The weather is getting warmer (albeit rainier), and summer is just around the corner! That means calendars will soon be filled with graduation parties, ballgames, races of various sorts, and pool or beach time. And all of that means lots of t-shirts, shorts, and bathing suits… and, typically, a bunch of cardio and improved nutrition in order to physically prepare.
Of course, I’m all for almost anything you might intentionally do to improve your health and fitness. (Check out this tip for some quick & simple nutrition ideas or this one for a better way to do your cardio work.) That said, I also think cardio training is over-emphasized and over-prescribed in most fitness programs today.
So in this tip I’d like to offer a few ideas that may entice you to add more strength training to your fitness protocol.
Strength training improves endurance
Let’s do a brief thought experiment: In the first part of the experiment, you’ll have ten minutes to push a wheelbarrow filled with 200 lbs. of rocks around your back yard as many times as possible. Then you’ll get ten minutes to rest. And, finally, you’ll have another ten minutes to push the same wheelbarrow around your back yard as many times as possible, except this time it’s filled with leaves.
Will you be able to complete more laps with the wheelbarrow full or rocks or leaves?
Hopefully it should be obvious that what doesn’t matter is (1) your level of endurance, (2) the size of your yard, or (3) the number of times you could actually circle the yard with the wheelbarrow in any amount of time. What does matter is that 200 lbs. of rocks is far heavier and, subsequently, harder and more exhausting to push than 5 lbs. of leaves.
If you’re not sure how that shows strength training improves endurance, let me ask another question: Who do you think would win the contest with 200 lbs. in the wheelbarrow, the current version of yourself or a significantly stronger version who could more easily handle the weight?
My bet is on the significantly stronger version, even if you’re relatively strong already!
The point of all this is that, as we become physically stronger, any type of submaximal effort—including traditional cardio activities like running, biking, or swimming—becomes significantly easier. Which means that we can either (a) move at the same pace for longer or (b) move some degree faster for the same length of time, all while expending roughly the same amount of energy. In other words, our effective endurance increases.
This is not to say that training your cardiovascular endurance isn’t important. It is. However, especially if you’ve been doing more cardio than strength work, you’re very likely to see significantly greater improvements to your endurance by adding a little more strength work than by doing a lot more cardio.
Strength training improves aesthetics
Losing weight or body fat may or may not be among your goals. But even if it’s not, based on lots of conversations I’ve had over the years, it seems that most people wouldn’t exactly complain if their training had the side effect of improving their body composition, if even slightly.
In any case, strength training, along with following an appropriate nutrition program, will very likely add a few pounds of muscle to your frame. Since muscle is metabolically active (i.e. it requires energy/calories to continue existing), this could cause you to also lose a little body fat.
Hopefully obviously, significant changes to either muscle gain or fat loss require more effort and focus on both the lifting and nutrition fronts. (So, ladies, have no fear of “getting bulky”. You won’t, for numerous reasons.) But modest effort and focus will still produce some results, especially if you’re new to exercise or your training background has consisted mostly of cardio work.
Strength training improves confidence and life satisfaction
I was originally going to call this section “Strength Training Improves Physical Capacity”. But that should’ve been obvious from my first point and wasn’t really what I wanted to discuss here anyway. Still, while we’re here…
Besides improved endurance and muscle growth, strength training builds, well, physical strength. And that’s important for improving capacity in and enjoyment of any activity from sports to daily living (e.g. carrying groceries or water softener salt, shoveling snow, playing with kids or pets or friends) to healthy aging.
In the past 15(+) years of coaching, I’ve helped people lose weight, improve mobility, build muscle, quit smoking, and increase athletic capabilities.
But the most satisfying experiences in that time have been seeing the confidence and happiness that show on people’s faces when they tell me about things they were able to do (or do more easily) because they had become stronger. Like moving the new foosball table into the basement, hauling bags of dirt or sand from the store to the car without assistance, playing on the floor with grandkids, or beginning an activity they never thought they’d do (like rock climbing, rucking/weighted hiking, or a martial art).
Those are the types of changes that don’t typically occur with cardio training alone.
Putting it into practice
As I’ve discussed before, we need to exercise if we want to improve our odds of living long, healthy lives. So participating in any type of activity that challenges your endurance, strength, and mobility capabilities is far better than just sitting on the couch.
Still, picking up heavy (for you) weights can produce a diverse set of benefits that aren’t easily developed via another single activity.
So if you’re currently doing some form of strength training, keep it up! (I’m sure you know the benefits and weren’t planning to quit anytime soon… but a little encouragement is often still helpful.)
And if you’re not currently doing any strength training, I encourage you to start!
Of course, all of the coaches at TNT would be happy to guide you along the learning path. And, especially if you’re not in southeastern Wisconsin, you can find other great strength-development resources where giant leaps occurred in my own journey.