That Can’t Be Good Cardio!!

Everything in life seems rather polarizing doesn’t it? Fitness is one of the common industries where that polarization is ramped up often to sell one idea as the ultimate and the other as the worst thing you could ever do. As crazy as that sounds, I get it, the response I get from people on social media is often, “just tell me what to do!”

This is very understandable as it can be overwhelming with ALL the information out there as to what is good for you. That part is really key, there are many different strategies and methods that can deliver a result. The key is to know what is good for you to do which is based on a variety of factors because life itself is always changing, so what is good for us at one time in our life, may not be great in another.

That is why in our NEW Bags, Bells, Balls, & Bands program I wanted to show you how to have balance. I know balance isn’t something that you will find in fitness very often, but the truth is that it is key in achieving not just results, but long-term progress. In order to illustrate this point I wanted to share why we have a variety of training methods, all that have a very positive impact on your cardio.

Why talk about cardio training? For one, cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in the world, which sounds like a good reason. Good cardio benefits include so many aspects of fitness and health such as…lower blood pressure, improved insulin sensitivity, greater cognition, reduction in pain and stress levels, and yes, often we have a decrease in body fat.

Now is more always better? A 2018 paper in Frontiers in Cardiac Medicine points out, “there is evidence to suggest that continuously high levels of exercise (e.g., marathon running) could have detrimental effects on cardiovascular health.” (1)

So, extremes tend not to improve our health which is something to always be mindful of in our training.

People will almost always argue online which type of cardio is better too? Is it low intensity/steady state or more high intensity interval training (HIIT)? To be honest, there are strong rationales for both! HIIT has been shown to be safe and even more effective to lower intensity forms of training for cardiac health, even cardiac rehab (2).

So, is HIIT better? It really depends, I know, you HATE that answer? There are some real world considerations we need to make in order to answer this question. For one, how physically active is someone? This sounds silly, but most studies on HIIT are done with bikes or other similar types of equipment. Someone who isn’t very proficient at a large number of movements in the gym setting can have a hard time attaining the appropriate intensities in their training that create the HIIT effect. That is why many studies recommend doing both strength and training like HIIT or aerobic work.

 

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How well does someone move? What is the stress levels in their life? How is their sleep? Does someone have pain? How much time does someone have to train gives us a lot of direction in answering what is right for you? There is evidence that almost 60% of our population in the US have significant long-term stress (3).

This does have some practical implications that we really need to consider as well. Chronic long-term stress can really mess with our physiology causing sleep disturbances, greater intake food high in fat, sugar, or both (4), altering how we metabolize food which increases our body fat gain (5), and predisposes us to greater cardiovascular risks.

Often this leads us to feeling pretty crappy and where many can feel unmotivated as well. That is why more and more major medical programs are also recommending the use of mind-body therapies (such as we see in our Myofascial Integrated Movement  system). Why? Research shows, “mindfulness exercises that alert a person to cues of hunger and satiation, selection and portion decisions, tastes and textures of particular foods, and the act and moment of eating and swallowing Preliminary studies indicated this approach reduced bingeing and increased self-control of food and food choices. They posit that mindfulness increases psychological and physiological self-regulation, heightens awareness of self-control and healthy functioning, increases awareness of automatic behavioral patterns, and helps people purposefully and successfully disengage from undesirable aspects.” (6)

However, it isn’t just through being more aware of what we are doing and being able to make better choices that makes such practices important for cardiovascular health and our fitness goals. Such practices have been shown to decrease cardiovascular risks (7) and overall well-being. Practices like we show in our MIM system have been shown to be 52% more effective in lowering blood pressure than running (8).

Another study compared such practices like MIM to running on cardiovascular fitness and they found both had a relatively similar significant impact on all cardiovascular markers and reduction in bodyweight (9). This is great because while the MIM movements may take a bit more learning up front, the fact is they may provide more overall benefits related to our goals, improve our mobility/stability, and have less issues like knee, hip, and low back pain that are very common in those that take up running on a regular basis.

Below is an example of how we can start employing these MIM ideas together into a practice that will help our cardio health both physiologically and mentally. Combining this with the progressive strategies that utilize HIIT in our main training session (like we show in our new Bags, Bells, Balls, & Bands program) doesn’t require us to have to make a choice and really have the best of both worlds. Try the below series with a simple format of 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest for 2-3 rounds (if there are two sides do 30 seconds of work per side)

Don’t miss saving 30% on our NEW 6 month training program with code “workout30” HERE and don’t miss our new Mobility Balls HERE

References:

1. Nystoriak MA, Bhatnagar A. Cardiovascular Effects and Benefits of Exercise. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2018 Sep 28;5:135. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2018.00135. PMID: 30324108; PMCID: PMC6172294.
2. Hannan AL, Hing W, Simas V, Climstein M, Coombes JS, Jayasinghe R, Byrnes J, Furness J. High-intensity interval training versus moderate-intensity continuous training within cardiac rehabilitation: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Open Access J Sports Med. 2018 Jan 26;9:1-17. doi: 10.2147/OAJSM.S150596. PMID: 29416382; PMCID: PMC5790162.
3. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2023/collective-trauma-recovery
4. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat#:~:text=Stress%20eating%2C%20hormones%20and%20hunger&text=Numerous%20studies%20—%20granted%2C%20many%20of,insulin%20levels%2C%20may%20be%20responsible.
5. Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Habash DL, Fagundes CP, Andridge R, Peng J, Malarkey WB, Belury MA. Daily stressors, past depression, and metabolic responses to high-fat meals: a novel path to obesity. Biol Psychiatry. 2015 Apr 1;77(7):653-60. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.05.018. Epub 2014 Jul 14. PMID: 25034950; PMCID: PMC4289126.
6. Koithan M. Mind-Body Solutions for Obesity. J Nurse Pract. 2009;5(7):536-537. doi: 10.1016/j.nurpra.2009.05.012. PMID: 20046886; PMCID: PMC2764526.
7. Prasad K. Viewpoint: Role of Mind-body Therapies in the Management of Cardiovascular Disorders. Eur Cardiol. 2016 Dec;11(2):111-113. doi: 10.15420/ecr.2016:17:2. PMID: 30310456; PMCID: PMC6159445.
8. Li X, Chang P, Wu M, et al. Effect of Tai Chi vs Aerobic Exercise on Blood Pressure in Patients With Prehypertension: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(2):e2354937. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.54937