Eri Redmond, SPENGA Wheat Ridge Lead Instructor
(As seen in West Highland Living Magazine)
There are many options when it comes to fitness, it can be hard to know exactly what to do to reach your goals. The good news is, no matter if you’re looking to lose weight, build muscle, increase endurance or simply maintain your current fitness level, combining cardio and strength training will help you get there.
Often people will focus on one of the other, here are the top three reasons you need an equal focus on both:
1) Cardio training helps your body perform better
There is so much happening inside your body during cardiovascular exercise. Not only are your endorphins pumping, giving you that feeling of adrenaline and accomplishment, but you’re improving your overall health, too. According to WebMd, your body is thriving in a plethora of ways during cardio exercises:
- Your heart pumps more efficiently.
- Your lungs work better.
- Your resting heart rate is lowered.
- Your heart pumps out more blood.
- Your muscles get stronger.
- Your ligaments, tendons, and bones get stronger.
- Your body is more able to use fat as an energy source.
If that wasn’t enough, the more cardio training you do, the longer you’ll be able to perform high intensity exercises and, in turn, life’s daily tasks will get easier.
Improvements in your cardiovascular health make tasks that may have spiked your heart rate in the past — such as carrying in the groceries, shoveling snow off the sidewalk or even just picking up your child — no longer seem as tasking.
2) Strength training helps you burn calories long after your workout
With cardio exercises, the caloric effect is relatively immediate. But, when your cardio workout is done and your heart rate has stabilized, the bulk of your caloric burn is over. While you will continue to burn calories after, studies have shown strength training has a longer lingering effect.
With weight training, your body will continue to burn calories a little longer after you’ve put down your weights. This is called EPOC — an acronym for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption — or more commonly known as the “afterburn.” It refers to the increase of oxygen your body consumes as well as the calories the body burns in order to recover from a workout. EPOC can last as long as 48 hours post-workout.
3) Strength training can help prevent injury
Injuries are the result of muscular imbalances, and the only way to find balance is to strengthen muscles.
Lifting weights will help strengthen your muscles and — when done properly — will help stabilize your joints and connective tissues, too. The stronger you get, the less you’ll have to worry about throwing out your back from picking up your children or rolling your ankle on a hike.
Cardio and strength training go hand-in-hand to help you achieve your fitness goals. While we may prefer one over the other, we need both.
Bonus Tip: Add in equal amounts of flexibility and stretching and you are well on your way to a balanced fitness journey!!
