If you're trying to lose weight, which type of exercise do you think will be most effective, cardiovascular (cardio) training or strength training? Like most people, you may be surprised to hear that when done properly, strength training can actually help you lose weight faster than cardio sessions.
The notion that strength training is better for weight loss will come as a surprise to many people.
It seems we're conditioned to focus on the number of calories we burn by doing different activities, but with this kind of thinking, we may be missing some important pieces of the overall picture.
Let's start out by looking at the calories burned in a variety of cardio-oriented exercises.
This type of moderate-intensity strength training session that focuses on small groups of muscles won't help you much if you're trying to lose weight.
You need to adopt a different approach to your strength training.
For maximum fat-burning effectiveness, your strength training workout should consist primarily of exercises that work large groups of muscles.
An example of such an exercise is the Squat to Press, where you hold dumbbells at shoulder height, perform a squat, then when you get to standing, you immediately press the weights above your head.
When you link a series of these exercises into circuits, taking very little rest between sets, you get an intense workout that exhausts nearly every muscle in your body.
Not resting between sets will cause your heart rate and respiration to increase, making it into a cardio workout as well, causing you to burn far more calories.
The major benefit of this kind of training, however, comes after the workout.
With your cardio workout, your metabolism speeds up while you're exercising and for the hour or two you spend recovering, but the high-intensity strength training workout gives you a metabolic boost that lasts for up to two days.
Since you've exhausted all those muscles, your body needs to work at repairing them, which in itself burns calories.
Another benefit of strength training is that by adding lean muscle to your body, you will increase your Resting Metabolic Rate.
Since your body works harder to maintain muscle, you'll burn more calories even while you're resting.
Furthermore, strength training helps you function better in your everyday activities and whatever sports you participate in.
It's definitely a win-win situation.
This is not to say that you should drop cardio workouts altogether.
Both types of training have many health benefits and you should really incorporate both into an overall fitness program that makes overall health the number one priority and includes proper nutrition.
Whatever program you choose to follow, strength training should definitely be on your exercise agenda.
The notion that strength training is better for weight loss will come as a surprise to many people.
It seems we're conditioned to focus on the number of calories we burn by doing different activities, but with this kind of thinking, we may be missing some important pieces of the overall picture.
Let's start out by looking at the calories burned in a variety of cardio-oriented exercises.
- bicycle at 6 mph (approx.
10 km/h): 280 calories. - bicycle at 12 mph (approx.
19 km/h): 478 calories. - jog at 5.
5 mph (approx.
9 km/h): 863 calories. - swim at 25 yds.
/min.
(approx.
23 m/min.
): 320 calories. - swim at 50 yds.
/min.
(approx.
46 m/min.
): 583 calories. - singles tennis: 466 calories.
- walk at 2 mph (approx.
3.
25 km/h): 280 calories. - walk at 4.
5 mph (approx.
7 km/h): 513 calories.
This type of moderate-intensity strength training session that focuses on small groups of muscles won't help you much if you're trying to lose weight.
You need to adopt a different approach to your strength training.
For maximum fat-burning effectiveness, your strength training workout should consist primarily of exercises that work large groups of muscles.
An example of such an exercise is the Squat to Press, where you hold dumbbells at shoulder height, perform a squat, then when you get to standing, you immediately press the weights above your head.
When you link a series of these exercises into circuits, taking very little rest between sets, you get an intense workout that exhausts nearly every muscle in your body.
Not resting between sets will cause your heart rate and respiration to increase, making it into a cardio workout as well, causing you to burn far more calories.
The major benefit of this kind of training, however, comes after the workout.
With your cardio workout, your metabolism speeds up while you're exercising and for the hour or two you spend recovering, but the high-intensity strength training workout gives you a metabolic boost that lasts for up to two days.
Since you've exhausted all those muscles, your body needs to work at repairing them, which in itself burns calories.
Another benefit of strength training is that by adding lean muscle to your body, you will increase your Resting Metabolic Rate.
Since your body works harder to maintain muscle, you'll burn more calories even while you're resting.
Furthermore, strength training helps you function better in your everyday activities and whatever sports you participate in.
It's definitely a win-win situation.
This is not to say that you should drop cardio workouts altogether.
Both types of training have many health benefits and you should really incorporate both into an overall fitness program that makes overall health the number one priority and includes proper nutrition.
Whatever program you choose to follow, strength training should definitely be on your exercise agenda.
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