The burning question! The answer, well it depends!

When you are deciding what form of exercise you should participate in, you need to consider a few things:

• The most important thing is to always choose something you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, then you really are not going to stick to it, so you really are wasting your time.
• What is the purpose for your training?

Strength Training is ideal if you want to improve:

• Build strength
• Body Sculpt
• General Health
• Increase muscular endurance
• Fat loss
• Mental Health

Cardio Training is ideal if you want to improve:

• General Health
• Increase cardiovascular fitness
• Increase muscular endurance
• Fat loss
• Mental Health

The Benefits of Cardio Training:

• Improves your cardiovascular function reducing the risk of heart related illnesses

The Benefits of Strength Training:

• Increases muscle mass
• Increases your metabolism and therefore your fat burning capacity. The greater the muscle mass the more fat you burn.
• Increases your strength capacity
• Improves body sculpting and body composition
• Improved body shape, image and self-confidence
• Increase bone strength, by pulling and tugging on the bones, stimulating the growth of bone cells. This is really important for menopausal women or people who suffer Osteoporosis. Oestrogen helps increase your bone density. When you hit menopause your oestrogen hormone decreases reducing your bone density increasing your risk of Osteoporosis.
• Amazing for mental health. Exercise increases your serotonin, your happy hormone, therefore improves your mood. Increasing your strength however, also increases the feeling of being more capable and therefore more empowered, which is also great for your mental health.
• Improves blood sugar levels. The increase muscle mass, improves how your body uses blood glucose and therefore reduces the risk of Diabetes Type 2

The benefits of both Strength Training and Cardio Training:

• Increases oxygen flow to the entire body
• Improves your mood as increases serotonin production, your happy hormone
• Improves your energy as it increases your endorphins, your feel good hormones
• Reduces visceral fat and improves blood flow to the visceral organs, therefore improves heart health and reduces risk of heart related illnesses as well or illnesses related to the rest of the visceral organs (entire digestive system, kidneys, liver, bowel etc.)
• Reduced visceral fat reduces the risk of cancers
• Increased blood flow improves nutrient and oxygen circulation, improving every cell in your body including your skin and hair.
• Decreases cortisol secretion improving synthesis of all of the sex hormones, improving your sex drive, erectile function, menstrual pattern and fertility
• Improves sleep as regulates cortisol secretion
• Strengthens immune function, by increasing antioxidants and therefore reducing free radicals which cause illness

What is best for fat loss?

This depends on your Somatic Type. That is, what your inherited body structure is, your bone structure and your muscular structure.

Ectomorph:

• Ectomorphs have long thin muscle fibres and bones. Their limbs are long and lanky.
• Typically have wider shoulders than hips
• Do not carry much fat all at
• Struggle to gain muscle
• Burn fat very easily; think about a person who can eat whatever they want and never gain weight
• Common appearance is that of a marathon runner
• For muscle growth they are best suited to Strength training and HIIT Training. Cardio training will strip muscle mass and is therefore not ideal for Ectomorphs if they want to build muscle.
• Their bodies are however perfectly suited for cardiovascular endurance so are perfect for long distance running over sprinting, as long as muscle growth body sculpting is not their goal.
• From a group fitness perspective, as long as they do not want to build muscle they are suited for any class. If they want to build muscle they need to avoid HIIT classes and cardio classes and stick more strength based training.

Mesomorph:

• Mesomorphs have medium length muscle fibres and bones.
• Their shoulders and hips are around the same width with a smaller waste
• The may or may not carry much excess fat
• They can gain fat or muscle much easier than ectomorphs
• Common appearance is that of say a soccer player
• They are the all-rounders that are suited to strength, cardio and HIIT training
• They are more suited to medium endurance events such as shorter distance running under 800 meters, team sports.
• From a group fitness perspective, any type of class is ideal for them for fat loss and muscle gain.

Endomorphs:

• Endomorphs have short muscle fibres and bones.
• Their shoulders, waist and hips tend to be around the same size
• They generally gain fat much easier than either of the other two somatic types
• They also gain muscle much easier than either of the other two somatic types
• Common appearance is that of say an Olympic lifter
• They are best suited for power sports such as Olympic lifting, shot put, wrestling etc.
• Best suited to very short endurance events as their cardiovascular endurance is vastly reduced compared to Ectomorphs and Mesomorphs
• From a group fitness perspective, if wanting to lose fat, cardio based and HIIT training sessions are ideal for the majority of their training, though strength training should also be considered as will benefit them not hinder them, for overall health.

As you can see there are pros and cons to both strength training and cardio training. The best type of programming is something that incorporates a combination of the two, taking into account what you enjoy and ultimately what your goal is. One is not inherently better than the other, there is a place for either or both.

Coach Terri