We all want to be the best at the sports we play. This article will teach you how to get the most out of the off-season cardio with a 12 week program. Be warned though, because this program is anything but easy.

General Cardio Guidelines

• Stay Hydrated. This is vitally important, and I cannot stress it enough. You must stay hydrated, or very bad things can happen (ex. death). Drink water all the time during your cardio sessions.

  You may drink up over a gallon, that's fine, I've done it. You need to keep your body hydrated because it gets very easily dehydrated when you run.

• Warm up. Start off with a 5 minute jog and stretch to get your body ready to run. You don't want a pulled muscle.
• Don't wimp out. We're not there to watch you, and it's very easy to slack off when doing cardio. Why? Because it's hard. You have to have it in yourself.

The Cardio

Now it's time for some fun cardio. We'll be working on a combination of sprinting and endurance work. Cardio will be performed 3 days a week. Whichever days you choose is up to you, but we recommend you do it on non-lifting days. You want to be able to put in all of your effort in.

We'll start off with not too much, but over the 12 weeks, it will build up. You're going to sprint for 50m, and then immediately jog for 150m.

The sprinting portion will work on your sprinting ability, obviously, and the large distance will tax endurance. Once you're running more than a mile, take 5-15 minute breaks in between each mile if you need it. The program is as follows:

Weeks 1-4	Sets	Weeks 5-8	Sets	Weeks 9-12	Sets
50m sprint		50m sprint		50m sprint
150m jog	x 8	150m jog	x 12	150m jog	x 16
Total distance : 1 mile		Total distance: 1.5 miles		Total distance: 2 miles

Info from Paul Bourque, Bodybuilding.com