We are Omnivores

“I want to do a little bit of everything and just really experience life.” 

Daniela Bobadilla

There is often a debate in the health and fitness world about which is better: cardiovascular (fitness) work or resistance (strength) training. And the debate often rages as tribalism comes into effect, with one side or the other being extremely vociferous, quoting studies that show their point of view is correct. To be fair, there are lots of studies which show both sides of the argument have their benefits, and those of you who have been reading this newsletter since its inception (a massive thank you by the way!) will know that exercise is beneficial and that doing what you like to do will be more beneficial than doing stuff you hate.

And last week’s edition of this newsletter talked about your body, and what an amazing piece of equipment it is; how it tries to be the best it can be despite what we throw at it day-in and day-out, and how by showing it some love it will start to repay us handsomely by doing even more of that.

So should we be focusing on cardiovascular fitness or strength?

As with anything in this industry the answer is far more nuanced than a binary response one way of the other.

As was stated above, there are lots of studies showing the benefits of both forms of training. On top of that there are some pretty big studies, in terms of cohort examined and the results they produced, that show just how beneficial both forms of exercise are to us as humans.

There have been a couple of major studies showing that having better cardiovascular fitness, in terms of how much oxygen your body can pull out of the atmosphere and utilise, will prolong your life and also your health so you can enjoy that life.

Similarly there are several studies that show having more lean muscle as you age will increase the likelihood of living longer and also being able to function well while you enjoy your old age.

All of these studies combine to give a big picture approach to how we can approach exercise to improve our lifespan and healthspan. Similar to how we, as humans, are adapted to eat many different things and be the omnivores we have become, we need to look at improving our cardiovascular fitness and our strength.

We need both.

It is as simple as that. 

And once again we can turn to science to find the rationale behind that statement. Stanford University has found, through numerous randomised clinical trials, that exercise-based interventions, of both fitness and strength training, performed as well as or better than multiple cases of pharmaceutical drugs at reducing mortality from coronary heart disease, prediabetes or diabetes and stroke. It can also be used in the battle against Alzheimer’s and a plethora of other diseases, metabolic or otherwise.

There are many underlying reasons for this, including improving the health of our cells, which allows us to process glucose and fat efficiently, which in turn makes us stronger and protects the body as it strengthens our immune system. In fact, the list goes on and on, meaning that our bodies can perform far better for longer: allowing us to, as the quote at the top of this page says, really experience life.

So if you’d like to experience some of the benefits of strength and fitness training, and you are not already working with me, click the gold button below to get a Zoom call in the diary.