No one seems to like cardio anymore...

Just like my menus, my exercise plan is very varied.

2x weekly 30min Treadmill or Arc Trainer
2-3x weekly 30-60min Running outside - flat, hills, intervalls
1xweekly 30-45min swimming,
2xweekly 45min strength with and without maschines,
4x weekly horsebackriding
as I wish - walking.

I mix and match, depending on what I feel like doing and what the weather is like.

Variety is the spice of my exercise life

with workouts like weight lifting, you have a lower burn but it lasts allllllllllllllllllllll dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng and burns fuel from lots of different places.

Lots of studies have now demonstrated that doesn't actually happen, so it's time to put that theory in the BroScience bin.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/research-review-effects-of-exercise-intensity-and-duration-on-the-excess-post-exercise-oxygen-consumption.html

Strength training is beneficial and I think people shouldn't be afraid of it, but cardio is great for your overall health, Your cardiovascular health should be just as much a priority as the number on the scale. What is the point of having physique goals and not having overall health goals. Some very cut people still have heart attacks, still end up on high blood pressure and high cholesterol meds.

I've improved my heart health, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and cardiovascular health doing heavy lifting. It's not like you don't get your heart rate up doing it.

Good for you that you have seen these kind of results. But in the case of my husband, lifting heavy was not enough and he is now on blood pressure and cholesterol meds and told to increase his cardio by his doctors. He still doesn't do a lot of it, but now sees the benefits. Obviously so many factors come into play when talking about your overall health and fitness, diet, exercise, genetics. Some people can do nothing or everything with no negative impact on their health, while others will find that that a balance diet and exercise regimen is their key to avoid or minimize health risks.

You keep bringing up your husband but that doesn't prove that weight lifting doesn't improve endurance or cardio. That was one case. Bernie Mac died doing cardio as have many other people (both fit and no so fit).

It's preferable to do both for various reasons and doing one, the other, or both isn't a guaranteed pass that you won't have blood pressure, cholesterol issues, etc. Sometimes family health issues will stick regardless.

Also, note the doctor said to increase cardio, not replace lifting/resistance training with it.

And most people who get advised to do weight training are given more options than just barbell exercises and most are asking about it for aesthetic reasons. Sprinting has been offered up in almost every thread asking about resistance training as an option to those that prefer to run. But heavier weights tends to give you the most bang for your buck/time - so to speak aesthetically.

I have said in every post that it is best to do both. They complement each other. But still there is no guarantee that you can out run or pump genetics. . But I'm sure many here with family history of high blood pressure or heart disease are going to try their best to avoid that fate, whether successful or not. Also having a family history doesn't guarantee that you will have those same issues. Both of my parents have high blood pressure, my mom has diabetes and heart disease and had showed symptoms well before she was my age, while I have no signs of this yet because of my lifestyle. I gave my husband as an example. Yes weight training does provide cardiovascular benefits, but it is not a replacement of cardio. The American Heart Association published studies on this and their consensus was to do both if you are able to maximize cardiovascular health. So those who say they have seen benefits from strength training alone, great, but would you see more benefits to your overall health if you incorporated both weight training and cardio in your routine, absolutely.

I am the opposite..I love cardio, hate the lifting. I suffer from high blood pressure and cardio seems heathiest for me. Weight lifting is good, but I think people forget the heart is such an important organ to work!

Because weightlifting does nothing for your heart. :noway:

gah you beat me to it!

Right! I do a GVT type strength/resistance training routine and if that isn't working my cardiovascular system, then nothing will..lol.

(To note, I still include cardio in my weekly routines but my strength training kicks my butt way more and has helped my endurance more than cardio has in my opinion)

Bump to read later

I think most people have a balanced fitness regimen and do both. Perhaps it only seems as though nobody likes cardio anymore because lifting definitely gets pushed...largely because many people neglect that element of their fitness and do insane amounts of cardio and are really missing the boat.

Cardio is awesome for your cardiovascular health and building overall endurance and stamina...it also allows you to eat more than you otherwise could. Weight lifting is awesome for building strength and building/maintaining muscle mass which increases your overall ability to burn calories at rest by maintaining a higher metabolism....one of the reasons men can generally consume more calories than women is because they have more muscle mass and thus higher metabolisms. Weight training also does far more for your body composition that dieting and cardio could ever do alone...I will illustrate...



^^^Here's me in March of 2012...after a good 10 year "bulk" I was a whopping 215 - 220 depending on the day



^^^^I lost a little weight on my own over the summer and fall of 2012



^^^I found MFP and dropped to around 190, largely with diet...I did mostly cardio for exercise in order to be able to gross more calories and still lose weight. This pic was taken in January 2013 right as I picked up weight training in ADDITION to my cardio regimen.



^^^March/April 2013 @ 183 Lbs...still cutting and lifting 3x weekly full body and cardio 3x weekly...mostly running. I ultimately cut to around 180 Lbs and went to maintenance.



^^^ @ 186 just last week. I maintained for the summer and into the fall and continued to work on body re-comp...in an effort to break through some lifting plateaus I upped calories just a bit over what I was eating to maintain...I've been gaining about 1 Lb per month since September...I still do cardio, but I substantially reduced it due to wanting to break through a couple lifting plateaus.


Pretty much 1.75 years worth of work right there...personally, I find the difference between my 190 cardio only picture and my most recent 186 picture pretty awesome given a mere 4 Lb difference. I'm a true believer in the power of the olympic bar and a proper weight training regimen that is balanced with proper nutrition and cardiovascular/endurance work.

I'm also posting this to illustrate that this stuff doesn't happen overnight...as I noted earlier, this is almost two years worth of work...so don't get too discouraged when you've been at it for a couple weeks and "nothing is happening." This is a slow process and takes a lot of time and dedication.