Strength Training Vs Cardio - What Is Best for Weight Loss?

Many personal trainers are now using strength training as a primary method of fat burning for weight loss, while many professional bodybuilders mix cardio into their workout routines.

What is the truth? If you are confused on the issue, you are not alone. It seems complicated until you break it down to the basic truth: effective, long term weight loss requires a combination of cardio sessions and strength training sessions.

Cardiovascular training is effective for weight loss because it brings the heart rate up and keeps it there for an extended period of time. This places a higher than usual demand on the body for energy, which requires the body to burn a lot of calories to produce that energy. If you are watching what you eat and controlling your calorie consumption, the extra calories needed to produce this energy will be pulled from stored body fat. This is why those who do a lot of cardio work have an easier time losing weight. They simply have a higher demand for calories to burn.

How does strength training fit into this? While dumbbells, barbells, and weight stacks used to be the domain of those looking for a super pumped, muscular frame, personal trainers are now using these tools for women and men who just want to lose some weight, tone up, and look their absolute best. Cardio still has to be a part of the weekly routine, but strength training is now considered essential for weight loss.

Strength training does strengthen and tone your muscle, but while doing that it places a huge demand for energy on your body. Modern research has shown that your metabolism stays elevated for hours after an intense strength training workout. This simply means you continue to burn calories at an elevated rate even after you have finished working out. Remember, the more calories you burn the more likely they are to be pulled from stored fat, so this is a great thing for weight loss.

Resistance training also maintains your muscle mass, and can help you build more muscle if needed. Women can do this without getting bulky like men. They simply become leaner and better toned, so they look smaller regardless of their weight. Men can get more bulk to them, but it takes considerable effort to look like a professional bodybuilder.

The only problem with combining strength training and cardio for a well balanced weight loss program is that it takes a lot of time to put in three or more strength training workouts and many cardio sessions every week. The solution is often to do circuit training sessions that combine strength training movements with bursts of cardio. This keeps the heart rate high so the benefits of cardio are delivered, while still working the muscles for strength training benefits.

There are some people who benefit more from cardio and some who benefit more from strength training. If your goal is simply to lose weight, then a combination is your best plan.

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P90X2 Program - A Workout Routine to Lose Weight

Why do we need a workout routine to lose weight?

Because, in case you hadn't noticed, we are fat.

The western world contains too many people who are obese or even morbidly obese. We now have much busier lives and don't have the time for a workout routine to lose weight. We are not exercising as much as our parents and we are eating a diet consisting of highly processed foods. No wonder we are getting heavier and heavier. If you are ready for a change and want to transform your body then you are on the right page. With some good workout routines to lose weight incorporated into your daily schedule, you can become a fitter person.

Losing weight is actually very simple. Eat less food and burn more calories, it really is that easy. Unfortunately most people go about the weight loss process the wrong way. Often they will starve their bodies to achieve fast weight loss but this can have a bad effect on your total health and wellness. With starvation the body is deprived of essential minerals and nutrients and important muscle is lost. If you are serious about losing weight then you should restrict your weekly weight loss to no more than a kilo. This can easily be achieved by reducing your calorie intake by 400-500 a day.

Reducing your food consumption is all very good but a sound weight loss program will be helped by including a good workout routine to lose weight. Starting a daily workout routine such as the P90X program will make sure your weight loss goals are reached faster and in a safe way.

When you start looking for a workout routine to lose weight, it is so difficult to choose the right one for you. When trying to choose that perfect program it is vital to select one that has a good mix of both cardio and weight and strength exercises. P90X2 covers all these bases and provides the ideal system and is one of the best workout routines to lose weight on the market today. The P90X2 program provides an easy to follow, intense workout program that covers all areas of body exercise with the extreme intensity to transform your body in only 90 days. Following on from the massively successful P90X program, P90X2 is a "turbo charged" version of the original. The P90X2 program covers all the workout routines necessary to sculpt your body into the body you have always dreamed of. With some simple accessories you can follow a diverse, but easy to do set of workouts under the expert instruction of Tony Horton from the Beach Body team.

The P90X2 program concentrates on the philosophy of "muscle confusion". The theory behind muscle confusion is that your body can adapt quickly to the stress it is put under. By altering the exercises the body becomes less accustomed to similar movements during each workout routine. This stops the body from adapting to repetitive routines and as a result muscle-building plateaus are avoided. If you are searching for a premier workout routine to lose weight, then look no further than P90X2.

If you are serious about transforming your body and adopting a healthier, fitter lifestyle then consider the P90X2 program today. There is loads more great information on the P90X2 program and the P90X program at the No 1 website for P90X2 http://www.p90x2program.com/

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Tabata Training - Can 4 Minutes of Exercise Really Burn Fat?

The tabata protocol was made by the head trainer of the Japanese speed ice skating team. It was named after Dr. Izumi Tabata who carried out research using this work out to observe its usefulness.

Tabata training is a type of interval training workout which makes you work hard for a time period of 20 seconds, and then a ten second recovery period before repeating another 20 second intense bout again. This will be repeated for four minutes, so a total of 8 repetitions. You can repeat the tabata protocol again, but be sure to give yourself a little 2 minute rest.

Can a 4 minute routine really burn up fat?

This workout doesn't burn as much body fat during the workout like steady state cardio does, but elevates your metabolism for numerous hours following the exercise. Steady state aerobic exercise will burn more calories during the actual workout, but the tabata protocol will burn up more overall calories. By using up glycogen within the muscle tissue, it will force the body to use fat for metabolic processes, so don't be so fast to grab your post workout protein shake. Leave it for at least an hour or two.

This Seems Too Easy!

Don't ever believe this is gonna be easy; the truth is this would likely to end up a lot more like 4 minutes of torment to those not in great shape. Even those in great shape will find tabata training tough. When done with full high intensity this can be a very strenuous workout which will leave you gasping for breath and wishing it was over.

During Dr. Tabata's study, it was documented that a few of the skaters were forced to quit after just 6 rounds in their first couple of attempts.

Tabata training as mentioned earlier is a type of interval training so resembles a HIIT workout somewhat. Both are a kind of high intensity interval training. Tabata training is done using a much shorter rest break and a 2:1 work to rest ratio and reduced duration all round. A HIIT workout is done utilizing similar work intervals however does have lengthier rest intervals and often will last around 10-20 minutes instead of 4 minutes.

The benefits of tabata training are that it greatly increases your aerobic as well as anaerobic conditioning developing you in to a more complete athlete. It is also short in duration, and really makes use of the after burn affect very well. Tabata training is really flexible, and you can almost use any exercise to perform it. My favourite is to do shadow boxing, but doing burpees works really well and makes it more challenging. The drawbacks are obvious, it is a very difficult exercise, it can be hard to motivate yourself to perform it and if used to often can leave you fatigued.

About the Author: Michael McIntyre is a trainer who gives advice to men and women who want a body that has "The Hollywood Look". Get the big & toned physique like a fitness model or favourite Hollywood superstar by checking out my website http://www.somebodylied.com/. I hope you enjoyed this post on tabata training, and start using it in your workout program.

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