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Have you ever stepped foot into the gym and taken a good honest look around?
If you’re like most people, a minority of which even have an active gym membership (statistically only about 20-25% of Americans), then you are more likely than not a member of a traditional commercial big-box style of gym.
Big open lay-outs filled with amenities galore: locker room and shower set-ups, maybe even basketball courts and pools, and a high turn-over rate as far as memberships and member adherence goes. Think Globo-Gym from the movie Dodgeball.
When you look around, what’s visible the moment that you walk in the gym doors?
If your gym is like most others, typically what you’ll find is anywhere up to about 50% of the gym’s space is dedicated specifically to cardio equipment. Treadmills, ellipticals, stairmasters, and other “plod-and-trod” pieces of equipment designed for the intent of improving cardiovascular endurance and, in many people’s minds, burning calories.
And somewhere tucked away in the dark corner of the gym, that’s where you’ll find the racks, dumbbells, barbells, and all the other free-moving strength training equipment.
There is a notable degree of separation between these two areas.
In the mind of the person just getting into their fitness, it’s much less intimidating to hop on a treadmill than it is to enter into the land of the loud, grunting individuals loading plates onto the bar and pounding weights on the gym floor.
The thought process goes, if my goal is to drop body-fat… I need to move and burn as many calories as I can! I’m not trying to get big or bulky, I just need to work up a sweat.
Wrong. This idea is just plain wrong.
I’m a big proponent of strength training, nutrition control, and daily activity/steps as a method for fat loss. Not just racking up calories on cardio equipment. Because in a 30 minute cardio session, you’re likely to burn perhaps 200-300 calories at the very most… which can be offset by the very post-workout shake you drink before leaving the gym.
But, before I dock it completely, there is merit to doing your cardio. No doubt about it. However, I think of it much like I do a supplement and not the primary focus.
In fact, I’ve been implementing 4 to 5 miles of moderate-intensity cardio spread into two sessions (2-3 miles each) throughout the week in combination with my normally scheduled 3 days/week of strength training over the past year.
The benefits have been huge, I’ve noticed:
It’s easier to stay leaner, my endurance has improved, and I feel noticeably more energized during the day.
But, I attribute nearly everything in regards to my ability to stay at a lean weight and maintain it to regular habits of strength training and nutrition control. Not only does strength training and building muscle boost your RMR (resting metabolic rate), it helps partition calories you consume to building healthy lean muscle, away from fat storage.
It’s the mindset that we need to escape of cardio being the cure to weight/fat gain. Whenever I’m working with clients, this is something that I have to re-write mentally for them many times in the beginning. And often, it has to be continuously reinforced.
The desire to want to “feel the workout” and sweat, that’s not what’s important.
It’s establishing a healthy foundation of strength and muscle, developing awareness of key habits around nutrition and eating, dialing in recovery protocols like sleep, and then introducing additional cardio and daily activity to enter into a deficit to lose fat.
When you prioritize strength training, nourish your body with the right foods, while simultaneously staying consistent with daily movement, leanness becomes the side-effect and not something that you’re constantly chasing down on the treadmill.
So, the next time you step into your gym… take another honest look around.
Don’t just follow the crowd to the cardio machines. Step confidently into the weight room, with a system and plan in place. That’s where the real transformation begins.
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