A few days ago I did some cardio on the exercise bike for the first time this year.
Let’s just say I really should incorporate cardio back into my exercise rotation. I’ve been so focused on chasing higher strength numbers that I promised myself to get back to cardio after hitting predetermined weight milestones. (Three plates on the back squat for reps, for example.) Priorities, you know.
Obviously, having solid cardio health can be helpful to adding weight on the barbell. Especially for the squat. Heavy squats for 10 plus reps is incredibly taxing - at least for me, an average man of nature. By the time rep eight comes around, I’m having to take extra time between reps, not because my legs are tired, but to catch my breath.
But long cardio session are so boring, no matter if we now have unlimited Internet videos to keep us entertained. Given the choice between cardio and leg day, the latter will always win out for me.
In this current dopamine hamster wheel world of ours, where fast rewards gets rewarded, weightlifting can be very additive indeed. Especially when you first start out. Every new week you’re adding more weight to the bar, or doing more reps than the last. The first time I moved my own bodyweight in pounds on an exercise was like the floodgates opening to a gush of new possibilities. You want to keep going and going until the next milestone, then the next.
What I am trying to avoid is turning weightlifting into my entire personality. It’s tough, because the rabbit hole - as with any other hobby - is deep. I have to remind myself that this is all towards keeping a fit body for as long as possible. Once you get past a certain weight number, anything more is for the ego. At some point I will simply maintain, rather than chase.
This is Sparta.