You all must’ve heard the about the incessant squabbling over the cardio and weight training that which one is best. In this blog, i will try my level best to eradicate your doubts about this rant.
WHAT IS CARDIO?
Cardio is a type of aerobic(require oxygen) exercise which increases your heart rate and keep it up till the time you’re doing it. Different forms of cardio are – cycling, swimming, running etc.
What is weight training? Well you all know about this.
Which is more optimal?
It depends.
Let’s say if you’re an athlete or swimmer, then weight training would be comparatively less consequential for you than cardio.
But for the 90% of the people, who wants to be in good shape or desire to lose fat, then weight training is extremely consequential for you.
First thing to know, cardio directly doesn’t wreaks fat loss. Cardio just increases your energy/calorie expenditure. Let’s say if your goal is to lose fat and you’re doing performing cardio everyday for unreasonable time, this way you’ll also lose muscle and you’ll shrink or become skinny fat.
I am not professing that cardio is fatal for fat loss, it is indeed beneficial if you will perform it optimally and not irrationally.
But if you’re a gym goer and you ache for a good muscular physique, then WEIGHT TRAINING should be your primary work in the gym.
Types of cardio
There are predominantly two ways in which cardio is performed.
- Steady State Cardio: It is moderately slow and steadily paced with your heart rate at your target heart rate zone. Now to know your target heart rate zone, here is an easy formula: this zone is to be set at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate(MHR). To find your MHR, simply subtract your age from 220. Steady state cardio is great for developing your aerobic fitness levels and enhancing your cardiovascular stamina.
- High Intensity Interval Training(HIIT): It only needs about half the time invested but with 10 times the effort. How does it work? Well, this type of cardio spikes your heart to about 85-100% of maximum heart rate(MHR) for a short period of time. You only needs about 20 minutes of HIIT and it’s enough to burn a lot of calories. During you 85-100% MHR interval, keep it no shorter than 20 seconds and no longer than 1 minute. Let your rest time be double of your MHR period. Example: Sprint for 30 seconds and then rest for 1 minute or sprint for 1 minute and rest for 2 minutes.
When to perform cardio?
Another imperative question if you want to do cardio is when you should do it? – Well, you can either do it after weight training or in split sessions. A split session is onw in which at least a 5-6 hours gap is maintained between your weight training and cardio. Another peachy time to do cardio is after your weight training.
The worst time to perform cardio is prior to the weight training because this way, you will exhaust all your energy levels leading to a physically drained and horrible workout.
How often to perform cardio?
If you’re performing HIIT cardio, you can perform 2-3 sessions of 15-20 minutes per week of it.
On the other side, if you’re performing steady state cardio, you can perform 2-3 sessions of 30-45 minutes per week of it.
These are reasonable recommendations and going beyond that would fatally affect your physique goals.
IMPORTANT NOTE
While cutting(losing fat) under 12% body fat level(20% for women), sometimes reducing calorie intake further is not conducive to your goal because of:
- Hunger
- Nutrient deficiencies
In such cases, incorporating low intensity steady state cardio is a great way to keep driving fat loss progress. Steady state cardio helps increase energy expenditure while not costing a lot of time for recovery.
DONE.
That’s all about today’s blog, see you all in my next blog. Till then, stay fit, keep exercising and be benevolent towards others.
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Fitness Aficionado 