Laziness is the mother of efficiency.

The truth is… I am pretty lazy.  Lazy in the sense that I refuse to waste time and energy on stuff that does not help or matter.

“Laziness” is simply a strategy for conserving energy by avoiding unnecessary exertion.  A synonym for laziness might be “good economy”.

You could have bet good money that I was going to find the most efficient way to extract value from any time I invest performing cardiovascular work.  I have.  Part of the solution is something I call “12-Minute Cardio”.

I just do not enjoy cardio.

I have never experienced the fabled “runner’s high”.  In fact, I experience the exact opposite of a “high” during running – I feel suicidal.  I have never done cardio for fun.  The entire time I perform cardio, I think, “this sucks – am I done yet, this sucks – am I done yet, this sucks- am I done yet…”, in nearly complete synchronicity with every other stride I take.

But, I have a secret to share.  A secret few people have every heard me confess.  I began my fitness career by performing calisthenics, thousands of sit-ups/day, and lots of cardio in the form of jogging.

I used to jog at night because I was embarrassed by how “husky” I was, and I did not want anyone to see me.

“Husky” was the term we used for fat kids back in the 80’s.  I was FAT.  At least in my eyes.  I HATED the way my body looked.  And obsessive amounts of calisthenics, sit-ups, and jogging at night made me fatter, and more full of hate.  By the time I was in Junior High School, I already knew the truth – calisthenics, sit-ups, and jogging were NEVER going to help me reach my goals of being lean, muscular, and strong.  This revelation is a big part of the reason why, to this day, I’m pretty sour on anyone preaching those type of workouts.  I don’t like liars.  And I don’t like people who hold themselves out as an “expert” on fitness and prescribe absolute bullshit like calisthenics, circuits of ab exercises, and jumping on a piece of cardio equipment between sets of strength training exercises.  Pop onto Instagram and you will find many of these frauds, usually also sporting huge fake cans and compression pants (with 1 million followers).


Once I started to understand lifting weights better, I realized, “Aha! this is the way!”.  I never looked back.  Until I was in my 40’s and I received a wake-up call that maintaining your cardiovascular health with some basic amount of dedicated cardio work is NECESSARY. So, back to hell.  At least this time I was experienced enough to know I should WALK, not RUN (or jog), for cardiovascular conditioning and positive health effects.  I am currently 6’1″ and 231 lbs (105 kg) with a 33″ waist.  I mention my body dimensions to point out that, at my body weight (and age), I would suffer too much impact trauma to make running a constructive exercise option for me.  If you are over age 25 and weigh over 200 pounds, running, or jogging, as your primary cardiovascular exercise modality is a bad idea.

I walked approximately 350 miles in 2017, and approximately 116 miles, so far, this year (2018).  Most of those miles were walked outside – yes, even in the snow.  Walking on a treadmill is NOT as efficient as walking outside and does not provide the same effect.  Every mile was walked as fast as I could walk it, with my average walking speed falling somewhere between 4.50 mph and 4.80 mph.  My cardio program format is to walk a measured course (1.42 miles) in the shortest time possible.  I don’t do cardio for fun, I do it to improve performance (it acts as GPP), improve basic health indicators (resting heart rate, blood pressure, etc), and to stay on the planet longer (study, study,study).  If there is no tangible benefit, it’s simply not for me.

My walking program is 2 days “on”, 1 day “off” repeat.  An “on” day means walking as described above.  An “off” day means no walking, but I have other exercise (free weights) to complete on those days anyhow.  I consider this walking program to be my “baseline” cardio – the minimum necessary for staying in good health.  At my walking speeds we are looking at approximately 360 minutes of cardio per month.  It is a time efficient way to elicit the constructive benefits of cardiovascular work through ambulation, without suffering joint(s) injuring, and minimizing impact trauma.  I discussed impact trauma a bit in this IG post:

A post shared by Paul NEWT, EPF, NS (@paulnewt) on Nov 21, 2017 at 10:01am PST

I don’t believe in extended duration  cardio.  Anything over 20 minutes to me is 100 percent pointless.  If running is your thing, you should be able to run a 5 K (3.2 miles) in about 20 minutes, plus or minus 60 seconds.  If you claim you’re a “runner” and you can’t meet that metric, your methodology is flawed, you’re running with injuries, and/or you simply weigh too much.  So, if a human being (with training) can run 3.2 MILES in about 20 minutes, then there is absolutely no reason I can see to train (running) longer than 20 minutes.  If the goal is to run as far as possible in 20 minutes, training with runs that last 40 minutes, is going to make you SLOWER.  The way to get faster is to improve your speed over shorter distances, and then train your body to ENDURE that new top average running speed over the longer distance.  This is the same basic principle you get stronger with in the weight room.  You train your body to lift a higher top weight, and then you train your body to ENDURE that weight for a longer duration of set (more reps).  Train speed, then strength.  Train strength, then muscular endurance.  Simple.

So, now, let’s get to the 12 minute cardio.

In my quest to extract value out of every single minute of cardio, it was inevitable that I would come across a method such as “The Tabata Protocol”.  Tabata should not be confused with HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)- they are similar, but not the same.

The benefits of Tabata are well documented (study, study, study).  The original format is a 10 minute warmup, eight rounds of 20 seconds of work, each followed by 10 seconds of rest (recovery, pedaling slow).  The total exercise time after the warm-up is 4 minutes (20sec on, 10sec off, repeated 8 times).  This 4-minute session, performed properly, burned the same number of calories as a 60-minute jog (for those of you who still believe exercise is best viewed as a caloric event).  Interesting to note that alternative formats have demonstrated inferior results -the format of 30 second bursts with 120 second rests was shown to be LESS effective than 20-10.

Now the original research was done on a mechanically braked cycle.  So, immediately, I can offer an improvement on the Tabata Protocol.  For maximum benefit, use an Assault AirBike, or similar fan bike.  The advantage of using a fanbike, or similar bike, is two fold.  First, a fanbike automatically adjusts to your maximum, or minimum, exertion.  Second, involving lower AND upper body extremities on the 20 seconds bursts results in an exponentially higher output of energy, lactic acid, and growth hormone from your body than either performed alone.

The AirBike really is the absolute best way to get this done.  Think about it (4 Reasons You Need an Airbike):

1. Zero Impact.
2. No need to toggle the level, or intensity, just pedal faster or slower.
3. The faster you pedal, the more resistance there is.  The slower you pedal, the less resistance there is. (Auto-modulation).
4. Easy to involve both the upper and lower extremities, which raises more lactic acid and produces more growth hormone.

Now, I said 12 minutes.  Here is the format I use:

• 4 minutes warmup (easy)
• 20 second “sprints”, or all out effort, followed by 10 second “strides”, or about 75-85% effort; repeated 8 times for a total of 4 minutes
• 4 minutes cooldown (easy)

12 minute cardio is the type of cardio I would add to accelerate fat loss.

Adding 12 minute cardio to an exercise program that already includes proper strength training (free weights) and baseline cardio works very, very well.

If you really want to shed the pounds quickly and totally transform yourself in less than a year;

1. lift free weights 4-5 days/week,
2. add baseline cardio (minimum physical activity),
3. add 12 Minute Cardio, 2x/week
4. follow an eating plan like I describe in “How you really lose fat… FAST“.