Tuesday, December 14, 2010

It's wrong to resist resistance (training, that is)

I don't do cardio. Really. I've lost more than 145 pounds without doing more than 15 minutes total on a treadmill, stationary bike or eliptical machine. Now, I do sometimes ride my bike for pleasure. And a few times a month I rollerblade. But in the gym, it's all about resistance training for me.

I don't plan on ramping up the cardio anytime in the near future, either. The reasons for this are simple: 1) I hate cardio, 2) I've read a lot about how resistance helps build muscle which in turn burns fat, and 3) I have consistantly been losing weight without focusing on cardio, so why should I start now?

Well, to be honest, I'm open to cardio and will do it vigorously if and when I need to. I have changed up my routine constantly in order to keep my body guessing as to what physical challenge is coming next. And I know as I'm now nearing my goal there will most definitely be new challenges for me in the coming months.

But for now I'm going to continue to do my resistance training at the gym. I'll be sharing more about my workouts in the future. And certainly if I get any requests from my readers I'll get to this more quickly than I otherwise might. But for now, let me just say that for those of you who dread spending hours and hours each week doing cardio, let me free you and say that you will probably get much better results from your weight loss efforts if you switch your focus from cardio to resistance training with weights.

And don't worry if you don't really know what you're doing in the gym; it's not as complicated as it seems. This book can get you started: Men's Health, The Big Book of Exercises. It's full of illustrations and descriptions of all sorts of exercises for all parts of the body, and there's a version for men and one just for women. So check it out, and good luck!

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