If you’ve read any of my past newsletters or articles regarding exercise and its role in burning fat and getting healthy, you probably already know that I don’t recommend performing cardio or aerobics as your primary exercise method.

And I’m not only talking about traditional moderately paced long duration cardio, but that interval cardio stuff too. I’m not saying interval cardio doesn’t work, it does, and I’ll talk about that a bit later. But even still, I have a lot of people angry at me…in fact I get emails almost every day from people who think I’m nuts for telling them they don’t have to perform exclusive cardio of any kind.

Well, I’m kinda tired of answering all of those questions ‘one on one’, so I thought it was time to let loose some of the solid reasons why I make these bold r.ecommendations I’m going to go into some depth here, so this email is ‘part 1′…I’ll finish the topic off in a couple of days in ‘part 2′.

First let’s tackle the traditional cardio…you know, the type that has you on a treadmill or something similar where you try and stay in your target heart rate for fat burning. This has you jogging at a slow to moderate pace for typically 30-60 minutes at a time, 3-5 times each week. If you’re trying to burn fat off, this is a big mistake. Here’s why:

With this type of exercise, your body will be burning stored body fat as its primary source for fuel. While this may sound good, its actually bad news. What happens after the workout is far more important that what happens during the workout. After this type of workout is over, your body responds by holding on tightly to its stored body fat so that it’s available the very next time you perform this exercise.

Even worse, what you are doing here is telling the body to make more fat when possible, just in case it encounters this type of
cardio again. Guess where your post workout meal is
going…that’s right, your fat stores. It should be obvious that we would want to avoid this exercise if we want to burn fat and stay lean.

From a health perspective, this type of cardio can actually reduce your body’s n.atural ability to deal with stress (or life, as I like to call it!). You see, long duration moderate intensity exercise conditions your body and cardiovascular system to be efficient. And efficiency means a smaller everything…heart, lungs, muscles, etc.

In effect, you are shrinking the core elements of your body’s powerhouse, and while it may get better at jogging for hours at a time, when faced with something truly stressful, you’ll be outmatched and in big trouble. How often does life require you to continuously jog for great distances? That’s right, almost never.

Now if you want to be good at taking long hikes or running a marathon, then this type of cardio will help you. You’ll become better by increasing your endurance. But this is a trade off, as you’re making your body more efficient, but reducing it’s ability to deal with life’s activities and burn fat maximally.

There are also long term health implications associated with this exercise, including overuse injuries and muscle imbalances from the repetitive pounding on your joints and targeted muscle groups. There’s a reason there are injuries named after this type of activity! (anyone heard of ‘runner’s knee’?)

One last point about long duration moderate intensity cardio…most of these problems occur when performing this exercise for more than 10-15 minutes…that’s when the body taps into its fat stores for fuel…that’s also the point when you start getting efficient and shrinking your powerhouse. Sure you could stop after 10-15 minutes, but the low intensity level will have little effect on burning body fat or providing significant health benefits.

Alright, hopefully I’ve scared you off of the treadmill with that information. But wait, you say, many health and fitness experts have started to realize the same things about long duration cardio…and they’ve found the answer…interval cardio training! OK, let’s talk about that…in ‘part 2′ of this topic which I’ll cover in the next eNewsletter…keep you eyes peel for it in the next couple of days.

By the way, have you had a chance to read my Fat Burning Furnace eBook yet? If not, you need to go and do that right now.

I lost over 40 pounds of fat, totally reshaped my body, boosted my energy and health immensely…and I did in just a few months with workouts that last just 15-20 minutes performed 2-3 times each week. It took me years to learn all of the secrets I use…but you can download my eBook right now and discover them for yourself in just a few minutes here:

http://fatburningfurnace.atozfitness.com