Cardio useless???

[Ted Nugent]

so my cut is going great, best progress i have ever had. been doing 30min of cardio (6mph on treadmill) immediately post-workout and 45min on my cardio+abs day. i saw a reference on here about cardio becoming "useless" because your body adapts to it? any truth to this?

[kamjah]

so my cut is going great, best progress i have ever had. been doing 30min of cardio (6mph on treadmill) immediately post-workout and 45min on my cardio+abs day. i saw a reference on here about cardio becoming "useless" because your body adapts to it? any truth to this?

i wouldn't say useless. but your body can definitly get used to the same type of cardio and thus make it less effective. the human body is very adaptive, and keeping things dynamic is how you bust through plateus. changing it up every once in a while and challenging your body with a new motion helps prevent this.

[Marine man]

so my cut is going great, best progress i have ever had. been doing 30min of cardio (6mph on treadmill) immediately post-workout and 45min on my cardio+abs day. i saw a reference on here about cardio becoming "useless" because your body adapts to it? any truth to this?

You're still burning calories. You become more efficient but not to the extent where you're not burning anything. There's been too much of a cardio backlash and hiit bandwagon deal the last decade or so. Cardio is good, just don't be retarded about it (which you don't seem to be).

[darius_s]

Depends on what kind of cardio you are referring to as well as how your training protocol looks like. Keep in mind you could be doing cardio while weight training, the two don't need to happen separately, at different time but can be incorporate into one training session. And I am not talking about using cardio machines while resting between sets of weight lifting. Many different ways of doing it.

For myself yes cardio is useless and I haven't done it in over a year; from what I hear I am not missing out much (talking about sitting on a bike or watching TV on a treadmill kinda cardio). From time to time I will run stairs, do some sprints, and in the summer I mountain bike.

It all comes down to your OVERALL program design and diet.

[SocratesTX]

Except for the fact that it will help you live longer...

Seriously, cardio has many, many more benefits than just helping people lose fat. I'd eliminate lifting long before I'd eliminate cardio if I had to choose.

[rainieravesouth]

for fat loss, cardio is not necessary.

but you dont want to be shredded and then not be able to run 1 mile. you know?

plenty of other benefits to cardio besides fat loss. most importantly healthy cardiovascular/pulmonary system!

[dragoncd]

Good question, I too wonder this based on different articles I have read in the last year or so.

I started out running as much as I could for 10 minutes, and have now built up to running 15 miles a week or so at the 6.5 mpg or higher. I try to mix things up and do "fast" days where I only run 3 miles but try and turn them under 8 mins, and "long" days where I run 4-5 at a slower pace.

That gives you a sense of where I am at right now, but I wonder if now that I can run 3 miles without really a lot of effort at 6.0; does that mean I am burning fewer calories than I used to burn when it really was painful to run for more than 5 minutes? Calories are relative to work which is relative to force and distance/displacement.

So, maybe my body does the same amount of work, but it is more efficient at that work now and therefore burns fewer calories for the same amount of work?

Either way I hit a wall about 3-4 months into running, so I have been switching it up and putting in a day or cross training as well as running outside and adding some sprints into the mix.

[Ted Nugent]

thanks for the replies guys! i switch it up between moderate intensity steady state and higher intensity interval, and once in awhile some sprints or biking. im pretty sure this will keep my body guessing.

[badger-rampage]

cardio helps me psychologically

[Jill75]

for fat loss, cardio is not necessary.

but you dont want to be shredded and then not be able to run 1 mile. you know?

plenty of other benefits to cardio besides fat loss. most importantly healthy cardiovascular/pulmonary system!

There seems to be some contradiction in these statements. When all are saying that you need to do a lot of cardio to lose fat, why then do you say that for fat loss cardio is not necessary? Then how the heck will you lose fat if not do even a bit of cardio a day? I know that weight training can lose some fat but not lose it faster than doing cardio. As far as i know also, cardio brings more oxygen to the body which is needed to burn the fat. Also, there have been studies that even 20 min cardio a day lengthens your life for another 10 years!

[badger-rampage]

There seems to be some contradiction in these statements. When all are saying that you need to do a lot of cardio to lose fat, why then do you say that for fat loss cardio is not necessary? Then how the heck will you lose fat if not do even a bit of cardio a day? I know that weight training can lose some fat but not lose it faster than doing cardio. As far as i know also, cardio brings more oxygen to the body which is needed to burn the fat. Also, there have been studies that even 20 min cardio a day lengthens your life for another 10 years!

keto can rip you if i'm not mistaken

[denny2008]

There seems to be some contradiction in these statements. When all are saying that you need to do a lot of cardio to lose fat, why then do you say that for fat loss cardio is not necessary? Then how the heck will you lose fat if not do even a bit of cardio a day? I know that weight training can lose some fat but not lose it faster than doing cardio. As far as i know also, cardio brings more oxygen to the body which is needed to burn the fat. Also, there have been studies that even 20 min cardio a day lengthens your life for another 10 years!

Uhh... No... Fail. You don't NEED cardio to lose weight. Most of it is in the diet. Cardio helps. Weight training provides for more sustaining fat loss, as muscle is much more adept at burning fat. But yes. It is true when they say cardio isn't necessary to lose weight

[epl2000]

Cardio causes cancer