cardio vs. strength training...article

Thanks for posting that. It is really interesting. I still think that every body responds differently. But, it really does show you that you always have to do cardio regardless of how much weight training you do. I love cardio so that works for me:)

Susan
 
I second the interesting article comment. I always wondered about the post workout calorie burn amount for strength training. Melissa
 
"But first, eat less." Yup, and ya gotta, ya gotta, ya gotta eat less! Even with "clean" eating, you can't eat unlimited amounts.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." Mark Twain ;-)
 
What about health? Everyone says that cardio is the way to go to lose weight. Yeah, we knew that. But, isn't this much more than weight loss to most of us? It's about improving our health as well. Running without weight training is pretty much begging for injury for most of us. Weight training also helps a lot with our day to day activities. If we're trying to get America up off the sofa, yeah, I totally agree with this article - cardio is the way to go to start. But, once you're doing cardio fairly regularly, you need to add strength training or you lose so much.
 
Very intelligent article. Thanks for sharing!

Also: I'm ROTFLMAO at Michele's reaction, and definitely agreeing with Chrisine.

Comment for HB: It's not so much eating LESS as it is eating fewer calories. I eat like an elephant: tons of veggies and fruit. The quantity is huge, but the calories are low. If you can control your portions, more power to ya. I prefer calorie control over portion control because I suck at portion control. It works really well.

-Nancy
 
A couple of quick examples of foods considered "clean": Brown rice, potatoes, white or yams. It's very easy to eat too much of stuff like that. Body builders certainly eat "clean," but they also put on weight. My point was: even if you eat "clean," you can still gain weight, or not be able to lose weight.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." Mark Twain ;-)
 
Well, my personal experience my be anecdotal, but when I increased my running mileagel to train for my marathon, I turned into a mushy flabby mess.

After my marathon, within in a very short period of time (like two or three weeks) after resuming my strength work, I got smaller and toned.

Concentrating on aerobics doesn't work for me. I have tried and tried because I do so love to run. It's so much easier than getting out all that equipment.

And, articles like this with the message "increasing muscle mass is so difficult and really doesn't help you lose weight, although you SHOULD be adding strength training to get a well-balanced fitness routine" do nothing but discourage "uneducated" women from lifting heavy weights which drive me crazy. (Whew! That was a long sentence!)

I see it in my friends who are approaching 40. They're turning softer as they age, even the ones who go to the gym. My DH always comments about this. He says "They LOOK like they're almost 40, but you don't." Ah, gotta love him.
 
I guess the "take home" message I got was not to suspend weight training, but to not depend on that as the primary way to lose weight. I think the trend more and more has to promote weight training more, but this article reminds us that the equation is still "calories in, calories out."

More and more publications have been embracing interval training for cardio as better for calorie burning and conditioning over "steady state" cardio.

I've been watching "So You Think You Can Dance," and one thing that jumps out at me is how the dancers look. The ones that made the final 20 have really good bodies. We all know what ballet dancers look like, certainly not "a mushy flabby mess," and they don't lift weights. I'd love to know how the dancers on the show train.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." Mark Twain ;-)
 
Actually, these days many professional dancers use strength training as a way to prevent injuries (or once they're recovering from injuries). It's a way to increase your longevity in the profession. Also, ballet is not strictly cardio--there's a lot of stretching and holding of positions, which I am willing to bet works on muscle strength. So it's not the same as lifting weights, but it's not quite pure cardio either.
 
Well, in strength training's defense, I think we can all agree that most Cathe workouts move MUCH faster than a lazy weight workout at the gym. So......it becomes a bit more aerobic, which ups the calorie burn.

I don't feel guilty at all for atleast putting in two total body weight workouts a week. But I do think that really is all you need for weight loss (that and five cardio workouts per week and eating a bit less). Unless, of course, you want to look like Cathe.:9
 
>Well, my personal experience my be anecdotal, but when I
>increased my running mileagel to train for my marathon, I
>turned into a mushy flabby mess.
>
>And, articles like this with the message "increasing muscle
>mass is so difficult and really doesn't help you lose weight,
>although you SHOULD be adding strength training to get a
>well-balanced fitness routine" do nothing but discourage
>"uneducated" women from lifting heavy weights which drive me
>crazy. (Whew! That was a long sentence!)
>


I totally agree with this. There should have been some mention about how strength training IS important to fend off osteoporosis and body aches, or something. GRRRRRR
 
janice-
I agree totally! Also it doesnt talk about how every body responds differently, personally in the last 5 years my cardio needs are down and my strength needs are way up.... this is helping with gravity, weight loss, osteoperosis, and leveling my hormones. All the cardio I use to do suddenly started messing w/ my hormones because I just could not eat enough calories to keep up w/ the daily burn.
I sure wish evry article wroitten by "experts" would start off with :
EVERY BODY IS DIFFERENT! No 1 thing is true for every body!

Glad thats off my chest!
 
While I totally agree that everyone is different it is good to put out correct and recent info regarding the health benefits of exercise and dispel any myths that persist. I would never, never tell a client or anyone for that matter that strength training is not important. In fact, I feel like I'm advising people to do more ST all the time. But, we should know that having muscle does not mean that you're burning tons of calories at rest like previously thought. The advantages of ST are many, but burning lots of calories at rest is not one of them. There is also some new and researched info regarding stretching myths. DH is always keeping up on new research(he's a physical therapist and CSCS). Anyway, it seems that static stretching before working out or competing may hinder performance. They are now advocating stretching after working out or competing as opposed to doing it before hand. This probably won't change many people from doing what they are used to doing, but it's interesting nonetheless.

C
 
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