Don't Count Cardio Calories
If
you are wondering how many calories you should burn during your cardio
workout, well you just shouldn’t wonder about that. One of the worst
inventions ever was putting those calorie counters on the treadmills
and other equipment. It is because of these calorie counters that most
of men and women obsess about the number of calories they burn per each
cardio workout. There is a very good chance that you have probably been
one of those people who watch that number creep up very slowly during
your cardio workout, while the whole time you are just thinking how you
can wipe out that 400 calorie workout with just one muffin. Too
many people have been tricked into thinking that if they don't burn
300-500 calories per workout that they will not lose fat and change
their appearance. So does burning 500 calories
each workout really cause you to lose 1 pound of fat per week? Science
says that this should be true. But if it was that easy, then why aren’t
all of us seeing the results we want. It is a myth that you have to
burn 500 calories in each workout to lose fat. That is why it is so
crucial to include the weight training along with the cardio. Studies
have shown that men and women who only used cardio training for weight
loss ended up reducing the rate of their metabolism. After your cardio
workout your body will stay in a metabolic state burning calories for
any where between 14-18 hours. After weight training, you will remain
in that metabolic state for up to 48 hours. That’s a huge difference. This
means by just doing cardio, you are basically doing the complete
opposite to your body then what you want to do because the slower your
metabolism is, the longer it takes to digest food, and the longer your
body takes to digest food, the more food it turns into fat. On the
other hand, men and women in the same study that used strength training
as well as cardio, increased the rate of their metabolism. This means
that the food they eat is broken down more quickly and burned so that
it does not all get stored as fat.So
do not pay attention to the calorie counter on you cardio machine. Just
focus on pushing yourself a little faster and a little harder each time
you workout. Remember not to fall into the trap of doing to much cardio
or just doing cardio in order to lose weight. You can read more about
that in the article Don’t be a Cardio Queen.
The most important thing to learn from this article is that your body
burns calories even after your workout. The more intense your workout
is, the more calories are burned and the longer your body burns them.
Just continue to do cardio 3-5 times a week and make sure to also do
some type of weight training and you will see results.
Why Young Athletes Don't Succeed
The
reason most young athletes do not succeed or achieve the goals of
playing a sport at a high level college is because they are only taught
to dream but not to work. The reality is it takes a lot of hard work
and dedication to play a sport in college at any level, especially
Division I. When I was growing up and playing basketball, all kids
would have dreams of playing in the NBA. They would all pretend to be
their favorite NBA player out in the park, but what they never thought
of is what that NBA player had to actually go through to get where he
is today. It takes dedicating hours each day to training and practicing
for your sport. A huge problem though, is that most coaches of youth
teams do not have the knowledge for the correct way to train or
practice. I can not believe how many times I was taught something that
was just completely wrong while playing sports. Or how many hours I
wasted at practice to have some dad coach make us run pointless drills.
Now
parents and coaches always encourage kids to dream and tell them they
can accomplish anything if they put their minds to it and everyone
thinks they are supporting their child’s dream, when in fact their not.
Their not supporting their child because they are not giving them the
right tools to actually succeed. Unfortunately they are just setting
them up for disappointment and filling their heads with dreams that can
never be reached. This is especially true of New Hampshire and other states with poor sport programs such as New Hampshire. A few years ago I traveled to Indiana one summer to play basketball and work with trainers. It was an eye opener to see 10 year old children up at 6 A.M.
working out for 2 hours and then playing up to 4 hours of basketball
over the course of the day. And this was a daily routine for them. They
knew how to train, how to practice and how to eat. People wonder how
states like Indiana crank out so many great athletes, well that is why. They teach them the tools that they actually need to succeed. The
reality is that college and professional sports are not for everyone.
Children should be given an idea of what it really takes to get there,
and what it is like once you’re there, so that they can have an actual
idea of whether it truly is there dream or not. Unfortunately, many
athletes realize it is not there dream too late. 27% of college
athletes quit playing there college sport during or after their
freshman year. This is because they were never fully informed of how
intense and hard it would be. They were never taught the correct ways
to train and practice so it is too overwhelming and they quite. The
change does not need to come with the young child though, children
should dream, I still dream. Every child should pretend they are their
favorite NBA player and every child should pretend they are in the NBA
championship game with 10 seconds left and dribble down the court
counting down to shoot and score the winning basket. Kids should be
dreamers. The change needs to come from the parents and coaches. If
your child’s dream is to really play college sports or professional
sports, then actually give them a chance. Do your research when
deciding on what rec team, travel team or AAU team they will play on.
Figure out who the coach is and if he is qualified. NEVER let your
child play for a coach who has his own kid on the team. Have talks with
your child about how it is going to take a lot of dedication,
commitment, hard work and sacrifice to achieve their dream. If
possible, higher a personal trainer or skills coach to help your child
develop their game and get a step ahead of the competition. And most of
all, lead by example. A huge problem in America
is child obesity. 70% of health is nutrition. It will be impossible to
succeed at a sport if you do not eat properly. But how is a child
expected to eat healthy if their parents don’t. Lead by example and
give your child a real chance at their dream. The worst feeling in the
world is to fail at your dream and to look back and say I could have
done more. I should have done more. Give your child the tools and
knowledge necessary to succeed so if they do not reach their goals, at
least they can look back and know they did their best and have no
regrets.
We All Have Six-Packs
That’s
right, we all have six-packs. The problem is that most of us have a
layer of fat covering it so that we can not see our six-pack. So how do
we get that six-pack to poke through? Some people would say to just do
a lot of crunches. Well this is wrong and there are many reasons for
it. First off, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Doing crunches
over and over is not going to just burn the fat off you stomach. You
will be burning some calories, but those calories will be spread
through out your entire body and the calories you burn doing crunches
are minimal. You’ll want to make sure you do a variation on ab
exercises that include both stabilization and strength exercises. Look
at the Core page to learn more about the exercises to do. Some other
people would say to just do a lot of cardio and burn a lot of calories.
Well this is incorrect. If you just do cardio then you will actually
slow down your metabolism which will lead to that pouch on your stomach
growing. You need to do 25-30 minutes of cardio 3-5 times a week but
also incorporate weight lifting into your work out routine. Studies
have shown that weight training actually increases you metabolism and
your body continues to stay in a metabolic stage burning calories up to
48 hours after lifting instead of only 16 hours after cardio. Also the
more lean muscle you have one your body, the more calories you burn
even at rest. So it is very important to include weight training in
your workout. Now the final thing to do and this is the most important,
is eat healthy! 70% of health is nutrition. Most of that extra weight
in the stomach region is do to bad eating habits. If you diet properly
and eating correctly while staying on a good exercise program, you will
definitely see that six-pack start to show.
Don't Be A Cardio Queen
A
huge mistake that most women make is they become cardio queens. I don’t
think I even have to explain what a cardio queen is to most of you, but
to those who have yet to fall in that trap, I applaud you and will
explain what a cardio queen is. It is when a lady believes that all
they have to do is cardio and burn as many calories as possible during
the workout in order to lose weight. So they will get on the eliptical,
(which is the most popular machine because it is the easiest), and go
full speed for an hour. They will do this week after week, and finally
ask the question, why do I feel squishy? They do not understand how
they can be doing so much cardio and not be losing weight and getting
toned. Well there is so many things wrong with a cardio queen. First
off, it is true that the whole concept of losing weight is that one
must burn more calories than has taken in. But what is important to
know is that if one burns to many calories in one sitting, then they
have used all the energy in their body, which will then cause the next
food they put in their body to go directly to fat. Fat
is energy, if your body burns to many calories at once, you are telling
it that it does not have enough energy (fat) to keep up with your
workload. Everything your body does you have trained it to do. So by
doing that hour of cardio and burning all those calories in one
sitting, you have just trained your body to store more fat. I don’t
think that is what you want when trying to motivate yourself to run for
that whole hour. In fact I’m sure that’s pretty demotivating to many of
you who just realized that after you sweat for an hour, the next time
you eat, unfortunately, you have most likely completely negated your
hard work and that is one reason why cardio queens can never reach
their goals. Another reason, which is the most important is that cardio
queens do not do weight training. Weight training is vital. It is what
will change the shape of your body and get rid of that squishy feeling.
Do not feel, I'm especially speaking to the females, that weight
lifting will make you bulky. This is NOT true. Females will not get
bulky if they lift weights, they will just build lean muscle and burn
calories. You can learn more about this is the article Weight Loss Through Weight Training. It
will talk about why weight training is so important to include in both
male's and female's workouts in order to lose weight. You then have the
program pages to learn exactly what your weight training should look
like so that you feel confident when weight lifting and not overwhelmed.
