Whether you are trying to increase your stamina while playing a high intensity sport like soccer, football, or even boxing; or you want to increase your run speed for a 5k or marathon, then you are going to want to get in some anaerobic threshold training. You may have never heard of anaerobic routines, but chances are if you have done any of our HIIT workouts then you have already been doing it.

Your muscle tissue does physical activity in one of two ways, either aerobically (using oxygen) or anaerobically (not using oxygen).  Aerobic exercise can include any type of activity where you can breath in enough oxygen for your muscles to be able to continue that activity for a long period of time; think distance running or an aerobics class (that is where those classes get the name). On the other hand, anaerobic exercise is any activity that is so demanding that you cannot take in enough oxygen to meet your muscles demand for it. When this happens, instead of just shutting down, your body switches to working without oxygen. This is a system that can only function for a short time before having to shut down but it can create a huge amount of energy before it does; think sprinting until your legs stop doing what you are telling them to do.

I am sure that no matter who you are that at some point in your life you have felt the muscle burn and eventual heavy sluggish feeling of pushing yourself to your maximum before your body stops cooperating all together. Once you hit that point, you have reached your anaerobic threshold. This maximum is determined by both genetics as well as overall fitness level. So if you find yourself having to quit during a difficult exercise then don't worry, you can actually train your body to become more efficient at physical activity while not using oxygen and this workout is a great one to train with.

All you need to do is focus on pushing your hardest and even if you can't finish the first group of exercises, every time you do it just try to push a little bit further. This type of training also falls in the HIIT category (high intensity interval training) and can be done in many different ways, but this particular one uses a Tabata style of 20 seconds of activity for every 10 seconds of rest. Because of the difficulty and intensity of this type of workout you need to be careful not to do it to frequently, as over training with HIIT and anaerobic threshold training can easily cause many types of stress injures. We suggest 2-3 routines per week and an absolute maximum of 4 times per week. Just listen to your body and talk to your doctor to find out what is right for you.

Workout Structure: 20 Seconds on and 10 seconds of rest twice per exercise. Do this in groups of two exercises in an A,B,A,B format per group before moving to the next exercise. This is meant to be done with no rest other than the 10 seconds given but feel free to pause in between groups if needed.

• High Knees
• Toe Touch Crunch
• Burpee (single leg)
• Side Walk Push Up
• Squat Jacks
• Side Hip Raise
• Static Squat
• Walking Push Up
• Jumping Lunge
• Back Bow
• Lizard Hops
• Squat Hops