Many people have asked this question over the last 30 years.
Sense of Accomplishment
It is true that aerobic exercise like jogging, fast walking and biking has captured the hearts and minds of the majority of people, and the more they accomplish the greater the feeling of achievement attained. Of course aerobic exercise is something that can easily be achieved: everyone can bike or walk for an hour, and the sense of accomplishment comes from a single factor: time spent doing exercise. Clearly, the longer the time spent, the better the feeling.
But, for exercise periods to last long, the intensity has to be low, and there in lies the problem. All the benefits that belong to high intensity training are lacking in aerobic exercise. The most one will get from an aerobic exercise session is the amount of calories burned.
Calories Burned?
Neither weight training nor aerobic exercise are very efficient in burning calories. “What?” I hear you say. But it is true, the amount of calories burned during both types of exercise are irrelevant (for example for fat loss). What truly matters is the amount of calories burned after the exercise session is completed.
The nature of weight training is that it is very intense. Being more intense than aerobic training, weight exercise doesn’t last as long. People are often reluctant to attempt weight training because it is intense. But they are not aware of the actual importance and advantage of that short spurt of intensity. The benefits of weight training are vast, and the most distinct one is that you continue burning a lot of calories after you have finished your weight training session! This is something that never happens with aerobic exercise.
If you are after long term fat loss, shape improvement, increase in strength, stronger bones and joints, increased insulin sensitivity and lower risk of diabetes, strong cardiovascular system and many other health benefits, with a minimum risk of injuries, you are better off with regular weight training sessions.
So what’s better? I ask you.
Now you can decide for yourself: “weight training or aerobic exercise?”
Hi Nash,
I’ve been doing both running, swimming and weight training (bodyweight excercises, kettlebell, barbell, etc) for years and I think both can be very intense.
It is true that if people run in the “fat burning zone” it won’t be intense.
But try to run 10 kilometers in 45 minutes (or 50 or 40 depending on your fitness) , include some hills and sprints over 100m and it will be very intense.
There is a reason why fit elite soldiers do a lot of cardio in addition to strength training.
With cardio it all depends on how intense you train. Same with weight lifting. If you use only small weights and train slowly with few repetitions it won’t be intense and won’t give you much benefit.
Also there is a reason why most good runners and cyclists are lean. They train hard and often and eat a healthy diet. Of course it is best to do both – not necessarily for weight loss but for overall health. I always tell my running friends to do regular weight training and my lifting friends to join me running, cycling or hiking in the mountains.
A benefit of cardio is, you can do it 4-6 times a week with 4-12 hours – if you have and want to invest the time – which will be a lot of calories. Not a good idea to do this with weight lifting. Of course this would include some slow runs to build endurance for long periods like a marathon. And of course you will need to eat good food to fuel your body for this.
I think both cardio and lifting are important and should be done by everyone concerned about a healthy life style.
This is just my humble opinion of course.
Klaus
Hey Nash
I a sem pop rugby player and I think.
A benefit of cardio is, you can do it 3-6 times a week with 4-12 hours – if you have and want to invest the time – which will be a lot of calories. Not a good idea to do this with weight lifting. Of course this would include some slow runs to build endurance for long periods like a marathon. And of course you will need to eat good food to fuel your body for this.
I think both cardio and lifting are important and should be done by everyone concerned about a healthy life style.
rama
To all the women out there I have been training for years n never really saw dat much results untill I started to do weight training,I noticed I felt a lot tigher as well as more in shape I use to think that weight would make u get bigger but to my amazement I was shocked to learn it gave me what I wanted a much leaner body something I have always wanted I feel fitter as well as stronger I use to do so much cardiovascular now I train more doing weights and am so glad the only regret I have is I wish I knew this years ago thank you Nash for teaching me this as finally I’m seeing my results