People love 'best of' lists. Whether it be when buying a car and picking up a copy of Consumer Reports or watching David Letterman's Top 10 List we love to have things ranked for us.And a common question coaches and trainers get from their clients is 'what is the best...' and you can fill in the blank for whatever it is someone might  ask when working with a fitness professional.For example, you might hear questions about what is the best stretch for this muscle group, or what is the best supplement I should take and another popular one is what is the best type of cardio I should be doing?Let's take a look at this last question, what is the best type of cardio I should be doing, and answer that one first.Step #1 - What is the Purpose?The first thing we need to know is why I are we choosing to do cardio in the first place? Is the end goal fitness or performance? Knowing the answer to this gives us a better idea of what the next step should be. Let me take a moment to explain.Actually, I'll back up another step here first as well. While the title and the body of this blog uses the term 'cardio' know that we mean energy system training (EST). When we say cardio, or cardiovascular, some people will understand this to mean aerobic training and not consider anaerobic types of training. However, fewer people will use the term energy system training, which includes aerobic and anaerobic training, so we are going with what most people are familiar with which is 'cardio'.Now to address the previous question are we looking to do some energy system training (EST) to get better for a sport or performance or are we looking it as a...

Last year I took a look at the trends I was noticing in fitness, saw what my colleagues were doing in other parts of the world and sampled some of the new innovations coming down the line as health products. As while some of these developments are simply fads I believe some of them to be true changes in the industry and here to stay.Below are my 2010 Fitness Predictions that I can now look back and grade myself. How did I do?1. Barefoot Running - Have you tried ditching the shoes? Maybe you own a pair of Five Fingers or some Nike Frees. Have you read the book Born to Run? There are definitely more products, gear and information related to barefoot running. I think we'll see this trend continue in 2011.2. Recovery & Regeneration - There is some evidence that we're more aware of the necessity to recover between workouts. More gyms have foam rollers and more people are using them. There are still a lot gains and results being left on the training room floor when you consider the number of people walking out of the gym without a post-workout shake.3. New Cardio Programs, Equipment and Classes - There maybe wasn't so much an explosion in new program and equipment so much as we saw more people doing intervals of some type as opposed to the regular slow, steady-state cardio they were used to. Consider as the well the number of people performing some type of metabolic resistance training where they alternate between resisted sets to achieve an elevated heart rate and you see people continuing to try something new when it comes to good old cardio.4. Saving Time & $$$ - Part of this one has to do with the economic situation and part of it is due to wanting...