STRENGTHEN YOUR CARDIO WORKOUTS

“The long walk to NOWHERE… “.  That’s what I call that long, slow cardio session on the treadmill which is meant for weight loss (or most specifically, fat loss).  The question is:  Is it effective?

What if I told you that multiple studies have shown that participants who used ONLY cardio to lose weight OR used cardio along with diet had very little success versus those who focused on STRENGTH TRAINING along with DIET?   The main reason that a cardio-only or cardio-and-diet approach fails is simple:  the body adapts.  It LEARNS, and it learns FAST, becoming efficient, which is NOT a trick you want to teach it if what you want is to drop body fat.

But I want to give CARDIO a fair shake here, because this study looked at LONG SLOW CARDIO sessions – i.e., 45 minutes or more of steady-state cardio (that “long walk to Nowhere” I mentioned earlier).  But what if we approached our CARDIO like we do our STRENGTH training?  Work with me here – because it’s not as complicated as you think.  In fact, here are 3 simple strategies to change your cardio routine so that it strengthens your workout.

SHORTEN THE TIME, INCREASE THE INTENSITY

The goal here is not to burn as many calories as possible during the workout; the goal is to SHOCK the body into burning as many calories as it can ALL DAY.  The best way to shock the body is to shorten the amount of time you work out and INCREASE the intensity.    For example, instead of doing 45 minutes of a steady run, try running fast for 1 minute and then walking (and recovering for 2 minutes).  The key here is that your 1 minute should be at a level that is MUCH HIGHER than you body is used to doing.  You know you are on the right track if you need the 2 minutes to rest.  Try one of the following training circuits:

• 1 minute run, 2 minute walk, repeat for 20 minutes
• 20 second sprint, 40 second recovery, repeat for 15 minutes
• 30 second sprint, 30 second recovery (what I call the DIRTY 30) and continuously repeat for 20 minutes (if you can)

USE CARDIO MACHINES AS STRENGTH MACHINES

If you use machines to do your strength training, you know how to go from the Chest Press to the Lat Pulldown.  Well, what I’d like you to do here is ADD in one cardio piece as one of your “circuit” exercises.  This means you’ll only do it for 30-45 seconds (about the same time it would take you to do 12-15 reps on a traditional piece of equipment) and then move to the next machine.  Try this circuit:

• Chest Press Machine
• Lat Pull-down
• Kettle Bell Squat
• Plank
• Stair Climber / 45 seconds

Now REPEAT the entire circuit 3 times

DON’T DO THE SAME THING EVERYDAY

The more you change things up, the more challenging it is for the body to adapt.  That’s why it’s good to do CARDIO INTERVALS versus LONG SLOW CARDIO.  It’s also a good idea to MIX UP the types of cardio you do each work out.  If you always walk on the treadmill, try getting on an elliptical.   Always do an elliptical?  Then try the Step Mill.    Or maybe Monday you work the treadmill, Wednesday you hit the elliptical and Friday it’s the Rower.  Add a little strength training in between (on Tuesday / Thursday) and you have mixed it up.  Or if that’s TOO much exercising, what about trying a schedule of Mon/Wed/Fri doing strength AND cardio?  Get warmed up and then do 10 minutes of the DIRTY 30 workout (30 seconds on / 30 seconds off intervals) and THEN do 20 minutes of strength training.

There are so many variables to play with here and that’s just the thing you need to do to change up your routine which is what you need TO CHANGE YOUR BODY and keep the results coming.  Even if you can’t run or sprint, you probably can walk up a steep incline (as a push) and then walk on the flat (to recover) – there are an endless variety of ways to change up your cardio and approach it with a STRENGTH mindset in order to help you drop body fat and spend less time while getting more out of the work you put in.

Good luck!

Phil Dozois, Owner, Breakthru Fitness