Cardio vs Strength

I don't like lifting weights. In fact, I find the exercise strenuously boring. Lift till the muscles hurt, rest, and do it again. I'm told that after some time, unknown, the muscles not only adjust to the stress, but begin to enjoy and anticipate it.

I highly doubt that.

On the other hand, I was never a fan of endurance cardiovascular (a.k.a. cardio) exercise. It came to me unexpectedly in my university years. People who do cardio are different from people who do weights. Even those weight-lifting, super-muscled, gym rats are not capable of the type of cardio that requires a commitment to time.

Both cardio and strength training are necessary for total fitness. I could not find a definition of Total Fitness that I like, so I'm going to make one up.

Total Fitness is that state in which you are able to use your body fluidly and comfortably, to move around and do physical work.

Not a complete definition, but there are a few things stated that imply other things.

• Use your body = legs, arms, back and so on.
• Fluidly and comfortably = without aid and huffing and puffing.
• Physical work = walk, jog, lift, dig, pull - without huffing and puffing

... and for more than five minutes. Because anyone can work for five minutes and give up.

BORING

Yup, this is why most of us give up. We'd rather be sitting down (not being physical) eating a bag of chips and watching television.

It's much harder to walk outside and occupy yourself with your own thoughts. It's much harder to mow the lawn, water the plants, paint a room, than sit still.

Even though, also sitting still is hard to do. Our minds are too active to allow us just to sit there.

So exercise, and doing all these other ACTIVE things, is boring. And your brain is the driver of your activities, the thing that needs to be assuaged and placated and obeyed. And so when your brain is tired you are ordered to stop doing what you are doing.

To stop yourself from being bored, you need to divert the attention from your brain to your body. And you need to do this for long periods of time. During exercise, I listen to music. I have my earbuds on and I run to the beat of the music, so it's gotta be groovy. No slow grooves, but funky music.

HARD EFFORT vs LONG DURATION

So, sprint athletes have these fast twitch muscles that are strengthened using weights. Long distance athletes have more of the slow twitch muscle fibres. Fast twitch means that they contract quickly, but they also tire quickly. While slow twitch muscle fibres contract slowly, but they also take longer to tire.

I'm more of a slow twitch person, with tons of slow twitch muscle fibres that can take lower loads, but hold them for longer. Rather than high load within a shorter time. 

Because the loading of the muscles is slow and gradual, I can warm up and then stay in The Zone for a long period. I wonder if weight lifters have a Zone? Runners have a Zone. They also have something called a Runner's High. The Runner's High is that point in the run where your body switches to something that can only be described as auto-pilot. Effortless running that's supremely enjoyable.

The Runner's High may show up early in the run, somewhere in the middle, or near the end. Or it may not show up at all. But it's what keeps you getting up and going out again, and again, and again. It's like a drug, you look for it at every run. And once you've had a taste of the Runner's High, you'll want more.

DO CARDIO... AND A BIT OF RESISTANCE

Ultimately, there's no formula for fitness. But for those of us who would see gym memberships as a chore, as a taskmaster's forced diet - something you need to schedule and take it like nasty medicine, then finding an alternative, and enjoyable way to keep fit is a better option.

Running and long walks are perfect. Almost no stress and as your body gets fitter, it becomes easier to do. 

And you'll look forward to it.

You'll wake up anticipating those first steps.

And as your body slowly wakes up in the run, you'll search for The Zone.