Are you a cardio queen? Would you like to lose body fat? If you answered yes to both of these questions, I have a question for you. How’s that working for you?
The common belief among your average gym member is that fat loss = cardio and cardio = fat loss. Not just cardio, but long, slow cardio right? Wrong!! Well, not completely wrong but there are better ways to burn fat in less time than plodding along on the treadmill for an hour.
Enter resistance training. Because I feel like a first year college student typing “resistance training” I’ll refer to it as lifting weights.
I’m not talking about doing curls with 3 pound dumbbells, I’m talking about squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, doing pull-ups (REAL pull-ups, not full body flailing pull-ups) and pushups.
If you’re a female reading this there is a 99% chance that you just though to yourself, “I don’t want to get bulky.” Double cheeseburgers, donut holes and modern chemistry (wink, wink) make you bulky, not lifting weights.
So why does lifting have such a positive effect on body composition? I could go on and on with science this and science that but instead I’ll give you two quick reasons why you should reduce or eliminate long, slow cardio and start lifting weights.
- Lifting weights promotes the growth of fat-free mass or muscle (Get the word “bulky out of your head please). The amount of muscle that you carry has a huge impact on your resting metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more calories, and therefore fat, at rest.
- Any added muscle is going to change the shape of your body. We’ve had multiple clients drop fat while adding muscle. Their scale weight might not change much but the shape of their body has changed BIG TIME. Guess how much long, slow cardio we do at ITS? You guessed it…zero!!
I’ll give credit where credit is due. Cardio is great for your heart and lungs. Endurance athletes are in a class of their own. That said, fat loss will come much easier if you reduce or even ditch the long, slow cardio and starting doing what I lovingly call “movements that matter.” Squats, deadlifts, pull-ups and pushups are just a few. They don’t have to be so heavy that your nose bleeds but it’s ok to challenge yourself with these movements.
So cross cardio off of your to-do list and replace it with lifting something!!
Ever stronger!!
Levi
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