Why Cardio Still Matters (Even If You Hate Running)

Now, I should admit, I have known about the benefits of cardio for a while. I am pretty sure since grad school I have yet to go one week without hearing or discussing some aspect of cardiovascular fitness (in addition to coaching, I'm also a college professor who teaches exercise science). However, in all honesty, I still only really started consistently doing cardio a couple years ago. I think post-college sports, the idea of ‘running just to run’ did not excite me at all.

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And so, that means even after you read this email and maybe learn a few new things, you aren’t expected to just magically change your behavior—or even your mind for that matter—and start doing hours of cardio. It is more so my hope that you can see the benefits, appreciate the benefits, and then slowly try to change your stance if you don’t currently engage in regular cardiovascular exercise.

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Breaking Down the Benefits

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First, let’s define cardiovascular exercise.
According to the American College of Sport Medicine, cardiovascular exercise is a type of physical activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and uses repetitive movements. I would also add that cardiovascular exercise is structured around a specific goal and therefore also benefits from periodization. This is just to highlight that even though some exercises get you out of breath—such as doing 10+ reps of a back squat—and acutely alter respiration, it is still not necessarily cardiovascular exercise.

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So, for a working definition (and the sake of this email), think of anything like walking, running, biking, and swimming as the cardio I am referring to moving forward.

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Benefit 1: Mortality

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Cardiovascular fitness has a strong, inverse relationship with overall mortality, cardiovascular disease–related mortality, and non-cardiovascular disease–related mortality. Moreover, maximal oxygen uptake (i.e., VO2Max) had the strongest predictive ability (1).

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So, the fitter you are the less likely you are to die early from cardiovascular-related issues. Moreover, as you get even fitter, the risks just keep going down!

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Benefit 2: Mental Function

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Similar to mortality, the fitter you are, the higher cognitive abilities you have and the slower rate of decline you experience as you age. Individuals with higher cardiovascular fitness levels report higher information processing, reaction time, decision making, self-regulation, etc., but also hold onto those abilities longer than someone who is less fit.

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Additionally, when you exercise, research notes many acute and chronic psychological and physiological benefits such as enhanced mood, improved memory, and heightened levels of beneficial and neuroprotective catecholamines and proteins such as dopamine and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (2,3).

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So not only does aerobic exercise help you live longer, you will also be happier as you live longer (probably)!

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Benefit 3: Metabolic Health

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Whether it is your mood, your mind, your muscles, or your mortality… cardiovascular exercise helps. And to no surprise, it helps your metabolism too! Because of the numerous benefits of cardiovascular exercise on skeletal muscle, digestive organs, vasculature, and even your stored body fat, regular cardiovascular exercise and a higher fitness level is a direct modulator of metabolism and truly provides many protections against metabolic diseases (5).

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So whether you are worried about cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, or some mental illness, exercise helps—so keep doing it!

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How Can You Start?

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Finally, now that we have defined what cardiovascular exercise is, what a few of the many benefits are, let’s finish off by talking about how you can start. Like resistance training or anything else in life you want to get better at, you need to start slow, track your progress, slowly increase what you do, and keep doing that for an extended period of time. So let’s break that down:

• Start! Start by doing 30 minutes of cardio a week. That can be one 30-minute session, two 15-minute sessions, or three 10-minute sessions. I prefer breaking it up but if you have to do one session, that is perfectly fine!
• Pick something you like (or at least don’t hate). If you like running, then run. If you hate swimming, then ride your bike. Do something that you can and want to keep doing!
• Track what you currently do. How many miles do you get in those 30 minutes? What is your average calorie expenditure? However you track those things, track it every session so you can build on your progress.
• Progress. Aim to increase by approximately 5–10% every other week. So, after you do a couple weeks of 30 minutes, progress to 35 minutes. If you do 5 miles a week, go to 6 the next. Small increments over time will eventually lead to big changes. And if you make an increase and it is hard to hit that number—don’t worry. Just stay there until you can consistently hit your target and then progress again.
• Push yourself hard (sometimes). As mentioned above, cardiovascular exercise is good but so is fitness—especially very good fitness. So, to increase your fitness, you need to push your cardiovascular system. This could be doing more miles, extending your time, or doing the same amount but at a higher intensity. Your cardiovascular system is going to improve but as with any progress, we need to stress our system to promote adaptation.

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A professor I work with often says,
“Sit little, Move a lot, and Sometimes fast!”

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