Breaking Some Common Cardio Myths
If you visit a gym regularly then you will probably have seen a familiar routine. Large groups of people training on the running machine or exercise bike all trudging along at the same slow pace for seemingly endless amounts of time. It puts a lot of people off training for life when they think that is what you have to do. And the worst thing of all is that it doesn’t seem to really make a difference.
It’s not just from experiences at the gym either. Often personal trainers, friends who workout and qualified people will espouse the benefits of steady cardio work for between half an hour to an hour a few times a week.
But before you follow along and get into the same unrelenting regime as most other trainers out there you should think about some things. There are very few occasions where constant paced endurance cardio is required. Most sports are based on a stop-start system where you push yourself hard for a short amount of time before slowing the pace hugely.
Running marathons would be an exception to this but I’m sure you did not get into physical exercise to build the physique of a long distance runner. Surely a sprinter is more the body you are going for.
If you do long periods of cardiovascular work at the same pace there is also research to show that it can have a poor effect on your joints, not to mention actually stripping away some of the muscle you have built up.
In contrast a much healthier and beneficial way of training is the variable training that encourages difference paces of exercise. It can be good for increasing muscle growth and definition while also improving residual metabolic rate. You will generally find it is more interesting than the slow slog of repetitive training leaving you more likely to persist with it.
You may be wondering the best way to incorporate this type of workout into your regime. It is actually quite easy. You will of course be doing this by playing many sports such as basketball, tennis and volleyball where you are required to change pace and intensity very frequently.
Another option is to use your equipment of choice, be it treadmill, exercise bike or just an open space to train. But instead you can vary the intensity for short burst, so you push hard for about 30 seconds before slowing down into recovery mode for a minute and then repeating.
Lifting weights is also perfect for this as you naturally have varying periods of intensity and recovery. Do not worry if you do not want to build bulk, it is possible to train with weights for the primary motivation of getting lean.
Try this type of workout and you should find it helps with weight loss, building muscle and also keeping you interested when the old boring workouts used to try your patience.
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