Cardio: Love it or Hate it!

OK not unless you're a beast or an Olympian...everyone I know has a love/hate relationship with cardio. But as dreadful as it sounds..the only way to get rid of those love handles and into some six-pack abs is to work that behind! I can relate to most people at the gym because I used to despise doing any cardiovascular fitness. And as bad as it was, I still jumped on that treadmill or stair master/ elliptical for that matter. But once you're on that machine...what do you do?? Well...for me, the most effective and efficient way was to do intervals.

I've been doing this workout since I last saw it in my SHAPE magazine. Now I know that everyone can't go the same level as me...so adjust to your liking. =)

(courtsey of SHAPE Magazine: February 2009 issue).

-Warm-up for 12-15 min on speed 6.4
-Increase incline 1.0, sprint for 60 sec.
then recover for 40 sec.
-then repeat, by adding a 0.5 grade to the previous incline.
-Do this until you can't sprint any further (I stop at incline 5.0).

this usually clocks me at 2+ miles, then 0.5 miles of incline walking with grade 11.0.
after i reach a full 3 mile or so, i start to run at an easy pace of speed 6.3 back on an 0.0 incline til i reach a mile to a full run of 40 min.

-Cool down, on speed 4.3 for 5 min.
-Cool down some more by downgrading all the way down to 3.8 for 3 min.

Do you feel it now?! haha

And usually after this interval workout I do some abs for 15 minutes.