Give Cardio a Little Love
Pump up your Heart.
To avoid any nay-sayers from the start, this is NOT an article geared towards bashing weight lifting or stretching or any other form of physical activity, this is an article to REMIND us about the benefits of cardiovascular activity. I personally recommend multiple modalities when it comes to moving the body. I lift weights and teach yoga multiple times a week, but I also run, hike, garden, and do HIIT workouts. It just seems that the fitness industry has been slamming aerobic exercise lately which may be due to too much emphasis placed on it decades ago. We need to be strong, flexible, efficient users of energy, and cardiovascular exercise plays a part in that just like everything else.
Before we dive into the benefits of cardiovascular exercise, let me briefly explain my bumpy relationship with aerobics (this is the same as cardio by the way - aerobic exercise does not require music and choreography). In the 80’s and 90’s anyone who worked out generally did cardio unless you were a ‘meat-head’ who then only lifted. I never particularly enjoyed cardio because I was only doing it to shed weight, which would happen...if my nutrition was also aligned (duh). When the fitness industry started bashing cardio I was so ready to jump on that bandwagon, and by 2010 our relationship was on hiatus, for the foreseeable future. Yoga and weight lifting were my new buddies sprinkled in with some HIITs and we all had a much better relationship. In late 2017 true cardio showed back up on my doorstep, we were different because I was different. Our relationship has since become one of understanding, presence, enjoyment and challenge. It is not everything to me anymore, I do not put too much responsibility on it, I do not ask it to be more than what it is, and it understands and supports my other relationships (i.e. weights, nutrition and yoga). Here are a few benefits of letting cardio back into your life:
Cardiovascular Exercise Burns Calories and Fat
Yes, we all pretty much know this, right. Getting your heart pumping, moving your large muscle groups’ aids in the burning of calories. Regular cardiovascular exercise does not only burn calories but it makes the body more efficient at burning fat.
“You want to burn fat because it's such an efficient fuel, plus it's nice to lose some of your excess fat! The catch is that you need more oxygen to burn fat because it's denser than carbohydrates. The good news is that your body gets better at using oxygen and burning fat when you do regular aerobic exercise; like I described, your heart pumps more blood, your muscles consume more oxygen, and you have more mitochondria.” https://www.medicinenet.com/aerobic_exercise/article.htm
2. Increased Efficiency of Heart and Lungs
Basically the name gives this away (cardio = heart, vascular = lungs). When we perform regular aerobic exercise, the heart becomes more efficient, meaning that it’s stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped by the left ventricle of the heart per beat) increases and overtime the lungs become stronger not needing to work as much in transferring oxygen to the muscles and carbon dioxide out, and the muscles also become more efficient at using the oxygen.
3. Increased Immune Function and Waste Disposable
All of this pumping and breathing means that our blood circulation is increasing and our core body temperature is rising. These two actions help us better fight off disease and infection.
“Exercise causes change in antibodies and white blood cells (WBC). WBCs are the body's immune system cells that fight disease. These antibodies or WBCs circulate more rapidly, so they could detect illnesses earlier than they might have before. However, no one knows whether these changes help prevent infections. - The brief rise in body temperature during and right after exercise may prevent bacteria from growing. This temperature rise may help the body fight infection better. (This is similar to what happens when you have a fever.” https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007165.htm
4. Stress Reduction
When we are in the midst of aerobic exercise the levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are reduced, and the levels of endorphins (our natural painkilling hormones) are increased. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax
Hopefully you’ve heard of the term “runners high”, which is used to explain the feeling of elation some runners feel post workout. When we partake in extended periods of moderate cardiovascular exercise (over an hour) our body’s releases endocannabinoids and the receptors for these chemicals are more well receptive during longer periods of exercise.
‘Intensity matters, too, and moderate intensity is best. “This seems to trigger an environment in the brain where blood flow is maximized and endocannabinoid receptors seem to be the most stimulated and most receptive,” Arciero says. Too intense, and the brain’s self-protecting mechanism may kick in and reduce blood flow and stimulation. “Go too low, and it’s not enough to stimulate the endocannabinoid receptors.” https://www.self.com/story/what-causes-runners-high-and-how-to-feel-it
The above study also suggested based on their findings that the more experienced one is, the better the chance of elation.
5. Increased Cognitive Function
Again, all that blood pumping, moving oxygen through the body and disposing of carbon dioxide also affects the brain. The brain needs blood and oxygen to work properly, so if your body becomes more efficient at passing oxygen through the body it also gets passed to brain more efficiently as well.
“In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results.” https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110
6. Less Chance of Injury and Accessible to Most Everyone Everywhere
This is pretty simple but I think a reminder is needed. Walking at a brisk pace is a form of cardiovascular exercise, and one is less likely to injure themselves walking then they are lifting heavy weights. You do not need any equipment to go on a walk, you can do it in bare feet if needed, no need for a trainer to tell you how to do it, and it’s FREE.
In conclusion, aerobic exercise is NOT a cure all, and we should never have put as much emphasis on it as we did, however; there are far too many benefits to omit it from a healthy lifestyle. If weight reduction is your goal, what you put in your mouth matters more and don’t ever try to put that responsibility on cardio. Weight lifting can aid your cardiovascular performance, because stronger muscles can produce more work with less effort. Flexibility training is also essential since both weight lifting and some forms of cardio shorten the muscle fibers, and proper length-tension relationships around the joints are key for proper kinetic movement and efficiency. GET out there, take a walk, go for a jog, hike a mountain, ride a bike or swim, just start breathing, sweating, moving and living, it is what our bodies were made for!! (After consulting your physician of course.)
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