words i hate

These are a few words I HATE(I know, hate is a strong word, well, so are my feelings):

Cardio-It’s not the idea of cardio training that I hate, it’s the implications. The general concesus is that the way to improve cardio-vascular function/endurance and too lose weight is long bouts of medium intensity movements(i.e. jogging, exercise bike, eliptical machines). Even in the military, who supposedly has such superior perspective on fitness(they don’t) they make the mistake of relying on these machines for their cardio work. I’m in the Navy and in our ships gym we have two rooms. One has all of the weights and machines, this is called the weight room. The other room is filled with 8 treadmills, 5 exercise bikes, 5 elliptical machines and a concept2 rower, this is called the cardio room. So I’m to understand that I can only train my cardio-vascular system in this room. What if I want to do thrusters or front squats for my cardio work, is that all right. I think it is, in fact I think it’s superior. For some good cardio work, try doing tabat front squats, as prescriped by Dan John: 20 seconds of front squatting, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat for 8 sets.

Core: Just about everyone slinging any fitness gadget raves about how well it works your core. Well of course it does. If you have a weak enough core just standing will give your core a workout. Does anyone know what a “core” is anyway? It’s the space between your shoulders and legs that connects your upper body to your lower body and supports the two in all movement you make, so it’s pretty important. Now how do we work it? Well, I’ll give you one hint. Doing hundreds of crunches is not the key and being part of the 1500 sit up club is not an indication of good core strength. The reason for this is that the core isn’t for lifting anything. Like we stated above it’s for supporting your body, so train it to do so. Try doing some planks, or the ab wheel.

Fitness: It’s so water down that it pretty much doesn’t mean anything anymore. If you tell me you’re really into fitness, that means nothing. That could mean so many things. Or it could mean nothing, like jazzercise or bosu balls or cardio(see reference above)

Advertisement