I just received an interesting email from a reader who apparently loves cardio and disapproves of my anti-cardio stance:

I will never join Mode now that I have read your views on cardio. I am sure my heart and lungs would agree with me too.

Too bad for her, since my circuit training workouts are more effective and time-efficient towards improving cardiovascular health than the long boring marathon cardio sessions she’s likely doing.

The problem with cardio is that many people think the only way to get fit and burn fat is to do mind-numbingly boring cardio sessions 5 days per week. Simply not true.

Circuit training effectively works your heart and lungs while also providing you a total-body muscular, bone, and joint workout. The most time-efficient way to exercise, and perfect for people who’s goal is to enjoy life and not waste hours upon hours each week running on a treadmill.

If you look around at all the various boot camp programs in Vancouver, you’ll see that almost all of them require participants to bring their own light hand weights to each workout. The problem with dinky hand weights it that they do not allow for the most important component of a results focussed exercise program: progression.

How are you supposed to progress when you’re limited to just using 5 lb hand weights? Simple. You can’t. Towards the end of the workout program, you’ll still be lifting the same dinky hand weights that you were lifting at the beginning of the program. Dinky hand weight workouts simply do not allow for the progression needed to see significant results from your exercise efforts.

At my Vancouver boot camp program, we provide a wide variety of resistance bands that offer anywhere from 5 lbs to upwards of 100 lbs of resistance. This means that as you get fitter and stronger during the workout program, you can continue to challenge yourself by progressing towards much more difficult levels of resistance. When you see real progression in your fitness during the workout program, you will also see real progress towards your fat-burning and muscle-toning goals.

So if you’re looking for a quality boot camp in Vancouver that produces real results, steer clear of any prorgram that says you need to bring dinky hand weights to each workout.

If you watch my YouTube videos, you already know that I can’t stand gyms and health clubs. I hate just about every gym or health club I’ve ever been to. Pretty much everything about traditional gyms and health clubs just drives me up the wall.

Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t exercised at a health club in nearly a year, preferring to do my workouts outdoors or at home with minimal equipment such as the TRX Suspension Trainer and the Ripcords.

But not having access to any other equipment (particularly free weights), I had started to get a bit bored with my workouts, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to get a membership at a local health club called the Steve Nash Sports Club.

The Steve Nash Sports Club is the newest, largest, nicest, and most expensive health club in Vancouver. I figured that if I was going to be able to tolerate a gym, it would be the Steve Nash Sports Club. Certainly it had to be better than the dirtiest, dumpiest, busiest, stuffiest, most miserable health club I’ve ever had the misfortune of being a member at.

Two weeks into my membership, I’ve been to the gym less than ten times and I’ve already had enough of that place. Too many people, not enough benches, lockers are always in use, way too much cardio equipment, limited windows (the windows they do have are all in the cardio area), and lots of weirdos including the crazy bodybuilders wearing their tapered clown pants, fanny packs, and bandanas. I just got back from canceling my membership.

Thanks to my staunch refusal to ever sign into a long-term gym contract, I only need to give the Steve Nash Sports Club 30 days notice to cancel my membership. Imagine how frustrated I’d be right now if I had signed into a 1 or 2 year contract. Ouch. Yet the majority of gym-goers will agree to one of those long-term contracts only to realize two weeks later that they can’t stand the gym and don’t want to go anymore.

So please heed my advice. If you’re going to get a gym membership somewhere, go month-to-month right from the beginning. Sure, you’ll pay a bit more per month, but it will be well worth the piece of mind, and chances are the month-to-month membership will eventually save you a ton of money and frustration when you realize that you don’t want the membership any longer and are able to quickly cancel it.

Our next Vancouver boot camp starts in two weeks. One class is already full, and two classes are three-quarters full. Be sure to register soon to secure your spot in our next outdoor workout program.

Visit our Vancouver boot camp website to register for our next outdoor boot camp program.