By David Ozor

I’ve always been crazy about sports, whether it was Rugby, Basketball or Football (Soccer, for my American readers!) I wanted to play, and I played to win! The vast majority of the training I performed for Rugby was Anerobic because that was in line with the nature of the game, lots of short sprints, the occasionally 40/50m+ sprint with some recovery time. But during all this time playing Rugby I never really developed a good aerobic base, I was always fairly good at intervals and short sprints but any continuous running was a real problem for me. A rough definition of your Aerobic Base is the fastest pace your body can run/swim/cycle while breathing Aerobically (i.e. Using Oxygen and being able to breathe easily)

Aerobic Base Building is progressively training your body to perform at faster and faster speeds while still breathing aerobically and maintaining heart rate – this is one of the main training methods that endurance athletes use in the off-season or when injured to maintain or increase their fitness levels. I can hear people shouting already “Who wants to be a triathlete or compete in the Tour de France?” But whatever your level of fitness, a better Aerobic base is most definitely an advantage for a number of reasons:

* It will help with your Anaerobic training, if you can run faster while breathing normally you won’t burn up so quickly with your Anaerobic training.
* Your body uses mostly fat for fuel while training like this.
* It’s less stressful and demanding on the body, so it’s brilliant for people starting fitness programs or recovering from injuries.

Getting started:

The first thing I suggest you get is a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). I own a polar F4, and it’s at the center of all my training sessions. A basic HRM will work just as well for measuring heart rate but it might not have as many features. I wouldn’t advice breaking the bank just to purchase a top the range HRM, but it’s nice if it provides an estimate of calorie expenditure and a review of the training session.

If you do purchase a HRM you need an estimate of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR), there are lots of formulas and tools on the net that can give you a value of this by taking into account your age,sex, and weight. For me the best thing to do is just strap-on a HRM and find out what it actually is. If you can get access to a treadmill you should run as fast as you can for 3mins solid, rest with 2mins gentle jogging, and then start running again for another 3mins at a pace you think you can sustain. When the 2^nd run is over, note the maximum heart rate recorded, this value might actually be observed after you stop running, so wait a 30-60s after running before stopping the measurement. (You may wish to repeat this test a few times just to get a more accurate measurement, or you could also do it over the course of a few days)

Training:

In order to exercise Aerobically we need to make our hearts beat at between 65-80% of our MHR. (Above 80-85% we reach the Anaerobic limit and the exercise is now Anaerobic). I normally try to work at 80% of my MHR i.e. after performing a Max Heart Rate test, my Heart rate goes as high as 179BPM. Which gives a Aerobic zone of roughly 144-115BPM. So when I’m at the gym using the treadmill I’m trying to keep my HR at exactly 144BPM.

It‘s tricky at the start to keep your HR at the Aerobic limit, it will rise during exercise. Just start slowly maybe even at hard walking pace or try to jog as slowly as possible. Concentrate heavily on breathing in a slow and controlled manner. Your HRM will give good feedback on this. Take short sharp breaths and your HR will increase.

It may not initially feel like you are doing much exercise but eventually you’ll be able to break into a decent paced jog/run. You may need to vary your speed/incline of the treadmill during exercise to keep running at a good Aerobic rate. After a few runs you will need to increase the pace of your run in order to maintain the same heart rate, increasing your pace roughly once every 2 runs.

To increase your Aerobic base you need to run for a reasonable length of time, I think 30-40mins should be more than enough. While starting out build your mileage slowly and sensibly, maybe target 10 mins jogging for a first session and increase that by 5mins or less after every run, slowly working your way up to 30+mins over a periodic of a couple weeks.

Summary:

* This is a great fat burning exercise that is a good start to any fitness regime.
* Aerobic exercise is less stressful on the body when compared to HIIT, or Anaerobic exercise.
* It’s a good way to stay fit when injured.
* By building a solid Aerobic base you’ll be able to run distances faster and for longer.
* The beauty of this type of training is that you can use the same HR ranges for a variety of different exercises: The treadmill, cross trainer or bike.
* Try it!