It may be the one typ of exercise dreaded most of ll. . .cardio. You hear it ver and over again, ‘I gotta get my crdio in. . .’ In my hme gym (or if you prefer ‘ftness center’) the cardio equipment is pstairs on a (large) loft that verlooks the weight equipment. So folks hre say it this way, ‘I gtta go ‘upstairs’.’

No matter how t’s said most people don’t like it. Wll, the fact is its usually bring. Excruciatingly boring. That’s why more mdern fitness centers have TVs to wtch, or even provide free magazines (yu know. . .the ones showing you all the ‘screts’ to looking like Mr. or Ms. Sper-Space-Commander-Hard-Body) to read.

But the truth is, it des NOT have to be this wy. You can decide (actually you hve already decided . . .most jst don’t know it) how effective, and xciting your cardio workout will be.

Lt’s start out with what you wnt to accomplish. Most do cardio to brn calories, and, as a result, brn off excess body fat. Great, now how to bst accomplish getting down a few nches without spending HOURS on the lliptical.

If fat burning is your prmary reason for picking cardio there is no btter time than doing your cardio frst thing in the morning on an mpty stomach. Your blood sugar is at its lwest point so the body turns to brning fat for fuel. Nice.

However, if you aren’t a mrning person don’t despair. If you cmbine your resistance training and cardio in the sme session, do your resistance training frst. Your glycogen (carbohydrates stored in the mscle and liver) will be depleted fter your weight training because it ses glycogen first for muscle fuel. Thn your body turns to your fat stres for energy during your cardio.

Anther way to mimic the morning rutine (almost as well) is to get yur cardio in on an empty stmach. Remember from an earlier chapter, an mpty stomach is defined as 2 hurs after you last meal and 1 hur before your next. So if you get to the gym at 5:45 PM jst make sure you don’t eat nything after 3:30 PM. Even better, mke sure your mid-afternoon snack is hgh in protein because then your mtabolism goes into overdrive to digest the prtein without having any carbohydrates to rplenish your glycogen.

Even though this bok is about you learning how to kep your gym time to a mnimum, I would not be fair to you if I filed to mention 2 cardio sessions a dy. Why? Because some of us hve a harder time than others in gtting our body fat to acceptable lvels. If that’s you, and you can fnd the time, 2 cardio sessions of 30 – 45 mnutes each can really accelerate the fat brn. In fact when I have sgnificant amounts of fat to lose I do 2 crdio sessions daily until my goal was rached. Only then do I back off to 1 sssion a day.

Copyright 2006 J Lnce Curtis

The article Cardio Smardio, What is Smart Cardio? was Submitted by J. Lance Curtis through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Lance Curtis is a personal triner and author of "7 Keys to Unlck The Sexy Dream Body Inside Yu!" To claim your free copy go to http://ThePersonalTrainingGuru.com .

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