Love Cardio. Hate Strength/Weight Training

BigVeggieDream

I absolutely love doing cardio work. I'm addicted to it. But I absolutely hate doing strength training. Does anyone have ideas to make strength training more fun? I know how important it is, but just find myself putting it off for another day.

spicegeek

try kettle bells - worked for me - I loved the work outs -

shirleysteines

I need to tone my abs. Could use some advise. Crushes kills my back to get on the floor. 55 and have that belly fat

WandaMM1

How long have you been incorporating strength training. When I first started strength training, I completely disliked it too. After about 6-8 months of doing it consistently and mixing up the type of circuits and exercises every 6 weeks, I made a complete 180. Now I would much rather do the strength training and consider my cardio days a downer. I'd say stick with it and make you you change up the exercises and the sets/reps to keep it interesting.

maddiehammy007

Try resistance training with stretch bands. It can relieve strain from dumbbells. For core it is important to loss as much body fat as possible for toned abs and then perhaps try some light yoga to gain muscle. Its pretty hard to do core without being on the ground unfortunately unless you use ab machines at the gym.

BigVeggieDream

How long have you been incorporating strength training.

Off and on for 2 months.

WandaMM1

Floor crunches are not a great ab exercise - they only work one of many ab muscles. Try something like this: http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Standing-Abs-Exercises-10-Minute-Standing-Abs-Workout/9g/

Madame_Goldbricker

Depending on what your goals are you and if it's the actual lifting of weights you dislike. What about going for body weight based exercise instead? Pilates/yoga will strengthen your inner core and help prevent osteoporosis.

Or something like Body Pump would maybe be more interesting for you as it's high rep changes.

Boogage

Have you tried lifting? Once you notice you're getting stronger, you might start to enjoy it more. When I started I couldn't do a push up. I don't really like them but I do them because they make me feel proud of myself and strong. There are a lot of moves you can do and some you'll like more than others so look up some moves and set yourself a challenge. How about going to the park and mucking about on the monkey bars and trying to climb up the fireman pole. As for tummy toning moves-is it laying on your back that's the problem or mobility in that area? Crunches aren't the best abdominal exercises for toning the core. Could you try planks or kettle ball swings? Look into compound movements that work the whole body rather than just trying to focus on the abs. Practice good form to avoid injury.

SingingSingleTracker

I absolutely love doing cardio work. I'm addicted to it. But I absolutely hate doing strength training. Does anyone have ideas to make strength training more fun? I know how important it is, but just find myself putting it off for another day.

Home gym, weight and or dumbells, television entertainment, music in the background - whatever to keep you interested and doing it.

Helps with weight loss - and builds a nice platform for your cardio. It's worth the effort.

MeanderingMammal

I absolutely love doing cardio work. I'm addicted to it. But I absolutely hate doing strength training. Does anyone have ideas to make strength training more fun? I know how important it is, but just find myself putting it off for another day.

Anything practical really depends on what you're doing for your CV work.

Personally I find weights incredibly boring, and quite demotivating, so I stick with bodyweight resistance training because it supports my objectives and I can fit it in around running.

Now, after a short run I'll spend 25 minutes doing some bodyweight stuff, or I'll run out to the park for 5K, do 45 minutes of bodyweight training there and then run home.

Because I predominantly run and cycle that training is aimed at core strength and stability, so helps my performance.

It's a question of identifying why you do it, so that you can associate it with objectives.

As a result of doing core work I don't get any back pain on long runs, or at least it's now not kicking in until about 18km, and my endurance is improved because I'm stronger and my running motion is more efficient.

dammitjanet0161

Body pump might suit you best because you get the music and the routines rather than grinding out 3 sets of 12 reps on the machines. I know it doesn't count as "lifting heavy" but you can still get good results.

Using kettlebells and dumbells is more enjoyable than using the weight machines too.

SezxyStef

you don't have to do weight training...

any form of resistence training is a good thing...

HIIT might suit your needs as it has some bodyweight exercises incorporating cardio.

Or 30DS which has cardio, some resistence training and ab work...

fitnessblender.com has lots of videos.

shmerek

Are you tracking your lifts? I track every set and rep so the next time I go in I have some numbers to compete against. I know what my longterm goal is (get jacked) and doing this in the short term keeps it fun plus it is progressive overload. win. Also, I try to work on form with every rep which gives me something to think about during the set.

DWBalboa

Do you actually feel that you need weight training? Do what you enjoy especially if you are seeing the results you want (i.e. losing weight). Otherwise you can do like SezxyStef said above and start a HIIT routine. If you’re not familiar with it just google HIIT, you’ll find more than you’ll ever need to learn on the subject.

I incorporate weights into my HIIT routine and really enjoy my routine to the point that I don't want to stop but I have to.

Good luck.

hoyalawya2003

I second the body pump and yoga/pilates recommendation. That is what I am doing and I am very happy with the results I have gotten so far. I make sure to push myself in body pump to failure as much as possible, so that it is more resistance and less cardio-ish.

weightliftingdiva

How long have you been incorporating strength training.

Off and on for 2 months.

That's your problem. If it's "off and on" its not training which means you're probably not going to see results - which, for me anyone, would make it less fun.

Feeling myself progress is my favorite part of strength training. That and watching the dumb male "trainers" stare at me when I start loading up the barbell at the gym.

BigVeggieDream

Thanks everybody! A lot of good info here. I like WandaMM1's idea of Fitness Blender. Looks interesting. Also checking out HIIT.

quest67

I dislike weight training too

MeanderingMammal

Thanks everybody! A lot of good info here. I like WandaMM1's idea of Fitness Blender. Looks interesting. Also checking out HIIT.

Fitness blender is predominantly CV sessions, a very limited strength component. Back to my previous really, it depends on what your CV work is and what the purpose of strength training is.

I'd also observe that High Intensity Interval Training isn't a discipline, it's just a mode of training that you can employ with any type of training. While it's presented as an answer here, it's also very frequently presented as an answer to the converse; I don't like cardio... It's not the answer to both...

Essentially both of the answers that you're preferring here are just variants on CV work. High reps, light weights. That doesn't give you the benefit of resistance training, increased strength, as all it does is encourage greater muscular endurance. You're already doing that in CV training, so you're not complementing that.

You really do need to establish what you want to try and achieve, and then tune your planning to support that.