Planned Attack, Part 2

Yesterday I spent too much time talking about the first branch of our three-pronged attack on fitness. Today I'm going to tackle the other two: Cardio and Strength. Unfortunately, you can't pick just one - these two go together like peanut butter and jelly, but in some ways, they're about as different as peanut butter and jelly.

Cardio: You can think of cardio as working the body from the outside in. Cardio is going to target the outer layer of fat, as well as help increase your metabolism. Personally, I enjoy cardio much more than strength training because I think it can be much more fun. There are countless ways to get cardio in your life. It has even spawned an entire genre for the video game industry. Between the Wii gaming system and the Kinect for Xbox, cardio-infused games are being released it seems nearly every week.While these games are fun, and have the added motivation of competition (both with others and your own best times/scores/etc.), they probably shouldn't be used to replace traditional cardiovascular activities. Swimming, biking, hiking, and participating in a sport or recreational activity (I play on an adult kickball team, my husband plays pickup basketball) are all great activities which will elevate your heart rate and help you burn calories.

Wondering why I left running off the list? I did so intentionally because I like to further divide cardio into Running and Other. They are separate activities and therefore I schedule them differently. Running is one of the best ways to burn fat, and with this in mind, I run 5-6 days a week. Other cardio activities get schedule 3 times a week in addition to running.

Strength: So if cardio is working from the outside in, then strength is working from the inside out. While cardio is working to get rid of the extra fat layer covering the body, strength will help prepare what's underneath. As unpleasant as strength training is, it does have one redeeming quality. In order for muscles to survive, they need energy, and they get that energy from the fat stored in your body. So the stronger your muscles get, the more fat you burn simply to maintain the muscles you're building. That's bonus fat burn!

Once I started focusing on the happier side of strength training, I found it easier to work it in. I schedule it for 3 times a week because it is important to have a day of rest after a strength session. During strenuous activity, the individual tissue fibers of the muscle actually tear and then they rebuild themselves, but they rebuild themselves stronger than they were. That is how we build strength, but that is also why it's important to rest after - to give the muscle time to rebuild. If you're really strange and actually enjoy strength training, then make sure to rotate muscle groups (do upper body one day, abs the next, lower body the third, etc.) to give each group time to heal.