Is Cardio More Important Than Weight Training? No — It’s Myth Busting Time!

July 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Fitness tips | No Comments » | Share this article

There’s still a huge myth out there that cardio work is somehow more important for burning those calories than simple weight/circuit training.

It’s not true! While cardio has its benefits and advantages, if you really want to get that lean, sexy FITNESS MODEL look, there’s no point slaving away on a treadmill or an elliptical for 3 hours, every couple of days — there’s simply no way you’ll build up your lean muscle by doing that.

Nope — what’s fundamental is weight training, which, if you’re doing anything but running long marathons, is just as important (if not far more important) than cardio! Check out these 3 reasons why the “cardio is better” myth is exactly that — a myth!

1: Weight Training Burns Calories, Too

Because you sweat, sweat, and sweat while doing cardio, a lot of people get the crazy impression that it’s only really with cardio workouts that you can burn a ton of calories. Running long distances makes you exhausted, whereas a mix of smart weight training will also do the same — but not in the same way.

Because there are rest periods and little breaks during circuit training (in order to let our muscles recover), many people automatically assume that this makes weight training less intense. This couldn’t be further from the truth, really — every time you do a repetition, a squat, a lunge, a pushup — you’re burning calories.

It’s harder to track the calories burned during weight training because there’s no magic little number, like there is on the treadmill or the stationary bike, that tells you exactly how many calories you’ve managed to burn, but that’s not really important — those numbers aren’t always 100% accurate, anyway, and the maniacal focus on number of calories burned is partly what created this myth, anyway!

So remember: weight training really burns a lot of calories and should never be considered inferior to cardio!

2: Weights are More Diverse By Nature

Want to know another wonderful way to burn calories that cardio doesn’t really give you? Simple — variety. If you just run on a treadmill for 2 boring hours and decide you’ve done the greatest workout of your life, sure, that little calorie ticker will be up pretty high by the end, but at the same time, your brain will be fried, and you’ll be mentally exhausted.

Whereas if you do a cardio warmup followed by a bunch of great and different weight exercises, you’ll be busting that fat in a different way — by building up those lean muscles all around your body. There’s no real way to demand that your body lose fat in a particular place, just like there’s no special food we can eat that only deposits its fat in selective places on our body.

But the one way you can target specific places is through weight training, which builds lean muscle with specific muscles, while also just helping you burn overall calories. It’s the best of both worlds — you get the same benefits as cardio, but you also get stronger, more flexible, and more lean and toned in the process!

3: Cardio Doesn’t Build!

Well, that depends — if you run a lot, surely you’ll see a difference in the strength of your legs, and you’ll probably notice some muscles you didn’t see before. But have you ever seen the physique of a marathon runner, vs. that of a lean, toned FITNESS MODEL? They’re pretty different — and well they should be, because those are two completely different approaches to exercise!

One is based on long, punishing runs that feature a ton of repetition, mental work to keep from getting exhausted, and physical precautions taken to prevent injury. The other is all about building a lean, toned body through a variety of weight work. This doesn’t mean building big muscles — that’s hard to do and not something that will happen unless you specifically go out to do it (no, it doesn’t happen accidentally, or every guy would be walking around with huge arms and legs by now!).

Rather it’s about taking the best parts of cardio workouts — calorie burning and working up a sweat — and working those into getting your lean muscle stronger, sexier, and in far better shape than it could ever get by just running on a treadmill, over and over. It’s literally a huge difference — and the proof is in the photos!