How To Combine Strength Training And Cardio For Best Results

Can You Combine Strength Training And Cardio?

If you’re trying to get great results in the gym, you should find the best way for your body to maximise the time and energy you have. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, tone up, build muscle or just become healthier in general, if you combine strength training and cardio, it’s arguably the best way to do it.

Some people consider the two types of exercise to be polar opposites. The popular misconception is that cardio is for those looking to lose weight and strength training is for people who want to get big muscles. And this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Free Report: The Best Type of Weights for Your Workout

How To Combine Strength Training And Cardio

What Is Strength Training?

Strength training is exercise which involves using weights and other forms of resistance in order to encourage the contraction of muscles. This includes exercises like weight training, anything involving dumbbells, push-ups, pull-ups, etc. Over time, this type of exercise replaces any excess fat with muscle, and promotes the growth of muscle mass, thus helping you to tone up.

Remember you can build strength without getting bulky. This is one of the main reasons why women don’t bother with strength training. They believe that it will just make them bulky and unattractive. However, this isn’t the case, because women produce far less testosterone than men do, making it almost impossible for most women to ever ‘bulk up’ from lifting weights.
What Is Cardio?

Cardio is exercise which raises your heart rate. This refers to things like running, jogging, cycling, swimming, skipping rope, using exercise bikes, using treadmills, etc. The idea behind cardio is that it gets your cardiovascular system pumping. It helps you lose weight by burning off calories.

You don’t have to hit the gym every day in order to get the  benefits of exercise and live longer and be healthier. It’s easy mix up your exercise regime in order to make it more interesting and help you to stick to it longer. You can play sports such as tennis or soccer, go swimming with friends and family or even go to a local bar and play ping-pong for an hour or two. Gardening, tidying the house and going for a jog in the evening are all great way to increase your fitness levels, decrease the risk of heart diseases and high blood pressure and live a better life.

How Can You Combine Strength Training And Cardio?

To combine strength training and cardio doesn’t mean you need to find a form of exercise where you can do both of them at the same time. It simply means that during the week, you should vary your workouts and try to incorporate both into your daily or weekly routine.

You might want to go to the gym and do cardio for half an hour and then strength training for the next half an hour. Alternatively, you could alternate your workouts by doing cardio one day and then strength training the next. All that matters is that you get a good balance of both cardio and strength training during your workout week.

How Does A Combination of Cardio and Strength Training Benefit You?

Strength training helps you to improve your fitness levels and burn calories and fat long after you’ve finished your workout, so you’ll burn more the next day when you do your cardio workout. Cardio, in turn, builds stamina and improves the health of your heart, making it easier to lift heavier weights and do more reps while in the gym.

Choosing the Best Type of Weights for Your Workout

The main difference with cardio and strength training is that typically you don’t use any form of weights or resistance while doing cardio. To start your cardio workout, you just need to decide which activity you want to do and off you go.

But with strength training it’s a little different.  How do you choose which weights to use. Should you choose barbells, dumbbells or kettlebells?  To help you choose the right weights for your workout, download my free report, Choosing The Best Type of Weights so that you can combine strength training and cardio for the best results.