Best Cardio!

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krknobbe10
krknobbe10 Posts: 110 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
What do you feel is the best cardio that burns fat and gets you a flat stomach? My go to is running but I am having pain in my upper thigh so I did the arc trainer today and will be biking later for a warmup before weight training. Wondering what other people use that makes them sweat. I feel like nothing makes me sweat or gets me as good of results as running. Any suggestions?
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  • TheBrolympus
    TheBrolympus Posts: 586 Member
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    My go to exercise is cycling. If you feel like you aren't getting a good enough workout then go faster. :smile:
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
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    Why do you need to sweat? You could run your butt off in the winter, not sweat, and still burn plenty of calories. Sweat isn't an indication of a good workout, it's an indication that you're in a warm place.

    Also, you get a flat stomach via diet, not exercise. You have to lose fat everywhere to lose it in your midsection.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited February 2015
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    LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »
    Why do you need to sweat? You could run your butt off in the winter, not sweat, and still burn plenty of calories. Sweat isn't an indication of a good workout, it's an indication that you're in a warm place.

    Also, you get a flat stomach via diet, not exercise. You have to lose fat everywhere to lose it in your midsection.

    Agreed. Sweat is simply your body trying to cool itself down. Ever sweat laying in the sun at the beach? Not exactly an intense calorie burning session, is it?

    A flat stomach is the result of sufficient fat loss. Fat loss is largely about calorie deficit. A calorie deficit can be achieved with or without cardio. So in some sense, the best cardio is the cardio you do, the worst cardio is the cardio you don't do.
  • krknobbe10
    krknobbe10 Posts: 110 Member
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    Just like the feeling of a long run and all that comes with it. It's nice to know I'm sweating for a reason.
  • r5d5
    r5d5 Posts: 219 Member
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    I like running and biking! In the wintertime, I do some crosscountry skiing and snowshoeing. The besssst :) I know it gets ragged on, but I like the elliptical machine too.
  • StephJC81
    StephJC81 Posts: 33 Member
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    Burpees, mountain climbers, skipping, or any body strength exercise.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    krknobbe10 wrote: »
    Just like the feeling of a long run and all that comes with it. It's nice to know I'm sweating for a reason.

    FWIW - higher intensity, shorter workouts have a greater impact on muscle retention while you lose weight. So while weight loss is about cals in/cals out, body comp (fat loss) can be helped with something like sprints vs long, slow runs.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Suggestion would be do the exercise that you enjoy at the intensity and duration that matches your fitness goals and worry less about sweating.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    krknobbe10 wrote: »
    What do you feel is the best cardio that burns fat and gets you a flat stomach? My go to is running but I am having pain in my upper thigh so I did the arc trainer today and will be biking later for a warmup before weight training. Wondering what other people use that makes them sweat. I feel like nothing makes me sweat or gets me as good of results as running. Any suggestions?

    Exercise in and of itself isn't going to burn fat or get you a flat stomach. Burning fat and leaning out is a bi-product of consuming less energy than your body requires and thus necessitating the use of energy reserves.

    I cycle a lot...I cycled a lot when I was losing weight and I cycled a lot when I was maintaining weight and I still cycled quite a bit when I went on my fall bulk (though not as much)...the difference between those three weight control goals wasn't my cycling...it wasn't my exercise...it was how much food I was eating.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    edited February 2015
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    If you mean "Most calories burned per minute" then it is hard to beat running if you want to go for a while and burn a ton of calories. But you can burn a lot of calories on lower impact things like ellipticals or even stuff like PiYo. Find what you like to do and are comfortable with, and go for it!
  • benmcnulty
    benmcnulty Posts: 1
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    Insanity without doubt :-)
  • krknobbe10
    krknobbe10 Posts: 110 Member
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    I love to run and do HIIT workouts but I am having thigh pain so am trying to stay clear of running until it gets better.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Is it the upper part of your thigh, towards the outer edge near your hips? I get that after pushing my longest distance on runs. I've learned that means I have weak hip flexors, a common problem with people who have desk jobs (Been that way for 25 years now). I have started adding some regular exercise routines to strengthen my core and hip flexors to help with that. I'm surprised by how difficult some of these exercises are, highlighting how weak my hip flexors were to start.

    Just mentioning in case you might be experiencing the same.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,670 Member
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    krknobbe10 wrote: »
    What do you feel is the best cardio that burns fat and gets you a flat stomach? My go to is running but I am having pain in my upper thigh so I did the arc trainer today and will be biking later for a warmup before weight training. Wondering what other people use that makes them sweat. I feel like nothing makes me sweat or gets me as good of results as running. Any suggestions?
    Cardio doesn't burn fat (the way people thinks it does). Cardio burns calories. Calorie deficit helps to burn fat. One actually burns more fat sleeping and resting for 8 hours than one hard hour of cardio.
    Try walking on an incline treadmill without holding on the rails at a 3.5 speed. See that gets you sweating. Low impact and much tougher than some think.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • krknobbe10
    krknobbe10 Posts: 110 Member
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    grimmeanor wrote: »
    Is it the upper part of your thigh, towards the outer edge near your hips? I get that after pushing my longest distance on runs. I've learned that means I have weak hip flexors, a common problem with people who have desk jobs (Been that way for 25 years now). I have started adding some regular exercise routines to strengthen my core and hip flexors to help with that. I'm surprised by how difficult some of these exercises are, highlighting how weak my hip flexors were to start.

    Just mentioning in case you might be experiencing the same.

    Yes and I feel it's slightly affecting my knee but I also have a bruise on my knee so that may be something different but it is the upper part of my thigh towards the outside. What exercises do you do to help with your hip flexors? I have never had this problem until now but then again I just started my desk job last June.

  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    krknobbe10 wrote: »
    What do you feel is the best cardio that burns fat and gets you a flat stomach? My go to is running but I am having pain in my upper thigh so I did the arc trainer today and will be biking later for a warmup before weight training. Wondering what other people use that makes them sweat. I feel like nothing makes me sweat or gets me as good of results as running. Any suggestions?
    Cardio doesn't burn fat (the way people thinks it does). Cardio burns calories. Calorie deficit helps to burn fat. One actually burns more fat sleeping and resting for 8 hours than one hard hour of cardio.
    Try walking on an incline treadmill without holding on the rails at a 3.5 speed. See that gets you sweating. Low impact and much tougher than some think.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    I did that this morning.
    The hill program on the treadmill, went from 1.5 to 7.8 incline and I was at 4mph. It wasn't that difficult. And no I wasn't holding on, I wishing I had my book to read.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
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    krknobbe10 wrote: »
    Yes and I feel it's slightly affecting my knee but I also have a bruise on my knee so that may be something different but it is the upper part of my thigh towards the outside. What exercises do you do to help with your hip flexors? I have never had this problem until now but then again I just started my desk job last June.
    I checked out some articles and videos on core and hip strengthening exercises for runners, then picked out a set to start following. These are the ones I am doing. It takes me about 45 minutes to do 3 sets of each (generally to failure or near failure for the ones where I might fall over):

    Push ups
    Clamshells*
    Side planks
    Lateral side leg lifts*
    Double leg straight leg lifts*
    Single leg bridges*
    Donkey whips*
    Squats*
    Standing single leg raises*
    Single leg deadlifts*
    Pull ups

    To be perfectly honest, the pull ups are not for running, necessarily, but I did add them to my routine because I am trying to build up chest and arm strength as well. All of the others will help with running as they target muscles that are used when running. The ones with asterisks are ones I recall seeing regularly in all of the links I found for exercises targeting hip flexors and glutes, the areas I seem to be weakest in and hope will help prevent further injury running. I have decided to cut back on my long runs for a bit while I build up strength in these areas, because each time I started pushing my furthest distance something would wind up hurt, feet, hamstring, ankles, all sorts of stuff.
  • krknobbe10
    krknobbe10 Posts: 110 Member
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    Thank you so much! I hope this helps. I am also going to cut back/stop running until this issue is better. I am just getting back into heavy lifting so I feel that may have triggered it also but hopefully the heavy lifting will help strengthen it all too. I have been doing squats and pushups and single leg deadlifts and side planks. Will try to work in the others. Thanks again!
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    The best cardio is the cardio you enjoy.

    That said, you also posted that you wanted to gain weight, and so limiting cardio will help with that by reducing the amount of calories you burn each day.
  • krknobbe10
    krknobbe10 Posts: 110 Member
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    And it looks like I will be reducing my cardio and hopefully gaining muscle from lifting heavy.

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