Hot answers tagged cardio
12
In a sense, yes it does. It's not a permanent increase, you simply keep on burning more calories than your resting rate until your body returns to baseline. The type of exercise (the shorter, higher intensity workouts are better) also influences how long this occurs.
In this study : ...
10
The answer is going to be pretty much the same for all three sports, in that you need to do a fitness/threshold test, and then use that to compute training paces.
For swimming, I recommend the 3x300. Warm up completely, then you swim 3 different 300 meter swims, with :30 seconds rest in between. You want to try to keep them as close in time as possible, ...
9
Cardio training doesn't necessarily lead to muscle loss, but generally, training time is limited, and if you're preparing for a marathon, you don't have the time to spend in the gym, and your body will be busy adapting to the stresses of long distance running, which are different than the adaptations needed for sprinting 100m, dunking a basketball, or moving ...
8
This is a complex question, and no one has the complete answer, but a recent study compared the metabolic rate of a hunter gatherer culture still in existence with the metabolism of sedentary westerners and found that "daily energy expenditure of traditional Hadza foragers was no different than that of Westerners". Similarly, a study found that the ...
7
You'll get some better search responses with the word "Conditioning", which is really what you are after. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) such as Tabata style training (20s full speed, 10s relative rest) is the best way to optimize conditioning work. Obviously there are a few other ways to do conditioning as well.
Prowler let's you adjust the ...
7
I've used this illustration in a previous answer, and it really does a good job of demonstrating the idea:
The things we care about on the illustration (in relation to your question) are the sarcoplasm and the myofibril. The myofibril is the part of the muscle that actually does the contraction, where the sarcoplasm is the part of the muscle that stores ...
6
This Scientific American article may help. It basically states that the improvements in cardio-respiratory function from exercise are due to the efficiency of the cardiac component rather than lung function:
Improvement in cardio-respiratory function does not result from changes in the lung's ability to expand, however. In general regular exercise does ...
6
Given you're not trained in any of these parts and they are mostly endurance sports, I would first assess your endurance.
Do each type of sport for 30 minutes and measure your distance. Don't do all three on one day, if you're untrained. Instead, take them a day apart or more if you feel sore. If you have access to a heart rate monitor, try keeping a steady ...
6
Interval training of any kind would count: swimming, sprints, barbell exercises, et cetera. So would high-intensity exercises done for short periods, whether you repeat or not.
Twenty-rep barbell squats, for example, certainly count as high-intensity conditioning. So do burpees, and kettlebell swings, cleans, or snatches done for time (e.g. 5 minutes) or ...
6
It might be fine if you worked up to that kind of training volume, but be careful of overtraining. Tabatas and other HIIT is supposed to be hard.
I happened to stumble across this post from Robb Wolf just a short while before I saw your question. It's relevant.
Training volume is one of those “U-shaped curves”.... Too little isn’t good and neither is ...
6
The best way to improve your cardiovascular fitness is to do more of whatever it is you are doing, in a tempered, gradual progression.
As mentioned above, 5 or 6 weeks is not enough to drastically improve your speed, but you can improve somewhat. Here's what I would recommend for you -
Run. Almost every day. Take your longest run, do that once a week. 3 ...
6
The movement you're describing is hip adduction. You're exercising the hip adductors, which are thigh muscles that pull your legs together.
I can't find an image of a bodyweight version of the exercise you're describing, but here is an image of the weighted exercise:
You can find out more about that exercise here. There are some other examples in this ...
6
In order to get big, you need to eat a calorie surplus (more than you burn in a day). To get cut, you need to eat a caloric deficit. If you eat 200g+ protein but still eat fewer calories than you're burning, you're going to lose weight and you won't get huge and bulky.
If you're trying to get cut, I'm assuming that you're trying to lose weight and/or lower ...
5
In the book The Science of Yoga, William Broad discusses this in detail. My summary: for measures of cardiovascular fitness, Yoga is inferior to aerobic exercise. Indeed a small study of Yoga instructors (who do enormous amounts of yoga) found them to be roughly equivalent in measures of cardiovascular health (VO2 Max, etc) to someone who jogs 3-4 hours ...
5
For general fitness and endurance, 25 minutes, six days a week would be better. The best advice I've ever seen for running is: Run. Run lots. Mostly slow, sometimes fast.
One of the best programs I've seen for running comes from a triathlon and cross country coach that I've talked with a few times, and it's 3:2:1. Say your longest run is 30 minutes. You ...
5
Most definitely have it checked.
Stress tests are one of the ways that cardiologists check for abnormalities in heart function, as the heart may exhibit dysrhythmia at that time (Under workload such as you are when running), and be perfectly normal at other times.
It may be a touch of pleurisy (inflammation of the outside lining of the lungs) from the ...
5
I've heard/read here and elsewhere that I shouldn't be doing cardio if my ultimate goal is to gain weight.
Some limited cardio can be good while weight training. Cardio helps with increasing O2 circulation, strengthens your heart, and increases endurance. However, what cardio doesn't do much of is put stress on your muscles to initiate growth. Running ...
5
Your rest days are going to be a result of a number of different factors. There are many many people that can exercise at varying intensities for days on end in a row with no ill effects, but others that absolutely require rest days. The basic trick is getting to know your own body and how it is reacting to the exercise.
To use your example, you are ...
5
Any kind of training can produce increases in muscle mass. Aerobic training simply stops doing so very quickly, since it doesn't require much strength to perform. Aerobic training requires a small degree of strength repeated over a relatively long period of time. The body is more stressed by the requirements of repeating the exercise over a period of time ...
5
I doubt that this poses a problem.
As long as there is at least some exchange of air naturally occurring - doors don't close airtight under normal circumstances - there will be enough circulation. As you're running you're causing even more circulation, the heat from your body and the air you breath out will add to that; Of course not enough to cause a storm ...
4
To lose weight you need a good diet, and you need to follow it for a long time.
Ignore any claims like 'Lose 10 pounds in 10 days'. In fact, losing fat (vs losing weight, consisting of fat, water and other body-contents) is relatively slow process.
A reasonable goal for sustained weight loss is 1 pound per week. So if you want to lose 50 pounds, which is ...
4
Ok, as fredob requested, this is an n=1 style of writeup, for my experiences and what I consider to be the core kernels of a lifetime fitness program. Note, this is not a design for specific competition, this is fitness in general. Obviously if you compete, you would need to tweak the physical component and nutrition components to support that.
NUTRITION
...
4
Check out the book "Practical Programming for Strength Training" by Rippetoe and Kilgore. It is aimed at the college educated professional strength coach and covers every aspect of developing training programs. While overly detailed for the likes of us, it is the basis for lifetime learning. BTW I'm over 60 and started lifting in my teens. I've always put my ...
4
I wouldn't worry about eating right before sleeping. This easy to read article summarizes a study done with groups of people eating at different times of the day to see if it had any effect on fat loss/gain. In addition to this there is also anecdotal evidence gleaned from Muslims fasting during the month of Ramadan (all food is eaten close to sleeping). For ...
4
Swap the shakes for actual food. They are a supplement, not a meal replacement. If you're concerned about protein intake, drink lots of n(real, whole) milk if it agrees with your stomach, or eat lots of (farm) eggs. You should be able to get your ~150 grams of protein from real sources: a half dozen eggs for breakfast, chicken for lunch, steak for dinner, ...
4
They are accurate as far as they go, but they are rough estimates at best.
VO2 max is a measurement of how much oxygen you are actually using at maximal exertion. The only way to accurately measure this is by using specialized equipment with a mask that captures all exhalations, and then measures the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide that is being ...
4
I have a similar problem in that I have very low arches that are prone to injury from repeated stress. I have found that one of the absolute best exercises to utilize HIIT without foot strain is indoor rowing. the motion of rowing makes it ideal for intervals, and works the upperbody and core, as opposed to other low impact excercises like cycling. ...
4
Strength training plus pool running
You won't get a definitive answer to your question, because there are so many options that could possibly work for you, and here's one!
Strength training (using a small set of full-body barbell exercises, like in Starting Strength, or Stronglifts 5x5) has been used by many people as an effective weight (fat) loss ...
4
Expect Less
You're detrained. That's to be expected. Don't try to get back where you were all at once.
Jim Wendler poses it this way:
The game of lifting isn‘t an 8-week pursuit. It doesn‘t last as long as your latest program does. Rather, it‘s a lifetime pursuit. If you understand this, then progressing slowly isn‘t a big deal. In fact, this can be a ...
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