Strength vs. Cardio
If you only have time for one or two workouts a week, they have got to be strength.
Why “Strength” over “Cardio”?
Your muscles are the powerhouses of the metabolism and the key to living a vibrant, youthful life, no matter what your age may be.
So why “Strength” over “Cardio”?
There is a Hierarchy of Fitness and “strength” reigns as King, while “cardio” plays the role of a mere peasant. Strength training increases your work capacity to improve the ease at which you can perform daily activities. Strength training will stimulate your body to burn more calories in the hours after your workout than cardio does. A strong body is a youthful body and will help to make you look years younger than you really are. Strong bodies move well and experience less injuries.
While cardio on the other hand slows the bodies metabolism over time, as the body adapts easily to this type of exercise. Cardio does very little to increase work capacity, so while you can run 10 miles easily, carrying a suitcase up a flight of stairs will be exhausting.
Worse yet, excessive cardio will actually age the body due to the oxidative stress it places on the body, as well as and not promote an injury resistent body.
Focus on getting your strength workouts in each week, once you have done three you can still go for a short run or two if you really enjoy your cardio. Keep this order and you will get amazing results and feel wonderful.
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Never Bulk Up Again
If you are afraid to lift weights because you are afraid of bulking up, you need to look at how you eat.
Women need to lift and need to lift heavy weight. Lifting doesn’t not bulk up women; it is poor choices that bulk up women when they lift. Or as Dwight Schrute from the Office puts it, “False, it’s not lifting weights that makes women bulky. It’s eating cupcakes that makes women bulky.”
As much as you may want to believe that you can go out Friday and Saturday night and eat and drink whatever you please and then burn it off in the gym simply doesn’t work. This is why most people fail to see their body change, at least change for the better. You can blame the workout program, but it is really the food and lifestyle habits that need changed.
This does not mean you can never enjoy your favorite foods or have a drink, but they do need to be controlled. Cheat 20% of the time and you should be fine that means 20% of your weekly calories come from “bad” foods and the other 80% come from “good” foods. Tracking it this way for a week usually reveals that you are only eating clean 50-60% of the time, here lies the problem.
And what about alcohol? Keep it to no more than six drinks a week and you will be fine. (Just don’t go out and buy bigger wine glasses.)
Here are three tips to ensure you never bulk up:
- Eat Clean. This means lean proteins, lots of veggies, good quality carbs such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, and whole-wheat pasta (1 cup serving, not 4) make up 80% of your weekly calories.
- Stop The Latte Habit. Drinking calories is the fastest way to pack on extra weight. Lattes, soda, juices, and sports drinks are loaded with sugar and as little as one or two a day can cause you gain weight.
- Lift Three Days A Week. Three 45 minute strength training sessions that focus on total body movements will create changes in your body cardio can never do. In a short time people will begin to notice that something has changed and ask what you are doing different because you look amazing. And if you still would like to do some cardio go for it, just make sure you always get your three strength workouts in each week.
Stop worrying about bulking and start lifting!
If you are interested in seeing our strength training can change your body, get started with our 6-Week “Strong is the New Sexy” Challenge by clicking the link below.
Weekend Warrior Workout – April 7th, 2017
5 Rounds
20 Yard Tire Flip
20 Yard Farmer’s Carry
Enjoy!
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Weekend Warrior Workout – March 31st, 2017
Need a workout this weekend?
Give this weeks “Weekend Warrior Workout” a try.
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5 Fitness Mistakes
With all the conflicting advice and information available on exercise it can be difficult to know what to do and what works best to get into awesome shape, feel good, and have a body that you feel confident in.
Using our 16 years of experience in the fitness industry here are five mistakes we see many people make in their workout and fitness plans.
You Use Exercise As Punishment
Exercise is intended to be a reward for your body. Exercise should be something that makes you feel better, more confident, and add to your life. It should not be beat down that leaves you laying dead on the floor, or as a punishment for what you ate or gaining a few pounds.
You Only Do Cardio and High Intensity Interval Training
While cardio and HIIT can be beneficial and have a place in fitness, when they are the only form of exercise they can hinder your results. Overtime they both will cause a loss in muscle tissue, which leads to increased body fat percentages, and HIIT tends to make you extremely hungry afterward causing you to overeat.
This doesn’t mean that you have to give up your cardio or HIIT, you just need to limit them to 1-2 workouts per week and get in 2-3 total body strength workouts first. Following this order will get better results and create positive change.
You Don’t Eat Enough
You cannot restrict calories forever. Your body needs fuel to power through your workouts and keep everything running like a well oiled machine. When calorie restriction goes too long the body begins to lose muscle and gain body fat, leading to the dreaded skinny fat body type.
Also, as you change your nutritional requirements will change. As you get leaner and stronger your body needs more daily calories and needs a higher daily carb intake.
You Don’t Allow Your Body Time To Rest
Working out every day may work for short period of time, but it soon leads to burn out and an achy, tired body.
Three to four workouts per week is optimal and if you want to add a daily walk or light mobility work that will help you recover faster between workouts. Again as you get stronger you are able to stress the body more each workout and that stress requires more time to recover in order to keep making progress.
You’re Only Focused On Burning Calories
How many calories you burn in your workout plays a very small role in the results you get. It is very easy to get caught up in the calorie burn of your workout and feel the need to do more cardio and HIIT, as those tend to create a higher burn.
You will never out exercise a bad diet. So thinking you can go out drinking and eat bad tonight and then burn it all off in the gym is a recipe for failure. Clean eating done 80% of the time with a few strength workouts each week will beat the pants off of cardio and HIIT workouts when in comes to getting results and decreasing body fat.
Hard work and consistency are important for results, but it has to be the right consistent effort. If you’ve been making any of the above 5 Fitness Mistakes correct them in your routine and watch your results take off!
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How To Effectively Use Your MyZone Heart Rate Monitor
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Weekend Warrior Workout
Own your weekend with this fat torching Kettlebell and Battling Rope Workout!
What You’ll Need:
- Battling Rope
- Kettlebell (12-24 kilos)
- Timer
The Workout:
- 30 Seconds Battling Rope Slams
- 20 Kettlebell Swings
- 10 Kettlebell Goblet Squats
- 5 Kettlebell Clean & Presses
- Rest 60s, Repeat for 5 Rounds
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Do Less, But Better
Do less, but better.
Fitness is the result of quality, not quantity.
It seems like every time you turn on the TV and see something about fitness is a clip of someone punishing themselves in a grueling workout.
Scroll through Instagram and you will find a young 20-something doing some cool looking exercise. While these may look cool and even be appropriate for some clients, it typically isn’t right for the client over 50.
Then you have the promotion of all that matters is calorie burn and heart rate intensity.
None of this is what fitness is about and it is all this false info that is making the general population believe they have to work themselves to exhaustion to get into shape.
You don’t have to workout everyday to get results. Three times per week with an average heart rate in the 60-70s most of the time is perfect.
It is not the workouts intensity or kicking up the cardio that gets results. We see over and over that those who get the best results are those who focus on strength, resting between sets and allowing their heart rates to come back down get leaner and those who don’t lose muscle and gain body fat.
It doesn’t matter how high of a calorie burn you get. The higher the hungrier you get and the more you eat.
Fitness is not a competition. It is about giving you the ability to live your best life and having the energy to be activity and experience all that life has to offer.
Fitness is not a punishment for bad eating. It is a tool for a healthier more active life living on your terms.
In a world full of “experts” we have made fitness much more complicated than it has to be.
If you’d like more information about fitness coaching check us out here:
https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-fitness-kickstart/
Too High, Too Hard, Too Often
Fitness is dose specific and you can get too much of a good thing.
More than 3-4 days a week of strength training doesn’t make you leaner or more muscular. In many cases more than the recommend 3-4 days will cause you to either gain body fat or lose muscle, or both.
Keeping your heart rate in the 80’s and 90’s for the entire workout and not letting it come back down to a resting rate in between sets doesn’t make you more fit. It makes you more hungry and causes you to overeat. Which is counterproductive for weight loss.
High intensity done all the time doesn’t make your body stronger. It causes damage to all of its tissues. There is even evidence beginning to come out that those who do a lot of high-intensity interval training for years on end damage their heart.
Fitness isn’t about burning a high number of calories. It’s about strengthening and improving your body.
Fitness is a lifelong journey where slow and steady wins the race. There can be periods of increased intensity, but they need followed by periods of decreased intensity. If this doesn’t happen the body breaks down, gets injured, and burns out.
Get in three workouts per week, give about 70% effort most of the time and you will see the best results.
If you’d like more information about fitness coaching check us out here:
https://pittsburghnorthfitness.leadpages.co/21-day-fitness-kickstart/