3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Cardio… And the solution

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Cardio… And the solution

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I’m just back from the park behind my apartment in Swords.

I wasn’t in the humour of gym based training today so I decided to do some ‘cardio’.

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Not the kind you are thinking of…I will outline what I did and explain why in a moment but first I’ll talk a little bit about cardio and how it isn’t actually the best exercise for fat loss.

I NEVER recommend traditional cardio to my personal training clients…

1.Its boring

2.It doesn’t work for fat loss (seriously)

3.Its counter productive (It makes you fatter)

Let me explain…

1.Its boring and it sucks… that’s about it for point 1…

If you actually like doing long repetitive cardio, be my guest…but somehow I don’t think you will do it again after reading these next points.

2. If you think about it…

I mean really, really think about it… what is the physical difference between your average untrained person and someone who can run a marathon?

They both actually look the same right?

When was the last time you saw a ‘fit’ looking endurance athlete?

The only thing different is their physiology has adapted to use energy more efficiently than the person who is untrained… basically their body uses less energy to do the same thing.

To make a long story short… everytime you do steady state cardio you teach your body to use less calories…

Use less calories, less fat is lost…

3. Its COUNTER productive…

It makes you fatter in the long run…seriously…

Taking point 2 into consideration… lets say you teach your body to use less calories each time you perform a cardio workout…

i.e.

Week 1 you burn 350 calories

Week 2 you burn 300 calories

Week 3 you burn 250 calories

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This is an exaggerated example but you get the picture…

But lets say you are eating the same food all that time, but burning less calories…

You get fatter.

You get more economical with calories, burn less of them, eat the exact same as you were before and … get fatter…

Not nice is it?

Heres my workout

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15 sprints that involved 10 seconds of work/sprinting and 50 seconds rest (mostly lying on the pathway panting)

5 x 50 m shuttle runs (out and back) with high knees at the end of each run (2:00 windows)*

5 sets of 20m (out and back) shuttles in the tennis court with 30 seconds clap push ups at one end of the run and 30 seconds crossover climbs at the other… (2:00 windows)*

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That was an hour ago and I’m still sweating 🙂

Interval training cardio is the way forward…

Instead of getting used to the activity and becoming economical at it, your body/ metabolism will just throw calories at you if you are performing intense exercise.

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More calories burned = more fat burned… WIN…

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I’m not suggesting you go out and even attempt my workout because if you are not highly trained you will not be able to complete it and then you’ll probably be sending me hate mail for a month after it because of how sore your legs are.

So try this…

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Jog for 10 seconds brisk walk for 50 seconds x 10 repetitions

Really fast brisk walk for 1 minute and lazy walk for 1 minute

Mark out 20 metres.

Jog 20 metres, perform a plank for 30 seconds jog back (1 repetition) perform 10 of these.

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Done… you’ll be surprised how effective it will be for you…

You might get some looks but who cares you’ll be leaner than them in no time 🙂

Check out one of my clients who has lost an amazing 110 lbs of fat since last october…

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Heres the proof from facebook

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NO CARDIO… NOT ONE BIT

Thanks for reading

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Bryan Kavanagh BSc CSCS