Whatever type of exercise you do if you don’t use it you loose it.
it’s the cards you are dealt determine making it to 80
sometimes lifestyle choices change that determination…i have had healthy family members and friends die in their 40s to 70s
and the opposite happen also…unhealthy live into their 80s and 90s
its the luck of the draw
Or someone texting while they drive and hitting you with a semi.
agreed…no matter how much zone 2 you do, lol
Better able to outrun the semi.
IMO, the next major step in life extension is getting control of inflammation.
Not if you are in a car
Speaks even more to the value of zone 2: be out there running instead of trapped in a car.
You are never in a car…always running???
By diet, i presume
Until medical science catches up.
Our body is its own worst enemy concerning inflammation. In order to combat a problem, it causes more problems.
I did not know anti-cardio group exists… Jesus that’s stupid.
I tried to write and argument defending cardio, but it sounded so fucking obvious that I stopped.
It’s like saying that getting muscles in gym is unhealthy because your heart needs to work harder to maintain them.
Not terribly surprising. I’ve seen similar studies.
Active lifestyle, but not too hard exercise, low life stress and restricted calories are probably the optimal solution for longetivity.
But, lifting weights, running etc. have also other values to me besides health. And hard exercise is definitely better than no exercise.
Depends…the dose is in the poison…or words to that effect. It seems as though there is too much of a good thing. There is more and more evidence coming out showing that in terms of longevity, there is a j if not a u shaped curve when it comes to too much of the harder stuff. Whether that be weight training or cardio.
Let’s remember, ANY training is a stressor to the body. Long term, we don’t handle too much stress so well.
I’m almost 60. At this stage of my life, everything is secondary to health and longevity benefits…for me at least. I’ll get my kicks elsewhere. I don’t need to go overboard on exercise for that.
I think there is a dose-dependent argument for exactly that, but I see @sgg already hit it
Yes there is. Probably not a dose that’s easy to achieve naturally.
As ”too much” cardio can be quite stressful for you too.
Good points, completely agree
God forbid you do both…

Doing both seems like a reasonable and logical viewpoint…and I do by the way…I probably do more “cardio” than our resident cardio “expert” ( because before I was a “lifter” of any approximation, I was a runner, and that never left me). However there are those on here, and elsewhere who simply detest cardio when it is framed as such. So if the same, similar or reasonable benefits could be obtained by incidental movements done throughout the day, movement that is disguised in a manner of doing something, or going somewhere, rather than “exercise” that you have to get changed for and warm up prior to, then more people might be inclined to do it.
After all the best “exercise” is the one that you will do, regardless of how “perfect” other options may be.
Here is an opinion from Dr.Ken Leistner who is all about HIT. I think it’s from hardgainer. He is answering a question.
His replay is about half way through the question. Years later he suggested to me brisk walking 2-3 times a week for about 40 -60 minuets. Probably close to zone 2 before it was called zone 2
Sorry it’s a copy and paste
I am a 43 year old powerlifter competing in my 18th year of competition. I stand 5’8” and weigh 187 lbs. For about ten years
now I have known my cholesterol level ranges between 230-240. This is far from ideal, and with increasing age the body fat tends to
creep up on you, so I decided to get serious about an aerobic program.
I have been walking a little but mostly riding my Schwinn Air-Dyne* in the basement. I have tried riding after my powerlifting
workouts, and on my off days. I know about target heart rates and finding my maximum hear rate (220 minus my age) and the riding
at 70-80% of it.
I work out two days a week (Monday and Thursday, for about an hour each time) and ride the bike on Tuesday, Friday, and
Saturday for about 20 minutes (not counting warming up and cooling down). During the last six months (since riding three days a
week), my squat just does not come back up like it used to. I do not seem to have any leg strength. I think my squat is getting killed
bye the bike riding. Should I ride on workout days or on the off days? I hear about interval training but do not know how it should be
incorporated with my power training. When I try to do intervals on the bike I warm up and then ride hard for 30 seconds, the ride very
easily for one minute, and then go back to the hard pedaling, etc. I keep this up for about 15-20 minutes, then cool down.
When I had my last cholesterol test I was taking [a brand name] desiccated liver. They assured me on the phone that the liver
had no cholesterol in it. Well, my cholesterol went up to an all time high level of 250.
You’re not going to like my reply to your letter, but you have to take another perspective. No one in our age group dies
because their squat isn’t heavy enough. Death usually comes due to cardiac dysfunction and degeneration and/or cancer. You have no
business putting your powerlifting performance before you health. Start from that point, and then ask your questions.
Simply put, your bike riding is not “killing” your squat, and even if it was, so what? You did not make it clear, but you should
be squatting once per week. If you can’t recover from that and three days of bike riding (and that should be brought up to 40 minutes
as soon as possible, not 20!), then squat and deadlift the same day and do it only once per week. If you can’t recover from that, your
conditioning is not very good and that should become your primary focus until your overall level of “fitness” improves. Interval
training is not what you need. You need to follow long established guidelines for cardiovascular health that dictate training a minimum
of 20 minutes within the target hear range 3-5 days per week, and of course, follow a prudent, low fat diet.
Liver is the body’s storage area for cholesterol, so of course, ingesting liver will affect your counts. I think all of us know what
we obviously should no eat, but if you’re not sure about diet, check with a registered dietician in you area. Don’t be offended by the
tone or content of this letter. You have to put your health first, and lifting success, after that, especially if you have any of the
“markers,” or predictors for cardiovascular dysfunction (high cholesterol being on of them). I hope this is helpful.
In all reverence to the good doctor, I’m not sure that in reality he practiced what he was preaching here.
When push came to shove it appeared as though Dr Leistner certainly prioritised his weight training above his cardio throughout his life. Examples being his force feeding in his earlier years, in order to put on muscular weight. This would have set him up for potential cardiovascular issues further down the road. Also I’m still not convinced that his particular “style” of training didn’t have some detrimental effects on his heart over the years. Excessive intensity / stress can be as negative on the body as excessive volume. I’m still unsure as to whether this drive for intensity may have ultimately been a contributory factor in his untimely death. It has been noted that excessive, prolonged intense exercise can lead to heart complications in older athletes, so why not strength trainees also? A recent, lengthy and in depth study ( Marc 2)on heart health and older trainees recommends that intense exercise should only be the tip of the iceberg for older trainees, and that the majority should remain under 9 METS, which isn’t even decent slow running speed for most.
Even Dr Ken’s cardio recommendations weren’t sustainable for most people. It’s almost like his ideas on various things were an “extension” of the image he had painted for himself via strength training…”extreme”.
If memory serves me correctly I’m sure that in one episode of “The Steel Tip” he gave a cardio recommendation of two sets of 10,000 (TEN THOUSAND) metres on the Concept 2 rower. Even for a decent rower, that would have been between 30 and 40 minutes per set.