Strength Train or Cardio?

kak1018

When pressed for time how do you decide what to do? I usually do cardio and weights 6 days a week, but lately my schedule is CRAZY. This morning I only had 45 minutes so I opted to focus on weights and strength training instead. Any ideas? I feel guilty if I don't do both.

kak1018

When pressed for time how do you decide what to do? I usually do cardio and weights 6 days a week, but lately my schedule is CRAZY. This morning I only had 45 minutes so I opted to focus on weights and strength training instead. Any ideas? I feel guilty if I don't do both.

alyfin

Strength training builds muscle, cardio burns alot more fat. So do whichever one you prefer. If you want to lose weight and tone your muscle try switching off - cardio one day, strength the next.

christahollis

You may be overdoing it on the weights...most now say that you have to give 48 hours of rest to any muscle group after a workout... You may find better success there by scaling that back a little bit, which would free up some time.

GingerKid

I circuit train. A combo of strength and cardio...moving fast to keep your heart rate up (I'll sometimes use a jumprope or something to get my HR up if I can't keep it up through the movements alone.

I focus on large muscle groups and a high HR.

HTH

Helawat

I agree that six days of weight training is too much as well. Recovery is important because you need to give your muscles time to rest and refurnish. The harder you work the longer it takes your body to recover. You should strength train for no more than three times per week.



References:

http://menshealth.about.com/cs/fitness/a/strength_train.htm

markfloyd

Weight training is OK every day as long as you're working different body parts each day. Weight training will boost your metabolism for up to 48 hours whereas Cardio only boosts for a short while. In the long run, although you will gain muscle weight, you will lose more fat weight. For each pound of muscle you gain your body will expend 50 more calories per day.

Try the circuit training with weights and on alternate days, do your Cardio. It's good to switch up routines because your body will become accustomed to what it's doing.

Men's Health is an excellent source for your information. Everyone should own a copy of the Abs Diet written by David Zinczenko.