In this second blog about The Fat Cardio Myth I will attempt to compare as briefly as possible the difference between cardiovascular type exercises and resistance training. The chief reason for this is to look at their effectiveness in favour of achieving fat loss results quickly and permanently. Just to quickly recap cardiovascular exercises otherwise known as cardio are activities including brisk walking, jogging, bike riding, rowing and swimming. Strength & weight training or resistance training as I prefer to call it is a type of exercise that requires the muscles to move an apposing force.

If you read part 1 of this blog you will know that most people including sports and medical professionals still believe cardio training to be the best fat burning activity around. This assumption and undying myth continues to live on because the general population aren’t aware of the negative reactions cardio exercises can have on the body. Most people also have little knowledge of the many benefits strength training can have for burning fat.

You only burn calories whilst you are brisk walking, jogging and bike riding, rowing or swimming. The more cardio you do and better you become, the more fuel-efficient you become resulting in fewer calories used.

When you exercise long and hard enough using traditional cardio exercises for your choice of workout it influences fat storing hormones in your body. That means doing cardio type exercise can stop you losing fat. If that isn’t bad enough for your fat loss goals what about cardio training making you age quicker because anti aging hormones are lowered when fat storing hormones rise.

Sticking to just doing cardio training can make you lose muscle tone and make you look flabby. Although you may be fit you will never achieve the same toned look as someone that trains with resistance. If you find this hard to believe just look at any endurance athlete, especially marathon runners. They may have low body fat levels but may still look flabby for their size.

There is some good news though because strength training lowers the stress hormones and rises anti aging hormones.

Resistance training is the opposite of cardio with calorie expenditure because you burn calories long after the workout unlike cardio training. This means you burn fat when you are sat at home in front of the TV. This is because when you do any type of strength training it is more demanding on the body and takes a number of days to recover from a session. Did you know the metabolism, the rate your body burns calories can be raised up to 72 hours after a resistance-training workout?

If the above comparisons don’t put you off cardio exercises as your first choice of fat loss exercise selection then consider how much more fun and diverse resistance training can be. There are many different types of functional training equipment available to make workouts challenging and different every time without the risk of being repetitive and boring like cardio training can be.