This is one of the most frequently asked questions in the gym, and like most questions the answer here cannot be reduced to a simple YES or NO. To go smoothly into this otherwise very long and voluminous subject, we must first say that, of course, cardio workouts have a place in your workout routine. They have positive contribution to the achievement of desired physics.
Indeed, during a cardio session your body is burning a high percentage of body fat, but that does not mean that you will achieve more refined physics by practicing more of this activity at the expense of less weight training.
The reason for this lies in your resting metabolic rate. The first 1-2 hours after a steady pace cardio session, it works faster. In workouts with more weights that period is increased to 1-2 days after the end of the session. Why is that? To answer this question, we need to look at what happens to your body and how it responses after those two difrent types of workouts.
By doing multy-joint exercises with free weights and barbells you apply higher physical stress on the muscles of the whole body, resulting in micro-damage to muscle tissue. In steady pace cardio performance, on the other hand, are involved much less muscle groups and the intensity of the load on them is many times lower, and hence the damage is less.
In the hours and days after the workout, the body must repair the damaged muscle tissue. Throughout this recovery process, your metabolism works intensively to succeed with “repairs”. Simple calculations show that the longer and harder it had to work, the more calories you will burn at resting period.
Another fact that people aiming to lose weight often overlook is that weight training increases the volume of lean muscle mass, which also contributes to the speeding up of metabolism. Excessively long cardio workouts, however, can lead to loss of lean muscle mass and lower metabolic rate. The slower it becomes, the more difficult it is to reduce body fat. Moreover, lower down your resting metabolic rate can lead to storing body fat easier if you find yourself in a situation of calorie surplus.
For fast and most effective results we at CityFitness Team recommend to combine your weight training workouts with high intensity interval type of cardio and/ or sprints. We guarantee that a 10-15 minute interval cardio, rotaiting between fast and slow pace at the end of your workout, is much more effective for fat loss than a 40-50 minute steady pace cardio session.