Cardio: Did I Beat My Previous Time?

A couple weeks back I did a blogpost going over my cardio session.  I explained the “inverted ladder” and got part of it on video.  Well, the other day I repeated the SAME EXACT ladder, in attempt to improve my time.  And I know y’all have been on the edge of your seats in anticipation – waiting to find out if I improved.  In case you missed the video from my first attempt at this inverted ladder cardio session, here it is …

In week 1, I completed the entire ladder in 7:09.  And in my 2nd attempt, I did it in 7:01.  As you can see, I shaved 8 seconds off of my time.  When I repeat it a 3rd time, I’ll go for 7:00 or faster.

Goals

Each time you head to the gym for your training session, that is exactly what your goal should be… making improvement each and every time!  Even if that improve seems minuscule, it is still improving, meaning that you are heading in the right direction.  A little + a little + a little, ends up to be A LOT down the road.

When I train clients, quite often they are disappointed when they only beat their previous week’s numbers by 1 rep.  I tell them; “No, that is great!  Even if you end up improving by 1 or 2 reps on each day of the training program, in the end that is going to be VERY significant improvement!”  Example:

Your program calls for 4 X AMRAP chin-ups (that 4 sets of As Many Reps As Possible)

Week 1 you get 10 reps, 9 reps, 9 reps, 7 reps (total of 35 reps)

Week 2 you get 10, 9, 9, 8 (total of 36 reps. “Only” 1 rep better)

Week 3 you get 10, 10, 9, 9 (total of 38 reps)

Week 4 you get 10, 10, 10, 9 (total of 39 reps)

So, over the course of the 4-week program, you just improved by 4 reps.  Again, significant!  So, small improvements from week to week REALLY add up.  And by the way, IF you are making HYOOGE improvements from week to week, then I question your effort.  Lets say you went from 22 total reps on week 1, to 35 total reps on week 4.  When I see a client do this, it makes me think that they were sandbagging it on week 1.

The only time that I think really BIG jumps in numbers are ok in that short of a time-frame, is if you are just learning a new movement in week 1, and don’t want to push it too much due to the fact that you don’t really have it “figured out” yet.

Moral Of The Story

Make each training session a competition and try to improve each and every time… no matter how small the improvements seem to be.  Just make sure that are you being honest, and continue to use good form and a full range of motion (i.e. if you ended up adding 3 additional push-ups on week 2, but didn’t go down all the way to the floor, that is NOT improvement.  You cheater! )                   

Is this a new concept to you?  I mean, do you just randomly go from session to session without any real purpose?  Or do you set it up where you try to beat your numbers from week to week?  I’m curious to hear what you have to say, so let me know in the comments section below…