Your Cardio Crises---Solved!

Ah, it's June again. In many parts of the country, now's the perfect time to get out of the sweaty, smelly, stuffy gym and take our workouts outdoors---unless it's already 90-plus degrees with nearly 100-percent humidity, as it is where I live. As such, my fellow gym-goers and I continue our health-club confinement, and it's getting to some of us. I can see it on the faces of the folks crowding the cardio equipment night after night: they're over it.

We all have our reasons for not loving cardio. It's tedious, and well, it's hard! So, for those of you stuck indoors like I am, I'd like to offer my solution for whatever cardio-related issue confounds you, frustrates you, and deters you from your workouts. Here we go...

Problem: You hate the treadmill; you prefer your workouts to be a social affair.
Solution: Ditch the treadmill and try a group-exercise class. Whether it's dance, Spinning, or kickboxing, there's sure to be a cardio offering that suits your interests and level of coordination.

Problem: You're just not motivated when you're on your own.
Solution: Hire a trainer. (What? You knew it was coming.) It's too expensive, you say? Most trainers will accomodate a limited budget by offering 30-minute workouts or agreeing to meet infrequently, such as every other week. You can also save money by working out with one or more friends; group training means a significant discount per person.

Problem: You're not feeling challenged.
Solution: Odds are you've gotten into a rut of using the same program every time you get on a machine. To mix it up, try incorporating high-intensity intervals or experimenting with the machine's various functions, such as the incline.

Problem: You're sick of the elliptical.
Solution: So why not try something different? You're body will respond favorably to a change in your routine. Now's as good a time as any to try out the stepmill or take a boxing class.

Problem: "Losing that last 10 pounds" isn't as motivating a reason to work out as it used to be.
Solution: Sign up for a event. It can be a 5k run, a walk for your favorite charity, or, if you live in a large city, a skyscraper stair climb. Having something personally meaningful to achieve (and a set deadline in which to achieve it) can give you a new reason to work hard at the gym.

Problem: You need a change of scenery.
Solution: You can always suck it up and go outside. You just won't see me out there.

Periodization for Dummies

Recently a very dear friend and former client asked me some questions about how to change up his workouts so that they'll keep him challenged over the long run. Should he increase his reps? Keep trying to add weight? Juggle dumbbells while eating a ham sandwich?

The obvious answer would be that it's time for a new routine, knowing that he's kept to the same one---in various incarnations---for a few months now. Most of us know when we need to mix things up. But he brings up a valuable question, one I suspect many regular exercisers have pondered: What do you do after that? How are you supposed to make this stuff work for you in the long run?

It's true that you should alter one or more variables in your routine every 6-8 weeks or so. This can mean changing the number of sets and reps, changing the order of your exercises, or choosing new exercises all together. Whatever changes you make should introduce new challenges: the lunges you've been doing should start hurting all over again (but this will subside as you adapt to your new routine).

This doesn't mean, however, that you'll constantly have to overhaul your workout. You might only have a couple of routines that you're familiar with. This is okay---you just need to get familiar with the practice known to fitness experts as periodization.

Traditionally, this was a practice developed for training athletes and bodybuilders, and it involved cycling periods of working out using heavier weights/lower reps with periods of lighter lifting and increased repetitions. The point was to avoid overtraining, or getting to the point where the lifter's body became exhausted by lack of change in the workout.

But periodization can also be be applied to any resistance-training regimen, whether your goals are to get huge or just tone up a bit. Here's an example of what I recommended to my client (who I should mention is fairly well adapted to strength training): alternate a period (the length will depend on how long it takes you to get out of the "alarm phase" of training to the point where you're no longer experiencing soreness from a specific routine) of doing the machine-based, more isolated exercises he's accustomed to with a period of more dynamic, bodyweight-focused exercises. This will ensure that over time he trains a variety of muscle groups and fiber types.

After he's switched it up for a while, he's then free to go back to his machine-based routine, provided that he experiment with variations on the exercises he knows so well. You can do the same: If you have two familiar routines you can alternate between, consider consulting a trainer for ways to shake these up over time. He or she might show you a new way of doing a familiar move, or how to do the same exercise with a different piece of equipment, or how to reorder your routine so it feels fresh. It's not an overhaul---think of it as a reinvention.