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Cardio — how much do we need?

How much cardio is enough to get your heart and lungs functioning as efficiently as possible? Hmmmm…. There are only two cardio days per week in Tony Horton’s P90X — Plyo and Kenpo, with the option to throw Cardio X into the mix if you like — but I had always heard that three times a week is the minimum to achieve at least minimal fitness. So is two times a week enough to build my heart and lungs?

I have, in my quest for fitness, read various things about cardio, and, while I can’t remember where I saw this, the following rings truest.

You are born with your heart a certain size. You are born with your lungs a certain size. They grow with your body, but you cannot manipulate them to be larger, i.e. working out does not make your heart and lungs grow, thereby making you more fit.

This makes sense to me. The heart and lungs are situated in your chest, behind ribs, so how can they get larger without banging into ribs. That can’t be right. This also helps me understand the phenomenon that I hear about every so often where an athlete is suffering from an “enlarged heart.” I had often wondered, “Isn’t that good? Wouldn’t we expect athletes to have enlarged hearts?”

If that is true, if your heart and lungs are what they are, how do we make them more efficient? I mean, they are getting more efficient as we work on our fitness, right? It is obvious without even formal measurement that, if we do P90X, we get better at Plyo and can go harder in Kenpo. If our heart and lungs are not growing, what’s going on?

You’ve probably guessed it: The muscles we use to do Plyo and Kenpo are getting better at doing those moves. This puts less stress on our heart and lungs, because with more efficient muscles, the heart and lungs can work less to feed them. This results in what we perceive to be improved functioning of our cardiovascular system. Sure, those activities are enhanced by our fitness, but what’s really happening is that our muscles are really the pieces of the system that are improved, so everything else that works to make them function works more efficiently, too.

And that is why the muscle confusion that Tony Horton stresses in P90X and One-On-One is so important. We have to do a variety of moves to achieve overall fitness. People who run all the time get really good at running, because their muscles are accustomed to the moves that occur when running, but when they are asked to do other things ….

I have personal anecdotal evidence of just this phenomenon.

When I was in the Air Force, we used to have to run 1.5 miles in a certain amount of time to pass our annual fitness test. Many of us, then, would run to stay in shape. Well, one year, someone higher up the chain of command came up with the idea to use bicycle fitness tests instead of making everyone run. They’d hook us up with a heart rate monitor and measure our pulse as we pedaled and the tester increased the tension on the stationary bike.

Many of us still passed the test, but there were a few runners who, for some reason, just could not. One guy — not the top runner among us, but up there — was a stand out. Everyone knew he was in shape. Just look at him! And he was still running, competing in half-marathons. Competing, mind you, not just completing. But he couldn’t pass the bike test.

He was really good at running. His muscles were used to those movements. But the bike test, not so much.

So you know what he did? He added some bicycling into his fitness routine. And you know what happened? After three months he passed his fitness test.

So, back to the original question: How much cardio we need to increase the efficiency of our hearts and lungs. Hmmmm…. Isn’t it obvious? If all this is true, and it seems to make sense, we don’t need any cardio to do that. We just need to build the muscles that we’ll be working, increase their efficiency, and the heart and lungs will work more efficiently, too.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t need cardio at all, because cardio does seem to, at the very least, improve brain function and lower stress levels, so gotta have that cardio. And if your goal is to be great at running, then, yeah run, run, run. But if you are shooting for general fitness, don’t forget to mix it up.

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How fit do you really need to be to start P90X?

You know you need to get into shape. You’ve seen the commercials for Tony Horton’s P90X, but you think you are not in good enough shape to try it.

I feel you. I was there myself.

I was about 30 pounds overweight, even though I was 40 pounds down from my fattest weight. I was walking a lot, getting in at least 15,000 steps a day, sometimes up to 30,000, but I just could not lose more fat. I figured I was just too old.

Then my brother talked me into trying P90X.

Mike had always been the chubby one in our family, and also the most athletic. I was the skinny kid, athletic enough, but not really into team sports, so not much of a participant. Mike had tried out P90X a couple years ago and was totally sold on it.

I told Mike that I did not feel that I was in the shape I needed to be in to attempt such a rigorous program. I had recently been doing a few pushups and pullups, but….

He convinced me to give it a shot. I have not looked back since.

There are several keys to doing P90X when you’re not already in great shape:

  • Modify. Every move has recommended modifications. Use them.
  • Take it slow. You do not need to, nor are you expected to, be able to do all the reps Tony and his crew do. Yes, push yourself, but do not go beyond your capability.
  • Press play every day. Stick with the program and you will be in the best shape of your life.

I am not exaggerating when I say that P90X is the best thing to ever happen to me in the fitness arena. Not only am I eating right, but I am also happy to exercise. My entire lifestyle has changed, and that is really the key to fitness.

They say that you need to be in pretty good shape to start P90X. That’s true, but “pretty good” for me was 20% overweight, able to do only 1 pullup, and a core that could barely hold my legs in the air for 20 seconds. I know my brother was even worse off than I was when he started.

Not sure if you’re fit enough to start P90X? Just do it!

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REVIEW: Tony Horton’s One on One, Volume 3, Number 3: “Shoulders and Arms”

As you may know, I am a big fan of Tony Horton. He is just the right mix of goofy, funny, knowledgeable, and fit for me to enjoy spending a lot of time with him, even if it’s just via DVD.

I subscribed to Tony Horton’s One-On-One DVDs almost as soon as I had finished P90X, because I knew I wanted to continue with this kind of fitness plan, and I also knew that I get bored pretty quickly, so a new DVD every month is a great way to change things up.

Some of the One-On-One DVDs are better than others, so I thought I would offer my opinion on the ones I have. I’ll begin with one of my favorites, Vol. 3, No. 3: “Shoulders and Arms”.

Volume 3 of One-On-One is a departure from the first two volumes, because in volume 3, Tony is testing his reaction to routines he’s developing for the new P90X that will come out sometime in the next year or so.

(I can’t wait for that. If you haven’t done P90X, don’t wait for the new one. You’ll get through the first, then want to buy the new one anyway. Plus, really? You are going to put off getting into the best shape of your life?)

This “Shoulders and Arms” routine, as I said, is one of my favorites.

It consists of a total of 24 sets, with 8 moves done 3 times each. We do two moves, the same two again, the same two again, then move to the next two, and so on.

The design of this workout is pretty ingenious.

We start by working shoulders with Pike Presses and Alternating Arnold Presses. These are heavy weight moves that will really wear the muscles out. Next up, though, we continue with shoulders, but with more precise, fine tuning, and much lighter weight, with 6-Position Flyes and Posterior Delt Flyes. These light-weight moves help to focus directly on the shoulder muscles, especially the Posterior Delt move, which hits an often ignored muscle.

The same principles apply then for the second half of the routine, which has us doing heavy Seated Biceps Curls and Triceps Bench Presses, followed by lighter weight Crazy 8s and Alternating Triceps Kickbacks. Heavy, then light.

The routine lasts 58 minutes and the pump I get in my biceps and triceps lets me know it is working. The day after a shoulders workout, I always hope to have some soreness in my traps, because I really need help there, and I have to admit, I don’t get that much here. I should perhaps add some Upright Rows.

However, I applaud this routine as a fun — despite the triplication of the moves — and quite effective in working the target areas. It seems to go by faster than the hour it takes, and leaves my muscles worn out.

I give One-On-One “Shoulders and Arms” 4.5 out of 5.

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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.