Cardio or Weights? Which is Going to Sculpt my Dream Body?

    An argument that has been going on for years, with so many different opinions on the subject, how could a beginner decide which they need to do. Heres my take on the debate: lifting weights needs to be the staple of anyones workout routine, and cardio is determined by goals. I am going to help you out in determining how you should do incorporate weights and cardio to achieve what you though you could only dream.

For the individual looking to lose fat: If you have been following previous posts, you understand that a calorie deficit is going to be how you lose fat. Now, you will lose fat by just eating less calories than your body requires, but wouldn't you want to speed up the process? By lifting weights, your body will start to adapt and get what I refer to as "the after burn". By lifting weights, your metabolism will increase, in turn allowing you to burn more calories even when you are not working out. This is beneficial, and you can use it in two different ways. Your first option is to let these extra burned calories put you into a greater calorie deficit, which in turn will cause you to shed more fat. The second option would be to track how many calories you are burning during your weight lifting, and eat those calories to stay in the -500 calorie deficit. Now, how should you incorporate cardio? I suggest working in High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) three days a week. This will cause you to burn extra calories, which will speed up your fat loss, or allow you to eat more calories. What is HIIT? HIIT is exactly what it sounds like. You are going to push your body to its limits, going as fast as you can, for a short period of time. Then you will get a short period of lower intensity. A solid beginner HIIT routine would look like this on a treadmill or outside:

• 7 rounds
• 30 seconds 90%
• 60 seconds 35%

For the individual looking to gain muscle: If you are slowly focusing on building muscle, I suggest little to no cardio at all. Unless you have a reason to (sport, event) then cardio is really not going to be necessary. If you plan on doing cardio well trying to gain muscle, here are a few things you MUST do.

• Eat the calories you burned back- when looking to gain muscle, you should be in a calorie surplus in order for your body to grow. If you are going to incorporate cardio, make sure you are eating at least the calories you burned back.  
• NEVER do cardio before your lifting routine. If you are mainly focusing on building muscle, you want to be able to put 100% of your energy into your lifts. After you are done focusing on your main goal (bulking up) you may then use the rest of the energy to have to do your cardio. If you do your cardio before your lift, you are not going to be able put your all into your main goal of gaining muscle. 

     Whether you decide to incorporate cardio into your routine is essentially all about your goals, but what I have provided above is what I have researched and experienced to be the most useful ways to use cardio to your benefit. I am a firm believer that you must have weights in your routine, and that they should be the main focus in your journey to your dream body.