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.

Cardiovascular exercise has a reputation for being the best way to lose weight, but this reputation is entirely undeserved. It can take as much as ten hours (!) every week to lose weight and this weight loss is minimal; about a pound. You will also experience a plateau of weight loss if you are doing the same exercises all the time - so you can keep working out very hard while getting nowhere!

Cardiovascular workouts can take a long time to get noticeable results. Not all of us have the time to spend half of our lives at the gym; it takes half an hour at least to even begin buring calories in a cardio workout.

While cardiovascular exercises will certainly lead to improvements in your heart and lungs, your bones and joints may be paying the price. For example, the consistent and constant pounding that your knees and shins take while running or jogging can severely damage those body parts. Not only is this bad for your long term health, but it can make it harder to workout in the short term as well.

In order for cardio to be beneficial, it needs to be done on a daily basis. That does mean seven days a week for at least an hour at a time, which can leave the body feeling tired, sore, and unable to perform the next day. This is essential since the body is used to the high intensity workouts, and can actually lead to weight gain if not practiced on an every day basis.

When doing cardio exercises, one must be working out in the fat burning zone in order to get results. Although calories are burned with almost any type of exercise, it is nearly impossible to burn excess fat when exercising at a low intensity. The fat burning zone is usually at a very fast pace and the heart rate must be high, which can be difficult for those just starting to exercise to accomplish.

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.