[quote]dratner wrote:
Some data…according to Dr. Mel Siff in “Facts and Fallacies of Fitness”-
Also according to Siff, he says that it is a misconception to relate “target heart rates” to cardiovascular efficiency or health…for example, if exceeding the target heart rate is something to be avoided at all costs, why aren’t race care drivers suffering from an epidemic of heart disease? Well, according to Siff, "although the heart rate of race car drivers can reach 200 beats per minute and remain as high as 180 during a race, the incidence of traumatic cardiac episodes during these events is extremely low.
More data, according to Henry A Solomon, in The Exercise Myth, “Cardiovascular health refers to the absence of disease of the heart and blood vessels, NOT to the ability of an individual to do a certain amount of physical work. Your overall cardiac health is determined by the condition of various heart structures, including the heart muscles, the valves, the special cardiac tissue that carry electrical impulses and the coronary arteries.”
Another interesting fact from Charles Poliquin…“The average VO2 max (measure of aerobic efficiency) in the NBA is is only about 47, compared to about 42 for the average couch potato, and 80 for a world-class rower.” What this is saying is, basketball players are clearly not that aerobically fit, but in excellent cardiovascular shape.[/quote]
None of this is actual data, and as much as these guys have good opinions they should publish their data. The fact is, they don’t have “good” evidence, just good anecdotes. The example of NBA players is terrible, some of them are not in very good shape at all. Comparing their fitness level to an elite class rower is terrible. Are you also trying to say that an NBA player could get in a boat and take them on in a rowing race? Nonsense. Just the same, a rower couldn’t jump on a basketball court and do repeated high intensity sprints to the same level and quality of an NBA player (discounting other parts of their respective sports).
The NBA players who do alot of running during a game would have very high VO2 max scores.
The point about target heart rates is such a distortion of physiology. Heart rate will fluctuate extremely during resistance exercise owing to the large changes in peripheral resistance that will accompany muscle contraction levels and alterations in pressure. A standard powerlifting movement can elicit blood pressure in excess of 300mmHg, and they don’t die right there on the spot (if they’re healthy). If they sustained that BP for a period of time, sure it would be dangerous, but just to choose one particular example as above for a race car driver as to why heart rate is irrelevant is a distortion of physiology and shows a lack of understanding.
The best example for why aerobic exercise is the best for your “heart health” (just to really simplify it), is that cardiac rehab is based on aerobic exercise, not resistance. This improves peripheral oxygen uptake, improves circulation in the periphery, improves venous return, improves heart contractility, improves sympathetic/parasympathetic balance, improves coronary artery vessel blood flow, vessel mechanics etc etc. Resistance exercise is added to improve muscular strength levels for general quality of life, not to improve their heart related issue.
Your example of getting fit doing weights and then being able to outrun your “fit” friend is just a one-off extreme example.
There is a clear LACK of any substantial evidence that weight training regimes improve VO2max. In a seminal study of rep ranges a few year ago, Campos et al found that training in the 25-27RM range increased time to exhaustion in an aerobic exercise task, but did not increase VO2max. Training at rep ranges lower than this increased strength, but have no effect on time to exhaustion or fitness measures. This has been substantiated over and over and over again.