This is the second in a series of six articles on things I have learned from High-Intensity Resistance Training that have influenced my approach to martial arts.
When it comes to exercise, martial artists have a tough question to answer: “How can I fit exercise into my schedule when I am so busy training?” I answered that question last month when I introduced you to something called High Intensity Training. (SIDE NOTE: I have rechristened it “High Intensity Resistance Training,” so people stop confusing it with a different exercise program that shall not be named here.) In case you missed that article, you can see it here:
High Intensity Resistance Training and Martial Arts – A Perfect Match (#1)
I have introduced quite a few people to this exercise program. Ten times out of ten, my conversation partner responds with the following question: “That’s great for strength training, but what about cardio? Don’t I still need a second workout for that?”
My answer: NO.
This has confounded many people, so I figured it would be a good idea to address it here.
The Real Confusion Over Cardio
To be fair, I don’t think people are confused by my words themselves. What confuses them is the fact that what I am saying flies in the face of what they have been told. For years now, fitness/exercise gurus have been pushing the “strength day/cardio day” split. What I am telling them contradicts all of that.
So how did we get here? Why do so many people believe you need a separate “cardio” workout? And why do I keep putting “cardio” in quotes?
Well, the answer lies in how the cardio/aerobics myth started.
How Did the Cardio/Aerobics Exercise Myth Begin?
In my research, one of the most shocking things I’ve discovered is that the term “aerobics” doesn’t even have a formal definition. It is a termed that was coined by a gentleman named Dr. Kenneth Cooper in the mid-1960s. He attempted to devise an exercise program that would focus solely on the aerobic metabolic system.
Eventually people began to assume “aerobic” and “aerobics” were the same thing. Not long after that, “aerobics” also came to mean “cardiovascular conditioning.” Once that happened, any activity that involved even the slightest bit of movement (walking, swimming, and even that plodding movement that many people think passes for jogging) suddenly fell under the heading of “cardio.”
No Cardiovascular System is an Island
While the term “aerobics” does not have a formal definition, the term “aerobic” (notice there is no S at the end) does. It refers to a specific metabolic pathway; the term means “with oxygen.”
The fault with Cooper’s system lies in the fact that the aerobic system cannot be isolated like this. Our metabolic system is an uninterrupted whole. Think of it as a circle; there is no end to this loop.
Every component of our metabolism is supported by our cardiovascular system. Since people think “aerobics” and “cardiovascular conditioning” are the same, they think they are making significant gains by engaging in these activities.
However, that just isn’t the case. First, you aren’t working your cardiovascular system 100% because you are trying to isolate the aerobic part of the equation. Second, most aerobic exercises are of the low intensity, steady-state variety, so you aren’t even pushing the one system you are working to the max.
Strength Training IS “Cardio”
Many studies have found that strength training stimulates all aspects of metabolism.
Personally, even before I heard of HIRT, I never understood why people thought you needed “strength days” and “cardio days.” When I watched people lift weights and saw how intense their breathing got, I always thought, “Um…isn’t that your precious ‘cardio’ right there?”
As it turns out, I was right. It stands to reason that the harder your muscles work, the harder your cardiovascular system works so you can maintain the effort.
This seems simple enough, but what concerned most people is that they thought the extra strain of lifting heavy weights would cause a heart attack.
Again, this is not true. Keep in mind the heart is a muscle, just like those biceps you’re trying to enlarge with your dumbbell curls. The harder the heart contracts, the more blood gets pushed through your system. In other words, strength training serves to improve, not inhibit, blood flow.
In fact, the America Heart Association has included strength training as a major component of cardiac rehabilitation. If that doesn’t show the value of strength training, nothing will.
“Cardio Burns Fat” – MYTH
This is the real culprit behind the popularity of aerobics: the belief that it burns fat, while strength training does not.
Here is the truth: no exercise really burns fat.
Studies have shown that the average person at 150 pounds will burn 1 calorie for every mile they travel on foot. This holds true whether they are walking or running. There are 3500 calories in 1 pounds of body fat.
Do the math, folks.
You’d have to travel 35 miles to burn 1 pound of fat.
Does that sound like anyone’s idea of a good time? I think not.
“Wait a minute, Steve,” you say. “If no exercise burns fat, then why are you carrying on about HIRT?”
That is because HIRT does something that low-intensity exercises don’t do: it activates an enzyme called lipase.
What is that, and why does it matter? Let’s find out.
Glycogen Depletion and Fat Mobilization: The Weight Loss Double Whammy
When we eat food, it gets stored in our muscle cells in the form of glycogen. There are several things that can empty glycogen from our muscles. One of them is not eating for a long time. Another is (you guessed it) intense exercise. When you do a workout and feel like you have “hit a wall,” that is because your glycogen stores have been depleted. During low-intensity, steady-state “aerobic” exercise, you do not exert enough intensity to ever achieve this state.
Do you know what kind of exercise does achieve it?
You guessed it: High Intensity Resistance Training.
However, there is more to the story. While depleting your glycogen stores, HIRT also triggers the activation of lipase (an enzyme that the body uses to break down food), which permits the mobilization of body fat. This puts the body in a state where fat is its primary energy source. In other words, it is the state where you begin to “burn” fat.
Hannibal the Jogging Cannibal (How Low-Intensity Exercise Makes You Lose MUSCLE)
Low-intensity exercise never allows you to reach this state. In fact, it can have the opposite effect that you want: it can make your body start to break down muscle instead of fat. This is because the body will think of that muscle as “dead weight.”
It’s important to understand how our evolution fits into this picture. Our bodies have been conditioned to store energy because we never knew when we would need it to outrun a mountain lion or to walk for miles to find food. Muscle tissue is the most “expensive” tissue in our body; research numbers vary, but it seems to take approximately 50 calories per day to maintain a pound of muscle, but only 2 calories to maintain a pound of fat.
Therefore, since our bodies want to save energy, it will cannibalize muscle first, unless you are putting that muscle to maximum use. Our steady-state friends are not doing this.
In other words, you know that guy who you see plodding down your street at a pace that is barely above the “Thorazine shuffle?” You might as well nickname him “Hannibal the Jogging Cannibal.”
“You Need Cardio to Increase Your Endurance” – MYTH
This is another reason for the rise in “cardio” days. People think spending an hour running on the treadmill at high speed will increase their endurance. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that, and I have personal evidence to prove it.
Many years ago, I was a fan of a workout from Team Beachbody called Insanity. This workout took the concept of High Intensity Interval Training (italics added for emphasis, to show this is not the same workout protocol that I am advocating) and flipped it on its head. Rather than do two minutes of low-intensity activity and only thirty seconds of high-intensity, program designer Shaun T had his students do the opposite: he proposed doing the high-intensity for a longer duration, followed by shorter rest periods.
I loved Insanity. It seemed to me like it was made for martial artists. If we could hang with Shaun T for an entire 45-minute workout like this, then we could probably mop up the floor when we did a measly three-minute sparring session, right?
I thought so too.
Imagine my surprise then when I went to spar and found myself gassed out before the first round was even half-over.
This was my first exposure to another exercise truth, one of many that the fitness industry at large doesn’t want you to know: skills don’t transfer like that. Another way of saying this is: functional fitness is a myth.
I could devote an entire blog to that last statement. In fact, that is exactly what I planned on doing in this series of articles, so I will say no more on it for now.
Conclusion
Hopefully I have shone the light of truth on the “strength day/cardio day” myth that has plagued the fitness world for so long. Some folks who read this will choose to keep on believing the same old story, and that is fine.
I’m not writing this series for those who already drank the Kool-Aid. I’m writing it for those who are open-minded enough to tell themselves, “Maybe there’s something to what he is saying. I should check it out.”
So go on down that road and explore for a while. I’ll be here when you get back.
~~~Steve Grogan
NOTE – Steve Grogan is looking for people to coach through this exercise program. If you don’t live near him, the workouts can be done via Skype or some other video chat platform. Contact him with the subject line “saw your Martial Journal article on HIRT.”
geekwingchun@gmail.com
His YouTube channel (Geek Wing Chun) gives free training tips and ideas for people who want to get better at Wing Chun but can't make it to class as often as they'd like. Check it out by simply typing "Geek Wing Chun" into the YouTube search field!
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