If you are anything like me, cardio may not have a place in your ideal exercise regime. When I first began my strength and health journey, cardio was my only form of exercise and it was perfect for my fitness level at that time. I started by simply going for an uncomplicated walk after dinner every night, and grew it from there. Walking turned into running, running turned into skipping, skipping turned into HIIT sessions, and HIIT sessions morphed into weight and resistance training.

Cardio helped increase my fitness level so it will always have a special place in my heart. Although like with any relationship that you’re not fully committed to, it soon had an expiration date. I said goodbye to high intensity cardio and fell in love with strength training. Just like with most ex’s, I tend to avoid cardio now because I don’t want to lose any muscle mass. If anything I want to gain some! Sorry cardio, it’s not you, it’s me.

A Breakdown On Weight And Resistance Training:

Weight training is a type of strength training that uses weights for resistance. It provides a stress to the muscles that causes them to adapt and get stronger, similar to the way aerobic conditioning strengthens your heart.

Resistance exercise is any form of exercise that forces your skeletal muscles (not the involuntary muscles of your heart, lungs, etc.) to contract. An external resistance (such as heavy weights) is used to cause the contractions, and those contractions lead to increases in muscular mass, strength, endurance and tone.

Resistance training increases muscle strength by making your muscles work against a weight or force. Different forms of resistance training include free weights, weight machines, resistance bands and your own body weight. A beginner would need to train two or three times per week to gain the maximum benefit. Although you must remember that muscles are torn in the gym, fed in the kitchen and built in bed. Take your rest days!

6 Reasons Women Should Choose Strength Training:

1. It improves bone density. One of the best ways you can control bone loss as you age is to add strength training into your workout plan. Studies show that strength training over a period of time can help prevent bone loss, and may even help build new bone. Maintaining strong muscles through weight training helps to keep up your balance and coordination, a critical element in preventing falls, which can lead to osteoporosis-related fractures.
2. A regular strength training program helps you reduce body fat and burn calories more efficiently, which can result in healthy weight loss. Strength training also helps preserve and enhance your muscle mass and bone mass, regardless of your age.
3. Weight training not only promotes strength of muscle, it can protect your heart and help ward off type 2 diabetes, also. “Muscle helps remove glucose and triglycerides from the bloodstream, which reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, as well as hardening of the arteries,” says Timothy Church, MD, PhD, a preventive medicine expert at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
4. Stronger muscles can also improve your posture and help keep your body in balance.
5. Weight training helps to tone, lift, firm, and shape your body. It can increase your lean body mass and therefore increase your metabolism.
6. According to a new study published in Obesity, strength training is better at helping people lose belly fat compared with cardio. While aerobic exercise burns both fat and muscle, weight lifting burns almost exclusively fat.

Apart from the aesthetic look, strength and resistance training promotes a self confidence that helps you feel strong in body and mind.

Amazonians unite!