I Don’t Like The Scale
If there’s anything I will constantly hammer home as a health and fitness writer, you shouldn’t fall in love with your scale or how much you weigh.
Newsletter Summary
Today, I’ll talk about what the scale doesn’t do.
While cardio is not the most enjoyable activity, I’ll explain why it’s important for overall fitness, and I’ve got a few ways to gamify it below.
Toward the end, I’ll share some cool devices for the data nerds.
Why You Should Trend Away From The Scale
Using the number on your scale to assess progress is one way to track progress, but… your scale might not tell you things like:
How much muscle you’ve gained recently
Your body fat percentage
How much water weight you’re holding onto
Your lean muscle mass
These metrics tell a bigger and more complete story of what’s going on in your body and what effect your training is having.
Along with routine blood work, finding these measurements above with a smart scale or a body scan analysis can give you more insights into how your health is improving beyond a silly three-digit number on a screen.
Obsessing over your weight can be a daunting thing.
If the scale doesn’t trend in the direction you want it to for consecutive days (and honestly, it hardly ever does), you can start spiraling.
We don’t want that!
Looking To Cardio For Fitness Goals
In the past, I’ve discussed the importance of cardiovascular training (CV) to increase your body’s ability to do work (NOT to burn calories).
“But Fran! Most cardio is boring as hell!
I hate running, the stairs are dumb, and I’m not buying a Peloton.”
Okay, fair enough.
But if you have access to a gym, you can row, ski, climb a Jacob’s Ladder, or continuously slam the hell out of a medicine ball.
All this stuff can very effectively change how you look and feel.
But it can be hard to gauge the effectiveness of it.
“How do I know my cardio is effective?”
When strength training and cardio work together nicely, you undoubtedly add years to your life.
But it might also be hard to tell how much progress you make with cardio if you don’t have a wearable watch or chest strap.
Today, I’ll give you some ways to up the ante with your training to help you foolproof your activity and ensure you’re not spinning your wheels.
Measuring CV Training? 🧐
As excellent as it is, strength training doesn’t have to be incredibly complex.
Train hard, add weight to your lifts every 2-3 weeks, back off when you’re feeling low, and keep 4-5 of your favorite lifts in every routine, regardless of what changes you make.
That’s pretty much it.
But cardio has so many different tools to assess.
What speed should I set the treadmill at?
How do I know when to cycle further?
What walking distance will legitimately improve my health?
These are the amorphous pieces of CV training. You shouldn't just wing it if you want to know if you’re progressing with your fitness routine.
Proper CV training increases the size of your blood vessels and the efficiency with which your heart pumps blood, allowing for better oxygen uptake.
In layman’s terms, it ensures your cardiovascular dysfunction risk is low.
While still pumping relatively faster during strength training, your heart isn’t benefitting from the weights.
It’s like hair getting shampooed and not conditioned.
It’s like a stained rug getting a wet rag but not the stain remover.
It needs cardio.
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Simply put, you will want to assess your cardio training and progress it as you would your weight training.
Your body adapts to everything you give to it, so eventually, that 1-mile jog will need to become a 2-mile jog.
That’s not to say that you will be going for daily 100-mile jogs by the end of your life.
But for the best chance at progress, you’ll have to be able to do cardio training on a gradient similar to your strength training.
One day, you’ll cycle 3 miles.
Two days later, you’ll walk the Stairmaster for 30 minutes on the “slow” setting.
If you can effectively do this, you’ll better understand how hard it is to push your body.
If you’ve ever had that training session (I’m pretty sure we all have) where everything is so sore you can’t move the next day, your body may lack the proper energy systems to accommodate that stress.
Good cardio training (and proper rest) prevents this type of soreness conundrum and allows for a slow and steady progression to elite health.
Okay, Now, Let’s Gamify This Boring Thing
The simplest and most repeatable way to assess the difficulty of your cardio training and the extent to which it’s improving is to assess your performance on the Talk Test.
The Talk Test is a tool employed by coaches everywhere that focuses on how effectively someone can hold a conversation before losing their breath during training.
If you have a training partner, you could start a conversation with them on the treadmill or cardio machine of your choice on cardio day and talk until it becomes hard to form words around your breathing.
Keep track of how long this takes and at what intensities you cannot talk.
Most decently fit people can speak for the first few minutes of a jog before focusing exclusively on their breath, so the goal would be to push it marginally (about 30-60 seconds) forward until you can talk for a long time.
Other, more concrete ways to monitor your heart rate are to wear a wearable device like a watch or heart rate monitor or pay attention to your mental acuity throughout the day after a workout.
I’ll link some wearables I recommend below!
If you want to make cardio FUN, make it a game: Try to time your intervals around the BPM of your favorite song, or keep track of your best times on a certain machine and aim to beat those times in the next session.
Using certain heart rate thresholds (120-140 beats per minute is the sweet spot range) to work up a sweat is the best way to ensure you’re getting the most out of cardio.
Also, cognitive ability tends to increase after good cardio sessions. 🧠
By seeing how quickly you accomplish tasks at work or even solve puzzles on your phone, you can gauge the effectiveness of your sweat sessions.
Wearables For The Nerds (Like Me)
If you’re like me and like to see numbers and metrics as they develop, you might consider a VO2 Max test with some more advanced technology.
Beyond the ability to handle more mileage and more weights, your VO2 max tells you how well your body uses oxygen and can be measured with a treadmill and calculator or certain technologies like Polar Fitness’ chest strap.
Apple watches have also been increasingly improving their game from tracking standpoint, but I’m iffy on wrist devices for accuracy. If I had to pick another, I’d go with Garmin’s watch (more for runners).
If your insurance covers it, a Stress Test at the cardiologist can assess your heart health with MRI imaging and real-time computers, but this is more of a last-ditch option/something I’d recommend for anyone worried about heart complications before training.
Oh, and please, do not engage in rigorous and intense exercise without consulting your doctor.
FAQ:
How often should I assess my cardiovascular fitness?
If you’re training for a big race or event, you should probably check every few weeks. For ordinary people, every one to two months will suffice.
What heart rate zones are ideal?
Low Intensity (walks, strength training) : 80-100 BPM
Capacity building (circuit training, cycling, steady state): 100-120 BPM
Zone 2 (the sweet spot — jogging, some runs, rowing, and more): 120-155 (depending on age) BPM
Zone 3-4 (hiit, rec sports, and sustained intensity runs/cycles): 155-175 BPM
Zone 5 (for 30-60 mins a week, depending on fitness level — sprints and fast bursts) 175+ bpm
*These scales will fluctuate for some. Many new exercises may initially find heart rates above 150 challengings, so proceed cautiously.*
How can I improve my cardiovascular fitness if my assessments show limited progress?
If your cardio routine isn’t moving the needle, explore another strategy.
Running doesn’t work for everyone, and neither does HIIT.
And a lot of the time, no one form of cardio does all the work for anyone.
It’s best to have at least 2-3 options to choose from so that if one doesn’t yield the desired result, you can experiment with another for a month or so.
What role does nutrition play in cardiovascular fitness assessment?
A huge one. Get ready for a controversial opinion — your carb intake is the most important thing you need for this type of training to be sustainable (that was a joke — carbs are necessary, but Big Fitness will tell you to stay away from them).
Preparing for a morning workout that will be intense should call for a carb-heavy dinner the night before, and a late-night run should always be preceded by a breakfast loaded with complex carbs.