What do I have to consider as a beginner?
For every newcomer it is important to find the sport that you enjoy most. The best training is useless if you don’t stay on the ball due to a lack of motivation. It is also important to pay attention to the stress on the joints during the various endurance sports.
For example, if jogging is a heavy strain on knees and ankles, this heavy strain does not occur when cycling. Another important aspect is to adapt the training to the current fitness level. Beginners should gradually get their bodies used to the strain so that they do endurance sports with a low training frequency (about twice a week) for about 30 to 45 minutes.
Once the body has come to terms with this, either the intensity, frequency or length of individual training sessions can be increased. If you then decide to practice the sport permanently, the choice of appropriate sports equipment is a point not to be neglected. Especially in running, a well cushioned, possibly reinforced shoe is an important criterion to reduce the stress on the joints and prevent bad posture.
How often should one ideally do endurance training?
The answer to this question depends on the athlete’s training condition, his ability to regenerate and the length of the training units. Studies have shown in the past that once-a-week endurance training has no effect on performance and the cardiovascular system. The training breaks between the units are too generous. Two to three training units per week are recommended if the declared aim is to improve performance and strengthen the cardiovascular system. However, if the endurance training only serves as a supplement to a main sport, care must be taken to ensure that the athlete does not get into “overtraining“.
Can endurance training be combined with muscle building?
Endurance training can be combined with muscle building to a certain extent. If you look at triathletes or marathon runners, for example, they look only slightly more muscular than a hobby athlete. Strength athletes or bodybuilders, on the other hand, have a much larger muscle mass than a hobby athlete. This indicates that the muscle build-up is dependent on the type and intensity of training. In fact, endurance training leads to a change in the type of muscle fibre and only to a small extent to an increase in muscle mass.
Should I do endurance training before or after weight training?
Every athlete has to find the answer to this question for himself. However, most people tend to combine endurance training with strength training. Since the strain and associated fatigue during endurance training is not as great as during strength training, it is easier to add this training to the more demanding training. Of course, this question also depends on the muscle groups that are being trained. For example, if only upper body muscles are used in strength training, endurance training that focuses primarily on the lower body muscles could be preferred to strength training.
