I'd love to hear your take on where cardio fits into a healthy lifestyle. I grew up understanding that the way to lose weight and get fit was to focus on cardio and add in some light weight lifting (probably because I'm a girl). But now I'm hearing that maybe I should be focusing more on weight training and adding in light cardio.
Right now, I'm doing a split routine with a brief 5 minute cardio warmup most days, and adding in one day of going 10 rounds on the heavy bag, which is GREAT cardio."
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Article Summary: Cardio is not a necessity in fat loss. Nutrition is the key. Cardiovascular exercise is beneficial for cardiovascular health and increased aerobic endurance.
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Thank you so much for your kind words! It really made my day and brought a smile to my face. This blog has been getting some really positive reviews, and that makes me really happy. I'm glad that the advice and experience that I give people is having some kind of impact in the positive direction! It seems like every day I keep getting more and more views! I want to thank each of my now loyal readers from the bottom of my heart for doing this! If you know of ANYONE who would like advice on bodybuilding, nutrition, or dealing with any problems in their life, tell them to hit me up (jtrainfitness@gmail.com and @jtrainfitness on twitter)! No one will be judged, and you will be completely anonymous. You can also ask multiple questions anytime you want!
Oh cardio, you and I have always had a weird relationship. You're like that co-worker in an office that I'm cordial to, whose expertise and importance I respect, and who I have to work with for whatever project I'm dealing with at the time. Yet you and I are far from friends. Every time we pass one another it's an awkward half-smile with a wave and "hello" in the hallway as we pass one another on our way to the bathroom / cubicle, with neither one of us being fooled by the facade of pseudo-friendship used to conceal how much we really don't care for one another.
My view on cardio has always been the same. Many people view cardio as some magical tool that snipes fat cells into oblivion like some 80's action hero in a movie about the Vietnam War. They think that stepping on a treadmill, a stairmaster, eliptical, row machine, etc, will do nothing but melt away fat from the second they even lay eyes on that piece of equipment.
Oh cardio, you and I have always had a weird relationship. You're like that co-worker in an office that I'm cordial to, whose expertise and importance I respect, and who I have to work with for whatever project I'm dealing with at the time. Yet you and I are far from friends. Every time we pass one another it's an awkward half-smile with a wave and "hello" in the hallway as we pass one another on our way to the bathroom / cubicle, with neither one of us being fooled by the facade of pseudo-friendship used to conceal how much we really don't care for one another.
My view on cardio has always been the same. Many people view cardio as some magical tool that snipes fat cells into oblivion like some 80's action hero in a movie about the Vietnam War. They think that stepping on a treadmill, a stairmaster, eliptical, row machine, etc, will do nothing but melt away fat from the second they even lay eyes on that piece of equipment.
What's on her playlist? The sound of her fat cells screaming as they die a horrible death.
Source: jnhinc.com
But that's not reality. In my opinion, cardiovascular training is not a necessity in body transformation the same way that your nutritional plan is, or your weightlifting routine (if your goal is to put on muscle). You can still achieve the body of your dreams without ever stepping foot onto a piece of cardio equipment, so long as what you are eating and lifting is on point.
I view cardio as a tool....and a very inefficient one at that (I'll get into that in a second). If you read my section on nutrition located here , you'll know that what I find important to losing weight, putting on muscle, and just changing your body aesthetic overall is manipulating the macros and calories that you consume each day. Your body has a set caloric maintenance level (which is probably variable to some standard deviation on any given day) that it uses each day to tell itself whether or not to store or lose fat. The ONLY thing that cardio does from a fat loss standpoint is use more calories, and thus indirectly decreases the amount of calories you consumed during the day. So many people consider cardio and fat loss to be a direct relationship. In my opinion, they are not.
I do not dispute a relationship between doing cardio and losing weight however. I just want people to realize that doing 10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins, or even an hour of cardio was not the direct weapon used to make you lose your fat. Rather, you just expended more energy than you used and / or consumed for the day. You could do cardio until you were blue in the face and still make absolutely no progress towards fat loss if afterwards you attack a box of cookies harder than Cookie Monster with the munchies.
I view cardio as a tool....and a very inefficient one at that (I'll get into that in a second). If you read my section on nutrition located here , you'll know that what I find important to losing weight, putting on muscle, and just changing your body aesthetic overall is manipulating the macros and calories that you consume each day. Your body has a set caloric maintenance level (which is probably variable to some standard deviation on any given day) that it uses each day to tell itself whether or not to store or lose fat. The ONLY thing that cardio does from a fat loss standpoint is use more calories, and thus indirectly decreases the amount of calories you consumed during the day. So many people consider cardio and fat loss to be a direct relationship. In my opinion, they are not.
I do not dispute a relationship between doing cardio and losing weight however. I just want people to realize that doing 10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins, or even an hour of cardio was not the direct weapon used to make you lose your fat. Rather, you just expended more energy than you used and / or consumed for the day. You could do cardio until you were blue in the face and still make absolutely no progress towards fat loss if afterwards you attack a box of cookies harder than Cookie Monster with the munchies.
Furthermore, cardio in my mind is very inefficient. When I run, I try to run a mile in 10 minutes (yes....that's a slow mile...I'm more of a sprinter than an endurance runner haha). While I feel as though I just turned my body into some fat-burning machine, I will find myself looking at the LED screen showing me that I burned about 150-170 calories. Even if you are a pro at super-intense cardio, you burned what? Maybe 200-400 calories? 600-800 if your cardio routine was borderline psychotic?
Do you have any idea how easy it is to replenish 150-600 calories? You're probably way over that in caloric surplus anyway if you're not on top of tracking your calories for the day. You spent a lot of time and energy to burn those calories. You probably feel completely exhausted and gross from sweat, and increased your probability of having an overuse injury from the repetitive motion and stress you put on your joints. I really hope it was worth it.
To me, I'd rather not spend half of my day running on a treadmill to burn 700 calories and would want to instead just choose not to eat a Chipotle burrito. My time is precious to me, and I need every second of it to perform efficient actions. It takes half a second to choose not to eat something, and in return you save time, risk of injury, and attain a more efficient amount of (theoretical) calories burned.
Do you have any idea how easy it is to replenish 150-600 calories? You're probably way over that in caloric surplus anyway if you're not on top of tracking your calories for the day. You spent a lot of time and energy to burn those calories. You probably feel completely exhausted and gross from sweat, and increased your probability of having an overuse injury from the repetitive motion and stress you put on your joints. I really hope it was worth it.
To me, I'd rather not spend half of my day running on a treadmill to burn 700 calories and would want to instead just choose not to eat a Chipotle burrito. My time is precious to me, and I need every second of it to perform efficient actions. It takes half a second to choose not to eat something, and in return you save time, risk of injury, and attain a more efficient amount of (theoretical) calories burned.
"The only thing more intense than my flavor is the amount of pain you'll feel trying to work me off"
Source: Chipotle.com
I'm sorry. I had to preface my answer to your question with that long semi-rant about my opinion on cardio because I often find myself frustrated at just how little importance people who claim to care about fitness and their physique genuinely devote to what they put into their mouth (when in fact what you eat is THE most important thing to a physique transformation). Optimizing your physique doesn't end when your workout does. It's something that becomes a part of you. It is something you need to be on top of and devoted to with every breath you take every day if you want to see success and gains.
So now to get into your question. As far as general health is concerned, I think cardio is a fantastic means for which to train your body to perform optimally in high-aerobic situations and promote overall health. When I get on a cardio kick, and start running consistently, I find myself able to handle high-intensity running for a prolonged amount of time when playing intramural sports up here in Maryland. I also find that I recover from being out of breath while playing in these sports a LOT quicker than when I haven't trained my cardiovascular system as intensely. Consistent cardiovascular training and aerobic exercises are also really good for reducing your risk of heart disease, reducing your risk of osteoporosis (which is good for caucasian females as they are at the highest risk for osteoporosis and osteoarthritis), improving heart function, improving blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and providing many other health benefits (WebMD).
As far as losing weight however, as I kind of went over at the beginning of this article, cardio is not a necessity. If your goal is in fact to lose weight, then what you should focus on is your nutrition. If you eat less calories than your body uses in a day, you will lose fat. You can use cardio to give yourself more "space" calorically to add in more food into your diet, but ultimately it's the nutrition and not the cardio or weightlifting routine that makes you lose or gain fat.
That's my advice. In my opinion, cardio is a great way to improve cardiovascular health and increase the amount of calories you've burned during the day. However, view cardio more as a tool and not as a necessity or end-all / be-all for weight loss and physique transformation. Rather, focus heavily on your nutrition for physique manipulation with a possible weightlifting routine to stimulate muscle growth if you are also concerned with putting on muscle mass.
That's my advice. In my opinion, cardio is a great way to improve cardiovascular health and increase the amount of calories you've burned during the day. However, view cardio more as a tool and not as a necessity or end-all / be-all for weight loss and physique transformation. Rather, focus heavily on your nutrition for physique manipulation with a possible weightlifting routine to stimulate muscle growth if you are also concerned with putting on muscle mass.
-Jtrain
P.S. I think that the 10 rounds of heavy bag that you stated sounds like a lot of fun! I think that would be a lot more interesting than running on a treadmill. You'll have to show me some pictures of these intense boxing sessions sometime!
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