14 minute read
STRONG Camp: Cardio-o or cardi-no?
STRONG CAMP: CARDI-O or CARDI‑NO?
People’s opinions on cardio are a lot like people’s opinions on politics– fuelled with heated debates, mixed opinions and emotions, as well as (sometimes) logic. So, in an attempt to set the record straight, we asked our experts: is cardio really necessary to our goals, be it hitting a deadlift personal best (PB) or getting lean? And, if so, which type is best? Parliament is officiallyinsession.
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RAWDAH
What role does cardio play in fat loss? And what else is it good for? Fat loss can be achieved in many ways, but it will only be successful if you have created an ‘energy deficit’ – you consume less energy than your body burns.
You burn energy in four ways Basal Metabolic Rate/Resting Metabolic Rate (BMR/RMR): this refers to the calories that you burn at rest and encompasses everything from organ function to cell communication. You have very little control over your BMR/RMR. Thermic effect of food (TEF): this refers to the energy you burn when you consume food through the digestive process. You have some control over your TEF by adjusting what ratio of macronutrients (protein, carbs and fats) you choose to eat. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): this refers to the energy you burn when you aren’t formally exercising, such as the energy used to vacuum the house or raise your arm to scratch your head. You have a fair amount of control over your NEAT levels, but these are highly influenced by variables such as mood, energy levels and how active your job is.
Physical activity level or exercise activity thermogenesis (PAL/EAT): this refers to the energy you burn through formal activity such as going to the gym. You have almost full control over your formal activity level, including the frequency and intensity of your workouts.
Including more cardio in your workout program will increase how much energy you burn through PAL/ EAT, so, on the surface, this is an easy way to create an energy deficit, which leads to a leaner physique. But, before we tie up our shoelaces and hit the treadmill, we must consider the effects cardio can have on NEAT, as explained by the ‘Constrained Energy Model’.
NEAT and the Constrained Energy Model People are fast to accept the ‘Additive Total Energy Expenditure Model’, which suggests the more we move, the more energy we expend (or calories we burn). But a 2016 study on the Constrained Energy Model showed that at higher levels of physical activity, the body adapts to maintain total energy expenditure within a tight range by decreasing energy expended through NEAT. This means that trying to increase calorie burn through more cardio is only effective up to a point, and then it tapers off.
What does this mean? It certainly does not mean that cardio is pointless for getting leaner because we know that (up to a point) more movement is effective at creating an energy deficit. But we must ensure we are engaging in a calorie-controlled diet, acknowledge the Constrained Energy Model, and ensure our NEAT activity stays high. The best solution is to invest in a step tracker and ensure your daily steps are not dropping as you input cardio into your PAL/EAT.
In summary, cardio is not necessary for fat loss – it simply assists in creating an energy deficit through increases in energy expenditure of PAL/EAT, assuming we also maintain our NEAT levels. This energy deficit could also be created by simply consuming less energy (calories) to begin with.
Other cardio costs and benefits Energy balance aside, engaging in cardio can reduce your risk of a heart attack, increase your lung capacity, support healthy blood pressure and mental health by providing temporary relief from depression and anxiety, improve circulation and sleep quality, increase mood and cognitive function such as concentration and memory, and just make you feel good! Knowing this, everyone should engage in some form of cardio regardless of what phase of training you’re in, or what your body fat goals are.
LIZZY RAWDAH CO-DIRECTOR FLEX SUCCESS flexsuccess.com.au // @flex_success Lizzy Rawdah has been in the health and fitness industry since 2008, first as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, before moving online in 2014 as Co-Director of coaching business Flex Success. She is accredited through Beck Health & Nutrition, is a qualified Master Trainer through the Australian Institute of Fitness, holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree, and broke an Australian record in Strongman in 2017. She works with both general population clients and performance athletes, using an evidence-based, individualised and practical approach to healthy, sustainable results.
SOFIA TOUMBAS TRAINER & INDUSTRY EDUCATOR @sofiatoumbas Sofia Toumbas holds a Diploma of Fitness and a Post Graduate Diploma of Education, and has been a qualified Personal Trainer for over 10 years. An avid bikini competitor, she now spends her days educating the wider industry and coaching an intimate group of sport-specific clients online.
TRAVIS JONES FOUNDER – RESULT BASED TRAINING GYMS rbtgyms.com // @travisjonesentrepreneur Travis Jones is the Founder of 15+ Result Based Training (RBT) Gyms across Australia, and health and fitness tracking app, Keystone Health and Fitness. Jones, who played elite level rugby league as a teenager until his early 20s, has over 15 years of experience in the industry. He has completed his Poliquin Level 3 and FMA Strength Institute Level 3, and is an AOK Health Corrective Exercise Specialist.
JAMIE BISSET STRENGTH COACH @strongbiz Jamie Bisset has over 10 years experience in the health and fitness industry, including a Diploma of Fitness, powerlifting and bodybuilding accreditations, and neurotyping and metabolic precision certifications. A National Powerlifting Champion in his own right – placing first in the 2018 Global Powerlifting Committee meet for the 82.5kg weight class – he has also coached many men and women to elite gradings and bodybuilding and bikini competitors to stage at state and national levels.
TOUMBAS Before adding cardio to sessions, I ask my clients four important questions:
What is your main goal? As time is usually a limiting factor, most people want an efficient program that helps them achieve their goal as quickly as possible. The only way to pinpoint the plan of attack for a person and whether cardio should be a component is to understand the specifics of what their goals are.
Do you enjoy cardio exercise? If my client does not enjoy cardio, I’ll only encourage them to perform it if it’s vital to their end goal. If they do need cardiovascular fitness to perform, I’ll try to mask the exercise using other styles of training they enjoy. For example, using circuits or CrossFit-style training.
Do you understand the purpose of cardio? Cardio activity is often thought of as being synonymous with fat loss, but this isn’t its actual purpose – fat loss can simpy be a side effect of it. When you perform cardiovascular exercise, you’re making your heart more efficient at pumping blood around the body, and blood contains nutrients and oxygen that we need to feed the cells of our bodies. If the heart becomes stronger at pumping the blood, it means more nutrients will reach more cells, which means systems will function better. At the same time, this uses more energy and increases caloric expenditure, which may result in fat loss.
Is cardio necessary to achieve my goal? Now that you understands the purpose of cardio – to strengthen the heart and improve its capacity to pump nutrients and oxygen to our cells, while burning calories – you can determine if it is necessary. Someone who is training for athletics, sports or martial arts will usually need to perform some kind of cardio, be it high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or low-intensity steady-state, because they require the heart to perform at a higher capacity under pressure and time restrictions. In this case, cardio is necessary.
On the flipside, a bodybuilder simply wants to get to stage at their leanest, most muscular physique, which usually requires weight training and structured nutrition. Is cardiovascular exercise necessary for body re-composition? It may help to create a caloric deficit, but this can also be created by manipulating nutrition. So, in this case it’s not necessary.
However, because cardio helps to transport nutrients and oxygen to the cells of the body, it can be useful at optimising recovery on rest days. It can help nutrient uptake to cells for healing and growth, as well as aiding detoxification of the cells to reduce oxidative stress resulting from training hard. So, it does have its benefits.
JONES One of the most contentious subjects in fitness right now is what form of cardio (if any) is best? My answer? Whichever one works best for you and your goals. So, let’s look at the different types, and their pros and cons.
Higher-intensity steady-state When it comes to losing fat, most people believe cardio – particularly steady-state methods that involve moving at a sustained speed for long periods of time – is the best form of exercise for that goal. An example is 40 to 60 minutes of running. Pros: The power of cardio lies in its ability to burn a hefty number of calories. For example, a 70kg person burns an average of 409 calories in 30 minutes when they run at 10.8km per hour. From a fat loss perspective, this has its benefits. After all, energy balance (burning more calories than you consume) ultimately determines if you can drop fat. Cons: While steady-state cardio has you burning plenty of calories, one downside is that you can burn muscle along with your fat. Research has shown that up to 70 per cent of weight lost from long-term dieting (being in a calories deficit) comes not from fat, but from muscle tissue, and cardio does nothing to prevent this. In fact, steady-state cardio can even speed up this muscle breakdown process by interfering with cellular pathway signalling, gene activation and enzyme concentrations.
At the molecular level, steady-state cardio training increases the activation of AMPK – an enzyme that plays a crucial role in cellular energy regulation. While this is great if you’re training to increase your endurance, it also decreases protein synthesis, which can reduce muscle mass. Not great news for a fat-loss goal – the less muscle mass you have, the less calories you burn while at rest.
HIIT HIIT comprises alternate bouts of (nearly) all-out efforts with (active) rest intervals. For example, a 20-second bike sprint followed by a 40-second slow pedalling. Pros: HIIT is an excellent way to burn calories and has actually been shown to be superior to steady-state cardio if fat-loss is your goal. Researchers from Laval University divided 27 individuals into two groups. One group followed a 20-week steady-state cardio program, while the other performed 15 weeks of HIIT consisting of 15, 30-second sprints.
The results? The HIIT group lost nine times as much fat and 12 per cent more visceral belly fat than the steady-staters. Impressive, especially when you consider that the HIIT program was five weeks shorter in duration.
HIIT is superior for fat loss due to its ability to boost metabolic rate, increase fat burning, improve the body’s hormonal environment and supress post-workout appetite. It’s also better than steady-state cardio at preventing muscle loss, with beginner trainees even able to gain a little muscle through well-programmed HIIT. Cons: It’s extremely taxing. While there is nothing inherently wrong with a hard training session, when you couple HIIT with lifting heavy weights, it can be stressful to the body and mind, which can potentially lead to injury and/or burnout.
Low-intensity steady-state (LISS) Any aerobic activity that keeps your heart rate at 50 to 60 per cent of your maximum for a prolonged time period (60 minutes) can be termed LISS. Think a power walk around the block. Pros: When you exercise with less intensity, your body is able to produce energy aerobically (i.e. using oxygen), which allows it to burn a higher percentage of fat for fuel. LISS is also lower impact, making it easier on the joints, can be performed every day as it requires little to no recovery, and can be done anywhere.
It’s also great for those who are stressed, with its ability to shift you out of a ‘fight or flight’ (sympathetic) state into a ‘pause and plan’ (parasympathetic) state, giving you the mental break that you need. Cons: Despite burning a higher percentage of fat as fuel during LISS, the amount of calories you burn is decidedly less than a HIIT workout. This means you need to perform it for much longer to get the fat and calorie burn you desire. In our time-poor world, this might simply be impractical.
The verdict? For most, I tend to lean towards HIIT training, as it provides the biggest bang for your buck. That said, I do recommend every person buys an activity tracker and ensures they walk at least 7,500 steps per day for best health and results.
BISSET Whether you love it or hate it, lets break cardio down into two types – LISS and HIIT – and examine the benefits of each.
Cardio types LISS involves performing the same activity for a long duration at a low intensity. Your heart rate sits at 50 to 70 per cent of your maximum for more than 30 minutes, with the benefits including an improvement in aerobic capacity (aka fitness).
HIIT, on the other hand, involves performing multiple rounds of one or more activities for a short duration at a high intensity, followed by either a short rest or a short period of low intensity activity. Working intervals of HIIT have your heart rate skyrocketing to 70 to 90 per cent of your maximum, and can only be performed for a maximum of 30 minutes. HIIT can help improve your anaerobic capacity (aka power).
Which one is best? It depends on your goal.
Performance goals A performance goal means that you are training with the intention of increasing your physical ability at a specific task. If this is your desired outcome from your training, you must consider the Law of Specificity, which says that training should be relevant and appropriate to your sport and produce the desired effect.
For example, if you want to complete a marathon, LISS training would be more specific. To improve your ability at netball or soccer, a combination of LISS and HIIT would be most specific. Training for a sprinting competition? You would need to use HIIT.
Body composition goals A body composition goal means that you are training with the intention of decreasing your body fat or increasing your muscle. If this is your desired outcome from your training, you’ll need to consider both of the goals – fat loss or muscle gain – separately, as they develop in different ways.
If you’re wanting to decrease body fat, a calorie deficit is paramount, and diet is always going to be the most important way you can control that variable. You can do all the cardio in the world, but if you’re still overeating, your fat won’t budge. In this case, cardio should be used as a tool to assist your diet by increasing your level of energy expenditure and therefore your calorie deficit.
But, which one is better – LISS or HIIT? Most studies have actually shown the two to produce fairly similar results when it comes to decreasing fat. But that shouldn’t be overly surprising considering fat-loss isn’t a by-product of cardio, it’s a by-product of your diet! My advice would be to select the cardio type you most enjoy.
Increasing muscle mass The most important aspect of muscular development is resistance or tension training. But high rep strength training can actually be a form of cardio – who knew?
The ideal rep range for increasing muscle mass has been shown to be eight to 15 reps. Try doing four sets of 15 reps at the squat rack and then tell me your heart rate isn’t high for a short bout followed by a rest (similar to a HIIT prescription).
Strength training also has the added benefit of increasing your metabolic rate for a longer period of time than traditional cardio, meaning you burn more calories throughout the day. Why? Because it takes energy to repair the tissues you damaged during your resistance training session.
My verdict If your goals are based around improving your body composition, make sure you prioritise strength training alongside your diet and regular cardio. When it comes to deciding which form of cardio is the best for you, perform the one that’s either the most specific to your goals or the one you most enjoy. Simple. S
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