Here is a great video that shows why doing to much cardio is not needed on order to change your body. Proper nutrition, and higher intensity interval workouts for conditioning and strength. Now, not all cardio is bad, it's just that, it should not be the only thing you do. Vary your workouts and activities. Find enjoyment in what you do. Why hate doing something and waste your precious time. Eat right, train smart.
Here's a few more thoughts and facts:
If I were to ask people what results they would like to get out of their workouts, the number 1 answer is “losing weightor to get thinner”.As I stated in my January article, I see the same thing going on in gyms and fitness centers, people doing the same workouts, month after month, year after year.The amazing thing is they look the same aesthetically or sometimes worse.I was just talking with someone in the gym this morning and they stated that they “hate” cardio, and I asked them, than why are you doing it?Life is too short to hate your workouts.It seems like everyone does it because everyone else is or they do not know any better.Now I not saying that performing Aerobic work is wrong, that’s not what I’m saying.What I’m saying is there is a better way and it’s good to mix up your workouts or routines and why dread doing anything? The typical program people follow is 30-60 minutes of continuous aerobic activity, 3-5 days per week.There are volumes of research out there that tells us that this is not a good approach to take when you are seeking to improve on results overtime and looking to loss the “fat”.Out of all of the scientific research out there I would like to share a few from an article that hit the head on this subject from Charles Poliquin, a world renowned strength coach of Professional and Olympic athletes as well as thousands of non-athletes.
Continuous aerobic work plateaus after 8 weeks of training, so anything more is counter productive.Now that is certainly an “eye opener” considering what most people do.Aerobic training worsens power locally and systematically, in other words, it makes you slower.If you are an athlete or a “weekend warrior” who likes to participate in athletic events or team sports that require speed, agility and jumping ability, it is the last thing you would want from your cardiovascular training program.
The more lower body aerobic work you do, the more your vertical jump worsens.The more aerobic upper body work you do, the more your medicine ball throws worsen.If you are doing anything athletic, you want to train specifically for the demands of that sport or activity.A sprinter would not train like a long distance runner and vise-versa.Aerobic training increases adrenal stress which can make you fatter and produce other undesirable health consequences.
According to Dr. James Wilson (author of “Adrenal Fatigue- The 21st Century Stress Syndrome’) “normally functioning adrenal glands secrete minute, yet precise and balanced, amounts of steroid hormones”.When one does too much continuous aerobic exercise, the adrenal glands are stressed in a way that can upset this delicate balance which could lead to adrenal fatigue. Other symptoms associated with adrenal fatigue are; tiredness, arthritis, anxiety, depression, reduced memory, insomnia and with respect to this article; the inability to lose weight.These are just a few of the facts that I wanted to share with you.I will cover a couple more in next month’s article.
So what should you be doing instead if you want to sculpt your body, burn fat, get lean, etc, try skipping the “cardio” and focus on proper nutrition, total-body multi-muscle resistance training and Interval training (covered in my January Article) which will improve both your aerobic and anaerobic fitness.Look to build “everyday” strength and fitness like; the ability to carry groceries or children, or climb stairs as fast as possible and playing with your kids without getting out of breath. Save time and get more health benefits than the “Dreaded Cardio”.
Continuous aerobic work is basically exercise induced castration”.- Poliquin
Here's an example of some conditioning work you can do with little to no equipment that I demonstrated in my last video. You don't always have to 30/45/60 minutes doing cardio.
Remember, be patient and go at your fitness level. Do this routine 2-3 times per week, increase your time by 5-10 seconds each week. Do other activites on the alternate days. Get out and play with your kids, go to the park, hang on the monkey bars, swing on the swing for 1 minute as hard as you can, race them to an object the park, make it a game. Let your body adapt. If you are exercising for the first time or haven't done so in awhile, please consult your physican before you start. Have fun!
I have a quick Rant this week regarding Youth fitness. Since becoming a certified youth conditioning specialist, it has been eye opening on what I see and read about how kids are being coached. Now, I will never claim to know everything there is to know on youth training, but I will continue to seek knowledge and continue my education to better serve our youth in our surrounding community.
Here is my latest submission to the Norwalk Hour regarding this issue:
Conditioning is one of the key components when looking to improve your fitness level, whether you are an adult or a kid, but how you go about conditioning would be different when applying it to the youth population as well as any program design for kids. One of the mistakes I see being made is treating kids like they are “little adults” when it comes to training them or thinking since they are in high school, that they be trained like elite athletes.
Yes, there will always be one or two that have a high skill level, but how many of our young athletes go on to compete at the professional level. When I was growing up, we didn’t have any certified strength and conditioning specialists, especially at the youth level. When I got to high school, we were thrown in the weight room, and asked to bench, squat and dead-lift as much as we could. We were never taught, proper lifting technique, how to prepare the body to lift or even how to properly warm up our bodies before any type of physical exertion. Many coaches still believe in taking systems from colleges or even the pros and training the young athletes like professionals and many high schools still do not even have trained strength coaches over seeing the male and female athletes in the weight room. If we are asking our athletes to perform technical lifts with external loads, don’t you think it is important that they master the technique first unloaded, then progress to lighter loads and master each sequence before they are allowed to progress? Many kids are not even being taught how to handle there own body weight, and being asked to perform demanding drills and lifts at a high intense volumes and loads that will cause injuries either immediately or down the road.
Now with all the science and applications behind the development of young athletes, it’s important that our kids are getting the proper training in a safe environment, that we as coaches and trainers expose young athletes to as many fundamental movement skills as possible to build better all around athletes. It is so important that are young athletes/participants are taught the foundational steps of movement acquisition when it comes to speed and strength to ensure that they are set up for future success.
Kids face many challenges in life when growing up; improper training when it comes to athletics, especially in this day in age should not be one of them. Sports and exercise with our young should be viewed as a vehicle that promotes leadership and fair play. By creating and implementing developmentally and individually appropriate athletic based stimulus into the lives of our youth, we will see a change in their long term sporting success and adherence to the love of sport for a lifetime. "To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them."- Charles de Montesquieu
If any of you have kids playing sports, make sure they are getting the proper coaching and training from qualifed people, and that they are looking out for them with regards to safety and proper programing. I will have a lot more to say in the near future.
