"High Intensity VS Steady State" from Tom Venuto

I got an email today from a reader who was told by a doctor/authorthat aerobics and running will "kill you"...(that was the gist of it,more or less). As a result, you should "avoid aerobics like the plague," says this MD. Since I've tolerated enough "steady state cardio is dead" and"aerobics doesn't work" nonsense over the last few years, despitethe success stories I keep churning out that clearly show otherwise,(http://www.burnthefat.com/testimonials.html), I thought I should not only answer my reader, but also make this the topic for today's newsletter to share with all of you. Here's the "killer cardio" question and my short response: --------------------------------------BURN THE FAT READER EMAIL:------------------------------------- "Tom, your articles are great. Here's the problem. More runners die from sudden heart attack and stroke than any other form of exerciseon the planet. It's because nothing is more foreign to human beingsthan getting their heart rate up and keeping it there for long periods of time. In fact recent studies have shown that while there are benefits to aerobics, (like weight loss), in the long term however, statisticsshow a direct increase in heart disease. Part of the reason for this is that in an effort to adapt to the unnatural demands being put on the body, to economize, the heart and lungs actually shrink. Just look at the long list of joint, bone, and muscle injuriesthat come along with running (it's right there in the magazines). As I know you know, a serious weight lifter, if he's paying attentionto form, should almost never suffer injury from weight training. The same is true for the following: Instead of unnatural, self-abusive aerobics, the best way to actually increase heart and lung capacity and size is to go beyond aerobics. In short, spurts of intense exercise, such as wind-sprints, you movepast your ability to produce ATP with oxygen as fast as you are usingit, causing your muscles to become ATP depleted. That's the point at which your anaerobic energy system kicks in. This is also known as crossing your aerobic threshold. Burst training, sprints, whatever you want to call it, it shouldn'tbe done in addition to aerobics, it should be done in place of aerobics. Incidentally, I am not saying that one shouldn't walk, jog, bicycle,swim, etc, just be reasonable. I had a heart condition that has been totally alleviated. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of each week, I go through a 45 minuteweight training session, followed by a 20 minutes of the interval program. Check it out, I think this sort of thing would be a great addition to you already good program. -Jeff" ---------------------------------RESPONSE:-------------------------------- I agree with much of what you said about the benefits of intense "burst" exercise, but I find the anti running and anti aerobics arguments horribly dogmatic and, unlike what you suggested, totally unreasonable. I also find the argument that traditional cardio or aerobics is"unhealthy" to be wholly unconvincing. That doctor isn't giving the full picture. I subscribe to many sports medicine and exercise science journalsand I've certainly seen research papers looking at sudden death inelite runners, etc. But there's more than one side to the story. Marathon running is a highly publicized sport, and the media lovesbad news, so the oxymoron of a runner dying of a heart attack makes a great story, which means greater visibility for what is actuallya very rare occurrence. It's also easy to cherry pick case studies on just about anythingand start up a big scare. This comes from the American Journal of cardiology: "The overall prevalence of sudden cardiac death during the marathonwas only 0.002%, strikingly lower than for several other variablesof risk for premature death calculated for the general U.S. population." "Although highly trained athletes such as marathon runners may harborunderlying and potentially lethal cardiovascular disease, the risk for sudden cardiac death associated with such intense physical effort was exceedingly small." I also find comparing serious endurance athletes pushing theirphysical limits to regular cardio for general fitness trainingto be an inappropriate comparison. What does a rare cardiac event during a 26 mile run have to do with you doing 30 or 45 minutes of jogging or me doing 40 minutesof moderate work on the stairmaster to get cut for a bodybuildingcontest? Even sillier are the people who keep using the late marathon runnerand running author Jim Fixx as an example of anything but a guy who had a genetic predisposition for heart disease (gun was loaded).Word on the street is that he was a former smoker too. Please note, I'm saying all this as a strength/physique athlete(bodybuilder), who understands full well that excessive aerobics iscounterproductive to my goals and that weight training is priority #1. But in the right amounts, balanced with proper recovery (as you said,"reasonable"), regular cardio can be instrumental in helping yourlower your body fat and it can benefit you in many other ways, physically and mentally. There are MANY ways to do cardio and all of them have their place at certain times for certain people. What you're talking about with sprints or "burst" training is also known as High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT for short. HIIT can be a great way to get cardiovascular conditioning andburn a lot of calories in a very time efficient manner. Furthermore, a paper just published recently in the ACSM's Exerciseand Sport Sciences Review (July 2009) discussed the research suggesting that intense aerobic interval training provides greater benefits for the heart than low or moderate intensity exercise. The benefits discussed included: * Increased maximal oxygen uptake* Improved heart muscle contractile function* Improved heart muscle calcium handling* reduced cardiac dysfunction in metabolic syndrome* Reversed pathological cardiac hypertrophy* Increased physiological hypertrophy of the heart muscle* Overall: improved quality of life and length of life by avoidingfatal heart attacks. This is not an argument AGAINST regular cardio, it is evidence in favor of intense cardio. I like it HIIT!I don't need to add it to my program because it'salready a part of my program My first book about fat loss, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle(www.burnthefat.com) was first published in 2002 and I recommended HIIT way back then - as well as to regular cardio, not one or theother. I Still do! There were also people promoting HIIT long before me. It's not anyrevolutionary idea - people just keep putting new names and spinson it for marketing. The problem is, to argue in favor of HIIT should not be construed asarguing against conventional aerobics. Many of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models usedslow, steady state cardio exclusively prior to competitions andthey got ripped right down to the six pack abs. They didn't dieof a heart attack and they didn't lose muscle either. In fact, many bodybuilders opt for low intensity cardio specificallyfor muscle retention when they get to the tail end of contest prepwhere body fat stores are getting low and food intake is low. morehigh intensity training on top of all the weight training is oftencatabolic in that situation. Listen, HIIT and other types of intense cardio are great. It's time efficient, making it ideal for the busy person, and its very effective for both fat loss and cardiovascular conditioning. It's also more engaging, as many people find longer, slower sessions ofcardio boring. If you have a history of heart disease and you smoke like a chimneyand at the same time you decide you want to take up marathon running,ok, I'll concede to some caution. But, "Aerobics is going to kill you!"?????? GIVE ME A FRIGGEN BREAK! Perfect marketing hook for a cultish HIIT-based program... little more. Bottom line: sure, do your HIIT, do your sprints, do your Tabatas.... OR... do your regular steady state aerobics or running too... Or, do a little bit of everything! I do. Be sure weight training is your foremost training priority and thendo whatever type of cardio you enjoy and whatever type gets you thebest results. If someone likes to run, I say RUN, and tell the "experts" who sayotherwise to BUZZ OFF and take their sensationalistic journalismand marketing with them. Train hard and expect success, Tom VenutoFat Loss Coach