What do you need/use to help you get through cardio?

[Gerb]

A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, but is on these boards, you all know him, (I will quickly give up his name for reps) , seems to think cardio should be some sort of hardcore activity that is not meant to be enjoyed and we need nothing more than an IPod to help us get through it. I say, screw that!

My standard cardio gear is as follows:

1. IPod
2. TV with ESPN at a minimum in front of me, prefer a football game
3. My phone to text
4. My phone to facebook
5. My phone to play Madden Football
6. Jug of ALRI Chain'd Out

Bonus items:
1. A freaking fan located near me
2. My wife on the machine next to me
3. Multiple football games on at the same time
4. A magazine, always read back to front but only if on a bike, cant read on the eliptical

And yeah, that is pretty much all I need and I am able to knock out my twice daily cardio .

What do you guys/gals do? Is there something you must have or cardio is just horrible?

[GirlyMuscle]

My Kindle.
My reading glasses. See above.
My Ipod.
Water.
Phone for text-pestering Coach.

[NATURAL-1987]

I NEED a towel to throw over the screen so I can't see the time. I just set the timer and throw the towel overtop until its time to go. If I dont have this the time goes stupidly slow because I keep looking at the seconds passing.
I ALWAYS appreciate a cardio partner as well. I have found an awesome one lately and I have actually done more cardio then I need to because the conversations are so good.

[Gerb]

My Kindle.
My reading glasses. See above.
My Ipod.
Water.
Phone for text-pestering Coach.

I use my phone to harass people too

I NEED a towel to throw over the screen so I can't see the time. I just set the timer and throw the towel overtop until its time to go. If I dont have this the time goes stupidly slow because I keep looking at the seconds passing.
I ALWAYS appreciate a cardio partner as well. I have found an awesome one lately and I have actually done more cardio then I need to because the conversations are so good.

yep, I am the same, I place my phone in the eliptical where it covers the time.

[MrAust92]

Desire.

[hulk7280]

A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, but is on these boards, you all know him, (I will quickly give up his name for reps) , seems to think cardio should be some sort of hardcore activity that is not meant to be enjoyed and we need nothing more than an IPod to help us get through it. I say, screw that!

My standard cardio gear is as follows:

1. IPod
2. TV with ESPN at a minimum in front of me, prefer a football game
3. My phone to text
4. My phone to facebook
5. My phone to play Madden Football
6. Jug of ALRI Chain'd Out

Bonus items:
1. A freaking fan located near me
2. My wife on the machine next to me
3. Multiple football games on at the same time
4. A magazine, always read back to front but only if on a bike, cant read on the eliptical

And yeah, that is pretty much all I need and I am able to knock out my twice daily cardio .

What do you guys/gals do? Is there something you must have or cardio is just horrible?

If your doing your cardio right, you cant do anything but listen to your headphones or get a swig of water..

the only people who get away with that really low intensity cardio are ECTO's

[UriahMcGee]

I have done 75 minutes on the stairmaster with nothing but my thoughts to entertain me lol...i usually only have my ipod but there are times i forget it so i just go with just watching espn on the gym tv but end up day dreaming most of the time

[JAM]

I don't know how they did hours of cardio without some sort of portable media player. I can only look at a magazine for so long or listen and zone out to music so many times. My zune is my cardio friend. Watched so much Dexter, Breaking Bad, ripped Netflix movies, not too mention BB'ing vids (always good motivation).

[Gerb]

If your doing your cardio right, you cant do anything but listen to your headphones or get a swig of water..

the only people who get away with that really low intensity cardio are ECTO's

that is retarded, you can't watch tv, talk to a person next to you, send a text, what the heck type cardio are you doing? I aint running, I am on a freaking eliptical .... wait, your THAT GUY on the eliptical bahahahahah!!!

[HammerStrength12]

For bodybuilding purposes, going balls to the wall is counterproductive.

However, I would like to get some of my endurance back, when I used to play football/track etc I could run forever. And intense cardio is a good stress buster too.

Usually I just need my ipod or espn

[AVBG]

ipod and shoes

[sassy69]

I can't handle sprint cardio anymore -- bad knees and anxiety -- much prefer steadystate, low intensity. My first choice is always stepmill, backup and long-haul cardio is treadmill at an angle between 8 -11 - more than that aggravates my heels / calves (plantar fasciitis). I definitely sweat up a shitload so I don't consider it pansyass. My typical durations are 20-30 min on the stepmill and 30-60-90 min on the treadmill.

My eqpt includes:
- towel
- water bottle
- ipod
- for short haul & stepmill, my gyms have tvs and I keep the iPod loaded w/ good metal.
- for long haul on the treadmill (i.e. 60-90 min AM cardio) I bought a portable DVD player, some bungee cords (safety straps for the DVD player...) and a random collection of DVDs, including some Boris Karloff classics, Season 1 of The Tudors (Showtime) and all 13 seasons of South Park.

[flexingtonsteele]

WTF,

u guys are reading books and playing video games during cardio?

WOW! how about picking up the intensity just a tad.

[Mr.Bones]

1.Minnesota Twins/Viks game/College football on Tv

2.Smartphone with access to internet/music

3.Girl with way to tight of shorts in front of me

GTG

[Suzanne]

iPhone - music, texting...
water
towel

my stepmill is in the family room cardio at home is so much better than cardio at the gym!!

I bought a portable dvd player for when i did cardio at gym but found watching movies/tv never worked - cardio seemed longer