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Health & Fitness

To Cardio Or Not To Cardio

Why is it that so many fitness professionals are telling clients to stop doing cardiovascular exercise?

Why is it that so many fitness professionals are telling clients to stop doing cardiovascular exercise?  I found this puzzling, especially with the huge body of positive research on the benefits of cardiovascular exercise (improved blood lipid profiles and lower triglycerides, improved heart function, decreased risk of osteoporosis, decreased risk of diabetes, weight loss and control).  Cardiovascular training can be done in unison with strength/power training and is called metabolic training.  It is probably the most popular type of training going on in our industry today, however it presents with a few issues:

*it isn't a type of training that should be done everyday.  My suggestion would be no more than 3x week to prevent overuse injuries.

*If organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine would like Americans exercising 'most, if not all" days of the week, we have to find cross-training types of exercise that are body friendly such as an elliptical or bike.  Cardiovascular exercise offers these additional workouts.

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*During metabolic style workouts- there isn't time to address an individuals therapeutic exercise needs (posture, balance, old nagging injuries, etc).  The only goal is to elevate your heart rate and work your musculature.

*Clients will health or orthopedic issues are not good candidates for this style of training.

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So, what is the right answer?  Cardiovascular exercise, defined as a type of effort that increases the work of your heart and lungs, should be a part of your exercise regimen on most days of the week.  If two or three of these days include a strength/power component as part of the elevated heart rate (metabolic training), then that is great.  But the other days should be utilized to fill in the missing components- interval style or steady-state aerobic exercise and therapeutic exercise (posture, balance, massage, flexibility).  Aerobic exercise should be challenging (on a scale of 1-10 you should feel like a 6-8) and of a duration of 20-60 minutes for the recreational exerciser.  Interval styled programs are excellent at offering challenging intensities followed by periods of recovery allowing the exerciser to sustain the duration of the workout while burning a lot of calories.    

Given that major organizations like ACSM recommend cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week and that the body of research is hugely in favor of cardiovascular exercise why is it then many fitness professionals are suggesting that it isn't worth the time?  My personal belief is because many of these individuals have studio style fitness centers that are too small to offer a cardiovascular training component (whether group fitness classes or cardio equipment).  They didn't invest in cardio equipment because it is expensive so therefore, they aren't going to recommend this type of activity for their clients.

Good luck restarting or continuing your cardio conditioning program!            

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