Hey Friend,

  I love this time of the year!

  The holidays are coming up, my daughter is home from college and the New Year brings with it such optimism and potential.

  Wow, that sounded very cheesy.

  But it's actually quite true.

  I've always been one to say that you shouldn't wait until the new year comes to make a change to your life.

  It should be done whenever you are ready.

  That could be March 3rd or September 15th or any date for that matter.

  But, it is what it is, and I will never criticize someone for deciding to better themselves, especially when it comes to getting healthier and losing weight.

  Speaking of which, this past weekend my daughter and I were out for a walk/run and she started telling me about how one of her goals for 2024 is to run a half marathon.

  I told her how awesome that was!

  She's also heard me tell her (on more than one occasion) that long distance running is not the best way to get in good shape.

  Which of course she knows since I've told her MANY times, but it's a goal of hers, she wants to do it, she enjoys it and I am certainly not going to dissuade her from it. I think it's great!

  She also knows that a LONG time ago, distance running was my thing and I did multiple marathons and half marathons. So who would I be to talk her out of it!

  All of this got me thinking about cardio exercise and what really is the BEST cardio exercise that someone can do.

  Is it sprinting, jogging, biking, mountain climbers, rowing, zumba, elliptical, skater jumps, jumping rope, burpees, stair climber, or running laps around your coffee table in your living room?

 Could it be possible that they are all the BEST?

 Yes it could.

 And here’s why.

 First off, let’s define what me mean by best.

  In terms of this discussion, we are talking about which exercise gives you the best chances of burning the most fat and improving your cardiovascular fitness.

 And what would be our criteria for determining that?

 Consistency, enjoyment, calories burned per minute, and afterburn (calories burned after the exercise has come to an end.

 I think the first 2 criteria, believe it or not, are the most important.

 As an example, if I said jumping rope was the best, but you hated it, then you probably wouldn’t be all that consistent with it, right?

 And if you weren’t all that consistent, you wouldn’t do it that often and you wouldn’t burn many calories from it, would you?

 Now on the flip side, what if I said running laps around your coffee table in your living room was the worst, but you loved doing it and did it multiple times a day (just go with it :).

 Would it be a bad choice for you?

 Of course not.

 It would be a great choice for you because you enjoy it and you would probably be very consistent with it. Which would lead to burning lots of calories and greatly improving your cardiovascular fitness level.

 Do you see how this makes sense?

 The bottom line is there is no BEST cardio exercise.

  All cardio exercises are good for you and will benefit you.

 With all of that said, what if we wanted to look at which exercises give you the most bang for your buck in terms of calorie burning, afterburn, cardiovascular fitness etc.

 So let’s say you enjoyed every from of cardio I mentioned above and could do them all equally for 30 minutes a day.

 But you only wanted to do 1 and you wanted to do the one that was going to benefit you the most.

 Well if that was the case, then I’d have to go with a circuit of Mountain Climbers, Burpees, and Skater Jumps.

  And there’s one very good reason for this. I’ll give you a hint; it has nothing to do with cardio per se.

 Mountain climbers, skater jumps and burpees have one thing in common, that will enable you to burn more calories in the long run, that the other exercises like running, biking, etc. don’t.

 The first person to email me at kevin@thefatmethod.com with the correct answer will get a 50% discount on my F.A.T. Method program that starts on January 1st.

 So remember, all cardio is beneficial. Consistency and enjoyment are what make it great for YOU though.

Kevin

P.S. If you'd like to read more information about my F.A.T. Method Program, CLICK HERE.