Ah, cardio or cardio wherefore art thou Cardio! The lovers of drama will get this reference.
If you are looking to get the ‘all-year-round beach bod’, cardio and strength training can help with weight loss.
Both are effective for keeping body fat to a minimum (but only if you are adjusting your eating habits as well – remember you cannot out-train a bad diet!), but which one offers the best, fastest and lasting results?
Cardio training is any exercise that raises your heart rate. Cardio does burn more calories per session. Longer cardio sessions (more than 30min) can burn between 400-800 calories, depending on the workout length and intensity. Even gender plays a role in the amount of calories burned. Body size is another factor. The more you weigh, the more calories you’ll lose in a cardio workout.
Weight training is a physical workout that involves lifting weights or using your body weight. Weight training, to me, is a non-negotiable part of weight loss as it helps you burn more calories on a regular basis.
Lifting weights elevates your metabolism longer, which increases your long-term calorie burn.
After you put your dumbbells down, there’s a metabolic spike as your body works hard to repair your muscles. Research shows that your metabolism can be boosted for up to 30 hours post-workout.
This is because most calories burnt in a day aren’t through activity, but through your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Meaning the bigger muscles you have, the more calories you are burning by doing nothing (well, not nothing obviously!).
Who doesn’t want to sit on the sofa, watching Netflix and burning calories?????
Muscle burns more calories resting than your body’s fat tissues. So, if you burned 200 calories lifting weights it’ll be about 250 overall thanks to the afterburn! Did I just blow your mind?
Cardio may shred weight, but weight training is designed to preserve your RMR by preserving your lean body mass, which affects the number of calories burnt in a 24-hour day away from physical activity.
I’m not saying that weight lifting is better than cardio and vice versa. But I’m saying that if you combine those two – you get the best of both worlds!
To prove my point – try this cardio with 10 moves followed by the same moves with dumbbells. After you are done, let me know which one sucked the most…
Do each move for 60s and repeat.
- Chest Open Jack
- Jack Uppercut
- 1-2-3 Knee
- Cross Jack
- High Knee Jab
- Medicine Ball twist
- 4 Jabs – 4 High Knees
- Plyo Power Knee R
- Plyo power Knee L
- Scissor Stance Plyo Jack
Round 1 Cardio with no weights
Round 2 Cardio with weights
Round 3 Cardio with no weights
Round 4 Cardio with weights
Please make sure the dumbells are not too heavy to avoid injuries. Keep your abs tight (suck your belly button into your spine) and slow down the moves if you need to.
If you need to modify, take out all the jumps.
Enjoy!