Enhance Your Fat-Burning Potential: Combine Cardio and Strength Training.
Consider cardio and strength training as a powerful duo, much like peanut butter and jelly. While effective on their own, the combination of these two exercises amplifies their benefits.
Benefits of Cardio: Cardiovascular exercises enhance blood and oxygen delivery to muscles, strengthening the heart and lungs. This improves endurance by training muscles to utilize oxygen more efficiently. Regular cardio reduces blood pressure, body fat, regulates blood sugar, and diminishes inflammation. Over time, it can decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Additionally, cardio improves memory and protects against age-related cognitive decline.
Pro tip: Aim for approximately 150 minutes of moderate cardio per week, including activities like brisk walking, swimming, jogging, cycling, dancing, or Seven workouts.
Benefits of Strength: Strength training builds muscles crucial for daily activities, boosts metabolism, and enhances the body’s long-term fat-burning capacity. It promotes strength, stimulates bone growth, aids weight control, improves balance, posture, and reduces lower back and joint pain.
The Dynamic Duo: Leverage the health benefits of combining cardio and strength training with these strategies:
- Increase the Pace:
- Incorporate cardio into strength training by minimizing breaks or engaging in active rest intervals. Shorten rest times between sets or perform basic exercises like running in place during recovery to maintain a higher heart rate, automatically infusing cardio into your strength session.
- Add Weight and Reps:
- Intensify your workouts by adding weight and increasing repetitions. This elevates your heart rate, induces quicker muscle fatigue, turning your routine into a combined cardio and strength session.
- Alternate Between Cardio and Strength:
- Plan your weekly workouts to alternate between cardio and strength training. This approach ensures you enjoy the benefits of both, keeping your body adaptable to diverse exercises.
- Include a Cardio Burnout Round:
- Conclude strength sets with a cardio burnout round, incorporating a 7-minute workout or a short sprint to further elevate your heart rate.
Remember: Always place cardio at the end of your session, not before strength training. This order prevents energy depletion for lifting, preserving proper form during strength exercises.