Does your fitness plan include hours of steady state cardio each week?
Is the treadmill, elliptical or bike your go to piece of equipment when you work out?
Are you working harder and seeing fewer results?
If you answered yes to any of these, you may be stuck in a cardio rut and need some help to break free from the hamster wheel.
Running is the most basic thing you can do to burn calories. You don’t need any additional equipment and you don’t need to have much background knowledge, just a pair of shoes or not, if you prefer barefoot.
In addition to running, the elliptical and a stationary bike are also very low impact. As you condition your body, you can go for hours, or days and not burn out. Maybe this is why many people just starting out do so by running on a treadmill or riding a bike for hours: it’s hard to mess up.
It can also be very boring! And may not be the most effective.
Running or cycling outside can be different but if you are at the gym or in the basement of your home it can be about as entertaining as watching paint dry. I know, I know, you grab a book to read, chat on the phone or catch up on your favorite television show to help pass the time away. The boredom issue is resolved but this is where the effectiveness issue comes into play.
First off, if you are able to read while doing your cardio exercise chances are you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough. My rule of thumb when doing any type of cardio training is the talk test: you should be able to talk but you are winded enough that carrying on a full conversation is difficult and singing a song is definitely out of the question. Consider your exertion level on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is calm and relaxed, 5 is working, 7 is working hard and 9 or 10 is at or beyond capacity. A level of 5 or 6 is a good place to start out for beginners, level 7 or 8 as you become more aware of your body and what it is capable of, and a level of 8 or 9 for advanced training.
If you are giving your run all you have got, steady state cardio will help you burn calories. On average, thirty minutes of cardio activity will burn around 300 calories. If you burn more calories than you consume in a day you will ultimately lose weight. Unfortunately while running or cycling at a steady pace you only burn calories when moving. Once your cardio session is done your calorie burn returns to normal levels. This is another reason why steady state cardio is not very effective.
While the hamster wheel of steady state cardio is a far cry from couch potato, it is when you challenge yourself and your body that you start to change.
