Cardio vs Strength Training for Fitness. What Should You Do?

I’ll tell you straight up. The debate is pointless.

Pixabay

I’m surprised this debate is still running today.

About 18 years ago, when I began my fitness journey, this used to be the biggest dilemma in my mind.

It pushed me to dive deep into the field of fitness.

Back then, there weren’t as many websites on the internet as today. Finding a piece of information wasn’t as straightforward as it is now.

I would Google the broad term or topic and scout through the first 3–4 Google search pages with a hope that somebody had addressed my concern in a blog post.

This got me reading from a wide range of fitness experts, ex-army men, and DIY fitness enthusiasts.

I found a spectrum of opinions on this topic.

Everyone had a different take.

I read both the sides of the argument, and both made sense.

Over time, I got confused, disoriented and dissatisfied with what I found.

It took me a while but finally I was able to put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

I realised the debate was pointless.

Pointless because it is a rookie level question, and it lacks perspective.

Our bodies don’t understand cardio or strength or whatever term we come up with.

While we refer to aerobic exercise as cardio, and anaerobic exercise as strength or power training, the body only understands in the form of resistance, energy systems and caloric expenditure.

Here’s everything in perspective so you’d never have this dilemma ever again.

Essentially, there are two ways you can place resistance on your body:

1. By working against an external object
2. By working against the gravity

When you work against an external object, you’d either push it away from your body, or pull it towards your body.

When you work against gravity, you’d either push or pull your body away from the floor.

Now that you know the 4 ways you can place resistance on your body, let’s touch upon the concept of energy systems.

For the sake of simplicity, we will not touch upon the types of muscle fibres in the body.

Just understand that your body has two energy systems:

1. Anaerobic (without oxygen)
2. Aerobic (with oxygen)

Depending upon the level of resistance your body has to work against, your body decides which one of these to tap into.

When the resistance is high, your body is taxed heavily, and it has to produce more force in a short period of time.

This means it has to do it even if you cannot breathe during those few seconds.

This energy system is referred to as the anerobic energy system.

When the resistance is medium heavy or light, it has to produce relatively less force for a given period.

This means your body isn’t taxed greatly, and hence, it can do so without compromising your breath.

This also means it can continue to do so for a longer duration.

In this case, your body will tap into the aerobic energy system.

So, heavier the load, higher the resistance on the body, more force required, no scope to breathe, hence it is an ‘anaerobic’ movement.

This is commonly referred to as strength building activity.

And lighter the load, lower the resistance on the body, lesser force required, enough scope to breathe, hence it is an ‘aerobic’ movement/exercise.

This is commonly referred to as cardio activity.

Now, with these concepts clear, you now understand how all movement/exercise is either anaerobic or aerobic.

You can do any physical activity,

During the anaerobic movement, your body is heavily taxed causing a lot of wear and tear of the muscle fibres.

Once the movement is over, your body activates the muscle repair system, anticipating a similar situation in the near future.

This leads you to have a stronger muscle.

During the aerobic movement, your body is taxed differently. There is still wear and tear of the muscle fibres, however, it is of different type (we’ll not discuss muscle fibre types in this article for the sake of simplicity).

To make sure the body is able to handle a similar situation in the future, it improves the overall efficiency of the energy pathways.

So, when you’re doing a squat or a pushup or a pullup, your body does not know whether you’re doing for recreating or to save your life.

If you’re doing something for recreation, you’d call it play. When you’re doing it for the purpose of building your strength or stamina, you’d call it exercise.

For your body, it does not matter, for it only registers the resistance and the duration for which you partake in it.

Accordingly, it employs the most suitable and efficient energy system to handle the resistance for that period.

So, there lies a spectrum.

On one end, you can move heavy load for shorter duration leading to strength development.

On the other end, you can move a lighter load for a longer duration leading to stamina development.

This means you can do any exercise with a given level of resistance, and it will either build your strength or stamina.

With that clear, here comes the final part, caloric expenditure.

When you’re moving a heavy load, the calories you burn per minute is very high.

But since the duration is short, the total amount of calories burnt is low.

However, your body continues burning some calories for the entire duration of the muscle repair.

When you’re moving a lighter load, the calories you burn per minute is not very high.

But if you do it for a longer duration, the total amount of calories you’d burn will be high.

However, your body will burn significantly lesser or negligible number of calories afterward.

So, with any exercise, you’re either building strength or stamina.

And you need both to be fit., which means the whole point of cardio vs strength training is pointless.

The question then moves from whether this vs that to when-this and when-that.

If you’re looking to gain weight, do both, but more strength training and less stamina training.

When you do this with the right nutrition, you’d build muscle without gaining too much fat.

If you’re looking to lose weight, do both, but vice versa.

That’s it!

Now pick up one compound exercise for each of the following and you’re set:

• Push
• Pull
• Hinge
• Squat
• Carry

Unless you’re a fitness coach, responsible for other’s physical fitness and wellbeing, this is all you need to know about how to structure your exercise routine.

Learn the techniques and maintain the form during the exercise.

All the best!