008 // A Guide to Cardio Training

If you made a new year's commitment to take your health seriously, well done. While many are quick to point out how they never work, I think it's worth applauding your commitment to try.

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New Way to Think about Cardio

If you find yourself a little lost in the gym or unsure of what "works", this email with give you a guide to cardio training that is short, easy and effective.

Let's start by reframing the purpose of doing cardio.

You shouldn't do cardio to lose weight or burn calories. Weight loss won't happen by just running. The game of "I'll just run-off the calories I eat", isn't one you'll win.

You do cardio to strengthen your cardiovascular system. You do cardio to make your heart healthy. When done intentionally, cardio is a great way to activate key physiological triggers in your body that make you healthy and fit.

KEY PRINCIPLES

Before we get to the guide, it's important to understand something about your body: it's always trying to save energy. You know when someone is trying to explain something confusing, and you immediately check out? That's your brain saying, "this is taking too much energy to understand, let's move on."

Applied to exercise, your body is constantly trying to bring your body into homeostasis (state of normal). It will only change by force. So if you're jogging at a mild pace for 20-30 minutes regularly, your body quickly makes that it's "new normal", leaving you with minimal effect over time.

3 important factors with cardio that will improve your fitness:

• Intensity > Duration: simply put, you probably don't push your body hard enough to experience any positive change. You need more short, max effort work, and less long, steady-state exercise.
• Prioritize Recovery: being tired while exercising doesn't mean it's good. More often than not, you want to fully recover so you are able to give 100% effort on the next round. Recovery is good.
• Mix it Up: Don't get locked into one thing. Keep your body guessing.

CARDIO TRAINING GUIDE:

1) VO2 MAX
​- the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. This is your pillar test of fitness.

• 4 mins hard // 4 mins rest
• repeat 2-4 times
• *on the 4 minutes hard should be at your maximum sustainable pace​
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2) Mitochondria Density
- remember from middle school? "the powerhouse of the cell." Increasing the density of your mitochondria gives you more cellular energy, making your body work better.

• :30 secs hard // 1:30 rest
• repeat 6-10 times
• *the 1:30 recovery should get you nearly back to 100% (that's the goal)

3) Lactic Acid Tolerance (Tabata Set)
​- your body's ability to exert max energy with minimal recovery

• :20 secs hard // 10 secs rest
• repeat 8 times (4 minutes total)
• *the :20 should be like you're running from a lion

4) Stamina

- your body's ability to endure long periods of continuous activity

• 30-60 minutes of steady-state movement
• *this can be a walk, hike, swim, bike, sport - something easy and long

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​Tools: treadmill, uphill running, run-in-place, row, bike, jumping jacks, squat jump *anything you can do with max effort
**running uphill or at an incline is great for short, hard efforts. It's safer for your body and very challenging.

Mix these into your week. Start with 2 and go from there.

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Click below to download the cardio guide graphic to your phone for easy reference:

​cardioguide.png​

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Let me know if you have any questions.
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Now get going!

TOMMY

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Email Archive:

​001 // Step 1 to a Healthy Life​

​002 // Your Body Runs on Clocks [Circadian Health]​

​003 // Sleep's Connection to Eating Healthy​

​004 // Make Movement A Movement​

​005 // What Mice Taught Us About Eating Healthy​

​006 // The story of a 61-yr-old Farmer Ultra Marathoner​

​007 // Redefining Health for a Meaningful Life​