If you want to lose weight, your mind probably immediately thinks of focusing on cardio. We have been thought by years of marketing that standing on a treadmill for hours will burn the most calories. While any sport activity, including cardio is a calorie burner, cardio might not be as effective at burning fat as we have been thinking all these years.
Why opt out of cardio as a primary fitness choice?
Cardio has been the most popular choice for weight loss for decades. The idea is that hours of biking, running or using the cross-trainer, will burn you a couple of hundred calories. However, when you consider that to lose weight, one needs a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories, you understand why this method is not very effective to reach this goal. Especially because cardio will increase your appetite too.
Another disadvantage is that cardio is not very friendly on joints and has a relative high risk for developing injuries.
What is the afterburn-effect of strength training?
When you think of weight loss, you think of burning calories. And it is indeed true that you need to burn calories to lose weight. It is also true that cardio will burn more calories during the training than strength training. The trick to weight loss however is what happens in your body in the days after your training. Cardio training does not have a long lasting effect on your (resting) metabolism and fat burning capacity. Strength training does have that effect! We call it the afterburn-effect. Regular strength training will raise your resting metabolic rate for 48 hours after training. A 20 minute EMS session at Speedfitness will raise that metabolic rate for 4 ½ days! In total you will burn many more calories with EMS strength training than with regular strength training or cardio.
More lean muscle = more fat burning
It doesn’t stop there. The long term effect of strength training will mean that you build more lean muscle. And muscles will burn a lot more calories than fat, while sleeping maybe just a little bit (10 calories), but especially when you are active. So put those newly build EMS muscles in legs and core to use, and go for a hike, dance or climb one of our beautiful mountains on Mallorca.
Other advantages of strength training over mainly cardio training
Another great pro of strength training is that it shapes and stabilizes your body. A common problem with weight loss is that people are left with a thin body, instead of a firm or tight body. The fat disappears, but there is nothing to take its place. With EMS fitness our Personal Trainer will help you shape your body and make it functionally strong. This means we build strong and lean core and back muscles, providing you with excellent core strength, flexibility and stability. Which in turn helps prevent injuries and back pain!
Strength training, especially in the form of EMS is an extremely efficient way to reach your weight loss goals fast. At Speedfitness we keep your weekly session interesting and challenging by combining exercises taken from yoga, cross fit, pilates and boxing. A weekly 20 minute sessions fits in over 5 hours of regular weighted work out! Amazing!
No cardio at all?
If you have time and enjoy it, incorporating cardio into your fitness plan is an excellent idea! The latest research in EMS training shows that it helps with health of heart, blood pressure and blood vessels. And cardio will definitely support these health benefits even more. We would recommend to prioritize EMS strength training over cardio.