Dynamic Warmup vs. Static Stretching
January 12, 2021Well the short answer here is, both! You shouldn’t do one without the other and long gone are the days of cardio being boring. Traditional “cardio” often times meant running or biking or rowing or the elliptical machine at the gym, which, are all fine additions to weekly training, but those exercises are not going to be the ones that ultimately change your body composition. It’s the combination of strength training and cardio that hand-in-hand will get you fast results.
Cardio, or as we like to call it, Metabolic Conditioning, is a form of training that elevates the heart rate which in turn helps you burn calories fast. This kind of training keeps you heart healthy, can increase your stamina and endurance, and keep you overall healthy. However, as certified trainers we’re never offering cardio only in the form of steady-state, i.e., running, stair master, etc., but more so in resistance training methods. This way you’re utilizing muscles to strengthen AND burn fat.
Often times people will come to us and say “we hate cardio but we have to do it” and that right there is where cardio or metabolic conditioning and resistance training gets a bad rap. Most times athletes feel like they will only see results when they do the things they hate (things they aren’t good at). That’s when we introduce the proven methods of mixing up cardio with strength training and resistance training. It’s not necessarily innovative but until athletes have tried it, they’re skeptical. One of the many reasons people keep coming back to us: we get it.
Strength training, or hypertrophic training, is where we’re looking to build that muscle, break down and burn fat in the process. Doing strength training exercises 3-5x per week is proven to not only strengthen your body and of course build muscle, but also torch calories and burn fat.
If you alternate between “cardio” and strength training 3-5x per week, you will absolutely change your body composition much faster and in the process you’ll end up doing two things: getting stronger and strengthening that endurance. It’s a win-win.
If you need help getting started, we’ve got you.
Written by: Jen De la Cruz