Many people who are seriously into weight training shy away from doing cardio exercise because they think that it will eat away at their hard won muscle mass. While there is a valid concern for those thinking of running a long distance marathon, most of these fears are unwarranted. Basically, the concern is that as you are running, the body may run short of fuel in the bloodstream for immediate use. Although the body has a mechanism for replenishing energy by breaking down fat deposits, this doesn’t always happen quickly enough. The body compensates by breaking down proteins to use some of the amino acids for fuel. Therefore muscle is wasted.
While this basic analysis is correct, the body builder’s fears are exaggerated. A short run of say twenty to thirty minutes, especially before lifting, will not break down hardly any muscle mass. Almost al the fuel used will come from what is already present in the blood stream and the energy stored in the liver. This is especially true if you ate at least a moderate high carb meals a few hours before. Actually, a good meal of complex carbs fully digested followed by a 20 minute run is an excellent warm up for a good hour of lifting in the weight room. This is a prime reason to run. It warms the cardiovascular system up for your lifting routine. You will get better workouts and with better workouts, better gains. Following this logic, a light to moderate run will actually help you to gain muscle rather than lose it! But the warm up should not be the only motivation for cardio exercise.

There are several outstanding reasons for adding cardio to your regimen. Cardio is the best way to exercise your heart and lungs, it is the most efficient way to cut fat, and it will boost your metabolic rate more naturally and efficiently than any pill on the market. So how much cardio should you do? That is a hard question to answer. Some suggest that you could start to lose muscle after about a half hour of running. Though they may be literally correct, you should take this with a very large grain of salt. The muscle that you lose even after an hour run is miniscule. Furthermore, since you train with weights on a regular basis, you are continually sending signals to your body to save and to build more muscle. Lifting and running done on a regular basis will condition your body to efficiently handle both the running and the body building. Essentially, when your body is conditioned, what is likely to happen is you still lose a miniscule amount of protein after a run of an hour or so, but your body adds that protein back in a short time. A hardcore professional body builder trying to bulk up for the next Mr. Olympiad may think twice about running that much, but you and I could do it without any net loss over the long run. The only real issue is whether your gains could slow by a margin of 2 – 3% or so. The benefits of cardio to your overall health to your energy level is well worth a theoretical miniscule slowdown, and it is the best and most natural way to get cut.

Cardio exercise has significant health benefits and should not be avoided for those overly concerned with a muscular physic. The truth is cardio actually improves physic because it cuts fat from your body and enhances definition of your muscular build. The substantial benefits gained by cardio are more than worth any small decrease in muscle building. Anything up to one hour of cardio training when combined with a regular lifting program will provide a well balanced program for both physic and health.

In this article, I have an intriguing discussion about cardio training, which will hopefully get you thinking differently, and trying new things.

You may know I’ve been called the anti-cardio guy before, but this week I’m back posing the question to you… Do you really need cardio training to get lean and in great shape? By the way, you’ll see in a minute that I’m not really “anti-cardio”, just “anti traditional cardio”.

Most fitness buffs, weekend warriors, or anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a fact that they need “cardio” exercise to accomplish these goals. They would never even question it. However, I’m not only questioning it, I’m going to refute it! In fact, you may be surprised to know that some of the leanest and meanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. And I’ve spent over 15 years working out in various gyms, and hanging out with athletes of all sorts, so I’ve seen it all. I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can sometimes be more effective methods.

But what exactly is “cardio”? Most people would consider cardio to be pumping away mindlessly on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or coasting on an elliptical machine, while watching the TV screen at their state of the art gym. This is what I call “traditional cardio”. Hmmm, no wonder the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results.
But if you look closer, “cardio” can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. I’m not going to get into anything technical like increasing your VO2 max or anything like that. To keep it simple, if it gets your heart pumpin, and gets you huffin and puffin, it’s cardio. I don’t care if you’re holding dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training exercise… it’s still conditioning your heart.

Let’s take a look at a couple examples. Take a barbell (or dumbbell, or kettlebell) clean & press for example, which involves lifting a barbell from the floor up to shoulders, then push pressing overhead. And listen up ladies, because even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, it doesn’t matter if you’re not lifting 250 lbs; if 45 lbs is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much. At first glance, most people think of the barbell C&P only as a weight training exercise or strength exercise. However, I challenge you to do a hard set of around 10-15 reps on the C&P. If you used a challenging enough weight, what you’ll find is that your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max, and you are huffing and puffing like you just ran a 100-meter sprint (which by the way, sprinting kicks the crap out of jogging any day if you want the easiest way to lose body fat fast).

Try the same thing for a set of 20 reps of one-arm snatches or swings with each arm with a kettlebell or dumbbell, and tell me your legs aren’t burning, heart racing, and you’re gasping for breath. How about trying 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats, lunges, and pushups with very little rest. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breaths!

Try and tell me you’re not conditioning your heart with this style of training! Conventional thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are fullfilling your cardio needs as well due to the high intensity of work performed during these types of exercises.

Not only do you save time, but you strengthen and condition almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body exercises if you do them with enough intensity… something that can’t be said for that boring stationary bike ride or treadmill jaunt while reading or watching TV. Seriously, if you can read or watch TV while doing any exercise, you’re not concentrating enough on what you’re doing, plus you’re probably not working out hard enough to see any real results.

I challenge you to give the “traditional cardio” a rest for a month or two, and start training the way I explain in my internationally popular “Truth about Six pack Abs Program”, and see how you start getting leaner, more defined, and your six-pack starting to show through what used to be stubborn stomach fat deposits.

Exercise is good for you. Being fit will help your whole body feel better, including your migraines, right? So why did your headache specialist just tell you to drop out of this weekend’s 10K if you want to be able to go to work on Monday?

A regular exercise program is a great migraine deterrent, but it needs to be the right kind of exercise. Many workout types put a real strain on the cardiovascular system and scientists have linked migraines to vascular problems in the temporal artery, among other potential causes.

Migraineurs who want to sweat need to warm up, slowly, for about fifteen minutes prior to any strenuous exertion, whether it is exercise or home repair. Skipping this warm up is nearly a guarantee that a migraine will be interrupting your plans later in the day.

While any exertion can be good or bad and each migraineur is different, there are a few types of exercise that are notorious for bringing down the head.

* Aerobics: high-intensity aerobics classes are a trigger for many women, especially when the cardio-pounding workout is paired with loud music.

* Biking: Whether it is competitive cycling or spinning class at the club, this is a major trigger for many.

* Running: Any kind of running that involves hard-core exertion, especially endurance events like marathons and triathlons.

You may be able to keep doing these things, especially if you really enjoy them, but you need to think about toning down the endurance aspect. Cycling should be for pleasure and exercise but not competitive. Replace high impact aerobics classes with dance, yoga, or free weight aerobics. Reduce the distance you run and see if it helps with the migraines. There is no reason a migraineur cannot be fit, just do not run yourself into a migraine.