Cardio Is A Joke By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS www.TurbulenceTraining.net
Strong statement, I know, cardio is a joke, but I really believe that cardio for fat loss is a joke. Although, not a very funny one…
One woman wrote, “I started out doing 5 hours of cardio per week. No results. So I upped it to 7 hours per week. Still nothing. Do you suggest I do more? I’m worried if I use your program, I won’t get any results because you don’t even have an hour of interval cardio per week. Please help!”
I get this question all the time, too.
It seems to me that if something isn’t working, you should find another “solution” not continue to do more of the same even though you KNOW it’s not working. (Same with crunches, by the way.)
And from a gentleman on the Men’s Health forum, “I took up running and didn’t take up stretching until it was almost to late and almost destroyed a knee. What happened was that my IT bands got really tight and my inner quads didn’t gain any strength so my knee cap got pulled out of place. I had an MRI done on my knee and have found that my knee cap has bruised my femur.”
Okay, that may be a little extreme. I’ve run five marathons and still have my original knees firmly in place.
Cardio horror stories are a dime-a-dozen. So here’s the bottom line on cardio…
Long slow aerobic training remains the biggest practical joke in fitness. Marathon running for the average overweight person? Why don’t you just tell someone to go play in traffic…oh wait, that’s exactly what they are doing – all while crushing their joints with excess weight and repetitive pounding.
If you do long, slow cardio, its only a matter of time before you end up in a physiotherapist’s office with all the others that do too much of the same thing…whether its running or spin classes, overuse injuries are far too common in the cardio world.
After all, what’s easier to overdo, total body strength training done 3 times per week for 20 minutes, or the same cardio activity done for 6-9 hours per week?
Heck, I once knew a physiotherapist who was so addicted to spin classes that she had overuse injuries that prevented her from walking normally! Physio, heal thyself!
Cardio is a joke …
But cardio fits our “more is better” mentality, doesn’t it?
We go right from a 3000 calorie meal at the Outback Steakhouse to our 60 minute cardio confessional sessions on the elliptical. More, more, more, more. And yet get less results?
There is a better way.
Take a peek at the weight room when you are in a gym. Then compare the bodies there to the bodies on the elliptical.
You’ll find the sculpted, toned physiques lifting dumbbells and doing pushups, and the plump, “never changing physiques” spinning their tires over on the cardio equipment.
No matter what the city, no matter where the gym, its the same old story.
Burn fat, get lean, and boost your metabolism with resistance training. Finish with short interval training or even bodyweight circuits (described in my DB-BW Fusion TT Workout Bonus from www.turbulencetraining.net) and you are off to the fat burning races.
Or get left behind on the cardio equipment that is getting you nowhere. CB
About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit TurbulenceTraining.net
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article. Preaching the truth. Cardio does have its place and you can integrate strength and cardio training really well.
Weight lifting is the way to go and should be done by everybody!
Great article, I agree weight training burns more calories and is safer. Especially for someone who is overweight, taking up running on a frame that’s too heavy will hurt your knees, joints, ankles you name it. You need to lose the extra weight before you get into any type of serious cardio, much less strain on your body.
I’m a male model and I ONLY do slow paced cardio to presserve as much muscle as possible. I am about 9% bodyfat right now and in 2 weeks I should be around 8 to 7% along with HEAVY lifting and VERY strict high protein diet.