Cardio Madness...aka Bikini Prep!

Hello everyone...today I am feeling under the weather and figured what a perfect time to do some blogging. As requested I am going to talk to you about the much loved and hated cardio.....specifically what I do to get myself ready for bikini competition season. I honestly am not a fan of cardio at all and try and sneak it into my workouts and pretend they dont exist.

Well for those of you who do not know, August 2oth I will be hitting the stage...strutting myself, posing in nearly nothing bikini in-front of a panel of judges to see if I am have what it takes to place or win. lol This should be fun! This is very outside my comfort zone completely. In order to achieve the bikini competitor look it requires discipline, motivation, consistency and hard hard work. Some are gifted but most really work extremely hard to look the way that they do. But it doesn't end there you also have to eat right, eat enough, train hard and Yes, do CARDIO! Now the asmount of cardio will depend on how much body fat you have to lose. I am fortunate that I am a good situation with that but I still have to work hard and eat right. Matter of fact it is 11am when I am writing this and I am on meal 3 for the day. :)

Back to the topic of Cardio...what I do is incorporate cardio burst into my workouts. What this looks like is for example I will do a circuit of weights and then hop on the stair-mill for 15 min at a moderate to high intensity then jump off and do another circuit followed by 10 min spinning, 5 min all out fast cadence to were you are pedalling so fast you can barely keep up followed by 5 min high intensity heavy resistance. This would have given me a total of 25 min of hard work. This type of training is much more effective than walking on the treadmill reading a magazine for an hour, not to mention time saving. Honestly, really...you think that leisure walk is doing anything! Don't get me wrong you have to mix things up and fast paced incline walking is great for the glutes but this should not be in my opinion your everyday cardio. You need to keep the body guessing and get out of your comfort zone to see real changes. Challenge yourself...you will feel amazing after you did it because you got through it!

I also am a big fan of HIIT training....high intensity interval training....this is just as it sounds high intensity for intervals of time. This can be done on any cardio equipment that you fancy. Generally you start with a couple minutes warm up followed by burst of running/fast paced/sprinting for 30 to 60 seconds followed by a rest interval of 45-60 seconds. There are so many ways to design this...just keep things fresh and challenging enough. Everyones fitness level is different therefore feel it out.

Now as I get closer to my competition I am sure my cardio will change depending on were my body is. For now my favorite Cardio is the stair-mill. If you want to find me at the gym...I am most likely climbing the never ending stairs in the hopes of developing and lifting my glutes. :)

As always make sure you are having fun...jam out to some tunes on your ipod and hit the cardio hard!  You will thank me later I promise.

The picture is of my FAV Bikini Competitor Nathalia Melo...Amazing !!