I was thinking earlier, how much I've really started loving Jump Rope as a cardio, and it got me thinking about all of the fitness-related things I've fallen in love with over the past few months (or longer). So, I thought it would be cool to compile a list of things I've really come to love as well as some tips from my own experiences. I have a lot to write, so I'll start with cardio-related stuff:
1) Jumping Rope - Since this was the inspiration for this blog post, I might as well start here. Other than a few times in school as kid, I hadn't jumped rope in a long, long time. It was prescribed as a regular part of my program starting in month 1, and is currently a once-a-week addition to my HIIT cardio regimen. It's a standard old-school form of cardio but I think it's terribly underrated by the fitness crowd at large.
In month 1, I struggled to really jump rope consistently, and in order to get a good cardiovascular push from it, I was doing a jump rope/burpee combo, which is fantastic. FWIW, the routine was this:
50 Jumps + 2 Burpees, immediately followed by:
50 Jumps + 4 Burpees,
50 Jumps + 6 Burpees,
50 Jumps + 8 Burpees,
50 Jumps + 10 Burpees
50 Jumps + 8 Burpees
50 Jumps + 6 Burpees
50 Jumps + 4 Burpees
50 Jumps + 2 Burpees
Normally, this would take me about 15 minutes or so, and would absolutely kick my ass. At the time, I was lucky to get 50 jumps in in a row, so this was a good way to work around my lack of jump rope technique.
Over the last couple of months I've gotten a TON better at Jumping Rope, to the point where I absolutely destroy myself with a ~10 minute HIIT routine. As hard as it is, I really, really enjoy it.
Tips:
- Make sure you have a Jump Rope that fits you! I originally went down to the store and picked up the first rope I found, and realized after about a month that it was too short for me. Getting a proper-length rope has done wonders for me.
- Warm up properly, and take it easy the first few sessions.
- If your Jump Rope technique isn't too great at first, consider mixing it up with some kind of other exercise, like the Jump Rope/Burpee complex I posted above, until your jump rope technique is up to snuff.
2 - Sprinting - I started sprinting once a week as part of my cardio regimen during month 2. I'll be honest that I was pretty wary of sprinting as I had/have a bit of a bum knee and running in general has never come very easy for me, but surprisingly my body handled it very well, and by the end of the month, I really began loving it. No other form of cardio has ever spiked my heart rate like a good old fashioned sprint session. It absolutely kicked my ass every time. I managed to go from a pretty-poor sprinter to a kinda-sorta-decent sprinter by the end of the month, and I look forward to doing more of it in the future.
I did a lot of reading/research on sprinting and it is amazing how great sprinting is as a full body exercise and as a form of fat loss. I honestly believe that for high-intensity cardio for fat loss, nothing beats jumping rope and sprinting when it comes to molding the type of physique most people want (just do a google image search for "sprinter" :).
Tips:
- Again, make sure you take it very easy if you haven't done much sprinting recently. You can REALLY injure yourself quickly if you do too much too fast.
- Make sure you warm up properly.
- Try to sprint on an incline. Sprinting on an incline has less eccentric stress, so it tends to be easier on your body, and you recover better (this is one of the reasons why hill sprints are so effective).
- Make sure your sprinting sessions are an effective part of your overall workout routine. Sprints are VERY taxing on your whole body, particularly your lower body. It is important to make sure that your body has adequate recovery for sprinting and any lower body weight training you do. For instance, although I was sprinting during Month 2, I am no longer sprinting during month 3 as my overall volume and frequency is really high, and sprinting would be overdoing it as a form of cardio at this point.
- Here's some great resources on the above:
The Six Week Sprinting Solution - Neat article about sprinting with a focus on programming.
Sprinting Towards Single Digit Body Fat - Another cool article about how badass sprinting is.
An EZ Guide to Sprinting - An easy guide to sprinting (duh.)
3 - Walking - Yes, I said walking. With HIIT now all the rage (rightfully so) in the fitness world, all other forms of cardio have gotten thrown under the bus, and while I think medium-intensity cardio is generally a bad idea, all forms of low intensity cardio (like walking) have gotten the shaft as well. Which, in my opinion is too bad. I'll admit, I've never been much of a walker, and I always laughed at the people walking on treadmills for 45 minutes. But, as I've had regular treadmill walks as part of my program, and as I've done research on a concept called "active recovery", I've learned to appreciate walking immensely.
I am a big believer in evolutionary fitness. That is, doing things that our bodies were designed to do. The fact is that the most major physical changes that separate us from our primate cousins is that we are designed very well to walk long distances, regularly. This includes the most well-known and obvious example of walking upright! Humans are some of, if not the best "walkers" in the animal world. So, it stands to reason that it is probably very good for us to walk regularly, even if it's not a very sexy form of cardio.
The "active recovery" stuff is really interesting. There have been some interesting studies done that show that low-intensity exercise both immediately following your workout and in the days following an intense workout actually aids in recovery. The usage of muscles immediately after intense exercise helps clear out the lactic acid in your muscles, and the increased blood flow in the days following helps in recovery/rebuilding of muscles. Makes sense, right?
Also, when you have a volume/frequency-heavy program that already has high intensity cardio, walking is a cheap way too burn a few more calories without adding too the overall load. And, since it helps with recovery, it's a really good addition to a hardcore fat-loss regimen.
Knowing that makes it a lot easier to talk myself into spending 20 minutes on a treadmill. Don't get me wrong, I still HATE walking on a treadmill, but I appreciate it a lot more, and I really enjoy walking outside. Going for a walk to the store, or to and from the gym is really enjoyable to me now, and I love randomly going for a walk around the neighborhood when I feel like it.
Tips:
- You wouldn't think there'd be much of a "tip" to walking, but here's one: When walking on a treadmill, try walking at an incline. I like a 6 degree incline minimum, usually at 3.5-3.8mph. This is a good way to keep your heart rate up without having to go into a "jog". Other than that, walking is pretty self-explanatory :).
That was a little longer than I expected, which is why I'm splitting this up into a few parts. I'm thinking that Part 2 will probably be nutrition-centered, so stay tuned!
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