5 reasons “slow-go” cardio SUCKS
I recently reflected on a common topic I am asked about by both the general public & many new clients, Cardio. Over the last few days I’ve noticed that many people are still stuck doing long duration, low-intensity cardiovascular exercise — SHEESH!
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 do more than a couple hours of exercise weekly, and you know what? That’s ALL you need. In fact, research has shown that anything more than 120 mins a week may be detrimental! (more info here) That said I am still active each week doing other physical activity such as golf, basketball, swimming or cycling but that is because they are just FUN things to do, not because I need them to get in shape but because I’m in shape and able to do them. These are NOT a part of my fitness routine.
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. 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?
FUZION Formula Fitness that’s what !
combined with 1-3 bouts a week of HIIT cardio sessions of 15-30 minutes duration and your results will SKYROCKET !