The Cardio Dilemma

What is the first thing that pops in to your head when you hear “cardio?” If I had to guess I would say you thought of marathons, HIIT, sweat, fat loss or being lean. While these are all somewhere in the cardio bubble they may not be the pictures we ultimately want to see first thing.

Cardio has a branding problem and it’s big one.

What Is Cardio?

In a nutshell, cardio is something that improves heart/cardiovascular health. That’s it. The goal of cardio is to improve the body’s ability to move blood and oxygen so we can perform tasks more efficiently. We have all gone up a few flights of stairs and said something like “oof! Might need to get my cardio up.” Why? Because the simple task of walking up stairs is causing us to breathe heavier than we may want to around our co-workers. The goal is to make life easier.

I just said something massive. Did you catch it? Let me repeat it for you – the goal is to make life easier. A healthy cardiovascular system opens us up to enjoy life by making the tasks of life less stressful. When tasks are easier we have to use less energy for them which allows us the freedom to do more things more often.

2 Types of Cardio

Cardio can be broken down into two main buckets:

1. Aerobic
2. Anaerobic

Aerobic means “in the presence of oxygen” and is any type of cardio that you can sustain for long periods of time. Examples may be walking, hiking, biking, or jogging. Aerobic work is usually performed for 20 minutes (a class workout) all the way up to 8 hours (a hike) and will almost always leave you feeling better than when you started.

Benefits of aerobic conditioning include:

• Sharper mental clarity
• Improved digestion
• Increased heart health
• Improved mood
• Increased energy
• Increased sex drive
• Decreased stress

Anaerobic means “in the absence of oxygen” and is any type of cardio that you cannot sustain. Examples may be bike sprints, metcons, or a 500 meter row for time. Anaerobic work is usually performed for :08 seconds up to 5 minutes and will almost always leave you feeling worse than when you started.

Benefits of anaerobic conditioning include:

• Increased stress tolerance
• Improvements in power output

Note on anaerobic conditioning – people think of anaerobic conditioning as “fat loss conditioning” but there are some major factors to consider. First, anaerobic conditioning is very stressful. To simplify it we can look at it like debt. For someone who already is very stressed (most people) it is an additional stress debt that can cause someone to overdraft. This overdraft will be taken from daily energy, hormonal health or even look like depression or anxiety. Second, anaerobic output is determined by how much power someone can produce. For people with lower power output they will not be able to put out enough power to make it effective and would be better off just focusing on strength work until they were powerful enough to see the benefits of anaerobic work. 

When using anaerobic conditioning it is better to be sparing with it. Think of it like a sprinkle of sugar onto your cereal. It’s cool occasionally but add too many sprinkles of sugar and you will absolutely see issues.

Dividing cardio into two big buckets is helpful because it allows us to understand that

1. not all cardio is the same
2. it allows us to choose cardio options that best fit our needs

How Do We Use Cardio At Landing?

At Landing we try to make cardio both progressive and consistent. We have 25-40 minutes of aerobic cardio every Wednesday and Saturday and we add in 1-2 anaerobic conditioning methods depending on what training cycle we are in if we are trying to drive fitness up for a few weeks. We are currently focusing on building muscle and increasing more intense fitness for 6 weeks and will be wrapping that up at the end of April. While we only see anaerobic conditioning in certain cycles each year we make sure to keep aerobic conditioning in all 52 weeks of our training plan. Here is an example of our conditioning from the past week:

Monday – Anaerobic

5-7 Sets of 100 Meter Sprints

Wednesday – Aerobic

2 Rounds:

4 Min Bike

Rest 1 Min

4 Min Row

Rest 1 Min

4 Min AMRAP of Single Unders + Step Ups

Rest 1 Min

Repeat

Friday – Anaerobic

On an 8 Min Running Clock In Teams of 2:

2-4-6-8-Etc. Bike Calories

Saturday – Aerobic

On a 30 Min Running Clock:

800 Meter Run

30 KB Swings

30 Hollow Rocks

This gives our clients a balanced approach to their fitness without overloading the intensity to where it starts causing stress or burnout.

How Can You Implement Cardio?

When implementing cardio you want the bulk of your work to be sustainable (80%+) and you want to feel good after your conditioning a majority of the time. Below are a few great options for you to add to your own training to improve your cardio:

Option 1: Get Outside

The easiest/most accessible way to implement aerobic work into your life is to walk. For me this is a 30-45 minute timer each day where I head out and get some sun but it can be a hike with your friends, a daily step count (aim for 7-12k per day), or joining a run club. Find something you like and try to do it each week. The best part? There is no limit to how many days per week you can add this in. Have a north star of getting to 7 days per week of outdoor activity but start with 1-3 days a week and build from there.

Option 2: 30+ Min Workout

Start a timer and perform ONE cardio exercise for 30 minutes or more. Here are the rules:

1. If someone important calls you you can pick up the phone and have a conversation with them
2. Heart rate DOES NOT go over 135 bpm. This is easy to track if you have a wearable like an Apple Watch.
3. You can finish and immediately go right back to real life without a hitch.

For this I love the C2 bike because you can adjust the resistance in order to tone it down if you are getting too fatigued.

Option 3: The Less Boring Version of Option 2

Start a 30+ minute timer and every 3-10 minutes switch cardio implements. Here is one I did recently:

On a 30 Min Running Clock:

5 Min Bike

5 Min Row

5 Min Shuttle Run

Repeat

The rules are the exact same as Option 2 but now you can mix it up. This will keep you more engaged while allowing you to not overdo it on any one cardio implement.

Conclusion

Cardio is incredibly important and so is knowing how to implement it. Try to make the majority of your cardio sustainable and occasionally throw in some things that leave you fatigued if you are in a lower stress time of life and have the capacity for it. Above all make sure to think of cardio as a way to improve the quality of your life instead of viewing it as a “fat loss hack.” The more sustainably you train the more benefits you will start to see and the more room you will have in your life to make big strides forward.

Have questions? You can either reach out to me personally at Billy@landinghp.com or you can schedule a consultation with one of our consultation staff to help answer any of your questions. If you are a current client you can schedule with our team HERE and if you are someone who is interested in joining one of our professional training programs you can schedule a free consultation HERE.

As always, we hope this serves you well.