Walk, Run or Sprint

If you’ve trained with us, or if you’ve kept up with my past articles, you know I have a slightly different philosophy on cardiovascular training than most people do. To sum up:

• Some Cardio training is necessary for everyone regardless of your goals. The heart is simply too important to ignore (use it or lose it!!)
• Relying on cardio for your complete weight loss or fitness solution is a sure way to long term FAILURE.

I’m not going to explain those points again in this article, you can refer to my past articles for more explanation. This article is an explanation of the various types of cardiovascular training. I’ll divide these types up into three intensity levels: low, medium, and high.

Low Intensity

This one is pretty easy to explain: get off the couch and take a walk. For individuals who are grossly out of shape, this may be the best overall form of exercise to start with. By starting slowly you reduce the risk of injury while still increasing your calorie expenditure. For many people, this is the most enjoyable form of cardiovascular exercise.

You can take your dog for a walk or spend some quality time with your spouse who also might use a lift off the couch. You’d be amazed at what you might discover with a walk around your neighborhood. That old house you’ve driven by a 100 times at 40mph might fascinate you with it’s old style charm when you pass it by at 3mph. You might even make some new friends. A slow bike ride also qualifies as low intensity cardio.

This type of cardio is also the form usually preferred by competitive bodybuilders who want to burn extra calories, but don’t want to do ANY activity strenuous enough to interfere with their weight training. As an avid strength athlete AND mountain biker, I can attest to this one. Regardless of how hard I try to avoid it, every mountain bike season, my squat poundage’s plummet. It’s a compromise I’m willing to make, but to someone looking to put on as much muscle as possible the super high intensity activity of mountain biking is just too much.

There are reasons this low intensity cardio might not be the best for everyone. First is the fact that your overall cardio capacity will only improve so much without upping the intensity. You’ll go a long way to preventing a heart attack, but don’t expect to be able to keep up with your kids in a game of soccer because you’ve taken a few walks around the neighborhood.

Also, if you are using low intensity cardio to burn calories, plan on spending a LOT of time walking! One small dietary mistake (an average cookie), might take up to an hour to work off at a walking pace!!!

Medium Intensity

This is probably the most common form of cardio that most of you do. There is no definite line between low and medium intensity, but with medium intensity you will definitely be working up a sweat. Running, fast biking, swimming, rollerblading, and race walking are all usually medium intensity cardio activities.

The advantages of medium intensity cardio include an increased calorie expenditure and higher cardiovascular capacity. A runner will burn far more calories in the same amount of time than a walker will. With medium intensity cardio, you will also find yourself getting into much better aerobic condition. That soccer game might not seem so tough after you can run a couple of 8 minute miles!

What are the disadvantages? First and foremost, BE CAREFULL!! If you are VERY out of shape, you should spend a couple months doing low intensity cardio before you move into medium intensity. Overexertion injuries as well as heart attacks and many other problems are common in people who make the move to medium intensity too quickly. Even those of you who are not overweight, but have been sedentary for too long should start out slow.

Next, you also have to realize that medium intensity cardio is still not the ultimate weight loss solution. It’s still going to take you a half hour to work off that cookie and your metabolism will still slow to normal very quickly after this type of workout. Also, don’t think this type of activity will have you keeping up with Lance Armstrong on next year’s Tour de France. Your aerobic capacity, and anaerobic limit will only improve so much. Runners who are hitting performance walls, and amateur athletes in sports such as basketball, hockey, mountain biking, skiing, etc., will find huge benefits to moving to the next level of cardiovascular conditioning.

This type of exercise (when used excessively) will also trigger the storage of intramuscular fat. (Think of a well marbled piece of beef.) Excessive medium intensity cardio will also hinder muscle growth. Even if you are not trying to get big, muscle is still important for that “lean hard look”. There is even some evidence that excessive medium intensity cardio might exaggerate lower body fat storage!!! Strangely enough, most women who are trying desperately to shrink their hips will do more and more medium intensity cardio ~ precisely the opposite of what they need!

High Intensity

As far as I’m concerned, this is the type of cardio that 80% of my clients should eventually be working towards. I often refer to this as “intervals”. This consists of alternating bouts of very high intensity activity followed by very low intensity. An example on the stationary cycle: Warm up for 5 minutes at low intensity. Slowly increase the speed and or resistance until you reach a level that can only be maintained for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds return to a slow light pace for 90 seconds. Repeat this pattern of 30 second sprints and 90 seconds at low intensity for 20 minutes total.

Following this protocol, you will have gotten the toughest cardio workout you’ve ever gotten, you’ll have burned more calories than an hour of running, and you won’t have triggered intramuscular fat storage (your muscles will be more like lean chicken than marbled beef). And, most importantly for women not blessed with small lower proportions, you may even preferentially reduce lower body fat! You’ll also minimize muscle loss since your body still gets the signal that it needs all the muscle it’s got (the sprints were at near maximum capacity). Compare the physiques of a marathon runner to a sprinter to see what I’m talking about.

After a couple weeks of doing intervals, you’ll also find you’ll be able to do a lot more lifting in the weight room without losing your breath, and your work capacity in everyday life will show a huge improvement. A recent study also showed that adults that participate in interval type training maintained heart rate variability better than those that didn’t. A decline in heart rate variability as we age has been associated with increased cardiovascular risk.

What are the disadvantages? Certainly, if you do not have a good base of fitness, you could really hurt yourself. I don’t move my clients up to this type of protocol until they have reached a certain level of fitness. Also, this is not the most enjoyable form of exercise for most people. It’s TOUGH, and you’re not going to feel like making friends as you sprint around the neighborhood. Although depending on your dog, he may really enjoy some sprinting.

This type of cardio also has to be timed well to avoid hurting your leg workouts. I usually do this type of workout after a leg workout, or on an off day as long as I’m not working legs the next day.

Some of the above advice may fly in the face of what you’ve been told in the past. Many people who are unclear on the basic concepts will talk about a “fat burning zone”, and similar concepts. While it is true that lower intensity activity will burn a greater percentage of fat during the exercise than higher intensity activity, what they are missing is that the higher intensity activity still burns more calories overall, and that is what really counts. You don’t really care when the fat calories were burned, just that more were burned. They all eventually result in body fat losses.

Notice that each type of cardio workout has its place, and I’m not recommending one type of program for everyone. If in doubt, please check with a professional. If you have questionable health of any kind, check with your doctor first, then if you really want to maximize your gains, give us a call! Our personal training is designed around your total fitness program. We’ll setup a program that will include the proper form of cardio for your goals.