Why Do Cardio?

at 7:25 AM

Over the past 4 decades, numerous studies have looked at the relationships between physical activity, fitness and cardiovascular health.  These studies have been done in prestigious academic institutions and supported by the CDC and the American Heart Association.  The prevailing view in these reports is that more active or fit individuals tend o develop less heart disease than their sedentary counterparts.  In addition, active, fit individuals also have lower chances of having diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis just to name a few.

Despite all this evidence, the vast majority of adults in the United States are sedentary.  There are 5 major risk factors for cardiovascular disease:

1. Sedentary lifestyle
2. High blood pressure
3. Abnormal levels for blood lipids (i.e. cholesterol)
4. Smoking
5. Obesity

Here are some of the benefits of cardiovascular exercise and for the most sedentary any kind of movement during the day.  Obviously exercise promotes weight reduction and can help reduce hypertension.  Exercise can also reduce the bad cholesterol (LDL) in the blood as well as raise the good cholesterol (HDL).  In diabetic patients, exercise seems to affect the body's ability to utilize insulin more efficiently.

But as I have said before, and at the risk of being redundant, will say again, you can exercise all you want... if your nutrition is uncontrolled, i.e. too much food, too much sugar, too much fat, then you will reach a plateau very quickly because exercise can only do so much.  I always say, ' if you are working out an hour every day, the other 23 hours are just as important and you can't celebrate the end of your workout by stopping by Shipley's' (a very obvious example).