I've complained about this before, but I just can't understand why some skinny people do so much cardio. Today a male skeleton in long sweat pants and a sweatshirt with hood on was on the eleptical all the time I was working out. A female skeleton was going as fast as she could on a stationary bike, then moved on to the treadmill running very fast, all the while I was working out. What do they hope to gain? Certainly not muscle. As far as heart health is concerned I think when I am lifting weights my heart rate is probably about as high as theirs. I don't think that cardio is that great for heart health anyway. Just look at Jim Fixx who died in his forties of a heart attack while running.

Research does show that cardiovascular exercise improves heart and lung function. One outlier does not negate that. This is sort of like people saying "smoking isn't that bad for you. Look at Uncle Jim. He's smoked 40 years and is in perfect health!"

I do agree that its sort of silly for people with minimal body fat to do so much cardio. Personally, I think if I just look at a treadmill I drop 5 pounds! I also see a lot of overweight people at the gym doing very little cardio and spending all their time on weight training. This approach seems somewhat misguided as well. Perhaps the key to proper training, whatever your goal or problem, is education.

Perhaps these skeletons have a disorder??

I agree that the best thing is to know what's best in order to reach your goals, but from what I've read lifting weights can be just as heart beneficial as cardio. I just think you get a lot more health benefit from 30 minutes of weight lifting than 30 minutes of running etc. In the book The Testosterone Advantage Plan they don't recommend any cardio at all. The only cardio I am doing is seven minutes on the treadmill. I have a goal to run a seven minute mile, so I run seven minutes every day, increasing the speed at which I run. I am quite active at work, so I get a lot of cardio in short spurts throught the day.

I think you are probably right on the disorder idea. I saw the guy again today. He spent 45 minutes on the eliptical and about 15 minutes on the cycle. I think his thighs are about the same size as my biceps.

and he prob still thinks hes fat, unless, you never know he could be on some sort of rehab program from an illness or injury and thats what the dr. ordered??? who knows

Who knows in deed.