Why has cardio become a swear word on MFP all of a sudden?

Nopedotjpeg

I'm not going to read the whole debate. I know what both sides will say pretty much. As much as I like lifting, not doing cardio is pretty stupid unless you're on a bulk and really have trouble eating enough calories. There are proven mental and cardiovascular health benefits to it.

I can't find the quote by Jim Wendler, but he said verbatim: "When I was over 300 pounds, I was strong, but in terrible shape. All I could do was wobble up to a monolift to squat."

HorrorChix89

I don't listen to the cardio haters. I'd rather be able to breathe better and run faster and longer than looking like I can punch a grown man in the face. Maybe I'm more of a flight vs fight kind of person.

Nopedotjpeg

I don't listen to the cardio haters. I'd rather be able to breathe better and run faster and longer than looking like I can punch a grown man in the face. Maybe I'm more of a flight vs fight kind of person.

I'd rather be able to punch a grown man in the face and then run away.

KANGOOJUMPS

CARDIO ROCKS FOR ME!!

HorrorChix89

I don't listen to the cardio haters. I'd rather be able to breathe better and run faster and longer than looking like I can punch a grown man in the face. Maybe I'm more of a flight vs fight kind of person.

I'd rather be able to punch a grown man in the face and then run away.

:flowerforyou:

dandelion39

Really?? 13 pages of posts arguing about cardio vs. strength—like there's ANY argument for not incorporating some level of both? What a waste of pixels.

Meiplé

Really?? 13 pages of posts arguing about cardio vs. strength—like there's ANY argument for not incorporating some level of both? What a waste of pixels.

*applause* absolutely no reason for this to go past one page. and for the record, i have never ever heard anyone say do not do cardio

bcattoes

I don't listen to the cardio haters. I'd rather be able to breathe better and run faster and longer than looking like I can punch a grown man in the face. Maybe I'm more of a flight vs fight kind of person.

:laugh: I hope I never have to punch anyone, but if the occasion arose a good kick will bring a man down faster than a punch any day. And after that kick there will be a need to run fast and far.

Z_I_L_L_A

Really?? 13 pages of posts arguing about cardio vs. strength—like there's ANY argument for not incorporating some level of both? What a waste of pixels.

Me bored..........sorry.

piebird79

I like lifting weights 5 days a week. On occasion I get in a spurt where I walk my dog a few times a week for a few weeks in a row and then stop.

Ha ha, this sounds like me! I lift 3 days a week and my poor dogs get that same random walking. Oh well.

HorrorChix89

I don't listen to the cardio haters. I'd rather be able to breathe better and run faster and longer than looking like I can punch a grown man in the face. Maybe I'm more of a flight vs fight kind of person.

:laugh: I hope I never have to punch anyone, but if the occasion arose a good kick will bring a man down faster than a punch any day. And after that kick there will be a need to run fast and far.

I'm good at kicking, since I'm 5'1" and the male face is far out of reach :laugh: No point trying to prove something when you can save your own *kitten* and then rant about it online like most people do...

BrianSharpe

Google "chronic cardio".

Found lots of bro-science sites but not much credible research, perhaps you could point me to scientific research.

Some cardio is good. Too much isn't.

Define too much (and the underlying research that supports your assertion)

Just not more than 30m a session as that is when catabolism of muscles start.

I'm calling BS on that one.......

hesn92

Whatever I like cardio a lot better than strength. Right now I'm planning on doing cardio 3X a week and strength maybe 2...

Fit_Canuck

Haven't been through the entire thread.

Google "chronic cardio". There's a fine line between exercising hard and over exercising. Exercise is stress. The body will treat is as such. Too much stress isn't a good thing. Our bodies are subjected to enough stress just trying to get through each day.

When you exercise you are weakening the body (breaking it down). All gains happen during rest/recovery.

And your cardiovascular system benefits just as much, if not more, from resistance training. Try doing back to back sets of reps. I can do 6 squats with heavy barbell (only 45lbs - I just started squats with weights). I do two sets back to back and I'm already out of breath and sweating. And it only took a few minutes.

Some cardio is good. Too much isn't.

I see what you did here, you dropped Paleo diet stuff in there I googled it and 6 out of 10 sites were all Paleo-Pro diet pages...and one "low-carb" site.... naughty naughty...

bcattoes

I'm not knocking strength training, I do it, but I know a few things for certain:

1. It doesn't have to involve weights.
2. The younger you are, the less you can get away with doing and still look good. (young = naturally firmer, me = old)
3. I have lived more than half a century doing mostly cardio, at times only cardio, and I have remained completely healthy (no diagnoses, no meds, no syndroms, rarely overweight, etc.) despite coming from a history of heart and vasular disease on both my mother and father's side of the family, and diabetes on my mothers.
4. I still look good naked. Not as good as I did when I was 30, but good.

atjays

I really enjoy my cardio days, best place to see growth in how fit your body is. On the flip side though it compliments my lifting days. I do three days of each per week alternating days with Saturdays off. Works well for me

RunHardBeStrong

I think for many people, eating healthy and weight lifting is "easier" than cardio. I personally love cardio because I am a smoker and I can feel it pulling the nicotiene out of my body. Plus I am trying to become more lean, and I know this is the core to my workout to get the body I want. I also do a lot of pilates exerises to tone certain areas, but I wouldn't look the way I do now if it weren't for cardio.

I love and do both cardio and lifting. In no way is *heavy* lifting easier than cardio! I think everyone just has their preferences. As I stated I love both and both have equal but very different purposes in my life!

Acg67

I'm not knocking strength training, I do it, but I know a few things for certain:

1. It doesn't have to involve weights.
2. The younger you are, the less you can get away with doing and still look good. (young = naturally firmer, me = old)
3. I have lived more than half a century doing mostly cardio, at times only cardio, and I have remained completely healthy (no diagnoses, no meds, no syndroms, rarely overweight, etc.) despite coming from a history of heart and vasular disease on both my mother and father's side of the family, and diabetes on my mothers.
4. I still look good naked. Not as good as I did when I was 30, but good.

What would be better to combat age related sarcopenia, cardio or strength training?

Natihilator

Strength training is for conditioning my body and I value it a lot, but cardio is for:

- conditioning my heart so I don't drop dead at 30 from a heart attack (heart disease is a big killer in my family, so throwing obesity into the mix doesn't help things)
- ex-smoker and borderline asthmatic here, 'nuff said.
- keeping me from going crazy. I love to dance, so doing Zumba classes make me happy. I love to hike and climb things and I don't even remember that I'm doing it as a "cardio exercise"

That being said, I like to make efficient use of my time when I am doing cardio for a workout, so I'm all about the HIIT. Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the rare people looking to lose weight without becoming a marathon runner, endurance cardio is just not for me at all.

bcattoes

I'm not knocking strength training, I do it, but I know a few things for certain:

1. It doesn't have to involve weights.
2. The younger you are, the less you can get away with doing and still look good. (young = naturally firmer, me = old)
3. I have lived more than half a century doing mostly cardio, at times only cardio, and I have remained completely healthy (no diagnoses, no meds, no syndroms, rarely overweight, etc.) despite coming from a history of heart and vasular disease on both my mother and father's side of the family, and diabetes on my mothers.
4. I still look good naked. Not as good as I did when I was 30, but good.

What would be better to combat age related sarcopenia, cardio or strength training?

If only one was allowed? Strength. Like I said, I'm not knocking strength training. I do it, more now that I am aging than I used to. And this is why. Luckily I can do both and more.

yoovie

I think its probably because there are so many people on the 'lifting/ST/crossfit/hybrid' side- that stayed too long on the 'CARDIO IS THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT' side and we alll vehemently want to help veryone who is alls to wall cardio that moan incessantly about being on a plateau- but dont want to use weight cause they think they will look like an idiot.

Not that everyone thinks like that- but its going through another surge on here I think, simply because of the number of people moaning about their cardio woes.

You see someone struggling, you want to help, you know what will help, they shrug you off like you're the idiot and get super defensive of their cardio.

You cant win for losin

bcattoes

Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the rare people looking to lose weight without becoming a marathon runner, endurance cardio is just not for me at all.

Really? I would think endurance cardio was rather rare on MFP. Actually, I'd think it pretty rare in general.

yoovie

Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the rare people looking to lose weight without becoming a marathon runner, endurance cardio is just not for me at all.

Really? I would think endurance cardio was rather rare on MFP. Actually, I'd think it pretty rare in general.

Im an endurance cardio junkie, training for the NYC mara.... but I'd part with cardio at this point before you could pry my cold dead hands from my weights

thistimeismytime

I do cardio every single day. It's good for my mood and my heart health. It's awesome, and I love eating those calories back People just LOVE to argue, that's all. LoL... carbs are good, carbs are bad, fat is good, fat is bad, cardio is good, cardio is bad.... it's all so exhausting. Just ignore it and do what works for you, do what makes you feel good! :flowerforyou: BTW, I love weight training too...in my opinion it's about balance. What's right for me isn't right for everyone.

Natihilator

Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the rare people looking to lose weight without becoming a marathon runner, endurance cardio is just not for me at all.

Really? I would think endurance cardio was rather rare on MFP. Actually, I'd think it pretty rare in general.

Maybe on MFP, but Ive heard countless times that Blank Blankerson lost X-amount of pounds by taking up running/jogging/walking. There are a lot of people who think that the best/only way to go about this is to lace up and hit the pavement for hours.

Di3012

I can't help to notice that cardio has been getting a seriously bad rep lately....

I get the idea that strengh/resistance whatever you want to call it is a vital part of losing weight and staying healthy, but there are more and more threads where people get told that 2 days of cardio per week is too much????

What about the health benefits of regular cardio vs just "heavy lifting"?

I know what works for me (cardio 4+ times a week from 30 mins to 1.5 hour on long runs, and lifting (though i doubt that some cousins of the Incredible Hulk on here would call it heavy! ) 3 times a week....
it gives me an all round program, burns calories, sustain lean muscle and makes me happy - oh, and got my bp down from borderline hypertention (139/89 to 117/70) and my body fat % down from 49.6 to 29%, so why the dislike of it?

Any ideas on why cardio is bad all of a sudden? :flowerforyou:

I like my cardio and will continue to do it whether people like me doing it or not!

Cardio is good for the heart, for the blood pressure, it burns calories like no tomorrow and gets one in shape. Cardio is here to stay, oh yes.

:drinker:

deadbeatsummer

I have no interest in health fads and believe in sweating hard - getting fitter and eating plenty of fruit and staying around 1400 cals to lose weight. I look forward to my turbo fire sessions and i dont feel inadequate as a my fitness pal user because i dont lift weights.

Summerlove1993

I'm losing weight to get healthy, and my doctor insists on cardiovascular exercise as part of my plan. I respect his highly educated opinion.

kelceyjean12011

i think a good mix of both is great

CarrieAnne22

I admittedly prefer and longing look forward to my strength training/weight days, but I still do some sort of cardio every day. I think they go hand in hand for a healthier life style.