Use Cardio To ENHANCE Resistance Training, Brain Health & Longevity!

Happy Friday!

Welcome to another edition of the “Train For Life” newsletter.

This week we are diving into cardiovascular exercise (CV), and why it’s a great addition to your overall exercise plan for longterm health.

But first, let’s start by unravelling a couple of old myths in the fitness world about “cardio” that still seem to be floating around…

The first is that CV is best used when training to get leaner or lose weight, and the second is that it can “waste away” your muscle mass.

Firstly, getting leaner and looking better REQUIRES resistance training to increase or maintain muscle mass, metabolism as well as regulate hormones like insulin.

Some additional CV exercise on the side will help as long as you are NOT overtraining, whilst understanding that nutrition also plays a BIG part….

Secondly, muscle mass only starts to be impacted when doing higher amounts of weekly CV training, especially if also at high intensity levels.

That effect is made worse if you are not including any resistance training to maintain muscle mass too..

As with everything moderation is key, and CV exercise can (and should) be a part of your overall training program for health and longevity.

Some of the better known benefits of CV exercise are as follows:

• Improved heart health - CV strengthens the heart, improves circulation and maintains normal blood pressure. Reducing risk of strokes, heart disease and heart attacks.

• Improved lung capacity - CV exercise builds lung capacity and efficiency meaning you can utilise oxygen more effectively. Which means better stamina….

• Weight management - Yes we have covered this already, but CV exercise will burn calories and can help weight management. Just remember diet and resistance training also matter!

Now there are a few more awesome benefits of CV exercise, lets discuss 3 in particular that are useful for you to know:

1. Mental health - CV improves cognitive function, reduces stress levels, and boosts mood through releasing endorphins that help with anxiety and depression.

2. Brain health - CV improves neuro (brain) plasticity helping you maintain and grow NEW neurons, reducing cognitive decline and boosting longterm brain health.

3. ASSIST RESISTANCE TRAINING! - Certain types of CV builds mitochondria, which are inside your cells and produce energy (ATP). More mitochondria means more power during resistance training while helping you recover faster between sets.

There can be a lot of information out there regarding the many different types of CV training such as aerobic, anaerobic, interval training, HIIT, Zone training and so on….

For simplicity and to take the guess work away there’s 3 types of CV exercise that we’ll focus on (which I use with many clients) and these are:

• Zone 2 training

• Aerobic capacity intervals

• Lactic capacity intervals (more advanced)

Zone 2 training is lower intensity training at approx 60% of your max heart rate, for durations of 20 up to 60 mins.

The rower, bike, elliptical trainer and even brisk walking can work well depending on fitness levels.

Zone 2 helps build mitochondria as well as assisting brain health and cognitive function.

If you’re de-conditioned or not done CV exercise in a while, this is probably a good place to start.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a heart rate monitor either, as long as you are able to maintain a conversation as you train you are in the right area.

Slowly build up towards longer times as you feel up to it, but remember it should be sustainable.

Aerobic capacity intervals are performed with a 1:1 work to rest ratio that can range anywhere from 30-60s each, for around 6-10 sets.

Sessions would typically be around 20-40 mins MAX, and of a moderate to somewhat hard intensity.

The key is to try and maintain the same output on each work interval, so if you ran on the treadmill you would look to maintain the speed for every work set.

You can rest completely or take effort down to minimal on rest intervals.

Once fitness levels have improved, aerobic capacity intervals are a nice progression and transition from zone 2 training.

Lactic capacity intervals are best with a 1:3 or 1:4 work to rest ratio and are performed at higher intensity levels.

Again 6-10 sets is a good starting point, with work intervals around 15-30s coupled with 60-120s recovery periods.

The idea is to improve tolerance to lactic acid and be able to sustain higher intensity efforts as you improve.

As with aerobic capacity training look to maintain the same output every work interval.

The bike or the rower can work well for lactic capacity intervals as the impact on your joints is less and set up is just easier.

Lactic capacity intervals are more challenging so ensure you have done around 6-8 weeks of zone 2 with some aerobic capacity training first.

If you only have time for one CV session each week then its advisable to start with 3-4 weeks of zone 2, followed by 3-4 weeks of aerobic capacity before trying moving on to lactic capacity intervals.

If you perform CV twice per week then start with 2 x zone 2 sessions for 3-4 weeks, then swap in one aerobic capacity session for the next 3-4 weeks.

Then if you wish you can swap the aerobic for lactic capacity intervals.

On a final note, you can get a lot of longterm health benefits from just doing some zone 2 training as part of your weekly routine.

It’s just good to give some more options and progressions if you wish!

It should go without saying that if you are older, not exercised in a long while or have any health issues, then may be advisable to get checked out from your physician before you start an exercise program.

For now thanks reading today and stay tuned for the next edition of Train For Life next Friday!

Daryl