What is the most Effective Method for Fat Loss, Weight Training or Cardio
Well that’s a good question, lets see if we can get you thinking “out of the box”, and trying new things. Personally I hate cardio, well, cardio in the traditional sense e.g. 2 hours on an elliptical training machine.
Most fitness enthusiasts, you know the beginner to intermediate, or anyone trying to get fit and tone up, consider it a “must have” they need cardio exercise to accomplish their goals. Most people never even question it. However, there is another way of removing abdominal fat by exercising, in fact a much better way to get where you want to be. You may be surprised to know that some of the worlds top fitness professionals (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio.
If you are extremely overweight and have mobility problems because of that, then light to moderate cardio sessions could be a good place to start. However there may be more effective options.
So what is the definition of cardio?
To the majority of people cardio is hours on a treadmill, riding an exercise bike, or coasting on an elliptical trainer, all the time watching the TV screen at their very expensive gym complex. This is “traditional cardio”. OK so it’s not surprising most people get bored and give up after a couple of months.
Now, cardio exercise can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. We don’t want to go into the technicalities but, to keep things simple so if it gets your heart rate up, and gets you sweating, it’s cardio. It doesn’t matter if you’re pumping dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training…it’s still working your heart so it’s cardio.
Effective fat burning exercises
For example lets take a barbell (or dumbbell, or kettlebell) clean & press, which involves lifting a weight from the floor to the shoulders, then pressing it overhead. Even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, the size of the weight doesn’t make a massive difference, if 25 lbs is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much. These exercises are just as relevant for the ladies.
OK most people will still view this as a pure weight training exercise or strength training exercise. However, next time you are in the gym grab a couple of dumbells and do 15-20 reps of clean and press, as long you used a challenging enough weight, I’m willing to bet your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max for your age, and you feel like you just did a 100-meter sprint (which incidentally, sprinting beats the hell out of jogging any day, it’s probably one of the most effective fat burners).
How to save time at the gym
How about 20 reps of one-arm snatches or swings with alternate arms with a dumbbell, now that’s got your heart racing, and you’re out of breath. Try 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats (that’s right no weight), lunges, and push ups hardly with any rest in between. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breath! This style of training is fantastic at conditioning your heart! Conventional thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are also replacing your cardio workout needs as well, and who doesn’t want to save valuable time. You also strengthen and tone almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body exercises.
So we have established sitting on a bike watching TV is just not going to achieve the same results in the same time (later we will talk about the relationship between muscle growth and your metabolism and why these types of exercise are so important). This is how to burn belly fat.
But to close the whole traditional cardio thing, If you can watch a TV program while training you just can’t be concentrating on the job in hand, and you will never get the results you want, you are just not working hard enough…. think about it?
