This Type of Exercise can Damage your Heart
by Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Contributor: Men's Health Magazine
Creator: Turbulence Training
I’ve
just emerged from my training research lab with a tsunami of scientific
studies that give us 5 more scary reasons to cut traditional cardio
from your fat loss workouts.
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| Not an efficient or effective way to drop excess fat. |
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This breaking research just goes to
show you that unless you are training for endurance sports, there’s
practically no good reason to engage in long, slow cardio (especially
really long sessions as you’ll discover in a moment). And if you do
train for endurance events, you should be aware of the potential heart
issues with excessive training.
First up, let’s take a look at why cardio fails as much as Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. (I’m saving the scariest study for last.)
In
a study titled, “Why do individuals not lose more weight from an
exercise intervention at a defined dose? An energy balance analysis“,
researchers found that weight loss from cardio was always lower than
predicted (using a standard calories in vs. calories out approach).
The article, published in
Obesity Reviews (Vol. 13 Issue 6), explained that cardio doesn’t work for FOUR reasons:
a) Some people eat more when they start a cardio program
b) Calorie burning at rest often decreases with cardio
c) Calorie-burning lean muscle tissue is often lost (can cause reduced metabolic rate)
d) Cardio programs cause you to do less activity over the day
So
if you’re still trying to lose fat with cardio, those are the reasons
why it’s not working (or why it didn’t work for you before you switched
to
Turbulence Training).
Second,
speaking of TT style training, we now have another research study
showing the fat burning power of interval training. This time, it’s from
China…
In the study published in the
Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness (2012 Jun;52(3):255-62), 60 overweight young women were separated into three groups.
Group 1 did a high intensity interval training (HIIT) program
Group 2 did moderate intensity continuous training (MICT)
Group 3 was a non-training control group.
Groups 1 & 2 trained five days per week for 12 weeks.
The researchers concluded that the HIIT group achieved better results than those in the MICT group.
But
it’s not “new” to hear about intervals being better than slow cardio
for fat loss, so finally, here’s the FIFTH scary reason you need to
avoid long cardio... And believe me, it’s frightening, particularly to
those who love their long-distance events like
marathons.
In a study published in the
Mayo Clinic Proceedings
(2012 Jun;87(6):587-95), researchers concluded that there are potential
adverse cardiovascular effects from excessive endurance exercise.
Frankly, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, what happens when you do a high-volume workout?
Well, your muscles get really sore, right? And that’s called muscle damage.
Now think for a second…what is your heart?
It’s a muscle.
Therefore,
when you do high-volume cardiovascular training, your heart experiences
a LOT of muscle damage, and over the long-term this can damage your
heart.
The researchers from the Mid America Heart Institute of
Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, MO, said that while regular, short
workouts are good for your heart, that long-term excessive endurance
exercise may cause “pathologic” structural remodeling of the heart and
large arteries”.
Pathological is bad, very bad.
You’ve heard the phrase “pathological liar”, right? Well, just imagine someone with a pathological heart. Notta too good.
The
scientists found that training for and competing in extreme endurance
events such as marathons, ultramarathons, ironman distance triathlons,
and very long distance bicycle races, damage the heart.
Worse, they found that if done for years, it creates “patchy myocardial fibrosis” and could lead to arrhythmias.
Something to keep in mind if you’re a hardcore marathoner.
Get your heart checked.
It
always disheartens me to read stories of men who pass away while
running (the Toronto marathon had another death during the race last
year). So make sure your ticker is up to par if you’re a cardio fanatic.
Be careful with your cardio, if you must do it at all.
For fat loss, it’s certainly not mandatory.
Nutrition
is much more important than exercise (for both fat loss and
heart-health), so take some of that excessive endurance training time
and put it towards preparing a healthier diet.
No matter what, I want you to be active, but safe and smart.
As the lead researcher in that last study wisely said:
“When
people come to me as a cardiologist and say they want to run a marathon
I say, ‘OK, do one and cross it off your bucket list and then let’s
focus on an exercise pattern that’s more ideal to producing long-term
health benefits and improving your longevity.”
Words to live by.
Pardon me, words to live a LONG-TIME by.
If
you want a safer AND more effective way to train that strengthens your
heart while also getting you super lean and chiseled, try out my
unique TT Bodyweight Cardio Metabolic workouts. You can get ripped, anywhere, anytime!
Train hard but safe,
Craig Ballantyne, CTT
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