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SteelWeaver
New member
Stimulation of different muscle fibre types, and the principle of SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand - uh, or something). Which means that your body adapts to the demands you place on it. So if you eat too little, it slows everything down to compensate. If you lift heavy weights, it responds by laying down muscle, among other ways of improving anaerobic efficiency, so that it can cope better the next time you hit it heavy.
And if you make it perform long endurance activities, it will increase the efficiency of the aerobic/oxidative system, which is great for cardiovascular health, but also relies more on Type I muscle fibres, which don't grow as big as Type II muscle fibres. Instead, they are good for oxidative functions. Another adaptation is that the body will dump muscle, since muscle is heavy, and the body wants to be efficient - carrying a lot of extra dead-weight around simply uses up MORE energy than necessary for the activity that is being demanded of it. So, da DAH, bye bye muscle.
Have a look at any marathon runner - all skin and bones. Naoko Takahashi, the latest Japanese fave, can't weigh more than 40kg, if that. But boy can she run a long way pretty fast.
Cardio isn't bad - if you are interested in a healthy heart, and general overall fitness, you should definitely be doing it, but 5 hours a week is a lot. 3 x 30-45 or so should be enough. And like Gladi and I said, if one or 2 of those are sprints/intervals, you won't have to worry too much about breaking down your gym efforts, since sprints are anaerobic/glycolytic.
AND, your body won't be used to doing a ton of cardio before you even start comp prep. I taper my cardio almost all the way back before starting comp prep, so that I can slowly taper up all the way through the diet, without ever hitting a wall.
Um, does that help explain it?
And if you make it perform long endurance activities, it will increase the efficiency of the aerobic/oxidative system, which is great for cardiovascular health, but also relies more on Type I muscle fibres, which don't grow as big as Type II muscle fibres. Instead, they are good for oxidative functions. Another adaptation is that the body will dump muscle, since muscle is heavy, and the body wants to be efficient - carrying a lot of extra dead-weight around simply uses up MORE energy than necessary for the activity that is being demanded of it. So, da DAH, bye bye muscle.
Have a look at any marathon runner - all skin and bones. Naoko Takahashi, the latest Japanese fave, can't weigh more than 40kg, if that. But boy can she run a long way pretty fast.
Cardio isn't bad - if you are interested in a healthy heart, and general overall fitness, you should definitely be doing it, but 5 hours a week is a lot. 3 x 30-45 or so should be enough. And like Gladi and I said, if one or 2 of those are sprints/intervals, you won't have to worry too much about breaking down your gym efforts, since sprints are anaerobic/glycolytic.
AND, your body won't be used to doing a ton of cardio before you even start comp prep. I taper my cardio almost all the way back before starting comp prep, so that I can slowly taper up all the way through the diet, without ever hitting a wall.
Um, does that help explain it?
