Stop doing CARDIO... and start enjoying yourself

I HATE CARDIO... and I’m not afraid to admit it.

WARNING: If you enjoy spending hours on a treadmill, a stair-master, a stationary bike, elliptical cross-trainer or if you just like running laps for hours at a time, then this article ISN’T for you. 

That tends to be the reasoning behind how I do a lot of things in life these days. If I don’t enjoy something I probably won’t do it unless I have to and if I have to I’ll try and find a way to enjoy it.

Take exercise for example, we all know we have to do it. A mixture or weight training and cardio is probably one of the best ways to look after your health {1-4} and the more vigorous or intense the exercise, the better {5,6}. However, for a lot of people, exercise is boring or tedious so they avoid it.

Luckily I’ve consistently had success in getting people to fall in love with weight-training. I’m sure it all has to do with the motivation of seeing yourself getting noticeably stronger over time. Lifting more weight today than you could last month turns weight training into a very addictive activity.

However, I’ve not had the same success with making “cardio” attractive and that’s probably due to my own attitude towards it. Long story short: I HATE CARDIO. I don’t like spending large amounts of time jogging the same route or even worse stuck in the same spot sweating and panting on some machine. I actually find it tediously hard to do 5 minutes on an elliptical machine if I need to warm-up before hitting some weights.

That said cardio can help with reducing body-fat {7} and I recommend it to all my clients on days when they aren’t lifting weights. The only condition is that they have to enjoy it or make it easy to do in their daily lives.

And that’s the secret right there, exercise doesn't need to feel like exercise to be effective. It doesn’t need to be boring and in fact, you should try to make it fun, make it something you want to do. So, instead of running on the treadmill for an hour why not:

That said cardio can help with reducing body-fat {7} and I recommend it to all my clients on days when they aren’t lifting weights. The only condition is that they have to enjoy it or make it easy to do in their daily lives.

And that’s the secret right there, exercise doesn't need to feel like exercise to be effective. It doesn’t need to be boring and in fact, you should try to make it fun, make it something you want to do. So, instead of running on the treadmill for an hour why not:

• Play soccer/basketball/rugby/tennis/ or whatever sport you like with some friends
• Go dancing or do a Zumba class {8,9}
• Have vigorous sex (preferably lots of it) with someone equally interested in improving their fitness
• Go hiking in the countryside on the weekends
• Try a group exercise class that aims to make things entertaining, like spinning
• Take up an active hobby like rock-climbing, parkour or a martial art

Basically find something fun that makes you want to do it regularly, something that you genuinely enjoy and don't need to “find the motivation” to do.

Failing that, you can make physical activity something you need to do in your daily life, such as:

• Cycling/walking/rollerblading as your main mode of transport
• Using the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator

Obviously, this all depends on what you can fit into your own lifestyle. Some cities aren’t designed for cycling or walking and some climates don’t permit it year round either. You might not have access to group classes or classes that you find interesting. However, I really feel that anyone can find a physical activity that they enjoy. And like I said, making it enjoyable is key.

Chances you will ever see me jogging or going “beast mode” on a treadmill are slim to none but despite not doing a lot of specific cardio exercise, I do a lot of cardio during my week, it just doesn’t feel like exercise.

• I cycle as my main form of transport (I love cycling and buying a bike is one of the first things I do when I move to a new city)
• I love hiking in the countryside and the mountains and do it whenever I can get out of the city (which is strange because I hate walking as a mode of transport)
• I almost never use escalators when I can use a stairs and I only use elevators if I need to go up quite a few floors
• It might come as a surprise but I’m actually a regular salsa dancer and find salsa to be an incredibly fun way to burn calories.

If I don’t do these regular activities (because of my schedule or for whatever reason) I notice that I definitely have to reduce my food intake to prevent a little extra weight gain… they’re that much part of my life.

Just as I’m constantly blabbing about how important it is to make your diet enjoyable to make it sustainable, the same goes for your exercise habits.

If your main form of cardio is hitting the monotonous treadmill or elliptical while staring at the wall in front of you then you’ll easily find excuses to not do it. It’s not fun and it’s not sustainable.

Instead, actively look for enjoyable ways to make your life more active. Once you’ve found them you won’t need to convince yourself to do them… you’ll look forward to them.

So Play, Dance, Make Love and Eat Well, folks

1. Ho SS, Dhaliwal SS, Hills AP, Pal S. The effect of 12 weeks of aerobic, resistance or combination exercise training on cardiovascular risk factors in the overweight and obese in a randomized trial. BMC Public Health. 2012;12:704.
2. Lee DC, Pate RR, Lavie CJ, Sui X, Church TS, Blair SN. Leisure-time running reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014;64(5):472–81.
3. Li J, Siegrist J. Physical activity and risk of cardiovascular disease-a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2012. p. 391–407.
4. Kelly P, Kahlmeier S, Götschi T, Orsini N, Richards J, Roberts N, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis of reduction in all-cause mortality from walking and cycling and shape of dose response relationship. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2014;11(1):132.
5. Hupin D, Roche F, Gremeaux V, Chatard J-C, Oriol M, Gaspoz J-M, et al. Even a low-dose of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces mortality by 22% in adults aged ≥60 years: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2015; 2014–094306.
6. Chomistek AK, Cook NR, Flint AJ, Rimm EB. Vigorous-intensity leisure-time physical activity and risk of major chronic disease in men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012;44(10):1898–905.
7. Ismail I, Keating SE, Baker MK, Johnson NA. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of aerobic vs. resistance exercise training on visceral fat. Obesity Reviews. 2012. p. 68–91.
8. Merom D, Ding D, Stamatakis E. Dancing Participation and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality. A Pooled Analysis of 11 Population-Based British Cohorts. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2016;
9. Domene PA, Moir HJ, Pummell E, Knox A, Easton C. Zumba:The health-enhancing efficacy of Zumba® fitness: An 8-week randomised controlled study. J Sports Sci. 2015:1–9.

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