How To Do More Work To Increase Your Cardio

In another article, we discussed Work Capacity, and determined that Work Capacity was one of – if not the – most important factors in improving your cardio.

So, now that we know that, let’s segue into the next logical question, which would be, “How do we increase Work Capacity?”

The main way would be to simply just do more work. Yeah, that’s right – condition yourself to doing more work, by…doing more work. You don’t have to do a whole lot at first – add small amounts to your overall workload.

There are a few ways to do this. You could add small amounts of “active-rest” to your workouts, so that you’re actually working while you’re resting between sets. (By the way, this is a tremendous way to increase your cardio with actually doing any traditional “cardio” work.)

For example, say you’re doing your weight training, and resting 60 secs. between sets. Spend 30 of those 60 secs simply doing jumping jacks. Or maybe do a couple burpees. Or a few jumps. Or 5 situps. Anything like that will work.

Another way to do this is to add in extra work throughout the day. During your everyday travels, figure out ways to increase your physical work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park a few extra parking spaces away so you have to walk further. If you’re shopping, carry your items instead of using a cart. That sort of thing. Then you can add in small “mini-workouts” during the day, as well. 5 burpees, 10 push-ups, 10 situps, and 10 squats wouldn’t take over about 90 secs to complete. Do that 4-5 times during the day.

Doing any of these things will help you build your work capacity, and in turn, help you increase your cardio – even if you’re not doing specific cardio workouts. And when you increase your cardio, you’ll find that your overall quality of life will feel like it’s going up.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.