My REAL Issue with "Cardio"

    For the purposes of this article, "cardio" is going to refer to any activity that raises your heart rate well above baseline for a given amount of time. 

    I am NOT anti cardio, I just want to make that clear. The issue with cardio is that it is not enough to live a long, healthy life. Cardio can implemented to supplement a fantastic nutrition and strength training plan, but it is counter productive for most goals. Sometimes, cardio is simply walking, I LOVE walking. Slow, fast, up hills, up mountains, I don't care. Walking is what you were designed to do and you will aim for 6000 steps a day no matter what. 

    But other forms of more intense cardio, while fun, can be dangerous if you are not strong. If you try to juke left too hard in a game of tennis and your knees and hip muscles aren't prepared for it, that is where injury happens. People think that tennis will get them into shape, when really they need to get in shape to play tennis. Traditional cardio, like jogging or running, will eventually wear down your knees and possibly your hips to the point where you may need surgery. That is because one foot is leaving the ground and up to 4x your bodyweight in force is being transferred to the leg that is on the ground. This means 4x your bodyweight crashing down on your hip, knee, and ankle. Do that 10,000 times, and you have the perfect remedy to healthy joints. 

    Daily walks, past the absolute beginner stage, will not build muscle or protect you from the slow breaking down process that is "aging". Cardio will not prevent osteoporosis, cardio will not prevent bone breaks, cardio will not improve your balance. All of these things you are looking to improve can only be improved through strength training. Cardio can sometimes get in the way of strength training, and that is unacceptable. If you only have 20 minutes to devote to your fitness in a day, your time would be much better spent lifting heavy stuff for the full 20 minutes and getting your steps in later. 

    Cardio isn't even that great for what everyone uses it for: burning calories. Let's say hypothetically you hop on a treadmill and run for an hour. You just "burnt" 600 calories while slowly destroying your knees and ankles. Ok, well that's nice, but now you are hungry as hell. So when it's time to get lunch you go ahead and add a couple cookies to your meal, hey you earned it and you need carbs for energy right? That's about 400 calories, you have now cut your "burn" down to 200 calories. You spiked your blood sugar sky high at lunch, so you decide to grab a snack. Someone brought doughnuts into the office! You grab one without even thinking about it, hey, you'll just "run it off" later. Your calorie deficit is now -50 and you gain a couple pounds of water weight and inflammation. 

    Meanwhile if you had just lifted weights and went for a walk, you would not have been "starving". Plus the protein and carbs you ate would become muscle, more fat burning potential around the clock. The simplest way to think about it is, muscle is metabolism. The more properly fueled muscle you have, the higher your metabolism. I hear from female clients all day: "It's so irritating! My husband just cuts out soda and he loses 10 pounds! If I LOOK at a cookie I gain weight." One of the reasons for that is your husband has more muscle mass than you do. Cardio will not help you gain muscle. 

    So get your cardio, just keep it simple and easy almost all the time (you can add a sprint day every week or 2 if you're into that), but do NOT think it is more important than building/keeping muscle and strength.