Getting Through Cardio Hell
How many times have you stalled going to the gym? How many times have you told yourself “I’ll just go do my cardio tomorrow.”? How many times have you agonized over each cardio set, praying for it to end soon? How many times have you asked yourself “What am I doing here?”? If you’ve asked yourself these questions then there may be something wrong with your disposition.
Exercising is not a favor you owe someone. You cannot expect to gain anything from a physical activity that you do half-heartedly. If you are slaving over your aerobic routine just because your boyfriend or your girlfriend pushed you to start getting physical and lose weight, then maybe you do not have motivation. Its not that there is anything wrong with encouraging someone to follow a healthy lifestyle, but self-motivation is the most important part of working out. To have a healthy lifestyle entails a lifetime of commitment because you may have to reevaluate everything you did in your life & weed out the bad habits & replace them with healthy ones.
The best thing about doing cardio is that it not only works to get the best out of your body but it also helps to fight against stress & depression. But they key here is to start doing the whole healthy lifestyle concept with the right attitude & the right mindset.
So how does one go through cardio hell? Here are some tips.
1. Psych yourself. – When you feel yourself starting to get discouraged & bored with what you are doing, pull yourself together & don’t let the negative vibe get to you. Control your thoughts when it starts to steer you away & keep your focus on the cardio activity you are doing. Though it may be true that cardio can get boring after a while because of its repetitive nature, you cannot let that get to you. Just keep a mental picture of your lean & sexy body & that should keep you going.
2. Move to the beat – Music is my secret weapon when I start t feel the down days. Nothing beats great rap & R&B music when it comes to keeping the sweat rolling. I just can’t help but get in the rhythm of the song & it’s a great motivator to continue my cardio sets!
3. No matter what happens, don’t look at the timer. – Keeping tabs on the timer is the surest way to discourage you. Feeling like you’ve run for 30 minutes only to find that you’ve barely gone past 10 can be disheartening & can make you reach for the stop button. The best way to avoid that feeling is to avoid timing yourself. Get a stopwatch that has a buzzer. The only moment you stop is when the buzzer goes off, other than that all you should do is work, work and work.
4. Try interval cardio training. Interspersing the intensity & speeds in your workout can be another way to keeping things interesting. Not only that, if you find cardio difficult to do then interval cardio training should be the solution for you. Interval cardio means alternating high intensity & low intensity cardio workouts while using the same duration. For example, you can alternate 5 minutes of walking with 5 minutes of jogging if you find doing the jogging part hard.
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