Cardio, Weights or Classes?

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Cardio, Weights or Classes?

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I have a personal trainer I see at least twice a week. What do you recommend I do on the other days I don't see him? Cardio, weights or classes? I don't want to interfere with his program for me and didn't know which would be better, if not a little of all three. Thanks.

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Michael Collins: There are a lot of variables involved in a question like this.

Since I don't have specifics such as what you're currently doing, your stats in regards height, weight and age, and what specific result you want, it's hard to give "the answer".

In light of this I will give you some basic concepts which you can fit your routine around.

Before anything, the first move I would make is to ask the trainer what you should be doing during the gym time you're not with him

female-doing-situps Assuming your goal is to shed body fat fast and effectively, strength training should be the backbone of your program. Here's where you get the biggest bang for your buck. Strength training is the most effective way to drive your metabolism up. Strength training at a high intensity will not only give you caloric burn during the workout, but will increase EPOC (post exercise calorie burn) by a substantial amount.

When you strength train, you're stimulating a lot of changeover in the body. You're of course burning calories by performing the work during exercise, but you're also breaking down muscle tissue. The metabolic increase (caloric burn increase) is huge after the workout due the repair of the broken down tissue, and several other hormonal factors.

Cardio should be the cherry on top.

Once you're meeting your strength training priority, you can move on to cardio. Studies have shown that high intensity cardio done in short bursts is more effective at burning a higher total amount of calories than long slow cardio.

This style of cardio activity is also more time efficient.

Classes are the third option in the order of priority. I'm not a big fan of classes because they are generally not time/ effort efficient. *Unless you can't get yourself to workout without a group setting. In this case, any exercise is better than no exercise. I'll save that dilemma for another article*

Order of effectiveness for your question

1) Strength Training
2) High Intensity cardio
3) Classes

Keep in mind, any optimal fat loss program will take into account many variables beyond the scope of this question.