Cardio Fitness

If you’re a fan of intense cardio, we’ve got good news for you! Strength training can help improve your athletic performance during aerobic activities like running or during HIIT workouts. 

Lifting weights doesn’t only build your muscles and make you leaner but it can also increase your aerobic capacity. It helps your body become more efficient in transporting blood, oxygen, and nutrients to your muscles.

Furthermore, strength training also increases your muscles’ endurance. So you can move more for longer since your muscles take longer to get fatigued due to lactic acid.

You’ll Burn More Calories

Did you know that the more muscles you build up, the more calories you can burn? Muscles are fat-burning machines especially after you step out of the gym. This is called the after-burn effect and it’s crucial if you want to maintain long-term fat loss. As your muscles repair themselves after lifting weights, your muscles expend calories. This can last anywhere between 24 to 48 hours.

How Much Strength Training Do You Need?

If you’re pressed for time or if you really prefer aerobic exercises then we’ve got good news for you! Even if you do resistance training exercises once a week, you can still reap some benefits.

However, if you really want to get stronger and leaner muscles, then resistance training 2-3 times per week is optimal. 

Lifting weights twice to three times per week helps the body handle the repetitive stress of movements like running, cycling, or swimming. And if you push yourself on these days, you can give yourself ample time to recover and speed up your progress.