If you are going to "do cardio", what's the BEST form?
To answer this, it's important to consider this one thing.
What's a SKILL that you need to improve to make your life better?
And if you're an athlete, this is simple...
- Runners run
- Bikers bike
- Swimmers swim
- Rowers row
But if you're NOT an athlete training for a particular sport, this gets a bit more complicated.
And in my experience, most guys over 40 are not sport specific athletes.
Rather, they exercise to stay healthy and to be physically capable enough to do "whatever comes up" in their life.
Most guys are playing the "Sport of life".
And I believe it's the hardest sport of all because it's best played by the person who can literally "do it all".
Problem is, we don't have unlimited time to specifically train for "it all".
That's why it's important to select for things that will carry over BEST to real world activities.
And if we take a look at someone who's a very physically capable person, a few things become clear.
They are very good at...
Locomotion - Getting from point A to point B
Level changes - Getting down and back up
Pushing - Moving things away from midline
Pulling - Moving things towards the midline
Rotating - All human movement has an element of rotation
So when designing "cardio" routines, it's important to incorporate these types of movements into your workouts.
If you pair these exercises with the intention of elevating your heart rate to levels that are above and beyond "normal", then you get a workout that makes you more functional AND improves your cardiorespiratory function.
This is how you become a dominant "Lifelete" (Athlete of Life).
Here's an example of a cardio session that incorporates all the different fitness characteristics I listed above...
