Many people when they think of getting into better physical shape or lose fat weight; mistakenly believe that they need 'cardio' type activity to achieve these goals. They would never even doubt the validly of it as it is such a long running idea. But what exactly is 'cardio' exercise? Well 'cardio' is any form of repetitive activity, it is usually low intensity long duration such as walking or jogging outdoors or on a treadmill, rowing machines, riding a stationary bike, elliptical machines or cycling outdoors. It may surprise you to know that some of the leanest most 'in shape' people never do any type of traditional 'cardio' Many physique competitors and body-shapers maintain really low body fat percentages despite never 'jogging' on a treadmill, gliding on an elliptical or peddling away going nowhere on a stationary bike. These types of activities we think of as conditioning our heart keeping it healthy and strong. But we have it the wrong way around. Our heart circulates oxygen filled blood around our body but it is our muscles that need to be strong as they are what drive the heart not the other way around. The stronger your muscular system is the better it can aid the heart as each time the muscles contract and relax they squeeze or 'milk' blood back towards the heart. It is this alternate contracting and relaxing of muscles that pushes blood around the body reducing the work load on the heart. So for all-over conditioning and for strengthening of the heart proper strength training exercise is all that is needed. When done correctly with adequate resistance (intensity) and some effort used it will get your heart pumping and you huffing and puffing. This is saying that strength training exercise done properly will fulfill your 'cardio' needs as well. Not only do you save tons of time not having to do endurance type activity you will strengthen and condition every muscle in your entire body. In our largely sedentary society many of the declines we experience in our functional ability and ultimately in our health are nothing more than the consequences of our lifestyle habits. It is largely our activity levels (or rather lack of them) that contribute to muscle, bone and joint problems which are the result of weakness and inflexibility. A strength training program is the perfect antidote right through our lifetime that will counteract the loss of physical function as we get older. As we spend a third of our life after age 50 it makes good sense to perform 2-3 sessions each week of proper exercise to keep our body strong and resilient. Instead of being afraid of getting "over the hill and declining" we will then be able to view it as "over the hill and picking up speed"
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Many people when they think of getting into better physical shape or lose fat weight; mistakenly believe that they need ‘cardio' type activity to achieve these goals...
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