Cardio Observations From The Gym

When I walk around the gym, I see countless people doing cardio on the dozens of different machines. Treadmills, stairmasters, elipticals, bikes - makes no difference. People are brainwashed to spend hours in the gym doing cardio. I watch people spend an hour on one machine then move to another for who knows how long. It's crazy. They have been conditioned to believe that hours of cardio and burning x number of calories is the magic formula to changing their bodies. Then people invariably flock to the scales with the mind bending weight standard charts placed above them. I feel frustrated because I spend everyday trying to retrain people, mostly women, to stop doing that stuff.

A very small number of people I see do it right. I see some enlightened people sprinting and doing intervals on the cardio machines after they finished with their resistance training. Most of those people look fit. But most of what I see is the standard long slow endless hours of going nowhere fast. I still see people reading books while they ride bikes slow. They don't know any better and at least they are doing something.

Then I have people say "why don't you teach them how to do it then?"  Well of course, in the begining, I tried to help people. You have to remember that I have worked at Smith Fitness Center since it opened in 2007. After countless people turned down my offer to help them repeatedly, I gave up and let those who wanted my help seek me out. They all thought they knew better. The same people on the same machines day after day, year after year - never really looking any different.

I can't change everyone's social brainwashing. The damage is just too widespread and too big. But when I have people enroll in my programs I teach them how to attain their goals by doing things that produce more results in less time.

Spending more than 25 years doing every major form of cardio and training hundreds of people has given me experience to know what works and what doesn't. Combined with cutting edge, science based studies and my own experience, I teach you what will work 100% of the time. Cardio in all it's forms has it's place. But you have to learn how your body works and what type of cardio does what from both physiological and  metabolic standpoints.

If you want to get lean (notice I didn't say lose weight), you have to do things a certain way if you want to make it happen any time soon. Some people say do HIIT or sprints or intervals, while others advocate long distance slower cardio sessions. They all have their place and they do different things. Macronutrients tie into the type of cardio that you do. It's exhausting to look deep into each aspect so we'll keep it short and caveman sweet.

Think of your body as a machine. The machine needs fuel to run. Carbs, protein and fats are all fuel sources in one way or another. When you do cardio you are traditionally thinking that you are burning calories and therefore burning the fat off to lose weight. Maybe, yes and no all apply depending on how you are doing cardio and how you are eating. Most people don't have it right because the social brainwashing tells people to eat less and do more cardio. Biologically this can't work with your machine ( body). Invariably, most people end up losing weight from lean body mass loss because they simply eat less and do more cardio. It doesn't get you lean.

So stop wasting time in the gym. Learn how to do it right so that you burn fat, build and maintain your lean body mass and actually change your body to look good naked. Lean, sexy and toned right? That's really why everyone is on the dang treadmill in the first place. Nobody says hey, I'm gonna hit the gym to drop 5lbs of muscle today.

If you want to learn about how I teach people to actually get lean, sexy and toned sooner rather than later, contact me and I'll fill you in on a better way that actually works. You've already tried all of the stuff that doesn't work. It's time to do something that does. Metabolic conditioning and targeted fat loss cardio with a supportive nutrition plan works. Spend less hours in the gym and get more results.

Eric
Dempsey's Resolution Fitness