Help · Cardio and circuits
Easy, brisk and hard
Easy, brisk and hard describe how a cardio session feels, and talking is the test. Easy: you could chat the whole time. Brisk: you can talk, but only a few words at a time. Hard: a word or two is all you can get out.
Why the effort matters
Your plan has a weekly cardio target in minutes. A brisk minute counts for more than an easy one, so brisk sessions reach the same target in less time.
Cardio builds your heart, your lungs and how long you can keep working. It sits beside your strength sessions and does not replace them.
Easy
Walks, incline walks, and easy cycling, rowing, elliptical, jogging, stair climbing or swimming, depending on your equipment. Easy sessions ask you nothing when you finish. On a goal that grows, they get longer as they go well.
Your easy minutes are spread evenly across your training days. Two shorter walks on the same day add up: 30 minutes in the morning and 30 in the evening count as one full session.
Brisk
Brisk sessions are offered for cycling, rowing, the elliptical, jogging, the stair machine and swimming. A jump rope is brisk only, because even slow skipping is hard work.
Brisk is offered, never imposed. It appears once the health questions are clear and you are ready for it: you said you already do harder cardio, or your easy sessions of that kind have gone well. To take it, tap Swap on the offer on the Conditioning page, or choose Swap some for brisk sessions when you change your cardio.
Axial Fit suggests a few brisk sessions a week, with a day between them, and not the day before a squat or deadlift day when another of your days would work. Brisk work does not cost muscle, but it can leave your legs tired for a heavy lift. If you start one that breaks these, it says why once and gives you Not today and Start anyway.
After a brisk session, a ruck or a round-based session, the finish card asks a short question such as Could you have kept going at that pace? Answer honestly: when it goes well, the next one steps up, and when it does not, it holds or eases off.
Hard
All-out work: REHIT, Tabata, Intervals and the hard tests. These need the health questions first. Axial Fit suggests:
- a full day between all-out sessions, so the next one lands on a recovered body,
- a couple of hard conditioning sessions a week at most, which is where most of the benefit is,
- hard cardio after strength, not right before it.
Each is advice. If you choose otherwise, the session says why once, and Start anyway starts it.
Circuits use the same talk test: after any EMOM, Tabata or Intervals, How was your breathing? sets whether its work counts as easy, brisk or hard minutes. No answer counts as easy. See EMOM, Tabata and Intervals.
Choosing your cardio
On the Conditioning page, tap Change my cardio. Pick your main cardio, anything else you would do some days, how long you can do it now while holding a conversation, and how much time you can give it each week. Tap Save on the summary. Nothing is saved before that.
The Conditioning page lists sessions under Easy, Brisk, Hard, Holds and Tests, with the talk test beside the first three.
Everyday activity counts
Carrying, climbing stairs and long walks are exercise. To record something you did without the app, open Log something you did on the Conditioning page. Choose the kind, Easy or Brisk, the minutes and the day under When (today or up to seven days back), then tap Log it, and it counts toward your week. For a class or a game, choose Other cardio.
Does everyday activity count?
Yes. Carrying, climbing stairs and walking are exercise, and seeing them that way is part of getting fitter. Log a long walk on the Conditioning page and it counts toward your week. Tracking from your watch is coming with the phone apps.
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