Strength training enough for healthy lifestyle

stphnstevey

I want to ensure I am doing the enough exercise for a healthy lifestyle. I am doing 1hr strength/weight training about every other day

I think the recommended amount of exercise is about 20mins every day.
Does it matter if I am not exercising everyday?
Overall I am getting more than the recommended (7x20mins) 140mins/wk - about 180-240mins
Do I need to do cardio or is any exercise that raises my heart rate good enough?

PattyC64

I think that every other day is fine for strength training. You can do cardio every day. You may want to try cardio on your off days.

stphnstevey

To be honest I DON'T want to do cardio - I like to eat back my exercise calories so i don't get into to big a defecit and go into starvation mode. I just want to do the stregth training but I am worried that for my own fitness, strength training alone is not ideal

aproc

I almost never do cardio. I do weights about 5 days a week and thats it.

bkesecker

It is my opinion that you need some cardio for heart health.

Yogi_Carl

I second your opinion. At the very least, I would urge you to do bout 20 mins cardio at teh beginning of your lifting sessions to get the blood pumping and lungs working - I am sure your lifting records will improve as a result of lifting warm.

Also consider stretching slowly after a lifting session and even specifically on off days.

stphnstevey

My heart is pumping by the end of a strength workout!

This is where it gets confusing, my heart rate is raised, but is that enough for healthy cardiovascular system