Unravelling the timeless question – Should I focus on weights or cardio?
Weights or Cardio?
Weight training offers various benefits for muscle development and calorie burn. By stimulating muscle growth through resistance training, you increase muscle mass, leading to a more efficient calorie burn, even at rest. Cardio exercises like running or cycling promote a healthy heart, enhance cardiovascular endurance, and effectively burn calories, making them ideal for weight management. Incorporating both weight training and cardio into your routine can help you achieve your fitness goals, improving muscle growth and cardiovascular health while maximizing calorie burning potential.
Calorie Burning with Weight Training
Weight training may not burn as many calories as cardio workouts, but it offers several unique advantages. By engaging in weight training, you can build more muscle, which is a calorific process. Since muscles burn calories even at rest, weight training can potentially increase your overall calorie expenditure and boost metabolism. Furthermore, the development of lean muscle mass through weight training can greatly enhance your quality of life. Additionally, incorporating High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) into your routine can provide similar benefits to traditional cardio exercises but in a shorter amount of time. For optimal calorie burning, a combination of various exercise types is recommended. Alongside its calorie-burning benefits, anaerobic exercises like strength training can also help reduce the risk of conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Therefore, integrating a well-rounded fitness regimen that includes both cardio and weight training can maximize your calorie burn and promote overall health and well-being.
Calorie Burning with Cardio
Cardio workouts, such as jogging, have the advantage of burning more calories compared to weight training. For instance, if you weigh around 73 kg, a 30-minute session of jogging at a moderate pace can help you burn approximately 250 calories. If you increase your running speed to about 6 miles per hour, you could burn around 365 calories within the same duration. These calorie-burning rates are higher than what you would typically achieve through weight training. However, it’s important to note that weight training offers other benefits, such as muscle development, which can contribute to an increased calorie burn even at rest. Therefore, while cardio exercises may provide a higher calorie expenditure during the actual workout, weight training can still play a valuable role in boosting metabolism and overall calorie burn. Finding a balance between the two can yield optimal results in achieving your fitness goals.
Benefits of both
Engaging in regular weight training offers a multitude of benefits beyond calorie burn. Firstly, weight training contributes to improved heart health by strengthening the heart muscle and enhancing cardiovascular function. While weight training may take a bit longer to show visible fat loss compared to cardio, it plays a crucial role in promoting muscle gain, which can lead to an overall transformation of body composition. Moreover, weight training has notable mental benefits and can significantly improve mental health by reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, boosting self-esteem, and enhancing cognitive function. Importantly, you can incorporate both weight training and cardio into your fitness routine without compromising strength gains, as supported by Schumann et al.’s findings in 2021. By integrating both forms of exercise, you can optimize your physical and mental well-being, achieving a well-rounded approach to fitness and overall health. However, finding what may be better or what you could do first all depends on your personal fitness goals.
What to do first?
For jumpers and sprinters, avoiding both weight training and cardio in the same session preserves explosive strength. However, for others, the choice depends on their specific fitness goals. Weight training is ideal for building muscle, while cardio benefits cardiovascular health and calorie burn. Personal preferences and objectives should guide the decision to include either or both exercises in a well-rounded fitness routine.
- Trying to Build Muscle?
When your primary objective is to build muscle, strategically placing cardio exercises after weight training sessions is a key tactic to achieve optimal results. The reasoning behind this approach lies in the importance of preserving your physical and mental resources for the critical phase of muscle-building during weightlifting.
- For Maximal Strength Gains?
When your goal is to increase maximal strength, it’s recommended to prioritize weightlifting and perform cardio exercises after your strength training session. This sequencing allows you to optimize your performance during the crucial phase of lifting heavy weights, which is essential for building strength.
- If Your Goal Is To Improve Your Endurance And Aerobic Capacity?
If your main goal is to increase endurance and aerobic capacity, it’s advisable to begin your workout with cardio exercises. When cardio is prioritized at the beginning of your session, you can fully utilize your body’s energy reserves and focus on developing your cardiovascular system’s capacity and efficiency.
- What Do I Do First If I’m Training For General Fitness?
If your main goal is general fitness and overall health, the order of exercises (whether cardio or weight training first) becomes less critical. Engaging in both cardio and weight training provides numerous benefits for your physical and mental well-being, contributing to a well-rounded fitness routine.
- What Do I Do First for Weight Loss?
When it comes to weight loss, the order of doing strength training or cardio exercises is generally not a critical factor in determining overall fat loss. Both forms of exercise contribute to calorie burn and can aid in weight loss if your diet is in good shape. Calories are not the key, what we eat is the key. It is tough but simply cut out completely; processed foods, wheat (all glutin), carbs in any form, but get your meat intake going, this will complement the work you are doing in the gym and help you achieve your goals.
In conclusion, the choice between weight training and cardio largely depends on your specific fitness goals. Weight training can promote muscle development and increase calorie burn at rest, while cardio is effective for burning more calories during the exercise itself. However, for general fitness and health, incorporating both weight training and cardio into your routine is beneficial, regardless of the order. For maximal strength gains, prioritize weightlifting, and for improved endurance and aerobic capacity, begin with cardio exercises. When training for weight loss, the key factor is maintaining a good diet that is short in carbs and processed foods, and both types of exercise can contribute to this goal.