You Can’t Multitask Your Exercise
When I started in the fitness biz, “aerobics” pretty much defined exercise.
Yes, that was me in the leotard and leg warmers, carrying my boom box to teach classes….
In the last few decades, the pendulum swung, and we discovered that the benefits of strength training had been monumentally underestimated. Strength training is finally getting the attention it deserves. It’s for everyone, not just bodybuilders and power lifters!
Most people favor one exercise modality over the other, but they each provide different health benefits.
Aerobic exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness, improves cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, and is correlated with longevity. It supports your strength training, as you may have noticed when you felt your heart pumping after a strenuous set.
Strength training improves your physical function and balance, aids in blood glucose management, and protects against loss of both muscle and bone.
If your heart health, particularly your blood pressure, has been a priority, your doctor has probably advised you to get cardiovascular exercise.
New research suggests that adding strength training may make that prescription even better.
A fascinating new study
A new meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Heart Association pooled 105 randomized controlled trials and ranked every exercise type head-to-head: cardio, strength training, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), isometrics, yoga, tai chi, and combinations.
The winner was the combination of aerobic work plus strength training.
It lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number) by about 12 mmHg and diastolic (the bottom number) by about 6.
Aerobic exercise alone resulted in significantly smaller drops. Even HIIT, the intense stuff, came in behind the combo at about 11 points.
That 12-point reduction is a dramatic change!
Why it works
Cardio and strength training lower blood pressure in different ways.
Aerobic exercise improves cardiovascular fitness and how well your blood vessels function.
Strength training increases muscle mass and how efficiently your muscles pull sugar and fat out of your bloodstream.
The combination beats either ingredient alone.
Exercise guidelines recommend 150-300 minutes per week of moderate activity OR 75-150 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic exerciseplusat least 2 strength training sessions per week.
Beyond that, returns shrink, so don’t worry, you don’t have to train like an Olympic athlete!
If you’re doing only cardio, add some strength training. If you lift weights but rarely do aerobic exercise, add some cardio.
For instance, you could lift Monday and Wednesday and take brisk walks Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
You can do both on the same day if that’s what works for you— walk in the morning and lift in the afternoon.
The greater the intensity of the cardio, the shorter the exercise session needs to be. That’s why I love the sprint workouts I do on Tuesdays. Working at higher intensities can get you similar benefits to moderate-intensity work in a fraction of the time.
Sprint intervals don’t have to be running; they can be faster walking intervals.
Ideally, you’d mix intensities across the week: some moderate cardio, some higher-intensity work.
Someone with low fitness or starting from scratch will get benefits from any mix.
There are lots of ways to arrange it. The goal is to give your body both types of stimuli.
Notice we’re not talking about trying to do both types at the same time because…….
You can’t multitask your exercise.
This is one of my pet peeves….
My doctor told me recently that she walks and uses resistance bands for her upper body at the same time.
How fast can someone walk and use those bands? Think her heart rate gets into a training zone?
How strong can she get if she’s trying to walk while using resistance bands?
Strength training and aerobic training use different energy systems.
Strength training requires recovery between sets for you to be able to lift as heavy as you can and get stronger.
I hear people say, “I’m trying to keep my heart rate up….” as they rush from one set to the next.
They’re the ones who aren’t getting stronger.
An elevated heart rate does NOT mean you’re getting the same effect you’d get from aerobic training.
If that were the case, you could get aerobic conditioning from watching a scary movie!
Lifting can move the aerobic needle, and then it seems to lose that effect after about 24 weeks.
On the other hand, some people try to fit their resistance training into their cardio. You’ve seen those people walking with weights in their hands, some on treadmills or ellipticals, lifting dumbbells overhead….I know, scary, right?
They aren't getting stronger, and they aren't moving fast enough to improve their conditioning.
I want your set of hip hinges to end because your backside is fatigued, not because you ran out of breath while your glutes and hamstrings still had five reps left.
In other words, don’t turn good strength training into worthless cardio.
Think of yourself as a “Hybrid Athlete”
“Hybrid Athlete” is a popular term on social media these days. It simply alludes to someone who lifts weights and does cardio.
You don’t have to be a CrossFit or Hyrox competitor to be a hybrid athlete. You just need to:
Lift weights.
Do cardio.
Your lifting helps your cardiovascular system, and your cardiovascular fitness supports your ability to train hard.
The idea isn’t “do more exercise.” It’s “stop trying to make every workout do everything.”
You can’t expect one tool to do every job!
