Weight Training VS Cardio

Ever since I was a fairly young child, I worried about weight. Who didn't, in such a media-obsessed, shallow country as the USA? If you're the fat kid in school, your life is it's own circle of hell. I was never a "fat" kid, but I usually got chubby and then grew, chubby and grew. When I was 9 years old, I got my tonsils out. As a result I lost a significant amount of weight, and asked my mother how I could stay skinny forever. Her answer "diet and exercise." So I vowed to exercise from then on.

I didn't actually start trying to exercise until I hit 17 years old. I started running on the treadmill. In my then-opinion, that's how you exercised. I didn't even realize that women could lift weights, I don't think weight training even crossed my mind. I've come a long way since then.

Getting into Personal Training, my view on fitness and exercise has vastly improved. I have studied, researched, and listened to peers in the field. One of the most fascinating discoveries I ever made on my journey to becoming a Personal Trainer, was how useless Cardiovascular exercise was compared to Weight Training in every single fitness category aside from Heart Health. How can this be? It's a similar concept to why long distance running isn't as effective as sprinting. Cardio burns fat and muscle and only burns calories during the actual act.

Weight training builds muscle. Each pound of Muscle burns 50 calories. Each pound of fat burns 5. Imagine if you build just 10 lbs of muscle, you are burning 500 calories per day MORE than you were before. That means you could sit at your desk at work, and breath, and you will burn 500 extra calories per day, giving you weight loss/fat loss without lowering your caloric intake by 1 calorie. Just think about that the next time you want to hop on the treadmill and do 30 minutes of cardio (typically burns about 150-300 calories).

If you consume a proper recovery drink/meal within 15 minutes of weight training, you significantly increase the amount of muscle you can build and prevent soreness of the muscles. My friend, Jake , recommends a recovery drink called Endurox.

So my recommendation? Weight training is FAR more important than cardio as far as weight loss is concerned. However, cardio is important for the health of your heart, so don't cut it out completely. Just make weight training your primary form of exercise, and supplement cardio on the days you can't weight train. If you read the following article, it has a similar viewpoint to mine, and it includes a sample workout I think is a great idea.

http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/lynn-vandyke/cardio-vs-strength-training.html

**I hope this article was helpful and informative. Any questions and thoughts on the matter are always appreciated, so leave a comment if you have anything you'd like to add.**