It is pretty much widely know that exercise is essential for weight loss and muscle gain, since more calories must be burned than consumed in a day to lose weight. Also, the muscles must be worked in order to gain mass, yet there are many misconceptions and myths about the best way to lose weight and gain muscle mass at the same time. There is, however, a wrong way to try and achieve this goal, and that is by participating in only cardiovascular exercise.

Even though cardiovascular exercises have been known for being the best way to lose weight, this is actually completely false. It can take ten or more hours a week of cardiovascular exercise to lose weight, and it is usually only a pound or so per week. Performing the same exercises can also cause your weight loss to plateau, meaning you go through a period where you work out just as hard, but having absolutely nothing to show for it.

As mentioned, cardiovascular exercise takes up a load of your free time. For some people this is an inconvenience, but for many other people this is just flat out impossible. Not everyone can pick up and trek to the gym for 15 hours a week. Plus with cardiovascular exercise, it takes time for your body to warm up and even get into calorie burning mode.

Of course, cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart. However, it can be a detriment to your joints. Intense cardio exercises can place a lot of strain on your joints - this can result in joint pain and increase your chances of developing arthritis down the road. These intense cardio workouts also tend to leave your muscles tired and sore, which means it takes longer before you can work out again.

Cardiovascular exercises need to be done more than just several times a week for maximum results. When each of these sessions has to last for at least an hour, that’s a big time commitment that people should not be forced to make. When you skip a day or two, you can immediately regress because your body has been relying on those long workouts to burn off the energy it has.

If you want to see true fat loss from cardiovascular exercise, you have to get into a specific zone called the fat burning zone. The fat burning zone represents a specific range of heart and breathing rate, both of which are very high. That means that low intensity cardio workouts are not effective for burning fat, even though you are still burning calories. High intensity workouts are not ideal for everybody and without them, cardio workouts won’t help you lose fat.

Cardio exercises are not the best for muscle gain, since most of the exercises only work on the lower half of the body. Running, biking, or using an elliptical machine are the most popular cardiovascular workouts, and they only focus on working the leg and abdominal muscles. Additional exercises would have to be performed to gain muscle mass on the upper half of the body.

With all of these disadvantages to classic cardiovascular workout programs and exercises, it is important to realize that you can still grab up all of the benefits, without the disadvantages. You can do this through turbulence training. You’ll be able to work your heart and your lungs, without having to run or do high intensity programs. You can save your bones and joints from unnecessary stresses and you can do it all in less time, making it superior to the cardiovascular exercises of yesterday.