Here's something new for you

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I've just been skimming through all this posts in this section, and it really bothered me... Now before I say anything, I know there are going to be those certain people who absolutely disagree with me, and I will respect your opinion, but I just want to show some people who are new to the losing weight niche and give you one simple tip about cardio and what its all about. This may contradict what others believe, some may already know this already, and some will find this really useful, and I will post it here otherwise none the less. Please be open minded about this. Cardio has been the eye candy for losing weight in contemporary society, everyone wants to lose weight, some are just too lazy, some already know a lot, but don't take action, others actually try their hardest but do not prevail because of misguided information. The last one I want to dig a little deeper into. All those popular magazines in America (I'm targeting America because it seems to be the most influential country in the world to believe whatever their media says, from those losing weight/bodybuilding magazines to those late night infomercials, but of course other countries have this set of mind on cardio as well, just not as saturated in the population)teach people information I'd say can be very misguided. I often hear people say things like (even here in Canada): Bob: Hey John I'm trying to lose weight but I don't know where to start John: Here's a simple tip, you should run/jog/brisk walk at a steady pace around your neighborhood for as long as you can everyday or so, and if you can keep going, do a little more. And I suggest you start taking a low fat/carb diet also. (I would like to get into the diet part of losing weight, but I can save that for another post) Bob: Thanks John! Sounds like a good idea! "a month or 2 later, Bob lost some weight, but not the right kind, and after a while he stopped losing any weight" Now I will explain this scenario, Bob asks for advice, John uses his knowledge from what he learned from the media, tells him what to do. Bob follows what he does, in the beginning he loses some weight, if someone were to look at him he would look more ill than healthy, but he continued because when he checked the scale and he was seeing results no matter how he looked. He continued and after a while, he just stopped losing weight. So what happened? Many things happened, one thing that happened has something to do with his heart, if case some people didn't know, a humans heart is made up of muscles, and that is how the pumping action occurs. So like when we workout, we must change it up every few weeks in order to not hit that plateau. The same goes for the heart. What Bob did wrong was that he did exactly as what John had told him, he jogged at a steady pace and never changed it up! Now what is the definition of jogging: "to run or ride at a steady trot" (courtesy of dictionary.com). So in the beginning, Bob really was never active, so when he started jogging it was something new for the heart and body, he started losing some more calories here and there and maybe a pound or two of fat. But then it suddenly stopped, because his heart and body had gotten so used to it, it wasn't something unexpected for the body, and so he hit a PLATEAU, look up this word if you don't know it, you'll get an "Ahh" moment once you find out. Another thing that happened was that not only did Bob lose fat, he lost muscle too(that is not a good thing, that is probably the majority of what he lost when he looked at the scale). Here's some science for you, when your body is stressed out (mainly from anaerobic and aerobic exercise), your body enters a catabolic state, which is when your body needs energy and will instead of breaking down your fat, will break down your muscles for energy. This case happens all the time after an intense workout, most people don't know it, and usually are still smart enough to eat something with both protein and carbs to quickly heal the muscles and give your muscles energy again. Another thing I wanted to mention while I'm at it is that people shouldn't be running for hours on end at a time, it is really unhealthy. And the catabolic state concept covers this area as well, if you go running for too long, your body will get into a major breakdown of breaking down your muscles instead of what your real goal is, your fat. Now to the point, my one simple tip is to instead of do that lame old boring cardio session, try interval training. Some of you may have heard about it already and this will just be a refresher, but some have not and I want them to understand how much better this is than normal old cardio. Everyone has time issues, and no one should be spending more than an hour a day exercising till they would rather keep being overweight than look cardio in the eye again. Interval training takes only around 20 minutes of your day, no more, and if you are doing more, you are wasting your time. Interval Training consists of a change of pace kind of cardio, you start off slow and than run fast for a short time, then slow again, then fast again...you get the point. Here's an example on a treadmill: 1. Take 4 minutes walk/slow jog to warm up 2. 2 minute go at a pace that you are running, but not at full strength 3. 1 minute slow pace 4. 2 minute increase speed to a little faster than #2 5. 1 minute slow pace 6-7. Cycle one more round 8. Take 4 minutes walk/slow jog to cool down Total Time = 17 minutes That only took 17 minutes of your day! And your done! Also I would like to mention that you shouldn't be running everyday as well, I want to explain more but its 1am and I really need some sleep. There is such thing as OVERTRAINING and you do not want that to happen, at that point you are just wasting your time and muscles, and if you do hit that point, I suggest some rest before starting again, and next time don't overtrain! Also what I love about this training is that it is very flexible, feel free to change up the times and speed of your runs, my example isn't "writ in stone", it is more like playdoh, so have fun with it! And it doesn't just have to be on a treadmill, it can be outside. You could also try parachute running as a way to change things up, it is definitely very intense and you WILL break a sweat, that is, if you try. :P These are only a list of few, and I hope you guys have learned something new today! "I hate school, but I love learning...weird" EduCashin