I, and many other powerlifters, strength athletes etc. totally hate cardio (at least steady-state cardio). I don’t enjoy the idea of running (for a seemingly endless period of time) just o have my chest hurting and to be out of breath. I don’t understand it. And, once I ran across some information stating that powerlifters (at least the great powerlifters) don’t care much about their physiques or about cardio, in general, I kind of cut it out of my routine. However, as a bit of time has passed since I saw that piece of information the question arose of, Do powerlifters need cardio or not?”.
The answer to that question is that we do, just not in the way we typically think about it. And, remember, this information isn’t just coming from me, I’ve done quite a bit of research on this topic (mainly to find a reason not to do it) and I found some rather interesting information. Are you ready? Let’s get to the details.
The Heart is a muscle
About 6 months to a year ago I ran across some information in a newsletter I’m signed up for by Alexander Cortes that basically stated that the heart is a muscle that, requires efficient delivery of oxygen to survive. We can improve our bodies ability to deliver oxygen to the heart by performing cardio - it’s a very simple concept. *obviously I’m not a doctor so I’m paraphrasing here.
Here’s a more direct explanation for what’s going on with our heart and how cardio helps by texasheart.org (a link to their site is in the resources section)
“Coronary Circulation. The heart muscle, like every other organ or tissue in your body, needs oxygen-rich blood to survive. Blood is supplied to the heart by its own vascular system, called coronary circulation. ... The left side of the heart is larger and more muscular because it pumps blood to the rest of the body.”
So, cardio helps us improve our heart health. The next question would be “why is that important for powerlifters?” Well, considering that many of us tend to eat relatively unhealthy diets and there are quite a few of us who are well above the weight that we would naturally be at, it makes sense that we should be performing some type of cardio to make sure that our hearts are performing at peak levels. *cardio is one of the ways that we can counteract the strain that lifting heavy weights places on our heart's.
*not to mention that some of us take supplements that may or may not have an adverse effect on our heart health.
*deadlifts actually improve heart health, look here to see why.
To give you a better idea of some of the +’s and -’s of cardio look below:
Benefits
- It’s great for conditioning
- Improves heart health
- Improves lung capacity
- Can improve your total (max weight lifted)
- Can improve muscular endurance
- Decrease risk of heart disease
- Improve mood/reduce stress
Negatives
- Burns a ton of calories (depending on the kind you do)
- Can take away from your strength levels(again, depending on what you do)
- Makes recovery more of challenge(depending on what you do)
Kinds of cardio for powerlifters
As with most strength athletes (or competitive anythings), we tend to want to go all out on any movement/exercise we do. When I said that cardio can take away from our body’s ability to recover after a workout this is why. We need to make sure we appropriately allocate the stress we apply during training. Instead of attempting to run 3-4 miles on the treadmill (I’m exaggerating) and then trying to lift heavy weights it’s suggested that we perform movements that will complement what we already need to do (which is generate tons of force in short bursts). Steady-state cardio is fine but, there are other types of cardio we can perform that will benefit us just as well or even more than steady-state ever will (or so the research says). (it's a anaerobic thing for the body)
*this actually falls in-line with what Jennifer Petrosino said in her argument when she said not to perform anaerobic cardio)
Steady-State Cardio variations:
- Incline Treadmill walks
- Treadmill Hills
- Stadium steps
Types of cardio we can perform:
- Farmer’s walks
- Weighted Carries
- Prowler pushes
- Overhead dumbbell carries
- Sled pulls
What do powerlifters need to do and how does it tie into cardio?
- We must have the ability to make it through a full 9 attempt 4-5 hour meet
- We must be able to sufficiently recover after each attempt
- We must be able to recover after doing warm up sets
- We must be able to deal with up to 3 hour training sessions
- We must be able to lift max weights for several sets in training
- According to EliteFTS' Jennifer Petrosino, it also helps to do a bit of cardio after a workout to oxygenate the muscles
As you can see, it all comes down to conditioning. We engage in several taxing activities in the course of a training day and need to have the recovery and endurance capacity to deal with it - cardio helps with that. As I said in the above section, however, we need to make sure that our style of cardio is specific to the activity that we perform. For powerlifters, cardio must help the body do the following things on a physiological level:
- Allow oxygen to efficiently oxidize built-up lactic acid (reducing doms)
- Allow the body to use ATP to maximize your performance
- Improve the body’s ability to use oxygen to help it recover after max attempts
How to schedule cardio
Like I said, I’m honestly not a huge fan of cardio - but, I do it because of the above benefits as well as the fact that I hate being gassed (tired after only a few sets). I personally programmed it using common sense (in regards to how my own body used energy). Naturally, I placed it at the end of my leg day and simply did a few minutes on the treadmill on an incline.
*I decided to place it at the end because I like to place the majority of the stress in a workout on the major movements. (I also go that idea from research. To be specific, from Allan Thrall).
Not only that but we also still have Jennifer Petrosino's argument - which really does make sense and is substantiated by scientific evidence.
Jennifer's argument is that (and this is backed by research she's done) muscles require oxygen to grow. But the issue with this is that when we workout (or perform resistance training) our capillaries (which are the things that supply oxygen to our muscles) are pushed away from the area. To prevent this (or to counteract this so that we get oxygen flowing to our muscles) she's said that we should perform a low-intensity aerobic exercise for 10-15 minutes AFTER our workout to increase muscle capillarity. She's made the argument that a larger capillary network makes for a larger surface area for O2 diffusion and shorten diffusion distance, which results in our muscles recieving more O2. (Petrosino, 2017)
To sum it all up
Yes, we do need cardio. We just need to make sure that the cardio we are performing blends in with our other goals. It doesn’t make sense to run a 5k on a treadmill when the goal is to lift several hundred pounds for 9 reps in a powerlifting competition. With that being said, it also doesn’t make sense to not do any type of cardio and be burned out halfway during a meet - we need to find some middle ground. Where is this middle ground? Well, performing one of the above forms of cardio will improve your ability to perform come competition time - you just have to make sure you pace yourself and choose how you put out your energy wisely. For more information, check out the resources listed below.
Resources:
https://www.elitefts.com/education/training/powerlifting/do-powerlifters-need-cardio/
https://www.elitefts.com/education/an-argument-for-post-training-cardio-gains/