Strength Training vs Running

It seems like most of what I've read says that both are important for weight loss. Being as active as you are, I wonder if it isn't a problem more in what you're eating and drinking rather than your workout routine. There's not a lot to go on in your food diary, but it seems that you may be getting to little in the way of food and not drinking enough water. I generally try not to be much more than 400 short of my calorie goal and try to keep my fat as close to on target as possible. I also have a water bottle wherever I go so that I am constantly drinking through out the day. I just found and posted an article on the importance of water, but here's the link if you care to read it: http://leader1fitness.com/articles/water.htm

Hope this helps.

Grrr, i just lost my post to you. trying again, and hoping i'm not double posting.

i see no reason why you can't do both, in moderation. i'd cut back the running to 4x a week, or even every other day. so some weeks, you'd run 3x/week, others 4x a week. And i'd try to make one of those runs a bit longer, like 5-6 miles.

also, when doing strength training, you need to vary up your exercises every 6-8 weeks or your body gets used to it and progress levels off. maybe do one session a week of upper body exercises, one session of lower body, and one session of both upper and lower body. Also, play around with your reps/sets/weights. Do a 6-8 week period of heavy weights but low reps and then the next session, go not as heavy on the weights, but more reps.

hope that helps.
Lisa

Too much running for the purpose of fat loss and overal health in my opinion can only be a bad thing. If your goal is to be a fast marathon runnner then knock yourself out but for the purpose of fat loss weight training is far better.

Running day in day out will give you knee and hip problems eventually. Steady state cardio will also mean your body turning catabolic by which you will be eating both fat and muscle. Muscle preservation or even gains is whats required for fat loss. Your body will burn far more calories at rest with more muscle on it so makes sense to concerntrate on the strength side of things.

Doing alot of running also makes it difficult to 'know' exactly what you are burning thus making it hard to calculate your calorie requirements for a deficit and ultimately weight loss.

I would include a structured,monitored weight training programme and if you feel like you want to do cardio try some HIIT or some tabata type training as these provide the metabolic stimulus you're after for fat loss and retaining muscle.

That said i can appreciate that some people just enjoy running at a steady state.

As you are doing strength that much strength training and wanting to lose fat I would be modifying the goals to something like 30% protein, 40% carbs and 30% fats. I see you eat a lot of fruit which no doubt are good for you but generally are mostly carbs. Try to include some healthy fats from things like nuts, avocados etc. From what I see your exercise routine is definitely enough to be losing fat but as always 80% diet 20% exercise Currently, looks like too many carbs, not enough fat or protein. I would try and stick to having carbs earlier in the day and post workout. Speaking of that, didn't really see anything there? What do you normally have? Should have some protein and high gi carbs (like dextrose) post workout. (more carbs necessary for long runs as opposed to stength training sessions)

You will NOT lose "muscle mass" from running 20-25 miles per week. This stuff is getting out of hand.

You will NOT lose "muscle mass" from running 20-25 miles per week. This stuff is getting out of hand.

You absolutely WILL lose muscle mass running 25 miles a week If you are restricting your calories whilst doing that sort of milage your body is going to eat into both your muscles and fat.

Just wanted to add that you should make sure that you're eating back most of your exercise calories! Very important!

I work with a trainer at the gym and he said that when you're running that much basically your body is used to burning those calories -- it gets more efficient at burning the calories by running, which is why you should switch your routine ever 3-4 weeks. The same goes for weight training, my gym sessions are intense and I'll typically burn about 200 calories in the 25 minutes it takes me to go through my whole weights session. AND it gets mixed up with some crossfit exercises and other intense cardio/strength workouts.

When you go do weights -- make sure there's no sitting breaks, switch off on machines so you're always moving. And toss in things like dips, pull-ups, hanging leg raises, etc that are good at raising your heart rate.


I dunno. I'm seeing results now with the program I'm doing. And I've also a runner -- and typically I was running between 20 and 30 miles a week. I've backed off on that for a couple weeks in order to give my joints a break and get my body a little more used to the killer weight sessions I'm doing now.

I work with a trainer at the gym and he said that when you're running that much basically your body is used to burning those calories -- it gets more efficient at burning the calories by running, which is why you should switch your routine ever 3-4 weeks. The same goes for weight training, my gym sessions are intense and I'll typically burn about 200 calories in the 25 minutes it takes me to go through my whole weights session. AND it gets mixed up with some crossfit exercises and other intense cardio/strength workouts.

When you go do weights -- make sure there's no sitting breaks, switch off on machines so you're always moving. And toss in things like dips, pull-ups, hanging leg raises, etc that are good at raising your heart rate.


I dunno. I'm seeing results now with the program I'm doing. And I've also a runner -- and typically I was running between 20 and 30 miles a week. I've backed off on that for a couple weeks in order to give my joints a break and get my body a little more used to the killer weight sessions I'm doing now.

That's just not true. Unfortunately, trainers have to work a lot of hours to make a living and they don't always have time to really learn physiology--many have a tendency to just mimic the latest fad.

It is very difficult to improve true mechanical efficiency to the point where you would see significant decrease in calories burned. Even professional athletes rarely increase their efficiency by even as much as 1%.

There is a difference between varying your training intensity and just changing exercises at random to "confuse the body". The first is a crucial training strategy, the second is just a marketing gimmick.

There are good reasons why you are seeing the changes you are experiencing and there is nothing wrong with the routine you are following (except that most people are now doing too much high-intensity training)--the improvement just isn't happening for the reasons your trainer says it is, that's all.

Ideally, you want to run 3-4 days a week and cross-train 2-3. Runners in particular find it hard to lose weight when training for endurance races, it can be done but usually it's at a very very slow and steady pace.

6 days of running a week is a lot, definitely too much. I usually run 4, and have run 5 a week on rare occasion. It's better to let your muscles rest and make your 3-4 days a week quality runs. Also, look into speed training - don't know if you're training for a race or not, but varying your intensity and speed will make you a more efficient runner.

The muscle loss claim is ridiculous. But you do need enough protein to help repair your muscles after any workout, but pounding the pavement definitely requires more.

That's just not true. Unfortunately, trainers have to work a lot of hours to make a living and they don't always have time to really learn physiology--many have a tendency to just mimic the latest fad.

It is very difficult to improve true mechanical efficiency to the point where you would see significant decrease in calories burned. Even professional athletes rarely increase their efficiency by even as much as 1%.

There is a difference between varying your training intensity and just changing exercises at random to "confuse the body". The first is a crucial training strategy, the second is just a marketing gimmick.

Agree with trainer comment. Not sure what you mean by mechanical efficiency but physiological efficiency can be greatly increased through specific skill training. A beginner runner will start off running a 10k slowly maybe having to stop in places. The same runner after 6 months of specific training (running) will be massively faster over the same difference simply because they have become more efficient at the specific activity (skill) practiced which is running. Put them in a swimming pool and they start at square one because they are not practiced at the specific skill of swimming. Running is good and well if you enjoy it and have a goal of running a sub 3 marathon one day but there are far easier and more effective ways of going about things if you are after overall health and a well defined sculpted physique.

It all depends on an individuals goals. If the OP wants run a marathon in a year the sure I'd advise you to do your HIIT runs, a tempo run and one long run a week and build it up but it didn't come across that way.

A great book that dispels a lot of myths is 'body by science' by Dr Doug Mcguff which includes some very interesting research

Really you need to pick a goal and stick with it.

What do you want ultimately??

If you love to run and just cant give it up, then forget about adding any amount of muscle (not saying that the strenght training is bad). But running that much you are not a) getting enough recovery to build up muscle eating enough to build up muscle. There is a reason why distance runners look the way they do and why body builders look they way they do.

If you want to buld muscle then you need to cut back the cardio to 30 mins and no more and change your strenght training up for that goal and eat proper nutrition for that goal.

You can not weight train AND run 25 miles a day and expect to see any real results in muscle gains. Though you can see strength gains.

You just need to decide which is more improtant to you change your training to meet your goals and then stick with that goal.

Agree with trainer comment. Not sure what you mean by mechanical efficiency but physiological efficiency can be greatly increased through specific skill training. A beginner runner will start off running a 10k slowly maybe having to stop in places. The same runner after 6 months of specific training (running) will be massively faster over the same difference simply because they have become more efficient at the specific activity (skill) practiced which is running. Put them in a swimming pool and they start at square one because they are not practiced at the specific skill of swimming. Running is good and well if you enjoy it and have a goal of running a sub 3 marathon one day but there are far easier and more effective ways of going about things if you are after overall health and a well defined sculpted physique.

It all depends on an individuals goals. If the OP wants run a marathon in a year the sure I'd advise you to do your HIIT runs, a tempo run and one long run a week and build it up but it didn't come across that way.

A great book that dispels a lot of myths is 'body by science' by Dr Doug Mcguff which includes some very interesting research

She was originally referring to efficiency regarding distance covered and calories burned, which as Azdak says does NOT improve through training. What does improve is, as you point out, the efficiency regarding distance covered and perceived effort, ie. through training you can cover the same distance in the same time using a much smaller amount of effort on your part. But regardless of the effort required, you will not burn any less calories if you still weigh the same.

Doing both is fine. Weight training builds muscle and burns some fat, while cardio burns fat and some muscle. However, I would suggest you change your workout routine. You should separate each day into a different workout so you get all the muscle groups, and only work them out once a week.

I am a firm believer in Max OT Weight training/cardio.

1. Each workout should last approximately 30 to 40 minutes.
2. Train only 1 or 2 muscle groups per workout/day.
3. Do 6 to 9 total heavy sets per muscle group.
4. Do 4 to 6 reps per set.
5. Rest 2 to 3 minutes between sets. (STR)
6. Train each muscle group once every 5 to 7 days. (ITR)
7. Take a 1 week break from training every 8 to 10 weeks.

PDF file about it (free) here: http://www.freedomfly.net/Documents/MAX-OT.pdf

If you ever need variations of this, Skip LaCour had many Max-OT variations:
http://www.skiplacour.com/max_ot_routine_home.htm