HOW MUCH CARDIO DO I NEED?

You often hear me say…

“Resistance Training>Cardio”

⁣Yes, this is true. Resistance training (RT) builds muscle, manages body composition, burns more calories long term, reduces chronic pain, and makes you strong AF all while fighting disease. ⁣You can read more about this here.

⁣That doesn’t mean cardio is BAD. Cardio is also an important addition to your training program. Cardio doesn’t mean slamming away on a treadmill or stair master. It can include those activities, but it’s not exclusive to that. Cardio can mean lifting in a higher rep range, using smart circuits, super setting exercises or just going for a walk too!⁣

We need to be smart with cardio. Running your daily 10 kilometers and participating in exclusively endurance based high intensity cardio can be catabolic. This means your body wants to be as small as possible, so it can carry you for as long as possible in the activities. This may sound like a win for those looking to lose weight, but it’s a loss that our bodies will pay the price for.

When overtraining in high intensity endurance based activities our bodies are under massive stress. To complete the activities your body breaks down muscle, loses hair, stops producing hormones, skin and other tissues. Your body is smart, it wants to make you lighter to carry in these endurance based activities.  It starts to break down tissue and has no resources to rebuild (please note, poorly programmed RT programs can do this too).

⁣Muscle loss leads to higher risk of disease, injury, pain and poor body composition.⁣

⁣Don’t panic! A high intensity endurance based workout here or there is not going to immediately send you into a muscle loss frenzy. If this is just a piece of your weekly programming, there are a ton of health benefits! The problem occurs when high intensity endurance based cardio is the majority of our program. If you are participating in longer runs, bikes, multiple Sweat classes, etc. Then it’s important to pair that with adequate protein, proper recovery (7+ hours of sleep minimum), stress management skills (like our yoga and mobility classes), and our Lift Class. View all of our classes here.

We train to build ourselves up and not break ourselves down. That’s why at Jolt we offer a variety of programs and classes that help create strong bodies and minds. Whether you consider yourself a cardio junkie or you’re bestie’s with the barbell it’s important to ensure that you have both resistance training and cardio classes.

-Coach Siggy