All you need to know about fitness and toning

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FrnkLft
FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Diet = Weight Loss (eat a deficit), Weight Gain (eat a surplus; required to build muscle), Weight Maintenance (eat only what you burn)

Regular Steady Cardio = Efficient way to burn calories, Good for conditioning & health (deteriorates muscle over time if you don't weight train sufficiently)

HIIT Cardio: A kind of cardio that has very similar benefits to weight lifting, and does not deteriorate muscle.

Heavy Weight Lifting = Also good at burning calories, builds strength & builds muscle (your "butt lift"; to build you need a caloric surplus)

ANYTHING else is a variation on these principles, and if it counters them, it is bunk and your friend is wrong...

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  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    Regular Steady Cardio = Efficient way to burn calories, Good for conditioning & health (deteriorates muscle over time if you don't weight train sufficiently)

    This is where writing these lists with absolutes is rather silly. Going by your theory about steady state cardio does that mean all my muscles will deteriorate? Of course not. In reality it depends what cardio you are doing and what you're aims are. Sorry to burst the bubble of the muscle crowd but when you do cardio you actually work muscles. Last time I was swimming I was using muscles. Last time I was running I was using and stressing muscles. Yes you don't build muscle the same way as weights but you can. Nothing is absolute as your list suggests. ..... I now await the flaming for saying to suggest that you can use muscles while doing cardio.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
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    Well no of course you won't completely waste away. But your body will retain only what it needs to complete the work required.

    It's not just the use of muscles that stimulates growth, it's how you use them, more specifically... to what extent you are stimulating them. The differentiation is between aerobic exercise (work requiring oxygen... work for a duration of time) and anabolic exercise (work that uses only chemical energy... work done with intensity for a short period of time).

    Time and Intensity are the two key variables here. While running, there isn't sufficient intensity, and if done for a long period of time the intensity doesn't matter much at all anyhow, because the energy needs of the body throughout will provide for a catabolic state in the body to continue the work.

    Swimming is indeed an aerobic exercise, but there is more resistance involved, and so I would say it falls in a gray area where the upper body is doing work more akin to anabolic exercise due to the resistance and full range of motion, and the legs are doing much less, with less resistance.

    Weight lifting on the other hand is very obvious, it's always for a short time, typically with great intensity, using the anabolic energy system. But then, even weight lifting can be catabolic if it's done for a few hours.

    None of this is absolute of course, but steady state cardio has been proven to be catabolic... it is the very fact that it's catabolic that allows for long distances to be run, over a long period of time. Catabolism isn't a bad thing at all, though doing it enough is detrimental to maintaining more muscle mass than is required to complete the activity.

    Specific enough?
  • ElliottTN
    ElliottTN Posts: 1,614 Member
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    Great guide for begginers but honestly the exceptions start to build up the more advanced you get.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
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    Of course, and like I said nothing is absolute. But if you follow what I wrote in the initial post, you will hit your goals without a doubt.

    Variations are just that, variations.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
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    Regular Steady Cardio = Efficient way to burn calories, Good for conditioning & health (deteriorates muscle over time if you don't weight train sufficiently)

    This is where writing these lists with absolutes is rather silly. Going by your theory about steady state cardio does that mean all my muscles will deteriorate? Of course not. In reality it depends what cardio you are doing and what you're aims are. Sorry to burst the bubble of the muscle crowd but when you do cardio you actually work muscles. Last time I was swimming I was using muscles. Last time I was running I was using and stressing muscles. Yes you don't build muscle the same way as weights but you can. Nothing is absolute as your list suggests. ..... I now await the flaming for saying to suggest that you can use muscles while doing cardio.
    Your body has different muscles types that fire depending on intensity. Don't use them, you lose them. Otherwise long distance runners would be more muscular. He is far more correct then you to be honest.
  • Stage14
    Stage14 Posts: 1,046 Member
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    Regular Steady Cardio = Efficient way to burn calories, Good for conditioning & health (deteriorates muscle over time if you don't weight train sufficiently)

    This is where writing these lists with absolutes is rather silly. Going by your theory about steady state cardio does that mean all my muscles will deteriorate? Of course not. In reality it depends what cardio you are doing and what you're aims are. Sorry to burst the bubble of the muscle crowd but when you do cardio you actually work muscles. Last time I was swimming I was using muscles. Last time I was running I was using and stressing muscles. Yes you don't build muscle the same way as weights but you can. Nothing is absolute as your list suggests. ..... I now await the flaming for saying to suggest that you can use muscles while doing cardio.

    People who do only cardio exercises without specific strength training lose more lean muscle mass than those who strength train. That's just a fact, and it's why competitive runners and swimmers usually lift weights too. No all your muscles won't deteriorate completely, but you will see more muscle depletion vs a swimmer or runner who lifts/strength trains., especially if you're eating at a deficit.
  • yogicarl
    yogicarl Posts: 1,260 Member
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    Why cant lifters and cardio-ers just learn to get along and agree that a healthy balance of the two is optimum?
  • Stage14
    Stage14 Posts: 1,046 Member
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    Why cant lifters and cardio-ers just learn to get along and agree that a healthy balance of the two is optimum?

    I do agree, and I do both.
  • yogicarl
    yogicarl Posts: 1,260 Member
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    agreed here too. I started out trying to lose weight with jogging, swimming and cycling and while it worked to a point, I was always suffering joint pains and I think it was due to the supporting muscles being under developed. Then I made the mistake of listening to too much "don't do cardio, do strength" and "cardio will hurt muscle development" and went the other way, doing progressive bodyweight sessions and no yoga - but my fat weight loss stalled.

    Now I have combined the two extremes and come up with a combined schedule which sees a steady slow weight loss but not at the expense of muscle maintenance. Works for me, though I'm not saying it would work for someone with more specific goals towards either extreme - steady state cardio, or focussing on building muscle.
  • _liftnlove
    _liftnlove Posts: 194
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    Why cant lifters and cardio-ers just learn to get along and agree that a healthy balance of the two is optimum?

    Your excessive use of logic, balance, and rational thinking is giving me a migraine...
  • yogicarl
    yogicarl Posts: 1,260 Member
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    Why cant lifters and cardio-ers just learn to get along and agree that a healthy balance of the two is optimum?

    Your excessive use of logic, balance, and rational thinking is giving me a migraine...

    ... and I haven't even begun to mention Y*g*! (.....oops)
  • _liftnlove
    _liftnlove Posts: 194
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    Why cant lifters and cardio-ers just learn to get along and agree that a healthy balance of the two is optimum?

    Your excessive use of logic, balance, and rational thinking is giving me a migraine...

    ... and I haven't even begun to mention Y*g*! (.....oops

    Now you've gone too far...
  • Just_Scott
    Just_Scott Posts: 1,766 Member
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    anabolic see link http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130520094836.htm

    anaerobic -- sprinting and lifting heavy weights

    Maybe the OP was confused, then again, maybe I am.

    Best of luck on the goals folks.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Regular Steady Cardio = Efficient way to burn calories, Good for conditioning & health (deteriorates muscle over time if you don't weight train sufficiently)

    I suppose you could justify this by some crazy defintion of "regular", but ... No.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
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    anabolic see link http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130520094836.htm

    anaerobic -- sprinting and lifting heavy weights

    Maybe the OP was confused, then again, maybe I am.

    Best of luck on the goals folks.

    Yes, you're totally right. As I was writing it I knew something sounded a bit off...
  • Just_Scott
    Just_Scott Posts: 1,766 Member
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    And congrats on the LBM; your body is placing muscle on and dropping BF which is a great combo. Best of luck and continued success!
  • KLiK3xs
    KLiK3xs Posts: 43 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your in put and insight, It all makes sense to me now! lol:happy:
  • JockBrah
    JockBrah Posts: 1
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    Hey guys, Add me beginner here, new to this app, been lifting for 2 months started 10lbs barbells now am at 40lbs. I have gym membership, still learning all machines and trying to find a routine/reps lol.
    No cardio for me since I lost too much weight running. I'm at 125lbs reached my goal down from 145lbs now got gym membership I want to go back to 145lbs but with muscle, going for the lean and toned look with abs in the long run.

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