Thoughts on cardio/met-con training

I guess it really all comes down to what your goals are, as with everything in life!

Do you go out and jog/run for 30 minutes or more 5 days a week?
Do you jog/run different time or length intervals each week?
Are you a cyclist?
Do you perform sprint intervals or HIIT sessions?
Do you jump rope?
Do you walk/run stairs?
Do you hop one of the many cardio machines at the local globo gym for an hour at a snails pace?
Do you perform prowler/sled drags & pushes?
Do you use rower machines?

I think you get my point, now if you perform any one of these(or something I havent mentioned), why?

Are you an athlete preparing or maintaining for your sport?
Are you trying to lose weight or body fat?
Are you trying to improve your cardio respirtory health(dr's orders)?
Are you just doing what you have been lead to believe is what everyone should be doing?

In my time being a strength & conditioning coach I have only come across a few people who perform cardio for exactly the right reasons. The marathon runner training for mileage pace, the cyclist finding the groove, the competive bodybuilder losing bodyfat, the fighter building up endurance. With athletes though, the only thing you need to make sure of is that your sport specific endurance training, the football player should not be running 50 miles a week.

As for the rest of you, why are you doing the cardio training that you are? why do overweight new moms take 30 minute slow walks around the park to regain their youthful body? Why do older people wearing knee braces go on hour long runs at max effort? why does the younger generation insist that a slow, long walk on a treadmill while they text is true cardio? And when you ask anyone one of them why they are doing what they are doing its always the same, it's what I've always done or the magazines said this was best or my dr told me to exercise more!

I think there tends to be more myths around cardio training then any other aspect of fitness. For the most part, the general public is wrong with their cardio training for what their goals are. None of them take the time to learn what will actually help them reach their goals or what they really need to do is hard work(always the latter), for some reason most americans always take the easy route which actually leads them nowhere anyways!

My only response to all this is for everyone to actually do some research based on their goals. Just because one place tells you this is what works, doesnt mean it's gonna work for you!