Running a bit late this AM as I am stuffing Black Sunshine full of kiteboarding gear and pointed south not looking back.

Here is a question that came up just the other day - yes, once again!

“Can’t I just lift weights faster? My heart rate goes up. Isn’t that cardio?”

It is one of the most logical-sounding wrong answers in the history of exercise, so I thought it was worth taking another stab at this Zombie Myth as my buddy Lou Schuler calls them.

Here’s what your heart is actually doing when you lift.

Picture yourself under a loaded bar. Heavy set of squats.

You descend, you grind, you fight your way back up.

By rep 8 your vision is narrowing, your ancestors are calling you home, and your heart is doing something that looks nothing like aerobic development.

Your heart’s job is simple: fill with oxygenated blood, then pump it out to the muscles screaming for it.

But here’s the problem with lifting.

Every time your muscles contract hard, they squeeze down on the surrounding blood vessels.

Blood return to the heart drops.

Your heart is simultaneously trying to pump against the massive pressure of a body under load — what physiologists call increased afterload — while receiving less incoming blood — decreased preload (Baggish & Wood, 2011).

Do this for a few sets and it’s fine.

Do it for years with no aerobic counterbalance, and your heart adapts — but not in the way you want.

The cardiac wall thickens..

...but because the heart can’t grow outward, it grows inward. The chamber gets smaller.

Less blood per beat. The physiological term is concentric left ventricular hypertrophy, and in extreme cases it means a heart that pumps like a brick, develops scar tissue, and starts having electrical conversations with itself that nobody wants to overhear (Naylor et al., 2008).

Now compare that to what happens during real aerobic work.

Sustained aerobic training does the opposite.

High volumes of blood returning to the heart — high preload — stretch the cardiac tissue.

The chamber expands. Stroke volume increases. The heart learns to push more blood per beat at a lower cost, meaning your heart rate drops at the same workloads, recovery between sets speeds up, and the engine that powers every rep of every set of every session gets bigger and more efficient (Pluim et al., 2000).

Same organ. Opposite adaptations. Completely determined by what you actually train.

The Yugo vs. the V8.

Think of it this way.

If your aerobic system is a rusted-out 3-cylinder Yugo held together by expired cheap creatine-ethyl-ester and wishful thinking, every set is redline.

Every session is a grind. Every PR attempt is a coin flip against your own cardiovascular limitations.

Swap that engine for a big-block V8 — or a V12 if you’re feeling ambitious — and suddenly everything is submax.

Recovery between sets happens faster.

Work capacity goes up. Heart rate drops at loads that used to own you.

More capacity. More quality work. More adaptation.

That is what building the aerobic engine actually does.

Mark Rogers put it plainly after running the FMC system:

“My heart rate dropped at the same workloads, my recovery improved, and my work capacity went up without losing strength.”

Not complicated. Not theoretical. Just the engine working the way it’s supposed to.

That is why I developed the Flexible Meathead Cardio Course

Go to the link below for all the details

​https://miket.me/cardio​

Bonus Goes Poof

The fast action bonus is a private 30-minute call with me to map this directly to your training. Identify your specific limiter. Build your first block together. That slot disappears tomorrow night, Friday at midnight PST.

The course and the other bonuses run until April 1.

Much love and bigger stroke volume,

Dr. Mike

PS- I charge $250 for a coaching hour. This is $125 of that, included when you enroll by Friday midnight PST. After that the call slot disappears.

​https://miket.me/cardio​

References

Baggish, A. L., & Wood, M. J. (2011). Athlete’s heart and cardiovascular care of the athlete: Clinical and pathophysiological considerations. Circulation, 123(23), 2723–2735.

Naylor, L. H., George, K., O’Driscoll, G., & Green, D. J. (2008). The athlete’s heart: A contemporary appraisal of the ‘Morganroth hypothesis.’ Sports Medicine, 38(1), 69–90.

Pluim, B. M., Zwinderman, A. H., van der Laarse, A., & van der Wall, E. E. (2000). The athlete’s heart: A meta-analysis of cardiac structure and function. Circulation, 101(3), 336–344.

_____________________

Mike T Nelson CISSN, CSCS, MSME, PhD
Associate Professor, Carrick Institute
Owner, Extreme Human Performance, LLC
Editorial Board Member, STRONG Fitness Mag

Mike T Nelson is a PhD and not a physician or registered dietitian. The contents of this email should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem - nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician. Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health.

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