A few nights ago I was talking to a friend of mine who had expressed interest in my Boot Camp class, but had never managed to show up.  "You should come tomorrow morning," I said.  "We're having a great time!"

She confessed that a mutual friend of ours, who had been attending, had described the class to her.  "It sounded HORRIBLE!" she said.  "So much running and jumping and running some more.  Hanging from swingsets.  Carrying one another around on piggyback.  I want to do something FUN!  If it was FUN, I'd do it!  It needs to be FUN!  Make it FUN and I'll go!"  

About the fiftieth time she said she wished the class which she'd never attended was 'fun," I told her that I was sorry it didn't sound interesting, and that she probably shouldn't come to the class if it sounded so unbearable. 

Initially I was a little thrown by her protests:  I've tried hard to create a class that actually IS fun:  lots of variety, lots of fast, athletic movement, some friendly competition among participants.  It's a class I would enjoy, and the same kind of workout I do when I'm outside and want to get my heart pounding and work up a sweat.  It's hard work, and it's designed to push people to their limits, but the participants definitely seem to enjoy themselves, and I have a ball teaching it.

Not your best option.

But my friend's rant was actually a good reminder that of course what's fun for some people can often be abhorrent to others.  After all, she herself trained for and completed a marathon not too long ago, which to me, sounds as un-fun as the 9th circle of Hell. 

It's not that my friend didn't like to exercise or work hard or get up early or be diligent; it's just that the particular format of the Boot Camp class wasn't appealing to her.

The point for all you people who aren't able to attend my class--and I forgive you, by the way--is that there's no reason cardio shouldn't be fun.  You just have to make it fun for yourself.  

When you say "cardio" to any clipboard-jockey at the gym, they'll point you to the bank of glorified hampster-wheels over by the televisions.  Half the people on them will be chatting on their iPhones. 

Why?  Because, done like that "cardio" is boring as hell.  No wonder everyone needs electronic diversion to tolerate it.  Even hampsters don't keep that crap up for more than a few minutes at a stretch.  Do you know how small a hampster's brain is?

The way most people do it, cardio sucks. 

I don't even like the term "cardio."  To me it suggests that working your heart and lungs is inherently different from working your muscles, and these two exercise modalities are actually inseparable.  You can't do one without the other:  contract your muscles forcefully, and you breathe heavier and your heart pumps harder.  At some point when we decided everyone should rest two minutes between sets of 10-12 of barbell curls, we created a need for two separate workouts when really we only need one.

If you use your imagination just a little bit you can come up with something that's incredibly taxing and way more fun than the treadmill.  Try some agility drills with lots of directional changes.  You can use a basketball court or run at top speed repeatedly between two trees at local park (You pay taxes, you have a right to use it!).  Play with forms of 'cardio' that aren't always one activity like running; try to incorporate upper-body challenges like climbing, crawling, crab-walking, and brachiating into the work as well as low-body challenges like jumping, leaping and running. 

Alternatively (and Chad Waterbury mentions this in a piece on T-nation today), you can just...stop resting so darn much when you strength train.  Chad suggests cutting out almost all your rest between sets and trying to do what you normally do in an hour in half the time. 

Rest assured, that will be a cardio challenge.  You will not feel even the remotest need to get on a treadmill after that workout.

Inherently, this seems more fun to me than being on a treadmill. 

You might love the treadmill.  But if you don't, find something you do love and throw yourself into it with gusto.

Eds. Note:  I'll be out of town for the remainder of the week and may be blogging sporadically.  Back in action on Monday.