Stop Doing Cardio

If you’re engaging in “cardio” to get in shape - i.e. lengthy, time-consuming aerobic exercises like running, cycling, swimming, etc - stop doing it. It isn’t helping. You heard me right. Cardio is not just monotonous, it’s inefficient. Jogging 40 miles each week is not merely harmful to your body, it’s a terribly inefficient way to get rid of fat and increase your body’s overall performance. Let’s examine a much better way… The Real Deal: Intensity Working out at low intensity for a long period of time causes your body to burn a steady amount of energy throughout the workout session. Burning up calories is great and is precisely what we need to do to lose bodyfat. The issue is that to be able to use up considerable amounts of energy at low intensity it’s necessary to exercise an awful lot, which is not only tough on your lifestyle but on your body too. High volume running in particular can lead to problems for the knees, ankles, and back. High volumes of any sort of exercise (e.g. training for hours per week) is a great way to get burnt out and neglect the things you relish in your life. The great news is that there’s a fix. When stressed by high-intensity, brief duration exercise your body utilizes calories much more quickly than it can make them accessible and replace them, which brings about an oxygen and fuel debt. This debt isn’t magically erased once your training session stops - a growing body of studies have shown that your body continues to work on catching up for hours after you stop working out. If you’ve ever done high-intensity training then you've encountered this first hand. After stopping you’re still gasping for oxygen and shaking. For hours afterwards you can actually feel the effects of the workout. Consequently not only are you burning calories for the brief period of time you’re training, but for hours afterwards - while you’re making the most of other activities. Research indicates that the number of calories burned by a brief high-intensity exercise session and an hours-long training session are similar. So the high-intensity exercise session can provide the same results or much better without the damage and in much less time. Great! How Do I Get Started? This is a simplification of what a high intensity training workout session looks like: 1) Warm up for a few minutes 2) Work like a mad person for 20-60 seconds 3) Rest 4) Repeat 2 and 3 until the workout is finished Straightforward, yes? But not painless, because in (2), when we assert “like a mad person” we’re talking 80-90% of your maximal intensity. The effort over these intervals is extreme, thus the words “high intensity”. There are a few ways to pattern your intervals. One well-known technique is the Tabata protocol, which uses intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. The number of intervals employed can vary, but eight is a good place to start. If you’ve done the math, yes, 8 Tabata intervals is really just 4 minutes of work including rest periods. That doesn’t look like much until you realize that it’s 4 minutes of incredibly intense work. It’s tough but effective, very efficient, and surprisingly rewarding. You may use many varieties of exercises within an interval workout. If you have access to a treadmill or rower, try sprinting or rowing for 8 intervals at 80% of your maximum velocity. If you prefer to build up some muscular endurance, do Tabata squats or butterfly situps: as many as you can for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat for 8 intervals. You can substitute almost anything: pullups, pushups, crunches, jumping rope, etc. In place of cardio exercise, substitute 8 Tabata intervals 3 times weekly, or roughly 12 minutes per week of work. Train with intensity and you’ll notice gains in much less time than you would have with cardio. It’s time for you to kick cardio to the curb.