Cardio is Good, but Strength Training is King

Here’s a great article from Men’s Health titled, ​15 Reasons Lifting Is Better Than Cardio.  Using a food analogy, the article compares strength training to the main course and cardio to a side dish.

• Strength training is better for building and strengthening muscle, and also improves joint and connective tissue strength.
• Strength training is better for boosting your metabolism, and the effect persists longer into the post-workout (rest) phase.
• Strength training is better for improving mobility and range-of-motion.
• Strength training is better for reducing the risk of injury.
• Strength training will make you look better.
• Strength training provides way more variety.
• Strength training helps us reverse the effects of aging and increase longevity.

If you love your cardio, stick with it.  You don’t necessarily have to do strength training instead of cardio.

Identify your goals, develop an exercise/workout plan that’s consistent with those goals, and get in the weight room.

Get STRONGER, Get FASTER!

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Lift Weights to Burn More Fat

If you want to get lean, weight training is the way to go, according to a recent University of South Carolina study.

In the study, researchers concluded that weight training may work better than cardio, to burn fat.

Over the course of a year, overweight people who lifted weights lost more body fat than those who ran.

Additionally, the weightlifters experienced an increase in “functional capacity” (the ability to perform everyday tasks), which may have led to a surge in their daily activities and calories burned.

Compound movements – those that engage multiple joints and muscle groups – yield the best return on your exercise investment, as compared to isolation exercises.

Try to get in the weight room 2-3 times a week.  You don’t necessarily have to eliminate your cardio training altogether, but you can train smarter by incorporating more high-intensity interval cardio training and reducing the slow, steady stuff.

Get STRONGER, Get FASTER!

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10 Rules of Life and Lifting

Get STRONGER, Get FASTER!

Your thoughts?