The Truth About Cardio

Subject: The Truth About Cardio Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:35 am

Hi Everyone,
Here's a short piece I came across in the August 2007 issue of Men's Fitness magazine regarding cardiovascular fitness. I thought it might be of some interest for all of you.

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"THE TRUTH ABOUT CARDIO: What you need and how it should really be done"

"Cardiovascular exercise can be defined as any type of physical exercise that improves your heart and lung functioning. Among its many benefits, cardio improves your body's ability to process oxygen, allowing your heart to work less to pump blood throughout your body. It also burns loads of calories. Cardio can be aerobic (activity done continuously for more than two straight minutes, such as a long-distance run or bike ride) or anaerobic (more intense exercise, such as weightlifting or interval training, that requires you to back off the intensity or rest for less than two minutes). Unless your goal is to become a marathon runner or triathlete, you don't need to do aerobic exercise to stay healthy. Anaerobic work is plenty.

If you jog or want to compete in a long-distance race, you'll be able to pace yourself better and measure your progress if you determine your target heart rate beforehand. If you just want to get leaner and keep your heart in shape, do interval cardio. "Countless studies have shown that intervals are superior to traditional, steady-state aerobics," says Jonathan Fass, C.S.C.S., a performance coach and the owner of AcceleratedStrength.com "That's true regardless of whether your goal is fat loss or improved cardiovascular health," he says. One method is to sprint at the highest intensity you can maintain for a given time, and then back off to a moderate pace (such as a jog) for about twice that time. "Start with a 30-second sprint, followed by a 60-second jog," says Fass. that's one interval. Perform 10-12 intervals to start (15-18 total minutes), then go home. As your fitness improves, progress to 20-40 total minutes."
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Thank God research has borne this out 'cause I prefer anaerobic work over aerobic... Wink

Take Care,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.

True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.

Whatever you believe, it's true.

Joined : 03 Sep 2007 Posts : 77

That feels like good news to me too!

My training always seemed to be characterised by working at a fairly low level for extended periods, but including bursts of explosive activity. Hey, maybe I am doing something healthy into the bargain...!

Paul

Joined : 24 Oct 2007 Posts : 56

I have found anaerobic to be much more effective, and it takes less time to do it. For anyone making the switch, be careful to not overdo it. If I've been away from it for a while and jump back into it, I get a level of soreness much beyond aerobic work.

Subject: Re: The Truth About Cardio Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:23 am

One word guys Tabatas

Alan

Subject: Re: The Truth About Cardio Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:26 pm

Two words Alan, thanks pal... Wink

I love Tabatas! This is the primary protocol I use when hitting the heavy bag/pads, sprinting, rope jumping, doing jumping squats, etc. It's a training "killer" in the best way.

Take Care,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.

True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.

Whatever you believe, it's true.

Joined : 08 Feb 2008 Posts : 36

"THE TRUTH ABOUT CARDIO: What you need and how it should really be done"

"Cardio can be aerobic (activity done continuously for more than two straight minutes, such as a long-distance run or bike ride) or anaerobic (more intense exercise, such as weightlifting or interval training, that requires you to back off the intensity or rest for less than two minutes). "

I completely disagree with these definitions. In my opinion they don't even make sense. For example, " aerobic exercise is [any] activity done continuously for more than two minutes" (so taking a shower is aerobic activity?) "anerobic exercise ..... requires you [to] rest for LESS than two minutes".

Even if true, the focus should be aerobic or anaerobic TRAINING not activity. And training aerobic and anaerobic capacity definitely uses completely different definitions than these.

"Unless your goal is to become a marathon runner or triathlete, you don't need to do aerobic exercise to stay healthy. Anaerobic work is plenty."

This is just wrong. First, define healthy. If one is healthy, one is healthy and needs NO exercise to achieve the existing condition. However, to maintain health as the body deteriorates over time requires physical activity (whether it's training, doing sports or engaging in some other physically demanding activity). As aerobic training strengthens the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, generally it is the training most needed to maintain health. Most people in this conuntry rarely have ANY reason to do anaerobic activity, as they spend most of their lives sitting on their butts watching TV and are perfectly OK with that.

What has been shown in studies is that those people who engage in primarily anaerobic sports (e.g. wrestling) should not OVERtrain aerobically because it's counter-productive on several fronts.

"If you just want to get leaner and keep your heart in shape, do interval cardio. "Countless studies have shown that intervals are superior to traditional, steady-state aerobics," says Jonathan Fass, C.S.C.S., a performance coach and the owner of AcceleratedStrength.com"

I'd like to see these studies as they don't match the ones I read. To be "superior" implies an objective. Yes, in some cases interval training is superior to steady state training. However, in some cases it's not. It depends on the objectives and the people involved.

"That's true regardless of whether your goal is fat loss or improved cardiovascular health," he says."

One does not do anaerobic training to lose fat. Anaerobic training places high demands on the body's energy systems but cannot be maintained for long periods of time. Fat loss requires using up stored calories and doing a 26 mile marathon in 6 hours is always going to use up more calories than doing a 30 minute interval workout.

Lastly, some level of aerobic capacity is necessary in the workout because even though the fight may last 30 seconds or less, the class lasts an hour or more.

Now you guys can throw stones at me Laughing

Age : 52 Joined : 07 Jan 2008 Posts : 40 Location : England

Why throw stones? I think we all visit the board to learn, so different opinions are essential.

My feelings - if limited time is available, anaerobic training is more productive as it simultaneously improves the aerobic system (Tabata et al)

I personally like to combine the two with fartlek type training, even on a bag - mixing 'punches only' 'punches and kicks' etc in random intervals of both time and intensity. Bottom line: You're looking for the most benefit from something you feel motivated to do, so 'spontaneous' can sometimes be more effective than 'scientific' purely because it's more fun.

Subject: Re: The Truth About Cardio Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:25 am

Hi John

Well you are really picking the bones out of that one, I think we all realise that the two minutes of activity will be exercise and not include sitting on the couch watching TV.

Joined : 20 Feb 2008 Posts : 7

Hi All

Unless the want to run marathons or escape a pack of sniffer dogs ...the only way to go on the cardio is max intensity !
Saying that...it depends on your fitness level, so you will have to work up to it with the usual interval training etc, but ultimately aim for 20 mins of the most uncomfortable non-stop activity!
It's very much the ability to recover from very high elevated heart rates that are not just an indicator of cardio fitness but is the greatest benefit to handling adrenalin rushes/dumps...also more likely to protect you from everyday stresses as well!
It might also give you such a start on those sniffer dogs that they'll just give up anyway! (:

My favourite heart elevators are: face heavy bag and mentally postition three spots either side of the bag - at high (head) middlle (rib area) and lower(groin or slightly above) Just like the spots on a no 6 dice....THEN...
Go mental milling left to right eith palm cupped hand slaps up and down alternately between the areas as fast as possible for 1 min then whilst getting breath back I fall to ground backwards and sit back up off ground for 1 min (not sit-ups) then back to bag. Repeat 5 times!
Then it's kness up into the bag Thai clinch-style both legs in any combination non stop full out 1 min...then standing in a power stance facing the heavy bag I execute a continual two-handed push into the bag with as much speed and power without losing balance or control of bag! Again repeat 5 times!

On other days I hit the treadmill either flat or inclined and after a brief warm up run at 86% RHR (with belt monitor on) for 20 mins!

Works for me!

ENJOY!

Cheers

John