What motivated you to start doing cardio?

fenrirGrey
fenrirGrey Posts: 110 Member
in Success Stories
I've been working out for years now. In the last year, I've gotten serious about my diet too. But I just cannot seem to get myself on the threadmill (or any particular cardio on a daily basis).

Pretty sure there are ppl out there who once hated cardio but have since progressed to doing atleast 20 mins of cardio 3+ days a week. What motivated you? How did you make the transition?
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Replies

  • Classicbdw
    Classicbdw Posts: 6 Member
    Diabetes. have been walking briskly daily for 6 months now and have reversed the curse
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    Just an overall desire to be able to do more and have more energy.

    Cardio builds stamina and makes the body function more efficiently. It also burns a lot of calories.

    The only real downside to cardio is that, well, it makes the body function more efficiently. Meaning you are burning fewer calories at rest. It's like weight loss crack - once you start it it becomes less and less effective for weight loss and you have to do more and more of it to maintain the same weight loss. Once you build up your stamina, though, you'll find strength training easier along with everything else in life. :)

    I can hike briskly up a mountain now, but I burn fewer calories doing so than when I weighed 280 and could only manage to stagger up the mountain. But I enjoy the view a lot more and don't need to eat as much food to support the hike. :)
  • janeite1990
    janeite1990 Posts: 671 Member
    Keep looking until you find some kind of cardio you like. I go through cycles where I really prefer to run. Then, I hate running but love the elliptical. Then, I hate both of those but love cardio DVDs. If you keep looking, I bet you find some sort of cardio you like.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Why are you looking to do cardio?

    For fat loss cardio is not needed all you need is a modest caloric deficit and ensure you get adequate protein and do strength training so you don't lose muscle as you lose fat.

    Cardio is great for endurance and heart health, but not needed for weight loss, as it just allows you to eat more and maintain the same caloric deficit you can get from diet alone.
  • still_crafty
    still_crafty Posts: 682 Member
    I got a good look at my *kitten* in a photo someone had taken of me. Talk about MOTIVATION. I hated doing cardio but now I do it 6 days a week. I find if I circuit train it makes it a lot easier. I can't just get on the treadmill for 30 minutes and run. I have to mix it up.
  • RNmomto4
    RNmomto4 Posts: 143
    First, to lose weight...now its become an addiction. I love to run. It is literally my only alone time! I do a lot of thinking and planning :)
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    I despise indoor exercise. I do weights inside for obvious reasons, but cardio is 99.9% outside. Go to a park or even just step outside your front door, take in nature (even city streets have trees!) and some fresh air and just go.
  • HauteP1nk
    HauteP1nk Posts: 2,139 Member
    I just think about how exercise is more then just about losing weight. It is beneficial to our hearts and lungs as well.

    As I get older I want a strong heart and pair of lungs, as well as strong bones & muscles! This means cardio AND weights.

    Maybe you could do some interval training or tabata style training. A lot of these exercises involve using your own body weight...that way you are getting a workout that involves weights and cardio....
  • mmsilvia
    mmsilvia Posts: 459 Member
    I followed the C25K program. I loved it and now I look forward to jogging. It was a battle that I struggled until my treadmill broke. It forced me to follow the program outside. I found that my passion was in jogging outdoors. The fresh air and open space allowed me to clear my mind. After I feel like a million dollars. Good luck find what works best for you & please feel free to add me for support. :smile:
  • cushygal
    cushygal Posts: 586 Member
    Personally, I joined a walk/run group 2 years ago to help with my weight loss and it worked. Prior to joining this group I was a walker at best - now I am training for my first half marathon which I will run on the 27th of this month.

    I am not a fast runner by any means, a 12-13 minute miler, but it still gets me to where I am going.

    Good luck to you
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    Why are you looking to do cardio?

    Cardio is great for endurance and heart health, but not needed for weight loss, as it just allows you to eat more and maintain the same caloric deficit you can get from diet alone.

    'Cause who wants endurance and a healthy heart, right?

    Forget the cardio, OP!
  • Edestiny7
    Edestiny7 Posts: 730 Member
    Just an overall desire to be able to do more and have more energy.

    Cardio builds stamina and makes the body function more efficiently. It also burns a lot of calories.

    The only real downside to cardio is that, well, it makes the body function more efficiently. Meaning you are burning fewer calories at rest. It's like weight loss crack - once you start it it becomes less and less effective for weight loss and you have to do more and more of it to maintain the same weight loss. Once you build up your stamina, though, you'll find strength training easier along with everything else in life. :)

    I can hike briskly up a mountain now, but I burn fewer calories doing so than when I weighed 280 and could only manage to stagger up the mountain. But I enjoy the view a lot more and don't need to eat as much food to support the hike. :)

    Agreed!
  • gsager
    gsager Posts: 977 Member
    Well, first of all it was that I could log the calories and eat more and still lose weight. I also got an ipad so I read on the elliptical.....I do an hour easy as long as I can read. I have lifted weights for ever but no cardio. Now what I've lose the weight that I wanted to lose I'm trying to cut back on cardio......I've been doing it 6 or 7 days a week. Good Luck.
  • VanessaGS
    VanessaGS Posts: 514 Member
    Try taking your bike out for a ride. That's cardio and your not just staying in one place. I learned to switch it up so I don't get bored.
  • heatherlee33
    heatherlee33 Posts: 113 Member
    Alright, I went to the gym for years and did some cardio and a lot of weights.... and saw nothing. The reason that I hit my treadmill daily though, I feel soooo much better after I do. Seriously, we are animals....ones that need to travel and hunt and gather. I feel way-way better when I get some miles on my tail!
  • smeredith75
    smeredith75 Posts: 2
    I use Hulu on my i-phone to watch a tv show. My biggest problem doing cardio is being bored! Hulu helps! I've also started taking a RPM class at my gym.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Why are you looking to do cardio?

    Cardio is great for endurance and heart health, but not needed for weight loss, as it just allows you to eat more and maintain the same caloric deficit you can get from diet alone.

    'Cause who wants endurance and a healthy heart, right?

    Forget the cardio, OP!

    I was just asking the OP what his goals were, if it is weight loss cardio is not needed, so if he doesn't enjoy it he doesn't have to do it. You can increase your heart health in other ways by getting your HR up (i.e. circuit training with weights)
  • ajohn252
    ajohn252 Posts: 158
    All I did was buy a very quiet stationary bike and
    put it in front of the tv. A little sad I have to do that to get
    my cardio but it was the only way I could stand it.
    I go on it for up to an hour sometimes and don`t even notice
    because my mind is busy.
  • row_rivers
    row_rivers Posts: 92 Member
    i found a sport i loved (dragon boat) and i needed to catch up with everybody else (fitness-wise) on the team. i don't like those repetitive machines either so i turned to plyometrics, kickboxing and swimming. when i have the chance, i have a community centre nearby and i take out the marathon canoe or outrigger canoe. and when the weather's nice, i run around the park with the resolve to do 5 box jumps on every other bench, and 10 pistol squats on every other bench. so that i have some variety.

    my advice? find a sport you find fun. it'll fit in cardio without you thinking about it. if you decide to get serious, then you'll find your motivation to get better in your cardiovascular fitness.
  • ncahill77
    ncahill77 Posts: 501 Member
    Personally for me it is variety, I much prefer lifting in all different manners, heavy, light, circuits, burnouts, but the cardio makes me do something I don't like and that's good too. Pushing yourself mentally to do something you hate makes you stronger mentally and physically.
  • secretlobster
    secretlobster Posts: 3,566 Member
    I didn't set one foot on a treadmill and I lost 40lbs.

    Running is not for everyone. In fact, in terms of cardiovascular exercise, it's not really that efficient. If you don't want to run on a treadmill, then don't. If you are exercising just for the sake of exercising and hating every minute of it, then weight loss and weight maintenance will always be a struggle. Strive to become a more active person in your everyday life (riding bikes and hiking are some of my personal favorite things to do), and as for weight loss, look into taking a class for a sport that you might enjoy. Martial arts was the silver bullet for me so I'd highly recommend that. Also, having a class schedule is motivating.
  • byHISstrength
    byHISstrength Posts: 984 Member
    Finding something you love to do. I love doing Zumba, so for me, cardio is the easy part. I know that strength training is very important and will have a lot of benefit, but unfortunately, it is harder for me to do sometimes.
  • Countryslove
    Countryslove Posts: 50
    About 4 and a half years ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. I started riding a stationary bike thinking that if I lost a few pounds it wouldn't hurt. I ended up losing 45 pounds and my levels atm are at a non-diabetic level. I have since added strength training but I still do my cardio just about every day.
  • nehushtan
    nehushtan Posts: 566 Member
    What motivated me to START doing cardio?

    The promise that more exercise would let me EAT MORE!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    I was just asking the OP what his goals were, if it is weight loss cardio is not needed, so if he doesn't enjoy it he doesn't have to do it. You can increase your heart health in other ways by getting your HR up (i.e. circuit training with weights)

    I agree. I'm a big proponent of cardio because it's the easiest (least technical and most approachable) way to increase heart health and increase body function efficiency.

    But it is "weight loss crack". It burns calories in the immediate term, but decreases the overall burn of calories in the long term. The advantage being that a more efficient body is a less hungry body, so you can keep the weight off by simply eating less.

    At some point, and especially if you're a big lover of eating such as myself, you'll pretty much want to add some strength training in and get some muscle under that slimmer "you" so you can keep the weight off. It also further expands the number of things you can do - I can hike briskly up a mountain but I want muscle to be able to support a 60-pound backpack to hike the 100-mile wilderness, for example.

    But cardio is a great way to START weight loss, it's easy, and once your energy levels are up and your cardiovascular system is running more efficiently and you're less injury-prone it's a lot easier and more approachable to start in on weights (which I am just now starting to work on).
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    What motivated me to START doing cardio?

    The promise that more exercise would let me EAT MORE!

    Well, there's that too. (grin)
  • jolarocknrolla
    jolarocknrolla Posts: 236 Member
    like Classicbdw, i have to say diabetes (though in my case it appears to be insulin resistance - but when i was 220 it was functionally diabetes). I still don't like it, i have ALWAYS likes lifting weights much more, but i think you have to be balances and do a lot of different stuff or you get into a rut - mentally and physically. I've found that "bootcamp" style aerobic stuff is somehow not so bad, or stuff that combines weights and a little bit of cardio like 30-day shred. I still hate jogging and i'm not good at it but i feel amazing accomplishment whenever i do it and i can doa bit more every time.

    It's like eating better, you just pull up your damn pants and do what you have to do. eventually you don't hate it as much, you even find stuff you really like. You can't change your whole lifestyle all at once sometimes or it becomes too overwhelming - take it a bit at a time.
  • johnwhitent
    johnwhitent Posts: 648 Member
    I had the classic encounter with the m.d. who wanted to put me on all kinds of medication - blood pressure, etc. I had no insurance at the time so I asked if I could get healthy with diet and exercise and he said yes, but that most people don't stay with it so he strongly recommends medication. That was six years ago. I decided right there in his office to show him that I could do it, with the biggest problem being that I didn't like exercise - at all. So I found exercise that I enjoy; mountain biking (fun, like being a kid again!), road biking (helps me lose weight like nothing else and build tremendous cardiovascular fitness), and trail running (this one was harder, I was no runner but I always loved being in the woods.) So for me it was the combination of a push from my doctor and finding cardio that I enjoy. If I had to do my cardio indoors I would probably fail, I just can't stand it! But my inherent love of the outdoors helped me find very effective exercises that I truly love to do. At this point I would continue my cycling and running just for fun even if there was no health or fitness benefit - but I certainly didn't start out this way. Even the exercises that I love were hard at first. One has to build a base fitness level before the enjoyment comes (except for mountain biking - that was fun from day one!) My m.d. now says that I am his greatest success story ever. I don't bother to remind him that he didn't encourage me since he didn't believe that I could do it!
  • ambrwaves27
    ambrwaves27 Posts: 206
    trying on a bikini :)
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
    You don't have to run on a treadmill. My cardio is hiking - nothing gets your heart pumping like climbing up the side of a mountain! I also really enjoy riding my bike. Every now and then, I'll do a step workout at home in my basement, but primarily the great outdoors is my cardio playground.

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