Arguably the busiest section in any gym in the cardio area, yet when I look into this god forsaken part of my gym I see the majority of people doing all kinds of crazy nonsense!!! If you don’t properly perform an exercise, you’re wasting your time as well as the time of the other people who are waiting to use the machines (*cough**couch* my friend caithilin lol) . So here’s my top do’s and don’ts, as well as how to get the most of your cardio sesh….
· Rule #1, #2 and #3: DON’T HOLD ON!!!!
I can’t emphasize this enough!!!! When you are
walking/running/stepping/whatever you’re doing , let go of the damn machine
people!
Here’s why: If
you’re doing the step mill or a stair stepper and you rest all of your weight
on the handrails, you’re taking ALL THE TENSION OFF OF YOUR GLUTES AND LEGS! If
you have to hold on for balance, do it very slightly, or even just with one
hand. But if you want the benefits of a stair stepper and want it to tone up
your legs and butt, for god’s sake, just
let go!
If you’re doing an
incline trainer or treadmill and you hold on to the handles at a steep incline,
again you’re taking all the tension off your glutes and your legs. Think about
it, if a person is walking on a steep incline, but they’re holding onto the
hand rails so that their body is perpendicular to the treadmill…. How is that
different than walking normal, on a flat surface??? You’re completely misusing
the entire purpose of having an incline!
Another reason to
let go of cardio equipment is because you burn more calories if you let your
own body do all the work! One day at the gym I did an experiment… I walked on
an incline trainer with my heart rate monitor on and tried different drills
with both holding on to the hand rails and then letting go. When I held on, my
heart rate dropped dramatically! And when I let go it went up to about 90% of
my max heart rate on the steep incline. So that tells me this: regardless of
what the machine is reading for calories burned, you burn significantly more
calories when you don’t hold onto the cardio machine. Don’t do a super steep
incline, thinking you’re torching calories (because that’s what the machine
tells you) and you’re just wasting your time because you’re making it easy by
holding on the whole time. You will burn
more calories doing a lower incline or slower pace and not holding onto the
machine than you will at a steep incline with a death grip on the hand rails,
regardless of what the machine is telling you!!! Let your legs and glutes
do the work and you’ll see results from not only burning more fat but also by
sculpting your lower body in the process. (pic of machines)
 |
| This is the best pic I could find to illustrate what I'm saying, but imagine if this girl was on a STEEP incline, leaning back like this. It's such a waste of time! |
· Make it count!!!
I’ve already discussed that I’m not a fan
of hour-long cardio sessions in general. I don’t have time for that and I’d
rather spend my time building lean muscle! So whenever I do cardio, I try to
make it short and effective. Some of my favorite forms of cardio are the step
mill, running sprints (or interval training) or walking on a steep incline very
slow and squeeze my glutes and hamstrings with each step. If your gym has a
Jacob’s ladder, those are excellent for cardio also! (Personally, I choose not
to do that very often as it has a tendency to turn me into a huge vagina! Haha)
What I like to do is incorporate my cardio into my weight training regimen. I
can’t go to the gym 7 days a week and I can’t workout for hours doing both long
bouts of cardio and weights (that’s not a realistic goal for most moms in
general!), so I have to try to get it all in as best as possible. What I found
works best for me is doing one of these more advanced forms of cardio (that I
mentioned above) for about 10-20 minutes before I lift weights. This gets my
heart rate up and helps me burn more calories while I’m lifting. If I do
sprints for 10 minutes or the step mill for 20 minutes, and then I go
immediately into my typical high volume strength training for about an hour, my
heart rate will easily stay above 80-90%, burning way more calories than an
average weightlifting routine. This gets me out of the gym in around 90 minutes
and burns around 800 calories!
 |
| This is on average how many calories I burn in any given 1-1.5 hour workout with minimal cardio. |
Another option is to incorporate plyometrics
into a weight lifting circuit. For example, if you’re working your biceps and
triceps one day, in between each set do 25 burpees, or 10 box jumps, or if you’re
working out at home do jumping jacks or jump squats. Cardiovascular exercises
don’t have to be long and grueling. In fact some of the most efficient and
effective moves are short and fast. (Hellllo jump rope!) By doing this, you are
not having to set aside any extra time for cardio , yet your heart rate stays
up and you are burning more calories and building muscle at the same time!
 |
| http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/plyo_card_routine.htm Jamie Eason has some great plyometric workouts on this site! |
· Ahhhhh, running….
I think running is kind of like
broccoli…. You either love it or you hate it! It just so happens that I have
the same feelings for both! I hate them. A lot. I don’t like to run long
distances because I have a very short attention span! I prefer to sprint my ass
off and get it over with so I can move on to the next super exciting exercise!
I would rather flip tires down a football field than run a few terrible miles… whereas some people prefer it and find it
relaxing and a way to unwind and distress. Whatever your feelings are, my only
advice is this: If you’re trying to build muscle be careful with long distance
cardio. Oftentimes runners have a harder time holding onto lean muscle as their
body uses their muscle as fuel for their long runs. This is not always the
case, but sometimes. Also running can be very hard on your joints and knees,
especially if a person is overweight. This is another reason I prefer the step
mill and incline trainers, they are MUCH easier on my knees. This is also a
reason I had to stop doing sprints very often. I have a bad knee and the
pressure from running, even for only 30 second sprints, was making it act up and
very painful. (Cycling and swimming are also good options for people with bad
knees/ joints.)
·
HIIT versus steady state cardio
As I mentioned in a previous
blog, interval training is much more effective at burning fat than steady state
cardio. HIIT stand for high intensity interval training. In this form of
exercise, short bouts of all out effort are cycled with short rest periods.
This cycle is then repeated for a pre-determined number of sets. This can also
be referred to as Tabata training. In steady state cardio, however, the same
pace is kept for the duration of the exercise.
The biggest difference between these two forms of exercise is this: in
steady state cardio, once the workout is over, your body stops burning
calories, whereas in HIIT cardio, the body continues to burn calories for hours
after the workout is complete! I’ve even read some studies showing a subject
burning calories for up to 12 hours after a session of HIIT is performed! HIIT
can be performed on any kind of cardio machine, or with no equipment at all.
For example, sprints can be run outside or on a treadmill. Also a person can do
bouts of all out effort on a step mill, elliptical or bicycle paired with a
rest period of either complete stopping rest or simply a slow paced rest. There’s
even a spin class I take and the instructor’s entire class is made up on
intervals, from doing bicycle sprints to uphill climbs (get it Sam!!!). There is never a steady
pace kept for more than 1 minute. It’s all about the intervals!!! Good times to
use would be maybe 30 seconds of all out effort followed by 30 seconds of rest,
even more challenging in 20 sec. effort/ 10 sec. rest. But these numbers aren’t
concrete; they can be adjusted based on the activity. One could even do
intervals of running at a fast pace on a treadmill for 3 minutes, then rest for
1 minute. Regardless, any kind of HIIT training has been proven to burn more
calories, more efficiently than steady state cardio.
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