I absolutely love where I live.
The vast majority of the businesses that I use to help out my business are all located within a 3-square-mile radius of me.
All of these wonderful people who take care of me know what I do for a living. Inevitably, I get questions when I go to meetings with them. They know they do not have to twist my arm very hard to get me to talk about this stuff.
The awesome gentleman who is my accountant will always pick my brain for little tidbits of knowledge here and there. During a meeting last week, he brought up that he is an avid runner but wanted to start getting into weight training. He just asked the benefits of both, and I figured that this would be a good blog topic to discuss.
My preface
Now, normally when I’m out in public and people ask me general fitness questions, I know that a vast majority of these individuals already have an answer in their heads and they want me just to confirm the conclusion that they’ve already have formulated/
The usual flow of conversation goes:
“What do you think about X?”
“I give them my answer, and then they usually retort with, ‘Well, some guy on Joe Rogan’s podcast said this.'”
At this point in time, I would rather be stuck in a phone booth with an angry mountain lion.
However…
My accountant is an awesome dude, and he helps me out a ton. So I owe him a good answer.
Weight Loss 101
There is going to be a lot of nuance to everything I say, and this is not a dissertation. So if you’re looking for something that has a bunch of jargon and includes all these nuances, go to PubMed and try to sift through all that data. For all intents and purposes of this blog article, I’m keeping things very simple.
At the most basic level, losing weight comes down to one theme: eating in a caloric deficit. If you burn 2,000 calories in a day, eat less than that. Don’t go home and crush a whole box of Fruity Pebbles, wondering why that weight isn’t dropping on the scale.
An individual’s nutrition and being dialed in with said nutrition in terms of calories in vs. calories out has been and will always be the main obstacle for people to tackle when they are trying to get in shape.
To elicit this caloric deficit, we have to exercise by doing Jazzercise or by lifting heavy things.
Which one is more effective?
That depends…
Both work and I often tell people that they should perform both on a weekly basis and not perform one in lieu of the other. Most of my adult training programs include both as I know that combining the two is probably the ultimate strategy.
I do understand, however, why the bulk of people tend to gravitate towards the cardio end of the spectrum.
- Hopping on a bike (or a spin bike more specifically) or putting on your tennis shoes to go for a run is a lot more user-friendly.
- Your cardiovascular-centered endeavors tend to not require a gym membership.
- They can be performed anywhere.
When people are tempted to start at a local gym, they tend to do one thing, and this seems to be common in the decades that I’ve been in the industry: they want to start running and losing weight before they start lifting weights.
I understand this as well. As most people can put their shoes on and run in a straight line for a duration, and there’s a very low barrier to entry for that. While starting at a training facility costs money, and there’s a lot of knowledge that you need to acquire before you fully feel confident in going in on your own.
Mike Boyle is famous for saying that you need to be strong to run, and I couldn’t agree more. With our athletes, we know that when they are jumping in the air as hard as you can, you are 4-6 times your body weight in rotation around your joints. Full tilt sprinting will yield about 9 times your body weight around your hamstrings. Knowing those simple physics numbers, you have to be strong to move your body.
Even when jogging, we have strong rotational forces around the joints of the lower body. I tend to agree with Mike Boyle – you should be strong and then start your jogging career if that is what makes you happy.
And by no means am I speaking in absolutes. If you enjoy running, you should go for a run. Any movement is better than no movement at all.
My only plight is running should be attacked in the inverse, which is lift some weights, then start running.
Weight lifting should often take priority
Here it is…
The guy who owns a weight room telling you to lift weights again.
If you made it this far, you are invested. So I will tell you my elevator pitch for weight training:
If you’re comparing cardio vs weightlifting minute-to-minute by equating intensity, cardio generally burns more calories compared to lifting weights. What I want to focus on is what your body is doing after you get done weight training. By the time you get home and start watching Netflix, your body is not done. Your body will burn calories hours after you have completed your gym session, and this goes by several names: Thermic effect of exercise, the afterburn effect, etc. When you are done with your cardio bout, that’s pretty much it, you’re done. And there’s not much of an afterburn effect that goes along with it.
Look at it this way
- again accounting for intensity, lifting weights for all intents and purposes breaks down your muscle to a larger degree compared to cardiovascular activities. It then takes energy to build that muscle back up, which requires more energy from your body.
- Muscle is a metabolically active tissue compared to adipose (fat). So it is important to put as much muscle on your body as you can.
- Cardio does not build that much muscle. You will lose weight on the scale, but your strength gains are going to suffer.
At the end of the day, this depends on what you want to do. If weight training is not for you, and you like to go for a jog, by all means go for a jog and be happy – it is your life and you should enjoy what you are doing.
In the end…
Rule number 1 is make sure that your nutrition is on point and regardless of what exercises you choose, make that your top priority. After that, do both cardiovascular activities and weight training.
I usually tell people that they should prioritize 2-4 days per week of weight training and use their cardio at the end of their session to complement their weight training or to serve as bonus days to come in and do just dedicated cardio days if that makes sense?
As far as how to lift weights or where to start, a great option would be to contact us directly. We love teaching brand new people how to weight train, or even if you’re experienced, helping fine-tune your approach to get the results that you desire.
Use this link below to schedule your free intro with us: https://getjdfit.com/free-intro-social/
