Women's Fitness: Weights vs Cardio

It never fails to surprise me how many women have still got hang-ups about doing weights thinking that they will end up looking 'bulky' or 'muscley'. Well, that may have been what we were told 30 or 40 years ago when Jane Fonda started the women's fitness revolution, but times have moved on! There's a whole body of evidence that proves otherwise, resistance training helps you look toned, increases bone density, it's incredibly good for women going through the menopause and helps reduce fat much more effectively.

So what's the truth? In the short term, doing cardio is the quicker way to lose weight only to a limited degree. The more efficient and fitter you get the less calories you burn for the same amount of effort, so many of my female clients end up on an endless cardio regime chasing smaller and smaller returns in terms of weight loss. On of this the calorific deficit over a long time starts to see the this as starvation so you end up burning muscle resulting in being 'skinny fat' ..... something which I see all the time!

Resistance training or weight training has the opposite effect on the body. In building muscle, the more you burn calories even when at rest....which allows you to eat more calories because the body needs more energy to keep the muscle it has built.

Don't worry about building too much muscle though!! Except for my clients who are training to be body builders, all of my clients simply look incredible with smooth, toned, low fat physiques......but you have to do what I tell you hahaha!

The following image shows very clearly the outcomes from cardio vs weight training......you can see there is only one winner :)

Training with weights provides so many advantages over cardio

Women's Fitness: Do I Give Up the Cardio?

Absolutely not! In fact most modern sport science recommends that in addition to your weights you have at least 3 sessions of low intensity cardio per week (brisk walk for 45 mins) combines with 3 sessions of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) which to start with I would recommend that you do 3 to 4 session of 20secs all out & 40secs recovery. Perhaps my faviourite HIIT is the air assualt bike or rowing machine......20 secs all out and 40 secs more gentle recovery for a between 3 and 5 rounds.

Want to Give it a Try?

Give me a call and arrange your first personal training session with me. I tough, unforgiving but we'll have a laugh and achieve your fitness goals in no-time. Have a fabulous day. Tina x