The Cardiovascular Conundrum

Cardio is a very important aspect in training, no matter what it is you are training for. Just look at the word cardiovascular, now break it down. Cardio is in reference to the heart, your hardest working muscle in the body, vascular refers to blood vessels. I know what you're thinking, "Yes Jack, we know. What's your point?" My point is that cardio is beneficial, but what kind of cardio is better for you? Why is it better for you? What's the major differences between one type of cardio and another?

Here's where it gets tricky. Long, sustained, steady state cardio is better for increasing your body's ability to push blood and oxygen into your muscles while you're working out. Because your heart is in a continuous elevated rate, it becomes more efficient at pumping, so in turn you become more efficient at pumping up your muscles and enduring through longer bouts of exercise. But for a physique stand point it's not the most effective means to burn calories, or build muscle.

Think of your body as a car, and the calories you consume as gasoline. When you're driving your car, you burn through the most gas when you floor it, seeing just how fast you can go from 0-60 mph, where as you go through way less gas when you're on cruise control. So think for a second, which would you rather have, a gas efficient Prius, or that sexy Corvette? Thankfully for you, you don't truly have to decide between the two. You can have the efficiency of the Prius, and the sexiness and speed of the Corvette.

Sprinting is, at a basic level, resistance training. It builds your muscles to be much more powerful. That being said sprints shouldn't be done every day. Pairing cardio with weight training will allow the body to become more efficient but it needs to be the correct cardio and the correct amount of time, and finishing with the correct amount of calories to recover.

"So then Jack, what do I do to get the most bang for my buck?"

Everyone at our gym is doing some form of resistance training, whether it be personal training, homework days, kettlebell, yoga or pilates, and generally that encompasses about 3 to 4 days of the week. For many of you, on the days that you are doing resistance training you should do steady state cardio. It's less strenuous and allows the body to recover from the strain of lifting weight. On the days you're not lifting weights, that's when you do your sprints.

If you're doing 3 days of weights, do 3 days of sprints, and one day to recover. If doing four days of weights, try two days of sprints, one day to recover.

Not only is this great for losing weight but also very efficient way to maintain or even gain strength. How do I know? I've been doing five days of lifting with 30 minutes steady state cardio and two days of sprinting for the past two weeks on a reduced calories diet, and I lost 11 lbs. Yet I didn't lose a single rep off any of my lifts. In fact on one of my key lifts I actually added weight and got the same number of reps I had gotten with a lighter weight while being heavier. Refute that! You cant. Start sprinting!

-Jack Lazarus