If you wish to live a longer and healthy life, moving your body is a non-negotiable, especially in a world full of toxicity. We all know the impact of hazardous pollutants and our depreciating lifestyles on our health. Yet, a large populace of the world does not bother thinking about their health.
While these things are inevitable and mostly impossible to avoid, the least and probably the most you can do is keep your body moving. Talking of exercise calls for a discussion on cardiovascular and strength training. All of us have heard of these two types of training or workouts.
Cardio workouts usually include high-intensity exercises that get our heart pumping. They increase our heart rate, and you can see an increase in the respiratory rate as well. As per the doctor’s recommendations, we should indulge in at least 30 minutes of cardio workout every day. On the other hand, strength training has to do with lifting weights and building muscle. The individual indulges in muscle training exercises that work on the principles of resistance to build muscles. These are the best kind of exercises to enhance endurance. You might use resistance bands, and weights, pushups, situps, pilates, and other exercises for strength training.
The efficiency of both types of exercises is implacable. Be it weight loss, strength building, stamina building, or muscle building, both training are efficient for all your goals. But we know that cardiovascular exercises cannot get you those big muscles, no matter how hard you run. Thus, it is imperative to find a balance between the two forms of exercise. If your goal is to increase your stamina exponentially and yet be able to flex those muscles from a t-shirt, you need to balance the two kinds of workouts.
How to find the balance?
There is no hard and fast rule to figure out a particular way to balance your strength and cardio training. Every individual needs to figure out their own balancing wand for their goals. No one schedule or way can work out for everyone. Yet, here are some guidelines that you can follow while forming a mixture of strength and cardio training:
- Several doctors recommend the compulsory inclusion of cardiovascular workouts in your daily workout routine. As a rule, you should focus on completing 150 minutes of cardio workouts in a week. Among this, your upper body, core, and lower body should be strengthened at least 2 times per week.
- Include strength training in your entire week’s schedule. This will help you build muscles and strengthen your body. You can target each muscle group one by one to achieve this.
- If you are off to heavy strength training, it is advisable to start out with a cardio workout first. This will make sure that your muscles are primed before you put treat them with heavy weights.
- If cardio is boring and painstaking, pick up the aerobic exercises that you enjoy. You will still need to include some general cardio exercises that are a must. But others can be of your choice. So, if you do not want to slip out on the routine that you’ve built for cardio workout, choose your favourite exercises.
- You might start out by walking 30 minutes a day. But this gradually has to transform into either running or cycling for efficient and faster results. Burning calories are the easiest with running and other forms of cardio workouts. So, stick to it for as long as you can.
Sample workout routine
To help you get a crux of what we’ve been talking about the balance between cardio and strength training, here is an example of a routine. Make sure you improvise on this routine based on your goals and do not plainly stick to this one.
- Monday: begin with a 30-minute walk and do any cardio exercise of your choice for 30 minutes.
- Tuesday: stick to the 30-minute walking schedule and add strength training. Lift weights and do resistance band training for at least 1 hour.
- Wednesday: get into some sports of your choice, that include a little bit of cardio on its own.
- Thursday: pick up your weights and do a 30-minute strength training. This could also include pushups, situps, and squats. After that, engage in yoga or Pilates.
- Friday: you can keep this day a little simple- walk for an hour.
- Saturday: pick up any cardio exercise that you like and pair it with a 30-minute strength training session.
- Sunday: you can either take a complete rest this day or could continue with a 30-minute walk.
Final thoughts
We have extensively described the importance of both strength and cardiovascular training. Even though people are aware of the benefits of both workouts, it is often difficult to find a balance between the two based on their needs. We have helped you understand the middle ground between the two.
