HELP! I hate cardio

Cardio is needed for weight loss and for general health.

Cardio isn't required for weight loss, but it is good for your general health.

This. If you hate machines, don't do machines. Go for a hike in a park instead. Take a camera. Go geo-caching. Have fun.

I hate cardio just like you, but I highly suggest trying to Turbo Jam: 5 Rocking workouts, it come with 2 extra videos. It is sooooo fun, it actually made me love exercising, I had so much energy left over and it burns more calories than any workout I have ever done (except Turbo Fire which is step up and bit harder than Turbo Jam). It's a bit of kick boxing mixed with lil bit of dancing. If you look a the cover of the DVD it looks cheesy but I promise you its not at all. I lost 55lbs with it in just 5 months, I am sure you will lose WAYY more.

The dvd's come with 20 min Cardio (for me at 215lbs I burned about 300-350cals), there is also a 40 min Cardio (I burned as much 600-700cals during it @215lbs), 20 Min Ab workout (I burned about 200-250, it's soooo easy and burns sooo much), it comes with 30 min Booty Sculpt +Abs, a bit of weight training concentrated on booty and abs; comes with 40 Min Suclpt Video (weight training),during this you use ligth weights and do all sort of squats, arms exercises, most funnest workout every (it burned between 500-600 cals @215lbs), like 3 of my friends/coworkers tried this, and all love the videos, especially Turbo Sculpt, it's soo easy but burns as much as cardio. it also comes with 50 min cardio video, and a training workout called "Learn and burn", it teaches you all the moves they use, once you do this video 2-5 times all the cardio workout become easy to follow.

This is great DVD set because it's fun, leaves with you ton of energy after, and it's a mix of both strength and cardio, both crucial to weight loss. Weight training is just as important as cardio, and you won't beef up with this, it's all nice lean muscle.

I promise you you will love this workout, It's the only workout I truly enjoy, and believe me I have tried everything P90X, Billy Blank, 30 Day Shred, etc and all other normal exercises you can think of. Best part is you are in control of how much you want to burn and push yourself, you can make it easy until you get stronger. You will burn more calories with this workout than any other, more than running, but the part is it's easy but really makes your body work every muscle!

So today was a lifting day here is how it went

I decided to start with the cardio cocktail Duv gave me but I modified it.

I did the following:

45 sec Ball Slams
15 rest (okay some of my rests were longer than 15!)
45 sec Medicine ball toss (tricep exercise) I subbed this for burpees because I can't do those
15 rest
45 sec Battle Ropes
15 rest
45 sec russian twists
15 rest
45 sec Step ups on a box (subbed for the mountain climbers I could also not do those (but I tried)

2 min rest and did it again. Took about 15 minutes for 2x around. I was bad with the timing and getting all my stuff where it needed to be so I could jump to the next thing. I noticed a major difference in my HR though... got my blood going and it was awesome, had a lot of fun.

From there I went to the lift Duv gave me this is what I did

1) Leg press (320,340, 340)
2) Deadlift (95 for 3 sets... may have gotten a few extra in a crossfit guy was helping me with my form)
3) Bench (80 for rep 6, 75 for rep 6, and 70 for the whole 8. Reached failure on the first two)
4)Inc Press (55 for all sets)
5) Alternating KB Press (12 lbs)
6)Lat pulldown (80, 85, 85)
7)Barbell Curls (12.5x3)

Hubby added Trapz lift because he loves those. I didn't do those.

So the only problem I had with this is it still took 1 hr 33 minutes. It's not a problem for me, but you said it should take an hour. Here's where the time went. Trainer guy helping me fix my Deadlift form took up maybe 5 minutes. Longer rests after Deadlift and Bench (hubby was taking forever with his Squats and deadlift).

Also the Bench was really hard to lift at. In the past I've done all 3 sets at 80 but today I couldn't do more than 6 reps of 80 OR 75. Should I push the bench up before the Deadlift or is this because of the cardio I did before?

So total workout today was 1 hr 48 minutes with the cardio included.

Excellent Excellent Excellent!

Great job with the cardio cocktail. Love the subs you made. I agree, mountain climbers are surprising hard when you start out. It's what made me figure out I had an extremely week core and needed to make some changes to work on it.

Great job on the lifting. You're moving some good weight and it sounds like you're putting in solid effort. We'll be flexible with the time. With two people it moves slower and if the hubster is lifting a lot more than you the weight changes between sets take longer.

As you get used to the routine, it will get more efficient. I'm a lot stronger than my workout partner, so one trick we use is to not use 45s as much. He'll have 25s on the bar for something, and I'll just add more 25 instead of switching to plates. Makes for some extra math when I go to log it tho. And if you're taking longer right now because you're trying to get your form correct, BRAVO.

Keep trying to speed it up to that hour. Tell you what. Set a time that if you don't finish exercise #6 you have to cut traps and curls. So you have to do your last set of lat pulldowns at the 1:10 mark to be able to do curls. And then curls are done by 1:25 mark to do traps. Keep speeding that up till you are able to make the :50 minute mark your target. My workout partner and I do this. He looooooves preacher curls and I'm like, "whatev". So at the end, we the clock decides if we can do them or not.

Couple of bonus points on this already long post:

* Chris is totally correct in that pull ups are about 650% more effective than lat pull downs. But I'm thinking you're pretty far away from doing those, even assisted with bands. Chins are hard for guys, and Bean gave a great post from a female point of view. So do lat pull downs, but work at proving me dead wrong. Make chins with bands a near term goal.

*Chris is also dead on right with his Less is More philosophy. Getting stronger is about putting in work and *recovering* from that work. The more work you do the harder it is to recover. It's hard tho, and most people, including myself, hate cutting their workouts down. That's why I left the curls in for you (the hardest exercise for a guy to give up) and I'm not surprised your husband wants to keep doing traps. One day he'll try it our way and be amazed how quick he improves. But I understand, because it took me many failed attempts to come around too.

*Last one, but it's IMPORTANT. For the love of everything holy, do that cardio cocktail AFTER you lift. It's going to destroy all your lifting numbers. If you're doing it right, you're completely spent when it's done, I don't like to bench in Spent Mode. And it's not safe to deadlift in Spent Mode. I'd rather you do the cardio on your off days, but either way, just do it after the lifting.

*Bonus last one. Let's change the time on the cardio. 30 secs work, 30 secs rest. Still shoot for 20-24 total minutes, but the 30/30 should help you get thru. When you're ready go 45/15 and after that add a 3rd round for 30-36 total minutes.

Cardio is not my favorite thing to do. In fact, at my highest weight I couldn't do cardio for an extended amount of time. I relied on (and still do!) the Jillian Michaels DVDs. She focuses on a lot of strength with short yet quick amounts of cardio incorporated in the routines. I am now running 3miles and still have to stop every now and again. Just keep moving!

I don't do CARDIO at all.(And i used to be a marathon training coach a few years ago!) I just lift heavy. Just 3 days a week. I actually look better now than when I used to do cardio almost daily. Taking one day off for me after each session does wonders. Now it doesn' t mean I am just sitting on my butt though. I walk alot. Purposeful walking. To work, to get groceries. I don't do it for "exercise." I just make it part of my daily routine. So if I could count anything as cardio, it would just be walking.

Anyways, cardio isn't necessary to lose weight if you watch what you eat and lift with purpose.

Cardio is NOT a must. The only cardio I do is 5 minutes of raquetball before I lift 3 days a week. I eat at a moderate calorie deficit. My clothing sizes have decreased dramatically since doing this.

What Lori here said.

Although she didn't mention that she hikes 1-2 days a week for peace of mind...and this does help her get in basic health type cardio (which we really shouldn't neglect). As her trainer...I can most certainly attribute the fact that she's gone from a very tight size 12, to a size 6...in less than a month, to the strength training/relaxed diet program I have her on.

She was hiking, and actually substantially more active, prior to us working together...yet the changes were nowhere near as dramatic.

I do a ton of hiking in the fall which will probably make up my cardio during those times. Right now it's just SOOOO hot here in Arizona to go hiking. I miss it like crazy though.

Nobody has answered my question on how long should I rest between lifting days? Is rest needed after every lifting day?

My trainer has me lifting 6 days a week alternating between upper and lower with abs every day. I do run 3 days and week and on off days I do something else like Zumba/kickboxing or an elliptical. Treadmills and ellipticals CAN be fine. Time flies if I'm doing either with a friend or I have my mp3 player

Again...over training is far, far worse than under training.

oh agreed, but it's very hard to overtrain imo. mostly people confuse overtraining with under eating and under sleeping.

Take this persons total workout routine. I'm willing to bet if you were to take this same person and toss them on any roughneck crew, they would get obliterated by the heavy labour. So that begets the question, is everyone whos doing heavy labour overtraining?

You dont have to be running to do cardio, I walk at a decent pace (3.0 on treadmill?) but I also do it at an uphill incline. My heart rate is in the cardio realm but I am not running because I HATE it. There are all sorts of alternatives, find one that works for you.

Cardio is NOT a must. The only cardio I do is 5 minutes of raquetball before I lift 3 days a week. I eat at a moderate calorie deficit. My clothing sizes have decreased dramatically since doing this.

Exactly. If all you are looking for is weight loss, you do not need to do cardio.

There are health benefits to cardio, though, so it's worth investigating the various options to find something you enjoy. You got some good suggestions already, but just good old walking is great. Do you like dogs? Perhaps volunteer to walk dogs at a nearby shelter. It doesn't have to be all about gym torture.

Cardio is NOT a must. The only cardio I do is 5 minutes of raquetball before I lift 3 days a week. I eat at a moderate calorie deficit. My clothing sizes have decreased dramatically since doing this.

Disagree. Cardio is a must for heart health. Not for weight loss. You need to do *something* to elevate your heart rate. But it doesn't mean a cardio machine.