3 Ways to Make Cardio Un-Suck
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Many of you have heard this before or hold this belief near and dear to your heart “CARDIO SUCKS.” Well in the traditional, old school walking or running on the hamster wheel; yes cardio does suck, it’s boring, tedious and lacks the excitement a training session should bring. I know I personally hate jumping on a treadmill to get my training done. I have even went as far as to say 1 cardio minute feels like 30 real world minutes…not a recipe for fitness success with that mindset.
I am here to open up your mind and imagination with some quick, easy, fun and effective ways to make your cardio un-suck forever. Take your aerobic training from boring to badass with these 3 simple cardio hacks.
PLAY ALL OUT –
Adults don’t play enough, one way to increase the happiness in your life while getting your cardio on at the same time is play. This can be anything from basketball, volleyball, tennis, to things like soccer, Frisbee golf, zumba, kickball or even freeze tag…how awesome was freeze tag as a kid? My point moving around with friends in a social setting allows you to have a release from your normal stresses of life all whole getting lean and mean at the same time. There are leagues or organizations in every city with programs like this looking for people like you to join.
PROGRESS IS IMPORTANT
Like anything in fitness and in life progress is important, chasing goals in the your cardio training is just as important as chasing goals in the weight room. Setting goals or benchmarks in your cardio training will help keep you pushing, moving and help you stay motivated moving forward. Tracking your 100M times, mile time, or 5k paces are great places to start. Even things like how quick you sprint the length of a football field or how fast you can do a 400m lap are great things to strive for improvement on over time. If you take the time to track your push-ups, pull ups, bench, squat and deadlift numbers why not track your aerobic ones as well?
MUSIC MOVES YOU
For me personally nothing gets me more jacked than putting on some of my favorite tunes to get down to when training. I love sprinting but I love sprinting even more when 2pac kicks in my ear. For you it might be a favorite artist or just a track with a sick beat that gets your nervous system jumping. I suggest taking a few minutes each week and picking up a few new songs you love, you know the ones you can just put on repeat for hours that get and keep you inspired to do one more set, to run one more mile…let the music move you to the next level of your cardio training.
If I was to give a few other quick hacks that help me crush my cardio it would be these:
Find a quality-training partner who can push you when you want to take a day off. If you have a dog often times there is no better running companion than that.
If possible get outside when the weather is nice – it’s good for you mentally to smell, breathe and be in nature as you train. Getting off work and walking into another dark building is often the last thing you need.
Sign up for fun things to train for a 5k, Spartan race, charity run/walks anything that is an external motivator you will be pulled to train hard for.
These keys are simple but often overlooked when it comes to cardio training. We get so locked into what we “think fitness is” often times we forget there is almost endless possibilities when it comes to training our body and having fun while doing it.
Until next time eat well, train hard & be nice to people.