In part one of this article (available here) we talked about the necessity for discipline to begin the road to lifestyle changes involving diet, determination, and proper, safe, supplementation that won't empty your wallet. In this continuation article we will discuss the benefits of cardiovascular training and strength training, as well as some examples of how to keep it interesting for your mind and body.
Cardio or How I Ran in Place for an Hour
It's the dreaded time that nobody wants to talk about, where the huge guys who do what they can to live at the gym avoid, and what so many people try to talk themselves out of: cardiovascular training. The truth is, to lose the weight, to burn the fat, and to get that slim waistline, we must do cardiovascular training, which we can define as any exercise that gets the heart pumping and gets the body temperature up to burn those calories!
But cardio training isn't just for slimming down or fat loss. There are significant advantages that performing cardio training gives us which include improved heart health, increased metabolism, a reduction in the DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness, stress reduction, and many others.
So What Can I Do?
A lot of people have trepidation over doing cardio because they find it boring, or perhaps they don't see results from a 20-minute walk, or they feel that weight training by itself will be enough. But the good news is that there are plenty of ways to break up that perceived monotony! You can be as creative as you like with your cardio which will not only help to keep your body guessing (much the same as muscle confusion with weights) but that will help to keep you sane and keep the workouts interesting.
The following is a sample of what a person could do in a five-day span: You might take a nice walk through the park one day. Charge your iPod, take your dog, and get some fresh air. The next day, since that walk was long and intense, you tack a half hour of simple stationary bike time onto the end of your gym routine. Day 3 is swimming laps at the pool. Day 4 you cut your grass, take a brisk ten-minute walk on your lunch break, and go to a driving range or batting cages. And on day 5 your workout consists of bodyweight exercises and movements such as pushups, jogging in place, jumping rope and shadow boxing at a high pace with little rest.
Strength Training
The other side of exercise is strength training, where we build muscle, increase lean body mass and increase our size, strength and overall health. There are multiple benefits to strength training which include stronger bones, disease prevention, and improving balance amongst many others. We can also call this type of exercise resistance training, because we are forcing the muscles to push, pull, or contract with force, causing them to flex, strengthen, and tighten.
Strength training is also important to the person that loves their cardio, because as you burn calories and lose fat, you must replace that fat with muscle. Many people have heard someone complain that they've lost 40 pounds, but their skin is saggy, they feel weaker than before, and they're still not happy with their look. Strength training fills in those gaps, replacing fat with hard muscle, which shapes and defines the body, but it also aids in injury prevention (if done safely and properly), and helps with metabolic rate to increase your fat burn and weight loss. Some studies even suggest that the after effects of strength training (from 30 minutes up to 2 hours after a workout) are greater than cardiovascular.
So What Are My Options and Can I Get Stronger Outside of a Gym?
Much like our cardio workouts, there are almost limitless options for our strength training routines. There will always be the guy who lives at the gym, and if that works for him, great! But the body is much like the mind, and we need to vary our exercise to keep it interesting, but also to use one of the most common bodybuilding terms called muscle confusion, which in the simplest of terms is not doing the same thing over and over.
Here is a sample of a five day span for your resistance training: Day 1 is a traditional gym day, where you train your chest and shoulders doing things like bench pressing, shoulder pressing, and using a pec-deck machine and dumbbells for lateral raises. Day 2 consists of body weight exercises such as lunges and squats followed by some crunches and planks for that midsection. Day 3 consists of pullups, pushups, and yoga later in the day. Our fourth day sees us with a rest day (this could be mixed in anywhere in the five days) where focus on that cardio, and the fifth day might see us back at the gym doing a light routine of circuit training, where we hit every muscle group with one or two exercises, or we could go to the park and hit up the obstacle course that usually includes push/pull exercises as well as balance tests and stretching.
Finishing Strong
In this article we've examined the benefits of both cardiovascular and resistance training, and we've explored some options to keep your body healthy and your mind engaged while doing it. Some people gravitate towards exercise and the gym life, but for many it requires patience, persistence, and a ton of will power. Like anything else in your life you have to work hard to see even the most meager of results and taking care of your body is no different. However, the benefits are life long and with hard work comes satisfaction. Educate yourself, look into different ways of doing things, don't be afraid to experiment or do something totally out of the blue, as that courage and determination will only drive you further.
Sources:
- Everydayhealth.com, http://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness/add-strength-training-to-your-workout.aspx
Aaron Krygier - Actor,writer,musician,producer from Buffalo, NY. Predominately a stage/screen writer, but interests in all aspects of the craft including ...
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