The scattered thoughts of a mad man

Steady state cardio is (for the most part) rubbish. Well, that's what i think anyway & i'm sticking to it. I'm sure you know how it works, walking on the treadmil for example at 5km'h for 40 minutes. Or getting a sore butt on the stationary bike for 20 minutes going at a steady state. Now that's what i call boring! It's suspected that this type of training can shift your leg muscle fibers to slow twitch fibers because of the steady pace that a long distance runner would do. As a strength &/or bodybuilding athlete, i was under the impression that fast twitching muscle fibers was actually the name of the game. Yeah, in bodybuilding it's not the actual weight your moving that's cared about...but clearly when you get stronger, you'll get bigger!!

If your doing 5km'h for 40 minutes on the treadmil at a weight of 90kg. If you come back & do the same time, speed & incline on the treadmil at 88kg (for example) your actually decreasing the amount of work done. You wouldn't turn up to the gym, bench press 100kg for 3 sets of 8, then next week do 90kg 3 sets of 8 reps...would you! This is why i think High Intensity Cardio is king.

It doesn't need to be sprinting for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds & so forth for 20 minutes. Remember, you need to get fir, to be fit. So if your not there yet, simply going from 5km'h with 0 incline on the treadmil to 5km'h to 2% incline for those 40 minutes would be better. As long as your varying & increasing the intensity.

Also, holding onto the rails of the machine while at an incline levels is counter-productive. If your walking at 5% incline & holding onto the rails, possibly your not ready for that level.

Cardio is cardio - a means to improve heart, lung and circulatory health, it doesn't need much, short intervals seems to be where its at.

Walking is good for the soul also excellent for hip mobility and posture.

Jogging is a waste of time.

Include cardio with weights, now you've got something.

Using exercise of any form for weight control is specious at best, it's more what you stick in your pie hole.

Training has to fit the abilities and goals of the trainee. You can't take some 50 year old obese beginner and give them intervals, you'll injure or even kill them. They have to begin slow and steady.

I agree that low-intensity steady state cardio is boring. That is why I always advise people to just be generally physically active - walk the 1km to the shops or 2km to the train station instead of driving, if you have a 1hr lunch, find a park 15 minutes walk away, walk to it, eat your lunch for half an hour, then walk back to work. Get your low-intensity steady state cardio in daily life instead of on a treadmill.

When the person's basic cardiovascular fitness has been built up to a good level, then they can handle intervals - if those fit in with their goals. Which they often don't.

I agree. The use of equipment such as kb's, dbl's barbells, plates, tyres ect are excellent tools for cardio exercise. Regardless if your aiming for fat loss or maintaining a healthy state of cardio health while gaining size &/or strength.

If dieting for fat loss (ie for a bodybuilding show) it's when you reach about 10% that using steady states of cardio would be good, since it requires very littlie energy & at that conditioning you dont have the large amount of energy you use to hv

Kyle I dont think you actually read what i was saying. I said if you weren't that conditioned, you could always do something like 3.5km'h on the treadmil @ 0% incline, then after a few minutes increase the incline (slightly) then after a few minutes bring the incline down.

I read somewhere that hit has very negative effects on cortisol levels. Somthing we dont want and that wlaking actually reduces them.. Something to think about.

n00bs said:

I read somewhere that hit has very negative effects on cortisol levels. Somthing we dont want and that wlaking actually reduces them.. Something to think about.

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wouldn't training approaches like drop sets, super sets, giant sets, 100's, 500's 20 rep squats have the same effect? They all go towards increasing cardio vascular health

PowerBuilder said:

Kyle I dont think you actually read what i was saying. I said if you weren't that conditioned, you could always do something like 3.5km'h on the treadmil @ 0% incline, then after a few minutes increase the incline (slightly) then after a few minutes bring the incline down.

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I read it.

The reason intervals are good is that they're very taxing on the system. The reason deconditioned beginners can't do intervals is that they're very taxing on the system.

With some people, you have to build up the capacity first. As I said, I'd prefer people did that outside the gym, it leads to a better lifestyle, they can save the gym for more productive stuff.

listen. IF there in the gym, then they're wanting to use the gym equipment. Or am i missing something? I don't think it's also computing the fact that even if they change the incline by 1 or 2 % or speed by a single notch, their still altering the intensity.

What if they were to do walk up & down a flight of stairs for 10 minutes (for example). i think your actually just fighting because you like to fight mate

n00bs said:

I read somewhere that hit has very negative effects on cortisol levels. Somthing we dont want and that wlaking actually reduces them.. Something to think about.

Click to expand...

Can you produce this article please?

Otherwise shuddup.

Kyle Aaron said:

I read it.

The reason intervals are good is that they're very taxing on the system. The reason deconditioned beginners can't do intervals is that they're very taxing on the system.

With some people, you have to build up the capacity first. As I said, I'd prefer people did that outside the gym, it leads to a better lifestyle, they can save the gym for more productive stuff.

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I think PB is saying you are as useful as a bag of hair.

Silverback said:

Can you produce this article please?

Otherwise shuddup.

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www.google.com

Have fun retard

n00bs said:

www.google.com

Have fun retard

Click to expand...

your mum is.



After the onset of high-intensity training exercise the body pumps out cortisol which breaks down protein into their constituent amino acids and routes them to the liver for conversion to glucose.



The longer the workout, the more cortisol is pumped in and the more protein is destroyed.



This causes a "catabolic state" as the largest supply of protein lies in the muscles so that is where the cortisol goes first.



Research by Costill and Nieman et al., has shown that one hour of intense strength training will increase the protein stores in our immune and skeletal systems, but that any further training will only begin to deplete these stores.



Overtraining can force the body into a weakened physical state, which, at best can produce a cold or the flu and, at worst, can tear muscles ligaments, and tendons once these bodyparts lose their structural integrity protein loss.



The culprit is a built-in "survival" drug hormone called cortisol. Immediately following a high intensity effort, the body pumps out this hormone whose function is simple: It carries off the proteins to the liver, where they are converted into glucose, for energy use in the body.



Why does this weaken our defense mechanisms? Because all our immune systems are based on proteins, and the influx of control in our biological mix steals the proteins that make up our immune system.



Nieman, a researcher at Loma Linda University found that athletes who train twice as intensely as normally prescribed will wind up with twice as many colds, and viruses.



Nieman investigated the athletes for cortisol. He found that astonishingly, after only ONE grueling strength training session, their bodies revealed a 60% increase in cortisol production.



Among the first proteins to go were the T-cells that make up our front line of defense against viruses. This watchdog system was depleted by more than 30 percent. However, this shortfall lasted only 6-8 hrs.



So you're probably thinking "What's the big deal? Is putting your body at risk for only 6-8 hours such a high price to pay?"



Well, Nieman and other researchers found that after a few days of such exercising, the "at risk" time became longer and longer, until the T-cells stopped rejuvenation.



In addition, the body's first line of defense against bacteria and viruses an antibody known as IgA, which is found in the saliva, was reduced to nearly non-protective levels.



The conclusion of the researchers was that athletes can overtrain themselves into illness.



Thus the logical conclusion would be that high intensity strength training should be limited to one hour or less to restrict the amount of protein destruction.

Play nice, n00bs, or we'll have to make you and PowerBuilder train together, you could be the Angry Team.

Ill find it just for you.

n00bs said:

Ill find it just for you.

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That's the spirit

I suffer form high cortisol enough as it is..

Adding to it for the sake of a carido workout isnt appealing to me.

After the onset of high-intensity training exercise the body pumps out cortisol which breaks down protein into their constituent amino acids and routes them to the liver for conversion to glucose.



The longer the workout, the more cortisol is pumped in and the more protein is destroyed.



This causes a "catabolic state" as the largest supply of protein lies in the muscles so that is where the cortisol goes first.



Research by Costill and Nieman et al., has shown that one hour of intense strength training will increase the protein stores in our immune and skeletal systems, but that any further training will only begin to deplete these stores.



Overtraining can force the body into a weakened physical state, which, at best can produce a cold or the flu and, at worst, can tear muscles ligaments, and tendons once these bodyparts lose their structural integrity protein loss.



The culprit is a built-in "survival" drug hormone called cortisol. Immediately following a high intensity effort, the body pumps out this hormone whose function is simple: It carries off the proteins to the liver, where they are converted into glucose, for energy use in the body.



Why does this weaken our defense mechanisms? Because all our immune systems are based on proteins, and the influx of control in our biological mix steals the proteins that make up our immune system.



Nieman, a researcher at Loma Linda University found that athletes who train twice as intensely as normally prescribed will wind up with twice as many colds, and viruses.



Nieman investigated the athletes for cortisol. He found that astonishingly, after only ONE grueling strength training session, their bodies revealed a 60% increase in cortisol production.



Among the first proteins to go were the T-cells that make up our front line of defense against viruses. This watchdog system was depleted by more than 30 percent. However, this shortfall lasted only 6-8 hrs.



So you're probably thinking "What's the big deal? Is putting your body at risk for only 6-8 hours such a high price to pay?"



Well, Nieman and other researchers found that after a few days of such exercising, the "at risk" time became longer and longer, until the T-cells stopped rejuvenation.



In addition, the body's first line of defense against bacteria and viruses an antibody known as IgA, which is found in the saliva, was reduced to nearly non-protective levels.



The conclusion of the researchers was that athletes can overtrain themselves into illness.



Thus the logical conclusion would be that high intensity strength training should be limited to one hour or less to restrict the amount of protein destruction.

My workout lasts two hours

What to do?

train faster

blbarclay said:

My workout lasts two hours

What to do?

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If your intensity of work is low then you have nothing to worry about.