What are some good Cardio drills?

What are some good Cardio drills that I can do by myself?

Right now I only can think of the suicide drills we used to do for basketball back in high school.

 

What are you training for? The more sport specific you make the drills the better they will be for you.

 

Well mostly for basketball and general fitness. I want to start playing again next year but I am grossly out of shape. When I was a teen and in my early 20's it was my favorite sport and that's also when I had abs.

 

I'm a fan of interval training for 3 min rounds and 60 second rest. Basketball is a combination of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning as well right? I'd assume the training for both is very similar.

 

That's a little out of my range of experience. For grappling I could have given you several.

You might want to try short sprints with walking breaks. Throwing a medicine ball as far as you can, running to get it and then throwing it back. Suicides. Probably something with jumping. Beyond that I can't think of much else.

 

:thinking: Last year I tried several exercises starting out slowly/easily. I did swimming, long walks, and a bit of biking, and I saw little to no results. So I think this year I need to do more activities that require me to put more speed into to it.

 

I certainly hope so! I have to get back in shape, I am 27, I feel like I am 40, and I want to be 18 again dangit!:woo:

 

Buy these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BAS-RUTTEN-MM...341?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b6e7ba7d

You will not regret it.

 

As you are training primarily for basketball, an important factopr that you need to consider is the kind of stresses placed upon the body during a game. Basketball consists of fast sprints, occasional jogging, and occasional walking, so fartlek training is a good option here with regards to specificity, which I will talk about later in this post.

With regards to developing a good cardiovascular foundation, try and get access to a running track. nmost places have one, and they are usually very cheap to use, as more often than not they are run by the local council. With access to a track, performing interval training is much easier. below I have listed some good routines to work with:

800m - try to perform 800m intervals at a pace between a jog and a sprinmt. this should be high intensity and you shoiuld aim to complete each interval in under three minutes.

600m - try to perform 600m intervals at a similar pace to the 800m, but completed the distance in under two minutes.

400m - these are excellent for basketball as they develop explosive power, particularly in the legs. You should aim to run close to an all out pace.

200m - again this develops explosive power. You should aim to sprint this distance all out.

Sample Track Routines

1) 5 x 800m - 1 minute rest inbetween
2) 6 x 600m - 1 minute rest inbetween
3) 10 x 400m - 1 minute rest inbetween
4) 12 x 200m - 30 second rest inbetween

You should not do these on the same day, or on consecutive days. that is to say, you should do routine 1 on one day, and routine 2 two or three days later, etc.
Where a rest is indicated, you should aim to perform some kind of bodyweight exercise, such as push ups, core conditioning, etc, as this will continue to build fitness. This is because, whilst people may rest completely between intervals, if you are exercising between intervals, you are still placing your body under stress.
Before performing these intervals, be sure to warm up!

Fartlek Training

Fartlek training is fairly simple. Again it is easier to perform on a track, although can be performed anywhere. basically, you sprint for a given distance, then jog for a distance, then walk for a distance, ad nauseum.

Jump Rope

Interval training on a jump rope is factastic for developing cardiovascular fitness and explosive power. I recomend that you first become accustomed to jumping rope, if you are not already, before performing these routines, to avert the risk of injury, and get the most out of your training.
As an indication of how beneficial jump rope training can be, the american olympic team has its very own Jump Rope instructor, Buddy lee, who puts them through their paces.

You can effectively do what you did on the track on the jump rope, only with reference to time, so:

1) 5 x 3 minute intervals - 1 minute break
2) 6 x 2 minute intervals - 1 minute break
3) 10 x 1-1 1/2 minute intervals - 1 minute break
4) 12 x 30 second intervals - 30 second break

Again, perform exercises during rest periods.

Tabata Intervals

These are perhaps the daddy of tabata intervals. They are best performed on a stationary bike, and it is important to use a heart rate monitor.

The Tabata Protocol works on a 2:1 ratio - that is 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest. During the work periods, you should aim to work at 80-90% of your maximum heart rate (which is why a heart rate monitor is important).

You should perform tabata intervals for 4 minutes, so that is 8 rounds of work in total. Because this is such high intensity, you should really relish in the rest period.



Also, the tapes that snoop linked to above are excellent!


EDIT - the above routines are high intensity, and it is important to work towards them, and work at your own abilities. I'm not a huge believer in training to failure, as I think that all you acheive is training to fail.

 

A comfortable recumbent exercise bike and a good movie it is my indoor cardio of choice.And nowadays you can pick one up really cheap at a second hand sports equipment store.

 

There is an important distinction to be made between endurance work and cardio conditioning - endurance training reduces the inherent capability of the neuromuscular system for maximum power output. In other words, continuous aerobic training over a prolonged period of time will actually cause an athlete to lose strength, which is not a good thing for basketball.

Don't get me wrong, I like endurance training. But in my opinion, the only thing that it is really good for is endurance sports, such as marathon running, triathlon, cycling etc.

EDIT - sorry, I assumed that you were suggesting endurance training. If this is not the case, then I appologise

 

I don't have a lot of upper body strength but my bike helps my cardio and endurance.You sound very knowledgeable thank you for the reply.