I hate cardio as you probably already know….
Possibly the only other person I know that hates cardio as much or more than me is Mike Whitfield. This is a fella that you’d think would be a ‘cardio junkie’. I mean he’s lost over 100 lbs and lots of people would think that to lose that kind of weight you’d do be a slave to the treadmill or other cardio machine.
Nope, not Mikey.
He’s been on my blog before here, here and here showing a ‘better way’.
The most amazing thing about Mike is that he’s lost 105 lbs. Let me say that again…Mike has lost 105 lbs and he’s kept it off, WITHOUT DOING CARDIO.
For all you cardio junkies out there, take note. You don’t need to do steady state cardio to lose or even maintain weight loss. In fact, steady state cardio can be detrimental to your fat loss goals.
Let me remind you of this study:
Canadian researchers at Queen’s University tested a workout using workout “finishers” style of training against long cardio.
(Reference: Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2012 Sep 20.)
– 22 college-aged women did 4 workouts per week for 4 weeks in one of three groups.
Group A: did 30 minutes of treadmill running at 85% max heart rate
Group B: did 8 rounds of 20 seconds of a single exercise (burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, or squat thrusts) with 10 seconds of rest between rounds.
Group C: did nothing (they were the non-training control group).
Results: Both training groups increased their aerobic fitness levels by the SAME amount (about 7-8%).
That’s right, the short workout finishers (of ONLY 4 minutes) worked just as well as 30 minutes of cardio.
Shocking? Yes, but that’s not all.
ONLY Group B, the workout finishers style training, also increased muscular endurance in common exercises like chest presses, leg extensions, sit-ups, and push-ups.
And finally, this intense but brief training method used by Group B also resulted in greater overall workout enjoyment.
Steady state cardio is straight up boring AND the most ineffective fat loss tool in the tool box. Instead, try three of Mike’s finishers below. I also added a video from Mike on how to ‘tweak’ a finisher based on your personal fitness level.
I wanna ‘be like Mike’ and just over deliver content. Take a look at these videos and also look at his Workout Finisher 2.0 program. Talk about over delivering, how about 51 Metabolic-Revving Workout Finishers for OVER half OFF?
Get all 51 finishers and bonuses here
One by One Finisher:
Cardio Alternatives:
Big Switch Metabolic Finisher:
Exercise substitutions:
Get Mike’s 51 finishers and bonuses here
