runs your program needs. We’ll run (pun intended) through how to vary interval training with speed and incline; longer runs; tempo runs; speed work; and how to get started for beginners. Each type of running workout will help you build strength, speed, and endurance while increasing your aerobic capacity. In other words — you’ll become a better overall athlete.

The 5 Best Running Workouts

• HIIT Running Workout
• Tempo Running Workout
• Beginner Running Workout
• Hill Running Workout
• Interval Running Workout

HIIT Running Workout

It may be…well, intense…but high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is also fairly straightforward. Here’s how it goes: You alternate short bursts of all-out effort with short rest or recovery periods. The shorter the all-out sprint, the harder and faster you should run.

The idea is to spike your heart rate during sprints and let it recover during rest periods. HIIT is great for a quick cardio workout that you can complete in five to 20 minutes.

The Workout

HIIT workouts are challenging — this one isn’t for newbies, and the risk of injury may be higher if you’re not used to sprinting.

After a dynamic warm-up, you can perform this running workout on a treadmill or outside. You’ll alternate 30-second, all-out sprints with one-minute recovery periods for 10 to 12 rounds. 

[Read More: The Best Budget Treadmills]

Remember that what’s high-intensity for you might be “easy” for someone with more experience — and that’s OK. Keep it at your own level, and make adjustments wherever you need.

How Often to Do This Workout: Try this once or twice weekly to see how you feel before adding more frequency.

Modifications

• Make it Easier: 
  • Take a complete rest during some or all of the recovery periods
  • Instead of doing 30-second sprints every time, scale up.
    • 15-second all-out sprint, 75-second jog or walk
    • 20-second all-out sprint, 70-second jog or walk
    • 30-second all-out sprint, 60-second jog or walk
    • Repeat this sequence for three to four rounds
  • Instead of the sequence, you can choose one of the shorter options for the entire workout:
    • 15-second all-out sprint, 75-second jog or walk for 10 to 12 rounds
    • 20-second all-out sprint, 70-second jog or walk for 10 to 12 rounds
• Make it Harder:
  • Shorten the sprint and try to run harder, but keep the recovery period the same.
  • Add a distance goal for your sprints.

Tempo Running Workout

Tempo runs (or threshold runs) are another type of workout for advanced runners. Exercise physiologist and running coach Dr. Jack Daniels, Ph.D., developed the concept of tempo runs.

A tempo run is a short run (20 to 40 minutes, or a 5K to 10K) where you run at a “comfortably hard” effort for the entire time. Interval workouts should feel very hard in your all-out bursts, but tempo runs are just below that effort so that you can sustain it for longer. (1)

[Read More: The Best Treadmills for Walking, Researched and Tested by Our Team]

Though relatively short, tempo runs are meant to improve long-distance running by increasing your lactate threshold. Your lactate threshold is the highest intensity you can run where your body can balance lactate buildup and removal. When you cross the threshold, your muscles can’t continue. (2)

The idea is that running just below the lactate threshold will help increase your time before fatiguing and build your endurance for long-distance runs, which makes them popular in marathon training.

The Workout

A tempo run consists simply of a warm-up, a 20 to 40-minute run, and a cool-down. But you need to calculate your tempo pace, which is different for everyone.

Here are a few methods that Dr. Daniels offers to find your tempo pace. (1)(3)

1. Run at 83 to 88 percent of your VO2 max.
2. Run at 88 to 92 percent of your maximum heart rate.
3. Run at a six out of 10 RPE, or use the talk test — fast enough that you can’t hold a conversation.
4. Plug your previous race times into his VDOT table.

When you know your tempo pace, perform a dynamic warm-up and hop into the workout.

How Often to Do This Workout: You only need to do tempo runs once a week.

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • When you calculate your tempo pace, you can go slower for your first attempt.
  • Though 20 minutes is the minimum for a technical tempo run, you can certainly start with trying 10 minutes.
• Make it Harder: 
  • A tempo run can go as long as 40 minutes. Try adding a few minutes each week.

Beginner Running Workout

Ready to start running? First, let’s define a beginner. You may have a high fitness level in weightlifting but never run before, or you could be a complete fitness newbie. 

[Read More: Expert Tested: The 8 Best Treadmills for Running]

Either way, starting slow and incorporating (or keeping) strength training in your overall workout routine is essential. Building strength outside of your runs may lower your risk of injury — plus, the stronger your legs are, the better your base can be.

The Workout

This beginner workout is gentle on your joints and alternates slow jogs with walks. This will help you build endurance in a lower-intensity cardio workout. It’s a 1:1 ratio, meaning you jog for the same length of time you walk and repeat it for 20 minutes. I’ll also give you ideas for making that ratio easier or harder and how to build up to a longer jog.

How Often to Do This Workout: Try this once or twice weekly. You can build up from there.

Modifications

• Make it Easier: 
  • Take a 30-minute brisk walk and skip the running to start
  • Play with the ratios; jog for one minute and walk for three to five minutes.
• Make it Harder:
  • Try this workout for a few weeks, increasing difficulty over time:
    • Make the jogging sections longer while keeping the walk the same until you reach five minutes of jogging and one minute of walking. Then, take the jogging back to one minute but shorten the walk to 30 seconds.
    • Once you can do three or four sets of five-minute runs with 30-second walks, you can try a steady-state jog or run to build endurance and aerobic capacity. Jog at an easy pace for 20 minutes straight.

Hill Running Workout

Hill running workouts are a great way to build strength that may be gentler on your joints than fast running on flat surfaces. Running uphill causes less impact and force on your joints while calling for more muscle activation from your glutes and hamstrings. You can do them outside or as a treadmill incline workout to better control your inclines. 

The Workout

There are many ways to manipulate a hill running workout. You could run intervals by varying your inclines on a treadmill or outside in a hilly area. You can also steadily run one big hill for more of a steady-state cardio workout that helps build endurance and strength. You can alternate speeds and intensities or keep them the same.

[Read More: How Many Steps in a Mile? Calculate by Height and Pace]

This workout offers a little bit of everything but is meant to be steady-state, where you maintain roughly the same heart rate for the entire time. You’ll alternate between two speeds, running slower at a higher incline and faster at a lower incline. It’s easiest to do this on a treadmill.

How Often to Do This Workout: You can do this workout two to three times a week.

Modifications

• Make it Easier: 
  • You’ll have to experiment with the inclines to find what best sustains a moderate heart rate for you. To make it easier, start with both incline and speed on the lower end. 
• Make it Harder: 
  • Set a high incline and maintain it for 30 minutes, like the popular walking 12-3-30 workout. Since this is a running workout, you’ll want to go faster than a 3.0 speed, so you’ll need to play around to find the appropriate incline.

Interval Running Workout

There are endless ways to create an interval running workout that can help you increase your running speed. This one is going to be a fartlek run. Fartlek is a Swedish word that means “speed play.” 

Swedish running coach Gösta Holmér coined fartlek training. These are continuous runs that vary in intensity, pace, and duration, with slower, easy runs as recovery periods rather than complete rest. Though it’s a type of interval training, it differs because it is meant to be unstructured, hence “speed play.”

[Read More: The Best Nordictrack Treadmills — Yes, We Tested Them All]

You choose your intervals and intensity by how it feels rather than sticking to specific paces, heart rates, or distances. Initially, they were done in forests rather than a track, utilizing natural terrain for variety. (4)

Fartlek workouts should bring fun and variety to a structured running training program. They give you a mental break and can also help you tune into your body’s cues on what feels like a hard, moderate, or easy pace. You can gauge rest times based on your body rather than sticking to the clock.

The Workout

A true fartlek workout doesn’t have a structure. Some runners make up fartlek runs as they go based on landmarks. For example, sprint to that lamppost, jog to the next tree, run up that hill, walk back down, and repeat.

[Read More: Expert Tested: The Best Cushioned Treadmills on the Market]

If you do it at the gym, you can also make it up based on a song you’re listening to. Sprint during the chorus and jog until the next one. If you’re watching television on a treadmill, sprint until the next commercial break, jog until the scene changes…get creative.

Here is a sample fartlek workout to try. The idea is to feel out your paces without checking your heart rate, time, or distance.

How Often to Do This Workout: Incorporate this once a week. Your other structured runs still matter in making progress.

Modifications

• Make it Easier: 
  • Another sample structure for a fartlek run is to decide how many miles you want to do. Sprint for as long as you can at the top of each mile; let the rest be a recovery run. Repeat at the top of each mile.
• Make it Harder:
  • Choose “random” on a treadmill.
  • Make it an interval workout without timing anything. Alternate sprints with recovery runs, but change the length of each one based on how you feel in the moment. 

How to Program Running Workouts

If you’re wondering how to incorporate these running workouts into your workout program, it depends on the type of athlete you are and your goal. Getting specific will help you get the results you want. Here are some ideas.

For Endurance Athletes

Endurance athletes will want to do longer runs on flat surfaces to build aerobic capacity. Doing shorter tempo runs can also build endurance by training your muscles to continue removing lactic acid for longer. 

• Try adding a tempo run once weekly in addition to your long-distance training. 
• Adding a HIIT or interval running workout to your week can also increase endurance.

For Strength Athletes

Strength athletes likely already have a packed training program, so you’ll need to get creative with your program.

• Add a HIIT sprint workout after one lifting session per week to boost your body conditioning.
• Add one hill running workout to your week. You likely already have strong lower body muscles and may enjoy the challenge.

For Hybrid Athletes 

For those who like a little bit of everything, incorporate speed work in shorter runs and build endurance in longer runs. 

• Try a fartlek workout once per week.
• Add the hill running workout to keep your muscles engaged.

To Run Faster

If running faster is your goal, you’ll want to work on short and fast sprints. Tempo runs help, too. 

• Do one HIIT running workout per week.
• Make sure you are doing at least one slow recovery run per week, even when you’re trying to get faster. This will keep your aerobic fitness up and help stave off potential burnout.

To Run Longer

For distance runners, varying your pace throughout a longer run can help you sustain your effort for longer. If you’re new to running, start with short runs that alternate jogging with walking and build up over time.

• Newbies can try the beginner running workout and follow my idea for progressing over time.

If you’re not a newbie:

• A fartlek run or other type of longer interval workout where you alternate a faster and slower pace can help you run for longer. Add one per week.
• Tempo runs, again, come in clutch for this goal. Consider adding one tempo run per week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

References

1. Daniels, J. (2013). Daniels’ running formula. Human Kinetics.
2. Støa, E. M., Helgerud, J., Rønnestad, B. R., Hansen, J., Ellefsen, S., & Støren, Ø. (2020). Factors Influencing Running Velocity at Lactate Threshold in Male and Female Runners at Different Levels of Performance. Frontiers in Physiology, 11, 585267.
3. Daniels, J., Ph.D. (2005, December 1). Threshold Training: Finding Your VDOT. Runner’s World. 
4. Casado A, Foster C, Bakken M, Tjelta LI. Does Lactate-Guided Threshold Interval Training within a High-Volume Low-Intensity Approach Represent the “Next Step” in the Evolution of Distance Running Training? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 21;20(5):3782.

The post The 5 Best Running Workouts to Level Up Your Conditioning appeared first on BarBend.

Fear not — I have the best HIIT cardio workout for beginners with low-impact options aplenty. I’ll break down the workout, explain each exercise, and discuss the research-backed benefits and different types of HIIT training. Let’s jump (or step) right in. 

The Best HIIT Cardio Workout for Beginners

The first thing to know about HIIT workouts for beginners is that just about anything can become a “HIIT exercise.” It’s all about how you manipulate it. While there’s nothing wrong with HIIT workouts that utilize plyometrics to get your heart rate up, this one has some regular old strength training bodyweight exercises. (Don’t worry: there are jumping options, too.)

A true HIIT workout is characterized by short bouts of all-out effort and short rest periods. Rather than sustaining a moderate heart rate for a longer period, like in a low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio workout, you alternate spiking your heart rate for a short amount of time and letting it come back down. You can do as little as a five-minute HIIT workout.

[Read More: The Best Compact Exercise Equipment for Any Small Space]

Rather than performing a lot of reps or adding weight to make it feel like high-intensity exercise, you’ll simply perform each exercise continuously for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds. Performing 30 seconds of quality bodyweight squats while engaging your muscles will raise your heart rate without trying to go faster or add jumps — especially as a beginner.

As a personal trainer, I always emphasize this idea to my beginner clients: Of course, good form matters at all fitness levels, but as you advance, you’re able to move faster or add plyometric exercises while you maintain it. Don’t worry about being “fancy” or advanced: worry about what’s right for your body right now.

The Workout

Before jumping in, start with a complete dynamic warm-up. This is a full-body HIIT workout, so you want all your muscles (and heart) to be nice and warm. Afterward, finish with a cool-down of three to five minutes of light cardio, like walking or cycling, and do static or dynamic stretches.

The workout starts with a jump rope (though I’ll give you non-jumping, low-impact alternatives) to give you an idea of how your heart should be working. You’ll do 20 seconds of jump rope, rest for 40 seconds, and repeat for three rounds to ease into the HIIT-style of timed work.

[Read More: The Best Mobility Exercises From a Physical Therapist (+ Tips)]

Next, you’ll move into a four-exercise circuit of bodyweight exercises. You’ll perform each one for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds, and move on to the next. You’ll repeat the circuit for three rounds. You can add up to one minute of rest between rounds. Then, you’ll finish with three rounds of burpees — or an alternative.

Depending on whether you add extra rest between rounds, this 16- to 20-minute HIIT workout is suitable for beginners. The intention is to get you used to the feeling of starting and stopping to improve heart rate recovery. Besides a jump rope, this is a bodyweight workout — so no other equipment is needed.

• Jump Rope Warm-Up: 3 x 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off

Perform three rounds of the following four exercises in succession as a circuit*:

• Bodyweight Squat: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
• Push-Up: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
• Alternating Reverse Lunge: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
• Mountain Climber: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
• Burpee Finisher: 3 x 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off

*Add a one-minute rest in between rounds if necessary.

Coach’s Tip: Focus on your form in each exercise and create muscular tension in the eccentric (lowering) portion of the moves. If that starts to feel too easy, try picking up the pace in your next HIIT session.

How Often to Do This Workout: Try this workout twice a week, giving yourself plenty of recovery time in between.

Modifications

I’ll give you more customization options for each exercise in the next section, but here’s how to modify the workout as a whole.

• Make it Easier: 
  • You can rest longer than 30 seconds if you need to. 
  • You can rest for up to a full minute (or more) between rounds. 
  • You can start with just one round on your first try, do two rounds the next time, and go for the entire three on your third HIIT session. 
• Make it Harder: 
  • Perform three rounds in succession without extra rest (just don’t skip any of your 30-second rest periods). 
  • Add a fourth round. 
  • Try to do the exercises quicker while maintaining good form. 

Jump Rope

[Read More: The Most Effective Workout Splits, Created by Our Experts]

Even though I said you don’t have to jump to do HIIT, this method is a great way to kick off a HIIT workout. You’ll work on your coordination and agility while doing some light jumping. It will raise your heart rate quickly, while the later exercises may raise it more gradually.

How to Do It: 

1. Stand upright in front of a jump rope, holding a handle in each hand.
2. Swing the jump rope over your head and jump over it when it reaches your feet. Jump with both feet or “skip” with one foot at a time. Try to take a small jump and land lightly.
3. Continue swinging the jump rope forward and hopping over it when it reaches the floor. Make sure the movement is coming from your wrists. Keep your shoulders relaxed.

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • Try jumping jacks instead — they’re less complicated to coordinate and a full-body warm-up that increases your heart rate. 
  • For a low-impact option, try high knees. Just step each foot down rather than jogging in place. 
• Make it Harder:
  • Do two jumps before the rope comes back down. 
  • Try double-unders, where you swing it around twice before your feet land. 
  • Use a weighted jump rope.

Bodyweight Squat

[Read More: The Best Glute Workout Exercises, With Tips From Our Experts]

Bodyweight squats are a compound exercise that work multiple muscle groups to strengthen your lower body. Compound movements raise your heart rate quickly, so even if you don’t move as fast as possible, they work well in a HIIT session. 

How to Do It: 

1. Stand upright with your feet about hip-width apart. 
2. Inhale and sit your glutes down while keeping your core engaged and chest up. Let your knees come forward slightly. Go to parallel or deeper if you can control it.
3. Exhale and push the floor away through your feet to stand back up. Tuck your hips and squeeze your glutes at the top.
4. Continue for 30 seconds.

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • Perform bridges on the floor. Add a mini resistance band above your knees to make bridges more challenging. 
  • Try box squats so you have feedback on how far down to sit. You can pause on the box before standing back up. 
  • You can also elevate your heels on a pair of small weight plates if keeping them down is difficult.
• Make it Harder:
  • Add a dumbbell or kettlebell for goblet squats to make squats harder but low-impact. 
  • If you’re open to jumping — try TRX-assisted jump squats, unassisted jump squats, or box jumps to a low box.

Push-Up

Push-ups are a classic bodyweight exercise. They strengthen your upper body while engaging your core to stabilize your spine. There are many ways to modify them to make them accessible. They require a lot of effort to nail the form, which makes them ideal for spiking your heart rate in a HIIT workout.

How to Do It: 

1. Begin in a plank position. Engage your core and glutes, retract your head, and push back into your heels.
2. Inhale and lower your body to the floor, maintaining tension to keep your spine neutral. Keep your elbows in close to your body.
3. Exhale to push the floor away, pushing back up to your plank position. 
4. Continue for 30 seconds. Lower slowly and push up with force.

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • Elevate your hands on a tall box or bar on a Smith machine. 
  • Perform kneeling push-ups by starting in your plank position, keeping everything the same, and lowering your knees to the floor. 
  • Do eccentric push-ups — lower yourself with control and get back up to re-set into your plank. This can be both harder and easier. You’ll teach yourself control (harder) while not having to be able to push yourself back up yet (easier).
  • Perform shallow push-ups with a yoga block under your chest. Lower to the block’s tallest height and push back up.
  • Simply hold a plank for 30 seconds. Try it with straight arms or on your forearms.
• Make it Harder:
  • You can elevate your feet slightly for a deeper push-up. 
  • You can do them much more slowly or even try 1 ½ rep push-ups.
  • Do a close-grip push-up for more triceps work. 
  • Try an advanced plyometric push-up variation where you explode up and clap before returning to your plank position. 

Alternating Reverse Lunge

[Read More: Best Dumbbell Exercises for Muscle Gain, Plus 3 Workouts]

Alternating reverse lunges are unilateral exercises targeting one leg at a time. Continually alternating sides will keep your heart rate up. You’ll also challenge your balance and stability. They’re a great place to start if you want to progress to a plyometric option in a more advanced HIIT workout.

How to Do It: 

1. Stand upright with your feet wider than hip-width apart.
2. Inhale and step your right foot back behind you with the ball of the foot on the floor and your heel lifted. Bend both knees until your back knee touches the floor. 
3. Exhale and straighten both legs. Step your back foot forward to return to the starting position. 
4. Repeat on the other side. Continue alternating sides for 30 seconds.

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • Hold onto a wall or sturdy object to help you balance. 
  • Reduce the depth of the back knee bend — you don’t have to go all the way to the floor. 
  • Alternatively, try step-ups to a low step or box. 
• Make it Harder:
  • You can hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand. 
  • Try forward lunges or walking lunges. 
  • Try jumping lunges for an advanced option.

Mountain Climber

[Read More: The Best Quad Exercises for Muscle Growth and Strength]

Mountain climbers are a great core exercise that challenges your upper and lower body to stabilize your spine and resist rotation. The rapid movement of your knees raises your heart rate, making them a popular bodyweight exercise in HIIT workouts. 

How to Do It: 

1. Begin in a plank position with your hands under your shoulders. Engage your abs to stabilize your spine. Push back into your heels.
2. Bring your right knee towards your chest. Step your right foot back to plank position. Bring your left knee towards your chest. Step your left foot back to plank position.
3. An alternative option is to bring your right knee to your left triceps, step back, and then bring your left knee to your right triceps, and step back. Cross-body mountain climbers target your obliques.
4. Continue for 30 seconds, adjusting your pace to your fitness level. 

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • Hold a plank for 30 seconds. 
  • If you did a plank as a push-up alternative, perform the dead bug exercise. Dead bugs offer a similar movement pattern with your legs, but you lie on your back without doing the extra work of supporting your body weight with your arms.
  • Do standing high knees if you didn’t already in your warm-up.
  • Do same-side mountain climbers. 
  • Take them slowly. Bring one knee forward and step back, fully returning to your plank position before moving the other knee.
• Make it Harder:
  • Cross-body mountain climbers will be more challenging than same-side.
  • Pick up the pace to a “jog,” hopping from one foot to the other. Keep your core tight.
  • Try advanced spider push-ups. Bring one knee to your triceps, hold it there, perform a push-up, and return your foot to plank position.

Burpee

[Read More: The Best Upper Body Exercises and Workout Routines]

Burpees are a staple in HIIT for a reason. They’re a full-body exercise combining push-ups and jump squats, raising your heart rate immediately. Even if you take them slowly, they’re challenging and sure to tax your entire system — that’s why I save them for last. You’ll give it your all and then get to rest.

How to Do It: 

1. Stand upright with your feet hip distance apart. 
2. Squat down and place your hands on the floor. Jump your feet back to plank position.
3. Lower into a push-up. As you push back up, jump your feet up to your hands, returning to your deep squat-like position. 
4. Explode up from your squat into a jump, reaching your arms up by your ears. Squat back down and repeat.

Modifications

• Make it Easier:
  • Stand upright. Bend forward and place your hands on the floor. Step each foot back into a plank position. Then, step each foot back forward and stand. In other words, no jumps and no push-ups.
  • Perform it with the push-up, but take out the jumps.
  • Perform a plank walkout instead.
• Make it Harder:
  • Perform the full burpee.
  • Pick up the pace.
  • Do two push-ups per burpee.

Benefits of HIIT Cardio Workouts

HIIT may be trendy, but research backs up a lot of its health benefits. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) states that HIIT offers the following benefits: (1)

• Boosts anaerobic and aerobic fitness
• Lowers blood pressure
• Increases fat oxidation
• Improves insulin sensitivity
• Boosts post-exercise metabolic rate
• Helps with weight loss
• Helps people adhere to an exercise program

Let’s break a few of these down.

Time-Saving and Effective

You can get an effective HIIT workout done in a short time — just five to 20 minutes. A lot of research states that people may be more likely to exercise when it can be done quickly, as being short on time is a commonly reported obstacle. (2)

Research also shows that short HIIT sessions elicit similar physiological responses to longer, moderate-intensity steady-state sessions — making it an excellent option for home workouts for busy people. (3)

Improves Cardiovascular Health, Fitness, and Performance

Regularly performing aerobic exercise is well-known to improve your cardiovascular health. Studies show that HIIT and steady-state cardio can decrease your blood pressure, prevent cardiovascular diseases, and increase VO2 max — a common indicator of cardiovascular health. (4)

Performing HIIT can increase your aerobic and anaerobic exercise capacity, maximum oxygen uptake, and overall endurance. Improving these markers by doing HIIT cardio workouts can also carry over to your exercise performance in other types of training. (2)

Incorporates Strength Training

HIIT cardio workouts are not about building muscle, but doing HIIT that incorporates strength training exercises works and engages your muscles, even if you are focusing on your cardiovascular system. 

Due to this combination, research shows that HIIT can draw physiological responses to resistance training. The short patterns of high-intensity exercise followed by low-intensity exercise or rest periods are similar to a resistance or strength training session, even though the volume is lower. (2)(5)

Aids Fat Loss

If your goal is weight loss, you’ll need to take in less energy than you expend. Nutrition is key, but HIIT can help you lose body fat by increasing the amount of calories you burn quickly. Burning more calories can boost your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

Since HIIT works your anaerobic system, it also stimulates EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), which causes your body to keep your metabolic rate elevated and continue burning calories at a slightly higher rate after your workout. (6)

Types of HIIT Cardio

There are many ways to make a HIIT cardio workout. Here are a few different types and some terms you may see.

Bodyweight Workout

This workout is a bodyweight workout. You can do a HIIT cardio workout with no equipment, only your body weight. More advanced bodyweight HIIT workouts incorporate plyometrics or more advanced variations to keep the intensity extra high.

Resistance Training With Equipment

In HIIT cardio workouts that incorporate strength training exercises, you can add weight equipment for more resistance. Dumbbells, kettlebells, or even barbells (think CrossFit) can up the intensity. 

Cardio Machines

You can also do HIIT cardio workouts on cardio machines. You can do a burst of all-out effort, like a sprint, followed by a short rest period or low-intensity exercise on a treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, rowing machine, stair climber, ski erg, or vertical climber.

HIIT Styles

There are a few styles of HIIT that dictate the time and intensity of your intervals.

• Tabata training involves 20 seconds of maximum effort and 10 seconds of rest for eight rounds or four minutes. 
• Fartlek training is common in running to vary pace and intensity.
• Sprint interval training (SIT) requires more intensity than HIIT, and the work periods may be even shorter and more intense.
• EMOM training means every minute, on the minute. You perform a certain number of reps at the top of each minute and rest for the remainder of the minute. Then, you repeat this for your desired number of minutes.
• AMRAP means as many rounds as possible. You’ll get a set time and list of exercises, and try to complete as many rounds as you can before the timer runs out.
• Circuit training is a series of exercises performed in succession, like in my workout.
• Pyramid training amps up the intensity and gradually reduces it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the questions I get about these kinds of workouts most often. 

References

1. Roy, Brad A. Ph.D., FACSM, FACHE. High-Intensity Interval Training: Efficient, Effective, and a Fun Way to Exercise. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal 17(3):p 3, May/June 2013. 
2. Atakan MM, Li Y, Koşar ŞN, Turnagöl HH, Yan X. Evidence-Based Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training on Exercise Capacity and Health: A Review with Historical Perspective. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul 5;18(13):7201. 
3. Foster C, Farland CV, Guidotti F, Harbin M, Roberts B, Schuette J, Tuuri A, Doberstein ST, Porcari JP. The Effects of High Intensity Interval Training vs Steady State Training on Aerobic and Anaerobic Capacity. J Sports Sci Med. 2015 Nov 24;14(4):747-55. 
4. Skutnik BC, Smith JR, Johnson AM, Kurti SP, Harms CA. The Effect of Low Volume Interval Training on Resting Blood Pressure in Pre-hypertensive Subjects: A Preliminary Study. Phys Sportsmed. 2016;44(2):177-83. 
5. Burgomaster KA, Howarth KR, Phillips SM, Rakobowchuk M, Macdonald MJ, McGee SL, Gibala MJ. Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. J Physiol. 2008 Jan 1;586(1):151-60. 
6. ACE Fitness. 7 Things to Know About Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). American Council on Exercise.

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