I must admit, I do not do cardio as much as I used to. One reason why, is that it hurts. Walking is good, but jumping, no way. Also, I have not noticed a big difference in my heart rate or weight by doing more strength training as opposed to cardio. My own experience tells me strength training, (Barre, Pilates, Yoga, Essentrics), changes my body a lot more than cardio. If your heart rate goes up too high in cardio, you are burning sugar in your body as opposed to burning fat.
Here are some reasons to do Cardio:
1.Strengthens Your Heart and Reduces Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
2. Helps Maintain a Healthy Weight
3. Gotta love those Endorphines – they feel so dang good and relieve stress
4. Builds Endurance
Here are some reasons to do Strength Training:
1. You Keep Burning Calories after the workout
2. As we age we lose Muscles – strength training will help counter that
3. Boosts your Metabolism – muscle requires more calories than fat to maintain
4. Improves your Body Composition
Some downsides to Cardio:
1. High-impact cardio – like running—too much can hurt your joints
2. Too much cardio can result in overtraining and burnout
3. If you do have an injury from Cardio, you will need to take a break to heal
Some downsides to Strength Training:
1. You need to make sure you have proper form and alignment. If you have never really strength trained before, try getting a trainer or small group fitness (like AlpharettaBarreClub.com)
2. Like Cardio, you can overtrain if you do not allow proper time in between workouts. Barre, Essentrics, Yoga and Pilates are an exception. You can do these everyday and they are designed to do every day without wearing out your body.
3. Lifting too heavy of weights can cause muscle and joint issues. That is why I absolutely love body weight exercises. We should be able to carry out body in all different ways.
That all being said a perfect marriage of Strength and Cardio is a fusion class. I absolutely love teaching fusion classes. I always throw in a little bit of cardio, a lot of strength and some mind body yoga and stretching at the end. You leave feeling you completely worked out. I have done a Cardio Barre 15 minute workout video. It is on my YouTube Channel