7 mistakes to avoid while trying to get healthy. #4, too much cardio.

The beginning of this series of articles was a list of the worst mistakes people make when they start working on improving their health. Now I’d like to cover each one of those items in detail. Today’s topic is item 4, cardio too soon.

Cardio has an odd place in our minds. We all know what it is but we don’t really know much about it. If you ask ten people what cardio is, I’m betting you’ll mostly hear “it’s jogging”. For some strange reason, jogging has become enshrined in our culture as “cardio!” Most people can’t even articulate the benefits of cardio exercise or what specifically makes an exercise into cardio, but they know jogging. So I suppose it’s no surprise that most people, faced with a growing belly and constant health problems, see jogging as the magic bullet that will cure all their ills. massively overweight and badly out of shape, they lace on those new running shoes, put on the new running shorts, hit play on the cardio playlist they just downloaded on to their iPod and take off running. Five minutes later you can find these same people stopped, desperately trying to catch their breath and in a lot of pain.

What is cardio

Just a quick refresher, cardio is any kind of sustained exercise where your heart beat remains at 60% to 80% of max for more than 10 to 15 minutes. The benefits of cardio are burning calories, faster metabolism and increased cardio vascular health (which means your heart and circulatory system will work better). Cardio is not necessarily running. There are many other options which I have in detailed in the past. If you want more information on them, please see this previous 60 in 3 post.  Cardio is a vital part of any healthy lifestyle.

So why not cardio?

So if cardio is so good, why am I saying it can be a mistake?  Well, because most beginners try to do too much of it too soon.  I tried to find a polite way of saying this but I couldn’t so I’m just going to say it.  If you’re just now trying to improve your health then it’s too early for you to try high end cardio, especially jogging.  You’re too fat and out of shape for it and it will just make you doubt yourself to the point of quitting.

And before you get insulted, allow me to share my personal experience.  Like many people, I thought of jogging as the be all and end all of exercises.  After all, I never saw a fat jogger so if I jogged that meant I wouldn’t be fat anymore.  Makes sense, right?  I got on the treadmill, set it for 6mph (I figured 10 minute miles was a slow pace) and off I went.  Five minutes later I was in excruciating pain and I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  My legs hurt for days and I felt so demoralized that I almost quit this whole good health thing right there and then.

The problem

The first and main problem was plain bad health.  I was so out of shape that I just couldn’t run.  I was out of breath five minutes into my “jog”.  Remember, I had spent five years on the couch at this point.  My heart and lungs were NOT ready for running and my guess is, yours aren’t either.  Jogging, and most other cardio exercise, is actually really really tough.  There’s a reason it burns so many calories, because your body is doing a lot of work.  If your body isn’t used to that work then you’re going to fail and fail hard.

The second issue was one of physics.  Simply put, I was too fat, the ground was too hard and gravity was too strong.  Remember, I was about 280lbs back then.  If you want to get an idea of what that feels like, lie down on your back, lift your legs so that your feet are pointed up and now have a friend hit the bottom of your feet with a 280lb weight over and over.  Have him do it about once a second for five minutes and see how you feel.  Sounds like a joke but it really isn’t.  Every time you take a running step, your whole body’s weight lands down on one foot.  Now your legs can act as a bit of a shock absorber, but there’s a limit.  So when I say I was too fat, the ground was too hard and the gravity was too strong, I mean it.  Fix any one of these things and I probably would have been ok, but my ass wasn’t getting slimmer very fast, the ground wasn’t getting softer and I still can’t figure out how to turn down gravity.

Cardio, and jogging specifically, isn’t something you should try to do when you’re out of shape.  You’ll end up hurting yourself both physically and emotionally.  Yes, I said emotionally.  Do you know how demoralizing it was to stand there huffing and puffing and trying desperately to catch my breath?  I felt like an idiot.  I felt like everyone was watching me and laughing at the poor fat guy who couldn’t even run.  I know now that this was incorrect but it felt awful back then.  I never wanted to set foot in a gym again.

How to avoid this mistake

So when is soon too soon?  When is the right time to start with cardio?  Well, that’s a hard question to answer since it varies from person to person, but I can give you some pointers.

Start slow – My worst mistake was starting at 6mph.  When I went back to jogging, I started at 4.5mph (that’s barely more than a fast walk) and gradually improved from there.  Try to do the same thing.  Start at a speed, incline and time you know you can do.  Then slowly increase.

Try something other than jogging – While jogging is the activity most people connect with cardio exercise, there are actually numerous other possibilities.  Try a stationary bike, try a stair climber or get on an elliptical and see if you like it.  All of these are cardio options that limit the impact on your knees and feet.  That’s something you should be very concerned with, especially when you’re starting out.  All that extra weight you’re carrying around is hitting your feet over and over and over and over when you run.  So maybe you should spare your feet a little and try something other than jogging.

Exercise at a reasonable level – Don’t be the idiot who falls off the treadmill, out of breath and unable to stand.  You really shouldn’t push your body that hard, especially when you’re out of shape.  You want to make your heart stronger, not give yourself a heart attack.  That said, don’t give up and slow down just because you’re breathing a bit harder than usual.  Cardio isn’t supposed to be easy and if you find yourself with the breath to easily hold a conversation than you’re doing something wrong.  When you’re doing a cardio exercise, an easy test to see if you’re working too hard or too easy is to try and say a simple sentence out loud.  If you did it easily then you’re not working hard enough.  If you couldn’t do it at all, then you’re working out too hard.  You should be able to speak a sentence out loud but then need to pause and catch your breath.

Don’t over do it – You don’t need to run for every day for 60 minutes.  In fact, you’re just hurting yourself when you do this.  Aim for three to four cardio sessions a week with about 20 to 40 minutes of exercise each.

Summary

Done well, cardio is one of the most important parts of a healthy lifestyle.  Done poorly, it can demoralize you and damage your body.  So use your brain and exercise smart.