Does this sound like you? (Or someone you know?)
“If I do tons of cardio, all the time, I will lose weight and be thin like the movie stars! I will be svelte and toned and thin, thin, thin! If I spend hours on the treadmill/elliptical, then stretch and so some crunches I will have the body I’ve always craved.”
Are you the gym goer that has never stepped foot into the free-weight room? Do you have your designated cardio machine, and don’t leave it until you reach a certain amount of minutes or burn a certain number of calories? If you do use dumbbells, are they pink, and smaller than your fists?
You’re wasting your time.
Cardio is important, but it’s not everything. All cardio is meant to do is raise your heart rate for an extended period of time to improve cardiovascular efficiency and blast calories. This is all well and good, but the same effect can be achieved with strength training, in less time. Further, you would also be building toned, sleek muscles, which is the desired look most women want anyway.
Most women (sorry, it’s just a fact, men’s goals usually aren’t to be thin) have this notion that cardio is what will melt the fat off and leave them with the thin, toned body they crave.
While it will burn calories, which results in weight loss, it will do nothing to change the shape of your body. You will be smaller, but just as soft, which isn’t the goal.
What will give you that body? Strength training. No, you will not bulk up, and no, you are not too intimidated to lift weights. You might be right now, but shake it off because to get the results you are looking for, you are going to have to enter the man’s world: the weight room.
What weights will do is get your heart rate up higher than any conventional cardio machine, and simultaneously build muscle to give you a firm, toned look. Like I said, if you burn off fat, with nothing firm underneath it, you are still going to be squishy.
It is also important to remember that weight and burning calories are a side effect of being physically fit. It’s a nice bonus, but shouldn’t be the only goal. You are only attacking part of the issue. Exercise is to improve your health and prevent disease, so in order to be that properly, strength training in a must.
So how do you do it? Get a heart rate monitor. Make sure your heart rate stays at approximately 65%-85% of your maximum heart rate (220 – your age). You can keep it up by moving quickly from one exercise to the other, doing compound exercises (working your upper and lower body at the same time–which will also cut down on the length of your workout) and really pushing yourself with heavy weights or high reps.
Quit spinning your wheels. Get off the treadmill. Exercise and weight loss doesn’t have to feel like you are a rat on a wheel, and you definitely don’t need to workout hours a day. The more you challenge your body, the better it will respond, so branch out and try something new.
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