Friday, December 07, 2007

No, it's Kardio, With a K

"Kardio"--defined as any non-quality, junk volume, cardio-respiratory training that involves machines including but not limited to: Stairmasters, Spin-Bikes, Ellipticals, and Recumbent Bikes. Kardio is usually an unconscious drive to burn more Kalories.


Ok Gang, here goes:


From time to time we hear athletes ask us if they should "do" some more "cardio".
After a little probing on our parts, we consistently discover that what they mean is "I'm worried that this Crossfit stuff doesn't burn enough calories". (Calories being the second part of the Trifecta of bad training jargon that makes our skin crawl. The third being "core". As in, "can I burn more Calories doing Cardio while working my Core?") What what is our answer? An analogy will serve us well here.

If we were building a fire that would "burn calories", traditional mono-structural, steady state, typical elliptical machine exercise is equivalent to the first piece of kindling on the fire. That is, it will not burn bright, or hot. Crossfit on the other hand is like big dry pieces of wood that will melt your coat and singe your eyebrows.

The key piece of information here is that there is not better way than Crossfit to:
1)Actually improve your "Cardio"-respiratory endurance. (no one has ever, ever thrown up on an elliptical machine)

2)Develop metabolically expensive muscle tissues (read, tissues that consume more calories by nature).


One of the most brilliant aspects of Crossfit programming and one that is not often discussed is the fact that you can Crossfit, and NOT have to consume a ton more calories. This phenomenon means that there is ultimately less oxidative load on the body AND the body will consume more calories at rest.

The Crux of the discussion is this:
Diet is the best Calorie control mechanism. NOT EXERCISE. When we hear, "Do I need more Cardio?" What we really think is, you don't, you just need to better monitor what you eat.

But what if I like Stairmastering, and Ellipticaling? Well, you should by all means do them and treat them like your sport. Crossfit will definitely get you in shape to be able to stairmaster like a world champion stairmasterer. But be very clear. If you intent is to burn more calories, I mean do some more cardio, you are ruining your fitness by destroying your hard earned, speed, power, strength, flexibility, VO2max, and god forbid...your work capacity. If you want to have a slower Fran time, you should do some more cardio. If you hate going so fast at Jackie, you should do more Kardio.

But, if your sport IS actually running, AND you use Crossfit to get in shape for it. You should run. And run hard.

Just don't kid yourselves.

The upshot is this: Watch what you eat and Crossfit 4-6 times a week. You will look sexy naked. You will become an athletic monster. Never again will you consider needing to do more junk Kardio.



Coach K

17 comments:

Molly Petersen Nardone said...

awesome

Anonymous said...

Soo... you're saying I should use the treadmill, instead of the eliptical?

Kevin Steinmuller said...

well done, Coach K. very well done.

Anonymous said...

How about some nutrition info...supplements, creatine, protein bars, whey protein, recipes that you guys follow by :)

Anonymous said...

I don't know if this falls under cardio or weights, but the put this crap in my gym.

http://www.technogymusa.com/_vti_g7_kinHome.asp?rpstry=11724_

If anybody likes track workouts, let me know.

Matt

Anonymous said...

I HATE those things, Matt. I don't care how effective they may or may not be. All I can think of when I see them is the futility of the human race...a nice, shiny, sterilized, flawless version of the future where everyone drinks their soy-(lent green) milk and listens to new age music at an appropriate level. Maybe I'm reading into it too much....bummer you have to see it at your gym.

Stay Human,
-Boz

Desiree said...

It's interesting, though, that on CrossFit Journal this month, running a 10k was justified. I personally hate running long distances and I wondered if it's because I'm not strong at it. I'm still fairly new at CrossFit and it would be interesting how I'd do at an impromptu 10k. What dya think, coaches?

Anonymous said...

So CF is the reason I look good naked. I thought it was my good genes and my George Hamilton tan.

Anonymous said...

Okay. But here's a question...if sometimes I feel a little too beat up to do cf more than 4 times a week but I want to get exercise 6 times a week, what should I do on the other 2 days if not something like spinning, treadmill etc.?

Shawn S. Sullivan said...

can i hear you brothers and sisters singing AMEN!! Stairmasters good for listening to iPods and watching a football game. looking forward to sucking some serious wind with my friends at 6am- ALL WEEK LONG.

Anonymous said...

Don't kid yourself Cunningham. ;)

Anonymous said...

This blog is the much-better worded, more knowledgeable version of what I tell people when trying to sell them Crossfit. Love it!

Melliefarrell said...

Soylent green is people!!!! :-D

Love this description and I must say, doing tabata sprints/stairmaster at the gym is awesome! Especially doing it with another person where each of you controls one machine's speed....ends up being a hard core speed competition with screaming and all.

Love it!

Anonymous said...

This is a brilliant article.... Excellent - but I think the typical kardio-rat will not likely change his/her diet & regime even after reading this. There's too much mental resistance - what if after I Crossfit, I lose all my existing 'cardio-fitness'?

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