The Cardio Myth

Yea that's right. The cardio myth. There's a reason all the people wasting time on the cardio equipment look like this:

It's because Cardio is a fad that never really died, unfortunately. And let me clarify by saying when I say cardio, I mean steady state cardio. Jogging on a treadmill or outside or on the elliptical for thirty min.  

Around 1968 I believe, some jackass named Curtis Mayfield published a book entitled,"The Joy of jogging", and thus the belief that we needed cardio was born. 

I know what you're going to say. Our hearts need it! It's important for heart health!

WRONG.

Before the whole cardio craze, workout fanatics and body builders alike did very little cardio. We as a people didn't go jogging. And guess what? Before the whole cardio craze caught on, the rates of heart disease related death were actually pretty low. So what caused the spike? Our shitty, shitty, horrible diets and reduced physical activity. 

You don't need cardio to burn fat, or stay in shape if that's your concern. If you're getting a total body workout with short rest periods, that alone will keep your heart rate up. Total body workouts are excellent for blood flow and your heart. Jog all you want, but if you're living on soda and fast food and energy drinks and cigarettes your heart WILL suffer the consequences.

Look at the cardio area at a commercial gym. Mostly overweight folks. See any fatties cranking out wide grip pull ups? Nope. Here's a challenge. Find someone who does 30 min on the treadmill every few days and rarely does a push up or touches the free weights, and someone like myself who avoids cardio and cranks out pull ups and handstand push ups and let them race for a mile. Then let the doctor give them a physical. Bet myself and all the other pull up beasts win on the mile, and on blood pressure and body fat.

Look I'm not going to keep repeating myself, but seriously folks if you live an active lifestyle and stick to full body workouts every other day or so then you're just wasting your time on that treadmill and getting discouraged. If you don't believe me then try it my way for a month. Get it a full body workout with weights or bodyweight every other day or monday weds fri for a month.(Women you WILL NOT GET BULKY! You don't have the genes but I'll cover that later). Workout and eat healthy and at the end of the month if eating shit and the treadmill was a better option then fine go back to it. Waste your time. Your loss.