Alternatives to traditional cardio

Let's face it, if you want to have any decent level of fitness or athleticism you are going to have to perform some kind of cardiovascular exercise. There are however less boring/tedious ways do do cardio other than just going for a jog, up hill walk on the treadmill, a cycle or doing the x-trainer for 30-45mins three times per week.

I want to start by explaining the definition of cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular exercise has two different energy systems.

- Aerobic system... This refers to your body using oxygen to perform an exercise for a prolonged period of time at a generally light to moderate pace of around 60%-85% of your maximum heart rate. Aerobic exercise can be fuelled by glycogen reserves, fat reserves or a combination of both.

-Anerobic system... This refers to your body working for a short period of time at a high percentage of your maximum heart rate, usually over 85%, in which case your body is initially powered by glycogen which is the body's prefered source of energy. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles. Glycogen, when needed, reacts with oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and water to then produce energy for our body to use in short bursts.

Now the Science is out of the way lets get down to the good stuff...

3 ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO DO CARDIO

Sometimes it is hard work to get motivated to get on the treadmill, stationary bike or x-trainer with a goal of using up any excess glycogen and to burn some body fat.

What if I was to tell you that you could burn off that extra glycogen and fat without your joints taking the impact of pounding the treadmill or the tediousness of the stationary bike or x-trainer and get fitter at the same time! Interested?

CIRCUITS
Circuits are great because you can really elevate your heart rate for 30-45 mins with your heart rate in the 60%-85% range. This can be done on resistance machines or free weights or even just with your own bodyweight. That is why circuits are so good. You can tailor your workout to what equipment you have available to you.

I have provided a sample circuit below but feel free to create your own. You can add ANY exercise to this circuit and it will fit right in.

Start off by doing 3-5sets of the exercises below and build it up to 10 sets.

(1) Bodyweight Squats x10
(2) Press Ups x10
(3) Crunchies x10
(4) Burpees x10
(5) Alternate Leg Lunges x10 on each leg
(6) Plank for a 30 second count
(7) Back extensions x10
(8) Chin Ups or Horizontal Rows x10
(9) Hip thrusts x10
(10) Leg Raises x10

You will find this very challenging at first but your body will quickly adapt, gaining both aerobic fitness and muscular tone at the same time. Due to the variety of different exercises your mind is active and the time goes much faster than when you do traditional cardio.

TABATA
The Tabata protocol was created by a Japanese man named Izumi Tabata. The idea of this protocol is to quickly create an oxygen debt which you will recognise from the lack of breath that you have. This will quickly make your body use up your stored sugar (glycogen) which then forces your body to use stored fat (once your glycogen levels are low enough) for energy.

The Protocol
5 min warm up (a walk, cycle or gentile mobility would be fine)

Choose any cardio machine/bodyweight exercise (like a burpee or jump squat)/ weighted compound exercise (like a squat or deadlift) and do 8x20 seconds of work as fast as possible (with good technique) followed by 10 seconds of rest.

Do a 2 min cool down (a walk, gentile cycle or some stretches  )

The Tabata Protocol is intense and they are great at the end of a weights workout to burn off any excess glycogen and to start tapping into your fat storage cells.

COMPLEXES
Complexes are a combination of three or more compound exercises (an exercise that uses two or more joints and multiple muscle groups at once) done consecutively without rest, using the same peice of equipment (usually a barbell or dumbbells). Complexes are very good for increasing fitness and burning fat. They also have the added benefit of allowing you to tone up whilst doing something a bit more creative that standard steady state cardio.

An example complex routine would be as follows;

3-5 sets with a 1 min rest period:
X5 Power Cleans
X5 Front Squats
X5Push Press.
X5 Back Squat
X10 Press Ups

This will be very challenging both physically and mentally but the rewards gained from complexes are well worth the effort. Don't forget that this is just a sample routine. Please feel free to get as creative as you want with this.

So there we have it! Three alternatives to doing your traditional cardio that should keep your interest and get you burning stubborn fat in no time...

If you have any questions then please leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Until next time. Have fun, get creative and in the words of Mark Bell, Strength is never a weakness and weakness is never a strength.

BC

Simple Guidelines for a healthy balanced lifestyle

Introduction

In this post I’m going to cover some very easy implementable hacks to improve GPP (General Physical Preparedness), control fat gain, promote fat loss and maintain a reasonable level of physical strength.

Walking

Walking for health is quite possibly the most underrated form of exercise. Walking is an easily implemented method of light exercise that requires no equipment or special facilities to partake in. Walking is a low skill activity that burns calories and works lightly the muscles of the legs and the torso which will help to improve bone density, tone leg muscles and help to control fat gain by contributing towards achieving a calorie deficit. Walking will also improve heart health and mental health. When you walk your body releases endorphins which is a chemical that your body produces that makes you feel good (the same chemical that’s released when you eat chocolate, laugh and meditate). In summary, the vast majority of people will be able to benefit greatly from including some steady paced walking into your daily routine.

For those that would like to have a little more of a challenge, you could walk with a loaded rucksack. You can add resistance to the bag by adding household items, rocks wrapped an a towel, sand or purpose built weights. I would only recommend the you added a maximum of 20 %  of your bodyweight to the bag (start with 5% off your body weight or less) otherwise your walking gait will be compromised and excess pressure will be loaded to the spine (remember, this article is primarily about health). With 20% of additional load you will burn 20% more calories in the same time and distance so this little hack can be a good one if you have a goal calorie expenditure and limited time.

Resistance Training

If you can perform basic resistance exercises 1-3 times per week that target all of the larger groups of muscles (as well as the ligaments and tendons surrounding your joints) you can dramatically reduce your chance of injury.

Such basic movements include, push-ups, horizontal rows, walking lunges, squats, plank holds, and loaded carries (demonstrations of these exercises will be in following posts but can in the meantime be looked up online easily).

These movements can be performed for 3-5 sets of 8-15 repetitions. Never go to failure and always perform all exercises with good technique. 

Sports and Active Hobbies

Why not Start a sport or martial art as a hobby? This will both stimulate you mentally as well as physically and because you will be taking part in an activity that is of interest to you, you’ll be more likely to be consistent and do it long term. Consistency is the key to success in everything exercise and nutrition related and most things in life generally.

Nutrition/Diet Advice

Whilst there are quite literally hundreds of different nutritional methods that all work when you stick to them, I personally premote what I call the single ingredient method which I have found with my clients and my family to be the least complicated and most efficient method of eating a healthy balanced diet. It involves nothing in the extreme and everything within balance, so rest assured I won’t be advising for you to cut out all of your carbohydrates, I won’t be advising for you to only eat carbohydrates or only eat protein but rather a balanced plate of all of the above macronutrients. The general guidelines are that if you eat 90% single ingredient foods (for example a sweet potato has only one ingredient as does a chicken breast. Any vegetable, fruit, meat, root vegetable, fish etc has only one ingredient which is itself) you will be healthier that the majority of people that you know. Foods that do not classify as a single ingredient are are bread, processed meats pasta, biscuits, confectionery etc. These foods contain multiple ingredients and therefore would not fall within the 90% category. For the remaining 10% of your food intake I would split this into two categories at 5% each. The first 5% would be health-related processed foods (protein bars, sugar free snacks, cured meats, fish, fermented vegetables, alternative milk substitutes). The second 5% can be anything else that doesn’t fall within the first 2 categories because you can have everything in moderation but that includes moderation. If I told the vast majority of people reading this article that you could no longer have chocolate, alcohol, desert or any other luxury food/drink item the chances of long-term success would be very slim.

I hope that in this short guide will be helpful to you moving forward in your persuit of health. If you stick to the parameters detailed above you will be on the right track to being your healthiest self.

If you require any information regarding personal training, nutrition and lifestyle advice please do not hesitate to contact me through my Google page, Ben’s PT Essex.

Stay Strong and Stay Healthy,

Ben Cooper