Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Why Cardio is Not the Key to Fat Loss



There's a common myth out in the world of health and fitness that cardio training is the way forward when it comes to rapidly stripping body fat. People tend to spend hours and hours on the C.V. equipment watching the calorie counter, thinking that they are going to see amazing fat loss results. Sorry folks, but in my experience, it's a load of twoddle...

Cardio

There are many people out there (including some health and fitness 'professionals') who will have you believe that if you are trying to strip those last few pounds, you need to crank up the treadmill. Resistance and weight training, is for those who are only looking to build muscle tone and definition. Again, twoddle... Why should the two be mutually exclusive?

Too many gym users and fitness enthusiasts are under the impression they can eat as much as they like and do whatever they want, then go for a run once a week in the gym and burn it off. We all know that the key to fat loss lies in good diet and regular exercise, but unfortunately most people don't understand what exercise is best for them.




To be honest, I have found that cardio is definitely not the way to seeing fast results. Let's have a look at what cardio actually does...

1. Yes, it does improve both aerobic and anaerobic fitness, which theoretically helps with fat burning, but realistically with cardio machines, you don't work the muscles hard enough to really burn very much.

2. Yes it can help lower your resting heart rate and decrease your recovery time, and to an extent it will help you develop a greater tolerance to lactic acid

3. Yes it does increase capillerisation and increase blood flow.

However, there are plenty of cons to counter the pro's...

1. First of all, it's boring and time consuming, it takes you forever to burn anything, and the fitter you get, the less you burn.

2. Cardio tends to train your muscles purely for endurance. You don't get the strength or the hypertrophy gains from C.V., which you would get from resistance training- It's a fact that stronger muscles will burn more fat.

3. Long term, the repetitive nature of most forms of cardio machines will develop muscle imbalances, joint problems and repetitive strains.

The truth is, all of the benefits of cardio training and more can be achieved through a decent, structured resistance programme. I'm not saying there is no place for cardio, but it's definitely not the way to fast fat loss!




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kyle_Hargreaves/170772

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