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I tend to put myself into a caloric deficit using my diet and not cardio. That is my personal choice. If you mix cardio in while you’re trying to lose weight you can afford to add more calories (and thus more pleasure to your existence) to your daily diet. However, if you add cardio without compensating with calories you will drop weight more rapidly than intended (unless that IS what you intended) at the expense of your muscle mass. If you are a cardiophile (someone who loves cardio) then I am not the best person to ask for detailed advice on the subject, but I intend to bring on some high quality runners who can give this population some good advice in a future guest post. If you have read my past posts you have likely noted that I firmly believe the best way to a fit body is to add lean muscle mass (men and women) which increases your basal metabolism and numerous studies have shown resistance training to increase your life expectancy and also the life expectancy of your bones/joints. From an orthopedic (bone/joint) standpoint if you strengthen the muscles around the joints/bones then you are strengthening the joint itself and lowering your risk of joint/bone injury. For aging men and women, resistance training has been shown to help stave off osteoporosis (demineralization and weakening of the bones, more significantly impacts post-menopausal women and women in general). Studies have also shown that those individuals with less body fat and more muscle in their trunk/core have a higher probability of surviving a car crash. These are just a few of the many benefits that resistance training provides.
I honestly hate running…if you see me running you should probably run faster than me in the same direction because something unpleasant is chasing me.
I have nothing against cardio and, in fact, I encourage everyone to try and mix LOW-IMPACT cardio (swimming, elliptical, etc.) into their fitness regimen somehow (as long as it isn’t at the expense of your main workouts) because being in good cardiovascular shape is also very important for your longevity. This would generally require only LIGHT cardio if you do so before your workouts vs. saving cardio for a different day entirely vs. doing cardio after your workouts. I have seen far too many patients (and friends/family) with injuries from repetitive high impact activities on the joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments. You also have to remember, if you lift really heavy, this is considered high impact on your joints as well. Even if you LOVE cardio, you should be including resistance training in your fitness journey for many reasons (above and below). I recommend HIIT (high intensity interval training) or some version of it. This gives you the best of both worlds (cardiovascular endurance and fat torching muscle growth). You may have to build up to it depending on your level of workout experience. This can be accomplished at a basic level by simply doing supersets (like I do in my workout post). Anything that gets your heart rate elevated while utilizing resistance training should suffice. By definition HIIT is periods of high intensity exercise (elevated heart rate – usually a mix of cardio and resistance training) followed by periods of rest.
Are you a woman? Good, listen up. Resistance exercise is important for you too! I have used the “your body is a furnace” analogy over and over again for a reason, because its the easiest way to grasp the reality of the situation. Your body is also a wonderland…but John Mayer already covered that. You are NOT going to look like she-hulk if you utilize resistance exercise (weightlifting for instance). It almost always requires some help from the pharmaceutical department to look like that. You ARE going to look more toned and fit. You ARE going to burn more calories at rest the more muscle you have on your frame (more muscle = larger furnace = more fuel required = less fat). Resistance exercises are great for fortifying your cleavage (making your breasts more perky and appear larger) and getting that oh-so-sought-after booty (I hear butts are in now?). Those are just two (of many) examples of the benefits of resistance exercise in females specifically (see first paragraph for a few more reasons to utilize resistance exercises). If done right, resistance exercises can actually burn more calories than a ton of cardio because resistance exercises burn calories for hours/days whereas cardio is fairly instantaneous.
Have you ever compared a long distance runner to a sprinter? You will notice that the sprinter is more “muscular” or “fit” appearing. The reason for this is because we have two types of muscle fibers that make up most of our skeletal muscles. There are slow twitch (type 1) muscle fibers that use oxygen as fuel (aerobic). These muscle fibers are what long distance runners predominately have. Then we have fast twitch muscle fibers (type 2a and 2b) that use anaerobic (non-oxygen) means of fuel. Our sprinters, bodybuilders and many professional athletes have a vast majority of fast twitch fibers and they are more prone to hypertrophy (swelling of the muscle fiber = what all bodybuilders aim for). If your aiming for aesthetics (visual appearance) and strength/speed (for men AND women) then you’ll want to train your fast twitch muscle fibers by utilizing resistance training.
As you can see, I tend to have a bias toward resistance training vs cardio. That bias is both personal preference and comes from a long history of researching the topic (pros and cons as discussed above). It seems like the benefits of resistance training outnumber those of cardio, plus the aesthetic appeal of those who utilize resistance training seems to be more broadly preferred over those who are strict cardio athletes (lets face it, we are all susceptible to vanity). However, I do still hold cardiovascular health in high regard and encourage everyone to find a way to incorporate some form of low-impact cardio into their fitness regimen (and do some cardio for me while you’re at it please). I do so by utilizing supersets and HIIT, but I wouldn’t say I’m in great cardiovascular shape and I could still use a little more dedicated cardiovascular training in order to maximize my health and fitness. It’s not all about how you look and your body fat percentage (although that is what we tend to focus on when talking about health and fitness), cardiovascular health is also a very important measure of overall health and can help you live longer and stave off heart attacks and strokes. Both types of exercise release feel-good endorphins and can help with things like stress and depression, but from what I recall cardio releases slightly more endorphins. No matter what our reasons are for wanting to be (and look) fit, we can all agree that part of the reason is overall health, even if that particular reason can often times take a backseat to vanity.
My ultimate advice for both men and women looking to improve their fitness is to focus on resistance training (weight lifting) and utilize HIIT or specific cardio days to improve your cardiovascular health as well. If you are just starting out and/or only have time to focus on one, I would recommend resistance training first. This gives you a solid muscular base from which to build up to adding cardio to your plan. If you are a die hard cardio person then I intend to have advice for you in a future guest post.
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