The Disadvantages of Cardiovascular Exercise
There is one thing which is a certainty in the area of losing fat and building muscle - this is that exercise is an essential element. Everyone knows that more calories must be burned off than taken in in order to lose weight - and of course, to gain muscle mass, the muscles must be worked out. Despite that everyone knows this; there is still much debate and many misconceptions about how best to lose weight while building muscle. There is a wrong way to go about this, however; this is to do only cardiovascular workouts.
Cardiovascular exercise is a tried and true way to help somebody lose weight. However, it is not the best way or the only way. Losing weight through cardiovascular exercise alone requires a great deal of time spent and depending on your intensity and time spent, it can be a slow and dragged out process. Additionally, by doing only the same exercises over and over, you and your body can both reach a plateau where you no longer see any effective improvements.
As mentioned, cardiovascular exercise takes up a load of your free time. For some people this is an inconvenience, but for many other people this is just flat out impossible. Not everyone can pick up and trek to the gym for 15 hours a week. Plus with cardiovascular exercise, it takes time for your body to warm up and even get into calorie burning mode.
While cardiovascular exercises will certainly lead to improvements in your heart and lungs, your bones and joints may be paying the price. For example, the consistent and constant pounding that your knees and shins take while running or jogging can severely damage those body parts. Not only is this bad for your long term health, but it can make it harder to workout in the short term as well.
Cardiovascular exercises need to be done more than just several times a week for maximum results. When each of these sessions has to last for at least an hour, that’s a big time commitment that people should not be forced to make. When you skip a day or two, you can immediately regress because your body has been relying on those long workouts to burn off the energy it has.
When doing cardio exercises, one must be working out in the fat burning zone in order to get results. Although calories are burned with almost any type of exercise, it is nearly impossible to burn excess fat when exercising at a low intensity. The fat burning zone is usually at a very fast pace and the heart rate must be high, which can be difficult for those just starting to exercise to accomplish.
While cardio exercises have always been touted as weight loss programs, they have never been touted as muscle builders. You are working your muscles in a different fashion, and usually only the lower half of your body is receiving any kind of stimulus. Running or riding a bike for example, don’t involve your upper body at all and while they will make your legs stronger, it will be hard to actually put on additional muscle.
It is possible to get all of the benefits that cardio has to offer without doing it, such as the ability to workout the lungs and the heart without having to run. It is also possible to exercise without causing joint and bone pain, and without having to do it for an hour every single day of the week. Turbulence training offers all of the benefits of cardiovascular exercise, while getting rid of the disadvantages at the same time.
