The Cardio Lesson

On a sunny and humid Saturday morning in South Beach last weekend, I walked out to the edge of the Atlantic ocean a few minutes before 7am and sat down, cross-legged, for my morning meditation session. I take great pleasure in timing my meditation with the sunrise. There were dozens of other tourists out on the beach, many with cameras, trying to capture the memory in their own way. It was a magical moment. 

Twenty minutes later, stress-free and relaxed, I ran 6 intervals on the beach (after a warm-up, of course). Then I did a long walk under the hot sun all the way down to the legendary Fontainebleau hotel (featured in the classic James Bond film, Goldfinger) and back to 5th Street before finally getting back to The Raleigh Hotel around 9am. 

While I was on my walk I passed dozens of 'joggers' - or 'yoggers', as Ron Burgandy might say ;) 

It seems there are two types of jogger-bodies. One is skinny and scrawny, and almost a little scary. The other is overweight and beat up, and those folks do more 'shuffling' than jogging. Neither body looked good compared to the beautiful bodies of the men and women doing pull-ups, pushups, and lunges at the outdoor bodyweight gym area at the corner of 8th and Collins. I think that tells us something VERY important!

But here's the frustrating thing to me...hopping on a treadmill to do 45 minutes of cardio is STILL the go-to workout for most people trying to lose weight.

Seems like a good idea, right? 

Not exactly…

The problem is this: there is a right way to do cardio (done right, you can literally burn double the calories in half the time) and there's a wrong way to do cardio, which causes you to plateau, leaving you soft, flabby and injury-prone. 

I speak from experience.  I tried doing lots of cardio back in the day (2nd year of college, 1995 to be exact). I had the "more is better" attitude and thought the longer I go, the more endurance I'd build and more calories I'd burn, which means I'd get more lean and fit.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.  About the only significant results I got were chronic injuries and mental burn out.

So if you've been hittin' treadmill in hopes of getting lean and fit, we want to spare you the injuries and disappointments.  Instead, we want to share with you what I learned from my mistakes and show you what REALLY works…

===> Men, click here

===> Women, click here

Stay Strong and Keep Pushing On,

Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer

PS -  Once you start doing cardio the RIGHT way, you'll finally start seeing the pounds melt away (and it'll make you instantly realize how wrong you were doing it before!)  You will literally FEEL the difference...it'll actually be fun, it will give you more energy (instead of sucking it away), and it will take you less than half the time as your old cardio routine. Discover what REALLY works…

===> Men, click here

===> Women, click here

PPS - More harsh #truth...

People choose cardio because it is mentally EASY. Just hop on a machine and go slow and pray to the cardio confessional that the overestimated number of calories it says you are burning will help you lose weight.

But the harsh #truth is that cardio will not help at all.

"Running causes a flattening of your bottom," said fat loss expert, Hollie Grant in Saturday's issue of the British paper, The Telegraph, "and running just doesn't trigger fat loss at all. Don't expect it to change your body shape."

I agree. So STOP doing cardio. Click on the links above to find out what REALLY works.