Hello everyone. My name's Nate and while I'm not new to the forum (I have been a viewing member for about a year) this is my first post. I'm looking to start up an AM cardio routine, but here's the catch. I have shin splints and a broken foot which i've been told will never fully heal. Sp my question is this: are there any cardio exercises that will get your heart going nice and fast but that don't put a tremendous amount of strain on your legs and feet? Thank you in advance for your help and I look forward to hearing your responses!

Supersets of Bench press and rows for reps, short rest period between supersets :)

Hello everyone. My name's Nate and while I'm not new to the forum (I have been a viewing member for about a year) this is my first post. I'm looking to start up an AM cardio routine, but here's the catch. I have shin splints and a broken foot which i've been told will never fully heal. Sp my question is this: are there any cardio exercises that will get your heart going nice and fast but that don't put a tremendous amount of strain on your legs and feet? Thank you in advance for your help and I look forward to hearing your responses!


I would say bike and maybe elliptical would be options.

Hello everyone. My name's Nate and while I'm not new to the forum (I have been a viewing member for about a year) this is my first post. I'm looking to start up an AM cardio routine, but here's the catch. I have shin splints and a broken foot which i've been told will never fully heal. Sp my question is this: are there any cardio exercises that will get your heart going nice and fast but that don't put a tremendous amount of strain on your legs and feet? Thank you in advance for your help and I look forward to hearing your responses!

Try rowing on an ergometer.

I don't really know what the foot deal amonts to but if you can walk on it then you can probably do single leg dumbell deadlifts with curl and press, and this burns a whole lot of calories without any impact and not a huge amount of pressure on the down leg.

I like Phil's response...

Yeah, anything that can sustain an elevated heart rate and breathing for 20, 30, 40+ minutes will work. Nobody said it has to involve your legs.

This reminds me of this quote from Alwyn Cosgrove (I've posted this here several times now... I love it):

We still divide training into "strength" and "cardio" portions. It's still an integrated system. We shouldn't be thinking about dividing muscular work and metabolic work or programming them separately. I mean, if I had you do front squats and push presses as a combination for 40 seconds with 40 seconds rest, it would be very metabolic. And on the other end of the continuum, walking a mile is really nothing more than 1500 low resistance reps, right?

When does a side lunge stop being a mobility exercise and start being a strength exercise or a metabolic exercise? They are artificial categories that the exercise community has created. We need to start realizing that a total integration approach is the next step.

Tim

By the way, I just noticed Zen's signature...

I'm willing to bet that the 50x315 lb deadlifts in under 10:00 involved a fair amount of "cardio" work. :nod:

Tim

I assume you're asking without having access to a full array of cardio machines you'd find at the gym. An elliptical, stationary bike, or anything that removes the risk of repetitive foot striking would seem like options from this department.

Even with that off the list, you shouldn't have any trouble elevating your heart rate with a short rest circuit with a handful of motions, or even a single exercise. Snatch, clean, and pushup variations all work well here. Squat thrusters, burpees, lunges, step-ups are other examples that you could mix in depending on the load-bearing capabilities of your foot.

I assume you're asking without having access to a full array of cardio machines you'd find at the gym. An elliptical, stationary bike, or anything that removes the risk of repetitive foot striking would seem like options from this department.

Even with that off the list, you shouldn't have any trouble elevating your heart rate with a short rest circuit with a handful of motions, or even a single exercise. Snatch, clean, and pushup variations all work well here. Squat thrusters, burpees, lunges, step-ups are other examples that you could mix in depending on the load-bearing capabilities of your foot.


Excellent answer. I've gotten to where I do very little "cardio". I prefer various things many call "GPP", including body weight circuits, barbell and dumbbell complexes, one arm DB snatches, DB swings, Tabata lifts, etc.