Secrets of cardio workouts from a weight loss champion

Author: Khobta Vitaliy - weight loss champion.
2016-04-22

Cardio training (hereinafter CT) is an aerobic workout. General recommendations for cardio training are as follows:

1. For health improvement and overall well-being – 3 sessions per week.

2. For weight loss (including cutting) – at least 5 sessions per week.

A very important aspect is monitoring your heart rate zone. How to do this? For that, this site has a corresponding calculator.

So let me remind you that here (link to the first article) you can read about how everything started for me. Here (link to the second article) you can read about my experience with fat burners. In this publication, I want to share my personal experience in CT in a little more detail.

Walking

Often an underrated type of CT. It is great because it can be done almost daily, it is practically unlimited, suitable for almost any weight (well, definitely up to 150 kg). And it practically requires nothing from you except to get off the bus one stop earlier or park the car a little further away. This is where I started.

I quickly decided the following for myself: This is not a stroll! This is a workout. This was not only a conceptual substitution but also a psychological adjustment. How to turn regular walking into CT? It’s simple:

1. Goal. You need to set a goal! Suppose our goal is 10,000 steps a day. Or 10 km a day. Or 120 minutes a day. This is important. It’s important not only for effectiveness but also for psychological setting. It’s also crucial to set a goal that is achievable for you. You shouldn't start by walking 10 km right away. Remember one of the most important rules of any training – the progression of loads. Set a realistic goal and start moving. I started with 5 km, which took me about an hour and a half.

2. Monitoring. It is very important to control and keep some kind of journal. Note how far you walked, how long it took, and how you felt. It’s also good to somehow track your route. I installed a GPS tracking app on my phone (there are many in the Google Play Store – just search for them). With this app, I tracked the distance, speed, time, and even how the landscape changed concerning sea level (in simpler terms, how many km I walked uphill and downhill). Thanks to this, I understood where I was headed (both literally and figuratively).

After experiencing the possibilities of the program, I enabled a feature that informed me via headphones every 4 minutes about how many meters per minute I was walking – this allowed me to track my pace. A cardio monitor is also quite useful. Perhaps not so much for staying in a specific heart rate zone, but to ensure you do not exceed your maximum and thereby monitor your condition more effectively.

3. Equipment. This might sound a bit ridiculous, but I derived certain pleasure from preparing for the process. I bought trekking boots at a sports shop, comfortable clothing suitable for weather conditions, a backpack, and chameleon glasses.

4. Conditions. There is a saying: "To achieve something, you must first allocate time for it and then ask for help from God." For CT, conditions need to be created. You have to share your most precious resource—time. You will have to take it from something else, be it rest or work. Take it away and accept it. This is also part of the psychological mindset.

Walking is not just a one-day or one-week endeavor; it is not even a monthly commitment. You need to understand that you are indeed training. The second most important rule of any training is consistency. For example, we walk 5 days a week: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri are training days, and Sat and Sun are rest days. I walked all 7 days. During the weekdays, I walked to work; on weekends, I walked along one of the pre-planned routes. By the way, to create conditions, I even sold my beloved car)).

5. Miscellaneous. This additional point includes leisure. Yes, leisure. Walking (just like any CT) for longer than 20 minutes will eventually become boring. Especially if you are walking the same route. At first, I listened to music, then the radio, then audiobooks, and then back to music))). To jump ahead a bit, I’ll say that during CT in the gym on machines, I watched series on YouTube, etc. In general, I spent time productively and without boredom.

I personally walked until I lost weight from 150 kg to 91 kg. Then I decided I was ready for the next stage.

Running

In my youth, I was engaged in running. More precisely, athletics. I knew I could and seemed to have the skill. So, I decided to run outside. The approach was the same as with walking: goals, monitoring, equipment, conditions, and so forth))). I started with one and a half kilometers, of which I walked almost half. That is, I would run for 30 meters, then walk for 15, and then run again. Gradually, I increased the distance.

I ran and secretly mocked those who ran on treadmills. I couldn’t understand—why? The space is right there! But one day I decided to try the treadmill. To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement. The cardio zone in the gym solves a bunch of problems immediately. First, you go to the gym, which for some people—and for me—has always been a positive thing. Secondly, you train in the same environment (excluding weather conditions, dogs, traffic, surface irregularities, etc.). Monitoring capabilities are already present. The ability to regulate the load is exceptional. In general, I recommend it.

Exercising seven days a week became much harder. In fact, significantly harder. As I mentioned earlier, I experienced overtraining a few times. Ultimately, I found that the optimal frequency for me (a year ago) was 5 times a week. I set the goal of running 5 km. First, because I had already run this distance outside. Secondly, running on a treadmill is easier. After some time, I began running 7 km and eventually 10 km.

I ran until my knee started to hurt. At first, I didn’t give it much thought. But after a while, the other knee started to hurt as well. I had to think of something. By the way, thinking while doing sports is generally beneficial)).

Elliptical Trainer

It just so happened that the pain in my knees appeared around the same time I got a personal trainer. He introduced me to the elliptical. I fell in love with this machine. It has been my primary cardio machine to this day. Ellipticals come in two types: front-drive and rear-drive. The latter is good because it puts less strain on the knees and ankles. The former is great for the amplitude at which the legs move. I use the front-drive model.

I started, as usual, with 20 minutes at minimal resistance. Gradually (over the year), I worked my way up to 90-120-180 minutes. However, the 180 minutes were trained purely to test my limits and only a couple of times, when I was seriously cutting weight for the first time. I consider the optimal time to be between 50 to 90 minutes. Currently, I have 5 CT sessions on the elliptical for 51 minutes each morning and 3-4 (on leg days, I don’t do cardio) sessions for 40 minutes after strength training in the evening. This routine is comfortable for me. Depending on the heart rate zone, you can lose weight (burn fat) or maintain your weight. In general, I like it very much))).

Rowing Machine

Exotic. How could I do without it? I discovered the rowing machine just a couple of months ago. There was a period of preparation for the spring starts, and all the ellipticals were occupied by folks trying to get in shape for summer.

As per my usual practice, I started with 20 minutes. A small aside: last summer I got a Mio heart rate monitor. Since then, monitoring heart rate zones has become incredibly easy. So, I found the rowing machine paired nicely with my heart rate monitor, and to my delight, I could see my heart rate displayed on the screen in front of me. I didn't even realize how I had started rowing for 40 minutes. Eventually, after reaching 60 minutes, my CrossFit coach noticed me. Politely asking what I was doing, he showed me HOW to row properly))).

Technique. The foundation of it all. And that’s the part I hadn’t thought of. As a result, I had to relearn rowing from scratch. To my surprise, I realized that rowing is actually hard))). For some time, I combined correct and incorrect techniques until I gradually returned to those 40 minutes I was doing before. Interestingly, with the incorrect technique, I was making 34 strokes per minute and covering 500m in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. With the correct technique, it was 18 strokes and 500m in 1 minute and 50 seconds. At first, I couldn’t understand why the load adjustment was needed, as I saw no difference between setting it to 1 or 10. With the correct technique, rowing with a load greater than 5 simply became impossible.

To sum up, rowing is an excellent option for CT. Just excellent. Almost all muscle groups are engaged. For example, I really felt my abs. To the point where I stopped doing ab workouts in any other way. But, as always, there’s a catch! I can’t do rowing constantly or even frequently without starting to feel discomfort in my lower back. So I only do it twice a week.

Step Machine

I always thought it was a “girly” machine)). Until I tried it myself. I had to use it out of necessity. Since the end of March, my beloved gym has been flooded with people trying to get fit for summer. They occupied everything available))). Except for the step machines))).

To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the step machine. I just couldn’t keep my heart rate in the desired zone. I was just starting to learn how to use it. By the way, starting with the standard 20 minutes turned out to be impossible. It was tough. I started with 5 minutes and gradually worked my way up to 20. That’s all for now.