What's the point of Cardio?

**gYmgIrL** · February 4th, 2008, 06:13 PM

So I was doing the rowing machine this morning and after 10 minutes I was dying. The calorie-o-meter says say I burn 102 calories...

whats that like a slice of bread? half a protein shake?

haha

Seriously though! If you just take one less bite of a sandwich you can save yourself 10 minutes of cardio!

I understand you need it for cutting though because its the low calorie diet combined with the calories burnt through cardio, but when you're not cutting I find it tough to see the point!

Please help my brain!

xxx

3rdworld · February 4th, 2008, 06:42 PM

The point of cardio-training is to strengthen the most important muscle of all.

**justaguy87337** · February 4th, 2008, 06:58 PM

cardio is to make you appreciate your lift days..........plus burn calories, improve endurance, yadda yadda yadda

**sleepyles** · February 4th, 2008, 07:05 PM

Basically yes, from a bodybuilding perspective it helps with cutting and losing weight. But as 3rdworld said it helps to stenghten the most important muscle/ artery; your heart.

Cardio basically strengthens the heart and lungs which assists with delivering oxygen to the body, as well as assisting with blood flow through the veins. More oxygen and blood flow means positive muscle growth/ burning fat as well. Also by doing cardio, it helps your heart fight diseases, etc. (Don't just want to lift weights and no cardio, and have a heart attack). It can also assist with increasing your metobolism, hence you can eat more calories, but still do less work and you may not gain a pound.

**Carnitas** · February 4th, 2008, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3rdworld

The point of cardio-training is to strengthen the most important muscle of all.

The penis?

**Bisons** · February 4th, 2008, 07:37 PM

Cardio is so over-rated, I hardly ever do it as it bores me to tears... life is too short lol!

I do a bit but never over 15 mins and I don't do steady state, I'll do short all out bursts followed by slow recovery periods, so jogging and sprinting. I think this is superior for keeping lean mass and burning fat.

I also much prefer to play sports than do cardio, much more fun and you'll put more effort in, play for longer and thus burn more calories

**tooncesthecat** · February 4th, 2008, 08:16 PM

Cardio can be boring, however, as Bisons suggested, one really needs to find something interesting and enjoyable to do for cardio. Cardio is anything that gets your heart and lungs going. A good fat-burning range is ~ 70% max HR. In case this is new to anyone, to get an approximate max HR, take 220 minus your age. Then to figure 70%, just multiply this number by .7. That's the HR you should be working to maintain.

So you can do treadmill, elliptical, play basketball, swim, mow the lawn, have sex...(LOL), whatever you can do to get that HR up!

**wildstang** · February 4th, 2008, 08:57 PM

i like the endurance benefit i get from it

**justaguy87337** · February 4th, 2008, 09:07 PM

I like when its over

**Weeble29** · February 4th, 2008, 09:20 PM

I prefer to run for cardio training and the "runners high" is an awesome feeling after about 3 or 4 miles. It's a nice payoff

**JarheadRI** · February 4th, 2008, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tooncesthecat

Cardio can be boring, however, as Bisons suggested, one really needs to find something interesting and enjoyable to do for cardio. Cardio is anything that gets your heart and lungs going. A good fat-burning range is ~ 70% max HR. In case this is new to anyone, to get an approximate max HR, take 220 minus your age. Then to figure 70%, just multiply this number by .7. That's the HR you should be working to maintain.

So you can do treadmill, elliptical, play basketball, swim, mow the lawn, have sex...(LOL), whatever you can do to get that HR up!

Cardio fucking blows! Plain and simple. All the people I work with do it and don't do much else. They are mostly women and they say weights are boring... Now tell me this how can running on a tread mill for 30-60 minutes be more exciting than lifting? Friggin morons! Now if you are running outside or biking outside ok... but no way just being stationery and doing the same thing is more exciting. Morons I tell ya!

**helpmespock** · February 4th, 2008, 10:41 PM

Cardio is generally boring, but unfortunately necessary as remarked above. Life is too short as someone says above...and it will be way too short if you are doing lots of weights, steroids, and no cardio...like 40-50 years if your lucky....at 20 that seems like a lot, but let me tell u, 30 comes around real fast, and 40 even faster...at that point 40 years won't seem near enough life. If you consistently throw cardio in with your good diet and resistance training your 50's and 60's will seem more like the average persons 30's and 40's ..not a bad trade of for adding 30 minutes or so of cardio most days of the week.....

**gYmgIrL** · February 4th, 2008, 11:57 PM

You all have valid points but I'm pretty sure the point of Cardio is to annoy the crap out of GG!!!!

..

just kidding!!!!!!!!! :P

**sucher67** · February 5th, 2008, 12:05 AM

You also have metabolic needs. Your body burns a certain amount of calories just to keep you alive and active. So, that 102 calories is on top of your metabolic requirements. (The calorie estimates are also how much energy you burn, not how much fat your body loses. Going into 10 minutes of the workout, you probably are not buring fat.)

Most importantly, if you are not cutting, the health benefits of consistently raising your heart rate to at least 80% of your maximum are pretty well established.

Hope that makes sense.

**gYmgIrL** · February 5th, 2008, 12:52 AM

LIES!!!!!!

ok maybe

good point.

**wil** · February 5th, 2008, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gYmgIrL

You all have valid points but I'm pretty sure the point of Cardio is to annoy the crap out of GG!!!!

..

just kidding!!!!!!!!! :P

Anything that annoys GG should be banned. BAN CARDIO!!!

**painless2** · March 19th, 2008, 01:57 PM

LOL, relax people! One thing that people don't consider is that despite what the machine tells you that you burned you have a cascade effect hormonally that continues for hours thereafter. The more efficient your CV system is, the better you utilize fat and carbohydrates as fuel, and not only does this help with body composition, but also with sleep, mood, energy and health. Given that most people get very little actual activity in their daily lives, exercise for the heart remains a necessity, so do it.

**gYmgIrL** · March 19th, 2008, 07:07 PM

and also apparently it stops you going catapult-ic (the new GG word for catabolic) and thus stops your body eating your muscles!

my new training consultant man has some weird ideas though (like believes in negative calorie pineapple and kiwi fruit) but its worked for so many others so it might be true!

**justaguy87337** · March 19th, 2008, 07:43 PM

you need to come out with your own dictionary GG, that way we can keep up with all these new words. I have decided though, that yes, I do still hate cardio days.

zayyaz · March 19th, 2008, 08:49 PM

Running and biking are two of my favorite cardio exercises. Gotta be outside though, I definitely don't get the people that stay on the treadmill, elliptical, etc. Unless it gets below about 10 F (which unfortunately can be months at a time for me) you'll see me outside.

Most moderately paced cardio will be about 100 cal/10 min, although some can get a little higher than that. Try doing jump rope, can be great cardio and you can make it in to a calf workout at the same time.

Finally, I always tell people to stop driving everyplace you go. Walk, run, bike, skip whatever to some of the places that you have to get to.