Comments on: A Case Against Cardio (from a former mileage king)

By: Mark Sisson

Mark Sisson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:57:13 +0000

Joe, you must be referring to that Men’s Health article on the San Bushmen. I disagree with the premise. You’ll note that they don’t run hard and long…they “trot” which is actually the kind of low level aerobic activity I’m talking about and saying is OK. Also, they don’t do it every day (once you have a kudu, you don’t go out and get more without a nice freezer to keep the extra in). They don’t train to do this as if it’s a race against the animal. Instead they track it and methodically pace themselves while the wounded, drugged animal sprints and rests. Using their human mental superiority, they “cut the tangents” and slowly move in on the animal. All in all, if I were allowed to do that in the USA, I would consider it a totally Primal activity - one that my other intense training would allow me to do with relative ease once or twice a week. Just because we “can” do it once in a while doesn’t mean we should train for endurance events every day.

Glad you dig the site. Keep watching.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:20:15 +0000

Mark,
I think this site is excellent and have been influenced by it to try your 30 day primal challenge. Til now I have been a marathoner and steady state jogger guy.
However I have been more persuaded by your physical condition as evidenced on your videos than by all this conjecture about how primitive humans lived.
The fact is if you look at the San people (Bushmen)of the Kalahari who still lead stone age lives, their method of hunting is to a) dart an animal such as a kudu with a small poison arrow then b) send out one runner to chase it down and literally run it to death. The kudu sprints out of sight but the hunter keeps pressure on it by jogging steadily on its trail. It can take an entire day of steady state jogging before he reaches the exhausted animal and then he will kill it with a spear. So, based on that evidence it would seem that the ability to jog steadily for hours on end has been of great evolutionary advantage to humans. . .
Anyway, thanks for all the great information!

By: Mark Sisson

Mark Sisson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:25:41 +0000

Sudip,

2 HIITS per week for sure. The rest can be 30 minutes or even 2 hours each, as long as it’s very low level stuff (walking, hiking, etc) Once the Heart Rate gets abover 55-60% max, that’s when you can (and should) reduce the time. When you get to 75-85% max HR, you can get a lot done in as little as 20 minutes. What we DON’T want is 90 minutes or 2 hours of 75-90% Max every day.

By: Sudip Jha

Sudip Jha — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:31:52 +0000

Mark,

I have been reading your site/blog for several weeks and am very impressing by both its content, and your positive attitude.

In terms of fat loss, (assuming that one is eating correctly in terms of macronutrient ratios, adequate protein consumption, caloric leves), what would be your cardio/interval suggestions?

I am assuming low level cardio (i.e. 30 min of steady state interval walking, swimming, etc) and 2 HIIT type worksouts per week?

By: David

David — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:25:10 +0000

Sorry,I wanted this comment in an another post of an another homepage. This post was in another browser:).

By: Mark Sisson

Mark Sisson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:49:07 +0000

David,

I’m not sure I get where you are going with that. What are you saying?