5 Ways To Spice Up Your Cardio

We all know “cardio” is a necessary tool to improve the health of our heart and lungs. It is also a great component to your training program if your goal is to lose body fat. Unfortunately, we often have this limited association with cardio. “It must be 45 minutes to an hour long--which can be a roadblock for those who have limited time per day in the gym. Many people also hop on a piece of cardio equipment and simply cruise at an easy, mindless pace--great if you need the mental vacation, but not so great for your metabolic response. Last, cardio, for many people, makes one whine at the mere thought because it can be boring!

The following are a few of my favorite ways to incorporate cardio and conditioning in little time, but sure to make your heart throb, body sweat, suck wind and feel exhausted. Not to mention, it can leave your metabolism soaring post cardio :)

One of my personal favorites for the following interval methods listed is the Schwinn Airdyne Bike, but many forms of cardio equipment will work. You are only limited by your imagination! Aside from traditional cardio machines, alternatives such as body weight exercises (ie: burpees, mountain climbers, power skips, sprints) or equipment such as JC bands, boxing, hammer/tire work, kettle bells, plus numerous other possibilities are perfect too!

#1 Moderate Interval Work: 3 minutes of cardio on a machine of choice, (ie: a bike, the rowing machine or treadmill) at a moderate intensity, followed by 2 minutes of jumping rope. 5 minutes per round, complete 4 rounds for a total of 20 minutes.

#2 Complete a Timed Mile (on your choice of cardio equipment) in as little time as possible. This will only take you minutes, but it’s all about INTENSITY!. Over time, after you’ve mastered one timed mile, try incorporating a rest period for recovery–about the same amount of time it took you to complete the first mile) then begin timed mile number 2!

#3 Moderate to Hard Intervals: 1 minute at a mild pace to warm up. 1 interval round = 30 seconds of hard effort followed by 30 seconds easy. Repeat 8 rounds and a 1 minute cool down for a total of 10 minutes.

#4 High Intensity Intervals: Another interval scheme I enjoy is 10 seconds hard (and I mean HARD effort) coupled with 20 seconds for recovery. 30 seconds is one round, repeat 8 rounds for 4 minutes total. This is a Reverse Tabata. If you are at the intensity level you should be, 4 minutes will be all you need to feel smoked! Over time, you may also progress this to 15 seconds of hard effort and 15 seconds of rest.

#5 Tabata Interval Training: Tabatas are probably the shortest yet most intense style of cardio/conditioning out there. A true Tabata is 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes for a total of 8 cycles. This is a phenomenal way to sky rocket your metabolism, burn fat and increase your fitness capabilities. Again, the exercise chosen for a tabata is open, but the intensity is the key. Many folks trail off the intensity by the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th round, so build up to this demand using the suggestion #4. This style of training is recommended only for higher levels of fitness and should be progressed into it’s truest form.

So no more excuses that you don’t have time for cardio or you’re bored with the traditional methods. Give these suggestions a try and it’s sure to leave you feeling physically worked with a higher caloric expenditure and a metabolic response in less time than you could imagine!

-- Alli McKee

Certified Personal Trainer

Life FX Hunt Valley and Silo Point

New Research: Junk Food Is As Addictive As Crack?

Sadly, the title of this post is not even a joke.

A new article published on the CNN Health website shows that unhealthy foods can be dangerously addictive.

According to the article:

"A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction, the study found.

Doing drugs such as cocaine and eating too much junk food both gradually overload the so-called pleasure centers in the brain, according to Paul J. Kenny, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida. Eventually the pleasure centers "crash," and achieving the same pleasure--or even just feeling normal--requires increasing amounts of the drug or food, says Kenny, the lead author of the study.

"People know intuitively that there's more to [overeating] than just willpower," he says. "There's a system in the brain that's been turned on or over-activated, and that's driving [overeating] at some subconscious level."

This research just confirms what many of us have suspected for a long time.

Eating junk food is so harmful for you in so many ways physically, and this research shows that the damage is now psychological too.

So the next time you're about to tuck into to that tasty morsel of junk food, make sure you think twice, you could be getting addicted.

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Yudi Kerbel, CPT

Life FX Hunt Valley

ykerbel@fxstudios.com

New Studies Show That To Get Toned And Slim, Women Need To Lift Heavy And Hard

Everyone knows the conventional wisdom - to get lean and toned you need to lift light weights for high reps, right?

Not so, according to a recent article in the NY Times:

"For people who lift weights to tone up and slim down, experts say, a regimen that includes a combination of challenging weights and fewer repetitions can help significantly. In a 2002 study, for example, scientists looked at what happened when women performed various resistance exercises at different weights and repetitions (85 percent of their maximum ability for 8 reps, versus 45 percent for 15). Subjects lifting more weight fewer times burned more energy and had a greater metabolic boost after exercise.""

In other words, lifting heavier weights revs up your metabolism and burns more calories than lifting lighter weights.

So if you're currently avoiding the heavy weights out of fear that you might 'bulk up' and 'get big', you need to do exactly the opposite of what you're doing now.

The Bottom Line:

If you want to tone up, train heavy and train hard. Light weights and high reps have their place in a training program, but most people turn to them way too often to really see the results that they want.

If you can't seem to shift that weight and you've only been training with high reps, give those heavier weights and low reps a try.

And if you're not sure about the best way to get started training with low reps, make sure to stop in to one of our fitness center locations and ask for your free consultation with a certified personal trainer. Our trainers are all experts in fat loss training and can help you tone up, slim down and get in killer shape super quick!

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Yudi Kerbel, CPT
Life FX Hunt Valley Certified Personal Trainer