Cardio : How To Do It Right!

By Todd Lee M.D.

The traditional method of doing cardio isn't effective. Want to improve cardiovascular health? Want to lose fat? Want to look and feel your best? Then standard cardio isn’t for you!

Traditional cardio like walking or spin class or group aerobics or zumba or jogging all suck in my humble opinion.

By doing continuous long duration cardio you train your body to be more efficient at spending energy on action, in other words you decrease your metabolism and sacrifice muscle to achieve a lighter body weight. Your body feels its part of its existence to plod away at aimless cardio so it wants to be able to do this safely and effectively. To achieve this goal it sacrifices expensive muscle.

Why is muscle expensive? It burns calories, even at rest. The more muscle you have the more fat you burn. The more fat you burn the leaner you get and the higher your metabolism gets, which results in burning more fat and getting leaner...ad infinitum. Muscle is the single most effective way to burn fat, not cardio. Since cardio directly destroys muscle if done for longer than 30 minutes then indirectly cardio makes you fatter, not leaner. Ever notice how unimpressive the people who only do cardio for exercise are? And that the older they are the less successful they are at achieving weight loss goals? Its because they are destroying their bodies with to much long duration cardio.

The Right Way Is HIIT

HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training alternates extremely hard work, with a rest period. The timing and effort are similar to lifting weights and mimics the hormone response from weight training. That means when done for less than 30 minutes you actuild BUILD muscle not BURN muscle with this form of cardio. That means you're burning fat while you perform HIIT cardio and after as your fat is oxidized to generate energy to repair and grow the muscle. The best time to do it is right before weights.

15 minutes or less is all you need. The best are running on the stairs for 30 seconds and walking on the stairs for 60 seconds as one interval, and repeating that 6-10 times. Or sprinting on a treadmill on an incline for 30 and walking for 60.

For more details read the full article here!

(Nothing in this article or on this site should be considered medical advice or as an endorsement to violate any law of the country in which you reside. The information given is for fun and entertainment purposes only. All claims are 100% dependent upon proper diet and exercise. Please consult a medical practitioner prior to any diet and exercise program.)