Most of us from the Strength & Conditioning community can find it easy to neglect the whole notion of cardio training. We must admit adding it to your overall training regiment, even if its just 5 to 10 minutes a day, can do wonders to your overall stamina.

Goku & Vegeta may be strong AF but their strength wouldn’t mean shit if wasn’t for their god-like endurance. It takes about 20+ episodes to finish a damn fight!

With that being said here are three benefits of adding cardio to your daily training routine.

Heart and Lung Stat Boost

You ever get winded walking up stairs? You can do all the lifting you want but there’s a ton of heavy lifters out there who have zero athletic ability. If the goal is to not only build strength but have a better quality of life doing some cardio will help. It gets one to workout your heart, enhance your lung capacity and improve your capillary efficiency (how your body directly delivers oxygen to your cells in need). When the body becomes more conditioned in these aspects you’ll have more stamina to enjoy being active and getting more out of living your (best) life. #forthegram

Fortified Joints

Ever experience ankle, knee, hip or low back pain? Shoulder issues? One of the ways the body heals is sending needed resources such as nutrients to the area. Because the joints don’t have much blood vessels one of the main ways they receive nutrients is through movement. 

Now doing too much of anything, especially repetitive movements found a lot through cardio type exercises, may be counterintuitive to joint health. However, doing just enough daily may be the happy medium that you may need as long as it’s pain free movement. Low-impact or non-impact cardio workouts such as rowing and cycling are recommended for those who experience joint issues during impact related workouts. 

Mental Clarity

Keeping up an action while simultaneously wanting to give up is one of the hardest things you can do. Cardio type workouts help build your mental fortitude. It improves your ability to push through mental blocks consistently and gets you in a zone of focus. This helps a ton, especially if you’re always scatterbrained. It also helps elevate your mood, reduce stress and supposedly improve sleep.

References:

http://diet.mayoclinic.org/diet/move/cardio-101

https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/FullText/2014/07000/The_Effects_of_a_Combined_Resistance_Training_and.19.aspx