Which Is The Better Exercise - Weight Training or Aerobics?

I bet you all think that because we are a website committed to getting more women involved in weight lifting, we poo poo aerobics. Well let me immediately set the record straight. The answer to the question - "Which is better, weight training or aerobics?" is NEITHER. Both accomplish different things for your body and mind and both are essential to your health. We emphasize weight lifting only because fewer women are involved with it - we don't mean to downplay the importance of cardio-respiratory fitness.

General Benefits of Cardio-Respiratory Exercise
Whether you train on machines or jog in the park, cardio-respiratory exercise provides a critically important component to your fitness regimen. It increases both heart and lung capacity and causes your body to produce an increased number of blood vessels. As a result, more nutrients and oxygen are delivered to every cell, while toxins and waste products are quickly removed from your body. The net result is you gain increased energy and ability to perform physically as well as mentally. Cardio fitness helps your strength training program by enabling you to lift with greater intensity for longer periods before the fatigue of lactic acid burn overcomes you. Oh, and one other thing - cardio exercise burns fat!

Cardio vs. Strength Training
While strength training directly impacts your metabolism, muscles, bone density and body fat composition, cardio-respiratory fitness trains the lungs, heart and vascular systems. Although fleeting exercise fads will often tout one over the other, both cardio and strength training are important.

One interesting difference between cardio-respiratory exercise and strength training lies in the equipment we use to assist our workout. Although the matter is subject to debate, it appears that strength training is best assisted by non-machine-based equipment (free weights, dumbbells etc.), while cardio activity is better assisted by machines. The reasons for this weight training "simplicity rule" are explained in a number of our weight training articles.

Cardio-respiratory exercise, however, carries the opposite rule - shall we call it the "Complexity Rule"? Why? Unfortunately, some of the most effective aerobic workouts involve high-impact force, which over time causes joint injury and decreased functional capacity. Machines will often buffer the high impact of cardio activity. A bicycle, for example, is a machine that enables us to perform aerobic activity through pedaling off the ground, protecting our joints from the high impact we would experience if our feet were allowed to repetitively pound a hard surface.

Low-impact, however, usually means low-intensity. Low-impact exercise therefore will often fail to achieve the same level of benefit as higher-impact exercise, and must be performed for longer durations to get any benefit at all in terms of cardio-respiratory fitness and weight control. Despite myths to the contrary, science has proven that walking a mile is not the same as jogging a mile.

The latest development in cardio machines have enabled the fusion of low-impact and high intensity cardio training. You are able to train intensely and effectively without jeopardizing the integrity of your joints. The machines that we will be featuring on our site are examples of such advanced technology. Right now, we have found a superb stair climber. We are one of the few retail dealers that the manufacturer, Health Care International, is selling to - they normally sell in bulk to health clubs and hospitals. The great thing about this commerical machine is it's unimposing size that enables it fit beautfifully into the home. Yet it is a power dynamo that gives you a high-intensity, but cushioned workout. I suggest you take a gander at our latest discovery.

Anyway, let me go before I wax into long-winded jabber again - until next time.

Why Do We Get Fat As We Get Older?

We get heavier as we get older. And if that's not bad enough, we women suddenly find ourselves growing a "beer" belly without even having to imbibe (you'd think we were sufficiently punished by the portly thighs and butt we sported during our reproductive years!). Why? Can we do anything about it? Rich Fitter, A.C.E., explains the reasons for the encroaching weight gain and describes ways we can prevent it --


Most people have heard that our metabolism changes after we hit the big 3-O. The reasons why, and what we can do about it is often misunderstood. After the age of 30, the average person begins to lose 1/2 lb. of muscle per year. This condition is called Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle. One reason for this is related to the loss of nerve stimulation to the muscle and decreased protein synthesis (a necessary process for muscle development). Other factors include dietary changes such as dieting, under-eating, poor nutritional choices, hormonal changes and decreased physical activity. Muscle is a very active tissue – much more active than fat tissue. In some instances one pound of muscle may burn up to 500 calories per week. As we lose muscle and gain fat, therefore, we automatically gain weight, unless we do something different to challenge our body and improve our diets.
While it is possible through proper nutrition and strength training to continue to build muscle well into later life, Mother Nature requires we work at it. Let's say at age 30 a woman gets into the best shape of her life. Her diet is perfect and she exercises regularly. She then decides she will keep doing the same things for the rest of her life, expecting to stay in perfect shape because of it. The following year, 31 rolls around and she loses 1/2 lb of muscle. The year after that, another 1/2 lb is lost, and so on. Even though this person is doing the same things she did at 30, by the time she hits 38, she will have lost 4 lbs of lean muscle and her body will be burning 2000 calories less per week. One pound of fat contains 3500 calories. Because this woman's body is burning this many calories less every 10 days, in a one year period she may gain approximately 30 lbs of fat!

Performing her same exercise program over and over for years is not effective in halting this weight gain because your body has not only adapted to it, but has also increased its need for greater challenges. Following the same eating patterns also is not logical because your needs for calories and nutrients are also different as you get older.

The Solution – Avoid Very Low-Calorie Diets and Do Challenging Strength Training Programs -- Overall, the factors that most affect a person's metabolism are age, gender, size, body composition (fat to lean mass ratio) and physical activity. The above-mentioned factors minus our physical activity determine our resting metabolic rate. Our resting metabolism is the number of calories our bodies expend performing the most basic physiological functions such as breathing, temperature, circulation and respiration. Surprisingly, our body uses about 65% of our daily calories doing just these necessary tasks. This is one of the primary reasons very low calorie diets do not work well for losing body fat. You need to provide your body with adequate calories for energy and nutrients to perform at the very least these functions. If you fail to do this, your body will fear starvation and lower its heart rate, respiration and temperature to burn less calories. In the absence of proper nutrients your body will feed off of its own muscle and bones, further slow metabolism and contribute to muscle loss. Depriving your body of calories and nutrients is not the answer.
A challenging and varied weight training program, in combination with good diet, helps to prevent muscle loss as well as increase protein synthesis and metabolism. Overall, proper eating and increased physical activity is the answer to life long fitness and wellness.

Author:
Rich Fitter, A.C.E. Certified Trainer, Weight Lifting Champion, WNBF Body Building Champion, is an expert consultant to TheFitWoman.com, a website of fitness equipment and weight training for women.

Fitness is Not Rocket Science - It's Character and Motivation

The "How To" is simple. The "Why Do" is hard. It is the "why do" that helps us keep with an exercise plan that is difficult to initiate and often has no inherent fun attached to it. Many have already crapped out on their New Year's Resolutions. Some are still "planning" to begin them. To keep myself motivated, I often ask myself the following questions.

Do I want to stay young looking?

I am vain enough to be motivated by this factor. Weight training is the only activity that conclusively preserves youth and even reverses signs of aging. See Weight Training and Its Effects on Aging. Not only does vanity motivate me but, as I always say, staying younger longer gives you opportunity to live almost two lives. I don't know about you, but after I tire of being an online fitness store owner, I think I'll go on to becoming an astronaut. Or maybe a brain surgeon! If my health stays good, who knows?

Do you believe aging is just something that happens to you?

Most aging that we witness is not a natural occurrence, but a result of chronic disease, which is often totally avoidable. Before antibiotics, vaccines and improved sanitation, most illnesses were sudden, acute and uncontrollable . Lives were taken swiftly and well before the end of the human life span. Now we die from heart disease and other illness that develop slowly, and are caused largely by our eating habits and sedentary lifestyle. This is good news, because we now can do something to prevent and even reverse age-related frailty.

What and whom do you want to attract this year?

Are you noticing some trolls in your life? If you workout three times this week, you will feel and look better immediately. Looking and feeling better attracts different people, places and things into your life, because outward appearances does reflect inward dynamics.

Have you written down realistic and specific fitness goals for 2006?

I have not done this for 2006. But, research studies show that those who write down their goals, and are specific about what they want to achieve, are more likely to accomplish their desired outcomes. For instance, telling yourself "I want to exercise and look better," constitutes vague and ineffective goal setting. Instead write down, "in the next three months I want to lose 12 lbs. and reduce my waistline to 30 inches. I will accomplish this by weight training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for an hour each session." You must have a clear vision of where you want to go if you are to get there at all.

Do you believe that fitness is something you can cram into your hectic life?

There is a very lucrative industry that preys on the many hopefuls looking for fast and easy fitness. It sells all kinds of gadgets and books claiming you can get fit in just minutes a day. The truth is, something must change inside yourself that helps you shift your priorities and organize your life in ways that make space for your new fit-consciousness.

Over and out, for now. Janet

Women's Fitness, Exercise Equipment and Extended Living

Hello Everyone, I am Janet Ford, a co-owner of TheFitWoman.com website. Linda Kravitz and I run this site together with an eye toward keeping women young throughout their entire lifespan. We do this by providing you information and fitness equipment that will help you plan an effective program involving both strength training and cardio-vascular fitness.

No infomercial hype appears on our website - neither do such lies as getting six-pack abs in only a few easy minutes each day. You, however may present any topic on fitness and personal development you want here - whether it be to laud the latest Suzanne Sommers booty gadget (gasp!), muse about the body you want, deride the perfectionist American values imposed upon women's appearance, or discuss your successes with weight loss and body composition. This is a place to collect your voice.

Did you ever wish you had a second chance at life (without having to be reincarnated and assume all that nasty karma)? Well you are probably going to get it whether you want it or not! We women are living a very long time - two lives for the price of one. While our parents and grandparents generally succumbed to age-related frailities and sagging skin, we probably will not want to do the same. Medical science will keep us alive well beyond our ancestors' ages. It's time to ask yourself how do you want to live this extended life.

Perhaps you can get a second career, write a book, have more children (oh no!), run for public office, or do many other things that wiser individuals are better suited to do. Life need not be continually wasted on the chronologically young and inexperienced.

We will post articles and other writings on which you may comment or ask questions. Candor (without obscenity) is welcome! Feel free to start commenting now.

If you would like to be a primary author on this site, please email us at info@thefitwoman.com. Otherwise, feel free to start commenting now.