I remember when I was in junior high, we all had to run a lap around the tennis courts every time someone missed the serve during service practice. Coaches sometimes made us run for hours for no reason. And it was not unusual if athletes weren't allowed to drink water without the coach's permission. It was a common way that most coaches trained athletes back in the old days, although it certainly caused some overtraining and injuries for athletes.

But now, personal trainers have better ways to train athletes.

Rather than making athletes run for hours, trainers now apply systematic and sport-specific training programs that work efficiently and prevent athletes from overtraining and injuries.

Cardio training is one of the most important types of trainings for athletes to improve endurance, because a lack of stamina easily affects their performance.

According to NASM Cardiorespiratory Training for Sports Performance, the most common goals of performing cardio training are:

• To improve performance. While a certified personal trainer or athletic coach can teach an athlete various skills, these skills are worthless if, due to fatigue, they cannot be performed when it matters.

• To reduce mental anxiety. With fatigue comes a loss of concentration, a critical component of performance.

• Weight management. Proper cardio can help with the goals of weight loss or weight gain.

After you get a baseline level, it is also important that you have sport-specific cardio training because different sports use different primary energy systems. For instance, in tennis a point lasts only about 5 seconds and there are 20-25 second rest periods after each point. So that means recovery between points becomes very important for tennis players. On the other hand, long distance running lasts hours without rest. Maintaining energy levels for the entire race becomes most important for long distance runners. This requires a different type of training from tennis players.

At The New Basis, we offer sport-conditioning programs based on exactly what you need.  Please contact us for more details. We are more than happy to help you achieve your goal!  Do you have a friend or family member who could benefit from improving their cardio fitness for sports?  Please comment, like and share our blogs with them.  We are happy to help!

If you are ready for the customized and supported plan that will step up your game in whatever sport you love, let us know!  We'd love to work with you!   Click here to schedule your complimentary sport and fitness consultation today!