It’s Time To Stop Doing Steady State Cardio!

Steady-state cardio is a centerpiece of the fitness industry and the exercise philosophy of the masses, but it’s time to rethink this. This is simply no justification to spend large amounts of exercise energy on repetitive, steady-state activity such as jogging, cycling, swimming, rowing, stair machine, or the other cardio machines that encourage steady-state exercise. It's only because we’ve been socialized by powerful corporate marketing forces and cultural norms to believe that medium-to-difficult steady state cardio is a fitness mandate. 

Unfortunately, this incredibly popular workout pattern can often become antithetical to health, longevity, and broad-based functional fitness for life. Why? Because most fitness enthusiasts typically overdo it, spiraling into a training pattern that I call “chronic cardio.” Even when one’s steady-state cardio is performed in the correct heart rate zones, the fitness benefits are inferior compared to a more broad-based program. Since you only have a limited amount of time and calories to burn, I urge you to expand your perspective and allocate your fitness resources to achieve broad-based fitness competency and promote longevity.

When you acknowledge that the cardiovascular system responds and adapts to all types of demand from muscles and organs, you realize that the only true requirement for steady-state cardio is to prepare for an endurance competition requiring a steady pace. And even with serious endurance competitors, variation in training delivers the best results. Reference how Eliud Kipchoge runs much slower than marathon race pace most of the time in training, and tops off his race preparation with demanding anaerobic interval workouts where he runs significantly faster than race pace. 

Don’t worry, you can still get an A-plus in cardio by walking extensively, sprinting, strength training, doing yoga, doing hybrid challenges, playing pickleball, playing team sports, and playing, period. Think about it: As soon as you get out of the car and start walking into the gym, your heart rate enters the “aerobic zone” and you are getting valuable fitness stimulation. When you perform vigorous sets of resistance exercise, of course your heart rate responds with a spike, then settles back into the lower aerobic zones during recovery between sets. An hour later when you return to the car, you’ve achieved a great cardio session while also developing other attributes like muscular strength, honing your jump shot, or doing some mobility or balance drills. Key takeaway: Everything is cardio!

Even hard-core endurance freaks can take heart that low-level cardio contributes to high level performance. As detailed in my 2025 book, Born To Walk, 1920 Olympic marathon gold medalist Hannes Kolehmainen of Finland walked for the majority of his Olympic preparation. Amazingly, Kolehmainen ran an incredible 2 hours, 32 minutes to win the gold that long ago–a time that even today would put him in the top 1% of marathoners across the world. 

Remember the research from the Copenhagen Heart Study, Dr. James O’Keefe, and many others, that optimal cardiovascular health can be yours with just 1-2.5 hours a week of comfortably-paced exercise, that benefits continue to accrue up to 5-8 hours a week, and then level off and even decline when taken to extremes. Please read the articles, Suggested Cardio 2.0 Workouts, Part 1, and Suggested Cardio 2.0 Workouts, Part 2, for some fun and clever ideas about how to modify steady-state workouts into challenges that deliver more comprehensive fitness benefits.