I have a friend who always asks, “Which is better; aerobic exercise, resistance (weight lifting) training, or doing both?”
It depends on what you want to achieve, losing weight or just want to tone up your body so that it appears better? Both of them aren’t negative answers at all. By losing weight and increasing your lean body mass, it is more likely for you live longer and stay healthy.
I read an article on foxnews that says it is better doing an aerobic exercise than resistance training. The article reported about a study conducted by researcher Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist at Duke University, He said that it is better, because aerobic exercise burn more calories thus reduce the fat deposit thus reduce the risk of having heart diseases, diabetes and certain types of cancer.
Aerobic exercise is doing a workout in long duration with low intensity. Usually aerobic exercise took at least 15 to 30 minutes; a person can choose whether to walk, jog, swim or cycle. There are so many advantages doing aerobic exercise, such as
1. To improve cardio-pulmo-vascular function which is marked by a low pulse rate at rest (you can test you friend that regularly exercise, I bet the pulse rate is lower than 70-80 J ); greater stroke volume, efficient oxygen uptake, and reduce the lactic acid in our body.
2. Prevent obesity by improving our body metabolism and maintain ideal body weight
3. Reduce the risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and infection by improving the immune function
4. Endorphin release into the brain (a hormone that improves your mood)
While doing resistance training is great to improve general strength and increase you lean body mass. By doing resistance training not only you’ll look good but you’ll feel good as well. Improved general strength will make your daily activity more productive, where as increasing your lean body mass also makes you more confident.
Okay, back to the article. The researcher said "Our study sought to identify the most effective form of exercise to get rid of that unhealthy fat." The study included 196 overweight, sedentary adults, ages 18 to 70, who were randomized to one of three exercise groups for eight months: aerobic training, resistance training or a combination of the two
The aerobic group performed exercises equivalent to jogging 12 miles per week at 80 percent maximum heart rate. The resistance-training group performed eight weight-lifting exercises, doing three sets of eight to 12 repetitions of each lift, three times a week. The combination group did both of these regimens in full. The researchers closely supervised and monitored the participants to ensure maximum effort in participation.
They found that aerobic exercise was also best for reducing liver fat, too much of which can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a leading cause of cirrhosis. The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism.
From my opinion, it is better to do one of them than doing nothing right? So what are you waiting for..??
Cut the chat and reduce the fat!
