Cardio Workout For Women
Cardio can be boring and tedious! It can also be ineffective!
Yes! Meaning, you don’t burn much FAT.
Why?
1. Doing too much cardio, can make you burn muscle, and in turn slow metabolism, which means the body becomes less efficient at burning fat. First of all, more is not always best. What I mean by this is that you don’t have to do hours of cardio on a treadmill, nor ONE HOUR group classes every day in order to lose fat and get fit. Actually it’s the total opposite.
You see, the body isn’t that smart as to burn fat all the time. The body goes through a process of burning the food you ingest in order to use it for energy. When doing cardiovascular exercise (CARDIO), the body can use FAT AND/OR CARBS for fuel or energy. But it’s not smart enough to just use these nutrients, so if the body is depleted of them, it will start breaking down muscle (protein) in order to use it as fuel, especially if you are doing cardio for too long (anything over 30 minutes).
Crazy isn’t it! This can happen especially if nutrition isn’t good. For example, if you didn’t eat enough yesterday……say you only ate 2 or 3 times, and then you did one hour of intense cardio, there is a huge possibility that your body is utilizing muscle for energy, which means you are SLOWING METABOLISM, which means……you are getting fatter…….not leaner…….
This is why I created my MMF Monthly Workouts. Because I am flooded with emails and Facebook posts on a daily basis about why people can’t lose weight and get toned. And when I ask what they are doing, they are 99% of the time doing way too much cardio. And then they proceed to ask me “What type of workouts should I do”?
So I created the MMF Monthly Workouts which are about 45 minutes Intense Weight Training Workouts that will help gain lean toned muscle while shrinking the body and making you more effective at BURNING FAT.
THE RESULT = GREATER FAT LOSS
So let’s start hitting the weights ladies, and doing less cardio but fore efficient.
2. If nutrition isn’t optimal, you could do cardio for an hour and not burn any fat! Remember the whole deal on SUGAR! Say you ate a super healthy bowl of fruit for breakfast, and then proceeded to do 45 minutes of cardio………Since the sugar spiked insulin level which in turn caused the only hormone that releases fat cells to be suppressed……There is a huge possibility that you just worked out for 45 minutes and did not burn one ounce of FAT! Especially if you didn’t eat a good meal last night and if you haven’t eaten PROTEIN for breakfast as well.
3. If you are not working at the right intensity while doing your cardiovascular exercise, there is also a possibility that you will not be burning fat. Just as the body adapts to weight-training causing a plateau in results, the body reacts the same with cardio workouts. So it is important to change up your cardio workouts as well as the intensities you use. For example: Steady state heart rate cardio training has been shown to increase cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone, that if out of balance, can cause the body to break down muscle and store fat. Instead of steady state heart rate training, try interval training. Interval training avoids the rise in cortisol and makes burning fat more effective, actually it burns 9 x’s more fat than steady state.
4. If you do cardio that you enjoy, you will be able to stick to it. If you don’t, chances are you will quit. So make sure that you do an activity that you enjoy. If you don’t like running…….don’t run for your cardio workouts. If you enjoy your cardio workouts, you will be consistent and you will have fun. I definitely have my favorites!!! I love Spinning, and I love the Stair Climbers, oh and I also love running with my kids outside. I used to love jumping rope but since having 2 kids, I literally just pee on myself when I jump TMI, I know, but if you have had natural births, I’m sure you feel me LOL.
Since I enjoy these types of cardio so much, I stick to it, and not only that…….I actually look forward to it! I know I’m crazy!
Now, remember that no workout can out do a BAD DIET. If you are not eating optimally, no matter what workout you do, you will not be able to lose weight and that, I promise you. I have seen it over and over and over. Clients come to me and they are doing ONE HOUR OF CARDIO 6 times a week and eating salads all day long. By the way, check out my post on Why I don’t eat salads, and why they make me fatter.
Most of the time, they are eating foods that are super inflammatory. And if you have too much inflammation in your gut, you CAN NOT BURN FAT, you can not LOSE WEIGHT.
So let me share with you a list that I compiled of the 5 FOODS that you should absolutely get rid of in your diet if you would like to see any kind of results. Because eating these foods cause so much inflammation in your digestive system that its close to impossible to lose weight. I also have a list of 5 FOODS that are crucial for you to include in your diet if you want to be able to burn fat and build lean muscle. I will give these PDF lists to you for FREE and a video with what I have found to be the 5 BEST ABS EXERCISES. The ones that I have done to get ABS that I never had before (after 2 babies). Go to this link to get all of this for FREE: PDF & ABS Video
Once I take these foods out of their diets, cut back their cardio and have them hit the weights hard, they drop body fat like crazy. It sounds crazy, but you will see for yourself when you do it.
Here is a sample Cardio Workout with Interval Training
Treadmill
Duration: 20 minutes
Warm-up: 3 minutes
Speed: 3.0-3.5 mph
Incline: 1.0
Each interval from here on is for 30 seconds
Speed: 5.0 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Speed: 7.0 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Speed: 8.0 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 2.0
Speed: 9.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Speed: 3.0 mph
Incline: 1.0
Continue for 20 more minutes total, and end with a 3 minute cool-down.
If you have to choose between a WEIGHT TRAINING WORKOUT and a CARDIO workout, because of time or whatever reason, please choose weight training. You will get your biggest bang for your buck.
And not only do you burn calories while you are working out, but you burn calories for about 45 minutes post-workout. That doesn’t happen with CARDIO.
And remember, to change it up every 4 weeks or your results will plateau. There are so many different and effective ways to change the workouts and HEAVY is always good. I promise you won’t get big! I lift super heavy, and coming from someone who at some point just did HIGH REPS………. The results with heavy lifting are soooooo much better. And the only way you can see if this really works is to at least TEST IT!
Try it out!
And if you are not sure of what to do, don’t worry, I got you. You can start by trying my MMF Monthly Workouts. I will send you a 45 minute super effective workout every 30 days that changes and challenges your body so that you see results every month. They rock, I do them always.
Ok, lets hit those weights ladies!