Seeing sweaty, out of shape people killing themselves jogging in an attempt to “get fit” reminds how pleased I am that I will never do another cardio session in my life.
There was a time I assumed that doing cardio—jogging, cycling, swimming, steady state, intervals, circuits, the lot—had to be a great way to burn fat and get shredded.
Now, standing on the other side of my fitness journey, I shake my head at the misery I ever bothered to put myself through.
Stop Running To Get Ripped
Today I walk around with a six-pack, likely eat more than most of the muffin-topped joggers slogging it around town, and have happily resolved to never go for another run ever.
If you want to run because you actually enjoy it, then power to you.
But it pains me to see people out there punishing themselves, surviving through activities like this, in the hope that it will make them look more attractive.
It won’t.
It’s better than sitting on the couch all day and never moving. Absolutely.
But there are far more enjoyable ways to look after yourself. And there are ways that actually work to get in incredible shape and look your best naked—and they don’t require ever stepping on a treadmill or doing anything of the sort.
All you actually need to do to look fantastic long term is get as strong as humanly possible with focused strength training (which can be done in under 40 minutes a week on a set of gymnastics rings) and ideally hit a reasonable protein intake to support that training. Dropping fat and getting lean then just comes down to how much food you consume—hit a modest calorie deficit for a few months and you’ll be ripped. Simple.
Cardio is irrelevant to these outcomes.
But that’s not to say it’s irrelevant, full stop.
There’s one form of cardio I do that is a staple in my daily routine and something we should all do more of.
Walking – The Only Cardio You Need
Want my prescription to burn calories, minimise hunger, boost mood and wellbeing, optimise your health, and make getting and staying in amazing shape (while enjoying your life) as effortless as possible?
Hit 10,000 steps a day.
That’s literally it. Outside of some occasional social sport (and other “incidental” exercise), I don’t do any form of cardio, and I happily keep a six-pack year round (something that gets easier the more strength and muscle you build).
But that daily practice of walking is pivotal to my sanity, productivity, and general wellbeing.
As humans, we’re meant to walk. It’s what we evolved to do more than anything else.
So it makes sense that the human body operates best when that’s included in our daily routine.
Strength + Walking – The Optimal Recipe For Health and Physique
If you want to look and feel awesome, forget forcing yourself through gruelling jogging sessions, cross-training classes or interval sprints.
Eventually you’re either going to:
a) realise that these things aren’t getting you any closer to your beach body, and understandably lose motivation and quit, or
b) think your non-existent results are from a lack of effort and so double down on these activities, getting nowhere for even more sacrifice.
Either way, you still never reach your goal physique, which is a shame and unnecessary.
My Prescription
If getting in great shape and feeling amazing and are priorities in your life (as they are for me), I’d simply do these two things instead:
1. Get a consistent strength training routine in place that’s building towards some heavy long-term goals. (As I said, it can be minimally time-intensive and maximally effective if you know what you’re doing—as long as you can spare half an hour a week, you’re good.)
2. Start walking 10k steps every day.
And finally, don’t feel guilty about not doing any more cardio than that.
As I said, if there’s cardio you want to do, then do it for that reason. But not because you think you need to be doing it to “be healthy” or “get in shape”. Apply the formula above, and you’ve got those things covered.
If you want to optimise health and physique:
Strength and walking.
That’s the recipe.