Weight training & cardio – both forms of physical training have been gaining traction for quite some time now given that the World Health Organisation recommends 30 minutes of exercise everyday & people have started focussing on their health. During this Pandemic, physical exercise becomes all the more important. Specifically, so called fitness experts have been propagating on anaerobic training more as compared to aerobic training.
Both forms of training are equally important. Every individual is unique & so are their fitness goals. The person sitting next to you may want to build an athlete physique while you may want to shed some extra fat. We each have a distinct goal. While we each want to achieve our sustainable fitness goal quickly, it is impossible to compare ourselves to our fitness pal or next door neighbour. The following paragraphs will discuss in detail the impact of both forms of training on our body & evaluate if both can co-exist in your fitness plan or you adopt one path & stick to it. Although we have discussed various body types in our previous blog, we are going to stress upon it with respect to both forms of training.
Let us start with strength training!
Under strength training, we use resistance to stimulate the muscles resulting in increase in strength, anaerobic endurance & size of skeletal muscles. It is commonly propagated as weight training & you must have heard gym trainers telling you you have to pick weights to build muscles. However, it can also be done using your own body weight (so do not take it as a standard rule that weight training can be done only by picking weights & ditch all the trainers who are misleading you). The way your body is composed will be determined by the type of strength training you do. Someone who does calisthenics workout using body weights) would have a different physique as compared to someone else who lifts heavy weights & aspires to become a bodybuilder. Similarly, someone who wants to become an athlete would have a different training structure as compared to someone else who wants to shed weight. Body builders aim to get good proportional muscle growth across the body while those who are doing calisthenics will use their own body weight for workout. Lot of studies have proven that resistance training is really helpful for weight loss & preventing negative changes in body composition. Even at low to medium intensity, resistance training is effective in building muscle mass & strength and reducing fat mass/percentage without impacting insulin sensitivity specifically in case of those suffering from type 2 diabetes.
If your goal is increasing strength & muscle mass, resistance training is required. However, balancing the time commitments with health benefits, it appears that aerobic training alone is a perfect workout technique to reduce fat mass & overall body mass. We will now discuss cardiovascular exercise since your body composition is closely linked to your fitness goals. Some folks want to have that ripped muscular big physique and do strength training to achieve it while others want to be toned & lean. It all comes to what you want to achieve & how you will go about achieving it. Building your training plan aligned with the physique you want to build is vital.
Cardio workouts!
Cardio workout or aerobic training varies from low to high intensity and it involves pumping oxygenated blood into muscles. It stimulates heart rate & increases your breath. It can be performed in a variety of ways – running, swimming, jogging, cycling & rowing. We all can benefit from including cardio in our training program. Your body composition will vary depending on the type of cardio you choose to do. Long distance runners are slim with little or no muscle & body fat while sprinters on the other hand are more muscular. It is important to note that there are slim & tall people who seldom run so we cannot generalise by saying that if you are built in a specific way, you should do specific exercises. There is no one physique that can define a person who can do cardio workout because it is dependent on the exercise you perform or sports you compete in. For instance, cyclists do most of their work with their legs. Even though they are slimmer & tender, their legs are built for power.
Strength training vs cardio!
Cardio workout has been the most adopted workout for people looking to lose weight & most of them are nervous to add up strength or weight training with the fear that they may bulk up quickly or look like a bodybuilder. However, this is a false assumption since this is very unlikely to happen if you are doing the right exercise. A recent study found that 12 miles of running or walking per week was highly effective in reducing body fat compared to resistance training without cardio. Excess cardio however is linked with muscle loss as well as fat loss which may not go well with people looking to build some muscular physique while cutting fat (lean built). So we have people at both ends of the spectrum – those who exercise to lose weight & those who want to both build muscle & lose fat. So how can you balance the two.
One of great ways to burn fat, be lean & muscular is Metabolic Resistance Training-MRT (please do not mistake it for HIIT). You can find more about MRT here. This requires you to do a circuit of high intensity exercises with a short break between exercises. This is less likely to reduce muscle mass since it is similar to strength training. Your body type & strength training are not enemies. Strength training makes sense as you will reach plateau too soon otherwise. You should strive to keep pushing your body to the next level.
Role of nutrition & genetics
So what we eat plays the most important role in getting the body structure & physique that aligns with our fitness goal. So if you want to build muscles, you cannot achieve it just by having 3 meals a day unless you get nutrients from other sources. Bodybuilders are generally focussed & have a clean diet with many meals in a day. Our body uses this food as fuel to generate energy. So if we are training hard, having multiple meals a day is not going to put on fat mass since our body is using this food to build muscles & burn energy. However if you are training moderately, about 3 times a week, you should limit your calorie intake else it will lead to fat stores & fat gain.
Besides, our genetic predisposition to training & muscle fibre types also plays an important role. Normally if you are power responders, we recommend training with heavier weights at lower repetition. However if you are genetically predisposed to endurance,we recommend moderate weights & more repetitions. If your muscle fibre is equally distributed, you would do well with an equal mix of both forms of training.
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