Many people are just joking about cardio and only lifting dumbbells. Who needs cardio, for whom it is unnecessary and the reasons to do it
Is that so. Often some people make fun of cardia and when they see a friend in a gym on a treadmill or bike, they make him feel it. You only need to lift dumbbells and cardio is for women. You lose your muscles. You know ... what are you crazy? You do cardio? And surely you know the sentence from the strength meme pictures: "Cardio, is that Spanish?" And I think there are people who just don't climb the bike because they don't want anyone known to see them do cardio. Well, that's a mistake in their braided head. Today we'll talk a little bit more about why doing cardio, who should definitely do it, who it's basically unnecessary for; cardio.
Just exercise? That's the question!
Everything is good for something, but for many years research has told us that strength training is simply great and thanks to it we gain the benefits of endurance performance. It has turned out that, thanks to the weights, our performance simply improves much more than if we only did cardio without resistance training. Clear adaptation of resistance vs. Endurance training is a little different to gain muscle and maintain muscle mass, but we are not talking about it now. It is hard to say whether such training is better than that in terms of fat loss, which is also said in science, but you will not be surprised when we write that strength training is better for maintaining lean muscle mass. But what about cardiovascular health?
If we look at various recommendations from associations such as the American Heart Association (AHA), the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), we find that their recommendations for "overall optimal cardiovascular health" are quite similar. Of course, we will see some differences here, for example, HHS puts activities related to muscle growth and strength, while ACSM adds activities related to flexibility and mobility. All in all, however, organizations agree on at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, or 75 minutes of cardio per week at a higher intensity, plus at least 2 resistance training sessions per week. And to know if you meet the requirements below and you're over 20, at least according to AHA you have "ideal cardiovascular health".
Now the question - is it possible to acquire these values without cardio, ie only by strength training? Yes! In short, when we look at Alan Aragon's Research Review covering 33 researches to address this issue, we find it really possible. Exercise relieves risk factors including metabolic syndrome and increases muscle mass, is important in muscle protein, whole body metabolism, acute response to critical illnesses, chronic illnesses, improving and preserving bone tissue, but also enhancing immunity. If we do not intend to increase the volume of training or reduce caloric intake and achieve stagnation, further physical activity (cardio) is basically necessary. If we enjoy cardio, fulfill and help us achieve our goals, it is also essential. However, a summary of the research says that if we do not have the endurance goals and the desire to do normal cardio, it is not necessary for health purposes if we follow regular resistance training that has head and heel. However, this is not the whole story because other factors need to be considered!
We may agree that the above recommendations of the associations are acceptable to the general population, but this is not so relevant for us who visit the gym at least 4 to 6 times a week, and we prefer gym training over cardio (associations prefer cardio). Suppose we do not have any endurance goals and our training has a head and a foot. Doing cardio or not? Hard to say, but one thing is for sure. We also need to consider one of the most important factors, and that is the old known NEAT, which we have already written about. In short, off-gym activity.
And why NEAT?
Because general recommendations about the need for normal cardio for cardiovascular benefits simply ignore it. As well as ignoring the volume of training in individuals. In the graph below on the left you can see the effect of NEAT on energy expenditure in sedentary people. On the right is something similar, but this time the graph also includes thermogenesis from exercise. Either way, you can see in the picture that NEAT plays a very important role. And now the shocking fact. Looking closer at the study, we find that the difference between the highest and the lowest NEAT is 2000 calories, which is equivalent, for example, to 3-5 training sessions (depending on length and intensity). Do you already know why NEAT is so important? For two people of similar weight, the difference in energy expenditure can be as high as 2,000 calories!
Including regular cardio for strength training is worthwhile if:
your goal is to focus on building perseverance
you have a low NEAT both in your job and in a lifestyle outside of work (for example, little walking, no other sport, no hobbies requiring physical activity…)
you have a low volume of strength training (less than 3 hours per week), especially if the workout does not include any or only a minimum of failures, a small number of repetitions or longer breaks
Conversely, you can skip normal cardio if:
you have a high NEAT in employment
you have a high NEAT in your lifestyle (regular walking, walking, hikes, hobbies requiring physical activity, a lot of housework…)
you have a higher volume of training (6+ hours per week)
you have a high number of repetitions in training, or short rest periods or other endurance component (4 hours a week or more)
Do you have heavy weight workouts with a lot of work, where you sometimes use a series of failures (4 hours a week or more)
It is clear that there are various other scenarios where you might think you belong to the “gray zone” and cardio may or may not bring benefits to cardiovascular health. Here, however, it depends on your personal preference, but maybe the reasons below will affect you.
Performing cardio has other nice reasons
You can eat a little more, respectively. you don't have to eat less. However, having the same caloric intake and increasing your daily activity is probably more enjoyable than reducing food intake. And some of this cardio will allow you to reduce the amount of specks in the body of adipose tissue at higher caloric intake. Doing cardio can also help you lift your dumbbells. When people make fun of cardio, most of the time they are absolutely the ones who are absolutely destroyed at the last repetitions in the series because they just can't rule. Having a little more developed endurance will certainly not hurt to do more repetitions or overall with increased training intensity. In addition, you can increase the so-called. work capacity. This is the total amount of work you can do, recover and adapt to. In addition, let's take a sprint, for example. It requires speed, improves the strength of hip flexors and so-called. posterior chain ("chain" consisting mainly of tendons and ligaments on the back of the body), which can help butt muscles or hamstrings, and ultimately can help squats. Building speed is also an important component of power. As a bonus, cardio can positively affect regeneration. Active regeneration tells you something, right? There is still the possibility to just relax, play the Playstation and watch movies during the days off, but during the days off it is worthwhile to include active regeneration - low intensity, low impact on the body. Putting some blood into damaged tissues by doing this and improving recovery is no harm. Of course there may be more reasons, such as clearing the head, mental relaxation, and some cardio simply enjoy.
To conclude, one thing to think about, said Pavel Tsatsouline, is especially useful for people with a lower NEAT and a sedentary lifestyle whose only activity is strength. "If you sit or lie 23 hours a day and only stand for an hour (even if that hour is spent practicing), what do you think your body is adapting to?"
Žiadne komentáre:
Zverejnenie komentára