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There main reason why cardio isn't a good idea is simple - it's very singular in its objective / what it accomplishes. Let's first look at the first. I've already gone into what cardio accomplished above. And what it accomplishes, it accomplishes very well - there is no denying that. I wouldn't try to say it doesn't. The problem you run into, however, is that is all it does. And there are a lot of other things that you should have your workouts trying to accomplish. The realm of physical fitness and health doesn't stop at just aerobic conditioning. There are several other factors that you should look to address in order to be totally healthy: 1 - Anaerobic Conditioning. (NOTE - aerobic means 'with oxygen' and anaerobic means 'without oxygen'. So aerobic conditioning is the conditioning level you have when you're breathing at a slow enough rate that you can still take sufficient oxygen into your body. Anaerobic conditioning is when you're breathing so fast that you can't get sufficient oxygen into your body to create energy.) Cardio is proficient at improving aerobic conditioning - we know that. However, studies have shown that cardio has very little effect on anaerobic conditioning. This means that while your capabilities when you're moving slowly and can breathe slowly will be much better off, anything you try to do when you're moving quickly, using any sort of effort, or breathing fast won't be much improved. For example, cardio will improve your ability to take the dog for a walk each day. However, when you have to carry two arm-loads of groceries up 3 flights of stairs, you will still get winded just as easily. 2 - Strength Being able to breathe freely just isn't enough - you have to be strong. Now, when most people think of building a strong body, they think of big and strong muscles. And that is indeed part of it. You want your muscles to be big and strong in order to make daily life easier, to give you the ability to do certain things or have certain capabilities (especially in emergency situations), and to just feel better about yourself. However, strength training won't affect just your muscles. It'll also make your joints (tendons and ligaments) stronger as well. This will serve you well as far as health into your later years. It will also make you much more resistant to injury. However, strength training will also make your bones much stronger as well. This makes your entire skeleton and frame stronger, as well as healthier. It will contribute to the injury resistance I just mentioned, as well as combat any potential debilitating injury or disease (e.g. - osteoporosis) later on in life. Strength training has also shown to improve the health and vitality of major internal organs as well. So not only would you be making the outside of your body stronger, you'd be making the inside of your body stronger. 3 - Work Capacity Many people (especially in athletic training circles) use the term 'work capacity' differently, so let me define it as how I see it - work capacity is the basic measure (though it's something that can't be scientifically measured) of how much overall work you can do. This includes virtually every physical trait - aerobic endurance, anaerobic endurance, strength, speed, explosiveness, various forms of endurance, and more. It can't be measured, as how much work you can do as a whole will depend on what kind of work you're doing. Think of the gas tank in your car. When it's completely filled up, your car has a certain capacity for how far it can go and how fast it can get there. However, letting it sit there idling, poking along at 25mph, and racing at 100mph will all have radically different effects on what kind of mileage you get. Work capacity is the same way. It's kind of like your gas tank - the more work capacity you have, the bigger your gas tank gets. Well, cardio will certainly help make your gas tank bigger - no doubt about that. The problem is, though, is that it only does this in one fashion. It won't help make your gas tank bigger as it pertains to any of the different characteristics I mentioned (strength, speed, etc.) If you want all these things, cardio alone won't cut it. This means that not only will you have to spend several hours per week doing cardio, but also a few more doing strength training, some semblance of speed work, endurance training and more. Professional athletes don't train that much! But you can combat all that by simply doing a Turbulence Training workout three times per week, instead. For more turbulence training information then check out Turbulence Training #2.
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