How important is cardio?

[bettingman11]

If I only lifted and ate well and did zero cardio would I be healthy? How important is cardio?

 

[EZ_E]

Yes, but there is no cookie cutter answer. It's all dependent on the goals.

 

[SteveMobsterG]

Compared to someone who did neither you'd be better. But ideally you do some of both to be a LOT better

 

[stevesmi]

here is my stance on these things and it is backed by actual human studies and history. anyone who wants to argue this with me can take a look at the best distance swimmers in history (i'm not talking about the jagoffs who swim 3 laps in a fucking pool), they all were 20%+ body fat and they do more cardio in 1 swim across the ocean then most do in 5 years. the dude who swam from LA to catalina island was 22% body fat and that is one of the most brutal swims you could do

cardio: builds heart health and endurance

weight training: breaks down muscle and stimulates muscle building properties

diet lifestyle: this dictates how lean or fat you are

homeostasis: this is a huge factor and hard to overcome. if you been fat for 20 years it is hard to reverse that. if you been skinny 20 years, fell off the wagon for a year, then want to get back in shape it won't be hard

genetics: they did a study in europe where separated twins who went to fat parents and skinny parents. the twins still ended up both fat or skinny no matter what their adoptive parents were. can this be overcome? yes but it takes a lot more than what the cookie cutter diet coaches and PT's will want you to do

 

[MasonicBodybuilder]

Diet is the most important thing and you can always lift weights "faster" to basically be cardio. I say you can certainly be healthy.

 

[muskate]

Why wouldn't you want to do some cardio? It has a lot of health benefits. You don't need to become a marathon runner but everyone would benefit from 20-30 minutes a few days per week

 

[Fella Finn]

If I only lifted and ate well and did zero cardio would I be healthy? How important is cardio?

Yes, you'd probably will.
I'd still recommend everyone to do at least a little bit cardio. Why?

Well, having better cardiovascular capacity will improve your work capacity by helping to recover faster between sets and it also increases the lactate threshold which in turn will also have a positive effect on your training.

Increased blood flow helps your body to repair muscle damage quicker by flushing waste products and delivering nutrients to damaged tissues.

And last but not least there is some evidence that it might actually help to improve your insulin sensitivity.

 

[EZ_E]

Why wouldn't you want to do some cardio? It has a lot of health benefits. You don't need to become a marathon runner but everyone would benefit from 20-30 minutes a few days per week

X2....even if hard core bulking