I’ll admit it, I hate doing cardio. The bike seat hurts after about 5 minutes on the thing. You’d think they’d be able to design a better seat? But no, it’s the same thing every time. I start using the bike, I get in a great cardio session and burn my quads up something fierce, but the seat kills my butt and inner thighs.
I tell myself I’ll get used to it. But I don’t get used to it though. It sucks every time I use it. So I never end up using an exercise bike for more than two weeks.
The treadmill sucks too. Standing in the same place and walking for what seems like eternity. Usually giving into boredom or flaming calves when I decide to put some oomph into it.
Ellipticals are just as boring, after you get over the initial, “Ooo! It’s like I’m walking on the moon!” phase. Stair steppers make my knees feel like they’re going to explode. I haven’t actually tried the Jacob’s Ladder, but then again I’ve only ever seen it at one gym. It’s like a stair master, but ladder rungs on an angle instead of straight up and down. When I did consider using it, I imagined it becoming monotonous after about the fourth “floor” of climbing.
I have yet to find a cardio machine I’d like to use. What do you do when you hate cardio machines? You don’t use them.
Cardio is not necessary for weight loss.
Seriously. Have you ever looked at the “calories burned” counter on the machine? It’s barely anything. You’re not burning off that jelly donut on the exercise bike. You’re not “burning extra calories,” either. What you’re doing, is strengthening your heart.
That’s why we do cardio, for heart health. If you think you’re going to cardio your way into a beach body, you’re focusing on the wrong variable.
If you want to burn more calories, all the time, even at rest and while sleeping, you’ll want to add muscle tissue. Our muscles are what we call metabolically active tissue, meaning that our muscles are burning calories just by existing.
Because our muscles are always craving energy, our bodies don’t want too much muscle hanging around. If you’re reluctant to start resistance training because you don’t want to bulk up, don’t be. It takes serious effort to build muscle and keep it.
Bodybuilders need to eat a lot of food to maintain that mass. Ronnie Coleman, perhaps one of the worlds most well-known bodybuilders, having won Mr. Olympia from 1998-2005, needed to eat 6,000 calories a day just to keep all of that muscle.
One of the first things our bodies do when we find ourselves in a sustained caloric deficit is to shed muscle in an effort to balance calories consumed to calories burned.
What I’m saying is that you’re not going to “accidentally” look like a bodybuilder just because you’ve added resistance training with weights to your routine. You will put on small amounts of muscle over a large area of your body. A little bit here, a little bit there; more in the areas you really focus on.
That small amount of added muscle is going to do a much more effective job at burning off extra calories than any cardio session could ever hope to achieve.
Does that mean that I never do any cardio? No, it only means that I don’t use cardio machines, unless it’s part of a class I’m taking.
When I do intentional cardio, I prefer to be out in nature. What do you think: Is it better to stand or sit in one place on a piece of gym equipment for half an hour; or would you rather hike up some sand dunes?
I’ll take the sand dunes, or a hike in the woods, a walk along the beach, heck, even walking my dog around the yard is preferable to trodding in place indoors.
Here’s a little trick: You can get extra exercise in during the day by simply parking further away from the store when running errands. If you have a desk job, it’s ok to get up and take a lap around the office. If you work from home and can’t do laps, you can always take a little break and do some Yoga, or breathing squats.
Now, if you read that last line and don’t think Yoga counts as exercise, come take my class 😉
Yard work also counts as great exercise. Maintaining the half-acre garden here on our Eclectic Homestead keeps Kathi and I in shape. Whether it’s pulling weeds, tilling the soil, harvesting produce, planting the plants, or looking after the animals, it’s all exercise.
Repurposing the land is also wonderful exercise. We converted one hillside to wildflowers so far, adding a loose stone pathway leading alongside and curving around the front of the retaining wall, and a slender edibles bed hugging the path to the outside. I love cardio sessions that result in a more beautiful back yard!
At the time of this writing, we’re working on rocking the fire pit. The crushed concrete was delivered this morning, which should pack down nicely for the base. We haven’t looked locally for what we’re going to finish it off with yet, but I’m looking forward to those cardio sessions. Maybe I’ll post some pictures when all is said and done.
If backbreaking landscaping isn’t your thing, how about dancing? Personally, dancing isn’t something I typically do. I wasn’t graced with any sort of rhythm. Even when I’m tapping my fingers to a basic drum beat, there will be a misbeat at random intervals.
We did take lessons for Patrick’s wedding, though. I say, “we,” but the lessons were really for me. Kathi is already quite adept. It was enough training to get me out on the floor instead of plopped in my chair as I spent my brother’s wedding.
Dancing is a fantastic form of cardio!
If you’re fast dancing anyway. Slow dancing isn’t all that energetic in the moment, but it can definitely lead to an enjoyable cardio session later that evening. I’ll let your brain dangle on what that activity might be…
In summary, there are a whole host of activities in which you could be engaging right now to add to your overall health. Which ones are you already doing? Which do you want to add? Do you prefer to get your cardio sessions in at the gym, or out in nature?
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