My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 5)

Ok, cardio. This part of exercising has been the worst for me. But, it's also where I've made the biggest improvements. I started off only really capable of using the recumbent bike for half an hour at level 1 (keeping in mind these levels only really mean something relative to the bike model in question). After a few weeks of burning nearly 300 calories, I looked over as someone was getting off the elliptical and saw they'd burned 50% more than me in the same amount of time. I was annoyed and felt like I hadn't been using my time in an efficient manner. The next day, I tried out the elliptical for the first time and found out that it wasn't going to be easy. I was able to get about 20 minutes before I was breathing far too hard to continue.

Tip

Your heart rate getting too high will exhaust you. So scale back the resistance, and you can go longer

It was all a learning experience for me. Learning how long I could go before I was exhausted, or before my knees would hurt, or before I'd blister my feet, or my calves would rebel. The first thing that I learned was to keep my pace constant. This allowed my heart rate to get up to a workout level, but not dip and spike like it would if I were taking breaks. Next, breathing was an issue. Given that cardio is working your cardiovascular system (heart and lungs), finding a good breathing method allowed me to sustain my efforts longer. In through the nose, out through the mouth, in tempo with my right foot and making an effort to expel as much air as possible while exhaling. That gets me enough air to keep going. Finally, I focus on not checking the clock. There is nothing worse than looking down to see you've got another 22 minutes to go.

Tip

When running, try to land closer to the ball of your foot than your heel, like you would if you're barefooted.

Running. Running to me is really fun but is awful. When I started my exercising adventure, I had knee issues when running. It would either hurt on the side or bottom of my knee. Luckily, knowledgeable trainers are around and clued me in on a very important part of running: TECHNIQUE IS IMPORTANT.

Running with your heel hitting the ground first causes knee problems. "Why?" I'd have you ask. Great question, I'm glad I had you ask that. Think of your skeleton for a bit. In your leg, you have a few bones that connect to your knee, the tibia and the femur. If you land on your heel, the heel is aligned with the tibia and femur. That means that all of that impact is absorbed by bone. Now, imagine landing with the ball of your foot. The impact compresses your foot down and your calf muscle flexes to absorb much of the impact. Then, your knee is bent slightly so your quadriceps and hamstring absorb more. Sounds better, right? It is. Do this and your knee problems while running should greatly diminish, at least they did for me. Of course, the first several times you try this your calves will hate you. But they'll forgive you in time, and your knees and even hips will love you.

To close out the cardio section, I'd like to talk about pacing in your exercise of choice. As mentioned earlier, my preference is to aim for a constant pace in whatever I'm doing in order to keep a constant heart rate. On the Elliptical, I shoot for between 65 and 70 rpm. On the bike, 70 to 75 rpm. On the rowing machine, 27-30 strokes per minute. On the treadmill, I simply put it on one speed and go. Currently, that's 6 mph. With a constant pace, I increase the resistance on the machines to push myself. For example, my current setting on the Elliptical is 13. Pretty much each time I can barely finish it, but I am finishing. Level 12 used to be like that, so I'm getting better.

Next up, Stretching.