How to Lose Weight With Strength Training and Cardio

You have set your fitness goals and now need to decide which exercises you want to add to your fitness routine to help you burn away that unwanted fat. The best way is to add a combination of both strength training and cardiovascular.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Strength training is the most beneficial methods of fat loss. By building muscle, you are in turn increasing your metabolism and helping your body to burn even more calories. Also with strength training, your body begins to burn a large number of calories even after you have finished training.
   
   With strength training you have many options. For beginners or someone who doesn't have access to a gym or equipment, bodyweight exercises are a great option for fat loss. Another option is using the push/pull split. This is a great way to get in a total body workout that allows you to perform more exercises per workout and get more recovery time.
   
   Some key points when doing strength training are make sure to warm up and stretch before your workout, lift the weights in slow, steady movements and don't forget to breathe.
2. Cardiovascular exercise is the 2nd part of your fat loss fitness routine. Cardio can be done following your strength training or as separate training on the opposite day of strength training. Cardio is not only a great aid to fat loss, but also to help you to maintain a healthy heart. The best form of cardio is HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT involves intervals of varying intensities, some very high. Interval training can be as simple as doing an all-out sprint, jogging to lower your heart rate, and then sprinting once again. This should be done anywhere from 15-30 minutes. The advantage to HIIT is that you are burning more calories in a shorter period of time. You can perform HIIT on almost anything, such as bike, treadmill, elliptical, or even bodyweight circuits.
3. It is best to perform strength training workouts at least 3 times per week and also perform HIIT 3 times per week. Make sure to change up your workouts every 6-8 weeks to avoid a fat loss plateau. Changing your workouts also keeps your workouts fresh and new and makes you less likely to stop doing them and gives you a better chance of reaching your fitness goals!