Don’t Be a Cardio Bunny

“Cardio Bunny”—an individual whose exercise of choice is a long, droning, low-intensity cardio “workout”.  Often seen on an elliptical trainer, without a single sweat broken, watching the Food Network or TLC for excessive periods of time.  Don’t be a cardio bunny.

Before I say anything else, let me clear the air right now: cardio bunnies are not confined to only one gender.  Cardio bunnies come in all shapes and sizes. They are among us, as seemingly normal as you or me.

But don’t be fooled.

The way to a better body is not through endless hours of hair-down cardio.  Surprise, ladies and gentlemen: it’s through strength training.

Strength training boosts the metabolism to create long-term, fat-burning metabolic changes.  Did you know that just one pound of muscle burns about 50 calories every day in order to nourish itself?  Ten pounds of muscle, then, burns about 500 calories every day.  To burn these 500 calories through exercise, every day, you’d need to do about an hour of Zumba or walk more than 7 miles.  It’s your choice: would you rather do a full hour of cardio every day for the rest of your life, or would you rather build ten pounds of lean muscle and let your body do the rest?

Ironically, though, an hour of Zumba every day for the rest of your life won’t even be able to keep the fat off you.  As you go about your cardio bunny ways and gradually lose body fat, your overall body weight will decrease, requiring your body to do less work to move you around throughout the day.  As a result, the more body fat you lose, the slower your metabolism becomes…that is, unless you replace those fat pounds with lean muscle.

Lean muscle is not as scary as it seems.  For all those who may be concerned, rest assured that you can’t “get bulky” by accident.  If your dream body is a lean and trim one, know that 10 pounds of muscle would be distributed throughout your entire body, covering up your body fat at each area and making you look leaner all around.  Don’t believe me?  Just Google “Will strength training make me bulky?” and see for yourself.

Good luck, everyone.  It’s time to hop off that elliptical and get into the weight room.  A natural, healthy, easy-to-maintain body is waiting for you.