I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but I just wanted to send a quick reminder.
Cardio is good for you.
And not just because it’s fun to run fast and set PR’s.
Cardio also decreases your risk of dying.
By an unbelievable amount.
Yet the fitness world loves to sell the idea that you don’t have to do cardio in order to hit your goals.
Why?
Three reasons.
1 – Cardio is hard.
It’s much easier to sell programs when you promise people they don’t have to do any cardio because (surprise) people don’t want to do cardio.
By telling people they don’t actually have to do a thing they don’t want to do and still be able to get results…
You tend to sell a lot of programs.
Not to mention, a lot of the people selling those programs also hate cardio and have no idea how to coach it.
So instead, they just say it’s a waste of time.
Which is pretty easy for them to do because…
2 – You don’t have to do cardio to get lean.
Whether most people want to admit it or not, being lean is the reason they do any sort of activity.
We love to sell ourselves this idea of “longevity” and “performance,” but most people would give up both of those things for a six-pack.
And it’s not the fault of any individual.
We’ve built a large portion of our healthcare system around the idea that “leaner is better” – even though that’s often not the case.
We’ve turned almost the entire fitness industry into different versions of bodybuilding and it’s led to a large decrease in cardiorespiratory fitness on a societal level.
To be lean, you have to burn more calories than you consume.
To be lean and somewhat muscular, you lift some weights along the way.
Now, in order to burn calories, you could do a bunch of cardio.
Unfortunately, as noted above, cardio is hard and people hate it.
But that’s not your only option. You could also undereat and walk at an incline on a treadmill for long periods of time – which is what a lot of people choose to do.
They eat diets really high in protein and fiber to increase satiety and do a large amount of low-intensity cardio.
Which again, will absolutely burn calories and help you to get lean.
Yet it doesn’t increase your cardiorespiratory fitness.
Which means we’re choosing leanness over longevity – no matter how much we want to convince ourselves we’re doing this fitness thing “for our health.”
And we’ve built this system partially because…
3 – Cardio is free.
Every year, the longevity industry makes billions on supplements and devices and trackers and all the other shit we love to buy because some guy told us about some study that said it might help us live just a little bit longer.
Yet you could also just do cardio.
Instead of spending a quarter of your paycheck on supplements and CGMs and whatever else the podcasts are selling this week…
You could just do cardio.
And I say the “free” thing fairly flippantly because I know you actually need something with which you can do cardio – even if it’s just a simple pair of running shoes.
But for most people, cardio is a lot closer to free than all the other shit they want you to buy.
–
Improving your cardiorespiratory fitness is arguably the best thing you can do for your health.
Study after study involving millions and millions of people shows a simple equation.
Better cardio = less dead.
Look, if all you care about is being lean and you’re happy doing that by restricting food…
Then power to you.
Otherwise, it’s probably a good idea to get your heart beating out of your chest once or twice a week.
And as I said at the beginning, I know I’m probably preaching to the choir.
So if that’s the case, please feel free to share this with someone who might need to read it.
Let’s build a fitness culture around things that truly help longevity.
Not just things that help you to get lean and make someone else a quick buck.