Long cardio is a killer and increases your body fat!

Long cardio is a killer and increases your body fat!
Did you know that long steady cardio exercise, like
running, has now been scientifically proven to be
detrimental to your health? According to research by Dr. Al
Sears all those long jogs can result in cardiac distress, a
shrinking of the heart, a reduction in bone density
(causing osteoporosis) and a general gain in fat once
exercise ceases.

First, let’s look at the distress that long steady
distance running puts on your heart. Evolving from our
hunter gatherer days we had no real necessity to run long
distances, in fact the only running we ever did was in
short bursts to avoid predators or to catch food. Our body
simply isn’t designed to run long distances and the
stress you put your heart under during this time can set
you up for a heart attack. It’s a fact that many
marathon runners do die of heart attacks.

Second, this type of cardio reduces the size of our heart
rather than strengthening and increasing its size. Our body
is a fantastic machine capable of adapting to anything with
time; if we run long distances our body adapts to be more
efficient at this activity. Fat is the preferred energy
source from our body and so the more you train long
distance the more efficient the heart becomes at using less
fat. To be more efficient the heart will shrink in size,
just like the engine in a scooter is more efficient than a
4x4.

Third, repetitive forces that are put through your joints
like the ankles, knees, hips and back not only create
repetitive injury but also reduce the bone density.
Strength training is the key to improving bone density,
keep the exercises short and with plenty of resistance.
This type of training forces the bones to grow stronger,
remember the body is a master adapter, so that next time
you perform your strength exercises your bones are more
capable of dealing with the strain. Long steady cardio puts
your bones under undue distress and causes them to
prematurely break down.

Finally, losing fat is about becoming less efficient with
your fat energy supply so you use up more and produce less.
Long steady cardio does use more fat than any other type of
training during the exercise itself. However, as the body
uses a lot of fat as energy it then turns all further
calories into fat ready for the next long cardio session.
This is fine when you are training regularly because you
are burning the fat during exercise but as soon as you stop
that extra fat is going to keep on being produced. Back to
square one! So long cardio sessions are not good for fat
loss in the long term.

So what is the answer? You must start training your heart
like any other muscle in your body and in a way that it was
designed to be used – short bouts of quick exercise
with high exertion. This type of activity is exactly what
we evolved to do, think back to our hunter gatherer days.
As I said earlier, our body is a master adapter and hard
short bouts of exercise will induce an increase in heart
strength and size. Also, as our body no longer requires the
excess body fat to fuel our runs it will be used as energy
for long term body maintenance. Combine this type of quick
activity with some strength training and you are well on
your way to better health and fitness.

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Greg is a health and fitness professional based in
Hampstead, North London. He achieves fantastic results for
his clients by using his indepth knowledge and the most up
to date techniques.
http://www.gbpersonaltraining.com