Haha....it really REALLY hurts! My glutes and quads are screaming every time I move. They were hurting yesterday too. I was playing "toilet tag" with the kids [again] last night after dinner and I'm surprised I was able to run.
Just as a fun side note: toilet tag is different than regular "tag, you're it". When you get tagged, you have to stand there with your arm out, waiting for someone else to come "flush" you so you can run around again. It's so much fun. Except for that we have a giant Newfoundland and for some odd reason, whenever I am running around the yard with the kids, she chases after me and tries to tackle me. Every. Single. Time. Which makes it hard/scary to play. She weighs more than I do!
Anyway, I have weight training today. I am scared because my muscles hurt so much. Yesterday was HIIT day. My working intervals are at 9.8. I don't know why I don't just go all the way to 10, but for some reason, 10 just seams so fast. Anyway, I do 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. I do this for 10 minutes, then I do some form of steady state cardio for 20 minutes. Usually I switch it up. Yesterday, I did hill walking. The treadmill goes up to 15% (I don't know if that is the typical max of a treadmill, mine at home inclines but it doesn't tell me the percentage). I started out on 12%. Then I kept backing down every couple of minutes by 2% until I was satisfied with 8%. I was only walking 3.8mph at 8% but it was HARD on legs that were already sore! I was sweating like a pig. It was literally pouring into my eyes. I was sandwiched between two guys who were both running and I felt like I was getting a way better workout. At least for my butt, anyway. I have read that incline walking and HIIT are far better for your backside than just plain running. Here's where I read it: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/booty-camp-spring-break-bikini-butt-workout.html?mcid=facetraining
This is not what "part 2" of my long-ass post was going to be about. The second part is actually about cardio. But it's STILL really long so I'm going to break it up. So there will be a part 3...hehe. I bet you are on the edge of your seat, right? And I STILL want to get a post in about how my meticulous diet has been working.
Ok, so I'm not a big fan of cardio. Truth be told it just isn't enjoyable to me. Small doses are fine. But longer than 30-40 minutes and I've lost all interest. I want to exercise yet it has to be something that doesn't make me dread the thought of doing it. Hats off to the marathoners who log many hours running. I will be supporting you from the sidelines. I have a great friend who is just as passionate for running as I am for weight lifting. I don't want to demean or belittle her chosen sport or why she does it. I cannot even begin to comprehend the satisfaction is gives her. Not everyone was made to run marathons. It's an admirable quality, to be so dedicated and determined as to train for and run in them. The only knowledge I have is my one experience in running a half marathon. The actual race itself was a total high. Training....eh, not so much.
People train for a goal. If your goal is endurance, you train for that. If your goal is building muscle, you train for that. If your goal is fat loss, you train for that. Now, I may not enjoy cardio but I'm also not a super huge fan of squats. Heavy squats in particular. Because they are hard. In fact, they scare me. Yet, I know that for what my particular goal is, I need to do a lot of them. I need to get low and lift a pretty heavy amount of weight. It's hard, yet I know it will be over in a short amount of time. Time is relative; a short amount of time is 4 sets of squats in relation to an hour of cardio. But, if my goal required me to do an hour of cardio, I guess I'd have to do it, even though I don't particularly like it. Like squats.
My purpose for this post is to shed light on the wrong ways to go about losing fat. Not to make people who enjoy doing cardio feel bad. And not everyone runs to lose weight. Although I'm sure, at some point, most have.
So, one of the things I'm always on the lookout for is information about what I should really be doing for fat loss. There is so much conflicting information and it usually depends on who you talk to or what you read, everyone has a different theory or found a study proving one way or another. My opinions are based on my own experience and personal preference. On this blog, I don't hide the fact that I am NOT a lover of cardio and don't do tons of it. Yet I'm very lean. How can that be? Well, I'm a firm believer in weight training for fitness, fat loss and overall health. I'm also proof that it works.
I'm sure you would also find a good number of folks who are leaner than me and claim to have gotten there through cardio and cardio alone. BUT, I used to do cardio exclusively, years ago. Back in the days when I was probably 25% or higher bodyfat. Based on my experience, you can get smaller with cardio, for a while. But you'll never build sexy shapely muscle on the treadmill ;)
I wish I had someone telling me this stuff back when I thought if I ran for 45 minutes every day, I would lose the fat on my legs and along with it, cellulite. I did lose fat, I did get smaller, but I was still very "bottom heavy" and I still had tons of cellulite. Little did I know that I actually had to BUILD MUSCLE, for the skin to be taut. Instead, I was stuck with that skinny fat look, like a deflated balloon. EW! And how was I to know that I was wrecking my metabolism by dieting along with the cardio? (more about why this is in Part 3) It seemed like common knowledge that the more I moved and the less I ate, the more the fat would disappear. But I found out the hard way, it's just not that simple.
True story: I had to stop exercising for a period of about 2 months and I instantly ballooned. It was incredible! I had spent a year shrinking from all the cardio I was doing, but I ended up gaining 9lbs of FAT in 2 months! I wasn't laying around, I wasn't pigging out, I just couldn't workout. And back then, working out for me meant cardio dvds and running. What would you do if you got injured and couldn't workout? Is your metabolism good enough to see you through it? Mine obviously wasn't!
If you are doing cardio day after day after day, your body adapts. And it clings to what it's got left for survival, because it knows it's going to have to expend a lot of energy in the coming days with more cardio. Again and again and again. Supposedly with weight training, if you alter your routines every so often, it never has a chance to adapt because you are always changing a component. Whether it be more reps, heavier weight, more sets, different moves to hit the muscle at different angles. It's all about causing confusion.
Charles Poliquin's blog says that cardio training stops working after 6 weeks. "the type of exercise you are doing is too low of an intensity to elicit the right hormonal output to burn body fat effectively" - in reference to this woman who was doing just tons of cardiovascular training every day, and her legs were getting bigger. The argument was that she was creating a stressful environment in her body causing water retention and so forth.
I just purchased a book called "Nutrient Timing" (thanks, Kristy) and one of the things it talks about is cortisol levels. (stress causes us to hold on to fat) I've only started reading it last night but I think it's going to completely change my body. I'm SO excited.
Anyway, I'll continue with "Part 3: Why all that cardio isn't helping you lose fat"...tomorrow.
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