Hi Joel
I was really glad to read this post because it was a confirmation that I was doing the right thing. On my cardio days I do intervals on various machines for about 30 minutes, followed by abbs. But I have sometimes felt like I was not doing enough by comparison with others who do the whole treadmill, bike, stepper thing at a steady rate.
Keep these good posts coming, I find them really useful:).
Anca
Over the next week or so we’re going to be talking quite a bit about metabolic resistance training (i.e. “cardio with weights”), but before we do I want to address something that slightly concerned me when reading through some of the comments that came in on yesterday’s “empty stomach” cardio post.
Apparently, many people are still stuck doing long duration, low-intensity cardiovascular exercise — yikes!
Here’s the deal: if you’re looking to achieve maximal benefit from the time you put into your workouts, long duration “slow-go” cardio is NOT the way to go, and for many reasons.
Here are my top 5:
1. Minimal calories burned — 45 minutes on the treadmill may burn a whopping 300 calories if you’re lucky, the equivalent of ONE TENTH of a pound of fat. Exercise ten hours a week and you might just lose a pound!
Which brings me to my next point:
2. Way too much time involved — I don’t know about you, but I don’t have hours and hours of my time to pour into working out each week. In fact, very rarely do I ever exceed three hours of exercise weekly, and you know what? That’s ALL you need.
Beyond that, slow-go cardio is:
3. BORING as heck — Sitting on an exercise bike staring at the wall in front of me for 45-60 minutes? No thanks.
But perhaps even worse is the fact that slow-go cardio provides:
4. No prolonged metabolic benefit — Did you know that with higher intensity exercise it is possible to continue to burn calories for up to 48 hours post workout? It’s true (and we’ll be discussing this “afterburn” effect in another post very soon). But you know what else is true? Long duration, low intensity cardio provides virtually NO prolonged elevation in metabolism. In fact, with slow-go cardio, metabolism returns to baseline almost IMMEDIATELY following the exercise session.
And finally, the reason that trumps all the others:
5. Minimal fat loss — Minimal calories burned during the session and virtually no additional calories burned afterward = minimal, if any fat loss results. And let’s be honest, the only reason anyone is doing cardio is for the “result”.
So if slow-go cardio isn’t a great solution, what is?
Short duration, high-intensity exercise. Less time, faster results — THAT’S what it’s all about.
And keep in mind, “high intensity” is relative to you. I don’t care if you’re already in great shape or if you’re 40 lbs overweight, you can exercise with intensity.
So what about you? Are you stuck doing slow-go cardio or have you embraced the benefit of much shorter, higher intensity sessions?
Give me at least 750 comments and I’ll be back to talk about short duration, high intensity exercise in more detail tomorrow.
Talk to you in the comments section,
Joel
P.S. Want to learn 3 other specific fat-burning tips that you can start using today? Check out the below link:
==> What “special” foods can boost fat-burning by 207%?
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I do cardio (power walking and running up and down flights of stairs) I also do weights and i never get bored.
As long as I eat healthy i don’t mind not burning heaps of calories.
In my job i always use tall ladders and lift heavy stuff, plus i very rarely slow down so i i believe everyone should do what they enjoy.
My cardio time is my destressing time (being a working/studying mum of 3 teenagers).
This is great because I hate doing cardio. It’s come to a point where I won’t even want to do it when I go to the gym. Problem is, whenever I go with a buddy I always end up with dealing with it. Just to get something in I only do 10-15 minutes a visit because it is just tooo boring to put up with for 30-60 minutes every time. HIIT sounds so much better…
I find cardio the most boring and demotivating exercise possible. However I decided 6 months ago to make a rule never to take the car to the gym but either walk or cycle no matter the weather. The effect has improved my workouts. When I arrive I am ready for the weights or HIIT workout.
I prefer to do HIIT, except when I’m very exhausted and I simply don’t have the energy for it. However, I don’t like cardio too much. I used to hate it but then I realised it is useful and necessary. Now I like it but I prefer to finish it quickly. Anyway, my whole system is dreaded by steady pace activity, it is so not for me. Quick short powerful bursts and then some rest suits me so much better. Also, not only I hate running but I’m not allowed to (knee condition I was born with).
I like to mix things up, so I do quite a lot of metabolic type training, but I also recently picked up running and I really like it, and I like the challenge of increasing my distance. I can run 5K now, and my goal is a half-marathon in February. However, I run with my husband who only runs while I do strength and metabolic training, and I’m in much better condition than him for running though we run the same (even though his longer legs keep him ahead of me!)
Joel, you have convinced me! That is, when the goal is weight loss. The things I love about long low-intensity cardio sessions are: 1) I need them to build up my endurance. I like to ride 100 km “fun rides” about twice a year, and they take me between 4 and 6 hours to do (depending on how bad the hills are). If I haven’t done long training sessions, then after about 3 hours of the ride, I’m in agony from butt, through chest, to neck. 2) I just love spending all that time cycling or walking around my or other people’s neighbourhoods. The fresh air, the sun and/or wind and/or clouds, the scenery, knowing I’m powering myself, the opportunity to be just me and my body … these things make me happy – I get fewer episodes of depression, I feel more positive about life. 3) I spend all that time doing a lot of reflection on all sorts of things – personal and work-related – which in turn benefits my creativity. I think too many people rush around trying to do as much as possible in as little time as possible, and lose out on all the benefits of taking time to “wander and wonder”. 4) I’ve also been told that long low cardio walks and cycles are good for my heart and good for keeping my blood sugar levels stable (I’m hypoglycaemic). It would be good to know if you agree with the stated health benefits for heart and blood sugar levels. I have to agree, though, that I would never waste a minute of my time doing long low intensity cardio in a gym. Life is too short for THAT.
@ Duke:
HIIT is very demanding on the body, which is why it is better for fat loss. For the person weight training 3x a week, it is fine to fit in. However, pro-bodybuilders do a lot more than that. Doing HIIT in addition would be too much. However, if they need to burn more fat, they do slow cardio as it is much less taxing on the system and they have plenty of time for that.
After losing ++ weight with weight training, HIIT and steady state cardio all my lab results (cholesterol levels) etc were great.
One year later, they weren’t. I had been body building and advised to stay with shorter high intensity workouts. At my next check up my HDL was low. We discussed the changes I had made in my workouts. My physician told me that in order to normalize my numbers and for heart health I needed to do steady state cardio 30 minutes up to 5 times per week. My next check up was fine. So, perhaps fat loss is not the only consideration?
There are lots of ways to lose the boredom – my way is dance, outdoor activity with pets and family.
Hi Joel,
Saying thanks to you for all your good tips, all the way from The Netherlands.
I’m really looking forward to your next blog on this subject, for I was one of those silly’s who did the cardio on the slow-go-motion. Hardly any results, which I realy do need for my health ( being 60 pounds overweight).
Happy Greetings,
Erica.
Thank goodness for blogs like yours ! My PT always does high intensity cardio with me for exactly the reasons you say. It’s great to be hearing the same thing from the two of you ! Vikie x
After losing ++ weight with weight training, HIIT and steady state cardio all my lab results (cholesterol levels) etc were great.
One year later, they weren’t. I had been body building and advised to stay with shorter high intensity workouts. At my next check up my HDL was low. We discussed the changes I had made in my workouts. My physician told me that in order to normalize my numbers and for heart health I needed to do steady state cardio 30 minutes up to 5 times per week. My next check up was fine. So, perhaps fat loss is not the only consideration?
There are lots of ways to lose the boredom – my way is dance, outdoor activity with pets and family etc.
Ive been trying to get by girlfriend away from going on long jogs and start doing sprints instead but she just wont listen. Personally I play a lot of tennis and combine this with conditioning exercises in the gym 3 times a week. From July I will start to do either punch bag session or sprints in the mornings as well.
I used to go on long 5 mile jogs a couple of years ago untill I began the 16week program and that suggested ending the sesison with sprints…only 15mins and get a lovely burn, yes please!
Each and every word is true. Years of cardio go waste if the right approach isnt adopted. Further the body tends to get used to the slow pace of cardio and sets the metabolism at the same level. Anything more challenging shocks the body into a higher level of fat burning aiding FAT loss. The common complaint from people is that # I am walking since ages and theres no real benefit. Hope Humanity realises that once upon a time we were apes and al we physically do today is entirely against what we DID then. Lets start SWINGING,CLIMBING,JUMPING,HANGING like them to become fit. BB.
If Joel know so much, why, on that video where he was in the forest with Rom, was he looking fat while Rom was ripped?
Hey Joel,
You have brought up some very good points here. One presumes that you will gain a little less benefit from a little less workout. However, from your post, I have learned that the extra little bit can create a whole lot more benefit.
I certainly don’t want to waste my time for no benefits, so I will be doing much higher intensity training from now onwards.
Thanks for sharing this valuable insight.
hey joel
have you heard of zumba? it is a dance routine/workout that i have been doing – it is an hour long, and using my heat monitor i burn between 600- 800 calories each time. i do this work out at least 4 times a week. they also have zumba toning which includes weights with the cardio.
thanks
donna
Hate the long boring cardio sessions, so I most of the time I’m not doing them.
Intervals are more fun, but still not my cup of tee.
Looking forward to your post tomorrow about the high intensity workout. :d
The boring part is definitely the worst; if you’re not excited/motivated about your workout, what’s the point? I actually do use a Kurt-Kinetic bike exerciser, but use short, high intensity workouts to fight the boredom (With music too)
hi joel,
what i want to know is, how do u define short duration? 4 min tabata, 15 min, 30 min or even less? i’d love to know ur thoughts on tae bo – i’ve been doing that, usually a 30 minute to 45 min session, for a while now…i like the fact that it has so many moves that its impossible to get bored, and they target various areas of the body all in one workout… how about pilates? how do u rate that?
pls do an article on tae bo if u can, thx!
I first used hiit about 8 months ago after I had researched about which was found by a Chinese doctor I think
but at that time they were claiming 4 minutes is all you need
even I thought it was a joke
but I still tried it out
in the first 3 mins I could feel that I had sweated so much that it felt like I had just taken a shower with my clothes on
since then I have researched a lot on this type of cardio and I can see that it seems far more superior to aerobic methods of cardio
the only problem that I have is that it’s not that simple to be increasing and decreasing the speed on the treadmill every minute or so as it can interfere with the actual training
so I usually use the bike as I can just reduce the speed of my feet very easily when required
I would like to know Joel your opinion on this and what you think is the best piece of equipment to use as well as how long ahould be spent and the actual method like should I increase and decrease every minute or 30 seconds
thanx
If you have a bad knee and back and arthritic foot what type of cardio burn can you do. Also I would like to see more for those with prior injuries.
I used to do slow cardio but recently I do fast and add additional resistance (I do it on elliptical machine), because I feel like working it and sweating more than what I used to. And ofcourse burning extra calories is a pro.
Just back from the gym now. The only time I spent on ‘cardio’ was 2 minutes, yes, 2 minutes on the bike to loosen up my legs as part of my warm up (which includes about 8 different core stability exercises). The rest of my workout is weights, but this is with very few breaks or recoveries and boy does my heart rate go up. This is my cardio workout, at least 3 times a week. I may add one HIIT on my spin bike at home on the weekend if I have the time. With this type of workout I have lost 10kgs over the last 6 months, I’m in the best shape I have ever been in and I’m a mum of three young boys, under 4 1/2. All I can say is slow steady cardio SUCKS. It’s boring and doesn’t get results. To all you out there that still do it WAKE UP!!
Joel,
I agree with you. I used to run 3 – 5 miles 3x’s a week and lift on the other 3 days. What I did notice with all the running is this. It started out taking me too long especially if I ran with friends at a slower pace, I really didn’t care for the running and too I really didn’t see much results. I switched to HIT after reading alot about it. I started doing it only 2 days a week on Tues. and Thurs. It only took me 18-20 mins and I was done. I felt more drained than I did when I ran 5 miles. After a few weeks of doing HIT, not only did I notice a difference in my body but my wife and my friends did as well. Now I have about 3-4 diff types of HIT routines that I can mix it up with.
HIT all the way, Slow/Go Cardio sucks.
D
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...