health & fitness
The Cardio Conundrum
Matt chappell of Team Breakthrough explains why he believes very short bursts of
exercise are the way forward...
Most of you reading this article will have been told regular
cardiovascular exercise is critical to your health - lowering the
chances of heart disease. Here Matt takes the opportunity to
question whether or not this is the case: “We have been on
this planet for roughly 2.8 million years; the first reported
heart attack in the US occurred in 1920. Why is
cardiovascular disease so increasingly prevalent in the last
100 years considering it didn’t exist beforehand? What are
we doing differently?”
The next logical question would be whether our ancestors
participated in cardiovascular exercise? “This is highly unlikely,”
according to Matt. “It would not be energy efficient to race
around gathering berries, nuts and firewood, nor an effective
method of attack for the hunter gatherers. They would use
stealth methods and then displays of strength and power in
short bursts rather than chase their prey round the land for long
sustained efforts. I recently heard world-renowned strength
over. So you can get greater aerobic/ cardiovascular fitness
coach Charles Poliquin say; “We are designed to throw a rock
from doing bouts of medium to high intensity resistance
at the rabbit, not chase it.” Our ancestors didn’t perform
training, such as weights, for short periods of time than you can
cardiovascular exercise and didn’t have heart disease. “When
get from spending hours on the bike or cross trainer.
you look at most sports, activities and work related tasks today
most involve short bursts of anaerobic activity (without oxygen).
“In order for any fitness programme to be successful it must be
Any of you who have done any hard labouring will appreciate
built on foundation health principles. When we eat following a
you don’t need to do intense work for long before you start
‘Paleolithic’ approach of high quality organic food, eat
breathing faster. In fact you will go ‘aerobic’ within minutes.
regularly to maintain balanced blood sugar levels, go to bed at
The truth is our anaerobic system can only cope for a short
a reasonable hour and learn to manage our external stresses,
time before the aerobic or cardiovascular system has to take
exercise won’t be the extra stress on an already stressed system
that will cause it to crash. You won’t have to worry about
WIN 2 Free personal
cardiovascular disease, as you will have the greatest form of
training sessions!
prevention ever - great health!”
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with Matt at his fully equipped studio in Box, all you have to
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WHiCH WoRLd REnoWnEd sTREngTH
CoACH is QuoTEd in THis ARTiCLE?
Matt Chappellis a health & performance consultant and a part
Email your answers to phil@wired-publishing.co.uk, or send them
of Box-based consultancy Team Breakthrough. His clients learn
on a postcard to Wired Publishing, 10 grosvenor Place, bath, how to eat, move and be healthy. This can be on a consultancy
bA1 6AX by Fri Feb 26 2010, remembering to include your name
basis or through personal training. Matt can be contacted on
and contact tel number on your entry. Your training sessions must be
07828 433202or through matt@teambreakthrough.co.uk.
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