Every time when I have a goal, I know that there is a path I should travel; efforts that I have to make; habits that I have to leave behind and new once which I should acquire. I know that I have to face the boundary, which divides my comfort zone and the opportunities which extend beyond it. I know that even though security and comfort advise me that I do not need to do what is difficult, the potential which is impatiently waiting to be fulfilled, is silently whispering that it is worth challenging myself.
Every time I challenge myself and every time I feel like quitting, I tell myself that every goal has a price. Only those who are ready to pay it, are worth experiencing the positive emotions from achieving it.
Being more athletic, stronger, faster, healthier are goals that have their own price – the price of working out and recovering better.
Having abs, being leaner, are goals that have a price – the price of eating better.
Being healthy is a goal that has its price – the price of listening to your body and even when you really want to complete another exhausting training session, to be smart enough and realize that you need to rest.
Everybody who is reading my blog, as well as I myself, have one common goal – the perfect marriage between health, fitness and appearance. This goal has its price.
Many people rush into chasing this goal, but they run into overvalues and they whine that they don’t have enough “resources” to pay the price.
We have fallen to believe that the price of an athletic and well developed body are low calorie diets and exhausting training sessions, that include a lot of cardio. We are convinced that the price of an athletic body is a lot of training and scarce eating.
When people ask me how much cardio I do, I joke that I don’t run even for the bus. Don’t get me wrong. I do not deny running. I love doing sprints or just putting my sneakers on and running in the country – not because I will waste calories, but because for me, running is meditation – not a mean to help me get fitter.
Still, a lot of people choose running as their main tool to lose weight.
Parks and treadmills are occupied by women and men, who run in order to lose weight.
I am not lazy! At all! But I am the kind of person who loves making efforts, when they have enough return of the investment. I do not like making efforts, just in order to stay busy and fake engagement.
I’d rather stop, take some time and acknowledge which are the efforts that bring me success and which are… just a filling into my daily life.
If you are the type of person, who wants to be fit, healthy and still not invest your whole time in training, then monotonous cardio is not for you!
You know that for me evolution is the best “textbook”, which hints us what we are supposed to do in order to be healthier and fitter.
The methods that we use in order to be fit are AGAINST evolution! The methods we use, just activate the “alarm” in our bodies and turn on the survival mechanisms. When our body is in survival mode, it doesn’t give a damn about the way you look in a swim suit, or if your boyfriend likes you when you are 5 pounds lighter. When your body is in a survival mode, it cares about sustaining the main functions, which guarantee existence.
Everything we do, sends signals to the body. Every action is information about what is going on in the external world.
Long, exhausting training sessions are an information about DANGER! Daily, exhausting workouts, slowly deplete our body. They deplete our hormones and lead to hormonal imbalances, they deplete our enzymes, disrupt our digestive system, lead to neurotransmitter imbalance and a bunch of other UGLY consequences, which are a premise about catastrophe.
Consequences, which do not lead to a fit and athletic body, but to a pile of bones, which plays the role of a body – a cage, where diseases rage and exhaust the prisoner – i.e. us.
The physical activity that helps us get fitter and healthier is the physical activity that our ancestors performed. They did not have time to work out. They were busier with hunting for food, running away from predators, building shelters and all kind of activities that had to do with survival.
Their physical activity had to do with a lot of walking, jumping, movements that resembled squatting, deadlifts, push – ups, pull ups, different types of locomotion, pushing and etc. These movements were accompanied by sporadic, intense sprints ( they did not realize that they were sprinting), in order to run away from something or in order to catch something.
Trust me! All of them were fit. If they had allowed for somebody to become so obese, that he would have a hard time to climb a flight of stairs or walk 1 mile, he would not be able to survive. That’s why nobody became obese.
That’s why in order to be fit, we need to use this formula – to walk more, move all day long, sporadically lift something heavy or sprint.
Actually, sprinting is not just running. Sprinting causes a particular metabolic reaction. They do much more! Every action communicates with our body and to be more precise with our genes.
Give your genes the information that they can “read” and you will receive the desired response.
So, what we should strive for is not sprinting, but causing the hormonal response from the body, which will fit our goals.
Here comes the role of HIIT.
HIIT can be applied in many ways. Every exercise can be performed in the type of HIIT.
This is my preferred method, in order to save me some monotonous cardio.
The best substitute of cardio are intervals. You know that I swim. For most people, swimming is an aerobic sport. How would you react if I tell you that you can spend 20 minutes in the pool and have more positives, than if ou swim for 2 hours?
I’ve been on this path – the long, exhausting training sessions. I’ve been the kind of person that would run 15-20 laps on the stadium, I used to swim 4-5km. a day. I’ve spent hours on the treadmill.
Here are the methods that I use now. I will suggest you some ideas that will help you substitute long, boring cardio. This doesn’t mean that you should deprive yourself from a morning run, when you are somewhere in nature. But running is a mean for relaxation and meditation! Not a mean to lose weight!
Here is what you should do:
1.Sprints
Workout 1:
20sec. sprint: 40sec. rest. – repeat 6 times or if you are advanced 10 times.
Workout 2:
60 sec. max effort run: 60 sec rest
40 sec. max effort run: 40 sec rest
20 sec. max effort run: 20 sec rest
Workout 3:
3×3 max distance with 90 sec. rest between sets
*Start running with moderate effort. The goal is to run max distance in 3 minutes.
1.1. Hill sprints
Hill sprints are my favorite. I love the feeling post workout and besides that the running technique gets significantly better, because the incline encourages you to flex your knee and take your leg forward, while still pushing from the foot behind.
2.Tabata
HERE I wrote about this method. You can us different exercises and perform them in the Tabata method. It takes 4 minutes and the feeling is amazing.
3.Swings
HERE I wrote about swings, as a substitute of cardio and I suggested you some workouts.
4.Burpee
Burpees are an exercise which people love and hate – all at the same time. Here you can see the proper technique of burpees.
Otherwise you can do different “burpee challenges”
For example:
Workout 1:
30 or 50 burpees for time
Workout 2:
25 burpees
Rest the half of the time it took you to complete them
20 burpees
Rest the half of the time it took you to complete them
15 burpees
Rest the half of the time it took you to complete them
10 burpees
Rest the half of the time it took you to complete them
5 burpees
5.Battle rope
This is my favorite toy in the gym. You can do different intervals with the rope.
For example:
Workout 1:
5 sets of 20 hits with both arms, with 20 seconds rest between sets.
Workout 2:
30 hits with the rope
30 seconds rest
20 hits with the rope
20seconds rest
10 hits with the rope
Rest 1 minute and repeat again
6.A short workout with a combination of exercises
I love workouts with 2 exercises, which I combine and perform at the end of the workout.
For example:
Workout 1:
5 times on the minute:
10 jumping lunges
15 swings
Workout 2:
10-8-6-4-2
Jumping Squats
Box Jumps
Everything I listed, takes little time and you get big return of the investment of efforts.
You won’t feel exhausted.
This type of physical activity has a hormonal response which resembles the hormonal response from workouts with weights.
You take less time, you train with higher intensity and you burn more calories.
The physical activity you perform, communicates with your body and genes and it speaks to them in a familiar language. They respond by helping you achieve your goals.
Life is too interesting to waste it in the role of a mouse, which is running on the treadmill, day after day, without a goal and without results!
And here is my handstand walking progress:
Some great advice and some solid workouts. I’m with you. Running is great. All you need is a pair of shoes and some space to run. Running is like soccer is to sports; anyone can do it with little equipment. That easy accessibility, for better or worse, has created this “running will solve all my problems” perception. I’m sure it helps people in more ways than sitting on the couch does… but if you are looking for results in the mirror, or on the field, you are going to have mix it up.
Hey, Adam 🙂 Thank you for another great comment, Yes, we assume that when something is approachable, that it is the only way to achieve our goals. But running is a skill that requires serious practice, keeping in mind how our bodies are adapted to our modern lifestyle. We have tight muscles, muscles that don’t fire well and when we run, we compensate for our body’s lack of proper function, which takes a toll on our joint health.