Best Cardio!
krknobbe10
Posts: 110 Member
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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My go to exercise is cycling. If you feel like you aren't getting a good enough workout then go faster.
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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.0 -
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.0 -
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.0
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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.
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Burpees, mountain climbers, skipping, or any body strength exercise.0
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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.0 -
Suggestion would be do the exercise that you enjoy at the intensity and duration that matches your fitness goals and worry less about sweating.
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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.0 -
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!0
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Insanity without doubt :-)0
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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.0
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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.0 -
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.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?
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
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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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.
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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.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?
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
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.0 -
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):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.
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.0 -
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!0
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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.0 -
And it looks like I will be reducing my cardio and hopefully gaining muscle from lifting heavy.0
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grimmeanor wrote: »
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):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.
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.
When you ice your hip flexor, where do you put the ice pack? It seems my pain is wide so it's hard to know exactly where to put the ice so it helps the most. I have tried mid thigh and up closer to my hip.
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OP, I fear you haven't been listening/reading any of the responses on the other threads you've started in the last month.0
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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.
Just have sex. It's more fun anyway.
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I love the Arc trainer - 1:1 interval. Treadmill was boring and my old bag of bones didn't like the pounding. I tried elliptical machine - intervals and really like it and did it for many months and thought I was in shape until I did the Arc trainer. It kicked my *kitten* the first few times.
Arc trainer (w/o the arm thingies) is bad *kitten*.0 -
I love the rowing machine.0
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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.
Beautiful quote. For me, I hate running and the treadmill (I call it the dreadmill, ick). So, I'm a ZUMBA gal. Burn just as many calories as the evil treadmill and have a lot more fun doing it. Find something that works well for you. I've always heard a six pack is made in the kitchen.
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I do the arc trainer and will be rowing also and throwing the bike in there too. Probably going to do a combination.Wookinpanub wrote: »I love the Arc trainer - 1:1 interval. Treadmill was boring and my old bag of bones didn't like the pounding. I tried elliptical machine - intervals and really like it and did it for many months and thought I was in shape until I did the Arc trainer. It kicked my *kitten* the first few times.
Arc trainer (w/o the arm thingies) is bad *kitten*.
Do you feel the arc trainer is accurate on the calories or do you feel MFP is accurate when you log it in your cardio section?
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Do you feel the arc trainer is accurate on the calories or do you feel MFP is accurate when you log it in your cardio section?
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I think it is as accurate as can be. I really don't log a the calories. I do notice sometimes I feel like I burn the same number of calories as the time before but for some reason I am 20+ under. No biggie as I sweat a ton and it is a challenge. I keep increasing the time and intensity about every 3-4 weeks to make it more challenging. I refuse to do anything else.
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Sorry, I have no idea because I never iced mine. The worst I ever felt it was on a cold November half marathon. That last couple of miles hurt, and at first I thought the pain was due to the muscles in my thighs/hips being too cold. I pretty much knew I was wrong after warming up. The last thing on my mind was ice.krknobbe10 wrote: »When you ice your hip flexor, where do you put the ice pack? It seems my pain is wide so it's hard to know exactly where to put the ice so it helps the most. I have tried mid thigh and up closer to my hip.0 -
The stair master.0
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