Cardio or Strength
Which one is better?
Ah, mortal enemies. Fueled by passionate people on both sides that will fight for their fitness to a brutal end. Both groups claim theirs is more important, tougher, better, fancier, more athletic. You name it. For years, both groups have had qualms with the other group.
So which one is more important for your health?
Back in the 70’s the USA and Russia went in two polar opposite directions - USA believing that the healthiest thing you can do is cardiovascular work and Russia believing that strength is the end all be all to longevity.
TODAY we are going to diffuse this argument for you once and for all and tell you which one is the most important for your health.
On one side of the ring you have cardio and cardiovascular exercise. Great for your oxidative pathway, gives you some awesome endorphins, allows you to get outside more, and usually involves a good chunk of your workout time.
On the other side is strength training. Great for the hormones, keeps your skeleton much stronger, feels great to be strong, and gives you muscles (everyone loves muscles).
Ok, now let’s dive in a little further.
Cardiovascular work, more specifically, high intensity intervals (think running intervals) has the most effect on the cellular level.
One study showed 274 cellular changes in a control group performing HIIT, 170 for more moderate endurance work, and 74 for resistance training.
What does that mean? Well, if you want your body to not age as quickly on a cellular level and keep your mitochondria density higher, you are going to need to incorporate HIIT.
When you exercise, eat, get exposed to different pollutants, you have different genes turn on and off. This is called gene expression.
As we age, lots of our genes that kept us healthy and avoided disease when we were younger start to shut off. This explains why cancer and other diseases become more prevalent when you’re older.
So, when it comes to keeping these good genes pumping, HIIT is going to be your best bet.
Let’s summarize the benefits of cardiovascular training.
Now, on to the Soviet’s favorite, strength training.
An area that can be filled with meat heads, dbags, and the like. Let’s put those things aside and talk about functional strength training for today’s purposes.
Strength - if done right - is going to keep you upright for a lifetime. Plain and simple, if you don’t have the strength to lift yourself up, get up off the ground, or just move around the way you want, you won’t be able to do the cardiovascular work that you want to do (or ANYTHING you want to do.)
Not only that, if you do it correctly and train with full range of motion, you are also going to stay very mobile.
Ask a marathon runner to perform a squat or lift weights, and it tends to look like a giraffe learning to walk for the first time. They usually don’t have full ROM (range of motion) in their joints or motor control to perform big complex lifts.
Beyond that, strength training will have the greatest impact on building block hormones like testosterone and estrogen. Having the appropriate amounts of these hormones is VITAL to staying healthy.
if men have too much estrogen, they are at a much higher risk for prostate cancer.
Lastly, there are copious amounts of studies out there that clearly show that strength is the best exercise modality to prevent sports related injuries.
Think about it. The stronger you are, the more dense your bones will be and the thicker and stronger your tendons will be. Strong bones and strong tendons will help you prevent injury the most later in life when your joints and tendons start to dry out and get more brittle. The more density you can maintain, the more likely they will be to hold up under distress and time.
Let’s summarize the benefits of strength training.
But which one is BETTER for you?
Well if you want to tap into the fountain of youth as much as possible...you need to do both. I bet you could see that coming. The biggest key to health and wellness is to have high levels of anaerobic and aerobic capacity and strength to go along with it.
HIIT and endurance work are going to have the highest capability of preventing cellular aging and strength training is going to be the best for your joints, muscles, and hormones.
A healthy balance can look like this.
Weight lifting 2-3x a week and some interval work 2-3x a week. Throw in something different once and while, too!
If you want to be that badass still crushing it into your 70’s and 80’s, you HAVE to incorporate your fair share of resistance training and HIIT/cardiovascular work.
Don’t be one sided and close minded.
We urge you - Please don’t be the weight lifter who can’t wipe his own ass or walk up the steps without being out of breath. And don’t be that endurance athlete who looks like their bones might break if the wind blows too hard.
If you need help getting started on training both of these modalities, be sure to pick up your copy of the Rugged Body Blueprint and follow along with our daily programming.
The Rugged Body Blueprint will help make sure your body has the mobility and durability to do both of those things while by making sure your joints, tendons, and muscles are prepared for the range of motion and impact they are going to receive when exercising both modalities.
On one side now and not sure how to switch over? Our daily workouts are posted on our website every day, so take a peek and follow along each day or pick and choose to add some variety into your training.
Your body will
thank you.
Is your body ready to take on any terrain at any time?
Download our Rugged Body Mobility Guide.
Garry Dubbs is the Co-Creator of ATH Fitness
His main objective in life is to increase people's physical capabilities to allow them to try and explore more things that are fun. If you can only walk, you’re not going to try many new things. But if you can be totally confident in your body’s capabilities, then you will make the world your playground. That’s why for a limited time, ATH is offering the Rugged Body Mobility Guide for FREE! It is a quick total mobility guide that is designed to make your body ready for anything! Just put your email in below and we will get you started on becoming an All Terrain Human, TODAY!