For decades, most doctors recommended cardio over strength training because they believed it produced more health benefits, stressed the body less, and was more popular among the public.
We now know that strength training has multiple major advantages over cardio, and if you had to pick just one kind of exercise, it should be strength training.
That said, there are good reasons to include cardio in your exercise routine as well.
First, as the term implies, cardio boosts the health and function of your cardiovascular system. For instance, while cardio and strength training are about equally effective for reducing blood pressure, research shows that doing both reduces blood pressure the most.
Additionally, cardio—but not strength training—helps keep your arteries flexible and responsive to changes in blood flow. Hence, studies show that people who do the most cardio have the supplest arteries, which is crucial for maintaining healthy blood pressure levels and minimizing stress on your heart and blood vessels.
Another circulatory downside to aging is the reduction of the capillary health and density of your muscles and other tissues, and studies show that cardio can significantly increase capillary density (the number of capillaries in an area of the body) in muscle in just a few weeks.
Cardio also burns substantially more calories per unit of time than strength training does, which can help you lose fat faster and keep it off more effectively. And by combining strength training and cardio in the way I teach you in my new book Muscle for Life, you can maximize fat loss without hindering muscle or strength gain.
So, here’s the takeaway:
With moderate, sustainable, and effective doses of strength training and cardiovascular exercise, you can build a body that looks, feels, and functions like a well-oiled machine.
Cardio is easier to incorporate into your fitness regimen than you may think, too.
In Muscle for Life, I share three simple principles that allow you to enjoy most of the benefits cardio has to offer with none of the potential downsides.
P.S. To make sure you get the most value from Muscle for Life as possible, it comes with free resources to help you implement everything you’ll learn, including:
A savable, shareable, printable reference guide with all of this book’s key takeaways, checklists, and action items.
Links to demonstration videos on form for all Muscle for Life exercises.
An entire year’s worth of Muscle for Life workouts neatly laid out and provided in several formats, including PDF, Excel, and Google Sheets.
10 Muscle for Life meal plans for losing fat and gaining muscle without starving or depriving yourself.
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Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Puerto Rico, or Guam, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
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Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $299.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
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