strength training with no cardio?

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futureMrsWalker
futureMrsWalker Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Is it okay to do? What kind of results might you expect to see? My husband and I would like to start lifting and such, which he has some "experience" with (high school football), but I don't. any recommendations for a beginner?
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Replies

  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
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    Sure it's ok. One could argue that *some* cardio is advisable, though, for other health reasons. My definition of cardio is pretty tame compared to other people's. I might do intervals on a treadmill now and then, but mostly it's walking with an incline. it's good for you.

    As to a lifting routine for beginners, checkout stronglifts 5x5, and do research on good form for those lifts (watching videos, etc).
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    Yes, it's okay to do it. Cardio does have health benefits, namely for it's namesake, the heart. It is also useful if you want to earn a few extra calories to eat. Is it absolutely necessary? No. Is it a good idea to do a little for health reasons? Sure.

    I try to throw in 20-30 minutes of cardio 2-3x a week for the health benefit though my main fitness focus in currently on lifting heavy with the main compound lifts and a few accessory lifts.

    It all boils down to personal preference in the end.

    I also second stronglifts 5x5 as a good beginner program with proper form being of paramount concern for the beginner in order to avoid injury and to get the most out of each exercise.
  • martinel2099
    martinel2099 Posts: 899 Member
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    What are your fitness goals?

    If you're trying to lose weight there's nothing wrong with strength training in fact many people from the community would highly recommend it even when trying to lose weight. The problem however is that it is inefficient to try to grow muscle mass while eating at a calorie deficit. I personally lift heavy weights while eating at a calorie deficit to preserve my muscle and mitigate muscle loss from eating at a deficit. I am noticing some gains in strength now but I'm also still a noobie to lifting and that's to be expected for now.

    I'd recommend a combination of strength training and cardio. Have a good 5x5 program like Evan recommends but maybe in the in between days do cardio. I can burn 800-900 calories on an elliptical working at my target heart rate for an hour, lifting weights I can only burn 1/3 of that (at least by my estimates).
  • futureMrsWalker
    futureMrsWalker Posts: 8 Member
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    Will lifting with no cardio help with weight loss at all? I do have a bunch of weight to take off, but I'd prefer to focus on getting strong (along with eating healthier).
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    Weightloss is all about calories in vs calories out.
    Eat at a deficit and you will lose weight.

    Lift weights for body.
    Run/cardio for heart.

    I also run so i can eat more!
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
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    Will lifting with no cardio help with weight loss at all? I do have a bunch of weight to take off, but I'd prefer to focus on getting strong (along with eating healthier).

    It depends on what you mean by "help." It will help maintain muscle mass while in a caloric deficit. It will not burn as many calories as doing regular cardio workouts. Without cardio, you have less wiggle room in your diet, as far as total calories go.

    As the saying goes, you can't out train a poor diet. In this case, a poor diet would be defined as one where you exceed your caloric goals for the day.
  • martinel2099
    martinel2099 Posts: 899 Member
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    Will lifting with no cardio help with weight loss at all? I do have a bunch of weight to take off, but I'd prefer to focus on getting strong (along with eating healthier).

    Losing weight means creating a calorie deficit. You can create the deficit by just eating under your calorie goal or with a combination of exercise. Cardio gives you more bang for your back with burning calories if you work at a high enough intensity.

    You can absolutely lose weight with weight training, just make sure you record your time and effort properly. I use fitness pal's estimate for weight training but cut the time in half. If I work out for an hour, I say 30 minutes to be safe. (Fitness pal tends to over-estimate)
  • germslyde
    germslyde Posts: 3
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    High Intensity Weight Training is what you should be looking at. Construct your weight training in such a manner that you are doing "whole-body" workouts in circuits with no rest between exercises. Focus on compound movements alternating between upper body and lower body (Squats and Pull-ups/lat pulldowns) to hit the biggest muscle groups in your body (back and legs). This will not only keep your heart rate up and effectively replace the static state cardio (treadmill running/walking) most people think of when you say the word "Cardio," but will also burn way more calories during and post work-out than any static cardio you could think of.

    You will get far better results with HIT training twice a week replacing cardio.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    Weightloss is all about calories in vs calories out.
    Eat at a deficit and you will lose weight.

    Lift weights for body.
    Run/cardio for heart.

    I also run so i can eat more!


    ^^This!!!!!
  • jjplato
    jjplato Posts: 155 Member
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    Will lifting with no cardio help with weight loss at all? I do have a bunch of weight to take off, but I'd prefer to focus on getting strong (along with eating healthier).

    You can lose weight without cardio, as long as you are eating fewer calories than your body is using each day. Consuming adequate protein will help preserve lean body mass (muscle). There are many very lean body builders who do little or no cardio.

    Google "body recomposition" -- it sounds like this may be what you're interested in.
  • futureMrsWalker
    futureMrsWalker Posts: 8 Member
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    High Intensity Weight Training is what you should be looking at. Construct your weight training in such a manner that you are doing "whole-body" workouts in circuits with no rest between exercises. Focus on compound movements alternating between upper body and lower body (Squats and Pull-ups/lat pulldowns) to hit the biggest muscle groups in your body (back and legs). This will not only keep your heart rate up and effectively replace the static state cardio (treadmill running/walking) most people think of when you say the word "Cardio," but will also burn way more calories during and post work-out than any static cardio you could think of.

    You will get far better results with HIT training twice a week replacing cardio.

    I have a goal of getting in exercise 3 days per week to start, what would you recommend for the 3rd day if I did HIT on the other days?
  • Jennkies
    Jennkies Posts: 382 Member
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    Dumb question here.. So if I am aiming to lose one pound a week, giving me 1750 calories a day, and I'm eating under that amount - will I not be able to gain muscle with strength training?
  • _sirenofthesea_
    _sirenofthesea_ Posts: 117 Member
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    My trainer says less cardio more strength training - to lose weight!

    He says do cardio to make your heart happy, do strength training to make your butt look good! LOL
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
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    Dumb question here.. So if I am aiming to lose one pound a week, giving me 1750 calories a day, and I'm eating under that amount - will I not be able to gain muscle with strength training?

    You can gain STRENGTH while losing weight.

    But you will not be gaining muscle mass while losing weight.
  • laurenawolf
    laurenawolf Posts: 262 Member
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    My trainer says less cardio more strength training - to lose weight!

    He says do cardio to make your heart happy, do strength training to make your butt look good! LOL

    AMEN!
  • madhatter2013
    madhatter2013 Posts: 1,547 Member
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    High Intensity Weight Training is what you should be looking at. Construct your weight training in such a manner that you are doing "whole-body" workouts in circuits with no rest between exercises. Focus on compound movements alternating between upper body and lower body (Squats and Pull-ups/lat pulldowns) to hit the biggest muscle groups in your body (back and legs). This will not only keep your heart rate up and effectively replace the static state cardio (treadmill running/walking) most people think of when you say the word "Cardio," but will also burn way more calories during and post work-out than any static cardio you could think of.

    You will get far better results with HIT training twice a week replacing cardio.

    I have a goal of getting in exercise 3 days per week to start, what would you recommend for the 3rd day if I did HIT on the other days?

    I recommend Stronglifts 5X5 as good beginner worout. I have been doing it for a couple months now and I don't do any cardio unless I know I need the extra calories for a piece of cake or something. Start with the bar to get your form down and then work your way up to heavy lifting.
  • robweaver77
    robweaver77 Posts: 14
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    If your goal is to lose weight and gain strength, you absolutely don't need cardio. And if you are a beginner who is overweight, you should be able to get along for a little while with getting stronger and losing weight, as long as you eat enough protein and don't keep your caloric deficit too low. It will become more difficult to do this as you exhaust your newbie strength gains and your supply of excess calories (your fat), so at that point you can choose to stay at the same weight while slowly losing fat and gaining muscle or try to preserve your new-found muscle and cut calories so you lose more fat. I'd recommend starting strength or a similar barbell based linear progression program. Also, strength training does contain a small cardio component in that, from set to set, you don't usually fully recover from the previous set, so your heart gets a decent workout and becomes stronger.
  • CallMeCupcakeDammit
    CallMeCupcakeDammit Posts: 9,377 Member
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    What everyone else said, and this...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/724405-resistance-training-tidbits
    For starters, complete novices who have never touched a weight before as well as people who are carrying around a lot of extra fat benefit from the ability to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. This depends a good bit on genetics too, but in general, simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss (hereafter referred to as recomposition) is next to impossible to achieve outside the realm of novices, overweight individuals and drug users. The reason being, keeping this simplistic, is that muscle building (hypertrophy) is a very intensive process, energetically speaking. Put differently, you need a surplus of calories (more energy in than out) to facilitate recovery and growth of new muscle. While dieting for fat loss, you don’t have adequate calories to maintain your current tissue (hence the loss in weight accompanying a caloric deficit). So adding something as metabolically active as muscle tissue probably isn’t going to happen in the face of an energy deficit. As I’m typing this it seems a bit wordy but suffice it to say, unless you're fat and/or untrained… don’t expect to gain an appreciable amount of muscle while dieting.
  • squirrlt
    squirrlt Posts: 106 Member
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    The amount of calories burned from exercising (cardio or strength) is sadly negligible over time. You can spend an hour on the treadmill (and can you really trust activity calorie estimates?) and blow it all by eating one cookie. So in that regard, like other folks are saying, focus on what you are eating for weight loss. HOWEVER, doing strength training 3x times a week will help you maintain muscle mass as you lose weight, moreso than cardio. So eat less for weight loss, strength train to improve body composition, and cardio for heart health/endurance (although strength-training or just losing pounds can help with that too). If I had to choose one over the other while trying to lose weight, strength training hands down!

    So basically, there is nothing WRONG with not doing cardio while trying to lose weight, but it does have it's own health benefits worth considering.
  • MagnumBurrito
    MagnumBurrito Posts: 1,070 Member
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    What kind of results might you expect to see?

    Lose fat, build muscle, become faster, live longer. Its like a cheat code in a video game.

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