For most of us (myself included) change can be really difficult and scary to deal with.  I almost feel like I’m an expert in change by now, after subjecting myself to all of the following changes in the last 6 months:

• Quit my job.
• Flew LITERALLY halfway around the world.
• Moved into a new house in new city.
• Started a new job.
• First Canadian winter First time being COLD!
• First Christmas away from family.
• And now I’m moving again.

Conventional wisdom says the best way to build your fitness is to lace up your runners,  find your ‘Cardio Zone’  and stay there for 45-60 min several times per week.

But increasing evidence is piling up suggesting this is – in fact – not the best way to get lean, strong and fit and can actually be downright dangerous.

In part 1 of this blog I went pretty deep into the nuts and bolts of how the body responds to exercise and the broad effects of buying into the cardio myth.

In this post I want to get specific and look at some key by-products of chronic cardio and how that may be holding you back from reaching your health and fitness goals.

Let’s say you wanted to lose weight and improve your overall fitness, what would be your first step?

My guess is it would involve dusting off your old runners, hitting the treadmill (or stationary bike, stair-master etc) for 45-60min 3-5x/wk.  After all, keeping your heart rate in the ‘fat burning zone’ is a sure-bet to quick weight loss and strong ‘cardio’… right?

What if I told you that spending hours pounding the pavement each week isn’t the best strategy to get lean, strong and fit?

In fact, it can be downright dangerous.

Thankfully, some of these myths are dying but if you read, watch or listen to most popular magazines, TV shows or podcasts most of the information you are being fed is still just plain wrong.

Please know that I don’t think these industries are full of unethical liars who are out to hurt people.  I don’t think they are misleading you purposefully.  I do think they are sharing what they learned from others who came before them (I did the same thing for years!).

Unfortunately, they’ve never thought to question what they learned, and they too have dogmatically accepted the exercise myths that pervade our culture.