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I also forgot to mention that I am not too slow! We got timed and I was near the slowest and I finished in a little less than 8 minutes. It's so sad how I'm getting beat by the younger girls though, haha
 
I also forgot to mention that I am not too slow! We got timed and I was near the slowest and I finished in a little less than 8 minutes. It's so sad how I'm getting beat by the younger girls though, haha

Glad you went to the doctor. Take the instructions seriously and good luck. An 8 minute mile is fine (especially with asthma) maybe the other gymnasts are just really fast also.
 
I was once diagnosed with exercise induced asthma because I had a hacking cough (and was wheezy) after every 1k sprint race (rowing). Getting in shape cured me, so I don't think it was actually asthma, I think I was just out of shape. Not that it doesn't exist, just that sometimes the cure is doing more of what is supposedly the problem.

And I remember that we had to run an 8 minute mile (just one) in gym class in 9th grade.. those who couldn't do it had to keep training until they could, the rest of us got to play volleyball (we all trained for a couple of weeks before the test). If the average NYC 9th grader could be expected to run an 8 minute mile, surely a high level gymnast can! It does sound like you have some fast kids there.

If you're not too slow, what's the problem again? I can't remember...
 
I'd absolutely love to hear the rationale for this type of training. Is there a time and a place for aerobic work in a predominantly anaerobic sport? As mentioned by someone within the thread - Yes. There are definitely some athletes that need this type of training regardless of sport, but not necessarily long-term. The adaptations can be made fairly quickly and actually last for quite a while.

On the flip side, if you take an athlete that doesn't need this type of training and you can actually cause changes to the physiological properties of certain muscle fibers (you can't change muscles fibers...you have what you have...can only change their properties to some degree) and actually make them slower/less powerful.

So, how do you know? There's a few ways, but probably the easiest is to monitor resting heart rate (HR). Most high level gymnasts will probably be in the 60-65 BPM range or below. That's a guess without actually looking it up in the literature so if you've seen a study to suggest it's slightly lower/higher...that's my disclaimer with the numbers I'm spitting out. Ultimately, I'm just trying to illustrate a concept. Anyway, if your athlete is up in the 70-80 BPM or higher, some aerobic work might be warranted until they get their bodies adapted back down into that lower resting HR range. But, once they get back down in that range, any conditioning should be geared more towards strength/power/anaerobic endurance-type of training. Remember, the aerobic system adaptations tend to last longer as opposed to the anaerobic adaptations. Note: You'll always lose a little, regardless. Unfortunately, these energy systems operate on a continuum and they "compete" with one another. So, if you shut down the aerobic work and go immediately to anaerobic work, you will lose a little of aerobic gains. But, those losses should not be too bad.

Feel free to pass this along to your coach! Good luck!
 
As someone who hated all the running I had to do when doing sports growing up, including long runs before a two hour practice that was mostly running (soccer), I can tell you that much of "endurance" running is about attitude and mental state. Enjoy the run, let it clear your mind, focus on breathing steadily. Hating the run will make it much, much harder.
 

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