4 Cardio Myths That May Be Keeping You From Your Goals

Some call people who just do cardio all the time “cardio bunnies”. If that’s you, listen up! Your go-to way of sweating it out might actually be what’s standing in between you and your fitness goals. Do you usually spend your gym time on the treadmill or elliptical? Then you need to hear these 4 Cardio Myths That May Be Keeping You From Your Goals:

1. CARDIO IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN STRENGTH TRAINING FOR FAT LOSS

Sure, you might burn more calories running than you will in the weight room in any given 30 mins, but you have no way of knowing where those calories are coming from— but most of the time it’s from carbs, fat and protein which is the building blocks for muscle. And muscle is not what you want to be using for fuel if your goal is to reduce your body-fat percentage and tone up.

Here’s what’s even more important when discussing this topic – as soon as you finish a cardio workout, your calorie burn stops right then and there. Not so with strength training. After a strength session, your body has to work not only to repair and grow your muscles, but also to return your body’s levels of enzymes and other chemicals back to normal. That process increases your caloric burn, even at rest, for up to 72 hours after you leave the gym. Plus, over the long term, building — not burning — muscle, is the number 1 way to increase your metabolic rate. Which basically means this: the higher your metabolic rate equals the more efficient your body burns fat for fuel. Hence why a study from Harvard showed that individuals who chose strength training for their workouts torched more belly fat than those who performed the same amount of cardio.

2. CARDIO DOUBLES AS LOWER-BODY STRENGTH WORKOUTS

One of the most common of the 4 Cardio Myths. And no, it most definitely doesn’t. Yeah, after the workout you may say, “my legs are so tired, or sore.” They’re two totally different forms of training. Running and spinning work your muscles, but they target your slow-twitch muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are in charge of the endurance of your muscle, not strength. Strength training, however, develops your fast-twitch muscle fibers. The most efficient way of targeting your fast-twitch muscle fibers is to lift heavier weights with less reps. None of this light weight high rep business. You have to push your limits on the strength front in order to create change!

To clarify, that means that increasing the resistance on the elliptical or don’t any other types of resistance-heavy cardio doesn’t account for a lower body strength sweat session. Which brings me to another important point – if you’re an endurance athlete it’s crucial that you cross-train and make strength workouts a part of your weekly routine. Strength training and developing your fast-twitch muscle fibers when you spend so much time working your low-twitch muscle fibers will prevent overuse injuries and imbalances. It’ll also actually improve your running tempo/ speed.  You need both strength and endurance for optimal performance and health.

3. YOU NEED TO WORK OUT IN THE “FAT-BURNING ZONE”

So I mentioned that cardio is still important for overall health and athleticism. But there’s a right way, and I won’t call it a wrong way but let’s say it’s a less efficient way of doing cardio. I’ll give you a little hint, it’s not hopping on the treadmill and setting it to your “fat-burning zone”.  

“The ‘fat-burning zone’ is based on the fact that at lower intensities you burn a higher percentage of calories from fat stores versus stored carbohydrates,”. Although there is some truth to this, it is also completely misunderstood.

Yes, you’ll burn a greater proportion of your calories from fat exercising at lower intensities, however, you’ll also burn fewer calories overall — and that includes calories from fat. Make sense? Opting for high-intensity interval training (HIIT) instead will burn more calories and fat during your cardio workouts. As well as HIIT being a form of cardio that most resembles strength training when it comes to post workout calorie burn and increasing your resting metabolic rate. With HIIT your body doesn’t stop burning calories right then and there on the spot after ending your cardio session. There are studies that have shown exercisers who performed a 20-minute HIIT workout torched 15 calories per minute. That’s about twice as many as the 8 calories you’ll burn per minute doing long endurance workouts.

4.  RELY ON THE CARDIO MACHINES “CALORIES BURNED”

The numbers you see on the machine are not accurate. Each machine is different and ALL machines are pre-programmed. Here’s some proof – on Good Morning America there was a study conducted where experts showed elliptical machines over-estimated peoples’ calorie expenditures by up to 42%! Yikes, that’s way off! While technology is constantly improving, most machines still aren’t able to factor in all of the variables that make your calorie burn unique. Invest in a personalized fitness tracker/ heart rate monitor that’ll use all of your own info and track your calories burned based on your heart rate.

What’s important here is taking this info and applying it to your lifestyle accordingly. Do you love running or going for long walks? I’m not telling you to stop. Just make sure you’re getting in some strength training every week to help keep you strong, balanced and healthy! At the end of the day some form of movement is better than nothing at all, so if walking is where you need to start then I’m in full support of you starting your journey with what feels good for you.

Keep doing something everyday that your future self will thank you for.

Click here if you’re ready to start on your own journey or if you’ve been doing your own thing for a while now and just need something more. More direction, more guidance, more support, more education. Something that’s made just for you! I’m here to help!

Be blessed,