Healthy TV Episode 083

Recently I decided I’m going to enter my first trail race… I’ve been talking about it for the past 2 years but this year I AM going to do it!

So I started training and after my first couple of short runs, I was pretty sore…

One thing I realized is that I don’t even think to do a warm-up prior to running, I mean… it’s only running right?

If you’re in the same boat, then this simple, 90 second warmup can make a big difference! Think of it like a bit of a reset, to begin to prepare your body for the movement required in running.

This movement – called the ‘Perfect Stretch’ is actually a combination of 3 different movements that accomplishes 2 things simultaneously:

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.

Each Life By Design step bucks the trend of conventional wisdom, but none more so than our disapproval of “chronic cardio”.  “That’s blasphemy!” you say.  Everyone knows that in order to lose body fat and get lean you need to do spend a lot of time walking the infinite steps to nowhere on the climber.  Still not buying in?  Go to the gym, take a look at everyone running, walking, cycling and rowing.  Head back a year later and voila, no change.

How can that be? How can someone spend hours sweating it out on the treadmill in the cardio section and not lose body fat?