Want to Lose Weight? 3 Reasons You Can’t Neglect Strength Training

If you’re hard at work trying to lose weight, you’re probably hitting the gym on a regular basis. If you’ve spoken to a trainer like David, you’ve probably got some great advice — warm up with cardio, and make sure you integrate strength/weight training into your routine.

Can I Do Just One or The Other?

Sure, you can. But solid overall fitness just isn’t possible without both — at least not realistically. Sure, you can run marathons your whole life and be pretty lean, but until you start doing some work to build up your strength and some lean muscle, you won’t see the results you might be expecting.

Just “going for a run” is a great start and a terrific routine to be in, but for full-on fitness or healthy-but-speedy weight loss, it’s not enough. We’ve put together three reasons why strength training is essential work to be doing, and can’t be neglected when trying to lose weight.

Reason #1: Endless Cardio is Boring.

Hitting the gym just to use that elliptical trainer gets real boring, real fast. With absolutely no variety, your workout is only as interesting as the magazine or music you bring along to it.

The only ‘challenge’ you might experience is if you program in a varied routine, but not every gym has machines that do that, and even then, it’s little comparison to the satisfaction that comes from weight repetitions.

No matter how much you love cardio, you need to work conditioning in.

Reason #2: Don’t Just Shed, Convert.

One of the main reasons people over-do it with cardio workouts is because of the misguided idea that only endless amounts of running/walking/sprinting will allow them to shed fat and thus lose weight, while lifting weights will do nothing more than “build muscle.”

This is far from the truth — the entire time you’re lifting weights, you’re burning calories, and on top of that, you’re pushing your muscles into a state where they’re going to convert your fat cells. Think of the ‘conversion’ as the ultra-efficient goal you want to hit. Just plain old “shedding fat” is more work than it’s worth, and won’t give you nearly the results.

Reason #3: One Thing Complements the Other.

When you do cardio work, your muscles are warmed up and your cardiovascular system is in much better shape. This helps your weight work.

Conversely, when you hit the weights, all that additional strength you’re building in your arms and legs will do wonders for your cardio workouts. One thing most definitely complements the other, and there’s no point focusing on 50% of your fitness when you just don’t have to.