“Balancing Your Weights, Cardio and Nutrition for Maximum Results”
Ok, you are talking to a friend you have not seen for a while, just shooting the breeze, when all of the sudden, you hear him say, “I just started a new exercise program and I am doing my cardio 6 times per week to burn the fat, and I lift in the gym 3 times per week to firm up.” You nod your head in affirmation, end the conversation, and go on with your day. You return to work after your lunch-break and overhear two ladies in an adjacent cubical saying, “Yeah, I just started working out again, but I am just focusing on cardio for now to burn the fat, and then when I reach my goal, I will start with the weights.”
Many of us have heard statements such as these and many more. Those that make them have the very best of intentions but the very worst of factual information. Today, I want to give you some facts that will change your approach to fitness and ultimately point you in the right direction for whatever your fitness goal may be.
Must-Have Natural Metabolism Elixirs:
1- Resistance Training:
For those of you already involved with resistance training, congratulations! For those of you who are either not doing it or putting it off until “I have lost some initial weight,” please reconsider the following physiological process of fat burning:
- Resistance training is the nuts and bolts to building muscle
- Muscle is a metabolically active tissue, meaning that it is the tissue that is constantly burning calories and fat
- Resistance training is the ONLY way to maintain a level of lean muscle tissue that will help you in your fat-burning quest.
2- Proper Cardio/Resistance Training Balance:
This goal will vary for everyone depending on fitness levels, goals, age, gender, and so forth.
A few rules of thumb that might help you:
- If your goal is weight loss: You want to start with 50/50 split between cardio and weights. For example, cardiovascular activities on M/W/F and weights on T/TH/SAT
- If your goal is muscle gains: You want to start with the scale swayed more towards weight training days. So, you might go to four days of weights and only two days of cardio. In reality, this particular set-up can burn just as much and, in some cases, more than the weight loss regime that I just listed in the first bullet point
- If your goal is weight maintenance: Typically weight training 3-4 days per week with 2-3 days of cardio injected on your non-weight training days
3- Muscle Building Nutrition:
How many of us go to the gym, do our workout, and then lie to ourselves with some of the following excuses:
- “I workout so that I can eat like I want to”
- “I workout so hard that my body can handle some of the junk food that I consume frequently”
- “I am not making progress in the gym so it must be my workout” (completely turning a blind eye to poor nutrition)
The truth is that nutrition is 80% of the fat loss battle, whereas the gym is only 20%. Yes, we need to workout and workout hard, but how can we expect our bodies to build muscle and burn fat if we are giving it crap food every day? The math does not add up, and that is why there are so many frustrated, plateau-stricken, and ever-persistent gym-going people out there who never get over that last fat hump.
The Bottom Line:
We all have certain beliefs and perspectives about resistance training that may or may not help us in our fitness goals. I am speaking to some people in particular: 1) Those wishing to shed body fat, 2) Those only participating in cardiovascular exercise, and 3) Those who have viewed resistance training as a “guy thing,” or those who have been turned off by massive bodybuilding men and women thinking that they will look like them if they participate in a sensible resistance training program. Resistance training consistently beats cardiovascular exercise when it comes to burning fat and maintaining healthy body fat levels.
If you truly want your body to become a Fat Burning Machine, please do away with those worn out and tired myths, and consider the aforementioned points in this article. Become a believer as your fat melts away, and you maintain the lean muscular and sexy body that you have always wanted.
