Cardio vs strength training: What's best for your fitness goal

When it comes to staying fit and healthy, people split exercises into two main categories: cardio and strength training. These two types of exercise have separate benefits, and understanding these can help us choose the most suitable for your fitness goals. We will explore what cardio and strength training actually are, the benefits of each type of exercise for our body, and where they might be used in different fitness goals.

What is Cardio?

Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is any form of exercise that will raise the heart rate and require heavy breathing. Such a type of exercise is helpful for the strengthening of heart muscles and the lungs in particular. Cardio exercises include activities to pump blood faster these include jogging, swimming, and dancing among others. 

Cardio exercises are famous because they help in the process of burning calories, whether a person wants to slim down or keep on controlling their weight. They also enhance energy levels in the body so that a person can participate in actual exercises for more time than before. All in all, we can highlight that cardio is an important component for the overall health of the heart and the body’s activity. 

What is Strength Training?

Resistance training or strength training is the physical exercise that mainly concerns development of muscle strength. Such exercises entail the use of resistance to work muscles, and in the process they grow and become stronger. Some of the examples of strength training exercises are weight lifting, use of resistance bands and doing push ups, squats as well as lunges.

Lifting weights is not only beneficial for muscles but also for bones, as well as to coordinate body posture and balance. Further, muscles can enhance metabolism rates, therefore the body will be using a lot of energy even as it performs basic activities. This makes strength training an important part of the fitness programme particularly for those desiring to gain strength and muscularity.

The Benefits of Cardio

Cardio exercises are highly recommended since they come with numerous advantages to the human heart and the body. First, cardiovascular exercise is very beneficial for the heart. Systematic cardiovascular exercise improves the capacity and efficiency of the heart muscles to pump blood throughout the body. This will help to lower the risk of heart disease and other related diseases.

Cardio also results in a rise of the stamina level. Cardio exercises are mainly for exercising the heart muscles in order to help one develop stamina, things like climbing stairs, walking long distances or even playing sports becomes easier when one is consistent with cardio exercises. The other benefit of cardio is the excitement that follows the activity since the body releases feel good hormones. This is the reason we are in a better mood after a cardio session whether it is running or cycling.

The Benefits of Strength Training

Strength training is often seen through the lens of muscle building, but it has other perks as well. It can help keep bones strong, and that is a very big benefit. Bones can become weaker as people age, but the reinforced nature of strength training helps to increase bone density.

In addition, strength training helps with posture and balance. When we have good workload capacity in our muscles, it helps us carry ourselves better, like standing nice and straight with ease. This improves mobility, which can lower the chances of injuries in older adults. Adding muscle with resistance training also boosts metabolism. Since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat, increasing muscle mass increases your energy consumption even when at rest. This will help keep your weight where it should be over long-term periods of time.

Cardio vs Strength Training: Which is Better?

Whether cardio or strength training is better depends on a person’s fitness goals. However, if one has a goal of reducing their body weight, then cardio could be the best since this makes it possible to lose as many calories in the shortest time possible. For instance jogging is likely to help a person lose many calories within 30 minutes compared to weight training. Strength training is also crucial in weight loss since it also includes establishment of muscles and therefore has the potential to burn calories in the long run.

Otherwise if the goal is to gain more muscle mass then the focus should be put on strength training. Weightlifting or doing some bodyweight exercises exerts pressure on the muscles, and in exertions they grow. However, while cardio can become a part of the program still, those who want to build muscles have to focus more on weights and do less cardio. 

Can Cardio and Strength Training Be Done on the Same Day?

Yes, it’s possible to do both cardio and strength training on the same day. It is quite popular to incorporate both of these types of exercise at the same period of time. If they do this then it is better to agree which one is more beneficial to the aims of the day and do that first.

For instance, if an individual has set his goal as muscle building the person would have preferred to perform strength exercises and then perform cardio exercises. If they have targeted endurance, then they would start with a cardio exercise and then complete with strength training.

Conclusion

Generally when it comes to cardio vs strength training, there is no need to choose one over the other. As a matter of fact, both exercises are essential for the health of an individual. To sum it up, when having both in a workout schedule, a person would be assured of strong heart muscles, strong muscles that can contract and good body shape respectively.

Whether the aim is to lose weight, build muscle or just get fit, then a combination of cardiovascular and strength exercises is optimal. These are the two categories of exercises that when they are taken in the right proportion, a person can walk towards a healthier and stronger body.