Stop Doing Too Much Cardio (too soon)
February 17th, 2011 | posted by Kimberly
So, I’ve been uber excited about my mom’s progress over the past few weeks. Tennie (Tina) has dropped over 8 pounds and is totally psyched! Little background on my mom: extremely overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.
We got her stationary bicycle fixed and she started doing 60-90 minutes a day + 30 minutes of yoga. I told my mom to stop doing so much cardio. Confused, she said “I need to do lots of cardio to keep losing weight.” But actually that’s not the case…
In the beginning, start out by doing 20-30 minutes of cardio most days of the week. With proper dietary tweeks and consistency–you will see some results. But the body is pretty smart…
The body adapts and weight loss stops (plateau). You need to add 10 more minutes to each cardio session approximately every 4 weeks. Your body will have to keep using more of its untapped resources (stored fat) to accommodate the longer sweat sessions.
Gradually adding more cardio has several benefits. It helps improve your cardiovascular endurance, busts through plateaus and prevents burn out from doing too much…too soon.
My mom is now doing 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of yoga/band workout. But I know it’s going to take her some time to switch her all-or-nothing mindset!
Looking for a guide that breaks it all down? Get my book, The 30 Day Fitness Blueprint. I’ve made it super easy for you. All you have to do is follow the workout schedule and meal plan and you will get amazing results!
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