Training The Cardiovascular System

The cardiovascular system is all about the creation of energy. When we move our bodies we require more energy to do so. This energy comes from breaking down ATP in the mitochondria, a process which requires oxygen or glucose. This is literally why we breathe and why we breathe heavy during activity, we require more and are using more oxygen. Oxygen is needed for the creation of ATP, but during anaerobic glycolysis oxygen is not required, glucose is used as the fuel source for breaking down the ATP to ADP, hence why this process is glycolysis. We have two energy systems that enable the creation of energy, both of which need to be trained effectively if we want to be in excellent cardiovascular condition.

In this article I am not going to go into the details of aerobic and anaerobic respiration, but these forms of energy production need to inform our training plan to be in the best shape possible. We need to be stressing the cardiovascular system in ways that stress both glycolysis and aerobic respiration in order to make them both as efficient as possible.

Turning This Knowledge into A Training Programme

People looking to be in great shape in order to play tennis may only want to be doing non-specific cardiovascular work two times a week, so in this example I am going to provide two example sessions that you can use to get in excellent shape for tennis.

This training programme is only for cardiovascular training if you are interested in strength training exercises you can use to improve your tennis please refer to this article .

Types of Sessions

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT is an extremely effective way to improve your cardiovascular capabilities and ensure you can be at the top of your game. Tennis requires short sharp bursts of energy that can get the heart rate very high, meaning HIIT will be very effective for improving tennis performance. HIIT is a very popular form of cardiovascular training that involves performing multiple bouts of high intensity outputs with rest periods between. There are a thousand ways to skin this cat, which also makes HIIT fun because it can be done in so many different forms. HIIT is all about getting the heart rate very high, unsustainable high, and keeping it there for short periods of time.

Sample HIIT Session

Indoor Bike

4 x 3 minutes at a high intensity

Rest 2 minutes between rounds

Low Intensity Steady State (Zone 2)

Low intensity steady state is the opposite of HIIT, it is where a low heart rate (typically 60% of your maximum heart rate) is maintained for a long duration, typically 45-90 minutes based on your current fitness levels and time available. Zone 2 training will also help improve your cardiovascular system though increasing mitochondrial density along with many other beneficial adaptations. If you do not know your heart rate max and do not want to measure it, a great way to test if you are in zone 2 is if you are able to hold a conversation or not. Zone 2 is often described as a conversational pace.

Sample Low Intensity Steady State Session

Indoor Bike x 45 minutes in Zone 2

Designing Your Plan

So, you know you need to be doing two cardiovascular sessions per week to be in excellent shape, now you need to add these into your weekly training plan to ensure you can effectively make changes to your cardiovascular system. For HIIT, you may want to join a group class as the coach will be able to help you find the right intensity for when you are starting out and help you with the session design. For Zone 2 work, try find something you enjoy, if you like running this could be perfect but it could be any form of mono-structural training like rowing, biking, swimming etc.