Cardio VS Weight Lifting - The Truth

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shodaimetruth
shodaimetruth Posts: 137
in Fitness and Exercise
There is no truth here, just an opinion. Not going to discuss any actual facts, but discuss my feelings about the two different paths to exercising. If anyone has similar or opposite or not even in the same realm feelings about the two, please add them to the discussion. (if a discussion actually occurs)

For myself when it comes to working out there is a different mental approach to both the exercises. One seems to be time based while the other is numbered (set/weight/rep) based. When it comes to the two, I am much more eager and driven towards the weight lifting then I am for the cardio. The cardio tends to be a bit more intimidating to me then the weight lifting. The cardio has a set time that I need to work through and I know that I can go at my own pace, but I know that I will push myself as hard as I can through the workout. With the weights, I know it will be difficult, but it's not as intimidating. I think it might be the time restraint and the fact that I know I can go at it at my own pace.

Then there is the rewards or after effect feeling. With cardio, I don't feel any sort of positive or reward from doing the work. I feel drained and the body feels sore. Not like the soreness I get from weight lifting. With weight lifting, though I feel sore, I get that pumped feeling. I feel like I have already received some of the benefits from the workout. The muscles feel tighter, stronger and energized. I don't feel exhausted, I know I am, but I don't feel like the body is done for the day.

The next day is different for both exercises. With the weightlifting, I have the muscle soreness which in the past has caused me to stop working out with the weights, but I'm pushing through that as best I can now. With the cardio, there isn't too much pain, maybe some tenderness in the legs or calves if I did a lot of running, but that would tend to go away after a warm up.

That's my opinion on the two paths of exercising. No facts, and 100% Truth.
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Replies

  • mountainmare
    mountainmare Posts: 294 Member
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    This may sound stupid--but isn't part of cardio for your heart...not weight loss? Isn't it part of overall healthy fitness? I may be too old to be in the loop--but I thought the idea was you need both.
  • shodaimetruth
    shodaimetruth Posts: 137
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    i'm doing both, for all the reasons. health, fat loss, weight loss, strength gain and body composition. I don't think you can get it all with out doing both and being committed to them both. of course the proper diet as well.
  • TheFunBun
    TheFunBun Posts: 793 Member
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    Hmm. I find I get a better endorphin rush from cardio, but that I -prefer- weight lifting. The cardio has really helped with my back pain as far as caring about being in pain. The weight lifting makes me feel like a queen! :)

    Flexibility and balance work have nice defined goals too that are fun to meet, so I like that kind of training as well.
  • shodaimetruth
    shodaimetruth Posts: 137
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    when you refer to flexibility, i am assuming stretching? I can be honest and like most people, I struggle with stretching. I do the minimum to help minimize the risks of injury and delayed soreness. However, I have not tried to do more then just that.
  • AprilRenewed
    AprilRenewed Posts: 691 Member
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    Cardio is for your heart, but it's also for weight and fat loss. Both. You can't lose weight and fat with weight lifting only. It also strengthens your lungs, and it's proven to help your brain and creativity, to exercise your mental abilities. It boosts your metabolism and sends endorphins through your body. It's proven to help those who are depressed.

    Weight lifting is to build and tone muscle. When you do this, it speeds up your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns while even standing still. Obviously, it makes you stronger. But as you burn fat doing cardio, the muscle you're building will be visible.

    If you don't burn the fat doing cardio, your muscle remains buried and invisible. You may be strong, but you won't have the shapely body of someone who has burned the proper amount of fat.

    Personally, I'm addicted to both.
  • TheFunBun
    TheFunBun Posts: 793 Member
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    when you refer to flexibility, i am assuming stretching? I can be honest and like most people, I struggle with stretching. I do the minimum to help minimize the risks of injury and delayed soreness. However, I have not tried to do more then just that.

    I think most people try to fit it in before or after another workout, and when you're exhausted it's just not amusing. Thinking of it as it's own workout helps me. I like it while watching television- working range of motion while in a straddle or sitting in pidgeon pose to help with hip flexor tightness. Very small amounts of time can give you huge returns in range of motion.
  • ishtar13
    ishtar13 Posts: 528 Member
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    Cardio is for your heart, but it's also for weight and fat loss. Both. You can't lose weight and fat with weight lifting only. It also strengthens your lungs, and it's proven to help your brain and creativity, to exercise your mental abilities. It boosts your metabolism and sends endorphins through your body. It's proven to help those who are depressed.

    Weight lifting is to build and tone muscle. When you do this, it speeds up your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns while even standing still. Obviously, it makes you stronger. But as you burn fat doing cardio, the muscle you're building will be visible.

    If you don't burn the fat doing cardio, your muscle remains buried and invisible. You may be strong, but you won't have the shapely body of someone who has burned the proper amount of fat.

    Personally, I'm addicted to both.

    You contradict yourself here.

    If you're burning more calories because you have more muscle AND continue to eat at a deficit, you will burn fat even without cardio. There are plenty of people that have done just that.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    Cardio is also a natural stress reliever and antidepressant. I think the mental health benefits are often overlooked.
  • AprilRenewed
    AprilRenewed Posts: 691 Member
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    Cardio is for your heart, but it's also for weight and fat loss. Both. You can't lose weight and fat with weight lifting only. It also strengthens your lungs, and it's proven to help your brain and creativity, to exercise your mental abilities. It boosts your metabolism and sends endorphins through your body. It's proven to help those who are depressed.

    Weight lifting is to build and tone muscle. When you do this, it speeds up your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns while even standing still. Obviously, it makes you stronger. But as you burn fat doing cardio, the muscle you're building will be visible.

    If you don't burn the fat doing cardio, your muscle remains buried and invisible. You may be strong, but you won't have the shapely body of someone who has burned the proper amount of fat.

    Personally, I'm addicted to both.

    You contradict yourself here.

    If you're burning more calories because you have more muscle AND continue to eat at a deficit, you will burn fat even without cardio. There are plenty of people that have done just that.

    I'm no expert, but I suppose I did not speak clearly. I didn't say what I meant.

    Sure, you can burn fat and make ti disappear through diet and strength training only. But it seems to me that would take a heck of a lot longer than if you also threw in 30 minutes of cardio a few times a week.

    Personally, I do cardio every day and strength training every other day. I alternate the cardio so I don't get bored - right now I'm doing P90X and throwing in 60 minutes on the elliptical on weight days and yoga days. I don't need to lose weight, but I love how it makes me feel,and I love knowing how healthy my heart and lungs are becoming.

    I also love how strong my body is becoming thanks to the weight training.
  • shodaimetruth
    shodaimetruth Posts: 137
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    I've enjoyed my cardio a lot, I've mostly been doing boxing/kickboxing as my cardio, along with running. I just started to weight train and it's not as easy for to mentally get in to it because of the muscle soreness, something I have to work through, I know.

    I know that I have been pretty stress free because the cardio. I can honestly say I have not been stressed out at all with all the working out that I have been doing. I continuously forget to mention or remember that added benefit.

    I will start looking in to some balancing and flexibility exercises. I know they may not be fun now, but not a single workout I started ever was fun in the beginning, they just got fun after I worked through the beginning. I know I need to add flexibility in to my plans, I can feel it in my hips and groin from all the kicks that I'm not as flexible as my workouts are requiring. I don't want to get too flexible because I know that there is potential for injury going to far. however, that could be said with all exercising.
  • Meg_78
    Meg_78 Posts: 998 Member
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    For me I like doing both. As a gainer the weights are more important to my main goals and I enjoy the challange immensely and it has been really satisfying to see and feel the changes. How ever, as someone who has always been skinny, weak and un-co, there is also something I love about the challenge and endurance of cardio. I couldn't do flat out cardio like treadmill etc I find that so boring, but I love circuit training, love beating it, love the rush after and do feel that one benifits from both for a healthy lifestyle.
  • victoria4321
    victoria4321 Posts: 1,719 Member
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    I eat less for fat loss, lift weights to be stronger, and do cardio for a healthy heart. I like knowing I can run up a flight of stairs and skip the elevator if I wanted to. I also like to pick up heavy things and put them down just because.
  • Sheila_Ann
    Sheila_Ann Posts: 365 Member
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    I do both. I work out with a trainer 2x a week and I tend to do a lot of KB's with her. I do zumba 4 to 5x a week for the cardio. I hate doing regular cardio classes because I find them boring. I love to dance so I enjoy zumba.

    I love to see my muscle starting to come thru. I get very motivated when I do zumba and see myself in the mirror and see how great my body is starting to look. I get the I WANT MORE mentality.

    I am very sore the day after I work out with my trainer and I like the feeling because I know I worked those muscle hard. With zumba I don't really feel much except some days my core is a bit sore.

    My 2 cents. :)
  • shodaimetruth
    shodaimetruth Posts: 137
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    That's all i was really looking for sheila...just other opinion on how they feel and approach the two. I like your way of thinking Victoria...I want to know that I can be useful to myself if I need to be. If I need to run from something, or lift something and possibly kick something. I want to know that my body is physically capable of those things. I also, enjoy the same things as well Sheila. I love looking in the mirror to see the little differences in the body. My shoulders seem a bit more apparent and for the first time today, I lifted in the mirrors and saw VEINS! I've never seen my veins popping from weight lifting.
  • AprilRenewed
    AprilRenewed Posts: 691 Member
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    I've enjoyed my cardio a lot, I've mostly been doing boxing/kickboxing as my cardio, along with running. I just started to weight train and it's not as easy for to mentally get in to it because of the muscle soreness, something I have to work through, I know.

    I know that I have been pretty stress free because the cardio. I can honestly say I have not been stressed out at all with all the working out that I have been doing. I continuously forget to mention or remember that added benefit.

    I will start looking in to some balancing and flexibility exercises. I know they may not be fun now, but not a single workout I started ever was fun in the beginning, they just got fun after I worked through the beginning. I know I need to add flexibility in to my plans, I can feel it in my hips and groin from all the kicks that I'm not as flexible as my workouts are requiring. I don't want to get too flexible because I know that there is potential for injury going to far. however, that could be said with all exercising.

    Look at the muscle soreness as proof that what you're doing is actually DOING something, proof that you are strengthening your muscles. I LOVE feeling sore.

    As for balance/flexibility, try yoga. Start with a 15 minute video on youtube to give you an idea of what it is and what it feels like.
  • crisanderson27
    crisanderson27 Posts: 5,343 Member
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    Cardio is for your heart, but it's also for weight and fat loss. Both. You can't lose weight and fat with weight lifting only. It also strengthens your lungs, and it's proven to help your brain and creativity, to exercise your mental abilities. It boosts your metabolism and sends endorphins through your body. It's proven to help those who are depressed.

    Weight lifting is to build and tone muscle. When you do this, it speeds up your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns while even standing still. Obviously, it makes you stronger. But as you burn fat doing cardio, the muscle you're building will be visible.

    If you don't burn the fat doing cardio, your muscle remains buried and invisible. You may be strong, but you won't have the shapely body of someone who has burned the proper amount of fat.

    Personally, I'm addicted to both.

    This is absolutely inaccurate...I don't mean to be rude...but it is. Performing continuous cardio has been found to burn both fat, and lean mass. It sends chemical signals to your body, telling it that the lean mass isn't necessary, and in fact is a burden...and thus, expendable. Yes, you can certainly lose weight with cardio alone, but its certainly not all going to be weight you want to lose.

    Strength training, on the other hand...is the opposite. It promotes natural growth hormone, adrenaline, and other beneficial chemical reactions within your body that cardio absolutely does not. This response directly limits fat production, and even more importantly...muscle loss. Add to that that the work done, the repair necessary, and even the energy needed to maintain that lean mass...and its obvious why do many women (I say women because most men get this instinctively it seems) on MFP have found that strength training alone has melted more bodyfat from their bodies than months, and sometimes years of cardio.

    *shrug*

    Again, I don't mean to come off as rude, but these things are proven truths...and even if science didn't back it up yet...the overwhelming success of so many women here on MFP alone who have switched to strength training...does.
  • shodaimetruth
    shodaimetruth Posts: 137
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    I don't see it as rude....i see it as informational. That is why I have started to add weight lifting. I wanted to see the opinions on why people would do one or both of these exercises and how they felt? what the negatives and positives? why they didn't or did like one of the exercises? more of a discussion of personal opinions instead of all the argumentative efforts of throwing facts around.
  • crisanderson27
    crisanderson27 Posts: 5,343 Member
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    I don't see it as rude....i see it as informational. That is why I have started to add weight lifting. I wanted to see the opinions on why people would do one or both of these exercises and how they felt? what the negatives and positives? why they didn't or did like one of the exercises? more of a discussion of personal opinions instead of all the argumentative efforts of throwing facts around.

    Thank you. I just wanted to make sure she understood that I wasn't contradicting her as a person...but rather the information she gave.

    I would also like to add something...since I seemed to have somehow missed saying it above. The hormones produced by heavy strength training absolutely promote fat oxidation. What this means specifically is that strength training...on a caloric deficit...ABSOLUTELY burns fat.
  • shodaimetruth
    shodaimetruth Posts: 137
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    I think people need to step away from "Weight loss" and start focusing on Fat Loss. cardio exercising is great for weight loss, but does not descriminate where it takes that weight from. It could be muscles or fat, whatever is easiest to work with. The two exercises need to be combined in everyones exercise planning. strength training combined with cardio promotes higher fat loss and low muslce loss. That way would be the most efficient way to reach the target physique a persons looking for. I don't think anyone would care if they weighted the exact same but looked like they wanted to look.

    It's truly about the appearance and the weight number is only a misleading indicator. Thanks for the info Chrisanderson2
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    I do both... and always have done both. Haven't been doing much strength training lately due to schedule restrictions, but I'm going to start up again soon.

    I see my trainer once a week, and get a strength training plan from him.. and then I go. Switch them up every 3 weeks or so, and I'm good. Throw in cardio of some form two or three times a week, and it's even better.

    Not focused so much on the scale anymore then I am bodyfat.. I've pretty much lost what i've wanted too and am just maintaining right now.

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