Switching up cardio - is it really effective

MrGonzo05

Cross training is a good idea for injury prevention, and to avoid boredom. Calorie burn, not a great reason to cross train.

Azdak

Thanks all. I will check out intervals and try changing pace when I run. I don't think I will be raising intensity more and more, though. I don't feel that that's right for my body - not 17 any more plus want to stick to something that is sustainable. Guess I will have to watch my food more:(

If you are enjoying running, there is no reason to change it unless you really want to. A lot of runners bring in some form of CT (for you it is Yoga) to engage active recovery. But, if you are doing the same thing day in and day out running then your body will not adapt to become better. Think of it as a cardio version of body building. Body builders don't lift the same weight day in and day out and build muscle and strength that way. They need the added stimuli of more weight to enduce muscle growth.

Same concept with running. If you just stop at the 3 miles 3 times a week, that is what your body will become used to and eventually your body will have adapted as far as it needs to maintain that activity level. The calorie burn drops, and the running just becomes another activity in your every day life. But, if you add different stimuli (hills, intervals, speed sessions, varying long runs) then you are constantly creating some form of stress that your body has to adjust to which means cardio improvement...which in us runner's language means we can run faster or longer in the same period of time so maintaining the average calorie/hr burn.

Training progress may stop, but, if weight stays the same, the calorie expenditure will also stay the same. It does not drop. Over an extended period of time, mechanical efficiency "might" result in a decreased energy demand, but the decrease is not that great. Professional cyclists who ride hundreds of miles per week have only shown a 3%-5% improvement in "mechanical efficiency" over 5 years, so I hardly think the average jogger is going to see much difference in the course of a few weeks.

People constantly confuse training effect with caloric expenditure. Varying the training stimulus is essential for making continued improvement in fitness level and performance. However, varying exercise activity has no independent effect on calorie burn. As I have said before, it will likely decrease calorie burn because the person won't be able to push themselves as hard during the new activity.

The only indirect effect that what you are describing will have is that improved training will increase fitness level, which will in turn allow the exerciser to work at higher workloads and thus burn more calories. However, that is a result of the higher fitness level, not because of "muscle confusion".

Can you direct me to the links supporting your quote about cyclists mechanical improvements of 3-5% ??

Not in this case. I'm a working guy, not really a research librarian. I read a lot of studies--some of them I keep, some I don't. And they are filed in 3 or 4 different places. So you are just going to have to take the information at face value and either trust--or not trust--that I know what I'm talking about. I don't think I have this particular one around. It's an area of interest for me, so I tend to remember the details of studies that I think are particularly germane.

ninerbuff

I would think you'd have to have a carefully-defined goal for doing that. Just changing for it's own sake is not very productive. If you are a runner, for example, then, unless you were interested in cross training to prevent injury or overtraining, it would be more beneficial to incorporate different training stimuli from the start (e.g. intervals, hills, endurance, etc) rather than, say, switch to cycling after 6-8 weeks. Maybe we are talking about two different things.

That's why I stated program and not activity. I believe we are speaking in the same terms.

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