when did boycotting cardio become the cool thing to do?

You people are arguing which type of exercise YOU do, and which YOU think is best. To answer the OP questions, the reason people "boycott" cardio is because there is ZERO benefit that is exclusive to cardio. Any benefit that cardio offers, resistance training offers, and more.

Runners are going to run, and lifters are going to lift. For the people that want to look/feel good, in the shortest amount of time, there is no reason to do cardio.

And for people into more than just looking pretty, it's essential.

Well no, not really.

Yeah, I can see you disprove my point, so I take it back.

Does a powerlifter need cardio to excel at their sport?

No. What's your point?

You people are arguing which type of exercise YOU do, and which YOU think is best. To answer the OP questions, the reason people "boycott" cardio is because there is ZERO benefit that is exclusive to cardio. Any benefit that cardio offers, resistance training offers, and more.

Runners are going to run, and lifters are going to lift. For the people that want to look/feel good, in the shortest amount of time, there is no reason to do cardio.

And for people into more than just looking pretty, it's essential.

Once you can offer me one benefit of steady cardio, that resistance training doesn't offer, I'll consider your argument.

I already did. Rhythm was high on the list for skipping rope. Helps me in my job.

And if "eye of the tiger" didn't convince you, you are lost and I can't help.

Seriously though. Unless you are juicing, body part splits are a waste of time, which leaves full body and upper/lower, push/pull kinda splits. Which leaves you with rest days. Which means not training every day. Which means not being as well conditioned, or half as good at coitus.



I can't imagine life without both resistance training and cardio. It would be either overtraining or under training.

You people are arguing which type of exercise YOU do, and which YOU think is best. To answer the OP questions, the reason people "boycott" cardio is because there is ZERO benefit that is exclusive to cardio. Any benefit that cardio offers, resistance training offers, and more.

Runners are going to run, and lifters are going to lift. For the people that want to look/feel good, in the shortest amount of time, there is no reason to do cardio.

And for people into more than just looking pretty, it's essential.

Once you can offer me one benefit of steady cardio, that resistance training doesn't offer, I'll consider your argument.

I already did. Rhythm was high on the list for skipping rope. Helps me in my job.

And if "eye of the tiger" didn't convince you, you are lost and I can't help.

Seriously though. Unless you are juicing, body part splits are a waste of time, which leaves full body and upper/lower, push/pull kinda splits. Which leaves you with rest days. Which means not training every day. Which means not being as well conditioned, or half as good at coitus.



I can't imagine life without both resistance training and cardio. It would be either overtraining or under training.

I'm not sure what you consider rhythm, but if you're referring to the body's ability to rapidly relax antagonist muscles, then that is best accomplished through olympic lifting, plyometrics, speed squats, etc.

I love cardio!!! Helps with....endurance....if you know what I mean.

I love cardio!!! Helps with....endurance....if you know what I mean.

Yeah, but power lifters are more efficient and powerful about it. They don't need cardio, but you might need batteries.

Lol.

You people are arguing which type of exercise YOU do, and which YOU think is best. To answer the OP questions, the reason people "boycott" cardio is because there is ZERO benefit that is exclusive to cardio. Any benefit that cardio offers, resistance training offers, and more.

Runners are going to run, and lifters are going to lift. For the people that want to look/feel good, in the shortest amount of time, there is no reason to do cardio.

And for people into more than just looking pretty, it's essential.

Well no, not really.

Yeah, I can see you disprove my point, so I take it back.

Does a powerlifter need cardio to excel at their sport?

No. What's your point?

I think they're looking for more than pretty

Oh great, now we have some false equivalence to go with the false dilemma.


If you are an elite powerlifter, and really have no time to spare for cardio, skip it then.


Specialists... Specialize.


Funny how you quote the statement to which I responded, then proceed to take my point out of context for your pointless exercise.

Hah, you're funny.

Sorry you falsely implied that the only reason to skip cardio would be to look pretty.

My bad.

Can anyone offer one benefit of cardio that resistance training doesn't offer?...besides being better at running, that is.

I think you have to define your terms. I see the words "circulation" and "heart rate" and "fitness", "lifting weights", etc used indiscriminately in this discussion, so it is difficult to provide direct answers.

For comparison purposes, for starters, I would focus on VO2 max as a definition of aerobic fitness and traditional weight lifting (i.e. reps and sets) as comparison points.

And I am also referring to people who have been exercising for awhile, not newbie adaptations.

Here are some some things I know and have found:

In a story entitled "What are the advantages of Olympic Lifting?" I found this statement:

First, the most surprising aspect of Olympic Lifting is its effect on the cardiovascular system. A few years ago, Doctor Michael Stone studied the cardiovascular benefits of Olympic Lifting. He was shocked to find the improvements made by this form of training.

OK, so far so good. Olympic Lifting is not a big interest of mine, so I am open to learning new things. I noted that Dr Stone is a respected strength coach so he seems to have some credibility. Unfortunately, while attempting to get more detail or references to actual studies, all I could come up with was the same quote (and, in fact the entire article containing the quote) plagiarized and reprinted verbatim on 50 or 60 different web sites. With limited time to search, I gave up trying to find out more about Dr Stone's shocking discovery.

If there are any links to actual data, I would be interested in looking at them. In my experience, weight lifters are desperate for social acclamation of the "superiority" of their sport, so they tend to exaggerate the cardio benefits. But that doesn't mean there aren't any, so I am curious to read anything factual.

I have also seen two other areas of possible confusion. One is the relationship between heart rate and exercise. I did a quick little search on "cardiovascular benefits of weight lifting" and came up with a list of forum answers that illustrate my point. In response to the question, the overwhelming response was "YES!!", mostly from a bunch of NASM "Elite Trainers". The typical response read like this:

Yes, definitely! The heart’s job is to pump oxygen, nutrients, and energy to our working muscles via the blood, regardless of the type of activity. With that said any activity that increases your breathing rate and requires the heart to pump and circulate more blood, such as weight lifting, will provide benefits similar to those from cardio training.

OK--well this is just flat out wrong (and confirms everything I have ever thought about NASM training). As I have pointed out numerous times before, the elevated heart rate that occurs with heavy resistance training and the heart rate response that occurs during aerobic training are driven by two completely different physiologic mechanisms. The elevated heart rate that occurs during aerobic exercise results in increased cardiac output and increased oxygen uptake. The elevated heart rate that occurs during heavy resistance training is not. It is a pressure load, not a volume load.

So, if the claims of "cardiovascular benefits" of weight lifting are based on an observation of increased heart rate, that would be a false conclusion, a false interpretation of the evidence. So how do we tell? I'll get back to that shortly.

The second area of confusion is the conflation of different types of resistance training as "weight training". Specifically I am referring to the inclusion of "circuit training" under the heading of "weight training" and the cardiovascular effects of circuit training used to support the claims of "cardiovascular benefits" from weight training.

Well, no.

Circuit training is not "weight training" per se. Circuit training is "tain't training"---tain't weight lifting and tain't cardio. If you do traditional circuit training--i.e. alternating lifting sets with cardio intervals--then it's pretty obvious where the cardio benefits are coming from. If you do a circuit consisting of plyo exercises, kettlebell swings, etc, well that's not really "weight lifting" either. Just because you are not doing a traditional cardio movement --running, cycling, etc--doesn't mean you "aren't doing cardio". All movements have a resistive component and an aerobic component and they are more or less inversely proportional. So the more cardio effect a movement has, the less resistive effect, and vice versa. So anyone who is doing crossfit or metabolic circuits and saying "there is no reason to do cardio"--well, guess what: you are doing cardio.

So back to: how do we test that a weight lifting routine actually has a cardio training effect? It's pretty simple: do a VO2 max pre-test, lift some weights for awhile, do a VO2 max post test.

And what do we find?

I work for a living so I didn't have time to do an exhaustive literature search for this purpose. However I invested a few minutes in a PubMed search on the topic "resistance training VO2 max" and here is what I got. Not complete by any means, but certainly consistent with all the other research I have read over the past decades. (Note: I am not going to cite the specific titles--it's easy enough to go to pubmed and type in the same search term I used if anyone wants more detail).

1. "The effects of strength training on some parameters of aerobic and anaerobic endurance".
11 young men, 12 weeks of "Olympic lifts" training. Results: 2.7% increase in VO2 max, no improvement in running performance at threshold.

2. "Cardiopulmonary responses during high intensity weight training in male handball players" (note: European handball)
The training consisted of 4 exercises (squat, bench press, lat pull, and neck press), each performed for ten repetitions at an intensity of 80% of one repetition maximum over a 30-seconds period with a 1:4 work/test ratio.
RESULTS: During weight training, the VO2 ranged from 0.8 +/- 0.2 l x min(-1) to 2.4 +/- 0.4 l x min(-1). The lowest values were measured during load, while peak values were reached 40 to 70 seconds after load. Mean (+/- SE) VO2 was 1.22 +/- 0.05 l x min(-1), or 26.5% of the treadmill-determined VO2(max). Mean (+/- SE) HR was 117 +/- 4 beats x min(-1), or 61% of the treadmill-determined HR(max).
CONCLUSION:
The findings in the present study indicate that high intensity weight training is not able to produce adaptive improvement in cardiovascular function. The physiological responses measured during this experiment provide support to previous studies, that the lack of cardiovascular adaptation may be due to the low percentage of VO2(max)elicited by this form of training.

(My Note: Two things: 1) VO2 during lifting was only 26.5% of VO2 max. 2) Mean HR was 61% of HRmax but VO2 was only 26.5% of VO2 max. This disconnect between the HR/VO2 relationship is why heart rate (and HRMs) cannot be used as a valid estimate of aerobic effect during weight training).

3. "The effects of aerobic and resistance exercises in obese women"
60 obese women assigned (20 each) to resistance group, aerobic group, control group. 12 weeks of training.
RESULTS: VO2max increased in aerobic group only.
CONCLUSION: aerobic exercise appeared to be beneficial with regard to improving depressive symptoms and maximum oxygen consumption, resistance exercise was beneficial in increasing muscle strength.

(My Note: in all fairness, the increase in VO2max, while statistically significant, was minescule)

4. "Physiological changes with periodized resistance training in women tennis players"
The study was looking at the difference between a periodized and non-periodized resistance training program, but they did test for VO2max.
RESULTS: Percent body fat and VO2(max) decreased significantly in the P and NV groups after training. (oops)

(My Note: no details given in the abstract as to the structure of the resistance training program).

At that point, I gave up.

But as you can see, even in this brief summary, resistance training went 0 for 4. (unless someone wants to claim that 2.7% increase).

Those research results are consistent with what I have seen in the past.

A 2011 study by Christopher Scott of the aerobic, anerobic, and EPOC components of total energy expenditure during a bench press performed at 90% of 1RM showed that the aerobic component during the exercise was only 11% of total energy expenditure.

Other studies have shown that VO2 during heavy squats at 2-4RM was equivalent to a moderate walk --3 or 4 METs.

Again, I am presenting this so that we have a common basis for discussion. If you are going to make the claims of "there is ZERO benefit that is exclusive to cardio", I would be interested in the scientific basis -- similar to what I have presented -- for those claims.

And I'm not even saying you are wrong--like I said, I haven't read every research study ever published. But what you are saying doesn't jive with the wealth of the published literature. So I am curious to see if you have data that I haven't seen or if the incongruity is more due to an inconsistent definition of terms.

And if there is more of an effect than I have cited, it's important to know the extent of the effect and the precise conditions under which it is elicited--i.e. what types of lifts, intensity levels, etc. For example, if there is this cardiovascular effect for Olympic lifts, what practical benefit does that have, considering that very few people can do Olympic lifts?

The ONLY reason I do weights and strength training is to make my legs stronger to become a better runner. I couldn't care less about abs or big muscles. I run. I'm a runner. It's what I do.

Make that two. I love running and I strength train to enhance my running performance!