3030 Cardiochallenge
3030 Cardiochallenge
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Welcome to the Cardio Challenge. A little while ago I decided I wanted to do a 30 day
experiment in my backyard. What would it feel like to wake up every day for 30 days in a row
and head out for 30 mins of cardio without fail?
The reason for challenging myself in this way was motivated primarily by the pure fun and
enjoyment of movement exploration. I had revisited some of my training from past years
preparing for the CrossFit Regionals, when I’d do several workouts a day including an
aerobic session in the mornings. And while I have no desire to revisit that amount of volume
and intensity again on a regular basis, it did make me remember how good this type of
workout can feel.
Daily cardio also has a host of other benefits. If you want to build a better aerobic base, burn
more energy throughout the day, and get to eat more food as a result, this will set you on
that path. Aerobic work with my special formula for success is also great for blood flow and
recovery. And with Functional Bodybuilding, we always hold a place for the thinking athlete
to simply explore new modes of training and find more and more ways that might hook you
on staying consistent, healthy, and fit.
In order to have the best chance at completing this 30 day experiment, I knew I was going
to need some variety. I mean, I could just get on the stationary bike for 30mins a day but
even with my strong sense of discipline, I knew I would likely get tired of the same old thing.
I love variety so long as it doesn’t take away from the intent of training.
What follows are 30 of the sessions I completed using the variety of tools I have at my
disposal. I’m fortunate to have 5 different pieces of cardio equipment in my backyard
including 2 different bikes, a rower, a ski erg, and a treadmill. Add to that a couple other
tools that show up like a jump rope and some bodyweight exercises and that was the kit I
had available.
If you have access to all that equipment then you are in for a treat. If not then NO WORRIES.
I’ll provide some substitutions that you can use. Furthermore, for the 30 day challenge you
don’t need to do all 30 different workouts. If you find 5 that work well with your equipment
list, then just perform those 5 workouts for 6 straight cycles and you will arrive at 30
completed days.
https://functional-bodybuilding.com/cardio-challenge/
W H Y D O T H E C H A L L E N G E ?
Do you thrive on setting goals for yourself? Does the idea of a community event make you
feel motivated? Are you looking for a little more accountability? Maybe you have been
looking to add some more movement to your days but are worried that if you do too much
you might burn out and start feeling beat up. Or perhaps you are interested to learn more
about how to do cardio, what it is supposed to feel like, and ultimately spend a little more
time building your ENGINE in longer formats that don’t show up in PERSIST or within your
training all that much.
Any of these could be good reasons to jump on board with the challenge.
W H A T M A K E S T H I S C A R D I O ?
Cardio is not in the sets and reps but rather the intention and effort. You can’t just assume
that because the workout says 25–20–15–10–5 that you are going to be hitting your cardio.
Don’t rush into this without checking out a few of our resources on cardio:
Why Do Cardio?
In summary, cardio (aka Aerobic Work), is the implementation of the following recipe:
Each of the examples below met these criteria when I performed them over the course of 30
days. You may need to scale certain workouts back and/or adjust your effort level to keep to
the SUSTAINABLE concept.
W H A T I S I T ?
Thirty workouts that are meant to fall inside the 30min time domain. Because the workout
formats vary widely in this PDF, some workouts will by nature of their design always be
30mins in duration. Examples included the 30min AMRAP, or :30sec of work/:30sec of rest x
30 sets. Your goal in workout formats like that is to simply focus on giving a sustainable level
of effort the whole time.
For other workout formats, the time to completion may vary widely depending on your
aerobic capacity. An example would be the final session of the challenge.
In this example it took me right around 30mins to complete. However, you might find
yourself going slower. You can approach these formats in one of two ways. Put a 30min cap
on your effort. Or, adjust the reps in such a way that you can complete it within 30mins.
The last workout format combines time constraints with variable length work prescriptions.
Something like this example:
Every 3mins
40 Double Unders
12–15 Calories Bike Erg
12–15 Calories Row
x 10 Sets
You begin a new set every 3mins for 10 total rounds. This = 30mins. But the amount of work
you complete inside that 3mins will vary from person to person and the total time to
complete it might also vary too. While these sets took me about 2:15 each to complete
while performing 40/15/15 reps, that might take you longer. In these examples there will be
a guide as to how long the work sets should take and you will need to adjust your reps
accordingly so that you can complete the work in a sustainable fashion within the suggested
time frame.
W H O I S I T F O R ?
These workouts are being made available exclusively for PERSIST MEMBERS and FBB
CLIENTS. The 30/30 Cardio challenge could literally be for anyone. You can do 30 minutes of
cardio every single day so long as you are doing something that is simple, sustainable, and
repeatable. The reality is that for many of you, going for a 30 minute walk each day is the
most advisable cardio to do. Why? Because you already dedicate a lot of time and energy to
your PERSIST training and that alone is more than sufficient to give you great results. For the
majority of the last couple years, I did nothing but 4–5 PERSIST workouts a week, and went
for two 90 minute bike rides.
However, for some of you that are very experienced with FBB and have added time and
bandwidth in your life to take on the challenge in more complex cardio formats, these
supplied workouts could be great.
You don’t have to do all 30 workouts to complete the challenge. What I want you to commit
to is moving for 30 minutes each day outside of your PERSIST or FBB workouts in an aerobic
fashion. You could follow the workouts exactly, go for a 30min walk every day, or alternate
between the two every day. Maybe just pick 3 of your favorite and simplest looking cardio
workouts from this PDF and do them every week, and on the other 4 days go for a walk for
30 minutes and get in your steps.
W H A T T O E X P E C T ?
If you truly learn what it means to complete aerobic sessions at sustainable efforts for you,
then doing 30 minutes of cardio daily could be a huge benefit to your energy, body
composition, aerobic fitness, and mental well being.
If on the other hand you push your intensity too much, have too much EGO to scale back
some of the workouts, or you just like to get after it, you might find that the combination of
these cardio workouts along with your PERSIST training could leave you feeling a bit more
tired than normal.
Neither is wrong, I just don’t want you thinking you can crank on your PERSIST/FBB workouts
and at the same time crush your CARDIO and not feel the impact it might have.
C O M M O N Q U E S T I O N S
• The tricky part is that 7/10 isn’t the same for every workout. Consider the 3 following
scenarios.
• The challenge and also the fun of doing cardio in the ways we have built these
workouts is to learn for yourself what AEROBIC feels like every single day. The reward
of practicing this over and over like a skill is that someday you will be able to tackle
almost anything and make it feel aerobic (you could do it all day). Talk about power!
How should I incorporate these cardio sessions along with PERSIST programming?
• Perform them 2–3 hours or more before or after your PERSIST programming. If you give
yourself a 2 hour buffer between your regular training and cardio then you will likely
have zero issues with these workouts impacting your performance for the other parts
of your training.
• Perform along with your PERSIST/FBB workouts. You can tack these on to the end for
30mins of added time, or you can replace any of the functional pump conditioning
workouts on a given day with your 30 minute cardio session
What if I only want to do 2–3 cardio sessions a week? Are there ones I should pick over
others?
• Even though the challenge is to do 30 days of 30 minutes, I love having you do some
rather than nothing.
• Pick workouts that look fun and that inspire confidence. This isn’t the time to pick out
the HARDEST most CHALLENGING looking ones you can find. If you can get in a 30
minute cardio session 2 or 3 days a week, then make it something you are really
looking forward to.
• Don’t forget that you can go for a walk on the other days.
What if I only have access to one of these cardio machines and not several different ones?
• There are a handful of cardio workouts included in this PDF that only require a single
machine. Others require two machines. Some require three machines.
• Focus first on the workouts that only require one machine and no matter what the
prescription calls for, just use the tool you have.
• Some other bodyweight movements that lend themselves well to cardio are the
following
◦ Walking Lunges
◦ Tall Kneeling to Standing
◦ Beast to Alternating Leg Through
◦ Sprawls
◦ Box Jump Step Down
◦ Double Unders or Single Unders
◦ Burpee Box Step Ups
◦ Crawling for distance
• You can take movements like these and substitute them in place of the second or third
machine exercises that are included in the workout.
My machine doesn’t count calories. How can I make the appropriate conversions?
• Please see the comprehensive guide we have included below that outlines how you
can move between calories, meters, machines, time domains, etc.
• Note that for machines where power output is influenced heavily by body mass and
force production, there is often an 80% adjustment made for female athletes. This is
based upon generalized averages and you do not necessarily need to scale your
workouts to 80% of distances and calories, but it may be more suitable to the time
domain.
• All of the included workouts in this PDF are written with distances and calories
prescribed with a male athlete in mind as these were workouts that I (Marcus) did
personally.
Fiiii AEROBIC METRIC CONVERSION CHART
400 500 400 500 400 :::::; 1,000 800 1,000 800 2:00
1000 1250 1000 1250 1000 2,500 2,000 ri 2,500 2,000 ri 5:00
M =MEN
W=WOMEN
RUN ROW
l4
Bll<E
ll
AIR BIKE TIME
METERS CALORIES CALORIES CALORIES MIHl/TES/SECOH0S
M w M w M w M w
100 10 7 10 7 6 4 �
,- 7 5 �
' 0:30
200 20 15 =
= 20 15 12 9 15 10 =
= 1:00
300 30 22 30 22 18 14 22 15 1:30
400 40 30 40 30 �
� 24 18 �
� 30 21 �
� 2:00
600 60 45 60 45 36 27 45 30 3:00
800 80 60 80 60 48 36 60 42 4:00
M =MEN
W=WOMEN
500m Row
rest 60sec
x 10 Sets
Every 3mins
15 Calories Row
12 Calories SKi
9 Calories Bike Erg
x 10 Sets
*Each Round you will rotate the order of the machines and keep the calorie counts the same.
On round two you will perform 15 Cal Bike/12 Cal Row/9 Cal Ski. On round three you will
perform 15 Cal Ski/12 Cal Bike/9 Cal Row. Then back to the original order and continue
rotating each round until you have completed 10 total sets.
10 Rounds
15 Calories Row
15 Calories Bike
15 Calories Ski
Day 5 – 45/15×30 × 3 Tools:
:45 – Run
:15 – Rest
:45 – Row
:15 – Rest
:45 – Assault Bike
:15 – Rest
x 10
18–15–12–9–6–3
Calories Bike Erg
Calories Ski Erg
Calories Runner
rest 2–3mins
10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1
Calories Assault bike
*30m farmers Carry tough
*6 step ups 30/24"
Day 8 – 15/12/9 Sets for Time
Every 3mins
40 Double Unders
12–15 Calories Bike Erg
12–15 Calories Row
x 10 Sets
5 Rounds
30 Calories Row
30 Calories Bike
30 Calories Ski
12 Calories Ski
9 Calories Bike
6 Calories Run
rest 30sec x 15 sets (scale back to 12 sets in order to keep total time under 30mins)
:30 – Row
:30 – Rest
x 15
:30 – Bike
:30 – Rest
x 15
21–18–15–12–9–12–15–18–21
Calories Ski
Calories Run
rest 2–3mins
7 RFT
15 Calories Row
10 GHD Sit Ups
300m Row
rest 30sec
x 18 Sets
Every 3mins
12 Calories Assault Runner
10 Burpees no Jump no Clap
12 Calories Assult Bike
x 10
Day 17 – 21/15/9 Rotating Order:
*Each Round you will rotate the order of the machines and keep the calorie counts the same.
Round 2
21 Calories Row
15 Calories Ski
9 Calories Bike
Round 3
21 Calories Bike
15 Calories Row
9 Calories Ski
Round 4 is like Round 1 again
:45 Run
:15 Rest
:45 Ski
:15 Rest
:45 Assault Bike
:15 Rest
x 10 Rounds
Day 19 – Sustainable Increase EMOM:
EMOM x 30mins
1st Min – Assault Bike
2nd Min – Ski Erg
3rd Min – Run
2 sets – 10 cals
2 sets – 11 cals
3 sets – 12 cals
3 sets – 13 cals
:30 – Row
:30 – Rest
x 10
:30 – Ski
:30 – Rest
x 10
Day 21 – Back to Back Triplets:
15–18–21–18–15
AB Cals
Row Cals
Run Cals
rest 2–3mins
15–18–21–18–15
Ski Cals
Bike Erg Cals
3x Double Unders
Every 3mins
15 Cal AB
45 Double Unders
15 Cal Runner
x 10
Every 2:30 × 12
15 Cal Ski
15 Cal Bike Erg
50–40–30–20–10
Calorie Row
Calorie Bike Erg
Calorie Ski
Row 60sec
Rest 30sec
x 20 Sets