Naturally Horrible Cardio?

[J Storm]

i've had horrible cardio since i was a little kid.

i remember doing the 400m run back in grade school for our phys fitness test and always being at the back of the pack. i would always be the one suggesting we play half-court instead of full in basketball. when is did bjj i would be the guy panting and nearly barfing his guts out after every roll.

is there such a thing as naturally horrible cardio?

i've always been pretty skinny - right now i'm 5'6 and 145lbs. i'm pretty good at short bursts of energy and horrible at anything after that. i just came back from doing - or trying to do - sprints, and died after doing 4 x 100m. my friend, who is a chain smoker, lasted longer than i did, although i smoked him on the 1st sprint.

so, wtf is wrong w/ me?

i've also had somewhat high blood pressure all my life.

i feel like i may have a very small lung capacity. when i played trumpet in hs i couldn't hold notes nearly as long as other people, lol. is there a way i can test this out? would this have an effect on cardio?

kind of random, but i've also noticed that i almost always have a runny nose, like year-round. it's been like that for so long that i stopped noticing. could that be having some sort of impact on my cardio?

[zere0wn]

Natural Selection is coming.

[Darwinist]

I would like to say "no there's no such thing and you are just acting like a big baby, go exercise"...but I have known a few guys in my life who almost never exercise, smoke like chimneys but still had INSANE cardio.

I guess you just got dealt a shitty hand, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to make the most of it.

[Prodigal Son]

I doubt they have insane cardio...conditioning is something you can greatly improve through training no matter your starting point.

[Snowfist]

TS I was you for my entire life...but it all changed this summer. for six months before summer I ate perfectly....I mean I never cheated...everything by the rules of our dieting section. Before this I had trained hard before with muay thai and playing competitive soccer when I was a kid...but never had my diet correct.

Once I had the perfect diet down pat I began training like a mad man. monday id do cardio for 2 hours and weights for 2 hours. Tuesday id do cardio for 2 hours. Wednesday id do cardio for 2 hours and then weights for 2 hours etc for the rest of the week with no days off...this was my pattern and I never broke it.

Everytime I went to the gym I absolutely murdered myself. I would be at the prior breaking point in my previous ruetine the ENTIRE workout no breaks. In 2 months I was skipping 30 minutes straight full speed with only a handful of mistakes and could never get tired. My lungs literally would never gas. It would be my legs that would get tired.

I was also living an active lifestyle since it was summer. I dropped down to 7% bodyfat as well and I previously thought that was impossible. I really believe I have naturally bad cardio though. For instance...I had to get back to school work and my training regime changed...I kept a perfect diet and was fairly active but I was back to gassing at the speed of light within a month.

There is a test if you want to check your lung capacity, ive done it before...I did it in the hospital, you enter this dome thing and breath into a tube and they do a series of tests to measure...mine is a bit below average. Another tidbit...I have a low heartrate naturally and low blood pressure. It runs in the family...I never have a heart rate above 45 beats a minute and when im in shape that goes to 38. You mentioned high blood pressure so maybe there is some connection..no idea.

Everyone isnt built equal...some people are just all around gimped but perhaps there is something you have that makes up for your naturally bad cardio? For instance I am not a fast runner...but i am incredibly quick up close and always was. When I played football as a kid it was soo easy...I rarely played but when I did I would be better then anyone who actually played the game...I didnt see the need to find an opening and run through...I could beat everyone one on one by fakeing them out.

I could also juggle a soccer ball 800 times before it hit the ground when I was 9 years old. After not touching a ball for years I picked up a soccer ball and juggled 1000 times a month ago at my brothers game...so im really really coordinated as well. I had the fastest most coordinated feet my age in a city of a million people when I used to play soccer for our city team.

Cardio is somewhat god given but so is everything else. Work on your weaknesses as much as you can but dont let the fact that you dont have as much in the cardio department piss you off and let you feel weak. Just identify what advantages you have over other people and im sure you will feel better. It frustrated me alot too but the I was reminded very few have my coordination and quickness.

[MillyTheKid]

yea if you dont exercise frequently dont expect to have good cardio...

[J Storm]

thanks for the replies

[hathats]

I had shitty cardio when I was playing basketball semi professionally 25hours a day. Still I was average in the 400m in the team and good in the 100m 200m but boy can I never run a sub 8 minute 2000m if you gave me a million.

There's definitely a large genetic component.

[Yep.]

Everyone's road to improvement is going to be different, and just because you start in last place doesn't mean that you can't end in first place if you work hard enough.

Compare a person with normal thought patterns to a person with dyslexia, for example. If you took these two people and tried to teach them something over a long period of time, the person with dyslexia is going to start out really shitty. But given enough time, the person with dyslexia may eventually be able to comprehend things that someone with normal thinking may never be able to.

Cardio really is no different. I remember when I played high school basketball and we went and ran out on the track, my running was way shittier than everyone else's, but I constantly looked for ways to improve little things that I did here and there and did it my own way until I was finally able to keep up.

It's all about being able to constantly defeat yourself and not necessarily trying to compare your progress to someone else, which is usually the case for many many different things. Keep trying to do better than what you did the last time and eventually you will end up where you want to be.

[Gary Peters]

Naturally horrible cardio... translates to... I don't work hard enough.