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Forget About Never-Ending Cardio Workouts That Keep You Fat and Shrink Your Heart and Lungs… There’s a More Effective Way to Add Years to Your Life
You’ve probably heard that to lose weight and achieve a strong, disease-proof body, you need to do some sort of monotonous aerobic or cardio exercise for at least an hour, four days a week.
Not true! Here’s why…
Long duration exercises like aerobics and long-distance running do more harm than good. The best way to lose fat, build muscle, strengthen your heart and lungs, and add years to your life is with short duration, high intensity exercises.
You see, typical cardio and aerobic exercises not only put you at risk for repetitive motion injuries, they also force your heart and lungs to shrink. When you don’t challenge your heart and lungs, they get used to the routine and don’t have to work as hard. That makes your heart and lungs less resistant to stress. And if your heart can’t handle stress, you are more likely to drop dead of a heart attack.
What’s more, these exercise routines don’t make you lean and strong. When you burn fat, your body gets the signal to store more fat. People that train at low to medium intensity for long periods have a much higher body fat percentage and less muscle than people who train for strength with short duration, high intensity, interval-type exercises.
A recent study showed that the muscles of marathon runners actually shrink. When the muscle biopsies of seven marathon runners were analyzed, researchers found their muscle fiber size had decreased and atrophied.1
Working out in short bursts of high intensity exercise will burn glycogen stored in muscles as fuel rather than fat. This then teaches your body to store more energy in the muscles and not as fat. This process helps you burn fat and get lean.
A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that men and women who exercised at a higher intensity had lower blood pressure, lower triglycerides, higher HDL (good cholesterol) and less body fat.2
Short bursts of high intensity exercise can also help you exceed your aerobic capacity, which increases your lung volume. Why is lung volume so important? According to the famous Framingham Heart Study, lung capacity is the best predictor of longevity and absence of disease.
Ropes Gone Wild! No Impact — Pure Adrenaline!
As a fitness trainer, I am always happy when I have a little free time to train myself for a change. The other day as I walked into Cincinnati Functional Fitness (CFF), a gym where I train clients.
Five Reasons Why You Should Lose the Cardio Mentality
“Cardio” is the “Economic Stimulus Bill” of the fitness world. You can put your hopes in it, but generally it isn’t going to do anything for you, and it will just waste your time and resources.
A Recession Era Fat Loss Workout
If times are tough, or if you just don’t like going to big, expensive commercial gyms where stinky bodybuilders hog the equipment and girls “dressed-to-impress” intimidate you in the exercise area, then you’re going to love the alternative fat burning workouts that you can do at home — without any equipment at all!
Turn Back the Hands of Time with Interval Training
Exercising daily has become the mantra for good health. While studies show that any amount of physical activity you get will be of benefit to your health, the research is also clear that the more you exercise, the greater the health benefits (as long as you have no signs of overtraining). Exercise not only lowers your disease risks, it improves your quality of life as you age.
Trick #3 to Boost Your Metabolism: Interval Training to Finish
Say goodbye to the dreaded long hours spent on cardio machines and get ready to tone up with interval training. And the best part is — it only takes 15 minutes after your resistance workout!
The new wave of cardiovascular exercise is interval training, and it is the most economical way to get results fast. According [...]
When it Comes to Cardio, Shorter and Harder is Better! Part 2: The Best Way to Perform Cardio for Fat Loss
Despite what unscrupulous diet ‘gurus’ would have you believe, weight loss is all about calories. You can employ all manner of highly hyped diet gimmicks, but you simply will not lose weight (aside from temporary water or fecal losses) if you do not establish a calorie deficit. To lose weight, you must burn more calories [...]
When it Comes to Cardio, Shorter and Harder is Better! Part 1: The Tabata Protocol
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you cardiovascular activities such as running, cycling, and skipping are good for your heart and arteries. And unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few decades, you’ll know that performing cardio on a regular basis is a great way to boost your calorie expenditure [...]
The Secret to Setting and Achieving Fitness Goals at Any Age
I don’t like to brag (ok maybe I do a little bit) but sometimes you have to toot your own horn or nobody else will.
Last week I set a new personal best for bench press and leg press. Considering I am 45 years old, I thought that was pretty good. Most people I know quit increasing their max 10 years before that. I bench pressed 435 lbs for two reps and did over 1000 lbs on the leg press for a full set of eight!! That’s pretty good by any standard and awesome for me. It is particularly good considering I weigh 210 pounds with less then 10% body fat and I have been decreasing my percent body fat simultaneously.
So how do I do it? Do I have a secret? There are a few fundamentals that everyone should know and take advantage of, but yet so few do. I will talk about four of those today and leave the rest for another essay.
The Best Exercise to Burn Fat?
If you’re trying to burn fat, I have some very interesting news for you. A recent study finds that weight training is far superior for burning body fat and elevating metabolic rate post-exercise than any other exercise.
