Tuesday 9 August 2016

Your Relationship with Cardio. Love it or Hate it?


From my own experience with cardio I can liken it to a bad relationship… when it is good, it is good but if you dare to have a week apart, that absence does not make the heart grow fonder! Having said that, I would still class myself as a ‘cardio kind of girl’ because, like many more out there, I am addicted to the bright red face and sweat dripping off the end of my nose! But trust me, I haven’t always been that way inclined and I was certainly not ‘born to run’! I guess it is much harder when you are almost 14st, like I was, to carry your body weight around.

When I realised enough was enough and I had to lose weight, I decided to start running and entered a 5k race. I thought that it would be too embarrassing if I turned up and barely crawled past the finish line, so I had to train. Bit by bit I built up my distance, literally starting at ½ m!! This meant the weight started to come off and it made it easier for me to run.

This photograph is of me before my first ever race (I have too much dignity to show you a photo of me after the race!) Like everyone who has ever tried to change the way they look or just get fitter, everybody hits that wall where things stop changing. This happens because your body has adapted to what it is you are doing, which is a warning sign that you need to start changing what you are doing to see some positive results again.

Although weights do not give you the feeling that us ‘cardio lovers’ crave, they DO help keep the weight off and can play a HUGE part in weight loss by increasing your metabolism and producing a higher amount a calorie-hungry muscle. If you are doing strictly cardio and feel like you are not getting anywhere this might be the time to start flexing those muscles and do some weighted work! If you don’t know what you are doing or aren’t sure where to start, please come and book in with a member of the Fitness Team for some advice or a programme.

Emma McMahon, Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer