Why you’re not getting results in the gym with cardio

I have observed hundreds of people in the gym that strictly perform 30 to 60 minutes of cardio, three to five times per week, for at least a year resulting in the same old physique. If this sounds like your type of program, you will find out why you did not achieve the results you are looking for. I know many fitness trainers that put their client on six to seven hours of cardio training per week for several months. When the clients are frustrated with the lack of results, the only thing the trainers do is encourage their clients to just stick with the program or to do more hours. So what is the solution? Is it to do more cardio? Of course not. Doing extra cardio will not help you. You will be surprised to know that six to seven hours will NOT help increase your metabolism. In fact, it can actually slow down your metabolism. Confused? There are a lot of misconceptions about aerobic training. Most people believe that aerobic training is the magic solution to weight loss. There is a dark side to aerobic training that most people are not aware of. It is NOT the solution to weight loss. Forget about the long, slow, boring cardio workout. It is not going to get you to the body of your dreams. I will try to explain to you why people believe that steady state aerobic (i.e. jogging for 30 to 60 minutes) is the solution to fat loss. Let’s go back to a real life example. If you compare the best marathoners (people who can run for several hours) and the best sprinters (under one minute), who do you think is leaner? If you said the sprinter, you are absolutely right. The first time you attempt aerobic training, you might be able to last for only five minutes. As you get better and better, you increase your minutes. Five minutes eventually turns into 10 minutes. Ten minutes eventually turns to 20 minutes. Eventually you can do 60 minutes, five to six times per week. Will you get the lean sculpted body that you want? Will you lose weight? As you get better and better, your heart and lungs get stronger and stronger allowing you to do longer distances. However, as you do more and more aerobic training, as you get stronger, your body becomes better at utilizing your body fat (meaning you are burning less body fat). What it means is that if it takes you 30 minutes to burn 300 calories, as you get stronger, it will take 45 minutes to burn the same amount of calories. Is there fun adding more minutes to your cardio just to burn the same amount of calories that you use to burn? Eventually, as you do more and more aerobic to burn the extra calories, your body will start tapping into your muscles for energy. Eventually, your body can literally break down your muscle tissue to meet the energy demand. Your muscle tissue can be converted to glucose (blood sugar) to supply your aerobic training. What does that mean? You are making a smaller, less efficient fat burning machine; therefore, a weaker metabolism. Remember, steady aerobic training does not build muscle, but doing too much can actually make you lose muscle. If steady state aerobic training does not work, what is the solution then? The answer is interval training (anaerobic training). Interval training is far more superior to boosting your metabolism than it is to do steady state aerobic training. Steady state aerobic does not increase your metabolism at all. It is true that you are burning calories while you are actually performing the aerobics. However, once you are done with your session, your metabolism returns to normal. However, interval training (consisting of moderate to high intensity cardio) will burn more calories per minute and will elevate your metabolism for hours and hours. The right amount of resistance training combined with an intense interval training session can keep your metabolism up for at least 24 hours and in some cases, up to 42 hours. Imagine what you can do to your body if you are burning high amounts of fat all day and all night long (even when you are sleeping). A lot of people focus too much about “the workout” when, in fact, they should focus more on the whole picture. It is not the one hour of workout that counts, but it is the 23 hours remaining in the day. For more information, email me at ryan@ptsfit.com for a free consultation. You can also learn more by attending the “Body By God 40-Day Makeover” with Dr. Diehl Chiropractic in Pella.It is a 5-week course talking about nutrition, exercise, stress and time management. Call Dr. Diehl at (641) 628-8800.