When Are We Going to Do Cardio?

I get this question on a fairly regular basis. Usually, I respond with a blank stare in anticipation of the punch line as if I'm being told a joke. You know, like, "How many strength coaches does it take to figure out what my 80% 1RM is?". Most people who ask this question are the ones who are most interested in weight loss. The reason this question is asked is because for some reason people have been led to believe that 30 minutes per day of "cardio" in the form of exercise that increases your heart rate into the "aerobic zone" (I think that's the green one on the treadmill chart) will keep you fit and healthy. Activities that qualify, according to these same experts, range from gardening to shooting a few baskets with your grandmother. If I had to bet, I would put my money on this info coming from the same people who came up with the food pyramid that had us eating 8-11 servings of bread and grains per day for "health". But here's the problem, once it's out there and people start believing it, it takes a lot to re-educate. For example, when the "food pyramid" came into play everybody started eating a high carb, low-fat diet. The result has been that our country has gotten fatter and died of more preventable diseases in the past 40 years than at any other time in history, most of which have been directly attributed to a "Western" diet. Now the research is everywhere showing the error in our ways and of course there is a knee-jerk reaction going the opposite direction. Carbs are evil! Eat like a caveman! Oh, and I'd like to just say this about the Paleo Diet and eating like a caveman, if you're not eating bugs and tree bark in the Winter while you're sleeping 16 hours a day because there's only 8 hours of sunlight, then please shut the fuck up about how Paleo you are. You're not. Have a bowl of oatmeal and get over yourself.

Oatmeal?

Weight loss is a tricky topic because at some level, something different will work for different people. But there's certain rules that apply to everybody. The most significant factor in weight loss is going to be what you're eating, when you're eating it, and how much of it you're eating. To steal lines from Michael Pollan, "eat real food", "if it wasn't food 100 years ago, it's not food today", "if it's handed to you in a bag through the window of your car, it's not food". Everybody reading this will be nodding their heads in agreement. So why does everybody spend so much time on the inner aisles of the supermarket? Because that's where all the quick-to-prepare, sugary, salty, yummy stuff is! You want to lose weight? Take a quick check of an obese person's shopping cart and don't buy any of that shit. If you are overweight and want to lose weight, but think adding three hours of exercise a week is going to fix it for you while you continue to eat the crap that made you overweight, you're mistaken. Here's what I know. Every weight loss client I have worked with that makes the change to getting most (at least 80%) of their carbs from fruits and vegetables; their proteins and fats from fish, meat and nuts; eats them in the right amounts at the right times of the day; loses weight. And here's the kicker, they will lose weight regardless of what they're doing for activities. You get the nutrition right and you will get lean. You get the exercise right and it will make you stronger, faster, more athletic, and like Dan John says, "you'll look good nekkid". But my blog on nutrition is coming later, this one is on "cardio".

Cardio. I hate the term because it doesn't mean anything. I need to do cardio. What the hell is that? It's like when I ask somebody what their goal is and they respond, "I want to be more fit". Great goal. Hmm, let's see, how about we have you do some cardio.. Like I mentioned before, for most people, (many of whom are interested in weight loss), cardio means long, slow, endurance type work. Here's a test for you. Go to your local Planet Fatness, walk in the door and be greeted by the plastic smile, "Hello, member 3758, welcome to the non-intimidation zone, where people who hate working out come to hang out and get a complimentary bagel on the way out the door so they can get closer to their 8-11 recommended servings of grains for the day". Then walk over to the row of treadmills and look at the people doing their 30 minutes of cardio. Now take a picture of each of those people that you want to look like. Hang those pictures on your fridge so that you can see them all the time as motivation towards achieving the body that you want. You won't need a very large space on the fridge, in fact, I'm guessing you won't even need a camera. Know why? Because it doesn't work. If you want to have an impact on your weight by jogging, then you will have to jog at least 12 hours a week just to burn enough calories to burn about a pound and a half of fat. But chances are you're going to eat a lot more than normal because you feel that since you ran 12 hours you deserve it and then you won't lose any weight, except for the muscle loss that comes from long slow endurance types of efforts as all your Type II fibers become Type I fibers (think of the difference between what a sprinter looks like vs a marathoner). Also, if you're overweight, and you're running 12 hours a week, I know a great physical therapist I will recommend to you for the damage you will do to your joints, tendons, and ligaments.

Sprinters are strong, lean, powerful and look it. The guy on the left just looks really, really hungry. 

Let's just bag the term cardio now, OK? If your goal is fat loss you need to work out in such a way that it will increase your metabolism. The best way towards an increased metabolism is increasing your muscle mass. Muscle burns calories. Additionally, high intensity anaerobic conditioning recruits more muscles, works the cardio-respiratory system harder than aerobic conditioning, and can take 24-48 hours to recover from, which puts your body in an elevated calorie-burning state. Strength and power work increase your metabolism. High intensity anaerobic intervals done at 85-100% intensity increase your metabolism. The training programs at Dynamic are structured around these principles. If you are working the program that I am giving you, and you set your nutrition according to your goal, you will achieve the body mass you desire, you will get stronger, more powerful, and faster, your energy levels will increase, and you will look good nekkid. But remember, if you don't do the nutrition part right, then you will not achieve the body mass you desire. (There's also a big post-workout recovery, sleep and stress management component to it, but that will also have to wait till I'm not writing about "cardio")

Work your muscles hard. Do strength work and lift heavy weights. Do conditioning at high intensity. Sprint... As for long, slow, endurance type running, I'll leave you with a comment from top trainer and strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove, and you need to read this with his Scottish accent and understand the sense of humor it is delivered with, "If you run because you love running, then by all means, run your bloody heart out. But if you're running to lose weight, then you're a fuckin idiot."