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How A Well-designed Cardio Workout Plan Can Give You More Energy

It’s no doubt that you’ve heard that a well-designed (and performed) cardio workout plan can give you more energy. The fact that it can has been a

major selling point by trainers, the health department, and PE teachers the world over as why you should be doing cardio workouts several

days/week.

Now, it takes energy to actually *do* your cardio workout plan, right? So, if you’re already tired, and it takes more energy to do the workout,

which means you’d have *less* energy than normal when you’re done, where does the more energy point kick in?

Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it?

Well, it’s kinda like business – you have to spend money to make money, right? You can’t make money by just sitting there and hoping it gets

better. Sometimes you have to make a small investment if you want to get ahead. The idea is that a wisely-placed small investment will be

multiplied by many times when it comes back to you.

It’s the same with your cardio workout plan.

The things that make you tired – being overweight, a heart that has to work too hard, poor posture, stress, etc. can all be taken care of, improved,

and solved by putting your time in on a proper cardio workout.

Sure, it’s not easy at first, but just like it seems like you’re losing money at first because you’re spending it, think of the time and energy you’re

putting in as an investment in your future physical and psychological well-being.

After you put the time in and get in better shape, you’ll feel better about yourself, whether it’s because you lost your gut and have to buy smaller

pants, or because you’re no longer embarassed to step on the scale at the doctor’s office.

Your heart will be stronger, as will your lungs, which means that when you’re “resting”, your body will actually be doing less work, which will take

less energy. You’ll also weigh less, and you know that makes you feel better.

So, the next time you dread your cardio workout plan, and don’t think you’re getting anywhere, remember that it’s a long-term process, and the small

investment you make now will pay off big-time in the end.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

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Increase Your Conditioning, Increase Your Cardio

Many people think that conditioning is just cardiovascular work. However, to have complete conditioning, one must have not only cardio, but also muscular conditioning, strength conditioning, and power conditioning.

So, how to train these different modes of conditioning?

There are several different ways you could train each of these qualities individually, but there is a good way that you can get a better “bang for your training buck”.

Circuits (also called “complexes”) can do train all three at once. Circuits are pretty simple – just perform several exercises back to back with no rest. Now, when you hear the word “circuits” you might conjure up ideas of somebody doing endless reps on an old chrome universal weight machine, wearing some sort of ’70 jumpsuit. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The types of circuits I’m talking about are done with barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, and/or bodyweight exercises. These circuits can either be done very high volume with several exercises, lighter weight, and higher reps to tax muscular conditioning. Or, they can be done with a medium number of exercises (say 4-6), heavier weights, and medium reps (say 6-8). This will tax not only muscular conditioning, but will tax strength/power conditioning more. Both will greatly tax cardio conditioning simply because you’re doing so much work without resting.

Another way is to do single, alternating-limb exercises. These are best done with full-body exercises, and, because of the nature of the method, heavier weights can be used, with higher reps. For example, take the Dumbbell (DB) Clean & Press. Grab a heavy DB, and Clean & Press it with your left arm. Set it down, and grab it with your right hand. Clean and Press. Set it down and grab with your left. Keep repeating until you do 20-30 reps per side. This allows you to keep your form tight, use high volume, and use a much heavier weight that if you were doing 20-30 reps consecutively. This method will tax not only strength/power conditioning, but muscular and cardio conditioning as well.

Probably the most beneficial aspect to these types of circuits is that they are such great cardio workouts. You get as much – or more – cardio benefit as you would any sort of “traditional” cardio (jogging, various machines, interval training, etc.), but you never have to do any direct cardio workouts. All the extra cardio you get is simply a by-product of all the work you’re doing.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

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The Psychological Benefits Of Your Cardio Workout Plan

You hear all the time about all the physical benefits of a good cardio workout plan.

By now, it’s probably all old-hat – fat loss, a stonger heart, better lung capacity, decreased risk of certain kinds of disease, etc. Blah, blah, blah. We’ve all heard it a zillion times.

But what about the psychological benefits of cardio training? How come nobody really talks about that?

Well, it’s likely because psychological benefits are much more subjective and harder to express with same sort of facts and figures. The kinds of numbers that can be calculated when it comes to cardio workout plans causing weight loss or reduced risk of heart disease are much more convincing.

Besdides, cardio workouts are physical, right? Right. So where does all this psycho-babble fit in?

Well, let’s take a look at this psycho-babble for a minute.

First of all, we’ve already established that a prperly performed cardio workout plan can help you lose weight, right? Well, would you feel better about yourself overall if you lost a few pounds and a few more inches? Nobody likes spending money, but spending money on new pants because the old ones are too big always feels good.

Then, there is temporary stress relief. Ever have a day where everything just went wrong, and you felt completely stressed out? And on any of these days, did you ever get a good workout (cardio or otherwise) in, only to find that you felt better afterward, because you worked some of that stress off? Bet you did. Well, now keep that going on a more regular basis.

Now, this is a physical thing, but nobody feels good when they’re tired. When your heart and lungs are in shape because you spend time on your cardio workout plan, your body has to work a lot less in a resting state to simply perform involuntary actions such as breathing, pumping blood through your body, and even digestion (which improved blood flow can help improve). Well, if you’re working less, that means you’re using less energy. Which means you’re less tired. Which translates into better chances of being less grumpy.

Looks like there might be something to this whole “cardio workouts put you in a better mental state” thing after all…

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

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Why ‘easier’ Cardio Isn’t ‘better’ Cardio

My dad always told me that it was more effecient – and easier – to work smart instead of working hard. To do this, you want to always find the most effective way of doing something.

In most areas of life, I’d say that the lesson of working smart instead of hard is one of the most valuable lessons you can learn. However, such isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to your cardio workouts.

There are some areas of the fitness industry in which working smart vs. working hard has become quite a topic of discussion. Most of the time, this has been because somebody is backing or promoting something that supposedly lets you do more work. And if you’re doing more work, you’re getting more benefit, right?

Not necessarily.

I’ll come back to cardio workouts in a minute, but let’s look at strength training for a second. I can take virtually anybody that’s not a trained powerlifter and increase their bench press by as much as 20-30 lbs. in under 20 minutes.

A buddy of mine is a local strength coach and owns his own sports performance gym. He routinely take his athletes (usually high school kids) and adds a couple inches to their vertical jump in literally their first workout.

How are such gains possible? Is it because we’re amazing coaches?

No – it’s because we’ve taken trainees, and helped them use better technique. And with better technique, the trainee was able to lift more and jump higher. Are they really any stronger or more explosive? Not really – now they’re just a little better at expressing the strength and power they already have.

So, how does this apply to your cardio workouts?

Your body is an amazing machine, but there are things that even it can’t do. For example, when you’re strength training, your body has no idea what kind of weight it’s lifting – only that it’s working. Your body doesn’t know if it’s lifting a barbell, a dumbbell, or a sandbag. It only knows how hard it has to work.

Same goes for your cardio workouts.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running, jumping rope, or using a rowing machine. The impact and such on your body is one thing, but as far as improving your cardio goes, all your body knows is that it has to work hard.

How many times have you heard somebody say they like running on a treadmill because it’s “easier” than running on a track or through their neighborhood?

If it makes it “easier”, given the above, then doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose?

Just because you’ve got something (usually a machine) that makes your cardio “easy” or allows you to supposedly go further or do “more” in the same amount of time doesn’t mean you’re necessarily improving your cardio.

A simple rule of thumb – if you don’t feel like you worked hard enough, then you probably didn’t.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

For cardio workouts and workout plans that don’t need gyms, machines, or make you run a single step, check out

workingclasscardioworkout.com.

For more info on cardio workout

plans, click here.

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Cardio Workout Plans Can Be…fun

Take a look at the word “workout”. The word “workout” is simply a compound word, meaning it’s made up of two smaller words – “work” and “out”. And that first one – “work” – is a word that nobody likes.

It’s also usually associated with any sort of exercise – especially cardio workout plans. “Workouts” generally mean that “work” is involved…and we all know that work sucks, right?

As ESPN’s Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast my friend!”

Cardio workout plans can be a lot of fun. You just have to make them that way.

There are many ways to make your cardio workouts fun. First, you could do them with friends. Make little competitions out of it. This will tend to work better for the guys than it will the women, but anybody with a competitive spirit and a good cardio workout plan can benefit. See who can get the most work done, or better yet, find ways to work out together. Work harder to make everybody work harder.

For instance, say you are doing a sprinting workout of some sort. Try to get your sprints done faster than your parter so they can rest less, and it makes the workout harder for them than it is for you. You could do the same thing in a cool circuit training cardio workout, or anything similar.

The basic camaraderie can also make your cardio workout plans a lot of fun. Don’t underestimate the bond that can be forged when people endure hard work together. (If this wasn’t such a big deal, new members of the military wouldn’t build such camaraderie while being worked so hard in boot camp…think about it for a minute.)

If all that doesn’t work for you, then consider finding activities that you and your friends find fun. This can either be the cardio workouts themselves, or something you can go do afterward. Maybe once per week you go, get a hard cardio workout in, clean up, then go out to see the new movie out in the theater. It makes an “event” out of the whole experience.

There are several ways to make your cardio workout plans fun – find one and get to work. Or is that get to fun?

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

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