I’m 30 years old now and have had achilles tendinitis since I was about 21. Before that I would get my cardio by running 1-3 miles a few times a week, but because of the tendinitis I can’t do that anymore.
Knowing that cardio is important, I spent a bunch of time trying different forms of cardio. Nothing has worked though.
Biking hurts my knees (I have bad knees).
Swimming gives me headaches.
Doing the stairs was ok, but kinda hurt my knees.
Jumping rope is what gave me the tendinitis in the first place.
Rowing hurts my knees for some reason.
There are various forms of high intensity stuff like interval training and kettlebells that kinda-sorta work, but that doesn’t hit the sort of Zone 2 cardio I’m looking for. Plus it’s hard to stay motivated with the high intensity stuff.
Battle ropes were a creative thing I tried, but I don’t really see how to do that in a low-intensity, aerobic, Zone 2 cardio sort of way.
So, I basically gave up and decided that cardio is just “not for me”. This belief became cached, and such that whenever the topic of cardio came up and my brain went “huh, maybe I should do cardio”, it fetched from the cached and got back a response of “no, you already tried everything and determined that cardio isn’t for you”.
But then, in my mindless YouTube browsing, I came across this video about Zone 2 training by Peter Attia. Then I started to think about it more. I had a thought that triggered me to bypass the cache.
Peter was talking about how for Zone 2 training, the intensity is such that you can carry out a conversation with someone (the interviewee said he does conference calls when doing this training), but you won’t be able to hide the fact that you’re exercising. That struck me as very low intensity. So I was like, “Huh, I wonder what that feels like. Maybe at such a low intensity my knees and achilles would be ok.”
Then I went downstairs and tried to hit that level of intensity (I targeted a heart rate of ~125), first on the bike, then on the treadmill. I figured out what it felt like, but both hurt my knees and achilles too much. But then the next day I went to the gym and tried to hit that intensity on the stair climber. Fortunately, it was pretty much fine! The pace is extremely slow and comfortable. It even feels good. Almost like a massage for my cardiovascular system if that makes sense. I did 15 minutes and stopped.
Then two days later, today, I just did 60 minutes. My knees and achilles both feel slightly iffy, so my plan is to continue doing 60 minutes 3-4x/week and monitor how I’m feeling. I’m hopeful that at such a low intensity, it’ll be ok. I’m also pretty willing to accept a little pain and wear and tear in exchange for the cardio benefits.
I think I just busted a cached thought. Yay.
I’m 30 years old now and have had achilles tendinitis since I was about 21. Before that I would get my cardio by running 1-3 miles a few times a week, but because of the tendinitis I can’t do that anymore.
Knowing that cardio is important, I spent a bunch of time trying different forms of cardio. Nothing has worked though.
Biking hurts my knees (I have bad knees).
Swimming gives me headaches.
Doing the stairs was ok, but kinda hurt my knees.
Jumping rope is what gave me the tendinitis in the first place.
Rowing hurts my knees for some reason.
There are various forms of high intensity stuff like interval training and kettlebells that kinda-sorta work, but that doesn’t hit the sort of Zone 2 cardio I’m looking for. Plus it’s hard to stay motivated with the high intensity stuff.
Battle ropes were a creative thing I tried, but I don’t really see how to do that in a low-intensity, aerobic, Zone 2 cardio sort of way.
So, I basically gave up and decided that cardio is just “not for me”. This belief became cached, and such that whenever the topic of cardio came up and my brain went “huh, maybe I should do cardio”, it fetched from the cached and got back a response of “no, you already tried everything and determined that cardio isn’t for you”.
But then, in my mindless YouTube browsing, I came across this video about Zone 2 training by Peter Attia. Then I started to think about it more. I had a thought that triggered me to bypass the cache.
Peter was talking about how for Zone 2 training, the intensity is such that you can carry out a conversation with someone (the interviewee said he does conference calls when doing this training), but you won’t be able to hide the fact that you’re exercising. That struck me as very low intensity. So I was like, “Huh, I wonder what that feels like. Maybe at such a low intensity my knees and achilles would be ok.”
Then I went downstairs and tried to hit that level of intensity (I targeted a heart rate of ~125), first on the bike, then on the treadmill. I figured out what it felt like, but both hurt my knees and achilles too much. But then the next day I went to the gym and tried to hit that intensity on the stair climber. Fortunately, it was pretty much fine! The pace is extremely slow and comfortable. It even feels good. Almost like a massage for my cardiovascular system if that makes sense. I did 15 minutes and stopped.
Then two days later, today, I just did 60 minutes. My knees and achilles both feel slightly iffy, so my plan is to continue doing 60 minutes 3-4x/week and monitor how I’m feeling. I’m hopeful that at such a low intensity, it’ll be ok. I’m also pretty willing to accept a little pain and wear and tear in exchange for the cardio benefits.