A. I totally agree with you, that cardio can be excruciating and downright boring at times. Not to mention, have you ever given people who only do cardio a heads up? You see them day after day, on the cardio machines. Generally speaking though, do you see a significant change in their physiques? No, me neither. Most of the great physiques are found on the weight floor. Good news, you can burn fat just by doing a little cardio. Personally, I was at my leanest when doing just 20 minutes of cardio before my weight training (which is generally not the most desirable time to do cardio).
This way, I never sacrificed my hard-earned muscle for fuel on the stair master. I did enough cardio to exercise my heart and burn some fat. Too much cardio will generally help burn body fat, but at the expense of muscle mass and strength. I never want to use my hard-earned muscle for fuel on the stairmaster or elliptical. After all, I’ve been working my butt off in the weight room to get it. So I don’t want to do anything to waste it. Remember that if you do too much cardio you run the risk of breaking down muscles, compromising the immune system and increasing cortisol levels, which is directly related to increased abdominal fat.
There are many arguments out there that cardio is necessary to prevent heart disease. Weight training can also be done to produce a similar result if done correctly, as well as reduce boredom in the gym. I tell all my clients to focus on weights and only supplement with cardio if they want to lose body fat. And who doesn’t want that? When you train with weights, your own natural growth hormone is released. Growth hormone helps you gain and retain muscle (living tissue), which in turn increases your resting metabolic rate. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Even without doing anything.
Growth hormone levels drop with every decade we age, especially after our 30s and 40s, which is the time when many gain weight most rapidly. So if you’ve put on weight, or just want to lose weight, hit the weight room, not the cardio room. Typically, when you’re doing aerobic activity, you may be exercising at 50% of your maximum heart rate, and fat provides 90% of the energy. If you exercise at 70-80% of your maximum heart rate, such as cardio, fat provides 60% of calories burned.
So basically, when you weight train, you burn more calories in a shorter period of time, which equates to more fat loss, as well as being time efficient. Fat loss and muscle gain without cardio are possible (and preferable) when combined with a high amount of protein and fibrous carbohydrates (vegetables). So by kicking butt in the weight room and doing less cardio, you can turn your body into its own fat-burning machine.