Why is weight training not considered cardio??

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  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
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    LittleQuelie wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    LittleQuelie wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    LittleQuelie wrote: »
    LittleQuelie wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    LittleQuelie wrote: »
    No, I don’t find it boring. I’m talking about traditional modes of cardio exercise. If I could play volleyball everyday I would!

    For the record, people were running outdoors, riding bikes, hiking, paddling small boats, etc, long before there were elliptical machines.

    The reason I'm making this point is that if you hate the hamster wheel but want to improve your fitness including of your heart, there are a lot of options that are way more enjoyable than picking things up and putting them back down again.

    I like picking things up and putting them back down again! I do like hiking, however paddling is not an option for me. Also, I live in a place where the summer time is super short and the winter is extremely long so I’m pretty much relegated to the offerings at the gym for the great majority of my workout sessions. I do have a HIIT routine I do with the rowing machine which I don’t loathe, but I’d just rather not, ya know?


    Which I do do. My original question only asked why weightlifting cant be considered a form of cardio.

    Well you can consider anything anything. But nobody ever trained for a marathon by doing squats and bench presses.

    Good thing I’m not interested in running a marathon, I suppose.

    Neither am I. And that's ok. There's no rule that says you have to run ever, unless zombies are chasing you. And marathons would be less awesome for people who do them if everyone did.

    So why does it bother you that there's this cardio thing, if you're not interested in it? It's ok for other people to do exercise that isn't weights, too.

    🙂

    I’m not saying it bothers me, I really just wanted to know why weight training can’t be considered cardio exercise. I know cardio is necessary, but I was hoping what I was already doing was enough to hit two birds with one stone, so to speak.

    I would argue that cardio is not really "necessary", depending on your goals, especially if you are already doing strength training. It is true that the research generally favors a mixed approach (both cardio and strength training), as the best one for overall health outcomes. But as far as choosing one or the other, there's no evidence that cardio is any better than strength training. In fact, on average, most of the newer research tends to favor strength training of the two if you are only choosing one or the other.

    The whole "cardio is king" belief is a little outdated now. It sold a whole generation on treadmills and ellipicals, but it's not exactly the case. One could make the case for strength training being king.

    Ultimately they each have their own benefits from an athletics perspective. Strength training will develop your muscles and help you lift heavy things. Cardio will increase your endurance and allow you to walk and run farther and faster. (I'm generalizing on both of these things to illustrate the point). If you want to accomplish all of those things, then a mixed approach is best. However if you don't really care about the endurance aspect of things, then I don't think you "need" to do cardio if you are already lifting.

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