Is aerobic exercise necessary or a detriment?

For the majority of people, aerobic exercise is necessary but can also hinder strength.  Good news is that knowing it's role in health and strength can minimize detriment .

 

The necessity of aerobic training is mostly due to sedentary lifestyles.  It's hinderance of strength is due to impaired recovery and/or conflicting adaptations. 

 

Understanding how aerobics can improve health yet hinder strength might allow for optimal integration.

 

                How a sedentary lifestyle mandates cardio.

 

Most of us lead a sedentary lifestyle. Modern convenience allows us food, safety, and shelter with minimal physical demand.   Additionally, the careers most have actually necessitate long periods of inactivity.

 

While our modern lifestyle allows for a safer existence acutely, such inactivity will doom many of to an early demise!

 

You see, sluggish lifestyles facilitate sluggish circulation and, sluggish circulation eventually clogs circulation.  Once circulation to organs/tissue is clogged, life is threatened.  If such clogging involves vital organs (heart/brain), the threat is imminent!

 

                How cardio can help.

 

Our physiology evolved to support continuous avtivity and, for most of our existence, we had to be active.  This constant activity kept our blood from becoming sludge.  And, believe it or not, this activity didn't resemble continuous cardio!

 

In fact, such activity entailed constant transition from rest to short bouts of activity all waking hours.   This pattern is what's ideal for maintenance of good circulation. 

For most of us, however, all day activity isn't feasible.  This is why we have to do cardio the way we do; we're trying to squeeze a day's activity into a treadmill workout.

 

                Minimizing detriments to strength.

 

Traditional aerobic exercise can cause changes in nerves and muscles that reduce strength but improve energy efficiency.   Such adaptations aren't appealing to strength enthusiasts.  Resultantly, many of us avoid cardio.

 

But is there a way to do cardio with minimal strength detriment?...I believe there is.

 

Gradually increasing the duration of your aerobics contingent on post-cardio strength performance might minimize the likelihood of detrimental adaptations.

 

Scheduling a heavy workout post-cardio might accomplish two things ........

 

1. Determining whether the cardio is depleting. Performance quality will evidence whether the intensity/duration of the cardio is depleting.  If so, scale back accordingly.

 

2. Inclining the adaptational apparatus to remember that the workout ended with a strength promoting stimulus; which, the ending stimulus is believed by many coaches to be the stimulus most likely to elicit adaptation.

 

                To conclude

 

Contunual circulation, whether via aerobic exercise or otherwise, is necessary for cardiovascular health.  Adaptations induced by excess cardio. however, might impair strength.   Such adaptations might be minimized, though, if cardio is kept at a level that allows for the strength training that follows to be intense.