Which is the best form of CARDIO?

[GoldenGuppy]

I wanna get rid of those layers upon layers, upon layers of fat (j/k btw, j/k a little ) off my stomach so that my AB excercises will have something to show. Which would be the best form of cardio to burn off the fat around my waist? Would it be running, basketball, stair climbing via stairmaster, or what? If you guys have any tips, they would all be appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[Bignate603]

they always say swimming is the best form of excersise, lol. Very true, i do about 4 miles a day 5 days a week. My blood pressure is really low, doctor says i can eat pretty much anything I want because it's not going to matter, but i have to make sure to eat ENOOUGH or i'm going to go hypoglycemic again. I weigh about 140 and am 5'10" with great muscle definition. I've been swimming for years and the only single bad thing is i've screwed over my left shoulder. I've streched out the tendons enough it doesn't sit quite right in the socket. Oh well, may have them go in and cut the tendons and stich em back up tighter in a few months. Every sport has it's injuries.

 

[vi edit]

Well, just about any sport/activity that requires repitition of movement will lead to injury of some form or another over a long enough period of time.

That aside, swimming is great. It is has the lowest impact(meaning easier on the joints, bones, and muscles), involves the greatest amount of muscle groups, and provides a great cardiovascular workout.

If you have an indoor pool to go to, you never have to worry about bad weather, and it requires no special equipment. The only big drawbacks are a) availability and b) cost of membership to a club/spa/gym that has a pool.

 

[GoldenGuppy]

So hands down swimming is the best? Wow, I've never known, I thought Cross country running was ranked 1... thanks for the advice guys

 

[vi edit]

Well...speaking strictly on terms of calories burned in the time of activity, the workout gained in the amount of time done, and the low impact on the body, then yes, swimming is superior to running.

But...coming from a runner, I can say that running is a little more "enlightening" than swimming. You get outside, you can go where ever you want to go, and you can just enjoy it a lot better than being stuck in a pool.

I see swimming as a "power workout". Get in there, get it done with, and get out. Running is more of a get away that just happens to be a great form of exercise.

If you're not a runner I just sound like some pot smoking tree hugger

They are both good...but for different reasons.

 

[chess9]

Unless you are training hard like BigNate, you won't lose much fat swimming. Because the cool water leeches away the heat, your core temperature can't rise high enough to kick in the fat burning mechanism. Most recreational swimmers are unable to get their heartbeats up high enough as well. Competitive swimmers are a whole different animal.

Swimming is the best exercise if you aren't going to worry about what you look like, however. Supplemented with weights you can also get pretty buff. If you are overweight with puffy arms and pasty chest and legs, then the weight room will pay big dividends.

Most competitive swimmers also run. (My daughter's team runs 3-5 miles 3 days a week before they swim 5-8,000 meters.) They run because swimmers garner a cardio benefit from running. However, runners get little cardio benefit from swimming.

Running, rowing, cross-country skiing, and some weight lifting will do the trick more quickly than say swimming and weight lifting.

How much do you weigh and how tall are you? How old are you?

Without knowing much about you, I can't really make a solid recommendation. The key to staying fit for life is to find a sport(s) you love and stick with it. Keeping a pound off is about 4 times easier than taking a pound off at age 30.

 

[cyclistca]

GoldenGuppy without knowing your past exercise history it hard to make a solid recommendation. What works for me is X-country skiing in the winter and cycling in the summer.

Cycling is a great cardio workout. What vi-edit said about running also applies to cycling. I love it because it's fun. The bonus is that it's also a great form of exercise.

Oh another bonus with cycling. If you like computers because of all the cool stuff you can get well then your just going to love cycling. Hell my bikes worth more then my computer and has more miles on it them my truck .

 

[GoldenGuppy]

Oh okay, lemme give you guys a little info on myself:

5'7-5'8
150-155 pounds
I wished I had calipers to measure my BF%

I worked out with weights for the past year or so.
My biceps are about 14 inches

I ran cross country in high school.

I'm in fairly good shape... I just want cut ABS! I mean, my abs show, but there's still that layer of fat, and of course the naggy love handles...

I play basketball a lot, and I like running full court games

Before working with weights, I was around 135 lbs, same height.

Hope this helps open a path for any recommendations

 

[Soccer55]

I'm a soccer player and IMO, running combined with lifting weights is the best workout you can get. I lost 10 lbs. my freshman year of college that was pure fat and ended up gaining back about that much in muscle by the end of the year. The thing about running is that when you get tired, your body starts to slow itself down due to muscle fatigue. But if you can work through that and not slow down, you will see a much bigger improvement in your running. Also, like the others have said, swimming is a great workout.

-Tom

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

As always, I'll plug TAEKWONDO for some great physical work. Builds many things that most people don't usually work on.

Namely, getting their ass kicked. I don't usually practice it but sometimes I seem to be very good at it.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

Well, the most popular form of exercise here in So. Cali is Liposuction!

 

[cyclistca]

Good one Hamburgerpimp. I work down in our Georgia office once and a while. One time when I was down there I picked up a free fitness paper in a local bike store. I could not believe the number of ads for cosmetic surgery and liposuction. The guys back home in Canada though it was hilarious.

 

[Daniel]

What's your diet like, with many things you can lift, you can do cadio but if you still eat badly depending on your metabolism you won't be able to lose all of it.

 

[StageLeft]

Really it doesn't matter. Do what you like. The important things are that your body has less calories going in than it uses. Whether that is from a low calorie intake or cardio excercise (or both is best), then you'll lose fat.

I normally run because I find cardio quite boring and I can get as much done in 20 minutes running as it would take 30-40 biking. Of course if you have the time a two hour bike ride is better than a hard run. Make yourself moderately hungry almost all the time and eat small frequent meals and do as much cardio as you can fit in and you're set.

The only indoors cardio I can tolerate is running and everything else gets boring so for me thats the best

 

[tinneric]

Swimming by far, it is the easiest on your joints too.

 

[Elbryn]

if you got a playstation and some cash to toss around you could always buy a dance dance revolution cd and dance pads. 3rd remix includes a diet diet revolution which can be programmed with your weight to tell you the exact amount of calories you've burned off. May not be what you'd like to do but for many its fun and a pretty good way to exercise without getting really bored.

 

[damien6]

You guys are overlooking the obvious. SEX! Just stay away from those pretty aerobic instructors, they almost impossible to keep up with.

You know you're out of shape when you fall asleep in a middle of performing such an act and have to finish the rest upon wake up in the morning. (fact)

 

[JayPatel]

tony littles Gazelle Glider....that sh!t burns some real calories.....true testimonial by moi.

 

[TuffGuy]

swimming??? what the hell are you guys smoking? how many ripped swimmers do you see? you cannot get ripped by swimming. the body starts storing fat underneath the skin to insulate itself.

try running(sprints), basketball, etc.

 

[vi edit]

TuffGuy how many "serious" runners do you see that are "ripped"? Not too many of them. Slim yes. Ripped, no. Most runners that I see that solely run, and do no weight training are skinny little twigs that look like they could get knocked over if the wind blows to hard. I should know...I used to be one of them. I ran cross country for 5 years.

But, having since torn my arch in half due to a running injury, I have turned to other forms of exercise. Swimming has proven to be a very worthy successor.

It has very little impact, promotes flexibility (unlike running), isn't affected by weather, and can get a great workout accomplished in a fairly short amount of time.

 

[sookaa]

tuffguy

take a look at any competitive male swimmer and tell me that they arn't ripped?

sookaa

 

[chess9]

TuffGuy:

Guys like Lenny Krayzelburg are animals. Most college swimmers, particularly the sprinters are fairly muscular. Not froggy, but very strong. Sprinters also pump a lot of fairly heavy iron. I saw Lenny K's weight regimen leading up to the Big O and he was definitely pushing some big numbers.

Furthermore, sprinting burns carbs not fat. Orbius would need to do at least 20+ minutes of running to kick in the fat burning mechanism.

Diet is a big issue if you are trying to get that ripped look. Drop the calories and fat and you will look better. However, many guys just don't have the skin to ever look ripped. If you are genetically endowed with a layer of fat you will never achieve that look. I've seen guys from Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Germany, who were big as trees and strong as oxes who looked like they pigged out on Lay's potato chips all day. But don't tell them that.

How many crunches are you doing a day? Are you doing them with weight and doing some twisting sets?

I watched a Mexican Davis cupper work out one day at the tennis court. He did 4 sets of 200 crunches, 5 sets of 80 pushups, then ran 5 miles under 28 minutes! The guy wasn't big but he had about 5% body fat and was totally ripped.

Good luck.

 

[cyclistca]

take a look at any competitive male swimmer and tell me that they arn't ripped?

Yeah but they got that way from doing lots of weights in combination with the swimming.

 

[GoldenGuppy]

I want my ABS to be ripped... my other body parts are already relatively fine... too bad for men, the stomach is the area that fat goes to the most ...

 

[Caliber]

I heard that if you keep your heart rate at a relatively low level (forget the exact %) you will burn mostly fat instead of carbo's. The higher your heart rate gets the more carb's the body burns. Is this true?