Weight Training the New Cardio?

To our friends stuck on the treadmill, here’s to something different. You want that beach body but can’t quite figure out why you’re not as toned as those magazine models. Right now I’m going to share with you a couple relatively unknown facts about weight training. Before we get in over our heads here, let’s get a bit of vernacular that you ought to know out of the way first.

1.       Muscle confusion: This is your body responding to this consistent demand by adapting to it and eventually plateauing.  Solution: Muscle confusion!

2.        Kettlebell: A cast iron cannonball with a handle. Not literally an actual cannonball (no Pirates of the Caribbean here, Matey) but the shape of one with a convenient handgrip located on the top.

·         Muscle confusion. Who likes confusion? Well your muscles actually do and that’s the only way to make them stronger. Plateau. The dreaded 6 letter word any gym junkie cowers in fear from. Keep them confused, keep the plateau away. Ya dig? Because you should.

·         Burn calories even after you stop working out. Feel the burn, even when you’re just sitting there eating your organic leaf salad. This is how it breaks down: when you’re doing your 10^th mile on that treadmill and you’ve worked up a hearty sweat after you hop off and your heart rate gets back to normal your body is no longer burning the calories in the range it was during the exercise. Now say you decided to do some short sprints, kettlebell swings and a couple pushups (just for shits and giggles), hell let’s even add some body weight squats in the mix too. Well if there is anything you MUST walk away from reading this ridiculous blurb knowing is that muscle burns fat. End of story. You can’t build necessary muscle doing solely cardio. Add some resistance and your body turns into a fat burning locomotive.

·         More time fewer calories; Less time more calories. Which makes more sense to you? Not quite rocket science here people. This hand-in-hand with the above. You’re body kills more calories doing a high intensity power workout than Joey Chestnut does in a hot dog eating contest. (if you don't  know who he is look him up and be amazed. You’re welcome ahead of time.) In other words it is actually possible to burn as many calories in 20 min doing a high intensity resistance workout than you could doing an hour or so of moderate/low intensity cardio.