{"id":32,"date":"2012-03-24T23:23:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T06:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vartafitness.com\/site\/?p=32"},"modified":"2015-01-07T22:31:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T05:31:31","slug":"cardio-versus-lifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vartafitness.com\/site\/2012\/03\/cardio-versus-lifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardio versus Lifting"},"content":{"rendered":"
There is a great deal of confusion surrounding body composition improvement. Conflicting<\/div>\n
information saturates the media concerning what methodology is most appropriate to help us<\/div>\n
reach our goals, which leads to many of us expending unnecessary time and energy in the gym<\/div>\n
doing the wrong things. Approaching our goals from the wrong direction, unfortunately, keeps<\/div>\n
them out of reach.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
First, we need to get a few things straight. Body composition is the comparison of adipose tissue<\/div>\n
(fat) to lean tissue (everything else). Those of us who desire to shape, tone, and define our bodies<\/div>\n
often mistakenly identify our primary goal as simply “weight loss”. In reality, our goal is more<\/div>\n
accurately described as “body composition improvement”. Losing weight alone will not produce<\/div>\n
the result we strive for. We also need structure – in the form of lean muscle.<\/div>\n
To put the bottom line up front: Lifting weights (resistance training) is a better way to improve<\/div>\n
body composition than cardiovascular exercise. Disagree? Read on\u2026<\/div>\n
There are two main reasons resistance training is so effective – one occurs in the short-term, one in<\/div>\n
the long-term.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The short-term\u00a0<\/strong>can seem a little tricky, and is often misinterpreted. While you are actively<\/div>\n
exercising, cardiovascular exercise burns more calories than resistance training of the same<\/div>\n
relative intensity. This fact alone causes a\u00a0great deal of confusion and feeds\u00a0misinformation to popular fitness media.<\/div>\n
There is more to the story than how many\u00a0calories we burn during a workout. How\u00a0many calories are expended post workout<\/div>\n
is relevant as well. When our\u00a0cardiovascular routine ends, it takes the\u00a0body merely a few minutes to return to\u00a0resting heart rate, and therefore resting\u00a0metabolism. However, when we finish\u00a0resistance training, our metabolism is\u00a0positively affected by tissue repair and<\/div>\n
growth for up to 72 hours.\u00a0When we finish with cardiovascular\u00a0exercise, our metabolism returns to<\/div>\n
normal before we hit the locker room, while after a resistance training workout we continue<\/div>\n
burning extra calories for several days. Still not convinced? Consider the long-term.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The long-term\u00a0<\/strong>picture is a little simpler. Resistance training over time will cause the body to<\/div>\n
create additional lean muscle mass. Lean muscle is more metabolically active, that is, it requires<\/div>\n
more calories to maintain itself than adipose tissue does – so the more lean muscle mass we have,<\/div>\n
the higher our metabolism. Elevating our metabolism causes the body to burn more calories<\/div>\n
during everything that we do, day and night.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Restated simply: Resistance training<\/a> is a more effective way to improve body composition than<\/div>\n
cardiovascular activity, both in the short-term and the long-term. Cardiovascular training is still<\/div>\n
critical for good health – the heart is the most important muscle, after all. But we call it “cardio” for<\/div>\n
a reason: it is primarily for the heart. The road to train the rest of the body runs straight through<\/div>\n
the weight room.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So stop worrying about weight, step off the scale, and pick up some dumbbells.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a great deal of confusion surrounding body composition improvement. Conflicting information saturates the media concerning what methodology is most appropriate to help us reach our goals, which leads to many of us expending unnecessary time and energy in the gym doing the wrong things. Approaching our goals from the wrong direction, unfortunately, keeps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8,9],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-body-composition","tag-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"\nCardio vs. Lifting | Varta Fitness | Seattle, WA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out which training is better for your body and your health in the long-term, cardio or lifting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vartafitness.com\/site\/2012\/03\/cardio-versus-lifting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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