Cardiobots and Cardio Bunnies--Stick to the Hornet's Nest

I just have a sec as Jodie and I are off to the airport in a bit for Seattle WA for 8 days. Well, we were supposed to be on a plane now but there was a change to our flight time and the plane already left at 6:30am instead of 2:30pm today! Thanks for the great notice!
All the details will be in my newsletter that goes out tomorrow if anyone is interested (can still sign up at the bottom on this message).

Some good friends of mine were kind enough to open up their house to us (little do they know what is in store) and time for a much needed vacation. Neither of us have been to Seattle yet either and I will be a the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) conference this coming Wed-Fri sniffing out the latest and greatest for all of you here. I am working on some special updates and perhaps even an interview(s). Some of it will be released here and some tidbits will only be sent to my newsletter group, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter at the end of this post (it is free too).

If you are going to be at ACSM, drop me a note and we can chat live in person!

So it looks like a previous blog post I did stirred up a few comments and I got permission to post one below as this weeks "Letter to the Editor"

Read on

Ok, time for me to say something about the language you use as you may be hurting yourself and not even realize it. First, let me say, I love your blog posts, I can tell you spend a great deal of time and effort to not only "just post links to research articles", but you take the time and effort to break down the research articles and you do an excellent job of summarizing and breaking it down to a lay person's level, who, may be interested and intelligent enough to really "get" the article, but who may not be willing to dedicate the time to actually read the whole study, in part b/c you break it down so well!

Constructive Criticism Details below: Anytime you write on your blog or in these email updates to your blog about strength training, you refer to it as "strength training" or as training for "power/speed athletes", but I have Never read you making Any derogatory remarks about strength training.

Except for the one blog post about "Broscience". At the same time, I have observed, that almost anytime you write, on your blog, or in these email updates to your blog, about endurance training, you Almost Always refer to it as exercise conducted by "cardio bunnies" or as exercise conducted by (in this case) "Cardiobots", or you may use some other derogatory word, but "Cardio bunnies" seems to be your favorite.

And I get that there are people out there who "only" will do endurance training, and I can see how you may feel that strength training is not stressed enough or paid enough attention to and therefore I can see that you may be trying to make a case for why strength training is important. However, at the same time, I think there are probably just as many people out there who "only" engage in strength training and don't see any value in endurance training. And I know, you know the value in endurance training, b/c I've read a number of your blog posts about how amazing you find endurance athletes like the bike race across America.

Plus, I know you are very smart and as a smart person myself (at least I like to think so), who tries to have a good balance of both endurance and strength training, I find it demeaning and simply not necessary, to almost Always make fun of people who engage in endurance training by calling them demeaning names.

This all leads to my question: Why do feel it is necessary to make derogatory remarks about endurance training or people who engage in endurance training, but you (almost) never make derogatory remarks about strength training or people who engage in it, but you in strength training?

Charles


Thanks again for the comments Charles. Much appreciated as it take cajones to actually give constructive feedback.

Yeah, I may be pissing off some cardio people although that is not my intent. I refer to a cardiobot or a cardio bunny as someone who does mindless hours of cardio normally on a treadmill or elliptical without any plan or any change in intensity--just the same thing every day hoping it will work better tomorrow. You can spot these people in big health clubs very easily (and they don't even wear rabbit ears).

I have HUGE respect for ANY athlete (athlete is defined as anyone that trains and uses their body for a living, so that includes pretty much everyone). I totally understand why people run marathons and heck, bike across the entire US from my volunteer stint on the RAAM and I give mad props to all of them. I personally will not be signing up any time soon though.

Don't worry, there are tons of stupid things that weight trainers do in the gym too! I tend to forget about it since the only gym I go to on occasion is at work and that is mostly cardio equipment. I do 95% of my sessions in my garage gym (aka the Xtreme Human Performance Center) and for cardio I primarily do KBs, some biking and now that summer is here more sprints, sledge hammer on the tire, push cars, etc.

I do feel the tide is turning and strength work is getting much more respect in the research community, but the reality is its much easier to study endurance training. I fully admit to falling in that camp too as part of my Monster Energy Drink study is using a bike ride to exhaustion because of previous literature (although not much) and it is easier to measure.

Yes, cardio (cardiorespiratory fitness) is very important! I actually believe that many strength athletes could benefit from more intelligent CRF work in their programs, even if strenght is their main goal. My buddy Aaron S from ND said it best, "it just helps to be 'ft'" I will save you a lecture about HRV and work capacity.

The reality is that this blog will never be a home for die hard endurance fans, and that is fine with me. I don't mean any disrespect to them, but I have to narrow the focus a bit to provide relevant info to the loyal readers

Hope that helps and thanks again for the feedback as most just unsubscribe without any comments or why; which makes it very hard for me to improve them. My goal long term is to make this a trusted home for athletic performance enhancement. I agree with Dr. Cobb when he said "it is actually UNnatrual to NOT be athletic"
Rock on
Mike N
PS
If anyone else has comments on this, post away in the comments section!

PPS
If you want some cool insider scoop from ACSM, sign up to my newsletter below

Get Off the Treadmill!

The "Get Off" series continues (add your own bad joke here_____)

Seems like the past one about foam rollers was like poking a hornet's nest with a big stick; so it should be interesting to see what happens here.

In case you missed the first installment, see the post below

Get Off the Foam Roller

Stay the heck off the darn treadmill!

I find it incredibly odd that when I used to lift at a commercial gym that people would circle the parking lot for several minutes to find a close parking spot only to go in and get on a treadmill. What? Why don't you just leave your car at home and walk to the gym? Yeah I know there are tons of reasons why this may not be practical, but buy a kettlebell (see the dragon link on the upper right hand side) and get some expert instruction from a local RKC and you are on your way. Yes, you can train your CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness aka "cardio") by using a KB.

If you want more details, see the post below where I challenged Carl Lanore at Super Human Radio about his treadmill usage.

Z Health, Proprioception, Neuroplasticity all on Super Human Radio

Why are treadmills bad news bears?
In short, when you are on a treadmill, your joints are telling your brain you are moving; but the eyes tell your brain--no you are not moving you idiot because you are in the same darn place that you were 20 minutes ago! I think this causes some massive confusion with your nervous system and a decrease in performance.

Just watching people walk off a treadmill in any gym---they look like Ted Kennedy after a late night bender.

If people want more treadmill information, this is one of the many topics covered in the Z Health R Phase Certification; so drop me a line for information.

Editor's Note: (I add the following portion in an attempt to better explain myself. I appreciate the comments!).

I am not against exercise at all. I've spend the better part of the past 17 years (yikes, I can't believe I started college in 1992, ugh) studying physiology/engineering in some form. If someone could put the benefits of exercise in a pill, it would be the best selling drug in history almost over night.

Like all things, I believe there is a correct way and a wrong way to do things. Keep in mind that all forms of exercise have a COST. No free lunch. The cost of doing treadmill work I believe is making your muscles weaker (I will be working on a video to demo this in the next few weeks). The cost of attempting a very heavy deadlift with piss poor form may be a back issue. The correct exercise for your body, done correctly will still cost you fuel (think food) to perform it. You get the idea.

The gait (walking/running pattern) on a treadmill is very close to what we would normally do on flat, non moving ground and this compounds the issue. From many studies, we know that if a major league baseball pitcher decided to throw a baseball that is even just a little bit heavier for his training, it would completely screw up his pitching. Some coaches have completely ruined athlete's careers by doing this! The motor learning process is very precise and using a heavier ball for pitching has a negative transfer to his pitching with a regulation ball.

I think the treadmill is too close to our normal gait and seems to have a negative transfer. Other modes of cardio don't seem to do this probably because they are different enough; so bikes (even stationary ones) don't seem to be an issue and most weight lifting is fine also.

It is a free country and nobody any time soon is going to take your treadmill away from you. You are free to use it, I just ask that people keep careful records to make sure it does not have any negative transfer to them (decrease in performance).

Chasing someone around with a metabolic cart to complete a study would be a total pain in the butt, I agree completely. So far to date I've done over 150 exercise tests and I am glad I don't have to chase anyone around (although there are systems to do that). The cardiorespiratory response appears to be fine as anything that uses lots of muscles in a rhythmic fashion will work.

We know so much about CRF since it is much easier to study then strength and even athletic performance in the lab.

Back to the blog again. If people are interested, I am working on a longer version of this based off the many research studies that I pulled. Not sure when it will be done though.

Below are some great treadmill videos for your viewing pleasure that I stole off of Eric Cressey's blog.



I had this one in a presentation years ago---one of my favs!



The rise of "functional treadmill training" Challenge your balance!



Comments? Let me know and post them below.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Q and A: Cardio Work and Intervals

A buddy of mine is looking to increase his cardio and you have talked about interval training as the way to go over slow, steady state cardio. What were the specifics of your recommendations again? He's a muscular 202lbs and is looking to do some treadmill work to increase the strength of his heart and lungs.

Good question! Yes, higher intensity work is the way to go!

What is his main goal? Increased performance on a sprint or overall conditioning? What does he use to measure “success" --that will determine the exact proto used. Even the word "conditioning" is very vague.

Assuming he is looking for overall general cardiac health and to increase his speed a bit my first recommendation is to NOT use a treadmill. I will have a post coming up soon with all the details on why I believe this, so hold tight.

"It isn't Cardio if it isn't plugged in!" Geoff Neupert

If you have no other option (I even like bikes better) and still insist on doing the treadmill, a good starting point is about 30 seconds of all out running with 1:30 min at a fast walking pace for someone who is in pretty good "shape". Total time about 6 minutes to start and work up from there. As you progress your total time and time spent running will increase and your low intensity time will decrease.

I also don't recommend anyone do high intensity running without a gait analysis as running on "jammed/ poor mobility" joints will eventually cause issues. This is not a matter of "if" it is a matter of time and repeated impact. Think of landing from a jump without bending your knees to absorb the shock---same idea if the joints are not working correctly. If you are in the MN area and need a gait analysis, contact me and see this link for more info.

Other options are Kettlebells (hey, I do that too!--shameless I know), sandbags, DB intervals, car pushing, BW (body weight) drills, jumping rope, etc. I prefer all of them to the treadmill.

If you have access to a HR (heart rate) monitor, that is my preferred way to set up intervals since you can take the person's actual biofeedback and use that to set up intervals instead of guessing at a time. You can also get fancy and record HR recovery times and new ones even use HRV (heart rate variability) to assess your ability to train that day. Most people can use just a basic one and even pick up a cheap one off ebay.

Hope that helps! Any comments, let me know.

Rock on

Mike N