Previously, I had mentioned resistance training can lead to improvements in strength, an incredibly important aspect of health and wellness. Increased strength allows for higher levels of overall physical fitness, which I’ve previously commented on as being our ability to complete the tasks we desire without excessive fatigue. For instance, a stronger core (abs, hips, and buttocks) better protects the lower back during daily movements. Most of us also understand that resistance training, like cardio is crucial to losing weight and getting healthy.
We all know cardio. It’s when we toil away on a treadmill, elliptical, recumbent or spin bike, for 30-60 minutes in our training zone while watching Sportscenter or Dr. Phil. I’m sure there are folks that love the mental clarity, or the rush of feel good sensations once they’re done their cardio session. Don’t get me wrong, cardiovascular fitness is instrumental in overall health and wellness. But, between cardio and resistance training, it is my experience that resistance training is better than cardio for losing weight.
Yes. That’s right, I said it. See, when we say we want to lose weight, we really mean we want to lose body fat. To do that, most of us understand that we must eat fewer calories than we are using each day (calories in and calories out). Often, many folks gravitate towards cardio because it gets us moving, uses up calories, and the charts on the machine or wall tells us that we are burning fat for fuel during our low intensity cardio.
Without getting super deep into the science of it all, I will tell you that cardiovascular activity does use energy (calories), and one of the sources of low to moderate intensity aerobic activity can be fat. Yet, often, our cardio sessions don’t create a big enough impact on the body to make much of a dent in that savings account of body fat we’ve built up over the years. Also, if our body is not particularly great at using fat for energy, the impact of that cardio is even less.
Resistance Training on the other hand, creates the need for changes in our muscles. Not necessarily always by way of increasing the size of the muscle fibers, even though that is a common desired outcome with many resistance training programs. Sometimes those changes are more related to the additional activity within regularly trained muscle fibers. When those muscles were only used sparingly on a day to day basis prior to beginning a training routine, the change in usage creates a need for more energy.
Try to imagine you have to move a wood stove from your basement to the garage. On your own, you might not be able to do the job. So, to entice a few neighbors to help you out, there is a promise of food and drink once the job is done. One favor won’t require you to adjust your grocery budget a whole lot on a weekly basis. However, based on the promise of food and drink once completed, if you needed help moving something several times a week, each week, regularly calling upon those neighbors day after day will require a daily and weekly increase to the food budget to pay back your neighborly help.
The body is similar, in that when a job cannot be handled by one group of muscles, others in that neighborhood are recruited to help complete the task. Once the task is completed, those muscles need some refreshments (calories) for their assistance, and if called upon regularly, the body will need to bring in more calories on a daily basis.
It’s a very simple analogy, and certainly doesn’t explain all the nitty gritty details, but hopefully you get the picture I’m tying to paint. Larger or even more regularly active muscles require more energy to be available as payment. In order to lose weight, that increase in energy required on a daily basis, must be combined with a sound nutritional approach slanted towards a daily energy debt (less calories in than out). In order to balance out the energy books (which the body would much rather do than be in debt), our body can ask for a withdrawal from the savings account of body fat we’ve built up through the years.
Hopefully between these two articles, the importance and benefits of challenging our physical strength with a resistance training program has become clearer. There are all sorts of ways to get started with resistance training, and my advice is to start simply. If you’re familiar with resistance training in the past, but have gotten out of the rhythm of things, try to pick a short, effective program that required minimal time investment.
Three days per week working on the whole body (lower, upper, and core) each session would be fine. Choose exercises that don’t cause problems for your back/knees, etc. If you’re not familiar with resistance training, or would simply like something simple to follow please feel free to contact me at sunkinghealthnfit@gmail.com and I can send you a very basic program that I have seen work wonders. Thanks again, friends!
Take care and stay well,
Tony
Thanks for the explanation! 😊 I am one of those people that would go out and do a cardio work out to loose weight, but it totally make sense that working your core would help with weigh loss. Changing your physical activity helps with the mental and physical well being. Thanks again for helping making that change.