Internet gurus Vs cardio

Robbie Hazeley - Champion over 50's vegan bodybuilder

OK I've been reading a lot lately about cardio that's been pretty ...well wrong.

"Steady state cardio doesn't work"

"You only burn fat using high intensity cardio"

I've even read that steady state cardio makes you fat!

So, is steady state cardio the villain, is it a waste of time, does it "do nothing"...no, whoever says that, whatever their apparent experience is wrong. I've worked & been in communication with many, many athletes in the strength field including bodybuilders. When I say bodybuilders I mean all types, natural people, fitness & figure competitors, drug taking people, on all types of diets, & what I've found is when you are already training with weights steady state & diet works, look on any bodybuilding stage (be it natural or drug taking) & you'll find that weights plus steady state works. In fact I'd go further & say that often if your aim is to diet down to those really low % fat levels so you get abs popping out & paper thin skin over your muscles then you'll only have energy for weights & steady state. All the energy goes into the weights, there shouldn't be anything left for interval sprints, kettlebell lifts etc. If you have enough left for more intense activity then you aren't dieting hard enough or training hard enough under the iron.


Denise Nicole - vegan figure competitor

For a normal guy or lady the options are more wide ranging as you're often just after a flat tummy, moderate fat levels & just a 'beach buff' look, so you have options. If time is tight I'd suggest a metabolic workout using complexes or very short breaks between exercises, get in & out the gym in a way that combines both heavy-style lifting with cardio exertion. I don't believe you get the best of the weights or the cardio by doing this, but you'd certainly get enough to get your body into decent shape in a short amount of time. Another option is the to do weights at a slower pace working on strength gains (&/or size gains if those are required), then add cardio. Yes it can be high intensity style cardio, it works! The trouble is it doesn't always fit into your lifestyle & low intensity can often come to the rescue & keep that cardio going. Let's say you come to a session & energy is high, well feel free to bang out some sprints, hit the stationary bike with a vengeance, go swim as fast as you can for intervals, but sometimes you may not have the energy or indeed the motivation to go as hard at the cardio. This may be for many reasons, stress at work, late night, even hitting new record can lower the 'spare energy' for cardio. So, do you do a sub-standard 'High intensity' workout, that does next to nothing or do a decent low intensity session that gets the job done? Another reason may be you simply don't like doing higher intensity cardio, but enjoy lower intensity work. If you hate something you simply won't do it with any consistency, so if you love your slow run around the woods, but hate the interval sled pushes, I'd suggest that maybe you'll be more likely to keep up the runs, but drop the sled pushing as soon as you can think up a justification. I believe the 'getting it done' is more important than the perfect program for you. Sure making you do hill sprints 3 times a week might get you to your goals slightly quicker than three times a week around the woods for 45 minute jogs....but if you enjoy the jogs, look forward to the jogs, plan to get those jogs in whatever & on the other hand loath the hill sprints, use any excuse not to do them, which system do you think will bring most results?


Anthony Aurelius - vegan, Natural bodybuilder & martial artist

I personally have seen countless examples of steady state cardio in action (along with diet & lifting weights). Steady state works. Whether steady state is right for you is quite another issue, things like time, enjoyment, goals & many other factors mean it's not an obvious choice, you need to ask yourself questions & answer honestly. Me, I'm happy to mix & match depending upon my time & energy & how I feel. I often do steady state with friends in the morning, I live near the sea, we hit the beach jog & chat. A chilled out start to my day, sets me up in the right zone & I get some interaction I'd otherwise miss with friends. It's as much social to me as exercise, but other times often when I'm alone I do go for higher intensity, I sprint, I get out the sandbags, kettlebells, a barbell or even just bodyweight & go for some higher intensity stuff. 10-20 minutes full-bore cardio can bring you a sick feeling in the tummy, shaky muscles & a desire to just lie there for the rest of the day! But for me I need that work at least once a week just to remind me that cardio can be tough. So, I stand with one foot in each camp I do both the steady state & the higher intensity cardio. I enjoy both for their different reasons & I think maybe that would be the best method for most people who are in reasonable shape.


Jane Burton - vegan figure competitor


For those who are overweight, new to training or have other issues I'd always start with steady state, first walking, then jogging, stationary bike, slow swim or whatever you like to do. Do that until you feel very comfortable doing 30-45 minutes, then try adding some faster endings to your training, so if you're running just add a fast run to the finish over the last 100 metres or so, you won't sprint, but you'll start getting used to just going a little bit faster towards the end. After you've done that for a while, then it's time to move on to increasing the intensity with maybe a small jog & a few fast runs, then finally begin to ease in sprints as you gain confidence (back off if you notice any problems). I usually aim at 8-12 sprints over around 12-15 minutes. I tend to use a heart monitor, but you can go by time. A good rule of thumb for the healthy individual is to sprint just before you feel fully recovered. Once you can no longer sprint but just reach a fast run, then it's time to stop, your session is over for today...really push it, force those legs into a sprint even if they don't want to do it! Then rest & recover.


Martin Whittred - vegan grip master

So, when you're on the internet next time & you read that steady state doesn't work or makes you fat or whatever, know that the person saying that is either ignorant or is trying to simply push 'their' training system (& often part you with your cash!). Steady state works, high intensity cardio works, they are all tools that you can use to achieve your goals, so if you plan at getting into shape for the beach this year & are about to embark on a diet & training plan, but have been confused by all the chatter on the internet, bear in mind there are 1001 ways to reach your goals it's just comes down to picking one or two & sticking to them, that way you'll soon have the body you want come summer time!

Strength or cardio for health

The argument between high intensity work & aerobics still rages as to which does the best job for weight loss, but here’s a new twist.

If you do duration training or weights which do you think will lower your ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood? Do you think it will be the duration training, an activity that due to its low intensity causes the burning of fat as its primary fuel source? Or do you believe it will be resistance training, an activity that burns primary carbs as fuel as it is so intense?

OK you know it’s going to be controversial, so I’ll get straight to it:
A study released July 08 entitled “Acute exercise-induced changes in basal VLDL-triglyceride kinetics leading to hypotriglyceridemia manifest more readily after resistance than endurance exercise.” Has the conclusion that while resistance training lowers ‘bad’ cholesterol & speeds up its removal from the blood, duration exercise does virtually nothing to the ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood...that’s right NOTHING!

I was pretty shocked by this as I honestly expected duration to come out the winner by a mile.

This is only one study & I’d like more done on the subject, but the message has to be considered that maybe, from the point of view of cholesterol control duration isn’t the way to go, while weights & maybe interval work cardio should be considered as doing a better job of lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol.
Of course anyone starting an exercise program with cholesterol issues should consult a medical professional first & for goodness sake start off light & short, then slowly increase duration & intensity of your sessions in the gym as your conditions improve – I’d also consider a dietary overhaul as well if you really want to beat cholesterol back down to healthy levels.

Continuing the low intensity, longer duration Vs HIIT training debate

Here's a piece I found on Tom Venuto's blog you might want to read just click here
The title of his article is a play on the results & he's not actually implying that lower intensity, longer duration training is actually 5 times more effective, just that you 'could' say that, if you played with the results.

Slightly more on Interval Vs Duration training

OK,
I had a few people say how I was ‘against’ interval style training, & I ‘only believed’ in duration style cardio to burn fat. Nothing is further from the truth!
Right I’ll give you some facts about duration training Vs interval style training; also some stuff about strength training Vs aerobic training for fat loss. Then to get a fuller picture we’ll look at the ‘why’s & wherefores’ they may have the results they got & other factors we need to consider.

First off aerobic style training Vs interval training.

There are several studies that show that interval training is equal to or (in some ways) superior to continuous duration aerobic training
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J Sci Med Sport. 2007 Jun 19 [Epub ahead of print] Links
The effects of interval-exercise duration and intensity on oxygen consumption during treadmill running.O'brien BJ, Wibskov J, Knez WL, Paton CD, Harvey JT.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2007 Oct;101(3):377-83. Epub 2007 Jul 28. Links
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Improvement of VO2max by cardiac output and oxygen extraction adaptation during intermittent versus continuous endurance training.Daussin FN, Ponsot E, Dufour SP, Lonsdorfer-Wolf E, Doutreleau S, Geny B, Piquard F, Richard R.
CHRU of Strasbourg, Physiology and Functional Explorations Department, Civil Hospital, BP 426, 67091, Strasbourg, France. fredericdaussin@wanadoo.fr



& other studies that show strength training Vs aerobics where strength training appears superior to aerobics:

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Geliebter A, Mahler MM, Gerace L, Gutin B, Heymsfield SB, Hashim SA.
Effects of strength or aerobics training on body composition, resting metabolic rate, and peak oxygen consumption in obese dieting subjects
Am J clinical nutr. 1997 Sept;66(3):557-63
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bryner RW, Ullrich IH, Sauers J, Donley D, Hornsby G, Kolar M, yeater R.
Effects of resistance Vs aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate.
J Am Coll nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21

Aerobic group: 4 hours per week
resistance training group: 2-4 sets of 8-15 reps. 10 exercises, three time a week
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Now, as interval training can be seen as a form of anaerobic exercise would it not appear that interval training is the best way to go in terms of time usage & results?
Well again, it’s not quite so simple. When we’re building a complete training package, we have to cover many factors. One of the most obvious being if we weight train (an anaerobic activity) how will that impact upon recovery if we also include other anaerobic activity (such as interval sprints). The second is every type of training has a specific effect, so interval training increases blood flow to, & from, the skeletal muscle & encourages waste product removal, while longer duration training encourages capillary growth & mitochondria proliferation, also fat storage within the muscle (as fuel-this is not noticeable surface fat, but held deep within the muscle cells near to the mitochondria for quick utilisation) & other physiological factors that can improve health.
If you’re doing a heavy workout program with weights (say 3 or more times a week) & also doing hard interval cardio (3 or more times a week), you are, in effect, doubling the amount of anaerobic recovery you need to do, this could be too much for some athletes. Also you may be missing out on some benefits you get from longer duration aerobic training. Longer duration – lower intensity exercise can be seen as ‘active recovery’ & so actually aid the body heal & repair from intense workouts with weights.
We also have some training 'gurus' out there now touting the idea that duration style aerobic activity doesn't aid in fat loss (or indeed benefit you at all). Anyone who’s spent any time within the bodybuilding scene knows this simply is not true, at least for a trained individual. It may be, that getting from high levels of fat to moderate levels may be more efficient using interval alone, verses aerobics alone, but I’m not sure there has even been studies of weight training, plus interval & ancillary training Vs weight training, plus aerobic & ancillary training, but that is the system that appears to work for most bodybuilders (whose primary goal is holding on to maximum muscle mass, while cutting maximum body fat). My observation has been that combinations of training approaches is superior to either all aerobic or all anaerobic & stating that aerobics is inferior is incorrect. It functions differently to interval style training & may not cause the same increase in EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), but has many advantageous benefits that should not be overlooked in the rush to embrace interval training as ‘the answer’ to cardiovascular health & fat loss.

So, as you can see program design needs a little thought to avoid overdoing any one style of training & impeding recovery.
Next time we’ll look at the options for building a program using weights, interval & duration training. We’ll also follow on by looking at flexibility & mobility, their differences & how we can include those into our training in later posts.

Interval Vs duration cardio-Is it so obvious?

Recently there has been a growth in interval cardio, with statements like “It melts fat”, “Just look at sprinters, compared to distance runners”. These have encouraged many people to move away from traditional cardio & to try out HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) protocols in the hope of burning fat more quickly & in less time.
First I’d like to say I’m not saying that HIIT style training won’t burn fat, it’s just some of the observations used to reach those conclusions are, when you think about it, obviously faulty.
Let’s start with the usual statement “Just look at sprinters, compared to distance runners”. When you look at runners, yes sprinters look ‘jacked’, while the distance people looked thin, but why is that? First of all think about what you need to be a sprinter, & what you need to be a distance runner.

A sprinter: High power to weight ratio. This means that they need to generate a huge amount of power quickly, while carrying as little weight as possible. This means ectomorphs (the naturally thin) won’t have enough muscle to generate enough power, & endomorphs (naturally fatter) will be carrying too much weight, so the successful sprinter will naturally tend to be a mesomorph (naturally fairly low in fat, but with good muscular development), so we have a naturally strong, low fat looking person tending towards being the most successful in the sport of sprinting.

A Distance runner: Low weight is the priority here. Power is a secondary concern; you need to carry as little as you can, so your energy can be saved. You just need enough muscle to keep a steady pumping of the legs, anything else is wasted muscle & just extra weight to drag around the course. Here the ectomorph has an advantage over both the endomorph & mesomorph. So, naturally they would have a thinner build than a sprinter.

“But,” you’ll say “sprinters upper bodies are great too! All big & pretty well defined”. Yes & why is that? Because they do weights! & as mesomorphs muscle comes easily without too much fat, so in no time they get that ‘jacked’ look. If an ectomorph did exactly the same, would the results be the same? I doubt it, they’d need a different dietary & training routine to achieve a similar look (or as near as they could get).




Don’t believe me, well here’s a couple of pictures of guys doing 100 yard dash from the early 20th century, when they thought weight training would slow them down, these guys still ran what would be considered pretty fast times, but note the lack of upper body development compared to today’s sprint athletes. The added muscle mass of today’s athletes allows greater acceleration & top speeds, so outweighs the added mass they carry.

It may well be that HIIT will work for you as a fat burning tool, infact I do recommend that both interval & duration cardio are worked regularly, so you cover all the bases in your training. But, bear in mind a lot of what is said about HIIT is actually hype & if duration is your preference, then you will get results (as has been shown by gyms all over the world), HIIT is just another tool in your training box, not ‘the answer’ to your fat burning, cardio health goals.