Cardio

TLDR

  • Cardio is not going to kill your gains
  • Some cardio, even 5 or 10 minutes, is better than none
  • If you want structure, you can’t go wrong with endlessly cycling through MIIT workouts
  • If you’re feeling creative, there’s an infinite number of options with slightly varying parameters you can create for yourself

Description

This section is pretty straightforward, we are discussing all manner of physical activity that increases aerobic or anaerobic work capacity.

As a reminder, this is one of five training pillars for our well-rounded training approach – the ‘house style’ of this guide if you will.

To guide our approach we’re going to draw on knowledge from very well established disciplines including running and CrossFit, and a number of accomplished coaches across the spectrum.

To put it simply, if you’re coming from a serious running or endurance sport background the recommendations here will look trivial. If you’re coming from a ‘cardio is killing my gains’ camp, you’ll likely find the recommendations higher than what you expect.

This is how we know we’re probably on the right track.

We know that cardio is vital for heart health. Specifically, the aim is to create mitochondrial adaptations, increase heart stroke volume, and increase VO2 max through exercise.

Again, there are many ways of categorising cardio. For our purposes, we are going to subdivide this into four categories:

  • LISS
  • MIIT
  • HIIT
  • Conditioning

Conditioning

Let’s start with conditioning. This is perhaps a controversial statement, but most people don’t need conditioning workouts.

That is things such as burpees to failure, tabata push-ups, barbell complexes, and the such. You’ll be much better served doing a well rounded combination of hypertrophy, locomotion and MIIT work, even if you’re very limited in time.

In fairness, this does not apply to high level athletes (or if you want to train like one). In that scenario, you may well want conditioning workouts with certain parameters that are tailored to the conditioning required of your exact sport.

But for general training purposes, there’s simply better uses of your time. And this is coming from someone who likes conditioning – there’s still a conditioning section appended at the end. If you’re going to insist on doing it, you can at least do it right.

MIIT vs LISS

Next, we need to talk about low intensity steady state (LISS) cardio.

A common refrain these days is LISS cardio, or zone 2 cardio, or training below the lactate threshold, is the way to go for everybody, all the time.

It’s undeniably true that high level endurance athletes spend most of their training volume with LISS. It’s also probably true that if you have more hybrid training goals, lower intensity cardio is generally required to minimise systemic fatigue.

However, this is more of specific use cases and is not the norm.

If you’re short on time, e.g. you can only dedicate 30 minutes a week to cardio and 3 hours total to all training, then LISS cardio is not the way to go. (This assumes you’re not already moving a lot with a physically active job or sports playing sports, but if you were then you wouldn’t need LISS in the first place, so the point stands.)

Instead we know a couple of things.

  • The higher the intensity of cardio, the more you create mitochondrial adaptations
  • The archaic concept of a ‘dead zone’ if you go past zone 2 cardio is a myth
  • Both zone 2 and higher than zone 2 training improves fat oxidisation levels

This would suggest then that we should dive straight into high intensity interval training (HIIT). The counterpoint is there’s a few issues with this as well.

  • If you’re a beginner, HIIT has a significantly higher risk of injury
  • If you’re more advanced, HIIT is so taxing that it starts taking up training energy from your resistance training bucket

Therefore, our recommendations are based more on how much time you can dedicate to training.

If you’re short on cardio time, then a moderate intensity interval training (MIIT) session that takes you to zone 3 or 4.

If you have hours and hours to spend to optimise your training, then at that stage adding a few extra hours of LISS is of course a benefit, when you also take care of your recovery.

Prescription

Novices should start with a prescriptive approach such as the starter program but otherwise can simply add on the beginner recommendations if time allows.

Advanced folks will almost certainly have their own individualised approaches already set up.

We’re going to further assume there’s a rough correlation between advancement and time commitment. In reality, this may not always be the case.

For example, an advanced trainee looking after a new-born baby likely cannot put in ‘advanced’ number of training hours. The inverse could also apply – a beginner at university with lots of free time may want to throw in advanced training hours, though some caution and caveats apply there.

Again, this is where individualisation comes into play.

But for most people, most of the time, the below guidelines are useful as a starting point.

For beginners

  • 6000 steps daily
  • 30 mins MIIT weekly

For intermediates

  • 8000 steps daily
  • 2x 30 mins MIIT weekly

For advanced

  • 10000 steps daily
  • 10 mins of HIIT weekly
  • 3 hours total of LISS weekly

Workout selection

There are countless permutations with cardio.

This is our scientifically backed ranking criteria to determine which option to run:

  1. Easy access to equipment.
  2. You enjoy the activity.
  3. Gets your heart rate to roughly zone 2 for roughly 20-50 minutes.

Equipment access

You can only train with what you have.

People love to recommend swimming as a low joint impact activity these days (which is actually not that straightforward; it presupposes you’re a reasonably proficient swimmer), but depending on where you live and your finances it might simply not be a viable option.

If your gym only has the one row-erg and it’s taken 99% of the time, it’s probably not the best idea to map out an entire cardio strategy based on rowing workouts.

Enjoyment

You want to have some level of enjoyment with the cardio, or at least find it tolerable.

Some people abhor indoor workouts but can go for outdoor hikes and runs all day long. If that’s the case build an outdoor based approach!

You’ll see later that a steady state jog is a recommended option. If for whatever reason you simply prefer to do a fartlek style run, where you gradually ramp up and down speed over ~20 minutes, then that’s fine. Not every option can be outlined here, just the general goal and some sample options.

Heart rate

The goal of cardio here is to improve aerobic work capacity. The way to do so is to create adaptations to our heart rate, by training our heart rate (duh).

With LISS our heart rates should be zone 2 or higher. You’ve probably heard of the slightly out of breath test. If you can maintain a conversation (or say a sentence out loud to verify), and you’re mildly but distinctly huffing and puffing, you’re in the right range. 

We also know there’s a set minimum duration for LISS to really create adaptations. This is probably around the 20-25 minute mark. Hence you’ll see all our default recommendations have this timeframe.

For the upper boundaries of duration we can look to how serious runners do their base building. Conservatively, light sessions are capped at around 60 minutes for 5 or 6 days a week. Here we recommend significantly less than that for most people most of the time.

Workout ideas

MIIT

Treadmill

Warm-up for 5 minutes.

Alternate between running and incline walking.

Run at a ~1 incline at a moderately high effort for 30 seconds.

Walk at a ~1 incline at a steady pace for 30 seconds.

Repeat up to 20 times for a total of 25 minutes.

ERG combo

Rotate between the ski-erg, row-erg, and bike-erg.

Go at a fairly high effort so you tire out between 2-3 minutes on each station.

Rest 1 min between each.

Repeat up to 9 times, or a total of 25 minutes.

Run

A tempo run, start slow and gradually ramp up speed, then slow down again. Keep the steps per second fairly consistent throughout.

LIIT

Treadmill

Incline walk for 30 minutes, at 3-6 incline at a speed that takes you to zone 2

Elliptical

Walk, including moving the arms, for 30 minutes at a low intensity that takes you to zone 2

Ruck

Walk on flat or mild incline terrain with 5/10/15% bodyweight in a vest or backpack for 30 minutes

Jog

Steady jog for 30 minutes at zone 2

HIIT

Assault bike

1 minute intervals

10-15 seconds of 100% all out effort, then 45-50 seconds rest

Repeat until you can’t sustain max effort for 10 seconds, up to a maximum 10 rounds

Stair master

1 minute intervals

30 seconds at level 12, 30 seconds at level 6

Repeat until you can’t go, up to a maximum 10 rounds

Hill sprints

2 minute intervals

15-30 seconds max effort sprint uphill, then walk down and rest

Repeat until you can’t go, up to a maximum of 8 rounds

Indoor modalities

Stairmaster

Assault bike

Treadmill

If you don’t have a strong preference on cardio, this is the best default option to pick.

With fairly minimal joint stress, we’re doing the most simple activity that allows us to quickly reach the desired heart rate and burn calories as well.

There’s a reason why bodybuilders for decades have been doing treadmill work week in week out. Even if you don’t want nothing to do with the sport of bodybuilding, we can take a page from their book.

We list 30 minutes as the archetypal workout, though it is of course just a suggestion. If you can only do 15, do 15. If you enjoy sweating and want a full 60 minutes, go right ahead.

Generally speaking however, the 30 minutes will be the dead on recommendation for a lot of people.

  • Assuming around 5 minutes to warm-up and cool-down, that’s 25 minutes at a steady zone 2. We know this is generally enough time for our bodies to switch from burning glycogen to fats.
  • It’s a (relatively) short and manageable timeframe, and therefore repeatable and sustainable.
  • LISS can be done 4, 5 or probably 6 days a week without interfering with our lifting too much, if we prioritise low joint stress activity and short(er) bursts of 30 minutes.
  • Most importantly, it gives us somewhere to build up to. I generally recommend 4-6x frequency of 30 minute LISS. This is assuming we’re training at maintenance calories or a fairly slow bulk. If you’re aiming to lose weight, then in addition to cutting calories we want to be able to increase cardio as a lever. At that point it’s the perfect time to run all the 45 or 60 minute LISS sessions you want.

Pretty much the only downside with the treadmill is if you find this mentally too boring. Otherwise, find your preferred playlist or podcast and you can start incline walking.

Elliptical

Another solid option, if choosing this use both your arms and legs to move. We want to work our heart rate without muscular endurance being the limiting factor.

This is technically even less joint stress than the treadmill.

The interesting downside is that working the elliptical is a rather unique gait that doesn’t really translate to hiking, running or any other athletic endeavour. Thus I wouldn’t suggest anyone work the elliptical as their sole form of cardio.

For the same reason it also takes a small amount of skill to comfortably move for long periods of time, just like riding a bike. For some who are unaccustomed to it, you may find a 30 minute duration challenging not because it’s taxing your heart rate at zone 2 but simply because it feels like an awkward movement.

Erg combo

This obviously assumes a reasonably well equipped gym, either CrossFit style or regular. You’ll want a bike erg, a row erg, and a ski erg.

Can you simply pick one machine and go for 30 minutes? Of course, this is a nice bit of variety though.

The goal here is to maintain a zone 2 and not let muscular endurance or skill at moving an erg be the limiting factor.

Outdoor modalities

Running

This doesn’t really need an explanation. You probably already know whether you love it or hate it.

If it’s tolerable, this is the best out of all options for driving heart rate adaptations (with incline treadmill walking being second).

The flip side is the joint impact is also commensurately higher. Just to be clear, it is definitely higher than many other cardio activities, but also pay attention to your running form.

There’s a vocal minority of lifters who argue running wrecks the knees, and it’s seemingly based on the (incorrect) assumption of a jerky, plodding run.

Decent LISS running form is jogging, indeed almost a shuffle, probably at around 2 to 3 steps a second. Also experiment with forefoot or heel striking.

With those simple points the joint stress should generally be quite manageable for most people.

Rucking

Rucking is the recreational form of the military style walking with weights. Strap on a weight vest or wear a backpack with a plate and simply start walking.

The elephant in the room is that there is a notorious reputation of joint pain that comes with rucking. If we dig a little deeper though we realise this can be avoided by progressing slowly just like any other form of load bearing training.

Here we do not suggest ruck running or ruck trail running, ever.

The load should start small, we are talking in the realms of 2kg for ladies and 4kg for men.

When increasing load this should be done gradually, less than once a week. I argue that even advanced lifters don’t really ever need to go beyond 20% of your bodyweight. Most people will find around 10% of bodyweight spot on.

Again, we are doing a well-rounded hybrid lifting, we are not rucking specialists and there is no prize for the heaviest weight here.

Hill sprints

If you have a hill, sprinting up the hill is a low risk way of maximal exertion.