Cardio and Weight Loss | Weight Loss | Fitness

A lot of people think you have to do “cardio” to lose weight, and by “cardio” they usually mean riding the bike, walking or jogging on the treadmill, or using an elliptical machine. And, a lot of people find that mind-numbingly boring. And by “a lot of people” I mean at least I do.

Cardio is just a generic term applied to any sort of exercise that places a demand on your cardiorespiratory system (your heart and lungs). Sure, the ones listed above do that, but so do plenty of other things. Things you might like to do more than the bike, treadmill, or elliptical.

How about my bootcamps? They place a major demand on your cardiorespiratory system (along with all of your major muscle groups).

How about other types of circuit training?

How about interval training?

How about throwing some supersets together using kettlebells, sandbags, or bodyweight moves?

All of these things will get your heart and lungs working and burn calories. Traditional “cardio” is not magic and certainly doesn’t hold a monopoly on that. In fact, if that’s why you do traditional cardio, to work your heart/lungs and burn calories, those other options, when done correctly, can do a better job of that for you.

As an example, here’s what I did for my last cardio workout. I did supersets of kettlebell swings and burpees. I started off with 20 reps of each, then 19 reps of each, then 18, 17, and so on until I got down to 1 rep of each, then I finished off with one final set of 10 each.

I’ll do the math for you: that’s 220 kettlebell swings and 220 burpees. Let me be the first to tell you, that will get your heart and lungs working harder and burn more calories than a 30 minute walk on the treadmill while reading People magazine will.

So, if you’re training for a marathon or road race, you need to run. If you’re training for a 300 mile bike trip, you need to ride. If you’re looking to work your heart and lungs and burn calories, there a plenty of things you can do that don’t involve either a treadmill or a bike. Just use your imagination.

~Dave

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About the Author

Dave Soucy is a coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. His goal is to teach as many people as possible how to achieve a life of health, fitness, and wellness through simply eating right and exercising. Click here to learn more about Dave.

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Amt Plus

Excellent post Dave. I will say that I will do "typical" cardio for 2eeks max if I have not done any intervals in a while. Being on BP meds and having a bad right knee i need to work up that so my entire body can handle the work load.
This I do after a 2O mnute 30-30 interval workout.
Dave Soucy

Hey Mike,
absolutely nothing wrong with the typical stuff if you enjoy it or need to recover from an injury. Right now I'm dealing with elbow tendonitis that has severely limited my kettlebell/dumbbell/sandbag fun and have been pedaling my ass off on a stationary bike in my office every day. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...:)
Mike

Hi Dave,
Absolutely agree -you gotta do what you gotta do. Take care of that tendonitis and what ever you do avoid cortizone shots!
Debra

Dave, Great superset! I've challenged myself to do cardio this month without stepping on one machine. Slipping tabatas between major lifts, doing 20 minutes of agility ladder drills (one of my new loves), a variety of farmer's walks, DB complexes.

There is so much one can do!
Dave Soucy

Great stuff Debra. I'll bet after the month is over you still won't go back to the machines.
Daniel Munday

Dave, once again you've nailed it mate. That is a massive cardio set. Thanks for tomorrows workout too!
Dave Soucy

Enjoy Daniel. Here's another fun one you can try. I did the same countdown with the kb swings, but instead of supersetting w/burpees, I supersetted with something I call bag pulls.
Basically I've got a 30 foot rope (about 10m to you) tied to a 125lb (57kg) sandbag with the rope straight out across the floor. Grab the end of the rope opposite the sandbag and pull the sandbag to you, then take the rope and run it back out straight and pull the bag across the floor to you again. That equals 2 bag pulls. Do that with each set of your kb swings, so that by the end you've done 210 kb swings and 40 bag pulls. Did that Monday and can still feel it today.