Strength training comparable to cardio in calorie burn?

FORIANN

I didn't used to think that was possible. In the last couple of months though I've been doing about half of my workouts with a HRM and noticed that the strength training that I'm doing is comparable in how many calories I'm burning per minute to the cardio that I do. Now to clarify I do mostly circuit style strength training (ie: do ab work in between pull ups or alternate pushups with lunges, etc). I've also noticed that I tend to bounce up into the anaerobic zone semi frequently when doing strength training, so that might account for it as well. I used to be a firm believer in cardio always being superior to strength training in term of calories burned, but I'm beginning to wonder.

Thoughts???

GetSoda

HRM is useless for strength training. It greatly overestimates. Sorry.

Scubanana7

My Timex Ironman hrm always shows about double the calories burned as my BodyBugg. My weight lifting cals burned are always much lower than my cardio. But I am not doing huge amounts of weights.

Docmahi

if you use a chest strap then the HRM is not worthless, as long as it is scanning very frequently, if its a strap that only scans every min to couple of min then yes it will VASTLY overestimate your burns - if however it scans every few seconds that it is not that inaccurate, but I do think they run high for strength training.

however if you are doing circuit style training and keeping your HR up then you will probably burn as or more calories then certain forms of cardio

cwolfman13

Your calorie burn isn't based on your actual HR. Your HR is used in a formula which also assumes aerobic activity as an indicator of VO2 max. I is your % of VO2 max during an aerobic event that gives you the "burn." Strength training is a piss poor exercise indicating level of VO2 max, thus the formula is flawed with a HRM when used for strength training and therefore highly inaccurate.

It doesn't matter how much you want it to be so, it is not so. Google is your friend, check it out. As GetSoda said, sorry.

aelunyu

Everyone's generally right. The acute calorie burn from weight training is probably not comparable to duration cardio, but like HIIT and other rather intense cardio protocols, there are other residual and left-over implications to the form of cardio you're doing. Recovery and repair of tissue, increased muscle density, and enhanced passive metabolism from these factors and other all will work towards a higher calorie burn at rest. VO2 max is a measure of acute energy expenditure. Though I think 45 minutes of a circuit training protocol like crossfit would generally outburn 45 minutes of jogging, even in the acute phase.