To a lot of people, cardio is their idea of hell.
The thought of going for a run, a bike ride or a swim brings them out in a shiver. There’s a bunch of reasons for this - some find it boring, some find it really hard work, others simply just don’t get any enjoyment out of repeating the same movement patterns over and over again, for a long period of time.
The problem is though, cardiovascular exercise comes with a huge amount of benefit…
Benefits of Regular Exercise on Cardiovascular Risk Factors
This is a list of the more obvious (there are plenty of others not listed here) benefits of cardiovascular exercise. If you’re not doing cardio, you may be missing out on some of these…
Increase in exercise tolerance
Reduction in body weight
Reduction in blood pressure
Reduction in bad (LDL and total) cholesterol
Increase in good (HDL) cholesterol
Increase in insulin sensitivity
These benefits aren’t attached to one particular cardiovascular training approach either. It doesn’t matter if you’re a runner, a swimmer, a cyclist, a hill walker or a combination of them all, you’ll be benefitting from these health outcomes.
So how can you do cardio, without doing cardio?!
Cardiovascular exercise is basically any exercise practice that maintains an elevated heart rate for an extended period of time. The method you use to achieve this is almost irrelevant, so that’s the first step. Acknowledge that you don’t have to limit yourself to traditional cardio exercise - anything can count as cardio as long as it raises your heart rate for an extended period (minimum 20 minutes).
Here’s a few ideas on how to do cardio, without doing cardio…
Play a sport
I think of sport as ‘accidental’ cardio. Personally, I love football. When I play football, I think of it as playing football. The reality is though I’m getting an incredible cardiovascular workout in at the same time. An hour of 5 a side can easily see me burn 1000 calories and is a perfect example of HIIT (high intensity interval training).
Find a sport or activity you enjoy and take part in it. There’s no right or wrong - it could be a team sport, a dance class, an individual sport or whatever else!
Commute to work via bike
Similar to the example above, if you’re commuting to work by bike you’re likely to be thinking of it as a functional task - commuting, rather than exercise. It’s serving two purposes at the same time. Yes, you’re getting to work, but you’re also achieving a regular form of exercise.
If (like us) you live in London, it’s a no-brainer. It’s likely to be much quicker than driving, it’s certainly cheaper and you won’t have a nightmare trying to find a parking space! Not to mention the thousands of calories per month you’ll be burning.
Switch up your workout style
If you like to train with weights, mix things up a little bit. Drop the weight slightly, reduce the rest periods and watch your heart rate fly up. Your exercise selection is key here - if you train like a bodybuilder with an old-school split routine, it’ll be pretty hard to raise the heart rate for a long period of time. Instead, go whole-body and add in big compound and weightlifting based movements such as clean and press, thrusters, deadlifts, squats and the like.
Medium weights, high reps and reduces rest periods. A couple of workouts like that per week and you’ll really notice the effects!
Join our bootcamp classes!
If you want cardio with a difference, our bootcamp classes are the perfect solution. They’re resistance training based, so you won’t be heading out for a long run or ride! It’s just good quality resistance training that will get your heart rate up and your weight down!
We’re expanding the size of our space at the AdMac Fitness studio, so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement in the coming weeks. If you struggle to motivate yourself to do cardio, they’ll be the perfect solution for you.
How often will I need to do cardio?
This depends on your goals, but for most people a couple of good quality cardio sessions per week will provide you with a lot of the excellent health benefits. You don’t need to be heading out for hour long runs - just follow the advice in this blog post and you’ll be absolutely fine.
If you’d rather do a little bit every workout, that’s also fine - if you’re doing it more regularly you won’t have to go as long! The perfect way to fit this into your training schedule is to end each workout with a ‘finisher’ - a high intensity nd to a workout. We wrote a whole blog post on workout finishers here, so throw a few of these ideas into your training sessions and you’ll certainly improve your cardiovascular fitness!
Remember though, they’re usually pretty short (around 10 minutes), so you’ll have to do them frequently if you want the benefits! Oh, you’ll also have to do them hard! There’s no point in an easy finisher…
If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch…
At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!