Is it really weight lifting the only way to be fit?

Llamapants86

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My question would be, fit for what?

If you are just asking if you need to lift to be health, the quick answer is not really. If you are looking to generally maintain a healthy weight and stave off big killers like cardiovascular disease, eating right and simple walking can do that.

If you are looking to improve your fitness, you want to do some type of resistance training based on your goals. This improves muscle abilities and fights weakened joints or reduced range of motion. What levels depends on your goal or need.

Of course, eating right, cardio, and some strength training is the best combination.

Well,
at the beginning I just wanted to lose weight.
Recently, with 39 pound off of my body, I started to think that I can also improve my fitness, like you say, have a toned body, and be stronger. Physically stronger.

Anyway, some of you are saying that also cardio improve the muscle, just not as resistance.
Some say instead that only resistance -lifting or other- do that.

I think that I'll go through all the suggestion you guys gave me, and try. Why not?

Still puzzled about how come that doing cardio till sweating out my brain cannot make my muscle stronger, thought. Sorry, maybe I'm a bit dumb

Sorry if I ask a few more little questions... maybe it's also a matter of language, english is not my first language.

Please, may you define the difference, if there is any, between "resistance" and "strength training"?

Muscles get stronger when you push them. The body won't bother making more muscles if they are always doing the same amount of work. This is why to get stronger you need progressively overload to get strength gains. With cardio you keep the resistance relatively constant, and while they do get more endurance (you can do the same thing for longer) you won't actually be any stronger.

To me the only difference between resistance and strength training is progressive overload and ideally that should be involved in both, making them synonymous with each other.

ETA: at a deficit you are not likely to make great muscle gains, but you can teach your body to be stronger with the existing muscle mass. This is important for lots of people (including myself) because I want those lovely NSV that come through improving functional strength.

Thanks again... and another question. An example, to see if I understood correctly.

I have to carry an heavy backpack. And travel, and walk a lot with that heavy bag.

If a do just cardio while in deficit, I will be able to carry it longer, but I will feel always the same strain.
If I start progressive overload with the right amount of extra protein, that parcel will feel lighter to me?

Pretty much, your body will get used to the heavy bag so it won't be quite as much of a challenge, but if you were to start doing days where you carried an even heavier bag it would really start seeming lighter.

Once I started heavy (for me) lifting squatting the bar (45lbs) was really difficult, now I do it for warm up and it feels much lighter. If I just kept doing the bar, eventually my body would get used to it, but I would never progress pass it.

IsabellaGiano

Got it

IsabellaGiano

Hi,

Maybe this will help. I have done Insanity and I lost a lot of weight, because I had a lot of fat to lose. So now that I lost it, and
I am definitely stronger than I was ( because I lost weight and my body doesn't have to work as hard to do the things it did before, my cardio is up because I worked my heart out and made it stronger, and my muscles are stronger because I made them work-which wasn't happening before) so with that being said- you are doing both when you do cardio, you are losing fat and toning and building muscle. So now what? When I was done with insanity I knew I needed to keep doing cardio to shed those last few pounds, and I also wanted to build my muscles more than before. So, I decided to do a combination of cardio and resistance bands/weights. Why? because I want to obtain muscle confusion. It is what makes me stronger. doing the same thing every day just makes Muscle Memory, pretty quickly your body remembers it and adapts. You won't get stronger that way-you have to change things up, add more weight or more reps (depending on what your goal is) and keep confusing your muscles.
I hope this helps. Today, I work with people everyday to reach their fitness and nutrition goals so I am here to help and enjoy doing it. So what are your goals? Do you want to lose weight or tone up or both?

I'm losing weight, I started increasing my exercises, and now I think I'll try some of the links the guys here suggested... I'm not in a hurry, I like the idea to start something different... with no rush.

Thank you!

MeanderingMammal

That also has to do with the adaptations to the type of training. A good example is a sprinter and a marathon runner, they use the same muscles but have different physiques due to the adaptations of their training.

It's probably worth drawing out that competitive athletes rarely do only CV work or only resistance, although that that do tend to do only one of those tend to be on the lifting end of the spectrum. Using running as an example, the majority of competitive runners will also do some resistance work. Specifically using the sprinter cf marathon runner example, sprinters will do a lot of work that'll lead to both muscle growth and explosive strength, marathon runners will do work that leads to significant muscular endurance and strength, rather than bulk.

As ever. it's not a question of either/ or, but more what's the balance between CV and resistance.

MeanderingMammal

....because I want to obtain muscle confusion. It is what makes me stronger. doing the same thing every day just makes Muscle Memory, pretty quickly your body remembers it and adapts. You won't get stronger that way-you have to change things up, add more weight or more reps (depending on what your goal is) and keep confusing your muscles.

I really do wish that people could explain exercise adaptation in a meaningful way.

The important thing with any training is to continue to challenge, as the adaptation leads to diminishing returns for the same level of effort. From a resistance training perspective that's going to involve increasing the load, or increasing the number of repetitions, with CV it's a question of increasing the speed, or increasing the distance.

Muscle confusion is nonsense, but the underlying point is sound; increase the challenge and make progress.

DopeItUp

May I ask... what about.. if you are toned and fit and all, and than you stop exercising, but still not gaining weight, the muscle will stay there, or will they become smaller while you don't use them?

If you don't use your muscles you will lose them (to a certain extent, genetics-dependent really). To keep a certain level of fitness you have to maintain it. Fitness is for life.

ktwin1

You're welcome. I know you got a lot of information very quickly. I run an online fitness and nutrition group, so if you ever have any questions, let me know.

Kelly

alereck

The definition of fit can vary depending on who you are but when I think of fit I think about a tone body. If you want a tone body then yes, weight lifting will be the easiest and most affective way of getting toned.

Give it a try, a real try. Get educated, watch videos, get a trainer, I love lifting and I think you can too. Give it three months and when you see your body really transform you will understand the difference between resistance, strenght and having both