What comes first cardio or strength?
We have learned over the last few weeks that a combination of cardio and strength training is the fastest way to success. However, there is still more to the big picture. For certain goals you will want the cardio to come first and for other types of goals the weights need to come first. But for most of us we need to as always, create muscle confusion and mix up days. What are your goals? Before you begin a workout routine you have to determine what your goals are. This may not be as easy as it sounds, the more specific you can get with your goal setting the better the outcome. If you are having a hard time with this answer the following questions to steer you in the right direction
1. Are you starting a workout routine to accomplish a task such as hiking the Grand Canyon, being able to keep up on a scuba diving trip, or keeping up with your kids?
2. Are you trying to fit into some old pants?
3. Do you have a big event coming up such as a high school reunion or anniversary?
4. What is the first thought that goes through your head when you step out of the shower and look at the mirror?
Although, workout routines need to be tailored to individuals here are some guidelines. If you answered yes to question one then the answer to the original question is cardio comes first. When you are working out to accomplish a goal you need to use the front end of your energy and focus to build your endurance. At the beginning of your workout your glycogen stores (fuel stores) and your motivation are at their highest. For this type of goal you need to focus and give your cardio exercise a real honest intense effort and leave whatever energy is left for a light lifting and ALWAYS stretch.
If you answered yes to questions 2 or 3 then you need to take a different approach. Yes, cardio exercise will help but you need to go deeper and create damage in your muscles to tighten your total package. At this point you will want to use your initial boost of energy that you have at the beginning of a workout to spend the majority of your “fuel stores” on lifting. When you burn your reserve stores on weight lifting before you hop on the treadmill your body will be primed to dig deep into your fat stores to find additional energy. The only down fall with this train of thought is that if you are new to an exercise routine then you may need to start with one discipline a day and build up to it.
Ok, question 4 is the hardest for most clients to answer honestly. This is when we are most vulnerable and I find most clients bury there real feelings about question 4. It is, however, the only way we can initiate lasting changes. Whether we are working out on doctors orders, to firm up our floppy under arms or to shrink our waist line, one thing is constant. We all have a least favorite body part that we wish there was a miracle cure for. Once you have truly and honestly answered this question my advice is to write the answer down and find a local personal trainer to help you to your end result as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The Power of Strength Training
Last time we learned about the effects of cardio exercise on the human body; this time we get to learn about resistance training and what affects that has on the body! My hope is that by the end of this article you will understand each component separately and why you need them BOTH. When you lift weights to create that extra demand on your body several things happen. First, you create an extra oxygen demand to the area of the body that you are working. Oxygen is carried by your blood to your muscles, so your heart has to start working harder to pump extra blood to the area affected. For example, if you were to perform a bicep curl, your biceps will need more oxygen. Two things happen for your arms to get that necessary oxygen. The arteries in your legs constrict and the arteries in your arms dilate. Also, your heart starts pumping more blood and therefore increases your heart rate. We can turn this basic bicep curl into a cardio exercise as well by simply adding a squat in-between each curl. This is going to confuse your body and it won’t know which arteries to dilate and constrict so they will all slightly dilate creating an even higher heart rate. This is going to blast a lot of calories in a very short amount of time.
Second, as you lift weights the muscle fibers (Myosin and Actin) in your body shorten and lengthen, pulling against each other. This creates friction and the result of friction is always damage. This is where it gets really cool! Your body needs to repair that damage and get rid of the waste product produced by the friction. The repair only happens while you sleep. You actually boost your resting metabolic rate while you sleep! RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) is the amount of calories that your body burns at rest. I.E., if you were bed ridden the amount of calories it takes to maintain your weight without gain or losing weight. This is a great way to boost your metabolism and lose weight as you sleep!
Third, as you do resistance training it puts an extra demand on your bones. This is not just important for the ladies, Guys pay attention! Men tend to drink more soda and are less likely to take a multi vitamin than women, the rate of male Osteoporosis it catching up to the rate of osteoporosis in women. Your body is really smart. If you are to create that demand on your body it will adapt to with stain that demand tomorrow. You can actually regain some bone density and stop further loss by doing load bearing exercises. Thus as you workout, lift weights and do resistance workouts your muscles will get stronger, your bones will get denser AND you will start to lose weight.
So what do we really get by not only doing cardio and not only doing weight workouts? A fun, fast, motivating way to a healthier you!
Wonderful World of Cardio
Men and women alike can benefit from the power of the heart pump. It has long been believed that cardio is for the athlete and women, however, it is just as necessary for men, teens, kids and senior citizens. The awesome thing about cardio is that it burns through the calories that are hanging around in your body just waiting to turn into fat, especially belly bulge.
When you eat food it goes through a long process to be turned into energy for your every day bodily functions that affect every aspect of your life. In layman terms this “energy” shuttles oxygen and nutrients to internal organs, muscle tissue and to your brain. However, when all of these functions are accounted for and there is still energy left over your body rapidly starts turning it into fat. It is much easier for your body to burn the food energy or ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) than it is for your body to turn fat back into ATP to be burned as energy. This is where it gets really cool; if you do nothing except burn off excessive ATP every day then you can STOP weight gain!!! Of course that’s not going to happen if you continue to eat 3 Twinkies and 3 snickers a day. But let’s get back on topic and focus on just the cardio aspect of weight maintenance. Let’s use a treadmill as an example because it’s really easy to understand what I am going to explain next with a treadmill.
Let’s say you are a 175 lb female with a daily caloric need of 1200 but you are eating 1600 calories a day. That’s a 400 calorie surplus that will find a comfy home on your waist if you don’t use them up. If you were to hop on a treadmill and you stayed on the treadmill until you hit 400 calorie burn you have now broken even and not gained weight that day. Now you will obviously want to create a deficiency if you want to lose weight. This is the important part, I know most of you like me are not mathematicians; however, I need you to stick with me for this next part.
1. +5 calories/day = 5-7 pound gain a year
2. -3500 calories= 1 lb weight loss
Look at that math twice. It doesn’t seem fair does it? Let’s go back to the treadmill. Now we are aiming to burn 600 calories per session so that we are creating a deficiency and we are now starting to lose weight. That extra 200 calories a day 4 days a week creates a deficiency of 800 calories week and you will lose a whopping 1 1/3 pounds a month. That is a start but let’s dig deeper and find a way to create a bigger calorie deficit. This is my favorite, it’s called accidental exercise! WOW what is that? It’s a bunch of small things you can do every day that will burn extra calories without much effort. A few simple examples of this would be, the ones you have always heard, parking as far away from your destination as possible, taking the stairs, and walking around the block to get your mail instead of straight to your mail box and straight back. But again let’s dig deeper and think outside the box on this, there are literally 1,000’s of ways to burn those extra calories a day.
1. Speed cleaning is my favorite, I hate cleaning my house so I make it game to see how fast I can do it and do it well, this will burn massive calories.
2. Every 30-45 minutes you spend at your desk at work stand up and sit down rapidly 10 times, you may look a little funny but as your waist line gets smaller are you really going to care?
3. Use a workout ball as your desk chair, this will whittle your waist by engaging your abs the entire time you sit on it and your energy will be better due to higher heart rate.
4. Hand wash your dishes instead of using the dishwasher.
5. Fire your gardener.
6. Get your kids and wash your car at home.
7. When you walk your dog go for the extra block OR try to start beating yesterday’s time for time around the block.
8. Find a salad and sandwich shop within walking distance from your office and make it a point to start frequenting it for lunch instead of driving to a fast food place.
9. Physically open the doors at shopping centers instead of using the automatic doors.
10. Use a hand cart instead of a push cart whenever possible.
11. On Friday night you and your sweetie walk to your favorite frozen yogurt or gelato place instead of driving.
12. This next one my husband makes so much fun of me for, calf-raises while I chop the dinner salad.
I hope these suggestions help you start to think outside the box as far as accidental exercise. Stay tuned for the next article when I give you the ultimate secret to fast weight loss.
• I want to hear what your favorite accidental exercises are?
• If you would like to better understand ATP click here ( I will add the link when I submit the article)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_triphosphate
Exercise progressions:
Most people think that they can acquire weight loss by A) join a gym, B) Go to the gym, C) eat less(until 10 pm where they give in to temptation) D) Ride the treadmill and then before they know it they will be the size that they want to be.
There are a few flaws with this plan. Gyms are great, don’t get me wrong BUT health clubs make most of their money from people who sign up and never use the gym because there is no form of structure or outside accountability. People also fail to make a plan for what they are going to go once they do make it to the gym. I see it almost every day when I’m at my gym working out. People come in and wonder from one machine to the next never really accomplishing anything, they plan that they had for that day ended at I’m going to go to the gym. It is SO important to make a plan otherwise you may as well just go home and watch tv.
Write down what you are going to work on ie arms, legs abs, 20 minutes of cardio ect. Then take it a step farther and decide how many excises you are going to do for each muscle group. For example, 3 separate exercises for biceps 3 for triceps, 2 for chest and 3 for back, as you are making this plan keep in mind that you have to keep the front of your body balanced with the back of your body. If you are over developing your biceps and under developing your triceps you will end up first with elbow trouble and then that will emanate to your shoulders then your neck. I think you may be starting to get the picture. Once you have designed a day to day program you need to take it a step farther and look at the big picture. Your program needs to continue to grow and change and adapt to your advanced abilities. If you always do the same 3 bicep exercises and the same 3 exercises for your triceps nothing will ever happen or change.
1. Make a plan to get your workout in
2. Pack your clothes and a snack in your car so that you have no excuses not to go
3. Make a plan for the day once you arrive at where you are going to workout
4. Make a short term plan ie 3-6 weeks
5. Make a long term plan ie 9-14 weeks
6. Make a year long term, what do you want to look like, feel like, accomplish for you in 12 months.
7. STOP MAKING EXCUSES, they will always be there and you will continue to be unhappy and unhealthy. Make the commitment and don’t look back.
Lets next talk about point C.
Does this sound familiar, I eat perfect all day and then after dinner I was watching tv, hanging out, on the computer and I just needed to eat something. Well I hear this every day. Do not let the night time munchies get the best of you. First of all rate your hunger, is it boredom eating? Or stress eating? Or did you really restrict your calories so far during the day that your body is craving more food?
1. If you are feeling hungry then eat some protein and or vegetables.
2. If you are not sure if it is actual hunger or nighttime munchies try having a glass of water or hot tea to fill your stomach. If it immediately takes the edge off then its night time munchies. If you are still hungry then try reaching for a handful of nuts, some celery and peanut butter, carrots and hummus, do you get the point? Protein and veggies, be creative.
3. Arm your self with the knowledge that night time munchies, i.e. false hunger will disappear within 20 minutes!! That means take your dog for a walk, do a cross word puzzle, or my favorite GO TO BED, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep anyway.
The true secrete to curbing cravings and night time munchies is to maintain a stable blood sugar level. When you go more than 3 ½ to 4 hours without eating your stomach empties completely. We want to avoid this for some many reasons; however, I am going to focus on one main reason. When you workout as hard as you have been working out with me you need to be constantly refueling/feeding your muscles and your brain. Your body needs fresh incoming energy to repair the damage we do to our muscles every day.