Do you hate spending time on the cardio machines, like a little
mouse on its exercise wheel? Things like the treadmill, bike, rower,
stepper or trainers. Have you ever been to the gym and watch as people
will spend at least an hour on these machines watching TV or listening
to their music. Well I hate this type of cardio, it's boring and takes
up too much time. I have better things to do with my time than spend an
hour on an exercise machine while watching TV.
Do you know what the key is? Good cardio that is the key. Our bodies are designed to perform at bursts followed by recovery. What does this mean? This is about varying your workout to go fast and hard then recover for a period 1.5 times your exertion then follow that again and again.
Now to go further into this you need to first understand why endurance cardio is bad for your body. If you spend time on the lets say treadmill and do 60 minutes 5-7 times a week you are actually doing your body harm. Scientists have done studies to reveal that endurance cardio increases free radical production in the body, can degenerate joints, causes muscle wasting, reduces your immune system function and can even cause inflammatory responses in the body that can lead to chronic diseases. This type of cardio also only trains the heart at one heart rate range and doesn't train it to respond to every day stressors.
Where as good cardio or High Intensity Training (HIT) or even interval training as some people might have heard it called in linked to increasing anti-oxidant production, an increase in metabolic rate which can help you burn unwanted fat and even encourage a healthy cardiovascular system. HIT cardio teacher the heart to respond to and recover quickly from the variety of demands meaning your ready to take on what you need and when you need it. By creating a variable aspect to your training you train your heart to recover in between burst of exertion and this allowing your heart and body to respond better to your everyday stressors.
The best thing about HIT type of cardio training is the fact that you do more in a lot less time, you reduce body fat, bring out superior muscular definition. Just think of weight training that is about short burst of exertion followed by longer recovery periods.
So next time you want to do some cardio and have 30 minutes to spare then try this instead of spending an hour on the treadmill or bike you will do twice the workout in half the time and then you can move on to better things like spending time with your family.
Next time you go to the gym or use your home cardio equipment try this:
Treadmill Warm up for 4 minutes at an easy pace say 6kph then run for a minute at say 8-10kph, then walk at 6kph for 1.5 minutes, then run for a minute at 10-12kph and then back to 6kph for another rest period of 1.5 minutes. Do this about 4-5 times depending on your time and then cool down at about 4-6kph for 4 minutes. This should take you 28 minutes in total.
I actually do this on my exercise bike every night at home while my wife also does her stepping. You can do this on a rower or what ever you like just change the intensity to suit your requirements.
This is what I do on my exercise bike at home each night. Warm up 2-4 minutes, 1 minute on the hardest resistance doing around 35kph, then slow and steady on an easier resistance at 25kph for 1.5 minutes and I do this pattern about 8-10 times depending on how I feel then cool down for 4-5 minutes on really easy at about 25kph to finish off.
When I go to the gym I use the rower and go flat out for 30 seconds - 1 minute and then rest for 45 seconds -1.5 minutes I do this for between 15-20 minutes and that is it. I am normally warmed up after about 5 minutes of skipping as I love skipping so I do a lot of it.
So there you have it the truth about bad cardio or hamster training as I call it and good interval or HIT cardio, it's quicker, works better, trains your heart to deal with life better, takes less time, better for your body than endurance or long and boring training and you get to leave the gym earlier than everyone else.
SO next time your thinking of cardio think about HIT or interval training and give it a go, you will love it and love the extra time you have to do other things. Come on you can't tell me you love spending hours on the cardio machines watching boring TV, after all you can live your life or watch someone else live theirs.
Thanks for reading.
Do you know what the key is? Good cardio that is the key. Our bodies are designed to perform at bursts followed by recovery. What does this mean? This is about varying your workout to go fast and hard then recover for a period 1.5 times your exertion then follow that again and again.
Now to go further into this you need to first understand why endurance cardio is bad for your body. If you spend time on the lets say treadmill and do 60 minutes 5-7 times a week you are actually doing your body harm. Scientists have done studies to reveal that endurance cardio increases free radical production in the body, can degenerate joints, causes muscle wasting, reduces your immune system function and can even cause inflammatory responses in the body that can lead to chronic diseases. This type of cardio also only trains the heart at one heart rate range and doesn't train it to respond to every day stressors.
Where as good cardio or High Intensity Training (HIT) or even interval training as some people might have heard it called in linked to increasing anti-oxidant production, an increase in metabolic rate which can help you burn unwanted fat and even encourage a healthy cardiovascular system. HIT cardio teacher the heart to respond to and recover quickly from the variety of demands meaning your ready to take on what you need and when you need it. By creating a variable aspect to your training you train your heart to recover in between burst of exertion and this allowing your heart and body to respond better to your everyday stressors.
The best thing about HIT type of cardio training is the fact that you do more in a lot less time, you reduce body fat, bring out superior muscular definition. Just think of weight training that is about short burst of exertion followed by longer recovery periods.
So next time you want to do some cardio and have 30 minutes to spare then try this instead of spending an hour on the treadmill or bike you will do twice the workout in half the time and then you can move on to better things like spending time with your family.
Next time you go to the gym or use your home cardio equipment try this:
Treadmill Warm up for 4 minutes at an easy pace say 6kph then run for a minute at say 8-10kph, then walk at 6kph for 1.5 minutes, then run for a minute at 10-12kph and then back to 6kph for another rest period of 1.5 minutes. Do this about 4-5 times depending on your time and then cool down at about 4-6kph for 4 minutes. This should take you 28 minutes in total.
I actually do this on my exercise bike every night at home while my wife also does her stepping. You can do this on a rower or what ever you like just change the intensity to suit your requirements.
This is what I do on my exercise bike at home each night. Warm up 2-4 minutes, 1 minute on the hardest resistance doing around 35kph, then slow and steady on an easier resistance at 25kph for 1.5 minutes and I do this pattern about 8-10 times depending on how I feel then cool down for 4-5 minutes on really easy at about 25kph to finish off.
When I go to the gym I use the rower and go flat out for 30 seconds - 1 minute and then rest for 45 seconds -1.5 minutes I do this for between 15-20 minutes and that is it. I am normally warmed up after about 5 minutes of skipping as I love skipping so I do a lot of it.
So there you have it the truth about bad cardio or hamster training as I call it and good interval or HIT cardio, it's quicker, works better, trains your heart to deal with life better, takes less time, better for your body than endurance or long and boring training and you get to leave the gym earlier than everyone else.
SO next time your thinking of cardio think about HIT or interval training and give it a go, you will love it and love the extra time you have to do other things. Come on you can't tell me you love spending hours on the cardio machines watching boring TV, after all you can live your life or watch someone else live theirs.
Thanks for reading.
