Hmmm - Run Outside Or The Treadmill?

Posted on April 1, 2008 in Health and Fitness by admin

First let’s define what a cardio workout instills. Cardio is short for cardiovascular which in our reference is a means to exercise the cardiovascular system. How do we exercise our cardiovascular system and why would we want to do that in the first place ? We can exercise our cardiovascular system by performing an aerobic activity. People partake in various aerobic activity like biking, swimming, walking, dancing, running, and yes even sex counts (if it last long enough).

So I always hear the debate over and over again about running outside versus running inside on a treadmill. Which one is more effective at losing weight? Now let’s break it down. Running outside does take more effort on the muscles since one needs to propel the body against the ground. As opposed to the treadmill that decreases the effort by a moving surface. But wait a minute, there are no hills where I live so I can’t intensify the workout! We’ll heck most treadmills have the option of mocking the simulation of running up a hill. Hold on, running outside in the sun makes you sweat more therefore you’ll lose more water weight and end up weighing less. On the other hand if you’re watching your favorite show on the TV while on the treadmill, you won’t get bored and end up running for longer distances. Or what about all that air resistance while jogging on into the wind…and the list goes on.

Guess what? It doesn’t matter. Yes there are many pros and cons of both scenarios, but what matters is that you ARE IN AN AEROBIC STATE! While you are in this state, research concludes that yes obviously energy expenditure (calorie burning) occurs. Also you increase your maximal oxygen uptake as well as increase your respiratory capacity, lower blood lactate concentrations, increase mitochondrial and capillary densities, and improve enzyme activity! Wow, that’s a load of information, right? Let me make it simple, when you do your “cardio” your heart and vascular system improves and gets very efficient at bringing VITAL nutrients to all the cells in your body.

Now for a concern of losing fat, you can run as hard and long as you want and if your metabolism is at a snail’s pace, change will be very slow if not any. We have all seen it, members at a gym who run on that machine for hours at a time sweating bullets, year after year never losing an inch. Does it make them feel good, sure it does. Are they improving their cardiovascular system, of course. But why are they still not losing weight? Here’s why, they can’t grasp control of their metabolism. You not only need aerobic exercise but compliment it with resistance exercise along with proper nutrition.

Resistance training builds lean muscle. Without lean muscle you probably won’t be able to lose most of the fat you desire, but that’s another whole story by itself. Aerobic exercise ensures that your cardiovascular system is at it’s optimal which allows all those great nutrients that you ingest to be transported to the muscles cells for continued growth. And best yet there is a grey area in your heart zone while doing aerobic exercise (providing all the variables are in place) that allows you to burn more fat than usual. So choose your favorite cardio activity, have fun, and remember that any aerobic activity will do the job as well as the other.

Craig Canubida

www.releasethebody.com

Tags: aerobic, fat loss

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