Yes, the Rachel Cosgrove article. We have seen this before on these forums.
The thing with cardio is: no-one can possibly come out with a writ which can be universally applied. It will never work. It is unrealistic. It can also do far more harm than good, particularly if those who rarely exercise and who are at risk for heart disease climb on her band wagon.
It is not good or advisable for Ms. Cosgrove to recommend people stay away from cardio and all its benefits, just because it makes her larger than she might like.
As another poster on this thread remarked: Ms. Cosgrove may increase in size and have a flabby physique when she trains for endurance and distance events. That result is particular to her own physiology, it certainly does not apply to mine or Cathe's for that matter. Thise who are successful at middle and long distance running do not possess flabby physiques, quite the opposite. Those who specialize in short distances, and who presumably would recommend and practice the type of cardio we are now all being told to herald, namely HIIT, tend to have much burlier bodies. More muscle, for sure, but bigger all around. So, cardio can both make you smaller and make you bigger.
The real truth is that the same training program will achieve different results in different bodies. And, while Ms. Cosgrove may grow flabby with long cardio work, many of us do not. No, some of us have bodies, and more importantly, minds which need and crave cardio work of the non-HIIT kind. Keeps us happier and plowing away at our lives. To advocate away from cardio at a time when this nation is experiencing it's ever increasing obesity epidemic, with consequent heart disease trend, is foolhardy at best.
What your body needs to function at its healthiest best is its own particular blend of cardio and weight work, and it is up to each of us, through trial and error, to find that winning combination, based on what we need to be healthy and what we want aesthetically. Ms. Cosgrove's opinion is just that: a non-scientific, unresearched opinion, based on her own physiology. No surgeon general that I have heard of has yet recommended we stay away from cardiovascular exercise.
Clare
