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Outside Magazine May 2002

The Shape of Your Life: The First Four Weeks
Start It Up


By Paul Scott

Intro | The Effort Equation | Strength Exercises and Stretches | The Prime Rate

THIS INSTALLMENT of The Shape of Your Life is devoted to building endurance. The weekday plan (use your weekends for hiking, biking, running, climbing, paddling, whatever) utilizes heart-rate training zones to raise your VO2 max and lactate threshold. You need to round up a heart-rate monitor, but for the first two weeks, to get familiar with how your HRM works, just wear the unit and mentally note your digits during the aerobic sessions. At the end of week two, you'll determine your personal lactate threshold with a simple test. The interval sessions in weeks three and four are engineered to raise your LT.

25th Anniversary Fitness Special
The Shape of Your Life home (click here)
We also introduce you to basic strength and flexibility training. For dumbbell lifts, use enough weight to bring you just short of exhaustion in each set. If you struggle with pull-ups, have a partner hoisting you at the waist, or get friendly with the weight-assisted pull-up machine at your gym. Begin each strength session with a warm-up (ten minutes of rope skipping, stair stepping, easy jogging, or zero-resistance cycling) and end with the stretch sequence. As always, if you have health concerns, consult your physician before starting this or any other exercise program. Finally, should you miss a workout, don't panic, just pick the workout back up as soon as you can.



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Intro | The Effort Equation | Strength Exercises and Stretches | The Prime Rate


Paul Scott wrote about the year's top fitness trends in June.