Cardio can be boring and tedious! It can also be ineffective!
Yes! Ineffective!
Why?
1. Doing too much cardio, can make you burn muscle, and in turn slow metabolism, which means the body becomes less efficient at burning fat. First of all, more is not always best. What I mean by this is that you don’t have to do hours of cardio on a treadmill in order to lose fat and get fit. Actually it’s the total opposite. You see, the body isn’t that smart as to burn fat all the time. The body goes through a process of burning the food you ingest in order to use it for energy. When doing cardiovascular exercise the body can use FAT AND/OR CARBS for fuel or energy. But it’s not smart enough to just use these nutrients, so if the body is depleted of them, it will start breaking down muscle (protein) in order to use it as fuel, especially if you are doing cardio for too long (anything over 45 minutes). Crazy isn’t it! This can happen especially if nutrition isn’t good. For example, if you didn’t eat enough yesterday……say you only ate 2 or 3 times, and then you did one hour of intense cardio, there is a huge possibility that your body is utilizing muscle for energy, which means you are SLOWING METABOLISM, which means……you are getting fatter…….not leaner……. So let’s start doing some efficient cardio training.
2. If nutrition isn’t optimal, you could do cardio for an hour and not burn any fat! Remember the whole deal on SUGAR! Say you ate a super healthy bowl of fruit for breakfast, and then proceeded to do 45 minutes of cardio………Since the sugar spiked insulin level which in turn caused the only hormone that releases fat cells to be suppressed……There is a huge possibility that you just worked out for 45 minutes and did not burn one ounce of FAT!
3. If you are not working at the right intensity while doing your cardiovascular exercise, there is also a possibility that you will not be burning fat. Just as the body adapts to weight-training causing a plateau in results, the body reacts the same with cardio workouts. So it is important to change up your cardio workouts as well as the intensities you use. For example: Steady state heart rate cardio training has been shown to increase cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone, that if out of balance, can cause the body to break down muscle and store fat. Instead of steady state heart rate training, try interval training. Interval training avoids the rise in cortisol and makes burning fat more effective.
4. If you do cardio that you enjoy, you will be able to stick to it. If you don’t, chance are you will quit. So make sure that you do an activity that you enjoy. If you don’t like running…….don’t run for your cardio workouts. If you enjoy your cardio workouts, you will be consistent and you will have fun. I definitely have my favorites!!! I love Spinning, and I love the Stair Climbers, oh and I also enjoy jump roping! Since I enjoy them so much, I stick to it, and not only that…….I actually look forward to it! I know I’m crazy!!
Here is a sample Cardio Workout with Interval Training
Treadmill
Duration: 20 minutes
Warm-up: 3 minutes
Speed: 3.0-3.5 mph
Incline: 1.0
Each interval from here on is for 30 seconds
Speed: 5.0 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Speed: 6.5 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Speed: 6.5 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Speed: 6.5 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Continue for 10 more minutes, and end with a 3 minute cool-down.
Be sure to check out my book 30-Minute Workout Express, for some super effective workouts.
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Posted on
Thu, June 16, 2011
by Michelle Diaz
filed under