7 Reasons Cardio is Lame
T’is the season for folks to be hitting the cardio confessionals with the mistaken belief that 30 minutes on the elliptical machine will somehow
magically erase 40 days of being on the See-Food diet…
Today while I did my Turbulence Training style workout, I watched all those poor folks on the cardio machines (you know, the ones with the long, sad faces
hating what they are doing) and felt kinda sorry for them.
Not many – if any – of them looked like they wanted to be doing cardio.
I also thought about how disgusting cardio machines are…
Back in University, I once helped the maintenance guy clean the cardio equipment. And I’d compare that experience to walking through a slaughterhouse – pretty darn gross.
The stuff I saw on those machines…from thousands of gym members doing
thousands of hours of cardio…sweating out their DNA into every crack and
crevice of that equipment…the sweat mixed with hair mixed with all other
sorts of stuff led to the grossest “gunk” I’d ever seen compiled anywhere
outside of a sewer.
I pretty much swore off of ever touching a cardio machine that day.
But it always makes me laugh when I see someone give a ceremonial squirt and wipedown of a cardio machine, as if that’s going to do anything…
I also watched all those folks on the cardio machines and I noticed they go through some interesting rituals during their workouts.
This got me thinking, and I came up with “The 7 Signs You Are Doing Too Much Cardio”.
So you are doing too much cardio if…
#1 – You have to spend 5 minutes before your workout flipping through all
the magazines in the gym to find one you haven’t read before.
#2 – You know the other cardio addicts on the machines beside you (that you talk to everyday) better than you know your own friends.
#3 – You know exactly how many calories you burn per minute on every machine in the gym (and you use that information to justify every calorie you eat.)
#4 – You hate doing it and dread your workouts more than a trip to the dentist.
#5 – The only thing you are losing is precious time – and not belly fat.
#6 – You go to the gym to watch your favorite television shows while doing
cardio.
#7 – You’re getting overuse injuries from repetitive motion because you keep doing the same activity over and over again everyday.
Seven darn good reasons why cardio is lame.
Listen, cardio is not the be all and end all of exercise for fat loss. In fact, as I’ve written in previous fat burning cardio articles, slow cardio is highly over-rated for fat loss.
Most of your results are going to come from your nutrition. So focus on whole, natural foods, and avoid foods that come from a bag or a box. If it’s been modified in any way, you don’t need it.
Once you’ve taken care of your nutrition, look for workouts that you enjoy that allow you to build strength, mobility, and fitness.
And no matter what you choose to do, don’t just do the same thing over and over again everyday.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Just Say NO to Cardio
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By the way, here are some bonus reasons from my readers about why they think cardio is lame.
If you have other thoughts, please post them in the comments below. Thanks!
#8 – If you are using cardio as a form of self-punishment (like after a night of
eating at a friends wedding)…you do too much cardio.
#9 – If you go to the gym to do cardio even though you have more important and time sensitive things to get done..you are a cardio junkie.