Which is best?
Should women do more cardio -or- more weight lifting?
Whether women should do more cardio or weightlifting is an age old question. On one
hand, you have the skeptics who believe that lifting weights makes women look bulky and “too
muscular.” On the other hand, you have critics who dismiss cardio as too long, boring, and
ineffective for building muscle. So, how do you win?
We’ll start by breaking down the benefits of each type of exercise. Cardio exercise is
loosely defined as any exercise that raises your heart rate. Just a few of the benefits of include
that cardio improves memory and thinking ability, releases hormones that reduce tension and
stress, helps you sleep better, helps control blood sugar levels, increases oxygen supply to the
muscles, helps increases the capacity and ability of the lungs, fights osteoporosis, helps maintain
a healthy weight, and many, many more.
Weight training is simply defined as physical training that involves lifting weights. The benefits of weight lifting include fighting osteoporosis, improved sleep habits, an increase in your body’s metabolic rate, improved brain function, stress
release, and so many more. A cardio workout will burn more calories during the same time as opposed to weight training, while weight training will help you to burn more calories daily overall.
So because each does have its own unique characteristics and benefits, do both! This may
sound scary to those of us who only do cardio, or who love to lift weights, but both cardio and
weight lifting are important to a healthy, balanced lifestyle. This also may sound time consuming
and exhausting, but it is in fact much simpler than expected. Balancing a few half an hour cardio
sessions every week with three or four days of weight training will have you both burning more
calories daily, and improving your metabolic rate by putting on lean muscle, not to
mention it will also give you all of the wonderful benefits mentioned above.
We hope you enjoyed our March Madness Challenge that incorporated both cardio and strengthening components! Congrats to our “Happy Hour,” Team who won!
We are so proud of our LSF ladies and would love to meet you too! Stop in today!
-Jo Klingshirn, LSF Exercise Science Intern