Cardio, Lifting… or BOTH? The Best Exercise for Weight Loss, Health and Longevity
Chances are you're one of two types of people: You love running, biking, and spin... or you love being the gym, lifting weights, and HIIT. Whether your goal is weight loss, health, or longevity (or all three), there seems to be a never-ending debate. We know exercise is "good," but should we be doing cardio? Or lifting weights? Or maybe... BOTH? Today's episode is for the cardio bunnies and the gym rats, and everybody in between.
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Adam Schafer is the CEO and founder of Mind Pump, a professional bodybuilder, fitness expert and trainer. He is one of the hosts of Mind Pump, a podcast that informs and educates on all things health and fitness.
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The Takeaways
Aerobic exercise is also known as endurance exercise or “cardio” (running, swimming, biking). It increases heart rate for a sustained period of time at a lower intensity.
Anaerobic exercise is geared more towards building strength (e.g. weight lifting and sprints). It is performed at a higher intensity for shorter durations.
Per hour, cardio exercise such as running burns more calories than lifting weights.
But, cardio is one of the worst weight loss tools because of the way the body adapts to it..
The result of cardio + restricted calories = a slowed metabolism
The result of weight training = a higher metabolism + being able to eat more food!
Muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue. While your weight may not change on the scale, gaining muscle will make you leaner.
Benefits of increased muscle mass:
Longer life span
Better bone health
Increased metabolism
Increased strength
Better heart health
Tips for Lifting Weights:
Stick with one routine for 3-5 weeks
Gradually increase volume over time (Volume = weight x reps x sets).
Hire a trainer if you can to show you good form, or find informative videos on line!
You can start with simple resistance training at home that is unweighted (such as squats, push ups, lunges, planks, etc)
Benefits of cardio:
Increases longevity
Great for heart and lung health
Reduces risk of disease
Improved cognitive functioning and mood
So we should probably be doing BOTH.
Find a cardio exercise that you enjoy and balance it alongside weight training. Cardio should be something fun – hiking, swimming, biking, walking, dancing all count!
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Juna [00:00:00] Food We Need to talk is funded by a grant from the Ardmore Institute of Health, home of full plate living. Okay Eddie I think it's time to finally start the episode and talk about something that we've kind of been ignoring.
Eddie [00:00:14] What we've been ignoring something?
Juna [00:00:16] While we talk a lot about exercise on this podcast.
Eddie [00:00:19] Right. Right. Of course, that is my specialty.
Juna [00:00:22] It is your specialty. You are a physiatrist. And we often talk about resistance training specifically.
Eddie [00:00:27] Right. Because it keeps your muscles and bones so strong.
Juna [00:00:31] But something we haven't addressed a lot is something that I am not particularly fond of, but something that you absolutely love.
Eddie [00:00:40] Historical side notes.
Juna [00:00:42] No.
Eddie [00:00:43] Dad jokes.
Juna [00:00:44] Also another fantastic guest, but still not what I'm talking about.
Eddie [00:00:47] Okay, what is it?
Juna [00:00:48] Today we are going to be talking about cardio.
Workout Instructor [00:00:53] Let this work out. Really boost your spirit. Deep breath. Can we go back to front?
Workout Instructor [00:00:58] Back. Push it forward. Push it forward. Yeah.
Eddie [00:01:03] Well, you know, I love riding my bike. And in fact, my wife and I just ran our first marathon. So, yeah, I definitely do love some good cardio.
Juna [00:01:13] While guys, it's finally time. I've been inspired by Eddie's marathon to run a marathon and by all the questions you guys have been asking us. You guys want to know what is the deal with cardio? Should we be doing it? Should we be doing it on top of lifting weights? Should we be doing just lifting weights? What is the deal with cardio on today's episode. Cardio versus lifting weights or maybe cardio and lifting weights? I'm Juna Gjata.
Eddie [00:01:40] And I'm Dr. Eddie Phillips, associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
Juna [00:01:44] And you're listening to Food We Need to Talk, the only podcast that has been scientifically proven for sure to replace your daily dose of cardio just by listening. So let's meet today's guest.
Adam Schaefer [00:02:03] My name is Adam Schaffer. I'm one of the host co-founders and CEO of Mind Pump Media.
Mind Pump Episode [00:02:08] If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump.
Juna [00:02:16] Side note Mind pump is for sure. One of my favorite fitness podcasts on the planet, and it's what really got me into weightlifting. So shout out to the boys that host mind pump. Also, I love that I get to call them the boys because they're the best. So when Adam first became a trainer in his early twenties, there was for sure one goal that kept coming up over and over and over for the people that came to him.
Adam Schaefer [00:02:40] Most common goal would for sure be weight loss. I'd say over 60 70% of my clientelle was a female client trying to lose weight.
Eddie [00:02:48] That's not too surprising to me because even as a doctor, I would say that many of my patients who start doing cardio, they're going into it because they're also trying to lose some weight.
Juna [00:02:58] While it's not surprising to me either, because most of my friends, if they're starting cardio, they're doing it because they want to lose weight. Right. So the thing is, when people want to lose weight, especially if they're really dedicated, they're getting really serious, they're hiring a trainer. They go into it with this really extreme mentality.
Adam Schaefer [00:03:14] They go from eating whatever, not really paying attention to, okay, I'm going to change my life or I want to lose this weight. So I join the gym, I get my personal trainer, I'm going to do this cardio and I'm going to reduce my calories by making better food choices. And so they restrict calories and they increase movement.
Juna [00:03:32] And of course, the go to way to increase movement is cardio. Eddie Since you are an exercise doctor, can you kind of give us a debrief on what cardio is?
Eddie [00:03:44] Okay, Juna. So traditionally we think of exercise in two categories aerobic and anaerobic.
Juna [00:03:51] Okay?
Eddie [00:03:51] Aerobic exercises tend to be more endurance type exercises. So things like running, swimming, biking, those are the ones I love. They increase your heart rate for a sustained period of time. In my case, running a marathon for a really long period of time.
Juna [00:04:05] For 500 years.
Eddie [00:04:07] They tend to be lower intensity but longer duration.
Juna [00:04:10] Okay, so this is what people traditionally call cardio like in our regular people in which aerobic is cardio.
Eddie [00:04:17] Right. And anaerobic exercise tends to be of a higher intensity, but for shorter duration, this type of exercise tends to be geared more towards building strength.
Juna [00:04:28] So examples of this would be something like sprints or lifting weights.
Eddie [00:04:33] Now, realistically, most forms of exercise probably involve some of both the anaerobic and the aerobic, cardio and strength training together. Very little exercise is purely one or the other. Right. But we can generally categorize most forms of exercise as one of those two categories.
Juna [00:04:51] Okay. But I would say when it comes to weight loss, people definitely gravitate towards cardio preferentially to lifting weights.
Eddie [00:04:59] Well, all right. So we should say that on the surface, yeah, this makes sense. We know that weight loss, biologically speaking, happens when you use more calories than you eat. Right. And cardio burns, a lot more calories per hour than something like lifting weights.
Juna [00:05:13] It's true, guys. This is why I was originally, like obsessed with running on the treadmill is because an hour of running can burn anywhere from 400 to 600 calories, depending on your size. And an hour of lifting weights burns anywhere from 200 to 300 calories. So less than half for the same amount of time.
Eddie [00:05:33] And as we often learned on this show, the problem is there's just a lot more to consider than just the calories.
Juna [00:05:40] Okay. So first, let's cover this goal of weight loss, because as Adam says, it is the goal for the majority of people that come to him. So most personal trainers will probably tell you that cardio, despite being a fantastic calorie burner, is actually one of the worst weight loss tools.
Eddie [00:06:00] We try to make this simple for people, but this is where it gets confusing.
Juna [00:06:03] It is.
Eddie [00:06:04] And what it comes down to is how your body adapts to the type of exercise that you do. So think back to Adam's client, who starts eating way less and doing a lot of cardio.
Adam Schaefer [00:06:15] When they first come in and they want to do that. They may see this initial weight loss of a few pounds in the first week or two, but quickly the body realizes, Oh, she's only going to feed me so many calories and she's going to keep pushing me every single day. I need to become efficient at this or else you're going to disappear or you in this case, die right your body. If you kept adapting that direction, you would eventually go all the way to a place where it's like, okay, I can't survive anymore. And then all the body knows is to survive.
Eddie [00:06:40] So how does your body respond? How will it ensure that it survives? Well, it decides to.
Adam Schaefer [00:06:47] Slow the metabolism. In other words, become more efficient with the same amount of calories that you are feeding it. And that is the opposite signal that we want to send for somebody who is trying to lose, say, 30 or 40 lbs.
Juna [00:06:57] On the other hand, lifting weights sends your body a very different signal.
Adam Schaefer [00:07:01] Building muscles, pro tissue, meaning we're trying to build muscle, add something to your body that requires more energy. So because that requires more energy, it tells your body needs more fuel in order to do that. So it's the opposite signal that you're sending it, which in turn will help this person long term when it comes to losing their weight.
Eddie [00:07:20] Let's dive into this a little bit. What do we mean when we actually say sending a signal?
Juna [00:07:26] You're sending a text because.
Eddie [00:07:28] It's not like your body has an inbox where you can send it emails and it responds. It's actually how our body has evolved to adapt to new environments and circumstances. Juna, remember back to our Metabolism episode?
Juna [00:07:42] Of course, Eddie, I hosted that episode. What?
Eddie [00:07:44] Don't you know I was here, too.
Juna [00:07:46] Yeah. Yeah. You're listening to food. We need to talk. The only podcast that has been scientifically proven to counteract the effects of aging on your metabolism just by listening.
Eddie [00:07:59] Okay. What do you remember? Was the biggest portion of our metabolism?
Juna [00:08:03] Over half of our total daily energy expenditure, or the amount of calories that we burn in a day, a.k.a. our metabolism comes from our basal metabolic rate, which is basically just the calories our body needs to keep itself alive.
Eddie [00:08:17] By keeping cells turning over, blood pumping, lungs breathing. These are the things that make up your basal metabolic rate.
Juna [00:08:24] Right.
Eddie [00:08:24] And one of the biggest determinants of BMR is your muscle mass. Now, why is that?
Juna [00:08:30] Because muscle is very high maintenance like me. And it requires a lot of money. I mean, calories, of course.
Eddie [00:08:38] Exactly. Muscle is a much more metabolically active tissue. It's calorically expensive. And if you train in the gym, you takes even more calories because it has to get repaired after you damage your muscles in the workouts.
Juna [00:08:52] Mm hmm. Plus, we should remember that as you lose weight, you're becoming a smaller person. Which means your BMR is automatically going down. Right, because smaller people will always need less calories than bigger people. So trying to counteract that as much as possible by actually building some new tissue while you're losing fat tissue, that really sets you up for success.
Eddie [00:09:15] Now, if you're listening to this and wondering, why is it so important to maintain your BMR or your metabolism? If you're interested in losing weight? Well, the answer is simple. The higher your metabolism, the more you can eat.
Juna [00:09:28] And one of the most common things that people struggle with after they lose weight is keeping the weight off, which is why it's so useful to have a higher metabolism, because who doesn't want to eat more? It's so much easier than eating less.
Eddie [00:09:42] Now there's something important to note about weight gain from muscle.
Adam Schaefer [00:09:46] One of the things that we used to have at the gym that was, I thought, a very useful tool is we had this rubber thing that looked like fat. It was 5lb. And then there was this little rubber thing, which was 5lbs of muscle. And you would show them like, this is what 5lbs of muscle is on your body. This is what 5lbs of fat looks like and it's like 3 to 4 times the size.
Eddie [00:10:07] Muscle is much more dense and fat tissue, so gaining muscle looks very different than gaining fat tissue. To picture this, check out our show notes at foodweneedtotalk.com.
Juna [00:10:18] So this is why we talk a lot about not just paying attention to the number on the scale. Because, for example, if you look at a lot of pro athletes, they actually have BMI. Oftentimes it can be in the overweight or obese category, but they look very, very lean and it's because they have a lot of muscle mass. So when Adam first gets a client, he doesn't throw them into this crazy cardio routine, like run a thousand miles a day. He actually suggests that they start with weight training.
Adam Schaefer [00:10:46] Let's focus right now on putting muscle on your body. I know you're going to be challenged. You might fill your pants, get a little tighter. You might feel your sleeves in your arms, fill out a little bit more right now. But I promise, what we're putting on right now, if we're strength training and we're eating properly, we're building muscle and we're speeding the metabolism up.
Eddie [00:11:06] Juna I have to share a story about one of my patients.
Juna [00:11:09] Okay. Yes, as you always do.
Eddie [00:11:12] He decided late in life that he just wanted to try losing weight. But he marked his progress not so much by what it said on the scale as the number of new holes that he had punch in his leather belt as he slimmed down.
Juna [00:11:24] Whoa, whoa. So he didn't want to buy a new belt. So much new holes in the belt. Uh huh.
Eddie [00:11:29] And he was really proud of his progress. He even had to show me the special tool that you buy to punch holes in your leather belt.
Juna [00:11:36] A leather belt hole puncher. Okay.
Eddie [00:11:38] And so he's losing his belly fat. And then one day, he brought in this belt, and he was putting it on the desk, and he wanted me to have it so he could share it with other patients so that they knew that it's possible to lose weight.
Juna [00:11:52] Wow. So you see, you have this belt now?
Eddie [00:11:54] No, not really.
Juna [00:11:55] What?
Eddie [00:11:58] At the last minute. He paused and he pulled it back and he just said, I'm not done yet.
Juna [00:12:05] My God. And he took the belt back. He needs to punch more holes in this belt. He wants to keep this costume. You know, it's couture now because he did it himself. Right. So obviously, if you're putting on muscle, it means that you are weighing more regardless of what's happening to your actual body fat percentage, right? Mm hmm. Now, the thing is, putting on lean body mass, it's actually very good for us. So this kind of weight is weight that we want to gain. It's something that we should be striving for because it's tied to all these other health benefits. But for someone who's so focused on just weight loss, it's a really, really tough mental shift to make.
Eddie [00:12:43] So focus on putting on the muscle mass, because we know that if you have increased muscle mass, you're going to have a longer life span, increase bone health and as we've discussed, an increased metabolism.
Juna [00:12:55] All good things in my book, I'm just saying. But if you're only focus is the scale, then when the scale doesn't move or If you start weightlifting or if the scale goes up, it can just be really, really discouraging and make you feel like, you know, your hard work in the gym is not really paying off. In fact, Adam says that the most ideal place for one of his new clients. Okay, I'm going to say that again, guys. The most ideal place is for the scale not to move at all.
Juna [00:13:20] Hmm.
Adam Schaefer [00:13:21] That is actually a beautiful place to be. But, boy, try telling somebody again who struggle with weight their whole life, who's got 30, 40lb overweight, that, hey, the scale staying the same is what we want. You know, while I'm sitting here training you three, four times a week. Like, it's really tough for that to compute for a lot of people that that is actually the most ideal place that I can have a client. When they first start with me, they're building their metabolism. I know they are.
Juna [00:13:49] The other danger of just relying on the scale and not doing any resistance training.
Eddie [00:13:55] It can actually be misleading, right? Because you're going to think that you're perfectly healthy, which you might be.
Juna [00:14:00] Or you might not be if you actually have very little muscle mass and very high fat mass, the scale may actually look okay. But like you don't know anything about your body composition. And this we colloquially call skinny fat.
Adam Schaefer [00:14:13] Where I see it the most. And not to pick on a certain group or other, but models, cheerleaders, actresses. So I trained all the above and they would go on these diets like little. I remember some have like all they would do is eat carrots or celery all day long and they would get on the treadmill and run. And so they were so focused on the either the circumference or the weight on the scale that their fastest way to reduce those things would be to reduce their calories dramatically and increase cardio. But what ends up happening is your body pairs down muscle.
Eddie [00:14:48] And if we go back to our basal metabolic rate, if your body is paring down muscle, that means less lean mass, less tissue, fewer cells and a slower metabolism. Which is why if you lose weight really quickly through eating way too little and exercising way too much, it just comes back so easily. Right?
Adam Schaefer [00:15:07] People like that have massive swings. They look good, right, when they're coming up on a shoot and they have to diet like crazy and they starve their body for a month or whatever and do all this extreme stuff and then they blow up afterwards because they can't realistically keep that. Like nobody's going to live off of carrots forever and do cardio every single day. And so the inevitable happens.
Juna [00:15:29] The thing is, your body doesn't know that you're the one self imposing a food scarcity or self imposing all this movement on the treadmill. The signal it gets is no food, lots of energy needed.
Adam Schaefer [00:15:42] You have somebody who does cardio like crazy and they cut their calories. And so what ends up happening is the body takes that signal as, oh, she's not going to feed me. She's running. Running doesn't require a lot of muscle whatsoever. It requires endurance and stamina. So it's like, okay, I'm going to get good at running because that's what you're telling the body. I don't need all this expensive tissue, all this muscle to go lift heavy thing because I'm not lifting any heavy things. And so the body pares it down.
Juna [00:16:12] Speaking of running, by the way, guys, I think it's time that we formally congratulate Eddie on running his marathon. Eddie, congratulations from all the listeners and me.
Eddie [00:16:21] Thank you.
Juna [00:16:21] But I have to say, you did share with me off air that you didn't lose any weight training for this marathon, even though you are running miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles a day.
Eddie [00:16:34] That is absolutely true. I am not the prototypical slim runner.
Juna [00:16:38] Right.
Eddie [00:16:38] We'll have some pictures of this on Instagram.
Juna [00:16:40] These guys just slip. That's the new trendy body type. Anyway, Eddie, if.
Eddie [00:16:44] You want to see me running with a slim, thick body, I've got our Instagram account. So, you know, I think this brings up a really interesting point. We talked about cardio and strength training. Right. I will tell you that the only way I made it through the training and to the starting line, which is the first and only goal of every aging athlete. Right. Was to do a ton of functional strength training so that I could then do the running. So I did a lot of squats so that I could do a lot of running.
Juna [00:17:12] Okay, so from the squats to the starting line, I love it.
Eddie [00:17:16] A new meme.
Eddie [00:17:18] Okay, Juna, we've made a pretty solid argument for why we should focus on lifting weights. Yeah. Especially if you're looking to reduce body fat and increase your muscle mass. Basically building muscle, right. Creating tissue that burns calories all day long, all night long without you having to do anything. It's kind of like an insurance policy on your metabolism, but maybe we should just do a deeper dive into actually how you should go about doing that.
Juna [00:17:46] Eddie That's a great idea.
Adam Schaefer [00:17:48] When we lift weights, it sends a signal to the body to build muscle. It's a stress, right? So it's like what it receives is, oh, Juna, lifting these weights and I need more muscle to be efficient at that. So that's the signal. Now, just like anything else, if you do the same thing every single week, week in and week out, relatively quick, the body actually starts to adapt. So it'll build a little bit of muscle. It becomes efficient at doing those same exercises, that same weight relatively quick, and then now nothing else happens again.
Eddie [00:18:19] Which is why in resistance training we always try to progressively overload, which is a fancy way of saying doing just a little bit more every week.
Juna [00:18:28] Of course, the most obvious way to do this is just to add more weight to your exercises.
Adam Schaefer [00:18:33] So if you got good at lifting, let's say curling 10 lb dumbbells, you've now done that for three weeks. You've built a little bit of muscle. It's time to progress again because you've already it's been about three weeks. You've gotten really efficient at that. You've added some muscle. The body's not going to just keep adding more muscle because it doesn't need any more. So one way would be to go to 15lb dumbbells.
Juna [00:18:55] But here's a PSA for my fellow gym rats that is not, in fact, the only way to do progressive overload.
Adam Schaefer [00:19:01] Another way would be to slow down the tempo or to do an asymmetrical where you hold the weight for a few seconds and then you continue the repetitions. Another way would be to add repetitions. You were doing, let's say, ten reps of those curls. Now you're doing 12 reps of those curls. So there's different ways to stimulate the body to get it to continue to grow.
Eddie [00:19:22] In other words, you want to show your body a new stimulus. Let it get good at that new thing, whatever it is, that new exercise, that new weight, and then progress further.
Adam Schaefer [00:19:33] What I want my clients to understand is that I want you to follow a routine, whether that's one that you wrote yourself or you bought or you're focusing on for a solid 3 to 5 weeks being consistent. And while you're doing that, we're trying to get stronger. So if you feel stronger, add some weight along the way. While we're doing that, once you get to that 3 to 5 week mark, now it's time to change things up.
Eddie [00:19:55] And here's one of the things I love most about strength training. It does not take nearly as much work to maintain muscle mass as it does to build it.
Adam Schaefer [00:20:03] It takes one seventh the amount of volume to maintain the muscles, what it takes to build.
Eddie [00:20:08] Juna, can you explain volume?
Juna [00:20:10] So volume is basically your reps, times your sets, times your weight. So it's the overall work that you're doing in the gym. So the fact that you only have to do one seventh of the work to maintain whatever, you build a bar against.
Eddie [00:20:24] A bargain.
Juna [00:20:24] Right? It's like, it's amazing. Like you do all this work in the beginning and then you barely have to do anything to keep all the awesome stuff you built.
Adam Schaefer [00:20:32] Getting there is a challenge when you're trying to build that much muscle, but when you've put it on consistently, maintaining it is a lot easier, which is the opposite of what happens when you're trying to lose body fat all the time and you're using it through a mechanism like cardio, and then you go back. When you do your weight gain, you just it gets harder and harder and harder for the rest of your life. Whereas if you learn to build muscle, it should get easier and easier your whole life.
Eddie [00:20:55] You can hear all about this in our episode about crash dieting called Is Your Body Working Against You? We'll link to it in our show notes and on our website at foodweneedtotalk.com
Juna [00:21:07] Eddie, it's time to finally talk about it.
Eddie [00:21:12] It's what it.
Juna [00:21:13] Well, I guess it's time to talk about cardio. Whew.
Eddie [00:21:19] Finally. I've been waiting all episodio guys.
Juna [00:21:22] Poor Eddie as that. Eddie, we're going to talk cardio today. So he ran here. So excited. And then it takes, like, 20 minutes, and then we finally get to it. But yes, cardio is actually good for you, and I think we have to actually talk about it. So we're going to talk about it right after this break.
Eddie [00:21:38] Don't run anywhere. We'll be right back.
Eddie [00:21:46] Food We Need to Talk is funded by a grant from the Ardmore Institute of Health, the home of Full Plate Living. Full Plate Living helps you add more whole plant based foods to meals you're already eating. These are foods you're already familiar with apples, beans, strawberries and avocados. It's a small step approach that can lead to big health outcomes. Full Plate Living includes weekly recipes and programs for weight loss, meal makeovers and better blood sugar management. Best of all, full plate living is a free service of the Ardmore Institute of Health. Sign up for free at fullplateliving.org.
Eddie [00:22:30] And we're back and we finally get to talk about running and biking.
Juna [00:22:35] So the reason why a lot of personal trainers like Adam and podcasts like ourselves, I think go very hard into this like pro resistance training kind of messaging is because I feel like cardio just has a really, really good PR team.
Eddie [00:22:52] What do you mean?
Juna [00:22:52] Well, I feel like everyone goes to cardio first. It's like the go to exercise choice whenever people are trying to lose weight or even like trying to get healthier. But with lifting weights, you're always having to convince people like, oh, my God, yeah, it's good for you. Like, you know, it helps all these things, and especially for people losing weight, it might actually be better for them to, like, really focus on lifting weights, but it's so hard to convince people.
Eddie [00:23:16] Okay, I'm with you. People's go to is definitely cardio, but that doesn't mean it's all bad. In fact, I dare say it's really good.
Juna [00:23:24] Okay. Yes, I will admit, I think cardio is actually really good, especially if we're talking about health and longevity. It's really good to keep your heart and your lungs healthy.
Eddie [00:23:33] It's better for your overall health, everything from your heart to your sexual functioning to your skin. And here are some reasons it's good for you.
Juna [00:23:42] Okay. What are the reasons?
Eddie [00:23:42] So patient walks in my office, it's much easier to get them started on some cardio or just, like, movement. They walked in, I tell them, walk out. When you're done. Keep on walking, maybe walk a little faster. You know, if you do that enough, you will live longer with less chronic diseases.
Juna [00:24:01] Right, So it's like lower barrier to entry.
Eddie [00:24:02] My God, they walked in. Then they're going to walk out. There's not much of a barrier there. And that's why over half of the US population meets the guidelines. That's 150 minutes per week. Okay. Moderate intensity, physical activity. And that means a brisk walk. Mm hmm. But only 23% of the population gets their resistance training at least twice per week. And you know, it often it's going to take a little bit more training, like your mother and father may have helped you learn to walk, but they didn't teach you how to lift weights, most likely.
Juna [00:24:32] No, they did not, I can attest.
Eddie [00:24:34] So you're going to have to find a physical therapist, a certified strength and conditioning specialist or well qualified personal trainer to get going.
Juna [00:24:42] Okay. Yes, I love going to the gym. But I have to say, guys, my lack of doing any cardio, it was holding me back at one point because I was like, I'm getting out of breath, like doing squats. Like, this is not the point of the squats. So I was like, okay, I need to do more cardio because I want to be more physically capable to do the things I want to do in the gym, you know what I mean, so like, I use it to help me out with the things I want to do.
Eddie [00:25:06] And any movement counts, even walking to the gym, Juna, you get credit for that.
Juna [00:25:11] Oh, I do a lot of walking. I just don't like the running, you know, I'm saying. But like, you know, the walking I can handle guys. I love the walking. So, Eddie, I guess a question for you as a doctor and cardio expert is why is cardio so effective at treating and even preventing chronic diseases?
Eddie [00:25:28] So I think it comes down to the idea that our bodies and our physiology is actually designed over thousands of generations to keep us moving. We learned how to hunt, gather, to survive. Food was always scarce and physical activity was endless. The chronic diseases that we now see, including diabetes, heart disease and many cancers are associated with the inactivity of just the last handful of generations.
Juna [00:25:54] And the best news for those of us that hate running and aren't Marathon runners like Eddie Champion marathon runners, might add, is that cardio does not just mean running.
Adam Schaefer [00:26:04] One of the reasons why running on flat ground is not a recommendation for me is because the impact on most people's joints is just too much and most people run like crap. Bottom line most people think about running as pushing yourself through exhaustion, and their biomechanics when they do it are terrible and all they're doing is exacerbating all these problems that they have in their kinetic chain. So their feet pronate, which is causing knee pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, and then they go run. It is just making all that stuff worse. So I would prefer like an elliptical or swimming or power walking up a hill. That's less impact, going to be easier on the joints and it's something they could probably do for a very long time in their life.
Eddie [00:26:47] Let me just push back a little bit here and say that we can learn how to run and how to reduce our biomechanical stresses. But from your body's perspective, for the most part, as long as you are moving, you are getting the benefits. Your body doesn't know whether you are on a machine, whether you're hiking in the woods or whether you're running.
Juna [00:27:06] True. And the best advice I got from Adam is that cardio should be shocker. Something you actually love to do.
Adam Schaefer [00:27:15] I have a sister who loves to paddleboard. There's her cardio. I have a brother in law who loves to do mountain biking. So that's that's his cardio right there. Like, I love basketball. Basketball's a great source of cardio. So I think the best source of cardio is finding something that you're passionate about and that you love to do. And that can be anything that can be kickboxing, that can be all those swimming. If you're doing it for longevity, you're doing it for health, you're most likely going to be consistent with it if you do something that aligns with something you love to do.
Eddie [00:27:44] Again, this is something we come back to over and over again. You are not going to be able to do something you hate for your entire life or even for just a few weeks.
Juna [00:27:54] Not even for a few weeks.
Eddie [00:27:55] If you really don't like running, how are you going to run a few times a week forever? You're just not going to do it.
Juna [00:28:01] I mean, this is making a lot more sense because like, I love gymnastics and I'm huffing and puffing the whole time. Like, Oh, because you're jumping everywhere, you know, it's like it's very strenuous. But I never think of it in my mind as cardio because, like, it's so fun. I love it so much, you know?
Eddie [00:28:15] So you are saying you like cardio.
Juna [00:28:18] It's how dare you? How dare you suggest such a thing? I'm just kidding. Yes, I guess I like cardio if it's fun, but if it's boring, I don't like cardi-no. But if it's fun.
Eddie [00:28:28] Then cardi-no becomes.
Juna [00:28:29] Cardi-yes.
Eddie [00:28:31] Cardio, cardio, yes.
Eddie [00:28:33] Okay. Okay. It has to be fun. But when it comes to cardio and strength training, our conclusion is it has to be both.
Adam Schaefer [00:28:41] If your goal is longevity, then I highly recommend having a blend of cardio and strength training and the ratio looks three days of full body strength training and probably three days of about a half hour to an hour tops of cardio for general overall health. I think that's a great prescription for the average person.
Juna [00:29:01] Now, I know a lot of the people listening have this question because you guys have sent in this question to me. And if you have to do cardio and lifting on the same days, how do you choose when to do them? Like what order do you put them in? And the answer is. It depends on what your priority is.
Adam Schaefer [00:29:20] Whatever you do first in the gym, your body's going to get best at. So if you are an endurance athlete and you want to strength train also, I'm going to tell you to do your endurance training first because that's a priority for your sport, right? Let's say you're a Spartan racer, obstacle course person or a marathon runner or something like that. But you also recognize that strength training is good for those people, too. You're going to do your endurance training first. You're going to do your strength training last. Now, let's say you're somebody who is trying to build or sculpt the body. Right? I want to build my butt. I want to build abs, want to build shoulders, arms. I'm trying to change my body composition. I want you to lift weights first. That's where the priority is. And then if and when we're going to do cardio, it's going to be after the weight training.
Juna [00:30:02] So, Eddie, what I gather from this conversation is whatever you're not doing is the thing you should probably be doing. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think I could do a little more cardio.
Eddie [00:30:12] If you really don't like doing cardio, maybe you should try finding a fun way to do it. Like what Juna's been doing, right? Or if you're really into running, maybe you should also find a way to do some more resistance training.
Juna [00:30:24] So overall, as we always say, it's all about balance. Is that is that.
Eddie [00:30:29] There there is an idea for another episode.
Juna [00:30:31] So balance training, balance training on the stability ball. Maybe you should post a video of Addy on her Instagram doing a single leg squat on a bocce ball and then just getting guys. I don't know if you can do that. Can you do that?
Eddie [00:30:44] You can, with a little bit of work.
Eddie [00:30:46] Okay. You can find all our show notes on our website, food. We need to talk e-comm. You can find links to mind pump on our website. You can also find mine on any podcast platform and find some really well programed exercise programs on their website mindpumpmedia.com. That is where I get all my exercise programs. Obviously not sponsored, just my personal endorsement. You can find Eddie recovering from his marathon. You can find me signing up for a marathon. I'm just kidding. You can find me @theofficialjuna on Instagram and Juna Gjata on YouTube and Tik Tok and you can find videos of me and Eddie together at our podcast. Instagram @foodweneedtotalk. Food We Need to Talk is a production of PRX.
Eddie [00:31:34] Our producers are Morgan Flannery and Rebecca Seidel.
Juna [00:31:38] Tommy Bazarian is our mix engineer with production assistance from Isabel Kirby McGowan.
Eddie [00:31:42] Jocelyn Gonzales is executive producer for PR X Productions.
Juna [00:31:47] Food We Need to Talk was co-created by Carrie Goldberg, George Hicks, Eddie Phillips and me.
Eddie [00:31:53] And remember, for your personal health questions, consult with your personal health professional.
Juna [00:31:58] Thanks for listening. By myself.
