2957: Cardio Rebranded | Why Every New Fitness Trend Is Just the Same Old Cardio

11:04Adam Schafer:You actually don't need that at all. The average person would get phenomenal results with just the strength training or less strength training and then add the Pilates. Here's the deal. Here's the benefits of doing things like Pilates. Physiologically, you might get some stability benefits. It's not really great at much else. If you like the social component, you like going because your friends go. Community aspect. That is a great value. It really is. Going because you enjoy it and there's friends, it's totally great. Does it develop a body like most people want? No, it doesn't. There's nothing special about it.

11:40Adam Schafer:It's actually less effective, far less effective than other forms of exercise for changing how your body looks.

11:44Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, yeah. Next one is Doug's favorite to do right here. The fart walk. Yeah. He's big on that one.

11:48Adam Schafer:I'm guessing it's the fart walk because it helps digestion.

11:51Sal Di Stefano:Yeah. Because you're walking.

11:52Adam Schafer:This one right after lunch. It's supposed to be 10 to 15 minutes.

11:54Sal Di Stefano:We talk about this. We've been talking about this for a long time. We didn't call it the fart walk. To me, it doesn't sound very inviting or intriguing or interesting to do. Try to tell your friend to come. But we've been talking about a 10-minute walk post-meal, I think, is a great idea.

12:10Adam Schafer:So it is great for digestion. It's good for insulin sensitivity or blood sugar levels. It's really good for that. But here's the real benefit of walking post meals is you're doing what's called habit stacking. So behaviorally speaking, when you connect something to something that you're already doing, you're more likely to do it. In other words, if I say I'm going to walk 30 minutes a day, I'm less likely to be consistent than if I say I'm going to walk 10 minutes after breakfast, lunch, and dinner because I've attached it to the things that I already do. So that's why I recommend.

12:37Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I think there's other things too that I'm a really big fan of that. Typically, we are having meals with some companionship, whether it be us four at work just had a meal and then we go for a walk together. So an opportunity for phone-less conversation and dialogue. My wife and I do it post-meal. So it's a time for her and I to connect. And so I think there's a lot of benefits there. I mean, the habit stacking is a good reason why you'll be consistent with it. But then I think you can pair it with other things that I think are health related with conversation and relationship. So this is one of my favorite of all the ones that we're talking about right now.

13:14Sal Di Stefano:And I think when we talk about consistency, I mean, that is the most important thing is like all these are creative and trendy and gone viral on TikTok. But the real thing is, which one of these will you implement into your life and keep forever? This is the most likely. The heart walk's always best outside.

13:30Adam Schafer:That's right. Retro walking. So that's walking backwards. for trying to help.

13:36Sal Di Stefano:I mean, it's good for you to do that, but also dangerous. I mean, I'm trying to think of all the clients I've trained

13:42Adam Schafer:and how many of them I feel confident with them going on a 15-minute backwards walk. Not very many. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I don't know too many people who want to do that, but what is this selling point? It flips the heel-to-toe pattern? I suppose, yeah. I mean, if you're dragging a sled backwards, you're going to get a similar component. But yeah, I mean, then you have load to consider, which too kind of helps.

14:05Sal Di Stefano:Oh, the idea is it burns more calories too. Moving in reverse requires shorter, more frequent strides. This biomechanically shift utilizes up to 40 % more energy.

14:15Adam Schafer:You walk faster if you're trying to burn more. But yeah, you might injure yourself because you're not seeing what's coming.

14:20Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, probably my least, maybe the least favorite here.

14:22Adam Schafer:Yep, 100 % least favorite for me.

14:24Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I'd say this one and the 666 walking because I think that's just -

14:27Adam Schafer:It's just random stuff that they slap together.

14:30Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I like the - I like the J-Incline walking. I mean, that's my favorite.

14:33Adam Schafer:But see, they didn't brand it. They'd have to call it something weird. Yeah, fair. Yeah, so. All right. All right. Then we have - Ramp walking. Yeah, and you know, here's the deal. Let's talk a little bit about Zone 2 and how everybody talks about Zone 2 cardio, what it does, what it doesn't do. So I recently read a post on Zone 2 cardio. So Zone 2 is kind of this moderate intensity of cardio, right? It's what you would consider the traditional cardio. Like I'm on an elliptical. I'm riding a bike. I'm not like going super hard. I'm also not going super, super slow. Yeah. Just in between. And I read this.

15:11Adam Schafer:It's like they totally rehashed old studies. And we used to cover this back in the day. This used to be the fat burning zone. That's right. That's what someone brought up. That the percentage of energy you burn from fatty acid utilization or from fat burning is higher in zone two than other forms of cardio. This is true. If you burn 100 calories in zone two, more of it will come from fat than if you burned 100 calories at a very high intensity. But here's the difference. High intensity burns so much more calories that you still burn more body fat. That's what they don't account for that.

15:44Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, but isn't there a higher risk factor for somebody who is in a caloric deficit on a higher intensity cardio than zone two? Oh, I don't mind. because to me yeah to me that's the the most i think we can get in the weeds with the percentage of of body fat being utilized at zone two versus high intensity when the big thing that people need to understand is that when you're in a caloric deficit and then you push the body really hard you that you're you're sending a loud signal the body that it needs to get good at endurance and stamina. Having muscle is not advantageous. And so the likelihood that you could potentially lose muscle mass because of that is greater than if you were to be in a caloric deficit and choose, say, walking or zone two type of cardio.

16:31Adam Schafer:Correct. The other part is the stress factor. So when someone's in a caloric deficit, their ability to handle and adapt to stress exercise is lower. You just have less nutrients, right? So higher impact. Yeah. So when I'm working with a client and I'm managing their stress because they're in a caloric deficit and the stress that I manage with them is exercise, right? How intense it is, how much we do. I want the stress to be relegated to the effective form of exercise, which is strength training. So I don't want to take away from that by also having them do intense cardio. Now, if I'm training an athlete, that's different because we need that endurance and stamina.

17:04Adam Schafer:But if I'm training the average person who's like, look, I want to get lean. I want to look good. I'm in a caloric deficit. I'm not going to slap more stress on their body in the form of hard cardio. If I'm going to add stress anywhere, it's going to be strength training. Yeah, because it takes away from the strength training. That's 100%. That's correct. Then we have rucking, which is, this is hiking with a heavy backpack. Yeah, unless, like, again, this is where it's like if your job requires this, right, or like you're in the military or you're a firefighter or whatever, right? But other than that, I think people are doing this out of the thought process they're going to burn more calories.

17:42That's right. Which, in fact, this creates a different type of movement pattern, which now I'm not a fan of this because of that.

17:48Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, no. Well, this whole category that we're going over, this is the part where I think people have really been fooled, is all of these things that you're about to list and go over have been marketed to people as a great way to get in good aesthetic shape. That's right. and it and it's just none of them are a great strategy for that and it's not the proper tool for what most people are utilizing if you're getting ready to go train for uh hiking and going somewhere backpacking uh rucking absolutely perfect sense makes total sense or maybe you're a firefighter and you need to carry gear and you need to train to be able to carry a 50 pound or military and you got to do so that makes total in fact this is where this has been adopted from is military training and getting these soldiers ready to be able to carry these heavy bags on there.

18:39Sal Di Stefano:And so there's this idea that these soldiers are badass and they're in shape and therefore me doing this, this is a great way for me to get in shape. And it's just, it's not the most ideal tool at all for somebody who is, that is desiring a fit, strong physique to get in shape. And so it's just an extreme version of the weighted vest that we used to see.

18:58Adam Schafer:In other words, in short, if you want to work out to look really good and look your best, there's far more effective ways to exercise. If you want to get really good at hiking with a backpack, rucking is great. But it is not the other one. It's not the other one. Next, we have High Rocks, which, by the way, High Rocks has been in the news a little lately. Wasn't there a competition where some girl pooped herself? She did. Yeah, and it's, again, ultra marathon runners, and this is very common in that kind of setting. But, yeah, because she won and just kept carrying on. How bad do you want to win is what I got.

19:30Adam Schafer:Yeah, that's it. Something like that. That's it. High rocks, when I see high rocks, I think it was an answer to CrossFit. CrossFit light. Yeah, so it's like CrossFit with less injury potential. You saw a lot of that community move over there.

19:41Sal Di Stefano:Also another great modality for stamina endurance, if that is your main goal. Again, like CrossFit, it's been branded in a way where people are utilizing it to get in shape, to look better. and it's just not a good strategy for that. If you want great endurance and that's the main focus and or you love the fun competition and sport of it, nothing wrong with it.

20:07Adam Schafer:Here's why you should do high rocks. If you love, you should do high rocks if you love high rocks, if you love competing in high rocks. It's fun for you. You enjoy it. This is a sport that you love. Then go train high rocks. If you want to exercise to look a particular way and you don't want to waste time, in other words, you want an effective, efficient way of exercise to accomplish a body composition goal, then high rocks is not the best way to exercise. Nope. It is a sport. So if you want to compete in the sport, then you have to train in that sport. But if you want, and here's, now here's the challenge.

20:39Adam Schafer:People will look at top athletes from sports and say, I want to look like that athlete. Therefore, I'm going to train the way that athlete does. What you need to understand at the top level of all sports, what you have, what you have are polymorphisms that fit well with that sport. So what you're going to have are people that tend to hold more muscle anyway, that tend to perform well and tend to be built to do well at that sport. So my best example is swimming. Top, top level swimmers have really long torsos and really short legs and really long arms. Swimming all the time is not going to make your torso longer, your legs shorter, and your arms longer.

21:12Adam Schafer:It doesn't work that way. It's just they were built to swim, plus they trained to swim. Yeah. And there you go. Now they're the best. But High Rocks isn't going to get you in the best looking shape, but High Rocks training will get you good at High Rocks. Right. Essentially. Right, right. Orange theory. This one Adam has experience in.

21:26Sal Di Stefano:Yeah, I think orange theory, F45, they fall in the same category right here, which is these circuit-based weight training programs where we throw weights in there, and so people believe that they're strength training and they're building muscle.

21:42Adam Schafer:It's just different forms of cardio.

21:43Sal Di Stefano:Especially orange theory because orange theory threw a competitive element in there where they encourage people to chase the zones, and anybody that's ever taken that class is familiar with this where you're trying to get all these points by being in the higher zones, which is higher heart rate. And so it encourages you to do the weights with low rest periods so you keep your heart rate elevated so you score more points. That's right. And so I remember coaching and trying to get the class to stop and rest and it was so hard, especially in a class setting. It's hard to do that one-on-one. It's even harder to do that in a class setting to get people to adhere to the rest periods because they want to see, they had their huge TV with their name on it, with their heart rate, and they're getting their points, and I get more points, I keep my heart rate up.

22:31Sal Di Stefano:And so, yeah, it encourages them to do that. Now, in theory, no pun intended, the idea of the modality was that you'd have a form of cardio, and then you'd go over and you do traditional strength training. It just doesn't happen that way. It's not traditional strength training. No, it moves them in this round robin, circuit where they go from the treadmill to the circuit training, to the rower, to the treadmill, to the circuit for an entire hour with no stopping, no real rest.

22:57Adam Schafer:And that's just cardio with weights. That's it. Here's the benefit to, in my opinion, for Orange Theory and F45. If you really love the community, you're with your friends, you don't really care about whether or not you're working on the most effective way for aesthetic changes or other goals. You're just like, I just like to go and hang out with my friends and do this thing. You better be happy with,

23:14Sal Di Stefano:you better be happy with the way you look at already is what I would say, because I can't tell you how many people come up to me after those classes and would be asking questions about losing a certain amount of body fat or wanting to change the way they look. And I'd be like, this is not the way to do it. This is not the best way or approach to do it. Now, if you're already in great shape or very happy with the aesthetic shape you're in, because it will give you great endurance and stamina, and it has a great community built into it. And so if you love the camaraderie, you love the shape you're in from it, then by all means keep doing it but what i found was a majority of people wanted more wanted something else or the other flip that i see with classes like f45 and orange theory is because it's this uh you know repetitive movements a lot of uh joint and uh joint pain and issues so of course you got to watch for that because you're doing these repetitive high intensity type movements over and over and over multiple times a week and you're not doing the proper reinforcement and mobility and working in different planes.

24:16Sal Di Stefano:And so even though they try and challenge you with different movements, exercises in the, in the weight training portion of this, it's not enough to address all the aches and pains that people are getting.

24:25Adam Schafer:Uh, the next one they have is the hot girl walk. By the way, that is great branding. That is really great branding. Like I'm going to go do the hot girl walk. So here's what it was. It was your dude. It's an outdoor walk for four miles while focusing on gratitude, your goals and how you're going to pursue them. I mean,

24:43Sal Di Stefano:like this i feel like this falls more though in the last category yeah it does because this is more like this is walking yeah yeah i wouldn't put this in zone two uh type of no this isn't just more movement and yeah yeah this is more walking rebranded um the this category that we just did right now i felt like is more like cardio rebranded you know orange teary f45s high rocks is rebranded as this great fitness tool or way to work out or build muscle when in reality it's just cardio rebranded. Yeah.

25:14Adam Schafer:And I like gratitude practices. I think it's great to do while you're exercising, while you're walking. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not this phenomenal way of working out. But walking, I'm a big fan of walking because everybody could do it. It doesn't stress the body much. It's an easy form of activity to add to other more intense, stressful forms of exercise. So I'm a big fan. I like gratitude. The branding is hilarious to me. I think it's great. So by the way, they have hot girl walk, like meetups. Like meetups. Nice. Did you see that? Did you see it? Justin should try and show up one.

25:45Adam Schafer:I mean, I tried to sneak in one.

25:47Sal Di Stefano:Oh, my God. They're really marketed like that.

25:49Adam Schafer:There's a bunch of them, which is kind of cool. Is there any local over here? Boy, it would be organizing a bunch of dudes like that is so hard. I know. We don't organize easily.

25:58Sal Di Stefano:No. If I was a single dude, I'd be like showing up. Yeah. If we labeled it the hot guy. Conveniently showing up. This is where I'm walking. It's crazy. Can you have one, like a group of guys just giving them water? Yeah. Over the side. Yeah. Showing up. Go hot girls. No. Are there, where are all these at, Doug? Let's see here. They're all over the country, it appears. I mean, how do you say, how do you know? Oh, here I see. Okay, here we go. Nashville, there's Nashville. We should sponsor them. Stop, bro.

26:24Adam Schafer:Is this, it looks like it's branded. You know, I got to tell you guys, Dallas. Little side note, I love events like that. I really do. Now, I know most of them are marathons and I have my issues with marathon training and all that stuff. But I got to tell you, I've trained clients for marathons and for events like this. And the camaraderie, the community, the atmosphere is phenomenal. It's great. It really is, especially when it's for a cause. You know, you see people running or doing whatever. They're all trying to improve themselves. And they connect with other people real easily through these events.

26:57So it's good.

26:58Sal Di Stefano:I love it. This is interesting. It's like it's done all over the country on the same day. Oh, so every, wow. Is there like a virtual component to it before they go on their walk or something? That's interesting. I'm super fascinated by this. We need a hot dude walk.

27:14Adam Schafer:The thing about walking is, and we've all heard the 10 ,000 steps a day, like aim for that. The data actually shows it's closer to 7 ,000 to 8 ,000. So this is where you get the maximum benefits of activity. And it's not that walking is necessarily this magical form of exercise. I think it's just in comparison to the average person that takes so little steps. that being that just moving, right? Not moving is so bad for you that, that, you know, walking, which is a really easy form of activity has all these health benefits, mainly because it's not, not moving, but the data shows 8 ,000 steps is where you get about a majority of the benefits, a little bit more benefits as you go up, but the majority is in that 8 ,000.

27:53Adam Schafer:So aim for that.

27:54Sal Di Stefano:I, I personally think I think I know why that is, why is this like, you know, number seven or eight. that's right about where the difference between like a really active day for me or a not like so yeah you've tracked yeah so i've tracked four right so i've tracked a lot and i'm tracking a lot right now too because i'm trying to increase my steps and uh i actually have to like i have to get on the treadmill and and at least walk for you know a good solid 30 minutes or so to get to 10 ,000. But if I just have a really active day, I'll land between 7 ,000 and 8 ,000. That's just being active. Moving around, doing house chores.

28:34Sal Di Stefano:Not laying around all day. Versus a day where I just get in my car, come here, sit in here, drive home, and that could easily be a 3 ,000. And so there's this clear difference to me. It's active versus not active. I think most people have kind of a sedentary job, and so us now sitting, and I think that nails it on 7 ,000 to 8. Because I couldn't relate to that. Oh yeah. When I was a trainer, it was like, Oh, 10 ,000 was an accident.

28:57Adam Schafer:Yeah.

28:57Sal Di Stefano:On accident, you hit 10, 15 ,000 steps with clients. And so I could never relate to the average person or job with the step thing where now I feel like I can, I could easily have a day where I do 2 ,500, 3 ,000 steps. If I just go from car to thing to like, that's it. So like for me, I can see the difference on like a seven, 8 ,000 day. It's just a relatively active day for me versus a day where I'm really sitting.

29:20Adam Schafer:I think the, the, the, the, the good formula, right? The winning formula with cardio is this. There's two ways to look at cardio. One is for some kind of a performance goal. So I want to build endurance. I want to build stamina. There's that aspect of cardio. And then the other one is just to be more active. Being more active is very good for your health. Endurance goals are also good for your health, but it's more specific. It's performance. Just being more active is very easy with cardio to add to other forms of exercise. So for example, if I want body composition change, if my main goal is I want to look more sculpted, have better shape to my body, the form of exercise I'm going to pour my resources into or my time into, the one that I'm going to use my stress bucket up on is strength training.

30:07Adam Schafer:Because strength training, I could target shape and build. I could boost my metabolism. It's super effective, of course, at keeping muscle and a calorie deficit. Keeps you the most resilient. Calculate, burn body fat. And so just being more active can be added to that without compromising things like recovery or muscle or aesthetics. So that's just steps, right? That's just steps. Now, on the other hand, if it's endurance that you want, well, now you're playing a game of, okay, how do I balance out my strength training with my endurance training? And I got to make sure I balance it out so I get a little bit of both.

30:35Adam Schafer:I don't get a lot of either, but I get a little bit of both. And that's kind of how you would work that out.

30:39Sal Di Stefano:Well, would you agree too that there's different ways that you fuel for those two different things too?

30:45Adam Schafer:Oh, you better eat for performance if that's what you're training for. Right.

30:48Sal Di Stefano:If your goal is stamina. You ain't eating a deficit. In endurance. Like you want to eat at maintenance or surplus and fuel the body. My goal is fat loss and aesthetics than actually being in a caloric deficit. And this is why what type of movement or cardio starts to matter is because if I'm already putting myself in a caloric deficit, I'm already kind of maintaining in that fat burning zone. I don't have to push or stress the body that hard just to continue to increase that versus if I'm fed, totally different story.

31:20Adam Schafer:100%. And here's the other thing too. The one you enjoy is the one that you're going to do the most, which is always going to be the most effective. Okay. Period. End of story. Like the workout that you do, so long as it's appropriate, of course, we got to paint that context, but the one that you enjoy is the one you're going to do. I don't care how great your workout is. If you don't do it, it does nothing for you. So pick the cardio and the strength training routine that is the one that you enjoy, because that's going to be the one that you're going to be doing most consistently. So here's what we have.

31:48Adam Schafer:We have a guide. It's called Three Mistakes People Make with HIIT Programs. And it kind of shows you how to use HIIT cardio, high-intensity interval training, in the way that makes it most effective. It's at mindpumpfree.com, and you can click on it. It's Three Mistakes with HIIT Programs, and it's totally free. So you can download that right now. You can also find us on Instagram. It's mindpumpmedia. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com.

32:24The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family.

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