Surprising Facts About Aerobics and Resistance Training

The one lesson I wish I had learned years ago is that aerobics are not the only way to lose weight. Or that resistance training may be equally important when it comes to burning off fat.

Which might be one reason my fat loss was less than I expected despite hours peddling the stationary bike in my bedroom.

So if you are laboring under the assumption aerobics are best for fat burning too maybe a second look is called for. To find out just where resistance training fits into the big picture here.

Yet haven’t aerobic exercises always been touted for fat loss? For a couple of reasons. Aerobics are easy and not all that tasking compared to other options. And they’re easy to understand. Hit your personal fat burning zone. Remain there for a duration of 35 minutes or so. And that’s it.

And don’t forget you can often distract yourself with TV, music or other types of entertainment when doing aerobics.

Alternatively, we’d rather not think of the stress and strain resistance training involves. I mean it involves lifting weights repeatedly for a specific number of times. Ugh! All the math involved gives me a headache. No wonder we prefer to stay in our aerobics comfort zone.

But let’s do a reality check here and take a hard look at the list of relative benefits of cardio exercise versus strength training as defined. With an easily overlooked drawback thrown in too.

Cardio, it seems, offers these fat burning pluses and minuses.

Your cardiovascular training routine burns more calories than weight training – but not significantly more.

There is less burning of calories after your workouts.

Another issue, unless you’re doing water aerobics, is the joint problems that sometimes crop up from the impact on them that comes with this type of exercise.

Okay so what does resistance training do for you in the fat burning department?

Believe it or not, depending on the amount of weight used and number of repetitions done you can burn more or less the same amount of calories as with an aerobic workout.

Then get this. After the workout you will continue burning calories as your muscles repair and rebuild. Your metabolic rate has also been bumped by maybe 30% and will stay that way for like the next 24-36 hours. Which is how you can burn fat even while asleep.

When you workout your core and ab muscles you have less chance of injury as you learn balance and co-ordination in such workouts.

Voila! Looks like resistance training builds fat burning muscles and helps you lose fat too. No complaints there. So now what? What should you do about it?

First this revelation is no reason to call the whole thing off. Your cardio routine that is. No, the reasonable thing to do is combine moderate weight training with low impact aerobics. I suggest that because aerobic activities themselves bring with them their additional benefits.

They make you heart and lungs stronger so that they are more efficient.

They improve blood circulation.

They assist in the development of improved stamina, endurance, and level of fitness.

Help in the muscle repair after a strength training workout.

That makes the success formula obvious. Simply embrace a complete system of cardio, resistance training and better diet to become a fitter, leaner you. Easy, right?

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