cardio sequence for group exercise
Hi Dana,
It would help if you could elaborate on your question a bit. What kind of cardio class? Usually you have a warm up, the basic core of the class, and a final cool down and stretch. The cardio sequence depends in the type of class.
Please give us more info on what you are looking for…
Best,
Christine
It depends on your clients in the class
Always do a dynamic warm up and ease into any High intensity cardio.
Mix things up! If you can do part of the class using a step or bosu along with squats and lunges you can incorporate all muscle groups along with cardio.
Have your class monitor their heart rates: ask them what they are, this way you will know if they need to be pushed or not
Hello Dana Cronin,
As Christine and Sue mention, of course we start with warmup, usually dynamic stretching; have the class body using RPE and/or Talk Test to gauge intensity; then cool down, usually with mat work and stretching.
You want to make sure the participants know they are responsible for staying in their safe intensity zone, with your professional observations and feedback to keep everyone safe.
Take care,
Natalie aka NAPS 2 B Fit.
Hi Dana,
As a certified fitness instructor, I was always taught to use the bell curve model, which was mentioned by the preceding people who answered your question.
Dynamic warm ups can be about 5 minutes in length or longer depending on the type of class and the participants. For example, you would want the warm up to be longer and more dynamic & fluid in monition if you are teaching a class with senior citizens or less fit individuals. The dynamic warm up can be 5 minutes if you are teaching a class to mostly younger or more fit individuals.
The cardio portion can be anywhere between 30-40 minutes, again depending on your type of class. You will want to cool down for about 5 minutes or longer depending on your class. You can also offer a few minutes of strength training or balance training.
I always make sure to have at least 5-10 minutes of stretching because most people don’t do enough stretching and it is a good way to incorporate some relaxation.
Hope this information helps!
Hi Dana,
MY opinion, is to always start very easy work up to a bit more action, whatever your action might be, then do a brief yet thorough stretch, start back into your action and increase, as stated in an above post, based on your class.
For an easier class focus on form as they work at their level, learn or recover…from their current status. For more bootie kickin’ classes begin strong and start build at about 15 minutes climbing in effort level keep going to 45 minutes, for an hour class. At 45 minutes I begin to slowly decline effort, exact opposite of the build. Again it depends on the class description.
This is a basic idea. During higher efforts, if you’re doing more anaerobic, you have to, based on physiology, ease up for recovery. The decrease at the end is to let lactic acid begin to flush…then have a good stretch. People who want to go harder the entire time can, especially if it’s only one part of their workout.
Hope this helps!
Yvette
Marcum Healthy 🙂