"Your cardio work might be making your heart weaker."

[CYNDER_BLOCK]

So I just read this M & F article and I wanna' hear what the peanut gallery has to say about this. Not sure what to think about this.

Improve Your Heart Health with Cardio | Muscle & Fitness


Here is the article:

"The next time you go for a run outside or at the gym, you might want to think about how it will affect your heart. We have all been told to devote some time in the gym to “cardio” exercise (that is, exercise that is supposed to make your heart stronger). Your body needs a strong heart to overcome circumstances that challenge the heart’s maximal capacity. For example, when a heart attack occurs it is a result of cardiac demand challenging the maximal capacity of the heart. This “attack” has nothing to do with the endurance of the heart, but its ability to overcome this type of challenge dependent on its strength.

DOWNSIZING YOUR HEART'S OUTPUT
When you perform cardio exercise for long durations and at low intensities, you can improve the endurance of your heart but are actually training it to get weaker by downsizing its output. Long-duration, low-intensity cardio downsizes the heart because it signals the cardiovascular system to do as little work as possible in order to go further and last longer. Conversely, short-duration, high-intensity cardio activities strengthen the heart because they challenge and signal it to immediately generate enough force to overcome the demand placed on it. In the case of a heart attack, bigger, faster, and immediate cardiac output is what you need. Additionally, short, intense bouts of cardio exercise are more effective at lowering fat and triglyceride levels in the blood than long, light bouts.

STRENGTHENING YOUR HEART
The health of your heart and how much you can depend on it to keep you alive depends on how efficiently you train it. So instead of walking on that treadmill for 45 minutes or stepping on that StairMaster for 30 minutes, try mixing it up. Do some interval training with your cardio; for example, you might want to run for a minute and then walk for a minute for 10 minutes on the treadmill. Then, go as hard as you can for 4-5 minute intervals on the StairMaster. The combined 30 minutes of interval training that you spend on the treadmill and StairMaster is more efficient at improving heart health than the 75 minutes you would otherwise spend trying to pace yourself."

 

[devenidas]

OK no worries here as I am covered here as all I do is balls out cardio 10-15-20 minutes max. rarely 30 min. Anything more then 30 is plain sad and boring for me personally . can't remember the last time I did that. Good to know it's helping to make my heart stronger.

I always believed if we need to provide a CHALLENGE in terms of wt training to grow and build muscle ( can't build muscle with pump workouts unless someone is such a genetic freak) why not provide a CHALLENGE to loose fat and build tank of a CVS :thumbup:

Only time I sort of do SS cardio if I am going through a injury or if I am way too taxed for whatever reason. Even then it's 30 min max 99 percent of the times. cheers mate.

 

[gungalunga]

Somehow I still think that a person that does 45 min low intensity cardio several times a week is much better off in terms of heart health than the average person that has answering a phone at their cubicle or calling Dominos for a pizza and a 2 liter as their daily strenuous activity.

 

[CYNDER_BLOCK]

Let's say you're hiking for a sustained period of time (low intensity cardio). . . so now you're doing yourself a disservice by hiking for long distances at a sustained rate?

I need to see a peer reviewed study on this.

 

[Taylor Millerrr]

I think if we do cardio work and stick to 3 to 4 times a week for 30 to 60 minutes every time, it helps improve our cardiopulmonary function. The more you exercise, the more healthy.

 

[dantes]

Maybe this would be true for someone who has a weak heart to begin with(still doubt it). For us guys our may concern is cardiac hyperrtrophy so i dont see how low intensity cardio could be bad for us bodybuilders

 

[CYNDER_BLOCK]

Anyone else care to chime in on this?

 

[Severed Ties]

I find articles like this which completely ignore human evolution or basic reasoning amusing. We are a species of nomadic hunter/gathers for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years before we had regular food supplies. We spent much of our existence doing "cardio" as a way of life. Even the Roman legions marched 20 miles every day in formation with 90lbs of supplies and armour. A legionaire did this every day for the better part of his life as a soldier which could be 20 years.

If long duration cardiovascular work weakened our heart we would have ceased existing a long time ago.

 

[epoxy]

I find articles like this which completely ignore human evolution or basic reasoning amusing. We are a species of nomadic hunter/gathers for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years before we had regular food supplies. We spent much of our existence doing "cardio" as a way of life. Even the Roman legions marched 20 miles every day in formation with 90lbs of supplies and armour. A legionaire did this every day for the better part of his life as a soldier which could be 20 years.

If long duration cardiovascular work weakened our heart we would have ceased existing a long time ago.

The average life-span of someone during the Roman empire was 35 years so maybe that wasn't the best example but I get your point.

 

[CYNDER_BLOCK]

The average life-span of someone during the Roman empire was 35 years so maybe that wasn't the best example but I get your point.

Average life span was 35? Why was it so young?

 

[bieberhole69]

Zero references zero citations...

All things equal, typically the more cardio you do, the lower your cardiovascular risk. Myriads of benefits (blood pressure, cholesterol, RHR, etc).

The author claims it downsizes your heart output--but cardio actually trains the body to increase it's volume of output (and as a result, decrease the rate needed to output the same amount = lower HR). The equation makes it easy to see:

Cardio output = heart rate x stroke volume.

Additionally, now you can have a higher maximal cardio output since heart rate will always be the limiting factor i.e. if maximal heart rate is 190, the only other thing you can change to increase output is the stroke volume--and it's not going to change without training it to increase (via cardio).

All the serious cardio guys (runners, swimmers, cyclists, etc) all have lower resting heart rates for a reason.

 

[buck]

Most of the studies ! have seen point to moderate intensity and duration for the longest life span. Like most things in life moderation is better. If you want performance then that can be different but there may be no to little long term benefit. The last study I saw involving high intensity aerobics showed arteries age as fast as sedentary peoples do.

http://www.medicinasportiva.pl/new/pliki/ms_2008_04_03_Fahey.pdf
Too Much Running Tied to Shorter Lifespan, Studies Find ? WebMD
Experts: Surprisingly Little Running Extends Lifespan | Runner's World
Fast running is as deadly as sitting on couch, scientists find - Telegraph

 

[Severed Ties]

The average life-span of someone during the Roman empire was 35 years so maybe that wasn't the best example but I get your point.

I could recommend you a great book on the history of the Roman legion if you are interested. The Romans lived quite long lives if outside forces didn't end there life prematurely. Certainly none were dropping dead from heart failure was my point.

Average age statistics are also misleading because of had much higher rates of child deaths during birth or from disease.

 

[nothuman]

Well we already know HIIT is better for heart health than slower steady state cardio. That is a fact that simply can't be argued with anymore, given all the scientific research done on this. However, any cardio is certainly better than no cardio. I don't see any sources cited in that article, so I take it with a grain of salt, as it contradicts everything else we've all read.