A widespread myth among fitness enthusiasts has it that one must train one way for increasing muscular size and strength and another way for improving cardiovascular condition; lift weights to build strength and jog to enhance aerobic condition. As Arthur Jones of Nautilus stated, “Half of that belief is true, since jogging will do nothing to build strength and size and will, in fact, if overdone, as it usually is, do quite a bit in the way of reducing both muscular strength and size. But it’s not true that proper strength-building exercises will do nothing for improving cardiovascular condition.” How did Jones arrive at that conclusion?
In 1975 Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries funded one of the most important studies in the history of exercise science. Project Total Conditioning was conducted at the United States Military Academy at West Point and was overseen by Colonel James Anderson. The purpose of the study was to pin down how to use Nautilus exercise equipment properly and identify the physiological consequences of a short-duration, high-intensity-training program. It asked such questions as, How much skeletal-muscle strength can be achieved from brief, intense workouts? How does strength training affect cardiovascular fitness, flexibility and overall body composition? Improvements in muscular size and strength, improvements on 60 separate tests of cardiovascular fitness, and improvements on 4 tests of flexibility. All from 1 basic simple strength training program.
The results? Read them here.
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