Aerobic Base

[Pink]

Can we discuss?

I think I know what it is. I know about periodization. But I'm not sure what I don't know.

How is it measured? I imagine that if you can perform the task you want to perform, you can claim you've got a base, right?

If you don't train to peak (i.e. competition) and continue a steady workout routine (as most of our regulars do), do you lose it?

When we've novice exercisers come into our classes and we give them the build-a-base talk, how can they declare "job done."

Have no idea where this thread may go -- quite possibly no where. But these are just some of the questions that crash around my brain as I read articles and try to put the info to use in my real-world experience within the general fitness world.

[SpinBob]

I can respond to some of your questions based on my New Leaf testing and what they explained to me. Your aerobic base is the maximum HR at which you burn fat. It represents the body's ability to utilize fat during exercise. Fat is the most efficient (and plentiful) fuel your body can burn, but if your exercise intensity is not correct, you burn more carbs than fat. The goal is to increase your aerobic base by training your muscles to burn fat at a wide range of intensities and heart rates. This is done through periodization.

[Kathleen H]

Aerobic base is the strong base of aerobic workouts. Typically it is a period of two months; it varies for everyone. One way to measure your aerobic base is the MAF test. Maximum Aerobic Function has you measure an aerobic activity using either time or distance as the measurable variable. Take the test every three weeks. Once you plateau, you are ready to introduce anaerobic exercise into your regime.

The Endurance EZ "is the bread and butter of aerobic training."

Race Day EZ, Interval EZ, and the upper limits of the Strength EZ are anaerobic exercises.

Aerobic exercise uses primarily fat for fuel. Anaerobic uses primarily glucose for fuel. The brain is the only organ that in your body that relies on glucose exclusively for energy. If the body prefers glucose to fat, the brain will continually run short on fuel. This will cause energy level flucuations as well as sugar cravings after a workout.

The aerobically conditioned athlete will preserve glucose for use by the brain and this will promote regulated energy levels, moods and appetite.

The aerobic base supports anaerobic exercise activity.

- Aerobic Exercise Home Study

[tracik]

I can respond to some of your questions based on my New Leaf testing and what they explained to me. Your aerobic base is the maximum HR at which you burn fat. It represents the body's ability to utilize fat during exercise. Fat is the most efficient (and plentiful) fuel your body can burn, but if your exercise intensity is not correct, you burn more carbs than fat. The goal is to increase your aerobic base by training your muscles to burn fat at a wide range of intensities and heart rates. This is done through periodization.


Bob...I'm assuming you did your New Leaf at WSSC. Where else can one be tested? Sounds like excellent info to have. A few years back when I was competing more seriously, I had my VO2 max done and it was awesome to have those numbers to work with to set training parameters. I'd love to try this!

[RaffCycles]

Periodization is an interesting animal and the length of time that you spend in each zone depends on several factors such as your time off of training, the amount of time you have to train each week, the time before you want to "peak", and basically how fit you are before you begin your training. This isn't a comprehensive list, just the basics.

The Cyclist's Training Bible suggests you spend 8-12 weeks in the base period (which follows the transition or recovery pase and the preparation period totalling 4-10 weeks). The base period is designed to establish speed, strength and endurance.

The periodization schedule is based on when you need to peak and counting backwards to find the start of your training schedule.

For me, I find that through my base building I can see my average speed increase as my average heart rate declines on the same training courses (wind and temperature are my uncontrollable variables). Do I get to a certain HR and speed? Not really, I progress to the build period and then onto the other steps in my schedule. Each year, I evaluate my performance and tweak the length of each when I see fit.

So I guess I didn't really answer your question. I don't think there is a feeling or milestone you can assign other than time spent training in the base period.

[SpinBob]

Bob...I'm assuming you did your New Leaf at WSSC. Where else can one be tested? Sounds like excellent info to have. A few years back when I was competing more seriously, I had my VO2 max done and it was awesome to have those numbers to work with to set training parameters. I'd love to try this!Traci, Yes I did my testing at WSSC, but New Leaf is usually at all the big fitness conferences, IDEA, NSCA, etc. You can use New Leaf's fitness locater type in a zip code and get the address of a facility that does testing using their system:

http://www.newleaffitness.com/sitelocator2.htm

[Pink]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to join the discussion.

Yes, I understand that a greater percentage of your energy is coming from fat when you are working aerobically. And you want to increase the body's capacity to burn fat at higher increased workloads -- and you do that by working aeobically.

But do I, as someone only interested in general all-round fitness (as are 99% of my riders), need to follow a periodization model? If I am in pretty good shape (for an old lady LOL), do I lose the base I have if I continue to work out? I understand that if I work myself to exhaustion day-in-and-day-out, I will hit a wall, but other than that, do I lose it?

And the newbies -- if we tell them to work within their comfort level and when they can do more, they should -- aren't they theoretically building their base? And when they can follow any class attended without hitting a wall, can declare they've developed the base necessary for the activity they are doing?

And I won't even get into my belief in the futility of working aerobically and weight loss....

[Kathleen H]

Pink:

For general all round fitness do you need to follow the periodization? Probably not. I just finished the home study, found it fascinating and will probably begin to develop one for myself. I will probably introduce it to my classes. Will they follow it/me? I don't know.

I am also going to start the MAF testing. I did New Leaf at WSSC and found out I have a good aerobic base. I want to know if I can do better, if I can increase my time, increase my endurance, and increase my speed where necessary. I think it all depends on each rider's fitness objective. Some of my students come in once a week want to Spin for 45 minutes and leave feeling they have met their fitness objectives.

I think you lose the base if you don't rest. I think if your exercise stays the same your base might not change much.

[yvonne]

without getting all technical and geeky ~

Remember that the primary goal ofaerobic base building is improving the body's ability to utilize oxygen. Consequently, as you train at a lower intensity, more O2 is present and fat is burned more efficiently.

But, while the outcome is the same (more fat utiized as fuel due to the abundance of O2, ) the real magic is in the bloodstream. Training aerobically for extended periods of time encourages the growth of blood volume. With the volume, comes an increased development of red blood cells (RBC) the carriers of O2 molecules. As the volume increases, the delivery system has to increase as well ... underutilized cappilary beds become stimulated to deliver O2 to the muscles.

here's a picture (warning .. it's graphic) from the Bodies exhibition of the circulatory system to give you an example ...
http://twi-ny.com/bodies.jpg


In addition, since the volume of blood is greater, the heart becomes more efficeint as well. As more blood is availble to fill the chambers, the heart can beat less frequently to deliver a larger volume of blood to the lungs, for distribution of O2 to the body. With this greater amount of fluid filling the ventricles, the heart muscle has to become stronger (more conditioned,) to pump more forcefully to get that volume to the lungs. The development can be seen as the heart muscle hypertropies.

That was an incredibly over simplified explanation ~ but wanted to get that out there.

Now, to answer your original question, Ms. Pink ~ does an average everyday member need to periodize? My immediate answer is "yes". I think that even though they're not training athletes, everyone should improve at whatever athletic endeavor they've chose to undertake. However, if they are only attending Spinning classes as their cardiovascular training activity a couple of times a week, there really won't be much measurable gain with that little training volume and frequency. As has already been mentioned, there is also a risk of this kind of training being detrimental to their existing fitness.

Y.

[Pink]

without getting all technical and geeky ~

Remember that the primary goal ofaerobic base building is improving the body's ability to utilize oxygen. Consequently, as you train at a lower intensity, more O2 is present and fat is burned more efficiently.

But, while the outcome is the same (more fat utiized as fuel due to the abundance of O2, ) the real magic is in the bloodstream. Training aerobically for extended periods of time encourages the growth of blood volume. With the volume, comes an increased development of red blood cells (RBC) the carriers of O2 molecules. As the volume increases, the delivery system has to increase as well ... underutilized cappilary beds become stimulated to deliver O2 to the muscles.

In addition, since the volume of blood is greater, the heart becomes more efficeint as well. As more blood is availble to fill the chambers, the heart can beat less frequently to deliver a larger volume of blood to the lungs, for distribution of O2 to the body. With this greater amount of fluid filling the ventricles, the heart muscle has to become stronger (more conditioned,) to pump more forcefully to get that volume to the lungs. The development can be seen as the heart muscle hypertropies.

That was an incredibly over simplified explanation ~ but wanted to get that out there.

Now, to answer your original question, Ms. Pink ~ does an average everyday member need to periodize? My immediate answer is "yes". I think that even though they're not training athletes, everyone should improve at whatever athletic endeavor they've chose to undertake. However, if they are only attending Spinning classes as their cardiovascular training activity a couple of times a week, there really won't be much measurable gain with that little training volume and frequency. As has already been mentioned, there is also a risk of this kind of training being detrimental to their existing fitness.

Y.

Great explanation as to how/why lower intensities work (in laymens terms!), Yvonne. But as I have said before, 99% of my riders are training to fit into smaller jeans. They use the gym for their cardio workouts, with no measurable outside activities.

So here's another question -- are three 45-minute aerobic spin classes a week enough time to work all this magic?

[yvonne]

without getting all technical and geeky ~

Remember that the primary goal ofaerobic base building is improving the body's ability to utilize oxygen. Consequently, as you train at a lower intensity, more O2 is present and fat is burned more efficiently.

But, while the outcome is the same (more fat utiized as fuel due to the abundance of O2, ) the real magic is in the bloodstream. Training aerobically for extended periods of time encourages the growth of blood volume. With the volume, comes an increased presence of red blood cells (RBC) the carriers of O2 molecules. As the volume increases, the delivery system has to increase as well ... underutilized cappilary beds become stimulated to deliver O2 to the muscles.

In addition, since the volume of blood is greater, the heart becomes more efficeint as well. As more blood is available to fill the chambers, the heart can beat less frequently to deliver a larger volume of blood to the lungs for distribution of O2 to the body. With this greater amount of fluid filling the ventricle, the heart muscle has to become stronger (more conditioned,) to pump more forcefully to get that volume distributed. The development can be seen as the heart muscle hypertropies.

That was an incredibly over simplified explanation ~ but wanted to get that out there. Hoping Todd can step up the game :)

In this picture, you can see the cicrulatory system (from the BODIES - AN EXHIBITION, installation) You can get an idea of what vascularization looks like ... all of the surrounding tissue has been eliminated ~ all you see is the circulatory network.
WARNING >>> GRAPHIC IN NATURE http://twi-ny.com/bodies.jpg

Now, to answer your original question, Ms. Pink ~ does an average everyday member need to periodize? My immediate answer is "yes". I think that even though they're not training athletes, everyone should improve at whatever athletic endeavor they've chose to undertake. However, if they are only attending Spinning classes as their cardiovascular training activity a couple of times a week, there really won't be much measurable gain with that little training volume and frequency.

Y.

[Pink]

Y, did you get to see "Body Worlds?" I thought I would be grossed out, as my squeamish tolerance is pretty lame, but they had to drag me home. I was mesmerized.

[yvonne]

Yes! i saw the exhibit last year in New York ... i was just wandering around lower manhatten, and took the ferry into staten island and back. while i was wandering i ran into the exhibit! i spent hours ~ like you, absolutely mesmorized!

[RaffCycles]

So here's another question -- are three 45-minute aerobic spin classes a week enough time to work all this magic?

Yes, in fact, I have a perfect example for you. One of my students was a nationally ranked Judo competetitor. She was trying to get in some cardio for endurance purposes and took my endurance class. She strapped on the heart rate monitor and stayed within her limits. After about five weeks, she told me she had dropped about eight pounds and would stop coming to my class. She didn't want to drop too low because the woman in the weight class below her would wipe up the mat with her. She was more competetive in the heavier weight class. I asked her what else she change and the only change in her routine was that she removed her all-out effort workout and replaced it with my endurance class. Her Judo coach told her to knock it off and stay either high intensity or hit the weights.

So yes, it does work and if they also watch what they put into their bodies, they will see results. Remember the balanced equation; energy in = energy out.

Hope that helps.

[Equinox]

Yes, it large part of it is balance. Proper nutrition - smart training.

The New Leaf testers will tell you - as will any other VO2 max testing - so many of our "average" riders, ride in what is known as the gray zone. Too much time spent there, does not benefit their body - especially if they are trying to fit into their smaller sized jeans.

Aerobic Base Training is the way to go. I had a rider do the same thing Raff was mentioning. By simply watching what she ate, and riding within her endurance energy zones, she witnessed the pounds falling off her body. She was in awe. This coming from a woman who had battled with her weight for the past 20 years.

She is a firm believer now.

[Cheeze]

Thanks Pink for posing some very thought provoking questions. I decided to come out from behind the cheddar curtain to bring some Cheeze to this forum potluck.

IMO Aerobic Base Building (ABB) can mean different things to different people. For the de-conditioned individual it is the time their body learns to adapt to and sustain the demands of exercise. For the anaerobic junkie it is a time to teach (re-teach) them to develop an otherwised surpressed aerobic system. And for the cyclist it is usually the time after a recovery or rest phase where they revisit the basic abilities of endurance; strength; speed and cycling efficiency. According to the Spinning literature "It is recommended that participants of all fitness levels dedicate at least a two month period at the beginning of every training season working out soles at aerobic HRs. The exerciser must never exceed maximum aerobic HR during the base building period. To ensure that you exercise aerobically you must not exceed 80% of your MHR". As Y said during ABB you are training your body to use (and transport) O2; but under the lower intensities of ABB you are also training your body to metabolize fat as fuel sparing carbohydrates or stretching the duration of your glycogen stores. It can also be used to refine your biking skills. The lower intensity of ABB is the perfect time to learn or re-visit disciplines of riding the bike.

IMO the question "How do you know when your base is built?" equals "How many miles do you travel in a 40 minute Spinning class?". Questions that will be debated forever.

How long should ABB be? I guess it depends on how long you have to train before your event or to reach your training goal. I've seen from four weeks to a year. However most of the information settles around two to three months. From reading stuff outside of fitness - it takes a person (mind and body) up to 12 weeks to change or adapt to a new skill. If you are new to fitness/cycling the ABB period would be longer. The more years of base training you have under your belt the shorter your ABB will probably be.

How do you measure ABB? IMO the best way to measure the progress of your ABB (if you are training correctly) is with metabolic testing - to determine if there is an increase in O2 and fat utilization. If your students want to go outside they can field test or MAF test (can they travel the same distance in less time or a longer distance in the same omount of time). Unless you have a power meter IMO you can not objectively measure ABB on an IDC. If your students are training correctly they can subjectively measure or feel the improvement(s) in their: stamina, endurance, pedal stroke, recovery times, etc.

Periodization is used to avoid plateaus in your fitness. Periodization can be defined as a period of time over which the frequency, volume, and intensity of training are systematically varied to avoid over/under training and to promote continued progress. Or building through different phases of training designed to advance your fitness so you reach a very high level of fitness at a specific time. Training starts out by developing general fitness and as you get closer to your event/goal the training becomes more specific to the demands of the event or goal you are training for. IMO for periodization to work you need: a starting point, a goal/event to train for, time to train and a specific plan to take you to your goal or to peak for your event in the time available.

Should novice exercisers use periodization? I say yes. Most of our novice students have goals of "I want to get fit or increase my fitness" or "I need to loose weight". In fitness speak that means "I want to increase my endurance and stamina" or "I need to burn (more) fat when I exercise". To get these folks from where they are to where they want to go you need a plan. You need a plan that keeps stimulating them to improve. Most novice goals are endurance or aerobic based. Subsequently the first phase of periodization for them (and everyone else) is ABB. (For some goals they may not need to leave ABB) This initial ABB periodization can be easily accomplished with four of the five Spinning EZ. You can macrocycle EEZ with REZ for rest/active recovery. Then you can add mesocycles of aerobic climbing in SEZ and aerobic intervals in IEZ. Then once they have established a base - you graduate them to the next level of their periodization (what ever you have planned that to be) Introduce them to longer rides. Increase the length of the climbs. Muscular endurance. Pedal stroke drills. Progressively overload them to threshold. Pink as you saw in their lectures according to the New Leaf doctrine you want to increase fat utilization by gradually training AeT to the right or closer to AT. Subsequently as part of the plan you can introduce their intervals to put AeT on the move. In order for the cardio-respiratory and/or muscular systems to continue to improve to a goal the systems must be gradually stressed with stimulus greater than what it is used to - with the proper amount of rest between training. One very important part of Periodization is that it emphasizes rest.

Beware most novice exercisers will choose not to follow a very structured training plan based on periodization - they just want to ride the bike. If they just "ride the bike" they will get some fitness - but will they get as fit as they could be or will they reach their goals on their own - and at what cost.

So the question is; when they realize their goals; when they loose the weight; when they have the stamina/endurance - what do we do with them? Honestly I don't know! I don't know if they "lose it" if they continue to exercise at this same level. Periodization is based on the idea that you cannot maintain peak fitness year-round - you excel at the exact time you need it and then back off. But if these are novice goals; if the goals are of a moderate/aerobic intensity - how long can they (should they) exercise at that level. If you do the same thing - you will get the same results. If you do similar training every day your body will plateau and your fitness will remain at the same level. So I guess IMO if they maintain their level of fitness; are still motivated; are not tiring of this type/level of training; and are not showing signs of over-reaching or over-training - let 'em go and use Christmas; Spring Break and summer as their off season. But during the plateaus is generally where folks loose interest and eventually leave the program. So maybe we should build on their base and encourage them to progress to the next (higher) level?

If we are riding our students to threshold intensity or slightly higher ala periodization I feel there should be some down time to rest ligaments, tendons, muscles, all the little aches and pains, and rest the mind. Then after that down time - start the ABB and periodization over again.

As always - Just my slice of Cheeze

[yvonne]

:D thank you, Pink ~ for inspiring our own Gouda Buddha to write.

[SpinBob]

Thanks Cheeze, that's wonderful insight. I hope this comes across as sincere as I mean, but I feel a void when you're not here.

[veespin]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to join the discussion.

Yes, I understand that a greater percentage of your energy is coming from fat when you are working aerobically. And you want to increase the body's capacity to burn fat at higher increased workloads -- and you do that by working aeobically.

But do I, as someone only interested in general all-round fitness (as are 99% of my riders), need to follow a periodization model? If I am in pretty good shape (for an old lady LOL), do I lose the base I have if I continue to work out? I understand that if I work myself to exhaustion day-in-and-day-out, I will hit a wall, but other than that, do I lose it?........

Probably not.

As Cheeze pointed out, a periodization programme is important for competitive athletes because you can't train at maximum intensity all the time and expect to realise fitness gains/avoid injury or burnout so a period of low intensity training fits the bill. However, in a true periodization plan, that low intensity goes hand in hand with higher volume. The Spin programme's classes stay at 45 minutes.

I doubt that you or your reasonably fit, 3 class a weeker has much to gain from extended spells in the EEZ. It's not as if training at higher intensities means you've stopped utilising aerobic metabolism to produce energy....in fact, HIT probably places higher demands on the system....so I think you can be reasonably confident that you won't lose your aerobic base just because you're working at higher intensities than the Spin programme considers aerobic.

Vivienne

[Pink]

Thanks Pink for posing some very thought provoking questions.

And thank you my friend, for adding your insights to the discussion. As always, you accomplished it with knowledge, common-sense & clarity.


Pink as you saw in their lectures according to the New Leaf doctrine you want to increase fat utilization by gradually training AeT to the right or closer to AT. Subsequently as part of the plan you can introduce their intervals to put AeT on the move. In order for the cardio-respiratory and/or muscular systems to continue to improve to a goal the systems must be gradually stressed with stimulus greater than what it is used to - with the proper amount of rest between training. One very important part of Periodization is that it emphasizes rest.

I guess this is what spurred my orignal question about the validity of periodization for the general masses -- once you move the AeT up to the point where you are maximizing fat burning over a wide range of intensities, do you lose it? If you are satisfied with your energy level, your weight, etc., do you need to cut back? They were my questions and I am thrilled with the discussion. This is completely separate from having a goal-oriented schedule (which certainly benefits the unfit & may relieve boredom).

Thanks Vivienne for reminding me when athletes scale down intensity during base building, they also increase time -- another reason why pure training protocols may not work the same for our average class attendees.

I love this stuff!

[missy]

Wow Yvonne and Cheeze thank you for the detail on the benefits and whys of aerobic base building- while I have understood the basics, and used ABB it in my own training, I did not have the knowledge presented in this thread to effectively communicate the whys to members-

I have to sub a 90 min Aerobic Base building class on Sunday- 90mins outside is easy outside- time flys, inside- how do you circumvent the boredom and seat discomfort and make it fun? Ideas? Music of the decades, name that tune, artist?

Again, thanks for sharing the knowledge, It will help during class to remind everyone of WHY we are doing this!
Missy

[Todd S]

<sigh> ...so many myths. Why do Spinning folks ignore the 'building' part of base building.

Some things to think about within the context of base building...

Two primary principles of training.

1) Specificity: To elicit a training adaptation to a physiological system or attribute, you need to train that system or attribute.

AND (the part most here seem to forget)

2) Overload: The system must be stressed to an unaccustomed level.

Also keep in mind that contrary to popular folklore, even a maximum, all out effort that lasts longer than about 6 minutes or so is almost entirely aerobic in nature.

Plus, most of the physiological changes commonly attributed to 'base building' are primary determinants of lactate threshold (metabolic fitness). (So why doesn't anybody recommend base building for raising lactate threshold?)

Last, to train a muscle fiber you have to train that muscle fiber. Type I fibers are your aerobic fibers. Type II b are your anaerobic fibers. Type II a are muscle fibers that can kind of go either way depending on how they're trained. Training those II-a fibers to be more oxidative in nature is the key to increasing the performance of your aerobic energy system. Unfortunately, those Type II a fibers aren't recruited at typical 'base building' intensities (unless your training session is much longer than you're accustomed to - fatiguing your more aerobic Type I fibers) and, if those fibers aren't being recruited they're oxidative characteristics won't be developed.

OK. Now how should we build our 'aerobic base' in the context of an indoor cycling exercise format?

[SpinBob]

<sigh> ...OK. Now how should we build our 'aerobic base' in the context of an indoor cycling exercise format?Any and all activity below anaerobic threshold?