#57: Cardio with Weights vs. Strength Training Why they are NOT the same!

One of the biggest mistakes I made with my fitness in my 30s and 40s was believing that my gym's classes with weights would take care of my muscles. 

Boy was I wrong!

When menopause hit, I lost ALL my muscle tone and started just looking 'blobby' - and it seemed to happen overnight!

If only I'd realized that not all workouts with weights are created equal. 

In this episode of the podcast, I explain the three fundamental differences between what I've termed 'cardio with weights' and the kind of strength training that will not only maintain your lean muscle mass but allow you to increase it.

Those differences are: 

1️⃣  How challenging the weights are

2️⃣  Ability to apply progressive overload

3️⃣  Ability to recover between sets

Enjoy the episode!

x Lynn

Transcript

#57: Cardio with Weights vs. Strength Training Why they are NOT the same!

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach, helping women like you learn how to work with their new peri- and post-menopause bodies. And today we are going to talk about kind of one of the things that I see women doing a lot, which is becoming aware that they are losing muscle tone and that they need to take care of their muscles.

but then Joining group fitness classes or working with small weights. And today I really want to dive into why that is just not the same thing as doing consistent, progressive weight training.

So it is a beautiful March morning as I am recording this. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, which is not an everyday occurrence up here up north. And it makes me think of [00:01:00] spring and summer. And I've actually booked a vacation with my friends to go to Greece in early June. We are going to be hanging out on a catamaran for seven days.

I know. I'm so excited. I mean, I never do vacations like this. I'm yeah, I've been more of a save money for a rainy day kind of person. But this year I decided that, Hey, you know, there aren't. That many summers left. Okay, hopefully there are 50 years worth of summers, but in any case that there are limited number of summers left and I want to do something special at least once a year.

So this is my something special for this year. And I'm really looking forward to being in a bikini. And I have to do some bikini shopping. So if you have suggestions of good places to get bikinis, then let me know. And if you are also [00:02:00] noticing that summer is just around the corner, you're probably Thinking about the fact that soon you'll be wearing lighter clothing, maybe showing some more skin.

Maybe you're like me and you are planning on rocking a bikini this year and you're thinking about, okay, well, what can I do to still tweak or improve my fitness or lower my body fat before summer comes around? And for you, I do want to remind you that it really comes down to two things. Okay. And those two things are how much you're eating and how much muscle you have on your body.

So if you want to be looking toned and firm and also feeling firm, right, to the touch, then you need to have some muscle. and Low enough body fat and the best way to lose the body fat is to pay attention to what you are eating. So [00:03:00] no, the secret is not hours and hours of cardio, you know, going and running in the morning, running in the evening and all that.

And if you're not clear on why that strategy really doesn't work, then check out my podcast episode number 51.

And then it's companion episode, which is episode number 52, which talks about what you should be doing instead of overdoing the cardio. So that is just a tip for you, because I know at this time of year, that is. Really, really naturally on a lot of women's minds. Okay. But to dive into today's topic. So, and this also relates to summer coming because I noticed this trend in my gym that there are so many more people in the group fitness classes and in particular in the ones which are like firming toning group fitness classes.

All right. Those are the ones where they're using some weights in [00:04:00] there in the cardio class. And by the way, really, really similar kinds of things online with, uh, these fitness influencers who are doing these daily workouts, let's train our, you know, shoulders and core today. And then they have a few exercises for you to do.

And these are wildly popular. I mean, wildly popular. And I get it because first of all, like if you're into group fitness classes, it's much easier to get going with weights when you have a teacher up there, you know, helping you every step of the way. And then on the other hand, if you're training at home, the ones that are done at home, they're tough classes, you know, they are cardiovascularly challenging.

Your body will feel tired at the end of them. But the thing that I want you to walk away from this episode with is the understanding of how those are actually very, very different [00:05:00] exercise from when you are weight training at home or at the gym with weights and doing the kind of things that I talk about so much on this podcast.

All right. So let's talk about kind of three main differences. First of all, you want to be challenging your muscles when you're doing the weight training. And now I'm not talking about the first days or weeks that you're weight training because those are really your learning time. And as I explained to my, my students that that is You know, that's when you're learning the exercises and you're starting to increase your weights and you're moving yourself towards the point where you're actually pushing yourself.

But if you've never done weight training at that level before, let's think of some other places where you might've actually had to put big effort into doing something. So I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but I have had to like push a [00:06:00] car. Right. Uh, Well, if, if you guys are my age, you know, so I'm 52, maybe you have had to do this.

Like a car hasn't started, maybe the battery has died. Maybe you were a child at this point. I was young at this point. And the thing to do was to get the car rolling and then you could get that car to start. Right. And if you've ever been in that situation. You put the car in neutral, take the handbrake off, and then people push to get the car moving.

Now, when you have a car that is not moving and it's on flat ground, to get it to move forward requires some serious effort. It's like, you know, you're really digging down, pushing as hard as you possibly can, and then it starts to budge. Okay. So that's like, big, big effort. Um, another example might be when you were young and you played tug of war, right?

[00:07:00] And you're holding on. And once you start pulling at that point where everybody is pulling as hard as they can, and you're really digging down and you're pulling, You know, that's big effort. So if you think about those two examples, and I, I can't think of a, another example where in day to day life, you end up with a huge amount of effort.

Maybe, maybe when you're going on a trip and you have a, Oh, oversized suitcase. And it's really, really heavy. And then the, at the check in counter, you've got to lift it onto that belt to be weighed. And you're like, okay, and then you lift it and you get it just barely up there. And then you push it and you're like at the limits of, you know, what you can do, right?

That is effort. And when you are really trying to build up your own strength and build your muscles. You [00:08:00] need to be working with a very challenging weight. And if you look at the weights that are being used in these group business fitness classes or the ones, you know online I don't know what to call them Well, I mean really what they are is cardio with weights Okay These are mainly cardio classes that the women's heart rates are going up and they're using Some dumbbells or weights to help to achieve that.

Yeah. So I'll call them, maybe that's what I'll call them. Uh, cardio with weights. And one of my students said this really, really well when she said that she's been going to body pump classes and she's been thinking to herself that, Hey, you know, when I know that I've got to do shoulder presses and so pressing the, the weights up above her head, then she has to pick [00:09:00] fairly small weights, but then they're starting with doing something that if she were to just pick weights for that movement alone, she would pick much, much heavier weights because actually she notices she's much stronger at that.

But because it's put together the way it is, you might use the right weight for doing the shoulder presses, but then the other things that you're doing, which are stronger muscles than your shoulders, you're actually ending up doing too light weights. And this was kind of her insight that, yeah, this is not actually very effective because though you're moving the weights, you are actually not challenging yourself, in those exercises.

And that's exactly the issue with, body pump and other classes. And actually they're not designed. To build muscle and strength, they're designed for muscle endurance and LesMills BodyPump. For [00:10:00] example, if you go to their website, they will say that this is a muscle endurance class and muscle endurance and muscle strength and power are two different things.

They're brought to you by two different types of muscle fibers in your muscles. And the one that we're losing as we age Is actually not the endurance muscles so much or the endurance muscles fibers so much, but more the power and strength muscle fibers. And those are the ones that we need to be stimulating in our training.

Okay. All right. So that was point number one is that in these classes, you're not using a weight that's really, really challenging you. You may feel the burn different thing. 

And then we talk about progressive overload and progressive overload is the way that you get your body to get stronger. Okay, because what you're doing [00:11:00] is that as your body gets stronger, you are putting slightly higher demands on it and higher demands on it and higher demands on it. You're always pushing the envelope a little bit more and a little bit more.

Now, the easiest way to make sure that you are actually progressively overloading, in other words, asking your body to do more over time, is to track how many reps you're doing. And if you're able to do, let's say seven reps today, you try to go for eight reps tomorrow. And when you get to eight reps, you try to go for nine reps and all that.

And when you get to the top of your rep range. Which might be 12 reps, might be 15 reps, could be less also depending on your program. But in any case, when you get to a certain number of reps, then you increase your weight. This is the way that you get yourself stronger. And my own personal, um, experience with switching from body pump [00:12:00] classes, which is what I was doing.

I, I think closer to like seven years of body pump classes. It's probably longer, but anyway, I was doing body pump classes, really working my butt off in there. Right? I mean, I'm not somebody who goes into one of those classes and it's like, let me just be here for show. No, I'm like, I'm going to get absolutely the most out of this.

And I would be killing myself in those classes. Right? So I am doing bicep curls really hard. With big weights. So they were five kilogram weights, which was the biggest weight that they actually had. Um, and I didn't see very many women around me using the five kilogram weights either. Then cut to the change in my training, which was that I switched to doing dumbbells at home. progressively overloading. I was already doing the five kilo weights, then I tried with six [00:13:00] kilo weights. And of course I couldn't do very many with the six kilo weights, but I'd maybe do like five bicep curls and then when I've been able to do five, I try to do six and seven and slowly working my way up. And actually it did not take me very long to get to 10 kilograms. Now just let that sink in. I went from doing five kilos. To suddenly doing 10 kilos, that is a significant increase in strength,

so yeah, seven years of kind of peddling in place at body pump versus a few months of doing progressive overload strength training at home. That's the difference. And yeah, that's a really obvious one, but it happened also in other parts of my body. And just a complete aside, one of the things that. I suffered from maybe the [00:14:00] most from doing just the body pump classes is it's really, really hard to train the backs of your thighs.

So your hamstrings effectively in those classes and, and actually they don't even really do a whole lot for glutes. Okay. They do squats, but you're not going to do super heavy squats in the middle of a room without any. Spotters or, or security bars , but in any case, so my hamstrings were in such bad shape that I started having issues in my hip.

And then I was having issues even being able to sit down, certainly couldn't run, walking, hurt, all kinds of things. And when I started strength training at home and I started actually training my hamstrings, then. The injury, the pain went away.

So yeah. Okay. But that was, that was an aside, but in any case, so with the progressive [00:15:00] overload, uh, it's kind of impossible to do it in a class because. You know, they have the particular choreography. They're swapping up the exercises that you do. So you can't be like, Oh, okay. We did this particular exercise. And last week I did 20 reps and this week I'll do 21. And next week I'll do 22. And then I'll increase the weight 

They're just not designed to do this kind of progressive overload to get stronger. It's more about muscle endurance. All right. So that was, that was number two, that you're not able to do the progressive overload. 

And then the third thing is that You don't rest between sets.

So those fitness classes and the cardio with weights, they are really cardio classes. And as such, you're keeping your heart rate up all the time. You're moving all the time. That is completely different from what you're [00:16:00] doing when you are really strength training. Okay. When you are strength training, it's I mean, it's a completely different formula.

These classes and strength training are like two different animals. It's like trying to compare going running and biking, both of them. You're using your legs and they're doing the same motion over and over again. Right? But they are different things, right? If you're going to be training for a bike race, you're going to be riding a bike.

If you're training for a foot race, you're going to be running. They are not, they're doing different things , same way, this kind of cardio with weights and strength training are two different things. When you're strength training, you are going to be using a challenging weight. You're going to be doing short amounts of that movement.

You're going to be tracking and challenging yourself over time to do a little bit [00:17:00] more and a little bit more. And in between sets. You are not going to be doing anything cardio. You're going to be resting. You'll see people in the weight room that are sitting around on their phones because actually when you start to get to very challenging weights and you're doing, for example, with your legs, like if I do a Romanian deadlifts or if I'm doing leg presses.

These are big muscles that are being used and you are pushing them kind of to their limits. And my legs will feel a bit jello y after a set. And yeah, I wait two or three minutes for them to recover to do the next set, completely different paradigm than doing the, cardio with weights.

And it's not just about resting between the sets. It's also resting between training days, because the way that it goes [00:18:00] is that in your training session, be that at home or at the gym, you're stimulating your muscles. And after your training session is when the muscles actually. grow and become stronger.

So you need to give them at least the 48 hours to recover fully. For me, I take two full days off in between training the same muscle group again. And when you're going to the group, fitness classes. So these cardio with weights, if you go many days a week, they may be doing the same muscles day in and day out.

So you're not actually giving your muscles a break. You're not giving your body a break and the recovery is really important. 

Okay. To summarize though cardio with weights, may look. Like some of the same movements that you're doing in the weight room or that you could do to do strength training.

It is a different animal [00:19:00] because of the way that they're doing it. They're missing having the very challenging weights. You need to be working close to failure, i. e. close to the point where you cannot do another rep. And it's not that you can't do another rep because it. Burns so bad. Okay. You can't do another rep because your muscle doesn't have any strength left to do it.

 you need to be progressively overloading over time. So as you get stronger, you need to be able to increase. The stimulation that you're giving your muscle, the work that you're making it do. And those classes, they're the same day in and day out. 

Third is you're not resting between sets of working the same muscle. And also, if you're going to many of these classes in a week, are you giving your muscles a chance to recover and grow in between? If you're going on Monday and they do booties, [00:20:00] And you go on Tuesday and they've got some booty exercises and you go Wednesday, you know what I mean?

Like where is the rest and recovery so that your booty can actually grow? So I know it feels like you're doing something when you're sweating and you're trembling and You know, you're burning sensation in the muscles. Those are not the indicators that you are actually increasing the strength of your body.

Those may help you with the endurance piece, but for us women, the endurance piece is not the one we need to be so worried about as we grow older. We're pretty good endurance animals. We need to be thinking about the strength and the power that we can be producing as we get older.

And for those of you out there who have been doing these classes like I did for so many years, thinking that this was the way to maintain my muscles [00:21:00] and take care of my muscles as I got older, you may have noticed some, you know, difference in your body, that you do feel a little bit stronger and all those things.

versus when you weren't doing anything. Yes, of course, because you've taken your first steps, but you're gonna hit some kind of glass ceiling at some point from those because you're not really training your strength.

And if you're as unlucky as me, you'll also notice that you lose your muscle tone all of a sudden, because Menopause happens and muscle loss happens at a faster rate. Muscle maintenance is not as good when estrogen levels drop. And then you'll, you'll be stuck like me working for a long time to get your muscles back doing consistent weight training, like, like real weight training, strength training versus the cardio with dumbbells.[00:22:00] 

Okay, so I hope this didn't come across as too harsh. It's just, it's one of those things that I believed so strongly that I was doing the right thing. thing for so long and I see it all around me and maybe I'm like venting here in the podcast, wishing that some of the women around me would just like hear and understand that, hey, ladies, if you're going to dedicate those hours to taking care of your muscles, then do the thing that will take the best care of your muscles. And that is really strength training at home or at the gym, but applying progressive overload, working close to failure and taking those recovery days.

It's going to be very different from those cardio with weights experiences that you've had, but it is going to give you so much better results. And as usual, if you are ready to get started, then I [00:23:00] have the solution for you. I have my Kickstarter programs that are out now, and also I have availability as a one to one coach.

So if you are interested in getting going with me, then check out the links in the show notes. And otherwise I will talk to you next week. Happy training.