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Cardio/Circuit Training VS. Strength Training
The Skinny on Skinny
If you're like me, you love to train intensely, with very little breaks, which usually means you're standing in a pool of your own sweat. This includes cardio/circuit style training mainly. This type of training has a couple of upsides:
1-It may help improve your overall endurance
2-It may help increase your oxygen consumption (VO2Max)
3-You'll burn a little bit of calories
Unfortunately, there are also some downsides:
1-You only burn a little bit of calories
2-You overtrain/exert yourself leaving you sore
3-You feel fatigued after your workout and the following day or two4-You are more likely to get injured because you're training in a fatigued state
5-With soreness, loss of energy, and little muscle gains/fat loss most people begin to lose their motivation, such as New Years resolution-ers
So if your goal is listed above, then by all means swim in your sweat.
However, if your goal is to put on muscle and burn a lot more calories, have consistent energy throughout the day, and have little to no soreness (depending on experience) then you need to rethink your training strategy. Many tips about strategy are mentioned in my last entry, The Strengths of Strength Training.
Before I end, though, I'd like to back up my claim about the benefits of Strength Training.
First of all, muscle gain and calorie expenditure. When Strength Training, you should focus primarily on compound lifts, which require the use of multiple muscle groups in order to perform each lift. Such lifts include, but are not limited to: squats, dead lifts, bent barbell rows, barbell bench press, barbell curls, and military press. Because each lift uses multiple muscles, calories and carbs are being fed to them for energy causing more to be burned throughout your workout.
Also, because these all require core stabilization, your body is eating up carbs and calories while working those ab muscles!
You essentially don't even need to do separate exercises for your abs.
Also, regarding soreness and an increase in energy, please refer to The Strengths of Strength Training! Mainly because I talk about the proper strategy to avoid soreness and increase energy.
To Read More About: Strength Training Benefits
- The Stregnth of Strength Training
If you're like me, you've done countless hours of research on exercise throughout the years. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I've tried EVERYTHING.