When it comes to complete fitness, the ideal approach is to embrace both cardio and strength-training exercise. To burn the most calories and lose weight quickly, both need to be encompassed into your week. Additionally, both types of exercise provide significant health benefits. Ignoring one means you’re missing out. The trick then is to find a balance between the two different types of exercise and to create a personal fitness program that meets your needs and goals. Exercising to Lose Weight? The balance may be different depending on your fitness goals. For example, if you want to lose weight with exercise then you’ll want to add more strength training to your weekly workout routine. Consider focusing on strength training about three times a week. Add to that two interval training cardio sessions and one longer cardio session, and you’ll achieve the weight loss results you desire. Interval training sessions can be short, twenty minutes or so. They include short bursts of intense effort bookended by periods of moderate effort. Your longer cardio sessions should be at a moderate intensity level. Want to Get a Bikini Bod? If your goal is to sculpt and tone your muscles then the focus will be primarily on strength training. When you build muscle, you boost your metabolism because muscle burns more calories than fat. However, keep in mind that you also need to eat properly to give your muscles the energy they need to repair and get stronger. You also need to make sure that you’re not eating sugar and starchy carbs which can cause inflammation and weight gain. Strength train at least four times a week and add to that two to three cardio sessions with intervals. Competition Ready Finally, if you’re training for an event like a 5k or a marathon then the primary focus of your workouts should be cardio. Strive to do cardio five times a week with two to three strength-training workouts. The strength-training focus should be bodyweight. Squats, lunges, push-ups and sit-ups are a great start. Putting It All Together You don’t have to spend hours at the gym to get the results you want. Interval training sessions and strength-training sessions can be less than thirty minutes – warm up to cool down. This makes it easy to get a good balance of both types of exercise into your day and your week. Identify your goals, create a plan to achieve them and track your success.
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