This Is Not A Replacement For Cardio

​In this episode, I want to be very clear: strength training (no matter how hard it feels) is not a replacement for cardio for hikers. 

​Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So today we're just doing a quick

[0:04] episode on a very, very, very important point when it comes down to your training. Now, as you probably know, listening to this podcast, I am a big advocate around strength training for hiking. And I really do think it's an amazing method of training for any hiker out there. However, one thing I want to be really, really, really clear about in case maybe you've seen mixed messages online or whatever may be, is that strength training is not a replacement for your cardio. Now, the reason why I'm saying this, I've actually been asked for this by a couple of people in the last couple of weeks, and I think it may be kicking around on social media somewhere, is sometimes I have seen people say, because when we're training strength, when we're doing exercises, squats, lunges, or whatever it may be, that our heart rate gets up really, really high and we sometimes get out of breath. This can be a replacement for traditional cardio. So as a hiker, this can be a replacement for going out for a walk. This can be a replacement for interval training. This can be a replacement for stair and hill climbing. And I just want to tell you right now, that is absolutely not the case.

[1:16] Even though your heart rate gets up during strength training, and even though it does feel very difficult breathing-wise in some situations, it is creating different adaptations in the body. It is creating strength adaptations, which are going to be beneficial in their own way, but it is not a replacement for your cardio. So to be really, really clear, if you're looking at your strength training, you're thinking, hey, I'm just going to work really, really hard. I'm just going to push some really heavy weights, and that can be a replacement.

[1:45] It's not a great idea. Now, to follow on from that, you know, this isn't the exact situation that I've been asked, but it is a follow on with this, is quite often people will kind of try to combine their strength and their cardio training together. And I've talked about this a few times on the podcast before, and this is typically when we're doing group training or hip training or whatever it may be, where we do like a circuit and we're doing strength exercises, but we're doing them quite quick. We're doing them for a duration with the intention of getting quite our heart rate up and quite out of breath. Now, this type of training, this sort of circuit training, where you may do 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off, and do a bunch of different exercises, this is probably closer to getting a cardiovascular exercise.

[2:30] Response because it is because you're doing this for longer durations and sustaining it and this is going to give you a cardiovascular response i would still argue it's not a great way of going about this for hiking i think there's much better ways but it is a little bit different but just to be clear if you're looking at very very heavy strength training that is not a replacement for cardio if you're looking at circuit training that may give you a cardiovascular response but it probably isn't the best way to go about things realistically

[2:57] if you were trying to get the best results from your training. Keep your strength as your strength. Keep your cardio as your cardio. Keep your hiking as your hiking. Fit those three things in your week and you should be well on your way to a nice, well-rounded program. So I just wanted to bring this up today because a couple of people have brought this up and asked me about this and I think it's very, very important to be crystal clear on this front.

[3:20] So with that being said, we're going to wrap up today's short episode. Hope that helps. Hope that clears things up and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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