Cardio

“I used to go all out when I started (M, 245lbs, 5’10”)training. My heart would go from 80bpm to 180bpm and I would get gassed within 10 minutes. Then gave myself a limit. 30 minutes cardio nonstop, @ 5.4mph on a 4%grade, 5 days a week no excuses. The first week my heart was 180-172bpm, but as the weeks went on, I never “over did it” and stayed consistent, 5.4mph ,30 minutes. One day I got on and did the 30 minutes without breaking a sweat, my heart rate never went above 156bpm.”

“The soundtrack is high energy, which in turn means the routine is fast-paced—that combined with my poor coordination, meant I found myself getting things muddled up. So, I hit pause and decided to first practice each move without the music. I got familiar with how it felt to move through the sequence, made sure I was confident in what I was doing and happy that my form was on point, before hitting play again. After that, it was smooth-sailing. Each of the moves fell effortlessly in time with the beat of the music, and once I got into it I found myself moving easily through the workout. I was surprised at how quickly this routine got my heart rate up. And I couldn’t stop smiling as I tapped, lunged and bounced to the beat.”

“At first, I was a bit put out after discovering that there would be no rest periods in between each exercise. But this lack of rest essentially mimicked the ‘always on’ motion I experience when I’m out on a run or clocking up some kilometers on a stationary exercise bike. This meant that even after the first couple of exercises, I could feel my heart pumping to keep up with my movement and my happy exercise hormones working their way around my body. [...] After the 10 minutes were up, I’d racked up just under 1,500 steps”