step counters-Rant

Those bastids!

This is fun. Let's judge them for something else.

Movement = calories burnt so if you walk 100 steps or 10,000 you have still burnt calories = done cardio.IMO

Burning calories not not equal "doing cardio".

I sit across from people every day who elaborate at great lengths about how busy and active they are, but can't walk 3.0 mph on a treadmill without gasping for air.

Again: locomotion is not the same as exercise.

what if they don't care about walking at 3.0 without gasping for air??

at this point I doubt I could play a sport with out dying within 5 minutes.

I don't play sports. - so you could make fun of me for being in awful shape- but dollars to doughnuts you don't care about being able to play left hand dominate running singles on finger cymbals while doing full time downbeat right glute squeezes over a alternating chasse....

or picking up 300 pounds of dead lift.

Priorities and goals.

That's like making fun of someone for not being able to swim when they are a sky diver.

Sorry, hate to say this, but you missed both the reading comprehension and logic targets on this one.

The original statement referred to cardio, not any other type of activity. It also made the statement that ANY movement of the legs to move a body ANY distance was a form of cardio exercise.

That simply is not true.

"Cardio exercise" refers to a type of exercise that has specific physical effects, and has to be performed a specific way in order to achieve those effects. That's the definition of the term, it's not a value statement.

Random locomotion is not "cardio" no matter how much you want to wish it to be so. That doesn't mean it has no value, and I never stated nor implied that it had no value. In your rush to express your indignation over something you imagined I wrote, you seem to have missed that part entirely.

Mostly I am just having fun being pedantic, but the misunderstanding and misuse of words have real-life implications. I tried to point that out by using examples from my clinical experience. I work with people every day who lack the basic physical ability to maintain their quality of life, and one of the reasons they got that way is because they think getting up to go to the bathroom is "cardio". Pointing that out is not making fun of them--it just emphasizes the challenge of changing the mindset so that they can achieve their stated goals.

If someone said "oh yeah, lifting anything = strength training", stating that lifting up their 1yr old kid was the equivalent of your 300lb deadlift, would you think you were making fun of them when you tried to explain the difference?

When I was working in a restaurant I wore a pedometer and counted it. I lost weight because I was in a calorie deficit and I did A LOT of walking during those shifts. Walking totally counts. :]

Movement = calories burnt so if you walk 100 steps or 10,000 you have still burnt calories = done cardio.IMO

Burning calories not not equal "doing cardio".

I sit across from people every day who elaborate at great lengths about how busy and active they are, but can't walk 3.0 mph on a treadmill without gasping for air.

Again: locomotion is not the same as exercise.

what if they don't care about walking at 3.0 without gasping for air??

at this point I doubt I could play a sport with out dying within 5 minutes.

I don't play sports. - so you could make fun of me for being in awful shape- but dollars to doughnuts you don't care about being able to play left hand dominate running singles on finger cymbals while doing full time downbeat right glute squeezes over a alternating chasse....

or picking up 300 pounds of dead lift.

Priorities and goals.

That's like making fun of someone for not being able to swim when they are a sky diver.

Sorry, hate to say this, but you missed both the reading comprehension and logic targets on this one.

The original statement referred to cardio, not any other type of activity. It also made the statement that ANY movement of the legs to move a body ANY distance was a form of cardio exercise.

That simply is not true.

"Cardio exercise" refers to a type of exercise that has specific physical effects, and has to be performed a specific way in order to achieve those effects. That's the definition of the term, it's not a value statement.

Cardio means exercise where the cardiovascular system supplies enough oxygen to the muscles to maintain the intensity of exercise without building up any significant oxygen debt. Walking does that, as does strolling or any kind of simple movement. Even if you just get up off the sofa to walk to the fridge one time, your heart and lungs work ever so slightly harder to get the extra oxygen to your legs. Unless you've been bedridden for a while you probably will not find this strenuous, but your muscles are being supplied with oxygen by your cardiovascular system to enable you to do this activity, (and a healthy person will not build up an oxygen debt from this - getting an oxygen debt going to get something out of the fridge would be an indication of a severe illness of the cardiovascular system, e.g. emphysema). I don't know where you want to draw the line between cardio and non-cardio. Or how you think the muscles are getting oxygen if it's not from the cardiovascular system.

Anaerobic exercise involves a build up of oxygen debt (e.g. sprints, heavy lifting) - but even that involves the cardiovascular system, mostly after you finish, to pump enough blood to carry enough oxygen to the muscles to get rid of the oxygen debt. But while doing the exercise, the energy comes directly from glucose without oxygen, and lactic acid builds up as a byproduct.

I've never heard this distinction between cardio and non-cardio (because it's apparently too easy) before. Only the distinction between aerobic (no significant oxygen debt, can be continued for long periods) and anaerobic (oxygen debt is built up, exercise can only be continued for short bursts, recovery time is needed before another short burst of anaerobic exercise can be done).

There is a distinction between exercise that will help you increase your fitness level and exercise that won't - but where you draw the line for that depends entirely on the individual's current level of fitness, i.e. is it easy or hard for that person. Brisk walking would still raise the heart rate and breathing rate even of a relatively fit person, and so would be benefical for most people. But this distinction doesn't determine whether the exercise is cardio or not. It's all cardio unless you're building up an oxygen debt. For cardio to have any effect on your health it needs to elevate your heart rate and make you breathe more deeply and it's generally recommended for this to be continued for at least 30 minutes, unless the exercise is very intense (e.g. the cardiovascular system working overtime to repay an oxygen debt from anaerobic exercise). Anaerobic exercise still increases cardiovascular fitness, because it still requires that system to repay the oxygen debt.

If someone said "oh yeah, lifting anything = strength training", stating that lifting up their 1yr old kid was the equivalent of your 300lb deadlift, would you think you were making fun of them when you tried to explain the difference?

I do kettlebell swings with a 35 pound child. Is that less strength training than if I used metal?

I alternate. I run every other day. I go for a long walk every other day.

Either way, I aim to get at least 10,000 steps a day. I almost always succeed.

I consider my walking days just as valuable for my health as my running days.

I do kettlebell swings with a 35 pound child. Is that less strength training than if I used metal?

Is it a muscular 35 pound kid, or a fat 35 pound kid? We all know muscle weighs more than fat, so that might make a difference right thar.

you don't know anything- everyone whose anyone on the internet knows kids are only useful for squatting and deadlfiting.

But if for whatever hypothetical reason you're KB swinging the kid- it depends on if it's an ALIVE dead or fat kid. because we know live weight weighs less than dead weight.
So if it's a muscular alive kid- it weighs less than the fat dead kid.

Edit- also take into consideration- the fat 35 pound kid - weighs less if he was eating clean.
Muscular 35 pound kid was doing a dirty bulk- therefor weighs even MORE.

A two-year old is pretty much the definition of a dirty bulk.

What about power cleans? Do those count?

(Kid squats are the best!)

I know alot of people use those pedometors and step counters and rely on them to add to their calorie counts, especially as cardio. I think they are far reaching as far as fitness is concerned ( heart health cardio) . I walk probably 5+ miles a day at work but, really walking from the sink to the counter is not fitness .

I spoke to someone the other day who joined a gym ( a co worker) and said i dont plan on using the cardio machines because i walk 10 miles a day at work according to my step counter. That is NOT cardio.....i dont even think it should count if you arent getting your heart rate up while doing it. Those things give people a false sense of fitness in my opinion.

Ok rant over....he just frustrated me when he made that comment re cardio

:laugh: Don't you think this comes off a wee bit snobby?