Explosive muscle building cardio
Dude,
You need to be faster.
Cardio in the pop fitness world usually consists of keeping up a pace over a long distance. This is generally terrible advice.
Your capacity to move explosively is a key indicator of health and vitality.
You need to be able to move yourself towards or away from a target, extremely quickly, especially under repeated emergency stress.
This is a core component of training for sports, martial arts, and war.
The explosive muscle building cardio workout that follows is not for everyone, especially beginners. It’s deceptively simple but incredibly brutal. Don’t mess around with this before you understand the principles of cardio.
Speed and muscle
The principles of cardio
Over the past couple years on Pointman, we’ve covered the principles of the most important and effective cardio workouts you can do. Seriously. You can stick with these for years and be just fine. Please be sure to understand the basics before you move on.
Bodyweight cardio - no equipment needed
Loaded cardio - weight equipment needed, you can buy or DIY
Best of both worlds
You might notice something. Both types of cardio work your heart immensely, which is what we want. That is the very essence of cardio. But loaded cardio is often associated with building muscle. Bodyweight cardio, not so much.
WHAT IF WE COULD COMBINE THE TWO?
The ideal solution is bodyweight cardio, that you can do anywhere without any equipment, that also builds muscle.
That is explosive muscle building cardio.
The barbarian workout
I’m happy you made it this far, but this isn’t for everyone. You have to be a certain level of barbarian to try this. It’s not too late to turn back now :)
To be honest, I did this pretty much every day for about two months from January-February and I absolutely loved it. It’s difficult but satisfying, and I had great gains. It’s awesome.
But first, the science…
There’s a really cool training method called Tabata training. When it was first popularized in the 2000s there was a total awakening in the strength and condition world. Unfortunately when you Google it now, all you see is pop fitness Tae Bo garbage. Lots of SEO juice to be had, I guess.
This is how you do it
- Pick a movement
- Do that moment explosively for 20 seconds
- Rest for 10 seconds
- That is 30 seconds total
- Do that work + rest cycle 8 times
- You are done in 4 minutes
This is HARD because you are meant to go all out in that 20 seconds, and you barely have any time to recover. But you also barely have any time to think, so you just keep going. It’s a beauty.
Technically you can Tabata any movement. But in fact, most movements are a really bad idea for Tabata. Ideally, athletes will have a cardio tool like a rowing machine or an assault bike. That is really great Tabata. Furthermore, you don’t actually need to stick to 20 seconds for purity. 15-20 seconds per round, balls out, is all you need.
In true and efficient Pointman style, you can do this without needing anything at all. No equipment needed while also getting a complete and full body workout.
You can do the barbarian workout with 3 core Tabata movements.
Step 1: Burpees Tabata, 8-10 rounds
Burpees get lots of shit in the strength world, and for good reason. But, in this context and in this context only, they are excellent.
Step 2: Rest a few minutes
Step 3: Sprinter lunges Tabata, 8-10 rounds
This is a champ movement, and there are many variations. Pick your favorite and go nuts.
Step 4: Rest a few minutes
Step 5: Face pulls Tabata, 8-10 rounds
Though pull-ups would be the preferred complement, I’ve never heard of any maniacs that can Tabata with pull-ups. Choose face pulls instead because you can do them explosively and still work all the core muscle groups and build tank top muscles. Any kind of rope or strap or band will work.
Step 6: Rest again, you are done
That’s all you need to build muscle and boost your cardio. At the same time.
Nate
