Truth about Cardio

I was always fascinated by long distance runners and someday I want to run a marathon. But I am a beginner, and want to start with a 5k, and then progress upwards. Running/jogging really makes me feel alive, so I want to keep it as part of my exercise regime to stay fit. I am out of shape now, and hence would like to use this training period to get fit and reach my goals.

So 3 days of jogging, and 3 days of strength training per week should be enough right? Of course appropriate diet is a must. What care should I be taking to prevent muscle loss? I don't know the difference between fat loss and weight loss and I don't care either. I just want to stay healthy and fit. Please correct me if I'm wrong and any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

There are many many scientific studies showing that cardio helps a lot with addictions (just google it). The same is not true for strength training. I believe especially systematic strength training like powerlifting/strengthliftig/olympic weight lifting is not so good for the mental health. But no data to back this up ofc

 

I don't know man, if I sounded too offensive then please know that it was not my intention to do so. I am a beginner and I truly wanted some advice regarding muscle loss due to cardio that's it. If the difference between fat loss and weight loss is so important, please enlighten me, I have no idea regarding it.
Cheers

 

Diet is definitively the most important aspect of fitness. I myself tried to neglect this and wasted 10 years of my life working out and staying skinny fat. I improved my diet and the results started appearing by themselves,even on weeks I wasn't on point with my training. I did some calisthenics circuits and jogging and I am no longer skinny fat,but still I have a long way to go for my ideal body. Plus I must keep working because I am still an endomorph. If someone is predisposed to store fat(like myself),sticking to only strength training might not cut it,unless you are doing most sets to failure,heavy weights and VERY short rests in between them. Jogging burns 223 to 400 calories in 30 minutes. Weight training burns 112 to 185 calories on a 30 minute session. If you are looking to improve your weight loss potential,clearly jogging has an advantage(provided your diet is on maintenance or below). In order to not lose so much muscle(granted,cardio burns some muscle along with fat), do a strength session first. Make sure it's intense to avoid losing too much muscle during cardio. If you think the body of marathon runners don't look good,keep your cardio session to under an hour.Different sprinters use different training modalities,and some do very long cardio sessions for conditioning on the off season. The meditative nature of cardio also helps people dealing with addictions. It may provoke neurogenesis,a process in which the brain produces new brain cells. In my opinion,definitively improve your diet first,but don't rely just on strength training for weight loss if you are an endomorph. In my humble opinion

 

Forgot to mention this. HIIT is great,but make sure you use progressive overload. P.O. is not only for weights. Don't stay with the same 10 minute jump rope youtube routine.

 

@AlphaWolf1408 Are you a fan of Mike Matthews? Sounds exactly like the stuff he says. I completely agree by the way, just curious. I've bought his books and he talks about all of this very in depth. Really good reads if you haven't already read them.

 

Just read your squat n deadlift post and appreciate the message, I would say there's the same something to be said for cardio in the way of the psychological development you mentioned there, wouldn't you agree? You sound like a fitness expert, but just from more of a base place wherein one is looking to connect with some primal prerogative, I feel like I can really come in sustained contact with doubt, pain and insecurity in a half-marathon... Like that savage feller David Goggins talks on I feel like I can twist up and wring out my soul on a long run along the river more so than I can figure in the concrete jungle... However I haven't got kettlebells, cleans or deadlifts down to a confident science yet so maybe that lack of satisfaction will eventually resolve with better execution

 

It's been talked about a lot more recently I believe that "nature exposure" has been proven to be a benefit to mental health. There's been studies done on it. The one I'm thinking of was done at Cornell. Time spent in more green areas (trees, lawns, plants, etc.) were shown to improve the mental state of those who participated in it for at least 10 minutes per day. The peak benefit came when those in the study spent around 50 minutes per day in those areas. Pretty fascinating stuff.

All that to say it may not just be the fact that you're jogging, but where you're jogging, that makes a difference.

 

Of course! I'll look into those other guys for sure, I'm always interested to learn more about this stuff, I think it's really crazy how much misinformation is out there.

My two favorites right now are Mike Matthews and Mark Rippetoe, I've learned a lot from both of them but I'd still consider myself a beginner, there's a lot to know!

 

Okay my question, what do you think of Heavyhands?

 

Well these exercises are part of the Heavy Habds series, which is suppose to be an arobic session, which he calls panarobics, where you are using your whole body, said to work simually to skiing & swimming. It's suppose to work on burning fat off & building up endurance. I'm trying to see how it would work for me as a cardio to do after my main workout. Creat by an old guy named Leonard Schwartz who by doing this and other exercises based around using the whole body, though mainly from Heavy hands (What I've heard) got into better shape. These 2 are examples I've found going to read his book on the matter.
Another example is his workout video from the 80s

 

@AlphaWolf1408 : any advice... I do weight-lifting 45 mins to an hour, 6 days a week, and on sunday i ride the bicycle on the street for half an hour. but i'm struggling to reduce my belly fat. i'm 5'11 inches. age: 31

 

I heard that cardio increases oestrogen which is bad for nofap and strength training increases testosterone which is good