Quesion on cardio vs lifting

I'm very curious about the responses you will get. I run and lift (I do sprints, short and long distances and lift pretty heavy - for a girl ). I never have the same soreness from running as I do from lifting, ever.

I'm interested in finding this out...

My initial thought is cardio, even with the incline, you are still only carrying your own body weight -something you do all day long. WIth Weight training you are adding the weights to that.

I'm very curious about the responses you will get. I run and lift (I do sprints, short and long distances and lift pretty heavy - for a girl ). I never have the same soreness from running as I do from lifting, ever.

I am curious, too, because I have had equivalent amounts of soreness on various parts of my body (not just my legs) when I do distance running as I have had when lifting. There is more variation that can be done for sure, and I doubt anyone is disputing that, but depending on the cardio that you're engaging in -- such as TurboFire vs. distance running -- would that not count as resistance training with the kind of work one is putting into it?

Dear MFPverse: EDUCATE ME!!!! (please)

JoRocka is right. If you're either out of shape, have weak legs, or are running and walking on inclines for the first time, then your legs are not used to it and are probably building muscle based on this new activity that you are doing. However, you can only do so much running and have so much of an incline before your legs become used to it, and then it becomes strictly cardiovascular. Lifting weights is always about adding more weights to keep it challenging, and there are more variations of leg exercises than running and ellpticals have.

I disagree with that, up to a point. If you are running the same route at the same pace over and over and over again, then sure, of course it becomes cardiovascular. But if you are training for a race, or constantly changing up your route with hill and speed routines, or engaging in interval sprints, what have you -- I am really skeptical that this can only count as exclusively cardiovascular, because your body is never completely accustomed to what you are doing in your exercise routine.

....I have read it here (and other fitness sites) over and over (and even implied in your response) that "cardio is for cardio and lifting is for muscles" and "you can't build muscle doing cardio". What I haven't ever seen is a complete explanation of "why".

Squats is pushing the leg muscles using resistance (weight + gravity).
Elliptical is pushing the leg muscles using resistance (settings on the machine).....

because you aren't challenging your muscles in a way that stresses them to grow or get stronger. if you are completely untrained, you would be challenged initially by the elliptical but it won't last for very long. just like if you spent the last 3 years in a coma you would build leg muscles simply by walking. but once you're past that beginning stage, you're only building endurance, not strength or mass.

even on it's hardest setting, you'd be able to push the elliptical pedals for several, perhaps even dozens of minutes, until your heart/lungs were exhausted. doing a set of heavy squats, you'd only be able to mange several, perhaps even dozens of *seconds*, until you were forced to stop because your *legs* were exhausted.

In for info!

Type I muscle fibers are being trained during your aerobic workout...Type II muscle fibers are being trained when you do resistance training with low to moderate rep ranges and relatively heavy weights. Type II muscle fibers can be broken down into 2A and 2B with type 2B fibers being responsible for explosive movements as you would see in Olympic type lifts like a clean and jerk or snatch and 2A for short to moderate duration, moderate to high intensity work as seen in most lifting routines.

Agreed. Type 1 is sometimes called slow twitch; Type 2 fast twitch. Slow twitch is generally a smaller fiber and responds to steady-state endurance training, usually by becoming stronger without much change in size. Fast twitch responds to sprints and strength training.

It takes a lot to get Type 1 muscle fibers to grow. Examples are world class cyclists, marathoners, etc. These people will have greater percentages of slow twitch fibers and may gain some size from the long endurance racing, generally in the lower body, where the muscles are taxed more. For most of the population, routine cardio endurance is too little to make the muscles grow beyond a certain point. Unless you're running marathons regularly, riding bikes in long endurance races, etc., you're not going to see much in the way of Type 1 growth.

Fast twitch is more responsive to hormones and to breaking down and building up through strength training and HIIT.

Some people are genetically predisposed to one type of muscle fiber over another.

Following to read later.