Cardio Workouts - Pros and Cons

Weight lifting is the most effective way to lose weight fast. It is one of the most popular exercise to develop lean muscle mass as well as improve the quality of your physique. When you perform weight lifting program, you need to consider few important things. These are explained below.

You must have a training program that enables to burn maximum number of calories in the shortest duration of time. To burn maximum number of calories, you need to follow some guidelines. You can do cardio vascular exercises like jogging, cycling, swimming, etc. You can also opt for alternate weight lifting routine such as push pull-up, upper-lower, pulldown and many others. The alternate weight lifting routine will enable you to do more reps and load more weight.

Weight lifting program is done with three major muscles groups namely trunk, torso and legs. All these muscles groups work in conjunction with each other for achieving a specific goal of weight loss. Weight lifting routine is divided into three main steps. You can do squats, lunges and bent-over rows. Moreover, both the lunges and the bent-over rows target the lower and middle back portion, respectively.

Weight lifting also requires you to work out the whole body. The upper body muscle group like arms, shoulders, chest and back to work in coordination with lower and middle back muscles. This enables you to burn the maximum amount of energy (calories) through muscular contraction. When you combine exercising with resistance training and proper diet, you can quickly and effectively reduce your excess body fat in a short time.

Many people think that cardio exercise is the best option for weight lifting to lose fat. But recent research revealed that intense aerobic exercise increases the chance of fat formation rather than decreasing it. Further, researchers have discovered that high levels of both pro-inflammatory cytokines and pro-oxidants may contribute to the process. These chemicals may trigger inflammatory responses, which further increase the probability of forming excess fat.

Similarly, intense weight loss cardio training may prove futile if you lack sufficient muscle power, i.e. you have weak legs. In such circumstances, exercises such as toe raises, sit ups or crunches might help you lose some weight, but they cannot complement muscle building. This means that cardio training is a double-edged sword.

Another commonly held belief is that you should avoid eating right before you perform your cardio exercises. However, research has shown that cardio training without adequate diet may prove futile to lose weight. To understand this better, you need to understand the role of metabolism and nutrient partitioning. When you work out, your muscles are metabolised and broken down. Your calorie intake is thus reduced by the breaking down of your muscles. But this reduction in calories cannot happen if your body is under a state of starvation as it will not be able to replenish the energy stores.

To counter this, you can perform a diet program that is higher than the requirement to lose weight. If you do so, then you will have to go on with circuit training for many weeks. You will have to consume fewer calories than what is used during your exercise session. You will also need to increase your protein intake so that your muscles can repair themselves. But, doing all these without a balanced diet plan is impossible.

Resistance training offers another alternative to weight loss and it is an effective way of fat loss when coupled with diet. In resistance training, you use heavy weights to target a particular muscle group. For example, if you want to build up your arms, you can lift the weight and perform squats. This will result in hypertrophy or muscle growth. As your muscles grow, your resting metabolic rate also rises which results in increased burning of calories.

Both weight lifting and cardio training came with their own pros and cons. Weight lifting can be done by almost anybody. It is a good cardiovascular activity that you can enjoy even if you are an inactive person. But, there are several cons associated with weight lifting that should be considered before deciding to go on with a workout regime.

As compared to resistance training, cardio activities are more expensive to engage in. But, this should not deter you as it is very inexpensive and not very time consuming. With this, you can enjoy weight loss while being healthy and fit at the same time. Weight lifting is an effective method of losing weight but you need to decide whether it is worth all the trouble.