Cardiovascular Training – Why you, me and everyone needs it!

Written by top level Personal Trainer Shay Faulkner, owner of www.elevate-fitness.co.uk . A mobile personal training company located in Bournemouth

Cardiovascular Training – Why you, me and everyone needs it!

In my last blog I ranted and raved about all the different bonuses of undergoing a resistance training program were. They were vast. Does this mean that cardio training is redundant? No, no, it most certainly ruddy well doesn’t. Resistance training can even be used as a form of cardio, if done in the right way. In fact, in order to get some of the benefits out of resistance training that I’ve previously blogged about you have to use it as a challenging form of cardio.

In this blog I’m going to focus the importance of including cardio as part of your fitness routine. The reason why I’m writing this is because I’m finding that the majority of people aren’t balancing their fitness routines correctly. On one end of the spectrum we have the gym rats that do nothing but lift heavy weights 4-5 times a week. On the other we have those who do no resistance training work at all and just go running 4-5 times a week. Finding people who fit into either extreme is common place. I’d like to change that. People need to see that you don’t have to choose from heavy weight lifting or cardio. You need to do both to get the most out of your routine.

Jargon buster – What is Cardio?
If you don’t know what I mean when I say cardio then you’re going to get about as much out of this blog as Katie Price at a lecture about string theory, which I’m sure is not a lot. So let me clarify before I continue.
When people talk about cardio they are generally referring to training which is designed to improve the efficiency of the aerobic energy producing pathways. All this really means is improving the body’s ability to take in, transport and utilise oxygen (O2).
As with resistance training there are many ways to do cardio. Walking, running, cycling, swimming, dancing, skipping, extreme pizza dough kneading, boxing… This list goes on. As long as your breathing rate is above its resting rate then technically you’re doing cardio. The harder you push things the better results you’re going to get, just like everything else in life.
P.S. I don’t understand what string theory is either so it’s all good.

Top 5 Benefits of Cardio

So now we’re all clear on what cardio is its time to understand the reasons why you simply have to include it into your routine. Here are the top 5 reasons.

In Short

1) Reduce Your Body Fat – Let your abs shine though

2) Decrease Risk of Disease – Give an early grave a miss

3) Improve Your Heart –A strong heart is a healthy soul

4) Improve Your Lungs – Out of breath climbing the stairs? No chance

5) Increase Mental Strength – Master yourself

In Detail

1) Reduce Your Body Fat
This is probably the biggest motivator for people to jump into cardio. Moving around burns a lot of energy, the amount of intensity you move around with the greater the rate of energy burned. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the magical fat burning zone. This is basically a zone of intensity that you work at, usually measure by monitoring your heart rate, where you body gets most of its energy to fuel its workout from your fat stores. You’re generally in the fat burning zone when you’re working at about 60% of your maximum intensity. Anything above this intensity and your body will start to utilise other sources of energy that aren’t fat, predominantly glycogen (the body’s carbohydrate stores). Knowing this has scared many people away from doing higher then 60% intensity cardio, I’m telling you not to be afraid and to go forth and increase you effort! Yes it’s true you’ll be burning carbs for energy but that doesn’t mean you’ll stop burning that fat too. Your body can work with multiple energy systems and sources at any one time. Also it’s worth understanding how your body recovers its depleted carbohydrate stores after you finish working out. It uses your fat as energy to replace the lost glycogen! This means that even after you finish working out you’ll be burning calories, just from recovering. What’s important is the total calories burnt from fat during and after your workout. Not simply making sure when you’re working out you’re only directly burning fat.

2) Decrease Your Risk of Disease
In order to avoid severely early mortality it’s recommended that you do at least 30 mins of cardio that is of a moderate intensity at least 3-5 times a week. Additional benefits can be gained through regular activity that is longer then 30 mins and of a more vigorous nature.
Cardiovascular disease. Regular physic activity decreases your risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, particularly coronary heart disease. (Morris et al., 1953; Morris et al., 1966)
Cancer. Regular cardio has been linked with a reduction in the risk of several different kinds of cancer. Colon cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer have all been linked with inactivity. You’re probably putting on your tracksuit as you read this. Rightfully so, but please read on.
Osteoarthritis. In spite of what many people would think physical activity is not associated with joint damage nor is it seen to be a cause of Osteoarthritis. In fact quite the opposite. Those with the condition can decrease impairment and improve joint function through regular exercise.
Osteoporosis. Most cardio has some shock impact on the bones. This causes the body to adapt by making the bones stronger. Stronger bones and a higher bone mass mean a reduction in the likelihood of Osteoporosis occurring.
Obesity. As almost everyone knows obesity is linked with the occurrence of several major diseases. From coronary heart disease (CHD) to diabetes. Cardio will significantly reduce your chances of becoming obese and therefore reduces your chances of CHD and diabetes.
These are just some of the diseases that you can reduce your risk of getting by doing cardio. If that doesn’t inspire you then think of it this way. By choosing not to exercise you are choosing to increase your risk of the above. It’s your funeral.

3) Improve Your Heart
It doesn’t take a personal training to know that having a healthy heart is key to being healthy. In order for the heart to be in a state of good health it needs to be strong, efficient and free from disease. This is exactly what performing cardio training will get you. Your heart has muscular walls, like any muscle when it’s been trained it will increase in size which will allow for an increase in its performance. It will be stronger which will allow for an increase in its stroke volume (the amount of blood it pumps out in one beat). Since with every beat it will be pumping more blood it means that over the course of a minute the total amount of blood it can get around the body will increase. With the increased oxygen and nutrients available to the muscles will come an increase in performance and the intensity in which you can workout. With an increase in intensity comes and increase in the rate of energy burnt while working out. What does an increase in energy utilisation mean? See reason number 1.
A good way to monitor if your heart is performing better is to measure your resting heart rate. As you get fitter it’ll get lower. The reason it gets lower is that, as I mentioned before, every beat pumps more blood meaning that less beats are needed to fulfil the body’s resting requirements.

4) Improve Your Lungs
It doesn’t take a personal training to know that having a healthy set of lungs is key to being healthy. Déjà vu? The lungs job is simple, extract oxygen from the air and get rid of the waste products from the blood stream such as carbon dioxide. In much the same way as the heart, the lungs become more efficient. There ability to utilise the air they take in is improved. They also become able to take in more air in one breath. This means with every breath they can get more oxygen into the blood stream and take out more carbon dioxide from the blood stream. This means your muscles can be supplied with more oxygen. With the increased oxygen and nutrients available to the muscles will come an increase in performance and the intensity in which you can workout. With an increase in intensity comes and increase in the rate of energy burnt while working out. What does an increase in energy utilisation mean? See reason number 1.

5) Increased Mental Strength
Ever looked at a hamster that’s been in a cage for weeks with no running wheel? They look depressed don’t they? Hamsters are meant to be active and so are we. We are predators. We need to hunt, or at least simulate it. Life is about balance. If you don’t balance sitting in front of the TV with working out then not only will you suffer physically but you’ll suffer mentally. Working out is a fantastic way to improve your self mastery. Searching deep within yourself to find the motivation to go that extra mile is what it’s all about. This is the very definition of discipline.
You must always consider that the body is the great adapter. It gets good at doing what you train it to. If you sit on your sofa and think “I’ll put off my workout day because I don’t feel like it” enough times then you’ll get very good at it. Heck, do it enough and you might just become an expert. If you sit on your sofa and think “Man I’m tired tonight, but that’s not stopping me from smashing out this 5 mile run” enough times you’ll get good at that. Heck, do it enough times and you’ll become and expert. Overcoming temptation to skip on your workouts will carry over into other areas of life. The most successful people out there are the ones that realise that in order to get what you want, you have to do what it takes. Simples.

Summary

Hopefully right about now you’ll be itching to get your running shoes on and start training for a triathlon, or something of a similar nature. Before you do that, feast your eyes below for a round up of adoptions associated with aerobic training.

Heart:

• Increased size of the heart muscles
• Increased strength of heart contractions
• Increase stroke volume
• Increase cardiac output
• Reduced resting heart rate
• Increased blood vessel size
• Decreased risk of heart disease
  (Wilmoe and Costill, 1999)

Blood vessels and blood chemistry:

• Reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure
• Positive change in blood lipids
• Increase haemoglobin
• Increased blood volume
  (Wilmoe and Costill, 1999)

Lungs:

• Increased functional capacity during exercise
• Increased diffusion of respiratory gases
• Increased vital capacity

(Wilmoe and Costill, 1999)

Metabolic Function:

• Decreased insulin resistance and improved glucose tolerance – beneficial for treatment and prevention of diabetes
• Reduced body fat
• Increase maximal O2 uptake
  (Wilmoe and Costill, 1999)

Muscular changes:

• Increased capillarisation of muscles
• Increased enzymatic function within muscle cells
• Increase size and number of mitochondria
• Improved perception of muscle tone
  (Wilmoe and Costill, 1999)

Psychological factors:

• Improved self mastery
• Increased social interaction
• Distraction from the daily routine
• Decreased depression and anxiety
  (Wilmoe and Costill, 1999)

Any questions? The Elevate Fitness team are always happy to help. Get in contact with us right away

Stay strong, run long

Shay Faulkner

Elevate Fitness

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