Schtuff They Said That I Like…

In my weekly blog reading, I always come across some great info. from my colleagues.  So every now and then I’ll share with you some of the information that I really liked.  This is information that I want to help spread to as many people as possible, as it can only help more people reach their health and physique goals.

This comes from an interview that Jason Ferruggia did with Chad Waterbury.  Chad just came out with a new fat loss book called Body of F.I.R.E.  In the interview, Jason Asked Chad; “What are the three biggest mistakes you see people making when trying to lose fat?“  Part of Chad’s answer;  ”The first mistake is performing long duration cardio at a low intensity. Nothing wastes muscle tissue faster than jogging for an hour. When muscles are forced to continuously contract for 45 minutes or an hour, that energy has to come from somewhere. The body is very stubborn and doesn’t want to use fat for energy because it’s much easier to break down muscle tissue instead. This is why marathon runners are skinny and weak.” 

And then, in the comments section below a reader asked Jason; ”

“I know you’ve said in the past Jay that you don’t like mid-range stuff because humans weren’t born to run long distances. Almost all the research articles that I’ve found show the complete opposite. I have no doubt that high-intensity will get you jacked, but is it really because we’re born to do it?  Is there something I’m missing?”

And Jason’s response;

“Way back in the hunter gather/ caveman days humans did two things- they walked for long durations going out to gather food and supplies needed to build shelters, and they sprinted after their prey or away from predators who were trying to eat them. They never jogged for the sake of jogging or if they were migrating to another region they walked, not jogged.

Yeah, you can run long distances if you want to. But it is the worst form of exercise for your body.”

I couldn’t agree more.  You can see that I’ve previously written similar – check it out here and here. 

Moral of the story; when getting your cardio in, keep the intensity low (like a 30 minute walk) to help burn some extra calories, contribute to speeding up the recovery process (like after a hard weight training workout), and to help preserve muscle (medium paced jogs are just fast enough/intense enough to actually impede recovery).  And perform high intensity cardio, something like the examples I gave in the links I provided just above.

This holds true for non-athletes and athletes alike.  So keep it low intensity or high intensity, but avoid medium at all cost.