A Cardio Wake-up Call-It's Vital!
Supplementary to another thread on here asking about the importance of cardiovascular activity....my personal wake-up call this week.
I've been working with a trainer since June. Building muscle just fine. For cardio, I've been using an at-home stationary bike. an effective tool for cardio, but not the best, since it works only the legs.
My resting heart rate is 64. My blood pressure as measured by my GP is about 110/80. Almost perfect.
On the bike, it took me about 10 minutes to pump my heart rate up to 130 -- about 80% of my max. I was pretty happy about that. "Hey, it takes a while for my heart to start working hard. Great!"
Well, I changed gyms this month and started using an eliptical for the first time in about 5 years.
Boy! Did I get a scare! After 5 minutes on the lowest exertion level, at a low 52 RPM, my heart rate shot up to 130.
This was very bad news. Five years ago, I would have to work damn hard at a much higher resistance level an on eliptical to get my heart rate that high.
Clearly, while I've become bigger physically and stronger physically over the past months, I've been neglecting my heart and lung power.
Very, very bad news. Because that heart and those lungs need to be strong and efficient to supply blood and oxygen to those new observable muscles I have developed.
And my new trainer, in observing and testing me in the past two weeks has said, "Your strength is not a problem. You lack endurance."
That endurance depends on the fitness of my cardiovasuclar system.
So: do I want to live a long, healthy life? Yes. Then cardio is crucial. I need a strong heart and efficient lungs.
So: do I want to build muscle, strength and endurance? Yes. I need a strong heart and efficient lungs.
Cardio is crucial.
It's not one man's opinion. It's science. It's physics and inescapable logic.
At our age cross training is the way to go...
[QUOTE=kimsquit;455946841]my point exactly (and much more concisely)
Take any long-distance marathon runner, put him in the squat rack with a reasonably heavy weight for the first time in his life, and his heart rate is going to shoot up regardless of how many marathons he's run.
We are not metabolically efficient at activities we are not used to, which is why in 2006 I was doing 45 minutes of stepper HIIT at 148bpm every day, yet huffed and puffed like a baby rhino when I tried to swim slow laps in the pool.[/QUOTE]
I think that the best is to cross train with 2-3 different types of cardio each week and then switch it up after a month. For example:
Stationary Bike Intervals - one day
Swimming - steady state - one day
Tread Mill Intervals - one day
Circuit Training - my personal favorite because it gives you best of both worlds
Or add some games in like basketball...
This will help with two angles:
1) Prevent injuries from over stressing certain ligaments and wearing down joints...
2) Not letting your body adjust to a certain type of cardio. Otherwise you have to increase the time spent on it, which is an never ending spiral. There is an article by Rachel Cosgrove where she describes that her expected fat loss from her multiple hour daily marathon training [U]was actually minimal[/U]. She explains, in her article, that she couldn't even see her abs anymore! She succeeded in losing fat in 8 weeks after completing the marathon training and doing circuit training!