Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday "Cardio"

I know that I still have a lot of friends out there who are doing workouts from the 80s and 90s. I still have numerous people telling me, "Hey Sull, I did 90 minutes of cardio today! Aren't you proud?" To me, that is a shitty time to preach about, "well, you could have done x, y, or z." Getting in to the gym and moving around for 90 minutes is a nice accomplishment. I will however take this forum to tell you that I think you can be more productive. In stead of getting in 2 - 3 90 minute sessions during the week, I would much rather see you guys doing 25 minute sessions throughout 4-5 days. I think more frequency and being consistent will lead you to much better results. Your body will look better, feel better, and you will have more time left over for the stuff that really matters.

Here are 3 "cardio" workouts that won't take a lot of time or thought:

Set up your treadmill, do your regular warmup, and slowly start to increase your speed until you are going faster than your typical jog. Not a sprint, but something called a tempo pace (between jog and sprint). Leave the treadmill running, step off, grab a quick blast of water and gather your thoughts.

I want you to CAREFULLY get on the moving tread and do your thing for 15 seconds. CAREFULLY step off and do a set of pushups. If you can easily do 10 pushups do 10. For most girls 3-5 nose to the ground pushups will be very challenging and plenty. Do your pushups, stand up, and take a peak at the clock REST until the next even minute starts. Start your 15 second tempo on the minute, step off, do your pushups, and rest. Repeat for 6 sets. Finish with some type of basic plank variation for abs and hit the showers.

You could do this workout with any bodyweight exercise like pushups, inverted rows, chin ups, or squats. Be careful with exercise selection so you aren't crushed when you get back to your run.

Let this type of workout take the place of a 90 minute cardio session. Trust me, it is better for you and way less boring.

2 comments:

Body Building said...

I agree with you.Cardio exercise is perhaps the most important aspect of losing muscle. This is the opposite when you are trying to bulk up. Instead of doing short cardio bouts, aim for long duration sessions.

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