Is Strength Training Better than Cardio For

Your Heart?
by: Shin Ohtake, Fitness & Fat-Loss Expert
Author of MAX Workouts, The Ultimate Lean Body Fitness Program
When you think about improving endurance and burning caloriesthe
first word that pops in your head is probably cardio right? Now when
you think of cardio, exercises like running, biking, swimming likely
come to mind, but your traditional cardio exercises may not be the
only wayor even the best wayto improve your cardiovascular
function (or burn more calories).
Before I go on, lets look at cardio in more detail
Cardio is a short term for cardiovascular fitness. Cardiovascular fitness
is really the measure of how fit your heart is. Your heart pumps blood
throughout your entire body and your blood carries oxygen (and other
vital nutrients) which is necessary for your muscles to keep
functioning. And the more your muscles work the more blood/oxygen is
needed.
So when youre exercising, your heart has to be able to keep up with
the demands of your muscles. Which is why doing cardio is
commonly associated with improving your endurance. And better
endurance, means you can do cardio faster and longer which means
you can burn more calories and hence burn more fat.
Makes senseright?
Well its truecardio does help increase your heart functionbut its
not the only way. Its a little know fact, but strength training effectively
improves your cardiovascular fitness as well (study).
Now, you cant just go out and lift some weights haphazardly and think
youre improving your cardiovascular fitness. The KEY to improving
your cardiovascular fitness through strength training is intensity.
Strength training with high intensity allows 3 important things to
happen:
1.Releases adrenaline which dilates your arteries in your
muscles so more blood can go there

2.Lowers peripheral vascular resistance which basically

allows more blood to be pumped from your heart
(increased cardiac output)
3.The intense muscle contraction increases venous blood
flow back to the heart. This in turn helps your heart work
more efficiently.
Now, I know that cardio is still considered king for improving
cardiovascular fitness, but here are a few studies that indicate
otherwise.
The study compared the cardiovascular effects of intense resistance
training on 2 groups of people - stable patients and patients with
congestive heart failure.
The result showed that intense resistance training had no negative
effects on the group with congestive heart failure and in fact it
effectively improved the cardiovascular function for both groups.
This study proves that intense resistance training produces significant
improvements in cardiovascular fitness.
Heres a very interesting observation from Dr. McGuff:
I have some clients with known coronary artery narrowing. Their
coronary artery disease causes them to have angina, which is heart
pain due to poor coronary artery blood flow. Despite exercising these
subjects at a relatively high intensity, we have never had any episodes
of angina. These same clients will get angina when walking uphill or
exercising on a treadmill or bike. My theory (and it is still only a theory)
is that walking does not produce intense enough muscular contractions
to stimulate increased venous return which would augment end
diastolic blood flow and coronary artery bloodflow. I believe resistance
training increases venous return and coronary blood flow so that these
subjects can tolerate a much higher intensity of exercise without
experiencing angina.
Furthermore this study found that full body strength training performed
by a group of people with hypertension helped bring their blood
pressure back down to normal levels.
Perhaps cardio is not king after allplus lets not forget that intense
strength training is much more effective in burning fat than doing just
cardio alone.

So if I had to choose between doing intense strength training or cardio,

well for me the choice is obvious. Ive always been about getting the
most out of any exercise/workout and if intense strength training helps
me improve my heart health while burning more fatIm all about it.
But dont get me wrong, Im by no means saying that cardio is
ineffective. Cardio IS effective at improving cardiovascular fitness, but
its not the only way, its not black and white like many people think.
And this is why I advocate using a combination of high intensity
strength training and cardio training (just like my MAX Workouts), so
you can get the best possible health and fitness outcome.
Stay Lean,
-Shin