Aerobic Training

Not a big fan of Aerobic training.  Here is what I mean Aerobic training.  Cardio, long distance training, Long distance cycling etc…  Having seen hundreds of stressed people in my career I can say without a doubt that your body can tell the difference between Chemical stress, physical stress, mental stress, spiritual stress, etc…  All your body knows is that you are stressed.  The response is the same for all stress.  You will release cortisol and stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight system.  Well I do cardio so I can lose fat.  Really???  Lets analyze that: the following is a calculation that was done in a NSCA journal. 

 

Calories burned for 1 mile run @ 6 Miles per hour = Approximately 300 kcal/mile

Calories in one pound of fat = 4082kcal

If we take these 2 things into account we can easily calculate how many miles it would take to burn 1 lbs of fat.  Hear is the kicker, out of the 300 kcal/mile, not all of them are from fat calories.  About 10-15% is from fat.  But for the sake of this article lets round that number to 20%.  So out of the 300kcal you’ll burn about 60 kcal from fat. Lets calculate: 60kcal (fat)/mile / 4082kcal/lbs of fat = 68.03 miles for 1 pound of fat loss. 

 

My question is this, who the hell wants to run 68 miles to lose a pound of fat per week?

So, are we really exercising more efficient or are we doing what everyone else is doing and hoping that some day it will work?  I also hear this, I run 45 minutes to an hour a day for my heart.  Really?? After about 3 weeks of intensive cardiovascular exercise your cardio enzymes are at their optimal.  That means you can triple the amount of miles you run and your enzymes will still be at their max.  There is a point that your body become optimal at its efficiency, then it can’t do anymore.  What most people don’t take into account is that the body chemistry has more to do with cardio health than the exercise you can do.  What I mean is that if you’re doing intensive cardio for more than 30 minutes, you're doing if for some other reason than cardiovascular health.  Can it be done a different way?  Yes!  Just buy my book for $29.95 and it tells you what to do.  Just kidding I don’t have a book.  Yes, you can do more weight training with little or no rest.  The biggest difference being that you will stimulate your anabolic (tissue Building) hormones, and not beat down your body with all that cortisol. 

We are sprinters by nature.  We were hunter-gatherers, we didn’t chase a rabbit 26.2 miles until it died from exhaustion, we sprinted until we caught something or we didn’t eat.  That is still engrained in us today but we train the exact opposite of how we lived for the last 3000+ years. 

What should I do??  If your not sleeping to well you probably have an over exaggerated stress response.  You need to slow down and work in, instead of work out, a little bit. Try doing 15-20 minutes at a higher intensity for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.  I don’t mean 15 -20 minutes on the bike and then an hour of weights, then 10 minutes of abs training and then you go get a sugary drink from the café.  15 to 20 minutes all out and then you are done.  You’re more likely to get a heart attack from eating like crap then not doing enough cardio training.  

 

Comments

[Joe]

Not a real fan of the Article.
It's the fact that you believe we do aerobic training solely to loose fat or cardio benefits. How about the fact that I enjoy it and it makes me feel good;
a feeling I don't get standing around lifting weights.
I see as many if not more of the metal heads who pump a little iron and then flap their jaws for 5 minutes between reps who make no changes to their bodies what so ever.Tell me what purpose does it serve walking around with no neck, bulging muscles with bodies that can't handle the stress of everyday functions.
I run and finish off the run with compound exercises that strengthen my body as a whole. At 50 years old I can do more with my body than most 25 year old weight lifters.
As for your math the old addage still hold true to this day...its about calories in and calories out. Plane and simple.
I can also see that you don't even comprehend your own blog material.
The barefoot runner; Chris Macdougal wrote a book "Born to Run". It's about a tribe of Indians that run long distances barefoot. If you had bothered to read the book it goes on to explain that man in fact was born to run. Our cardiovascular and respritory systems unlike animals were designed to allow us to run long distances without rest and that infact we chased and hunted prey for long periods of time.
Oh and the Tarahumara Indians also ran for the JOY of running. RUNNING IS THEIR CULTURE.
As for Barefoot running; its not the proper way to run. The correct way to run is with proper mechanics with or without shoes it doesn't matter.
The problem with the personal training industry and blogs like this is that there is to much bad information out there and trainers like you trying to cookie cut everyone into the same workout.
Personal training is exactly that; personal. It's about what does and does not work for that individual.
Maybe just maybe what does work is a little cardio

[Sarah]

Well said, Joe!

Great points - especially about the Hunter-Gatherers & Barefoot Running. Humans were able to catch their prey because they had great endurance & could outlast their prey. Their prey would eventually tire & man could eat. Man didn't sprint to catch their dinners!

Stick to what you know, Nick. Don't pretend to be the expert of everything - it comes off as phony. Everyone has their niche area of expertise & running is clearly not yours.

[Nick]

Joe, thank you for your post. Sorry for not responding earlier, I just got back from a long run. I love a good intelligent debate on health or exercise. However, once you started taking personal shots at me and guys with big necks, it turned a little south for me. Where you started to lose me was when you said "calories in to calories out". At that point I knew you had no Idea what you are talking about. This reply to a blog, where you haven't met the writer, where you hold guys with big neck in judgment, and where you personally attack someone you haven't met, says a lot more about you than it does about me. It seems that you were needing something more from the article than you were actually getting. Instead of letting it go, you grabbed a laptop and with complete anonymity you decided to try and verbally bully someone you have never met to make your point. In some coaching circles we would call that an unhealthy ego. Feel free in the future to bash any one of my many articles to come, as I will be more than happy to give you the attention you need. Also, as for" calories in to calories out" can you explain to me how 500 Kcal from Fat, 500 Kcal from Protein, and 500 Kcal from sugar can all be metabolized the same way in a persons body. Some would say to look at it that way is really a cookie cutter approach to Nutrition.

[Joe]

Nick,
I noticed you were quick to defend your points in the article you actually know something about but simply brushed past the points you tried to BS your way through.
If you are going to blog and put it out there for people to read then you should be man enough when someone does debate you to accept the criticism.
Obviously you don't read your own crap, That is, the stuff you actually write and not copy and paste.
Your article was the one taking shots and passing judgement on people who utilize aerobic training as a means of calorie burn, stress relief, cardio conditioning and enjoyment. Your article is full of your ego in that your way is the correct way; the only way for a person to achieve fitness goals is through weight training.
Your point that you are clearly attempting to make is that weight training is the only way to workout and clearly that is wrong.
We are in fact not sprinters but endurance species.
As for calories in calories out we both know that if we burn more calories than we take in we can loose weight; isn't that the point you were trying to make with your Kcal formula??
As for the nutrition...its to eat whole foods, balanced meals, 4-5x a day and stay away from man made products that the body can't metabolize.
As for being a bully that was the whole approach to your article. You had someone stand up and prove your points wrong and you don't like that. Keep writing and I will be more than happy to let your readers know when your articles are full of Kcal's...

[Catherine]

Nick - Please don’t waste any more of your time responding to a rude and self-centered moron like Joe, who hides behind anonymity with no way to contact him directly.

Joe types: “you believe we do aerobic training solely to loose fat or cardio benefits” and that Nick passes judgment on those who do cardio for stress relief and enjoyment. I can’t seem to find out where the blog actually says this or implies that this would be the case. I personally like how Joe is telling Nick what Nick believes.

Joe goes on to say: “At 50 years old I can do more with my body than most 25 year old weight lifters”. Really. I would love to see this. Can we meet at the gym? There are many ways fitness can be measured, flexibility, breathing, muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, balance, stability & cardio endurance to name a few. I wonder if Joe is just talking about measuring the areas he feels are most important.

Joe also mentions the book “Born to Run” and how it describes cardiovascular systems of man. I’m just wondering Joe, do you also subscribe to the magazine “Convenient theories for you monthly”? We can all find information that we want to validate what we already believe, but can we open our minds to consider that there may be other truths as well?

Nick mentions this book in other blogs, so we know he has read it and I believe he took in all of the information and has combined it with his other knowledge to form his own opinion. Not just regurgitate the information that he wanted to hear.

What I got from the original blog is 2 points: The first point is that he doesn’t think cardio should be used to loose body fat AND the second point is in respect to how cardio effects the heart and to mention that there may be a better way to heart health.

There was no mention of stress relief or enjoyment, as this wasn’t the topic.

As a matter of fact, if you were to ask Nick “what is the best way to train for a 20 mile run”, I can assure you, the answer would be, without judgment “run”. This is one of the problems I have with you Joe, is that you are so short sided that this didn’t even occur to you.

Another problem I have is that you clearly do not know Nick. He is ANYTHING but cookie cutter.

But the problem I have most with your post is your accusation that he copies and pastes information. Back up your accusations, because this is a powerful accusation and the biggest reason why I encourage Nick to no longer take your posts.

You never answered the question that Nick asked you Joe, and I am sitting on pins and needles to learn, from you, how the different calories are metabolized in the body. Don’t know the answer do you. I also like the little change in tone “we CAN loose weight”, not necessarily “WILL” loose weight when you talk about calories in versus calories out in your second comment. Do you want to know why? It’s because not all calories are equal. Maybe if you open your mind Joe, you can learn a little something.

[Todd]

Thanks for the good article Nick. It's always interesting to find many perspectives on health and wellness. Your reader Joe brought up a good point - that running is full of joy and good for the mind/soul. I agree. Not for me personally, but I have several clients who run a lot and they do it primarily for the mental satisfaction they get. Most of them started to run because they wanted to lose weight, but ended up enjoying it more so for the mental benefits.

I would like to comment on a few points that are in the spotlight, however. As a Certified Clinical Nutritionalist and Certified Personal Trainer, I've learned not only through trial, but also through the peer-reviewed journals, that nutrition and weight loss and not about calories in/out. It's not that simple. I will say that it seems like most overweight and unhealthy people tend to worry about calories, while healthy people with admirable body compositions tend to worry about other things - like real quality foods, as Joe pointed out. But there is no way that anybody who thought about it would believe 100grams of processed sugar affects the body (on all levels, including weight loss) the same way 100grams of vegetables, nuts, and seeds would affect the body. I've been around enough "fit" people who are not "healthy because they follow this outdated and inaccurate presumption.

In regards to cardio, I think most people here are missing the point. It seems like all contributors have brought up valuable comments, however, I believe your point is that most people today are way over-stressed (for a multitude of reasons I imagine). Long-duration cardiovascular exercise is often too stressful for the typical unfit person.

I personally have read the book Joe is referring to. And I also believe there are some good points in the book. However, just because they are good points, doesn't mean that they are principles. For example, the Atkins Diet has some good points and ideas, but that doesn't mean the diet is necessarily good, especially for everybody. While some people might benefit from more cardiovascular exercise than others (just like some people thrive on more fat in the diet than others), there is one thing that hasn't been discussed that is indisputable...

We are designed to move is multiple directions, with varying speeds, resistance, depth, etc. Repetitive movement that requires the same range of motion with the same resistance at the same speed is a prescription for overuse injuries, imbalanced muscle development, poor breathing mechanics, poor flexibility, hardening of the heart, etc. Elliptical machines, bike machines, and tread-climbers in gyms are constantly being scrutinized due to their unforgiving repetitive motion. Running, while it can have some minimal variance, isn't much different. Now, if you're running up and down hills, jumping over this and that, changing direction, etc...that's different. But if we're talking about going out for a 3 or 10 mile run...it's just a matter of time before they come see me to get fixed from their hip, knee, back, shoulder or plantar fasciitis problems.

Honestly, chronic runners provide my lifestyle for my family because they are constantly paying me money to fix them. The breakdown is only a matter of time. And a smart part of fixing them is to either stop or significantly reduce their running while rebalancing their exercise plan, length/tension relationships in their muscles, posture, muscle firing patterns, posture, etc.

[Todd]

At a nutrition and sports conference as I write. Peer reviewed journal states "prolonged aerobic exercise is not consistent with our heritage." it was a study on marathons and marathon training. "endurance athletes have abnormally low levels of sex hormones." This doctor says "to train long is to train wrong."

[Todd]

Let's keep in mind that there is more than just two camps. And by camps I mean distance athletes vs power athletes. Somewhere in the middle seems to be the best among all measurable variables. Bursts of exercise between short to medium duration win. If we look at meat-head type power lifters, we don't see the picture of health. When we look at chronic distance runners, we don't see the picture of health. Optimal is somewhere in the middle, such as a 400m sprinter - which is equivalent to about 1 min of intense effort, followed by some recovery period, then repeat.

[Joe]

Catherine,
The problem with Nick's article is that it speaks in an open and shut case. Reading it your only assumption is: aerobic training is not healthy for you. He says "Having seen hundreds of stressed people in my career I can say without a doubt that your body can tell the difference between Chemical stress, physical stress, mental stress, spiritual stress, etc… All your body knows is that you are stressed." then he does not back that up and jumps right into his Kcal formula. His head line states Aerobic Training and talks about what kinds of stress it can cause...or did you miss that part.
The fact of the matter is that weight training can cause as much sress to the body if over done and done incorrectly. Rugby, Football, Soccer...all can cause stress to the body. If he wants to spout off about the difficiencies of aerobic training then as a " Health Practitioner" he should do the same for weight training and all other activities so people can read with an open mind and objectively.
He actually uses 26.2 and "sprinting after a rabbit." As he opened the door to endurance training at this point Catherine; he should have then become objective and explained that what he is talking about has no corilation with endurance training.
I get the fact that weight training is essential and that it takes more calories to sustain lean muscle and that building lean muscle leads eventually to better overall caloric burn but lets take overweight Mom and Dad who have pushed their lifestyle off onto overweight Son and Daughter. By reading this what I'm supposed to grasp is that why bother to try and get the family to try cardio because "My question is this, who the hell wants to run 68 miles to lose a pound of fat per week?" What?? Really?
I also get the fact that sugar, HFCS, processed foods, fast foods are killing this country. I grasp that all people Metabolize foods differently thats why FAD DIETS don't work. I understand that sugars and fats metabolize at a different rates but when Todd speaks of "unhealthy people" these people are doing nothing in terms of burning calories. They are just taking calories in and doing anything to burn them off hence the obesity. When they do make the choice towards a healthy lifestyle and they make the choice for a PT then it's the PT's who needs to give them ALL THE TOOLS neccasary in achieving those goals: weight training, aerobic training and proper eating habbits.
As for barefoot running and the book "born to run" the URL that you posted has Nicks header on there that says " usng the body as it is supposed to be used".
I'm all for barefoot running ....as a tool. It's not the shoes or barefoot running that cause or not cause injuries. It's not the "Act of running" that cause injuries. It's the poor form and bad mechanics that cause the injuries. Bad form or mechanics in wieght lifting, biking, baseball, golf, swimming or anything for the most part will lead to injuries. I understand that being in shoes all day every day can lead to detraining and imbalances in the foot that eventually can lead to injury. Wouldn't a better way for this article to have been posted is with fact's that speak to both sides of the story so again people can form their own opinion based on facts that they read. I look over your articles here and that is the most glaring point that stands out...it's all done with blinders.
As for my own training Catherine I switch from road and turf, cross train. I utilize single plane exercises, planks, pushups, pull ups, medicine balls, stability balls, ropes, suspension bands, dynamic exercises and stretching, yoga and what I never do is utilize weight machines in my workouts. So as I stated before I can do more with my body at 50 than most 25 year old weight lifters can with theirs.

[Brian]

I've known Nick for about 5 years.I trained with him, steady for 2 years, now 2x a week. I'm just a regular 50 year old guy who was 45 pounds over weight and working out like a muscle crazed college kid (that's all I knew from my college Rugby days). Nick changed my focus with exercises I never experienced before, coordinated it with specific behavioral and dietary routines and added a wider lifestyle philosophy to the mix. All new for me. I lost the unwanted weight, am strong enough to feel healthy and vibrant (perhaps not as strong as Joe or his stable of 25 year old weaklings) and best of all have a wealth of practical knowledge to extend to others that Nick is unable to help. Although I realize I'm no expert, I know I can, have and do help others. This success was achieved only because I opened my mind to others and had the patience (most of the time) to "let it work". I learned much from Nick and still do.
Specifically, I think we can all help each other if it help we have in our hearts. That is where my friend Nick operates from. A passion for helping others, if intended certainly did not emulate from Joe's response. That is all that is missing, compassion. Debate is good, I love it because that is most likely when truth is found. If it becomes a I must win situation, let's take it to the pitch (field or court for the less enlightened).

Thank you Nick and thanks to you, I and many others that you have helped know the right things they can do to improve their health.