I see.
VO2 max is a real thing and improved oxygen utilization carries over to strength training by aiding recovery and endurance, especially for high rep and volume work. It increases muscle efficiency as well.
There are limits of course, and specialization may require carefully biased output towards a goal, but for most people wanting to be ābig and strongā cardio beyond a 15 minute heart zone ride on the treadmill provides a lot of synergy.
The vast majority of explosive athletes, from football players to mixed martial artists, are muscular by any conventional standard and perform hours of cardio weekly. Maybe not zone 2 steady as Otay generously pointed out, but cardio none the less. Even more intense cardio, as a matter of fact.
And most of them probably could put on more muscle if they wanted, but theyāre focused on time and maximizing sport specific training, and in some cases holding steady for a weight class intentionally.
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Not taking you out of context, just didnāt want a block of quote.
This makes more sense to me now. Youāre not necessarily saying āthe study is a lie;ā youāre saying it has limited applicability to your specific goals and preferences.
Exactly. I always believed if you want to look like a bodybuilder, train like a bodybuilder. If you want to look like a runner, train like a runner and do lots of cardio. Personal experience, for me the two extremes canāt co-exist.
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This seems sound at first, but we look a little deeper and have to realize weāre observing survivor bias. Take this to a different level and it makes sense.
You wanna be tall? Go play basketball. You wanna have long limbs? Take up swimming. Itās not so much the training the drives the physical outcome moreso that the activity rewards those WITH these attributes and, at the highest echelons, those that did NOT possess them got weeded out. There are no 300lb horse jockeys, and the kids that never got over 5ā6 we weeded out at the high school level of basketball. In turn, you can train like a runner and still be overfat because youāre not genetically predisposed to be some āhigh speed/low dragā lanky low bodyfat type individual, and if that same individual takes up bodybuilding style training, unless they REALLY invest themselves in personal chemistry, theyāre probably not going to look like a bodybuilder.
I think your philosophy is VERY sound when it comes to nutrition though. SO many folks eat like endurance athletes while saying they want to be bodybuilders. TONS of carbs to support not very heavy training, and not nearly enough protein.
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The āsaneā Mike Mentzer would have been very impressed with your analogy and logic. Sound argument.
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The caveat, genetics ultimately determine predisposition and success in either endeavor. I shouldāve included this in my original post.
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You can become a decent middle/endurance runner(up to 10k) on a regime of running 25-40 mins at a session. Either continous runs or intervals.
Long runs always made me super hungry and I tended to overeat to compensate. Whilst I was never overweight if anything I always put on a couple of pounds in these phases.
The leanest was when I mixed endurance/intervals/weights. And no feelings of vast hunger.
2 hours cardio is just daft unless you are a true marathon type, and only just. Sort out the diet and mix up training a bit. It almost sounds like chaos is the plan,