Cardio?..Leg conditioning?

Hey, I'm Michael, Quite New, 15 . Ect.

I've been working on conditioning for some time for now..Mainly on my upper body, I hardly ever work on my legs and as I am viewing now I can see that is such a bad idea as legs are obviously a very important point in gymnastics. Anyway, some of the things I don't like doing are ..well conditioning my legs and cardio. Cardio is my main point for now as it very boring for me and stops me from losing fat. If anyone has any time, could they outline some actual fun cardio work outs...and maybe something which I can start for leg conditioning and how many reps? I've been doing gymnastics for four years and it depends weither I should start from the beginning for leg conditioning or intermitate, I definitely know I'm no-where near advanced so if anyone could help me out with these I would greatly appreciate it.

Michael.

I had the same problem - it's just boring, boring, and boring. But then I started rope jumping, which sounded boring at the beginning, too. Believe me, it's not. That means, rope jumping is as boring or challenging as you make it. You could have a look at http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym26.htm and for part two of the article, look at http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/jumprope2.htm. Make sure you read everything - patience! - and that you watch the videos.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it a lot.

I'm not a cardio guy, but since it has to be in my routine I gather that it has to be there. I've started gymnastics four times a week, recently, however, I'm going to be away for 2 weeks from sunday since I'm going on holiday, I thought I might get up early at holiday and go in the pool for a swim for like 2 hours or something which might be good. .

Well, since I have to wait till sunday for that to happen and I doubt I'll be swimming any time this week till then..I would appreciate any more cardio or leg conditioning.

Thanks,

Michael.

Look into something like crossfit metcon for your " cardio. "

Tabata ( 20 on-10 off for 8 rounds ) something is always good or you can do a modified circuit of 3-5 stations of 45 on 15 off or 30-30, what not. It's easiest just to keep it to half minute or full minute rotations.

It can simply be line sprints, overhead weighted lunges, squats, pistols, etc

Michael, Cardio is anything but boring. Yes, running 5 miles is repetitive, but there are so many different forms of cardio.

Personally, I Crossfit (just as Blairbob recommended), but my recomendation is that if you really enjoy upper body training than use the excercises that you enjoy in a circuit. Throw in some box jumps, bodyweight squats, or jump rope and try and knock out as many rounds as possible in X number of minutes. You'd probably enjoy this more, and it gives you another way to gauge your progress by recording the number of reps (or rounds) completed.

Yes, Tabata (20 on-10 off for 8 rounds) as Blairbob said, you can place it into any routine and will make you look like a fool, Tabata is great and it is killer, I use to do Tabata squats, after that I wouldn't go out for the rest of the day the first few times I did it. I started up my 100 yard sprints today and they feel great, not quite tough as Tabata but they are up there. With cardio you need to mix it up or it becomes repetitive as others said, do jump rope one day, do long distance the other, then sprints, swimming, if you have a good routine cardio may become fun rather than just a sweat breaker.

Both Blairbob and kbryk said:

Tabata (20 on-10 off for 8 rounds)

That's 20/10 seconds in case anyone's not familiar with the protocol...

This timing protocol has been shown to improve both the aerobic and anearobic pathways simultaneously. Good stuff!

Cheers,

George.

Thank you so much everyon,

This is really great, I appreciate it so much.

Thanks,

Michael.