The Real Reason Your Cardio Workout Is Failing, According To Jillian Michaels

There's no point in working out if you're not going to do it properly, especially when it comes to cardio. And Jillian Michaels, health and fitness expert and creator of the Jillian Michaels Fitness App (available in iOS, Android, and on the Samsung Health wellness platform), agrees. Speaking to The List, the former reality TV star listed the three key mistakes you may be making during your cardio work out and how to fix them.

Your first mistake might be that you're only sticking to cardio workouts. "Resistance training is far more effective than straight cardio, as is HIIT training," says Michaels. "I build cardio days into my programs as active recovery days. This means I use them as rest days where you can still incorporate a way to get an additional calorie burn, but allow the body to rest and recover from the more strenuous workouts I program throughout the rest of the week." Ultimately, you need to strike a balance of resistance training and cardio if you want to see results.

Secondly, if you're only doing one type of cardio, you're probably not challenging yourself. "Any fitness routine is not ideal," Micheals tells The List. "This is because what's routine is done regularly, and when we do the same things regularly our body adapts to the stimulus and stops progressing," she explains. Instead, you need to mix it up to see results. "This is why I have workout programs with many modalities from HIIT to yoga, kickboxing to weight training, and I am constantly changing up the exercises I use to hit different muscle groups," Micheals adds.

Lastly, you need to be aware that there is such a thing as overusing muscles, so you need to learn to listen to your body. Listing runner's knee and tennis elbows as examples, Michaels points out that "repetitive movement can cause injuries." So it's important to mix things up — not only to challenge yourself, but also to avoid hurting yourself. "If you love cardio, then switch to a rower some days, spin bike some days, step mill other days, and so on," advises Micheals.