Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast.
My name is Anna and today you're going to hear lots of off-the-cuff vocabulary as I talk to you very freely about cardio, doing cardio.
Now, our focus for this week is the gym in general, but cardio is something that you can do outside of the gym as well, and many people do.
So cardio, C-A-R-D-I-O.
Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise.
Exercise that brings your heart rate up and makes you pant or breathe quite rapidly or heavily, depending on how much you exert yourself.
So cardio is not my favourite form of exercise when I go to the gym.
There are many machines that can help you to do cardiovascular exercise.
We have the treadmill, which you run on or walk on.
I'm a little bit unusual.
But I'll tell you about my treadmill exercise in a moment.
There's also the exercise bike.
And if you go and do a class where everyone is on an exercise bike, that's usually referred to as a spin class or spinning class, where everyone exercises on a bike and you're led by a PT, which is short for personal trainer.
Usually there's a PT taking the class and making everyone cycle really hard so they get their heart rates up.
You also have the rowing machine and the cross trainer, which is where your arms are pulling at the same time as your legs walking.
It's quite an unusual piece of equipment.
Or sometimes I think it's referred to as an elliptical.
But for me, it's simply a cross trainer.
Nice and simple.
And we also have the step machine, which is like a rolling staircase where you're just stepping up, going up and up and up, covering 20 floors in one short space of time.
I like the step machine, but it does hurt my knees so i don't do that very often.
What i do in the gym, if i'm doing some cardio or generally just as a warm-up is, i will go onto the treadmill, but i don't tend to run.
I increase the incline of the treadmill which means I raise it up at the front.
So I press a button to increase the incline so that it's as if I'm walking uphill.
So I increase the incline to be quite steep.
And then I turn around and I walk uphill backwards.
People look at me like I'm very odd. as if I don't know how to use a treadmill.
The reason I do this is because it's supposed to be very good for bad knees.
So I have quite inflamed knees, probably because of my squash playing.
And so I do backwards, walking on the treadmill with an incline, in order to improve my knee strength and recovery.
Now, it's important when you are using the cardio machines to pace yourself.
And that's the first item of vocabulary that I have on my list for you today.
To pace yourself.
Pace, we spell P-A-C-E.
Pace yourself.
This means to control your speed and energy so that you can last for a long time.
If you get on the treadmill and start sprinting or on the bike, if you start sprinting on the bike, cycling as fast as you can, you will burn out quite quickly.
And that's the second item on my list.
To burn out.
Burn like touching a flame.
B-U-R-N.
Burn out.
To burn out is to lose energy because you started or you've been working too intensely.
We use this phrase quite a lot because, In the workplace, when we're talking about people who work so hard that they end up making themselves unwell or unable to work because they burn out.
In my area of work, we call it the creator economy.
We hear the phrase burnout all the time because creators work around the clock trying to create content at a really fast pace, trying to keep up with the algorithms to tackle AI, and we burn out.
We burn out.
So it's important to pace yourself so you don't burn out.
But it's also important to challenge yourself and you should start to get motivated.
Out of breath.
That's the next phrase today.
To be out of breath.
It doesn't mean that you can't breathe at all.
It just means that you are breathing heavily and you're panting.
So you're not breathing normally.
That's to be out of breath.
So you're struggling to breathe normally because of exertion.
So I like to get to a point where I'm a little out of breath and my heart rate is up and I have broken a sweat.
There's another little phrase for you, a bonus phrase to break a sweat.
It means you start sweating.
I often feel bad if I go to the gym and spend half an hour exercising and come away dry.
If I haven't broken a sweat and I'm not out of breath, then I know I haven't pushed myself hard enough.
But sometimes I just enjoy having a gentle break. jog or a gentle cycle.
You know, I get on the bike and I find my rhythm.
That's the next phrase to find your rhythm, which is to settle into a steady pace, a sustainable pace, where you can go on and on, and on.
So I like to find my rhythm and just cycle sometimes.
Although I find the seat quite uncomfortable.
So I often have to adjust myself.
And then eventually I decide I'm done with the bike.
It's too uncomfortable.
In the gym if you have broken a sweat and got really out of breath, found your rhythm and done a good 30 minute run or 30 minute cycle or row, it's good etiquette to wipe down your equipment after you have completed your cardio session.
So you're leaving your equipment, but before you go, you wipe it down.
In my gym they provide special sanitizing wipes so you can clean the equipment ready for the next person.
And they also provide complimentary towels so that you can have a towel in hand or to hand, close by in order to wipe your brow or your chest or your arms, your hands, whatever you need to wipe to prevent sweat going everywhere.
So my time in the gym is predominantly on the weights, but I do sometimes do some cardio.
As I mentioned, I'll do my backward walking.
If my knees are strong, then I'll do some steps.
But Lately I have started doing some interval training.
Actually, it's more like sprint training, but it's a form of interval training.
So I'll get onto the treadmill and I'll warm up by doing a minute of walking.
Usually I have a slight incline and then I will hit the button to send it into a fast sprint and I will take it all the way up to a point where I think I might fall over because I'm running so fast.
And I run as fast as I possibly can for 30 seconds.
And then I hit the walk button and it quickly slows down and I'm completely out of breath.
My heart is pounding and I walk.
Until my heart rate has come all the way down and I'm no longer out of breath.
So I fully recover.
Sometimes it takes a minute and a half.
I fully recover and then I hit sprint again and I go full pelt.
That's a great phrase.
To go full pelt is to go as hard or as fast as you can.
So I go full pelt, running, hoping that I don't trip. for another 30 seconds.
And then I hit walk and go back to a walk again until I fully recover.
And I repeat this cycle six times.
And then I feel like I've done enough.
Now, sprint training is fantastic for many things.
Doing exercise to your absolute maximum has great benefits, especially when you're over 40.
So I do that instead of spending hours and hours jogging.
They call it zone two exercise when your heart rate is slightly elevated, but it's not really high.
Zone two exercise.
I get enough of that during the week when I'm taking my children to school, but it's not as beneficial as some high intensity exercise.
So that's what I do in the gym when I'm working on cardiovascular health.
What do you do?
Do you even do your cardio in the gym?
Or do you prefer to actually get on a real bike and go for a real cycle and do some sightseeing?
Do you run outdoors?
Do you pound the pavement?
We might say to run on concrete, you pound the pavement.
But let's quickly revisit the targeted vocabulary for today before I wrap up.
I gave you to pace yourself, which is to control your speed and your energy so that you can last for a long time.
You pace yourself.
To burn out.
A common phrase that we hear in the workplace, but also in the gym.
It means to lose energy because you started too intensely or you are working too intensely.
We had to be out of breath. which is to struggle to breathe normally.
We had interval training, which is where you alternate between high and low intensity exercise.
And then I talked about finding your rhythm, which is to settle into a steady, sustainable pace.
Fantastic.
So I am going to go to the gym tomorrow and I will do some interval training.
I'll probably burn out because I'm recovering from illness.
So I should pace myself, but I'm likely to burnout.
It's just the way I work.
But I'll try to find my rhythm and hopefully I will be out of breath by the end of it and long term I'll be fitter and happier.
Fantastic, let me know what your cardio training looks like and I look forward to reading your comments Until tomorrow where we'll head to the pool.
Take care and goodbye.
