Category: Reading

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Too much cardio?

I’ve been protecting my knees, particularly my arthritic left knee, so about two months ago I stopped doing cardio. Sure, I could do some low-impact cardio, but I’m not convinced that cardio is all that important.

Don’t get me wrong. I do think getting the blood moving quickly through the body from time to time is a good thing to do, but I think cardio is highly overrated as a fitness practice.

Cardio, after all, is just another way to work your muscles.

It’s not like your heart or lungs are going to get any bigger. You’ve heard of a physiological problem called “enlarged heart” right? That’s a disease, not a fitness goal. Your heart and lungs are as big as they should be, and you’re not going to make them any bigger.

So what happens when you do cardio, then? Why do you seem to have increased heart and lung capacity?

Well, you are making your muscles more efficient. That’s why your heart and lungs can work more easily, because your muscles are better able to put the oxygen they receive to use, thus easing the burden on your cardiopulmonary system.

Now if you buy into the idea that more movement means more calorie burn — and there is no reason I know of not to buy into that idea — then you may perceive that more cardio is good if you are trying to lose fat. I agree.

But of all the things I do to work out, cardio is the least fun for me. I don’t dig all the jumping around. Sometimes, yeah. Like this weekend I actually decided to give the knee a test and did the Kenpo Cardio X from the P90X Plus series. I had not done this workout in a couple months, so I expected to fall pretty flat, but, you know what? Nope. It went well, one of the best iterations of that workout for me.

I suppose I was okay with the workout because I’ve continued to work my legs, arms, chest, even without doing cardio, so the efficiencies my muscles have realized continue to be in place. Basically, I’m staying fit.

As I was reading through Tom Venuto’s post on too much cardio, I notice that he makes mention of the different schools of thought on weight loss, and it comes back to the premise of my last post. You gotta do what’s right for you.

Here’s Tom’s conclusion in the article, which makes plenty of sense: “What you should avoid is doing hours and hours of cardio every day in an attempt to lose weight, while slashing calories to very low levels at the same time. That is worse than starvation dieting alone. Your goal is to find the right balance between burning calories and cutting calories and avoid extremes on either side [emphasis added].”

This makes so much sense. If you are doing a lot of cardio, you need extra energy and also the building materials to repair your body, so, of course, you need to eat appropriately! Find the right balance.

Now, having agreed with Mr. Venuto, I also have to say: Too much cardio? Whatever.

I think it’s interesting to read about such things, and I think it’s necessary to learn all you can about fitness and nutrition, but as a regular guy or gal, i.e. not an elite athlete or bodybuilder, don’t get wrapped around the axle about everything you read. Don’t use “too much cardio lowers your metabolism” as an excuse to skip a workout. Do use it as an excuse to examine your current fitness practices. Are you feeling rundown all the time? You probably need to eat more. Simple. Hey, maybe you are doing too much cardio. Substitute in some resistance training.

Set goals and work toward those goals. Continue to learn what science says is right and implement what your body says is right. Fitness is a lifestyle.

Do you love cardio? Do it! Do you love eating less. Do it! Resistance training? Do it! Love ’em all? Do ’em!

But, dammit, do something. There are no magic pills.

It really boils down to this for me: Do I feel better while I’m reaching my fitness goals? All good. Not feeling so great or not reaching the goals? I need to make some adjustments.

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Do you get enough fruit?

If you’re like me, you’re not really a fruit eater. I like a good apple, but it’s hard to find a good apple. I love a good pear … but it’s hard to find a good pear. And so on. So I really don’t eat a lot of fruit.

I probably don’t need to explain to you the health benefits of fruit, from their anti-oxidants to their added soft fiber to their lower glycemic sugars. I really felt that I should eat more fruit, but, whenever I bought apples and bit into a mushy one … blech!

Then my life changed.

When I started doing Tony Horton’s P90X, I also changed my diet. The dietary suggestions in the P90X program did not necessarily include more fruit, but they did include allowances for a lot more protein than I was used to eating. To get enough protein, I turned to prepackaged protein drinks.

Then I read Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint and it made a lot of sense to me, so I stopped eating all grains. All of them. No pasta. No bread. No oatmeal. No tortillas.

(I eat grains again now, but in far smaller quantities that I used to. That is my usual approach to reducing a dietary item: Quit it for three to six months — sometimes longer — to break the habit, then add a little back in.)

I had already stopped eating almost all sugars with the exception of some honey after workouts.

Given those circumstances, how could I get the 250 grams of carbohydrate I needed for my new diet if I did not eat those things? I had to add more fruit to my diet.

I switched to a protein powder, so I could prepare my own protein shakes, and, yup, I added frozen fruit to those protein shakes.

I mostly use blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. I don’t use bananas — too much sugar in those, and I’ve also always thought that drinking bananas is kinda gross.

Recently Costco also started stocking frozen organic peaches, so I use those in my protein shakes as well.

I mention “organic” because that’s important for me, if affordable. The organic berries and fruits that I’ve been buying have far less sugar in them than the fruits I was used to, and I find that much more enjoyable. When I eat those organic peaches, I feel as if I am eating food, not just sugar.

I don’t use the USDA Dietary Guidelines or the Food Pyramid as any kind of logical guidance for eating. You can read Good Calories, Bad Calories to find out why. (HINT: What shows up on those lists is way too influenced by politics, instead of being totally driven by actual nutrition science.)

But I do think that eating more fruit is a good idea, and I’m happy that I’ve found a way to incorporate fruit into my current eating habits.

How about you? Do you get enough fruit?

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My experience with the Primal Diet

When I first started Tony Horton’s P90X, I followed the included diet plan religiously.

The plan called for a diet of 50% protein, 30% carbs, and 20% fat. I created a spreadsheet and entered everything I consumed, ensuring I kept my daily totals very close to those targets. I lost a lot of fat.

About six weeks after I’d started P90X, though, I read Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint. It intrigued me and made more sense to me than any other dietary lifestyle I’d ever read about.

If you are not familiar with Sisson’s philosophy, let me explain briefly that it involves eating lots of fat and protein, only some carbs, and those carbs should come primarily from vegetables, a bit from fruit, and not from anywhere else. No grains or sugars of any kind. The concept is that our bodies evolved to eat certain foods. Grains have not been part of our diets for very long, so when we eat grains, we are, essentially, eating things that our bodies are not accustomed to as food.

Because this made a lot of sense to me, I switched from the 50/30/20 diet to a primal diet after six weeks of P90X. I have been on the primal diet since then.

But now I’m switching back to 50/30/20.

Why?

While P90X has been great for getting me into shape, making me much more fit, and strengthening my muscles, well, dammit, my waist size has not budged from where it was ten weeks into the program, shortly after I went on the primal diet. I’ve been stuck. And it’s pissing me off.

I believe that our body composition is at least 80% what we eat, so I’ve thought for some time that I should make this move, go back to 50/30/20. Problem is, I really like primal eating and it’s a healthy way to eat. Plus primal does seem to be great for body-fat-percentage maintenance. But I guess that’s the problem. I’ve maintained my fat level, can’t seem to lose this fat around my gut.

I am not certain that primal is the cause of this lack of fat loss. But I’m back on 50/30/20, as of yesterday, to see if I can find out.

I’ll keep you posted.

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Sometimes you have to fit a workout into your schedule

I have a pretty fluid schedule. I work for myself out of my home. I don’t have to meet with clients a lot, and I don’t need to be on the phone very often. I am usually in the office at my house working at my own pace, taking breaks when I want.

My point is that I have a great schedule for trying to stay in shape. I would say, “Lucky me,” but this is how I planned out my life, so not a lot of luck involved. A little, but not a lot.

Usually I wake up without an alarm, whenever I happen to wake up, and get to work. I should note here that I never sleep past 7:00 a.m. Something always has me woken up by then, and once I wake up, my mind starts thinking of everything I need to do that day … and I’m up. So I get up, hit the tasks I need to do to get me paid, then take a break sometime between 10:00 and 2:00 to work out. It’ s a schedule that works well for me, and, yes, if you work 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6, more likely) for the man, you should be jealous. (Meanwhile, I’ll be jealous of your regular, and probably larger, paycheck.)

However, every so often I do need to be somewhere outside the home office for the day. Today was one such day, because I had some training to attend.

So I had a choice. (1) Get up early and work out before I went to the class. (2) Work out after I got back from the class. Or (3) not work out at all.

I pretty much took the weekend off from working out. Not completely — I did get an ab routine in, and about 1o miles of walking — but I pretty much took the weekend off, so skipping my Monday workout was not an option.

Working out when I got home in the afternoon, 6:00 or so? Not gonna happen. I have little motivation at that time of day.

So … get up early it was!

I set the alarm for 5:30, but I woke up at 5:00. I had some coffee, read a bit of the novel I’m reading — The Pillars of the Earth — and around 6:00 I hit chest and back with Tony Horton’s One-On-One 30/15 routine. It’s one of my favorite routines, so that made things easier, but working out this early is not my normal routine.

It went great! So great, in fact, that I considered setting my alarm every day. I used to get up early with an alarm, but I got out of the habit. Something about waking up with a sense of purpose really motivates me.

But, having thought about it, I am pretty sure alarm clocks will surely send me down the path of too little sleep, and I do not want to be there again. Sleep is one of the most important activities when one is trying to reshape one’s body, so I don’t want to skimp on it.

I may, however, try it on Mondays. Chest and back first thing in the  morning? Wow!

Once again, I do know how fortunate I am not to have to fit in too many workouts. Many of you have to contend with tough schedules every day. In fact, I know when I had a regular job, I used to get up at 4:00 every weekday so I could work out at that the gym when it opened at 4:30. That was the only way I could get a workout in, because my schedule was so hectic once I got to work.

It’s a choice, though, and if your goal is to be in shape, sometimes — if not often — you need to put forth some effort to fit a workout into your schedule.

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I’m okay with caffeine … really ….

Caffeine is one of those drugs that sparks a lot of controversy. Is it beneficial? Harmful? What’s up with caffeine? The reviews are mixed, so I experimented with my body.

I went off caffeine for about 18 months a few years ago. I’m an active person who pushes the clock as much as possible, which is a nice way of saying I don’t tend to get enough sleep. (How much sleep is enough? Another controversial questions. For me, 6.5 to 7.5 hours seems to be optimal.)

I went off caffeine primarily because I hate to be addicted to anything, and, dammit, if I didn’t get my morning coffee, I’d get that withdrawal headache around 1:00 or so. Bump that. So I quit.

Fine, but here’s the problem. When I’d tell people I was off caffeine, they’d invariably ask, “Do you feel better?” and I would invariably answer, “No.” And it was true. I did not feel better. I felt run down. Sure, you can say, “Well, you should just have gotten more sleep.” Do ya think? Easier said than done.

About 16 months into this experiment I read The Caffeine Advantage. It’s an interesting book about the benefits of caffeine. I know, I know, don’t believe everything you read. But the fact was that I didn’t feel better without caffeine, so I was poised to jump off the wagon. (Does that phrase remind you of this Seinfeld episode?)

I went back to using caffeine a couple months later, but his time, instead of coffee, I started popping a 100mg caffeine pill in the morning. Saved time and money, plus it’s hot in New Mexico, where I lived at the time, and a pot of coffee is not necessarily a pleasant way to start the day.

I’ll stem your imagination’s wandering right now and let you know that I did not slip into a downward spiral of caffeine addiction that threatened my very soul. I was very controlled with the pills, but I soon discovered that I missed the taste of a good cup of coffee.

So I am back on caffeine, enjoying a cup of coffee (currently making Americanos with my Breville espresso maker) when I think I need it. I also dig the flavor of a sugar-free Red Bull from time to time. And you know what? Yeah, I feel better.