by: Christy Wright
Google “workout” or “fitness studio” and results will drive any well-intended person looking to exercise right and get fit into a state of confusion.
I’m about seeking tangible results from my workouts. It makes me feel successful. That said, I’ve caught myself often weighing the quality of my workout heavily on two things:
1. How hard am I breathing?
2. How much am I sweating? The more the better, right?
I even see this idea played out at gyms with group fitness classes designed to artificially stimulate these two things with heated rooms and treadmills. Ask yourself: with this sort of training, are you seeing results? Are you keeping those results? Can you do too much cardio?
I’ve learned, it’s about how you cardio.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a butt kicking, huffing and puffing, sweat dripping workout, so long as you know the truth about how “cardio” really works. Exclusively training the “cardio” way (from long treadmill runs, to calorie counting bike rides) can lead to burn out, plateaus and injury. Your body can’t differentiate between running a couple miles, and the same heart-rate spiking movements like kettle bell swings, burpees, box jumps, or thrusters. All it knows is that its muscles are out of oxygen and it’s going to need you to pull more and more air to keep going.
Cue my life-altering experience finding Alchemy 365. As a soccer player and lifelong athlete, it felt like coming home. Instead of measuring how much cardio I was doing, I learned it was about how I was moving to achieve that sweet cardio response.
Cardio exercise is not at odds with strength training or lifting weights.
At Alchemy 365 we believe in cardio, we believe in lung capacity, and in metabolic conditioning just as much as the next gym. However, we use foundational compound movements to get you there – to spike your heart rate, build muscle, and overall strength. Movements like thrusters, squat throws, jumping lunges, snatches can help us build up our lungs, get us more fit, AND create transferrable strength that helps us in our everyday life.
A variety of class formats mixed into a sustainable routine can help us build more than just a good sweat. This kind of variety is a surefire way to increase your overall fitness.
See for yourself.
Join us for a Cardio or Circuit class and see how we do cardio exercise and help you see real fitness results.
Already familiar? Mix in a Strength workout where we slow things down and focus on muscle fatigue — a great way to break up your Cardio training, and build real power.
Your first class is always free. Get strong, blow up your lungs, breathe hard, sweat it out, and see what we’re all about.
Christy is a Coach and General Manager at Alchemy 365 LoHi. Work hard, #PYL harder is what she lives by. You can follow her continued fitness journey on Instagram here.
