Cardio has fallen; strength training is the new gold standard for “exercise you must do”

A reader in the Liftcord noted that it’s been a while since I just… talked about the plain-old benefits of strength training vs. everything else, especially in the form of something we might conspicuously slide across the desk to our parents.

Very well; allow me to kick out the jams.

If we think of the default approach to exercise, it almost always involves some form of cardio: walking, running, elliptical machines, spinning, cycling. The national exercise guidelines have long put the bar for “a decent amount of physical activity at 75 minutes of “intense” movement (running is the right difficulty level) or 150 minutes of “moderate” activity (stuff that’s more like walking). A few years ago, the guidelines added “twice-weekly muscle-strengthening activity.” Incredibly vague even for a guideline, but change was nonetheless afoot.