- Is your choice
of cardio REDUCING
your heart and lung capacity?
- Have you ever wondered what
secret
cardio technique 12 week challenge
participants use to TOTALLY transform their
bodies?
- Is conventional
steady state cardio
really the
best way to get fit and burn bodyfat?
- Discover why leading health
researchers such as Dr Al Sears and Dr Mercola are
recommending a NEW
approach to cardio.
- Have
you ever wondered why conditioned endurance athletes (and supposedly
some of the 'fittest' people) drop dead from heart attacks at the
height of their careers?
- Is
it possible that excessive cardio might be
increasing
your
risk of heart
disease, osteoporosis,
and accelerating the
aging
process?
- What's the truth about
conventional cardio? Is it really
good for our health as we've been led to believe or...
- Is it possible we've
been lied
to all
these years?
The
answers will SHOCK
you
Here's the Truth
About Cardio
Traditionally
we've been told that to increase our fitness we have to do long,
tedious,
steady-pace workouts like jogging or cycling and to keep our heart
rate in the 'fat
burning zone' if we want to lose bodyfat, however...
Conventional
'steady-state' cardio is NOT
the
best way to
burn
fat or get fit and it may
actually be harming your
health
In fact, here's what leading health authority,
Dr Al Sears, author of 'The Doctor's Heart Cure' and 'PACE' has to
say...
- "Spending hours
doing conventional cardio weakens your heart, shrinks your lungs, and
stimulates your body to build MORE fat!
- Cardio is poorly
named as as it won't strengthen your breath or
your lungs. In fact, repeatedly exercising by 'staying within your
aerobic limits' will only shrink your lungs, rob you of critical
lung capacity and create a series of other health problems.
- During
20 years of working with extremely fit athletes, patients with diseased
or injured hearts and average people in between, one thing is
apparent...
"Conventional cardio is
a complete waste of time and effort" - Dr Al Sears
For
decades we've been encouraged to add up to 1 hour of cardio per
day to our already busy
schedules. However, not only is this
recommendation unrealistic for most people, it's completely unnecessary. Moreover,
in
the longterm this type of cardio can be downright
unhealthy!
Conventional
cardio does NOT strengthen our heart and lungs as we've been
led
to believe - it can actually do the OPPOSITE
Here's why...
Long duration
'steady state' cardio workouts forces your body to adapt and become
more efficient to the excessive demands we've imposed on our body. It
does this by gradually rebuilding our heart, lungs, blood
vessels and muscles
as
small as possible.
The end result of this 'downsizing' is that we're robbed
of vital reserve
capacity.
What is
"Reserve Capacity?"
Reserve capacity is the ability of your heart and lungs to
withstand a sudden
increase in cardiac demand.
In real life there
are and there
will be
circumstances that put our bodies under stress
and require our heart and lungs to be up to the task.
Heart attacks don't occur
because of a lack of endurance, they occur when there is a sudden
increase in demand that exceeds
your heart's capacity.
And here's the problem...
Conventional
steady state cardio does NOT build reserve
capacity!
Exercising
for long periods might make your heart more adept at handling a 60
minute jog, however it's at the expense of providing your
cardiovascular system with the ability
to rapidly
provide cardiac output when you really need it.
Bigger,
faster,
more
readily available cardiac output is what we
really
need. So when we push for greater and greater
endurance
using conventional cardio, it can actually produce the opposite to
what we really
require in the modern world.
But
there's even more BAD NEWS...
A
ground-breaking study of long distance runners showed that after these
workouts, blood levels and oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol
and
triglycerides is markedly increased.
They
also found that prolonged running disrupts the balance of
blood
thinners and thickeners, elevating inflammatory factors and
clotting levels, both signs of heart distress.
A
study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &
Metabolism also found that long distance runners had reduced bone mass
and
an increased
risk of osteoporosis.
Conventional long duration cardio
can even make you age
faster!
(If you've made the
observed that a large number of endurance
athletes have
more wrinkles and age faster than most, it's no
coincidence...)
That's
because excessive amounts of
cardio produce free radicals
at an alarming
rate.
Unless these free radicals are mopped up by antioxidants in
our
diet, our immune system can
become compromised and make us more susceptible to
colds, flus, illness and even degenerative disease. Therefore
endurance
athletes and heavy exercisers need to pay extra special
attention
to their nutrition as they require a higher *antioxidant
intake than the average person.
(*The best source of antioxidants are fruit and veges)
"What about burning bodyfat? I
thought low intensity cardio and working out in the 'fat
burning zone' was the answer?"
The
myth of the 'fat burning zone' has been around for a while. While it's
true that a greater percentage of fat is burned when working out at a
lower intensity, it's the total
calories burned that really
matter.
For example, it's been proven that
if you work out at a higher level of intensity using interval training
(but for much less time) you'll burn
significantly more calories after
the workout has finished than traditional steady state cardio. Up to 9
times more
to be precise!
In
other words, each calorie that you burn from interval training
burns up to 9 times more body fat than a calorie burned during steady
pace exercise. Therefore, interval training has MAJOR fat
burning
potential.
To put this in perspective, to match the
results you'd get from a 12 minute
interval workout, you'd have to burn 9 times as many
calories with traditional go slow cardio!
Excessive
long
duration steady state cardio also breaks down precious muscle
tissue
and in doing so, diminishes
our
fat
burning ability.
It all has to do with
a hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol promotes excessive muscle tissue
breakdown and a lowered basal metabolic
rate (the
rate at which you burn calories.) This is why, over time, long
duration
steady state cardio can actually make you FATTER.
The
Marathon Runner Versus the Sprinter
Due
to the nature of their training, long distance runners often experience
muscle wasting, they have a low reserve capacity and are more
likely
to suffer from joint and bone problems from repetitive wear and tear.
Contrast this with
a sprinter whose training focuses on short bursts of
intensity. The sprinter tends to be more muscular, has a greater bone
density and a much higher reserve
capacity.
What about fitness?
Interval
training is vastly superior
for improving fitness!
One
study
in particular compared 2 groups of exercisers. (Tabata
studies 1996)
In
Tabata's study one group did a full 60
minutes of low to moderate intensity exercise 5 days per
week. Group two also
trained 5 days a week except that this group performed 8
x 20-second sprints of high-intensity bicycling with a
10-second rest
(pedalling at
a much slower rate) in between. This was preceded by a warm up and
followed
by
a warm down.
Total
exercise time? Just 4
minutes!
The
results were quite extraordinary! Tabata
found that athletes on the high-intensity interval training
programme increased their fitness
levels much faster
than athletes on a typical endurance training regime,
all this despite
the
VAST difference
in the amount of time
each group spent working
out.
The
results were as follows:
|
Tabata
Studies (1996)
|
Steady State
Cardio
|
Interval Training
|
|
Cardio Duration
|
60
minutes
|
4
minutes
|
|
Aerobic fitness
increase
|
10%
|
14%
|
|
Anaerobic
Capacity INCREASE
|
NONE
|
28%
|
Participants
in the studies who did
the 4 minute workouts not only increased their ability to do anaerobic
exercise
(the type of exercise that features bursts of high intensity) but
also
improved their aerobic capacity (Aerobic capacity
is typically defined as exercise performed at a steady pace with
the idea of developing endurance.)
The 'go slow' cardio group who trained 5 days per week fr 60 minutes at
a time showed no
anaerobic
fitness increase and a 10% increase in aerobic fitness, however group
2 showed a
28%
and 14% increase respectively...and
all with only 4
minute
workouts!
Unbelievable
but TRUE!
Therefore, not only is
interval training incredibly time efficient
and excellent for fat
burning and fitness, it
also builds crucial heart
and
lung reserve
capacity.
Granted, the
intervals used in the Tabata studies are too
intense for the majority of exercisers which is why a modified and more
user friendly version of this workout has been designed
that uses
timeframes of 12 and 20
minutes. (more info below)
Here's
a very important
question to ask:
In
light of this information, can we conclusively state that
the human body is designed to
cope with the demands
of
repeated, long distance aerobic workouts?
Based
on numerous studies citing the detrimental effects of
conventional cardio on the human
body in terms wear and tear, loss of muscle tissue, the decline in
heart and lung reserve capacity and more, the answer is
an unequivocal, no!
Is low intensity, long duration
cardio ok from time to time?
If you're just starting an exercise programme, moderate steady
state cardio is the best way to
build a base level of fitness. (For example, 30
minutes 4
or 5 times per
week as recommended by the
ACSM - American College of Sports Medicine)
However,
as soon as you've developed a base level of
fitness it is highly recommended
to incorporate interval training into your exercise programme for
optimum heart health and the benefits listed
above.
From a health
perspective, excessive amounts of cardio can
be potentially damaging. From a time perspective,
long duration steady state cardio is
incredibly inefficient
and time wasting.
Experience the AMAZING benefits
of Interval
Training!
If
you're tired of spending hour upon boring hour doing conventional
cardio workouts, (and potentially jeoparding
your health in
the process) it's time
to experience interval
training.
Click here to find out more
(Limited time offer - don't miss out)
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