Cardio Strength Training: Torch Fat, Build Muscle, and Get Stronger Faster [Paperback]

Robert dos Remedios (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 22, 2009

Cut workout time in half and get double the results!

 

If you’re a guy with little time to work out and pounds of fat to burn, the thought of having to spend hours in the gym lifting weights and doing cardio can be a daunting proposition. Now, Cardio Strength Training solves both problems with simple, fast, and effective workouts that incorporate challenging, muscle-building combination moves and fat-frying cardio exercises to help you kill two birds with one stone. Built on the same principles Robert Dos Remedios uses to train Division I collegiate athletes, Cardio Strength Training provides safe and innovative workouts and nutritional advice for anyone looking to drop pounds of flab and build a functionally strong physique. Every workout is no longer than 15 minutes and is built on the same training methods outlined in the highly successful book, Men’s Health Power Training.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Dos Remedios, CSCS, director of speed, strength, and conditioning at College of the Canyons in Southern California, is the recipient of the 2006 National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) collegiate strength coach of the year award. He is a contributor and advisor to Men’s Health magazine. Visit his website, www.coachdos.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605296554
• ISBN-13: 978-1605296555
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Coach Robert dos Remedios has been involved in strength and conditioning for over 20 years. After completing his competitive football career at the University of California, Berkeley in 1988, he began training athletes on a full-time basis. "Coach Dos" has a masters degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Biomechanics from California State University, Northridge, has been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the NSCA since 1990, and is a Strength and Conditioning Collegiate Coach (SCCC) as recognized by the CSCCa.

Coach Dos is a sought after international speaker on a variety of conditioning topics such as Olympic Weightlifting applications, Sport-speed development, Explosive training, and CHAOStm Speed Training. Coach Dos serves as Director of Speed, Strength & Conditioning @ College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, CA, a position he has held since 1999.

Coach Dos is also the 2006 recipeint of the National Strength and Conditioning's prestigious Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Professional of the year for 2006. This award is given to the top collegiate strength coach in the country (as voted on by his peers).

In addition to contributing to Men's Health on a regular basis, Coach Dos' first book Men's Health Power Training (Rodale Books) was released in July 2007 and has become a best seller. His next book "Men's Health Cardio Strength Training" was released in December 2009.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Info, Publisher should be ashamed of their proof reading December 27, 2009

By PRW

Format:Paperback

The book is packed with info that will work to help get you in the best shape of your life without spending hours in the gym. These are proven principles. The publisher should have taken more time to proof read the book. It is filled with errors. One exercise with description has pictures of a different exercise, there are other parts that are made confusing because the wrong word is used (40:20 Timed Intervals is listed in one part as 40 seconds work: 20 seconds of work. It should be 40 seconds work: 20 seconds rest.) If you have some workout experience it is not a problem, but a beginner could be easily confused in some areas. The book apparently came out a few weeks earlier than had been planned. It looks like it was rushed for release before Christmas. They should have taken the extra time to correct the errors. Still overall a great exercise book that everybody can benefit from. You could use the info from the book to create effective workouts for a long time.

57 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Coach Dos is a Real Gem in the Fitness Industry February 8, 2010

By NorwichGrad

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I will confirm that the book has some errors. So yeah, shame on the publisher for making Coach Dos look like a dweeb. If it were up to me I would make the publishers do 100 complexes of elevated push up with jumping dumbbell burpees for every error they made. That'll pump some blood and improve their brain function :)

If you are an experienced lifter, the errors can easily be overlooked (they're almost negligible, to be honest). If you are a newbie, I would highly recommend that you join the Coach's forum on [...] . Even if you are an experienced lifter you should also join. There are lots of great info on his forum. He is also one heck of great guy, always willing to answer questions even if they are multiple repeats.

Anyway, aside from the errors (again not the Coach's fault), I still give the info contained within this book a five star for the following reasons:

A) The book is easy to follow. It has different levels, catered to the individual's fitness level. The book has many suggestions for beginner, intermediate and advanced trainee. NO cookie cutter, one-size fits all approach here.
B) The reasoning behind the book's methods of zapping fat is backed up with solid science. It's NOT some cult-fit (**cough** I mean crossfit) "slap-a-roo" garbage that make you do meaningless stuff just for the sake of doing meaningless stuff. CST is based on solid science.
C) It's a stand alone program. If your primary goal is to lose fat, this book is all you need. Although I would still recommend Men's Health Power Training because once you become lean thru CST, you would want to do other protocol to keep improving.

Alright, as far as my real-world experience with this stuff: I performed CST protocol on one of my days off from Power Training. It only took me 15 minutes to do the workout. I am a pretty experienced lifter, so I followed an advanced suggestion. Fifteen minutes later, I looked at my heart rate monitor and it registered at 101%. That's right, over one hundred percent. If I were not athletic, my heart would probably have blown out. I'm not saying this to scare you. I am sharing my experience to inform you that Coach Dos' program IS THAT INTENSE! In fact, I did CST at 5:00 AM and that very same day during break time at 10:00 AM I went to my company's health and wellness coach to measure my blood pressure. BP was normal. But she panicked when she measured my heart rate at 90 BPM! I tried to explain to the wellness coach that it was probably high due to the "afterburn" affect of CST which I did 5 hours earlier. Talk about intensity!

Another story I would like to share. I am a part-time personal trainer. My brother-in-law asked me to give him a good cardio program. I told him to meet me at the house on Tuesday night at 6:30 PM. Come around 6:50 PM he came literally close to vomiting. I kid you not! And I only gave him a beginner protocol.

Guys and gals, forget low intensity steady state on the elliptical or treadmill. If you are not a gym member and you would much rather workout in your basement, that is perfectly fine. I would suggest that you save your money on a good heart rate monitor, some kettlebells, dumbbells, and / or Olympic barbell, follow this program and watch your fat melt right off. If you are already a gym member, that's great too! Just go to the corner of your gym's massive "cardio room" full of worthless LISS equipment and do CST. People on treadmill and elliptical will stare at you. Let them, because they (and you) will literally see the fat melt off in no time (just as long as you nutritional intake is in check - remember you still have to create caloric deficit).

The book basically has the following protocols:

o Complex
o Density Training
o Timed Interval
o Tabata

All you need is no more than 20 minutes. It is not easy. It's not supposed to be. If it were easy, the US of A would not have an obese pandemic.

Good luck. You will need it as you cross the treshold of death! Ha ha ha.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, Practical Information; Shoddy Kettlebell Form February 24, 2010

By L. Wu

Format:Paperback

As a certified hard-style Kettlebell instructor, student-athlete / personal trainer, and aspiring strength coach, I very much looked forward to reading this book. When it comes to the meat of the text I was not disappointed--the information provided is practical, pragmatic, and seemingly effective. I enjoyed reading it more than Kenneth Jay's Viking Warrior Conditioning, but obviously a text as this is not as comprehensive as a tome like Coach Boyle's Advances in Functional Training or Gray Cook's Athletic Body in Balance. Nor does it need to be--the book drills into the specifics of "cardio strength training" and details how and when to apply these techniques.

While the text of the book was generally well done, the Kettlebell form is fairly poor, and many of the exercises (KB or bodyweight) are often not described very well. For example, a pushup is described as "These are standard, full range-of-motion pushups"--not very helpful for coaches or advanced athletes always looking to improve their form. The kettlebell swing is taught as the squat-style swing, which many Kettlebell instructors feel is much more dangerous than the moving deadlift-style swing. The push press kettlebell pictures don't make sense--why is the clean so far away from the body, and note how the fitness model lets his wrist collapse as he demonstrates the windmill. This is highly unsafe!!

I performed the advanced Kettlebell complex using double 12kg 'bells the day after I bought the book, and Coach Dos was right, this is tough stuff! However, double kettlebell work is fairly advanced, and there is simply not enough explanation in the text to easily progress to these lifts. I wish Coach Dos had consulted with a KB expert or two to write a chapter/section specifically on KB lifting, as he has done for BBs in his previous Power Training book.

If the next edition were to have kettlebell drills demonstrated by a certified instructor, I would then highly recommend this book and give it five stars. Double kettlebell lift complexes done with poor form? No thanks. For DB and BB practitioners, this book is great, but for Kettlebell lifters, you need to read between the lines, even if you have attended multiple high-level Kettlebell certification and training programs as I have, and done all of the Kettlebell lifts described prior to reading the book.