Exercise: Diet Blog, Cardio, Yoga, and Pelvic Instability
Don’t tell Mike Howard of Diet Blog that doing cardio is a waste of time—its NOT! Here’s what he thinks:
It’s the turning of the hips that kills me!
- The people that need to boost their health and lose fat the most need to establish a cardio-respiratory base. Trying to push an unfit individual to their physical extremes can be dangerous. Furthermore, physical discomfort is not conducive to continuing an activity and therefore long term success.
- High intensity training requires rest. Even if you are at a higher physical level, interspersing longer, slower cardio into your routine is advisable.
- Interval training does not have to be intense. In fact, you can incorporate intervals with the even the most unfit individuals.
- You can still mix it up. You can perform longer, slower distance cardio on different modes (ie. treadmill, bike, elliptical) and even incorporate intervals on those modes.
- Longer, slower cardio still burns calories. It still exercises your heart and lungs and it still helps stave off many diseases and ailments.
- Once you've established a good cardio base, incorporating more intense cardio is warranted. Be sure you are mentally prepared for such efforts
- Long, slow cardio or intense cardio in the absence of weight training will limit the benefit of fat burning.
Q: I was trying to find yoga poses that were designed to stabilize the hips and pelvis and prevent a sideways rotation. I do a lot of stabilizing exercises and my hips are in alignment but my pelvis turns to one side so that my centre of gravity is turned to my right and takes my ribcage along with it. My centre of gravity seems to have shifted to the right hand side instead of being directly in front of my hips. I do a lot of meditation and I keep getting a strong feeling to do Yoga, which I do small amount of but I don’t know which asana’s would target my problem.Let me tell you something. I’m pretty darn good at running nowadays, but Warrior I still drives me crazy! From MyYogaOnline:
A: A thorough assessment by a health care practitioner will inform you of where the root of your rotation lies. Opening the hip flexors in Warrior I and lengthening through the right transversospinalis group in poses such as Half Lord of the Fishes Pose and Mariachi’s Pose could be beneficial for you at this point in time.
There can be other reasons for a rotated pelvis: weakness, muscular inhibition, and skeletal anomalies, among others. However, these are the most likely muscular causes of a rotated pelvis. Get yourself assessed to determine the cause of the rotation so that you can safely and properly determine the right course of action for your body.
It’s the turning of the hips that kills me!
I am more of the "interval training is the only cardio training you need" mindset. You get the maximum benefit in less than 30 minutes. And it kills me when I see people at gyms, on a recumbent bike and watching TV!
If you are trying to lose weight through cardio it is a waste of time. If you are trying to keep a good quality of life cardio is a good start.