Amy Jones used to think of a strenuous workout as a long run on the treadmill. Then she began stressing strength training over cardio.
Within a few workouts, the Atlanta resident was hooked. “I’m more toned, I have more energy and more endurance,” she said. “I’ve turned fat into muscle, and my clothes fit better.”
She has no intention of returning to the treadmill.
Almost 40 years after Dr. Kenneth Cooper coined the term “aerobics,” a concept that would later spawn a generation of spandex-clad cardio junkies, some trainers are steering their clients away from traditional cardio-intensive workouts and toward mostly strength moves.
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The reasons: Many exercises that are good for the heart are hard on the joints. Cardio training without muscle conditioning leads to loss of muscle and bone density as well as fat, experts say.
Even Cooper now believes strength training is important. Some people — those fighting aging and those with injuries — benefit from more time on muscle conditioning than cardiovascular exercise, he said in an interview from his Texas clinic.
He cites Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, a one-time cardio king who shifted to more intense weight training. (Aikman said through a spokesman he does not think cardio is overrated, but he cut way back on his once daily 4-mile runs because he didn’t want to further tax his body. He dropped body fat when he made the change, he said.)
Cooper does not believe cardio is a bad habit to be kicked. “If you go strictly muscular-skeletal conditioning, it’s a major mistake,” he said. “You’ll wear out.”
Chicago personal trainer Jim Karas doesn’t share Cooper’s belief. Karas, author of “The Cardio-Free Diet,” believes cardio workouts overstress the body. Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise is so hazardous, Karas says, that you should skip it altogether if you’re trying to lose weight.
Instead, Karas advocates a combination of interval strength training three to four days a week to maintain and increase lean muscle mass, and a diet plan that involves counting calories. That means no more “mindless exercising” and no need to run, spin, cross-country ski, take aerobics classes or swim.
Karas, who helped Diane Sawyer get svelte, experienced a revelation in the ’80s when he was an aerobics instructor. He saw shocking amounts of excess flesh, even on those who came to class religiously. Then he looked in the sparsely populated weight room.
“Everyone was so lean!” he said. Karas changed his approach and found he and his clients could keep weight off more easily with strength training rather than aerobics.
The book jacket of “The Cardio-Free Diet” promises “real results” with just 60 minutes of exercise a week. But Karas said he works out 40 minutes, five days a week. The added time in the gym is to relieve stress, he said. Karas walks most everywhere — a form of cardiovascular exercise, he acknowledged, adding that he encourages clients to take stairs instead of elevators and park farther away to build activity into daily life.
For those who love cardio workouts, Karas recommends no more than 30 minutes at a time, because of potential joint damage and his belief that cardio stimulates the appetite.
He favors “compound exercises” that combine upper and lower body moves and get the heart pumping.
“My whole goal is I just want people to stop pounding their bodies,” he said. “When people hear ‘exercise,’ I want them to think of strength training.”
Many trainers share some of Karas’ views, but they still encourage their clients to incorporate cardio into their workouts.
“Most people hardly put in enough effort to challenge their bodies,” said Andrea Metcalf, owner of mbc Fitness in Chicago, who said she likes Karas’ approach, even though she combines cardio with strength training to challenge her clients’ heart rates as well as their muscles. “This gives people another way to improve their health.”
Despite the “Cardio-Free” title of Karas’ book, the eight-week program involves constant movement with very little rest to elevate the heart rate, so you get both high- and low-intensity strength training.
“Every minute we have to devote to exercise in a time-crunched world should be strength training,” said Karas, who hopes his book gives people confidence in the weight room. “It’s a three-for-one solution because it has heart benefits, enhances flexibility and increases lean muscle mass.”
The bottom line is “if you have a month to shed body fat, use a treadmill,” said David Barton of DavidBartonGym in Chicago, New York and Miami. “If you have a year, use a pair of dumbbells, which will give you a 24-hour-a-day increase in metabolism and create long-lasting body fat reduction. In the history of weight loss, no one has ever sustained body-fat reduction using cardio alone.”
[ CHICAGO TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTED. ]– – –
TIME FOR CHANGE
Cutting back cardio might be for you if:
— You have knee, shin or foot pain.
— You spend an hour a day on the treadmill and aren’t losing weight.
— You don’t have time for cardio and strength.
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— You’re bored.
–Your iPod is broken.
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