Needless to say, both categories of trainers are in fact robbing themselves of optimal results - the women would get firmer, stronger and leaner if they'd throw in 2-3 sessions of weight training, and the men would experience several advantages if they'd pick up cardiovascular training. And this is what I'm going to write about this week.
Oxygen
With every breath you take, you breath in oxygen which is absorbed by the blood in your lungs. I guess most of you remember all that gross stuff from your biology classes so I won't go into depth in it, and besides it doesn't really matter in your daily life. What DOES matter, however, are two things:
1. Your physical capability is closely connected to your oxygen intake.
2. You can improve it.
"Sure," someone says, "If I were a marathon-runner I'd care, but I'm a bodybuilder. And I've done my homework - Bodybuilding is anaerobic work, not aerobic! Why should I give a flying damn?"
You're right about the anaerobic part, but c'mon... You NEED oxygen! Even if you make a minimum amount of reps, say 4 heavy reps of deadlifts, are you trying to tell me you're not the least out of breath afterwards? Right - you come up with an oxygen deficit. And here's news for you - the less oxygen available, the more lactic buildup you get. Besides, do you always do extreme low-rep training? In that case - get a book on periodization! For the rest of you, improving the cardiovascular capacity is a good way of avoiding those dancing black spots in your vision at the end of a high-rep set. And in case your training partner isn't buying any of this, just tell him to do 20 reps of squatting with a plastic bag over his head and I'm sure he'll see the importance of oxygen, even in anaerobic training.
Heart
This must be one of the oldest facts in popular medicine, so I'll make it really simple:
