By Mike Kubas<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I\u2019m not saying cardio is\nbad, but when the primary goal of most people in the gym is weight loss and fat\nburning, it\u2019s important to realize cardio is just another a tool in that\nendeavor and far from the most important tool. When beginning a weight loss\nroutine, the most effective way to do so, is to increase muscle mass to boost\nyour metabolism so you\u2019re burning more calories even after you workout! This is\ndone with proper resistance training. Weight loss only happens if you are caloric\ndeficit. By giving your body more muscle mass and in turn a stronger engine means\nyour body needs to use more calories to develop and maintain that muscle mass.\nAdditional muscle mass will help you burn more calories outside of the gym. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While, it can\u2019t be denied that\ncardio will burn a ton of calories in the short term, the adaptations from it\nover the long term aren\u2019t beneficial for weight loss. Here\u2019s why. Our bodies\ndon\u2019t want to burn a ton of calories, so they adapt to become more efficient.\nThis is when the cardio begins to feel easier; now the only way to increase\nyour calories burned is to increase the intensity or increase the duration. This\nbecomes time consuming very quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, very little total\nmuscle mass Is being used during cardio, so the message being sent to the body\nis that we don\u2019t need this muscle, it\u2019s too heavy, lose it. This loss in muscle\nmass slows down your metabolism and weight loss! This is why initially you see\nweight loss from cardio, but then quickly it plateaus and comes to a halt. This\nis where resistance training comes in to help you add muscle and burn more\ncalories and shred fat! I recommend to clients mixing in the cardio when you\nare very close to your goal to lose those last few pounds, it\u2019s important to\nbuild the muscle mass first then use cardio as extra calorie burning to finish\nthe job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another common mistake or\noversight in training is allowing yourself to get too comfortable with your\nworkout. What I mean by this is that the body has adapted so well to the same\ngroup of exercises and structure that it\u2019s no longer challenging your body\nenough to elicit an adaptation. There are several ways to get over this hump,\nbut they all come back to one piece of advice, \u201ctry something different!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are numerous ways you can\nalter an exercise routine to push through a plateau. You can change your rep\nschemes, change your tempo, change your rest periods, change your exercises.\nYou don\u2019t need to change all of them, but changing one at a time can be enough\nto create a different stressor on your body and push through that plateau. This\nis where the comfort comes in, because often this will not be a comfortable\nchang;, it\u2019ll be a challenge. One, to stick to the change and be consistent with it long enough to get the benefit (6\nweeks minimum), and two, it will actually be challenging because it\u2019s something\nyour body isn\u2019t used to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve been doing mostly\nmetabolic fitness classes, shift your focus to a slower tempo resistance\ntraining or vice-versa. If you\u2019ve been focusing mainly on yoga classes or\nstretching classes, maybe shift your focus towards group fitness classes that\nwork on building muscle and burning fat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll start by\nexplaining what social loafing is. Social loafing describes the tendency for\npeople to expend less effort when working in a group than when working alone or\nin a small group. You know if this is you, and if you\u2019ve ever been in a group\nclass before you\u2019ve definitely seen this person. Now there is absolutely\nnothing wrong with being sociable and enjoying the company while working out,\nbut if you\u2019re guilty of this you should be aware it could be stopping you from\ngetting to your fitness goals! For some, that realization may not have much\nimpact, but others it could be motivation to make some changes to their workout\nhabits\/routine. Semi-private group training or one-on-one personal training are\nboth a great way to have a professional hold you a bit more accountable and\nensure you\u2019re maximizing your valuable gym time. A different environment, with\nmore accountability and focus can rekindle that motivation to put in the work\nto reach your goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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By Mike Kubas 1. Thinking Cardio is King! Now I\u2019m not saying cardio is bad, but when the primary goal of most people in the gym is weight loss and fat burning, it\u2019s important to realize cardio is just another a tool in that endeavor and far from the most important tool. When beginning a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 02:14:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastpointehealthandfitness.com\/gym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}