Benefits of Cardio and How To Make It Fun

May 22, 2015 by Tatianna

 

Hello my Lovies,

Today the topic is Cardio, the benefits of cardio and how to make it fun so you’re looking forward to it instead of dreading it. I am fully aware that Cardio now days has a bad reputation, and that many people skip it because they think it’s “useless”, or they skip it because they find it boring. I definitely have to strongly disagree.

If you guys have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I subscribe to Rusty’s Visual Impact, and his blog Fitness Black Book. I’ve gotten some of the most incredible workout tips by reading his blog and following some of his advice. More specifically his advice about Strategic Cardio, Rusty is a big advocate of cardio. Few months ago, one of his emails contained a really good post about a case study done on Cardio, which proves one of the biggest points to my opinion as to why Cardio is so beneficial.

A study is called “ The Response to Long-Term Overfeeding in Identical Twins “

A brief overview of the study from Rusty’s email:

12 pairs of identical twins (24 males total) were sent to a dormitory to live for 120 days under close supervision.
These twins were relatively lean young men from Quebec.
They were fed 1,000 calories over maintenance for 100 days, and weren’t allowed to exercise.
The goal was to measure body fat gain and body fat distribution gained over the course of these 100 days of overfeeding.
• The average percentage of body fat went from 11.3% to 18%
• Everyone put on body fat…from 9 to 30 pounds.

The analysis of this study found something very interesting.

These guys with highest VO2 Max gained the LEAST fat mass.

According to findings, Testosterone levels and Metabolism played an extremely small role in how much fat each person gained.

The biggest indicator of how much fat was put on during these 100 days of inactivity was VO2 Max (Aerobic Capacity).

“this data suggest that being in good cardio vascular shape can prevent future fat gain.”

If you have higher VO2 Max…it acts as a buffer to gaining fat.
…you can get away with eating more, with less of a chance of gaining fat.

 

What does this mean to you?

 

Well first of all…you can get pretty lean without cardio.
I’ve seen guys (especially younger guys) get pretty darn lean by lifting weights and keeping a pretty strict diet.
…but as soon as they go on vacation they put on body fat rapidly.
If they were to use strategic cardio to reach their peak state.
Not only would they reach their fat loss goals at a faster rate.
…they could take a break from training without adding a ton of excess fat.
Bottom line…if you want to get lean and stay lean, you should spend time improving your VO2 Max through strategic cardio.

Rusty talks about Strategic Cardio, and he has several great articles about that. One is called Balancing Steady State Aerobics with Interval Training  and the other one I really liked was An Aerobic Workout Program that Forces Your Body To Burn Fat.

I wanted to share this with you guys because I think this is very good piece of information and for those of you who hate doing cardio, may be beneficial to know this information.

Getting creative with Cardio

 

Now, me personally I LOVE MY CARDIO! Do you want to know why I love it? Yes Yes I know you do :). I love it because I make it fun, I get creative with it and I enjoy every minute of it.

One of my favorite ways to do my Cardio is Running outside, in places where I can see beautiful scenery. Nature it self, has a very high vibration, so if we are around places with high vibration we naturally feel more energetic and more lifted, then running is not a chore anymore but a way of relaxation. Obviously it’s kind of boring to just run, so what I do is change my intervals around, and add bodyweight exercises in between interval sessions.

Here is a quick example of one of my outside running workout:

I do 4 sessions of Tabata Running:

10/20=8 ( 10 seconds break, 20 second max effort, 8 rounds total, equals 4 minutes which is one session )

10 seconds I rest, 20 seconds I run like a gazelle who’s being chased, completely to the max.

• After the first session I would do 80 Side jump Lunges
• After the second session I would do 80 Low Jacks
• After third session I would do 100 mountain climbers
• After the forth session I would do 100 bodyweight walking lunges

( this was just an example, I always changes the intervals of my sessions and the exercises )

When I’m doing light cardio, I run with twists and turns, I run backwards, I sometimes jump up and touch the tree branches while running ), pretty much having fun with my run.

 

Kind of like this guy ( I’m super inspired by this video from YouTube Channel Equinox )

 

 

If you don’t like to run outside, and you prefer running on a treadmill indoors, ( when it get’s hot I actually prefer treadmill if I can find one ), you can still get super creative on a treadmill.

For inspiration take a look at this creative way of using a treadmill ( also from Equinox Channel ). If you are a beginner I do not suggest trying any of these moves, this is for someone more advances:

 

 

Another fun way of Cardio is Jump Rope. This guys makes it look easy, but I actually spent an hour trying to recreate this, not that I was able to accomplish some of these moves, but the “trying” part definitely gave me an amazing cardio workout.

 

 

As you can see Cardio can be a lot of fun, and it is beneficial not only for fat loss, overall health, but from my experience it’s also a great stress reliever. I really hope that you were able to find some inspiration from this article and get all excited about doing cardio!

Hugs,

Tati

 

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