Cardio lifting vs. traditional cardio: Why cardio lifting is better

Traditional cardio, such as running, swimming, and biking, is a great way to improve your cardiovascular health and burn calories. However, cardio lifting, also known as “concurrent training” or “resistance training,” offers a number of additional benefits. Here are some great pros to cardio lifting:

  • Increased muscle mass (more muscle, more calories burned daily)
  • Improved bone density (strong bones never hurt anybody!)
  • Boosted metabolism (higher intensity workouts = higher metabolic activity and more calories burned!)
  • Better body composition (decreased fat loss = the body you deserve)

What is Cardio Lifting?

Cardio lifting is a type of workout that combines aerobic (cardio) exercise with resistance training. This can be accomplished in one of two ways: either alternating between cardio and resistance exercises, or by performing compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. For example, instead of running on the treadmill for 30 minutes, you could use a kettlebell for lifting and in between sets do battle ropes.

The “Losing Weight” Puzzle

Although losing weight is, depending on who you ask, 90% if not more of what you do outside of the gym, such as your nutrition, why not make that 10% in the gym count for as much as it can? There are vast ways of going about losing weight—but the cool part is, you don’t have to just choose one. Yes, what you eat is a MAJOR part, but another important factor is what most don’t put much emphasis on in the first place, and that’s BUILDING MUSCLES. We often hear that you need more cardio, more treadmills, ellipticals, to get your steps up; these all help to burn calories yes, but I’d like you to consider this analogy.

Investing in calories burned is like investing in short-term or long-term gain. When we do cardio, we burn calories for the allotted time we’re doing the activity, BUT, as soon as you step up that machine or stop going for a walk, you’re done. That’s it. You’re not burning anymore significant calories. Now, let’s talk about building muscle. The more muscle you build, the more calories your body will naturally (metabolically) burn each day…yeah…pound for pound, muscle burns approximately 3x more calories than fat does.

So let’s bring back our investing analogy—cardio is like short-term investing for a quick payoff and building muscle is like investing in an ever-growing payoff, so the longer we invest in building our muscle, the larger the number of calories we burn each day JUST BEING ALIVE. So, why not invest in short and long term simultaneously?

Keep in Mind Your Goals

At the end of the day, you have to relate to yourself and what you want. If you just want to lose body fat, I would say cardio lifting is the most time/work efficient way to accomplish that goal for yourself. If you’re a cross-country runner and building muscle is going to hinder your cross-country speed, it’s probably not going to be a big focus for you.

I harp on goals because it’s important for you to know what your outcome goal is so you can work on progress goals. Outcome goals are what you desire to see come to fruition after your hard, disciplined work; progress goals are what you want to achieve during the journey. Always learn, take what you read with a grain of salt and apply it to yourself. Everyone is different, so find what works for you and always enjoy the journey!