The Devil's Cardio

[AirWolf]

Several weeks back I started investigating cardio alternatives since I was doing 4-6 sessions a week and a hip injury is keeping me off the basketball court and away from running.

So what is the Devil's Cardio? Its a name I came up w/ for doing complexes as cardio - since I aim to do 6x6x6. That's six sets of 6 reps of 6 exercises. I'm sure complexes aren't new to a lot of you, but I wanted to share w/ anyone that's interested. For the past couple weeks I've been doing this as a routine at the end of my weight lifting workout (a standard HST routine, MWF. I still do HIIT cardio 3 other days of the week).

75lb barbell
6 reps left lunge
6 reps right lunge
6 reps squat
6 reps overhead press
6 reps clean
6 reps bent over row

Rest 90 seconds - repeat for a total of 6 sets.

This should absolutely destroy you - my heart felt like it was gonna pop and it took a total of about 15 min.

So far my results have been favorable, it definitely feels better to keep lifting at the end of a weights session than to get on an elliptical machine.

Other routines I came across were:

'The Bear': http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459657

Clean cardio: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par37.htm

And sledding: http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=116

Comments, suggestions, questions welcome.

-Wolf

 

[super_rice]

Take your bodyweight. 10 clean and jerk singles.

 

[carlsuen]

the bear and clean cardio are imiliar actually.. and they are brutal..

 

[AirWolf]

Take your bodyweight. 10 clean and jerk singles.

Seems like this would be more of a weight workout than a cardio??

 

[AirWolf]

Did this routine again today - but added some Farmer's walks after the 6th set. For those not familiar w/ these - essentially they are heavy walks, where you walk with weights in your hands. Today I did 1/5 mile with 25lbs in each hand, I'm hoping to slowly build up to 1/2mile w/ 45's...but that'll take some time.

Besides being good cardio these really kill your grip, forearms and traps.

-Wolf