Hide Your Cardio

Today I am going to break down on how to hide your cardio without checking your steps every 20 minutes. The best ways I hide cardio is in my workout, my breath control, and daily decisions.

Obviously the best way to get cardio is by working out your aerobic energy system. The aerobic energy system is your foundation to any kind of fitness. Cycling, running, and swimming are great forms of aerobic exercise! It is best if you have a day dedicated to the aerobic energy system but it is also important to tap into this energy resource on a daily basis.

The best way to disguise your cardio is to add 5-10 minutes of an aerobic exercise before and after your workout. The main focus is to do more than just walking or moving at a leisurely pace. This is supposed to be a low impact exercise meant to increase heart rate, increase body temperature, and to get you breathing deeply.

Here is an example of how I start every exercise:

I bike 2 miles at the beginning of every workout to make sure my body is intaking oxygen as much as possible. I start by hitting around 80-85 rpms on the bike and then hit 100 rpms by the time I hit my second mile. This spikes my oxygen levels and forces me to breathe slow and deep, activating my diaphragm. At the end of my workout I bike at a steady pace of 90 rpms for 2 miles. This is conditioning the aerobic system and supplies oxygen to the muscles while also not damaging my joints. Then I do my cool down stretching with deep breathing techniques.

The next way to hide cardio is by maximizing your breath control. Long controlled breathing conducted by the diaphragm is optimal for most exercises however there are times you will need short bursts to maximize power. Think about a tennis player when they strike their racket against a ball. Most players make a noise or a “grunt”. This is because the athlete is tightening their core and exerting a short burst of oxygen while maximizing the muscles recruited to hit the ball. The same concept is true for a power lifter or a batter in baseball.

You can mix in this power breathing with your cardio by adding 10 second bursts of high intense exercise. An example would be if your a running and you come across a hill sprint up the hill for 10 seconds then wait a minute and do it again. This is called interval training and it is a great way to hide cardio! I also like to use the skills ladder, box jumps, and super sets to sneak cardio in the middle of my workout.

The last way I disguise cardio is through my daily choices around everyday life. This one is the most obvious and revolves around things like taking the stairs, parking farther away from the entry in parking lots, and not taking short cuts.

Taking the stairs is one of the best ways to disguise cardio and make sure your heart is healthy for other activities. But also things like not parking close to an entry way can add steps to your tracker and help you blow through your daily step count. I don’t think a step counter should be the go to measurement of a healthy individual but making sure we take an average of 6,000 steps a day will aid with being active and healthy later in life.

The last point I want to make is to not take short-cuts. In the weight room short-cuts are not finishing reps and sets, taking too long of a break between sets and not cleaning up the weight. Putting away the weight is a part of the workout!

I hope this post is helpful to you and allows you to hide more cardio into your daily routine!