Given I’ve been running this website for over a year I thought it would be nice to write down my exercise philosophy. I often have people say things to me like oh you must run everyday and you must be super fit.
While I think that cardiovascular activity such as running does have it’s place and I do enjoy a run (especially if it rains gently while I’m out!), I actually don’t do a lot of cardio at all.
When I first began on my health and fitness journey (you can read more about my journey on my Who am I page) I thought that cardio was my key to ditching the few extra kilo’s I was carrying.
Walking into almost any gym in the world you will see that the majority of females also think that doing hours of cardio is the key to loosing weight and feeling more confident about their bodies.
After a long couple of years of running and haphazardly watching what I was eating I did manage to loose some of the additional weight I was carrying around. However it was becoming VERY hard to continue the losses and get to where I wanted to be.
It was around this time that I decided that I should join a real gym (one of the scariest moments of my life, but the best too!) and had a weights and cardio programme written for me by the trainer there.
It turns out I can get quite competitive with myself so ended up bumping the weights up whenever I could and then the magic started happening. I quickly began reducing the amount of cardio I was doing as I just didn’t really enjoy it and found that I was getting great results with just lifting weights.
I never started lifting really heavy until I moved to Auckland and from there I have been progressing quite nicely.
The funny thing with lifting weights is that it has this connotation that you will get bulky and begin to look like a man, which just simply isn’t true! Female bodybuilders that have the masculine appearance have done a lot more to their body than just lifting weights which often include the use of steroids.
I believe that everyone should be including some resistance exercise into their life, start off with body weight exercises and progress you way up to lifting heavier weights. Just keep progressing and keep to good form.
Exercise needs to be something you can realistically fit into your schedule otherwise you will never stick with it. If you can work in four sessions a week at an hour a time great, if not two 20 minute sessions a week can give great results if you make great use of your time.
I also believe that you should only be doing cardio for extended periods of time if it is something you actually do really enjoy. If you don’t enjoy running for an hour at a time, don’t do it! Find something you do enjoy, I personally love playing netball (even if my ankle resists me sometimes), so I will keep playing because I enjoy it.
Other than training for events such as the triathlon or half marathon I don’t really do cardio. I enter events such as these to challenge myself and proove to myself that I can do them, not to try and loose weight. I do enjoy a bike ride every now and again and enjoy bush walks as well so I use those as my cardio and a way to explore NZ as well.
So I guess ultimately my philosophy is to lift as heavy as you can keeping good form, do a little cardio (of something you enjoy) and make sure you are enjoying what you are doing!
Do you enjoy cardio?
I enjoy some cardio, but at the moment have been limited by my physio to only walking 1km every two days – I swear I miss it when I can’t do it! For now I’m doing muscle strengthening and body weight resistance stuff – can’t wait to see an improvement!
You will definitely begin to see the benefits from muscle strengthening and body weight resistance exercises, you will find that when you are able to walk further that it will be easier on the body as you would have strengthened up some of your core muscles 🙂