heart rate!!?

wrinjunjoe
wrinjunjoe Posts: 1
in Fitness and Exercise
Hay guys new to the site still got that new car smell. My wife and i have seem to have come to a fork in the road. The fork is does getting my heart rate up matter how I do it? Shes says if I get my heart rate up doing cardio is better than if i get it up whilst weight training? My thinking is if i get my heart rate up to 180 bpm which is about where I like it that in theory it should be doing the same in either workout regiment.

Replies

  • TamaraKat
    TamaraKat Posts: 533 Member
    From what I've been told [word of mouth from PT's] cardio will increase your heart rate or lower in accordance to the impact of the cardio workout. Weightlifting, your heart rate will increase when you are lifting and drop between.
    Cardio also focuses on different aspects whilst weights focus on weight training. I'd however take this all with a pinch of salt and carry out further research based on your needs...

    It all comes down to what you want to achieve :)
  • bobbystrongarm
    bobbystrongarm Posts: 72
    Strength training and cardio achieve two different goals.

    Strength training increases your strength and muscle endurance.

    Cardio increases your cardiovascular health and endurance.

    You will burn calories doing both, but they are not the same. That said, if this is about you losing weight and you preferring weight training to cardio, stick to what you like. Forcing yourself to train in something you don't enjoy is a quick path to failure.

    You can lose the weight not doing either with proper diet. Plan a calorie deficit, you don't need any exercise period if weightloss is your only goal.

    If you want to keep the calorie burn up while weight lifting reduce time between sets and reps. Jump from lift to lift with little down time. You can burn a sh!tload of calories doing this. If you had the strength and muscle endurance I would wager this will burn more calories than doing cardio for the same amount of time.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Hay guys new to the site still got that new car smell. My wife and i have seem to have come to a fork in the road. The fork is does getting my heart rate up matter how I do it? Shes says if I get my heart rate up doing cardio is better than if i get it up whilst weight training? My thinking is if i get my heart rate up to 180 bpm which is about where I like it that in theory it should be doing the same in either workout regiment.

    "Better" is a subjective term. The important thing to know is that increased heart rate during strength training does not mean the same thing as increased heart rate during cardio. The two increases are driven by different physiologic mechanisms. You cannot substitute cardio for strength or vice versa and expect the same results.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    If you want to keep the calorie burn up while weight lifting reduce time between sets and reps. Jump from lift to lift with little down time. You can burn a sh!tload of calories doing this. If you had the strength and muscle endurance I would wager this will burn more calories than doing cardio for the same amount of time.

    Not really--if you do this, you will basically screw up your strength routine with no added benefit.

    It's the nature of the movement and amount of resistance that determines the effect of the exercise, not the rest period between sets. In order to achieve a "cardio" effect using resistance training type movements, the intensity has to be lowered to the point where the strength building effects are significantly lessened. In other words, if a movement has a cardio effect, then it is no longer "weight lifting", and if it is truly a "weight lifting" exercise, then the cardio effect will be minimal to modest, regardless of the heart rate achieved.

Categories