How do you beat the cardio doldrums?

**Sabateur** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 9:32pm

So I took upon myself to lose weight (read body fat) and gain upperbody strength some 10 weeks ago.

With those goals, having had long distance experience, I hit the cardio machines. Shin splints lead to in door stuff. So I did 30 minutes on the Treadmill no matter how sick I was, how tough it felt that way or however easy it felt, I stayed on that bitch 30 minutes for sure.

But I am sick and tired of doing my cardio work out on the treadmill. Even trying to up the mileage and pace is just not psyching me enough to stay on it.

So I've started doing something new: The cardio machine circuit!

New for me anyway.

Okay, so it's ten/fifteen minutes on Eliptical, ten on Treadmill, ten on stationary bike. For usually at least a total of 4 miles between the eliptical and treadmill, bike miles are bonus.

Wanted to ask other folks struggling with this sort of thing about what they've tried, or any actual resources out there talking about how to keep getting as much out of cardio, without the psychological fatigue, and I suppose there is the aspect of body getting used to the routine.

Was thinking of adding burpees to my routine as a fat loss/strength building thing during my cardio time.

Thoughts? Shared experiences?

**Emevas** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 10:15pm

I have a question. Why are you focusing on just your upperbody's strength rather than your full body's strength?

As for my defeating cardio doldrums, I just do high intensity work rather than moderate intensity stuff. My favorite exercise was pushing a car around a parking lot.

**Sabateur** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 10:27pm

Originally Posted by Emevas

I have a question. Why are you focusing on just your upperbody's strength rather than your full body's strength?

I have a pretty big disparity in strength between upper body and lower body. Very good with squats, terrible at bench press. Can't pull up even my body weight, though given that is 200lbs, it might have something to with it.

So it's more of knowing where I am weak and wanting to get that taken care of.

I've had a lot of busted up cars, ah the memories of push starting!