Importance of Physical Variability in Cardio Exercises

Before you just give in to this popular belief that doing endless hours of boring cardio exercise is best for your weight loss, consider some recent scientific research that indicates that steady pace endurance cardio work may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Our bodies are designed to perform physical activity in bursts of exertion followed by recovery, or stop-and-go movement instead of steady movement. Research suggests that physical variability is one of the most important aspects in fitness training.

Another factor to keep in mind regarding the benefits of physical variability is the internal effect of various forms of exercise on our body. Scientists have known that excessive steady state endurance exercise (different for everyone) increases free radical production in the body, can degenerate joints, reduces immune function, causes muscle wasting, and can cause a pro-inflammatory response in the body that can potentially lead to chronic diseases.

Highly variable cyclic training has been linked to increased anti-oxidant production in the body, which can assist with weight loss. Additionally, steady state endurance training only trains the heart at one specific heart rate range and doesn't train it to respond to various every day stressors.

On the other hand, highly variable cyclic training teaches the heart to respond to and recover from a variety of demands making it less likely to fail when you need it. Think about it this way... exercise that trains your heart to rapidly increase and rapidly decrease will make your heart more capable of handling everyday stress.

Most competitive sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, racquetball, tennis, hockey, etc. are naturally comprised of highly variable stop-and-go motion which trains the heart through a higher range than just steady walking or jogging.

Doing swimming workouts in a variable intensity fashion may also be more beneficial than just swimming for a long duration at the same speed. Same goes for bicycling -- that is why mountain biking, which involves extreme ups and downs at various intensity levels may also be more beneficial than just a long flat steady pace bike ride.

One of the absolute most effective forms of variable intensity training to really reduce body fat and bring out serious muscular definition is performing wind sprints. Wind sprints can be done by sprinting at near max speed for 10-30 seconds, and then taking 60 seconds to walk for recovery before your next sprint. 6-12 total sprint intervals is usually a very challenging workout for most people. Weight training also incorporates short bursts of exertion followed by recovery periods.

Other great ways to incorporate variable intensity cardio training is using a jump rope, a rowing machine, or even outdoor hill running.

In conclusion, try to train your body at highly variable intensity rates for the majority of your workouts to get the most beneficial response in terms of a healthy heart, fat loss, and muscle toning.

- Robert D. Franklin,
Health Advisor and Health Specialist

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